Oh dear....

....I've gone far too long without blogging and now have much too much to write about! I have the urge to keep procrastinating, but I'll give it my best shot.

So in January, Chris finally made it over to the U.S. for his first ever visit! And lucky him, he got to see the Paris of America...Boise, ID. ;) He seemed to enjoy it though and is excited about the move. It was funny to see how enraptured he was by the mountains. I never really thought about the fact that they don't have any big mountains over there. I think it will be great fun in the summer when I can take him exploring in the woods, maybe even go camping for a couple of days. The trip went by far too quickly, but he was able to meet all of my family. My dad and his wife Ginger flew from New Mexico so they could meet him, and my sister and niece came from Rexburg for the weekend. What a great family I have! I think they all wanted to be able to approve of him before we make the commitment of him moving here...haha. But the good news is they all did approve! And I got lots of comments about how we seem good together, which was nice to hear. I also got my new (and permanent) engagement ring while he was here. :) It's a family heirloom, belonging to his great grandmother. It took some getting used to just because of the size difference from my first ring, but I absolutely LOVE it. We also had a late Christmas together and coincidentally bought each other some similar things, including books and penguin stuff! :) We have a little inside thing about penguins...it's from Never Been Kissed. Perhaps you remember when the girl calls David Arquette her "penguin" because penguins mate for life? Well, I told Chris about that when we started dating and since then, we've referred to each other as "my penguin." So corny you gagged a little? :) Yes, it is corny but with Chris, I absolutely love the corn.

So after Chris returned to England, I went into a funk for awhile...ignoring all cleaning responsibilities and basically being lazy and unproductive. I've snapped out of it since, and am back to my normal level of laziness! ;) I got the sweetest Valentine's gifts from him too. He sent a beautiful bouquet of purple roses and a HUGE stuffed animal puppy to my office. I later got a package from him which included lots of my favorite candies and chips that can only be acquired in England. He's the best. :)

No visa news yet. We are currently going with the theory of "a watched pot never boils." Normally we both check the USCIS website daily to see if our status has changed, but we both agreed to wait a week before looking again and are keeping our fingers crossed for a miracle! Chris probably won't be able to move out here until the beginning of August either way, but we are hoping to get things approved soon so he has plenty of time to do the interview in London before moving time arrives.

And as far as wedding news...well, it's been interesting! I'd be really curious to see if any other couple in the history of the world has rescheduled their wedding as many times as we did! :) The good news is we FINALLY got a FINAL date picked. It is going to be September 23rd. We are hoping the weather will still be nice enough then for an outdoor ceremony. I didn't want to get married in August (given my last anniversary was in that month) and we wanted to make sure we had a date far enough out (but not too far) that we wouldn't be stressed over the visa not going through by then. We've also gone through lots of changes as far as planning the event goes. For about a week, we were going extravagant. There was a beautiful building downtown that we wanted to rent, then we were going to have a catered meal, a DJ, the whole shebang! But then I had a bit of an epiphany (thanks in part to my mother) that it's kind of ridiculous to spend thousands of dollars on a reception. So, we have decided to keep things small and intimate...strictly family and very close friends. Even the family portion is being cut down to immediate family plus grandparents. Our guest list right now is 28...haha. We are going to do a ceremony at Kathryn Albertson Park in downtown Boise, followed later by a nice dinner at the Cottonwood Grille. I'm actually really looking forward to doing things this way! We save a lot of money, but we still have the most important people there with us. It will be more special and intimate this way, and something to remember. Plus, oh my goodness, it's going to save me soooo much stress!! I'm a major planner by nature so I was obsessing over little details and it wasn't healthy for me. Now I don't have that much to plan out! Oh, and we got an AWESOME photographer that I'm soooo excited to work with! We are planning to send out wedding announcements to everyone after the wedding, with those pictures.

I was going to attach some photo's of Chris' trip but I'm too lazy at the moment. They are all on Facebook so go there. ;) If you don't have Facebook and really want to see them, leave me a comment...if I get a few requests for that then I'll go through the trouble of putting them on here too.

Anyway, I guess that kind of sums it up for now. Still chugging along in the same job, living at the same apartment, doing mostly the same thing everyday. Sometimes it feels like I'm waiting for my life to start, you know? Like this is just a waiting period until Chris gets here and then life can begin. I'm trying to see it as a last opportunity to go out whenever I want to and things like that, but honestly I'd give up those kind of perks to have him here in a second. Still, gotta look on the bright side.

Better Late Than Never

Okay, I'm finally doing my Thanksgiving post! I was planning to do one Thanksgiving day but I got in an anti-Thanksgiving mood, which strangely enough seems to happen every year, and then I got sick after a busy weekend. First I'll update about the holiday weekend and then fill ya in on what I am grateful for this year.

My sister, niece, and brother-in-law were supposed to be coming for the weekend, but because of inclement weather and some sickness over in Rexburg, they were unable to make the journey. I promised my mom we would still have a good time alone, which we managed to do, although we still would've loved their company. We ended up having dinner over at my nephew's mom's family's house (follow that? :)). Afterward, my mom and I went to see Unstoppable, which receives a thumbs up review. I snuck home early that night because I decided to head to Best Buy early in the morning to get my mom a Nook (the Barnes and Noble e-reader) that she'd been talking about wanting. So, I went home and slept for 3 hours, woke up at 1:30 and headed to Best Buy in lots and lots of layers at 2am. I ended up sitting in line for about 2 hours, but was able to get a ticket for the Nook, so I ran over to Target. I found a few good Black Friday items there, stood in a long line to buy them, then went to Kohl's. After a couple of purchases there, I went back to Best Buy to get my Nook. The Best Buy line was by far the longest and took me about 45 minutes. After that, I promptly drove home and slept for another 3 hours, after which I woke up, talked to Chris, then went back out with my mom for more shopping. :P The one good thing I can report is that I was able to get all of my Christmas shopping done in one day!! Well, all except for Chris but since I have a few extra weeks to get his gifts (we are having a late Christmas here when he visits) I am trying to wait to buy him things. Anyway, that night my mom and I took my nephew Zack and his cousin Skyler to the Festival of Trees, which was very pretty. Saturday we went to Harry Potter and then made out own little mini-Thanksgiving feast for ourselves at home, so we would get our favorites and have leftovers for turkey sandwiches! Sunday I started feeling a little sick, but I went to my mom's and brought my laptop...we spent the afternoon playing trivial pursuit with Chris. :)

By Sunday night I was starting to feel worse and it kept going downhill. I ended up taking almost the entire week off work (except for 4 hours on Friday, which nearly killed me.) I went to the doctor on Monday and she said I most likely had swine flu, which I am totally inclined to believe because of my symptoms and because I seriously hurt so bad I felt like dying. My wonderful mother took care of me from Monday night until Wednesday night, which helped A LOT! My symptoms have finally all faded to more of a bad cold level now so I am just having a weekend in bed, hoping to regain some energy before going back to work on Monday.

Now onto the list!:

1) I am grateful for Ryan! Yes, I did just want to start out with a shock there. :) But here's the thing, I was complaining to my mom the other day about how horrible he is and she told me that I shouldn't concentrate too much on the bad stuff of the divorce but instead be grateful because if it wasn't for that and for him being a giant twat (my word, not hers), I might have never met Chris. So, I am thankful to Ryan for the lessons that my mistakes with him taught me and for the fact that it led me to such a better life.

2) I am grateful for Chris! Of course he is really number one, but like I said, I wanted to start the list with a shock. Chris has changed me from a bitter post-divorce singleton who was determined to never depend on a man again, to someone who is completely sappy and can't possibly imagine life without having him by my side. Again on the sappy note, he makes me feel complete. We are perfect for each other in so many ways and I can't express how unbelievably lucky I am to have found him. I really don't know how I'm going to write wedding vows when that day comes because anytime I try to write things about him, it seems like the right words haven't been written yet....like no matter what I say, nothing will quite capture how completely and utterly I love him, because it feels like more than love. We are getting his visa paperwork in and I am so happy that the wheels to our future are finally turning. I know us being together is difficult for one side of our family or the other, as one of us will have to move for the other at different points, but I hope they can understand why. I wouldn't give up my family for anyone but him, because he is my family now. And I would follow him wherever he wanted to go...even back to Utah. :) (But I know he loves me enough that he'd never take me back there.)

3) I am grateful for my family. They're amazing. They are always there for me when I need them and I'm happy they are each in my life. Again, I know this Chris thing has been hard but their support means the world to me! Even if I live in another country, nothing would break the bonds I have with them.

4) I am grateful for Chris' family. They're amazing. Seriously. How many parents do you know that would support their child so much that they'd buy him an expensive plane ticket to another country for his birthday so he can visit his fiance? I'm still so grateful they did that and can't wait to see him. They keep amazing me with their acts of kindness and generosity. I would love them simply because of how good they've been to Chris, but I love them for who they are because they're great people. I worried that going to England and crashing a family vacation might be a bit awkward, but I'm glad I did it now because it gave me the opportunity to really get to know them, and love them.

5) I am grateful for my health!! After this last week, I have learned I need to take much better care of myself. Of course I was always "grateful for my health" but you never really know how much you should be until you feel like you're on death's doorstep. I have of course been saying I want to lose weight for awhile now, but honestly, after this week I just want to get healthier and losing weight should be an awesome side effect. I'm going to start eating better, cut out fast food, and try to start exercising as often as possible. Now I just need to get new batteries for my Wii balance board... :)

I could keep going but I know this is already super long. Plus Chris is probably going to be the only person to read it. :)

Countdown Clock

Countdown Clocks, Cute Countdowns at WishAFriend.com

Coming to America

Tonight I have some amazing news to share! As I think I explained, Chris and I weren't expecting the fiance visa to come through until probably April or May, so we were thinking we would be apart for the next 7 months or so. Well, his absolutely amazing parents made the offer to pay for a plane ticket for him to come visit and see the place he'd be moving to. :D So instead of having a wait time of 7 months to see my sweetheart again, it's now less than 7 weeks!! We have the ticket booked already. He will be arriving in Boise on January 7th around 11:30pm and staying until January 24th at 2pm. Over two weeks to spend together!! It's hard to convey how exciting this is! We are going to have a late Christmas and early Valentines while he is here and I can't wait. :) I'm also very excited for some of my family and friends to finally be able to meet him. It's going to be amazing! Unfortunately I will have to work a little bit while he is here...7 out of the 17 days. I still haven't earned a lot of vacation time after using it all to go to England, and since we are hoping I might get to go back there once more before he makes his permanent move, I want to save up as many hours as I can for that.

I really can't wait for him to come. I've been feeling lonely at nights for the past while...well, really since I got back from England and have been without him. My apartment feels empty, where it never did before. It will be nice to have a little more life between these walls.

My mom seems to be more on board with this whole Chris and I thing since my trip to England, so that's another piece of good news. We seem to be rebuilding our relationship lately, which was pretty damaged by my leaving the church. It's great to have her feel like a friend again, and feel like she is supportive of me. It was very stressful to feel like I was disappointing her all of the time. But now I think she sees how happy Chris has made me so she's happy for me. The other day she gave me a Christmas ornament with the letter "G" on it, for Grapes. :) It meant a lot for her to do something like that. Pretty much all of my family is on board with the wedding now as well, which is a big relief.

Oh, we also decided to put wedding plans on hold. I was getting way too stressed and involved in it, and in reality we can't really set an exact date until we get this visa stuff going. So we'll see what ends up happening. One thing we do know is that we want it to be a small ceremony and celebration here, so I'm just hoping no one gets offended if they aren't invited. :(

I guess that about covers my recent news. Thursday is Thanksgiving and my sister, brother-in-law, and niece were supposed to be coming, but it looks like that might not happen due to snow conditions. It's going to be very sad if they don't make it...it will just be my mom and I. But I promised her we would make it fun if it was just the two of us, and go do something to spoil ourselves like get massages. :)

And now, what you've all been waiting for....

...the trip update!! :) Well to sum it up, it was the best ten days of my life. I didn't have any doubts about the way things would be going into it and I was spot on. :) There was no awkwardness between us at all. Basically it felt like (well, feels like) we've been together forever, and when I got there it seemed like we were seeing each other again after an extended absence. Anyway, story time. :)

So I arrived Thursday morning, at about 11am London time. The flight arrived a little late so I was rushing to get to customs since I knew Chris would be waiting. They give you these things called "landing cards" to fill out on the plane and give to the customs agent. There was a question on there about the full address of where I would be staying while in the UK. I hadn't even thought to have Chris' address handy...big mistake. I asked a guy before I got in line about it and he said to write down Chris' phone number and it shouldn't be an issue. I did, but when I got up to the agent this was apparently a big problem. He began questioning me about why I came and why I didn't know my boyfriend's address. He wanted to see my return tickets, which I didn't have, so then he wanted to see a printed itinerary of my travel plans, which I also didn't have. It even got to the point of questioning me about who paid for my plane tickets and how much money I had in my savings account. :P At the end, the agent said he had every reason to just deny me entry and send me back to the States, but he would let me in. The guy was a gigantic jackass. And it was my second encounter with a very rude Londoner. Chris is adamant that the real bastards in England all live in London, and I'm inclined to believe him now.

Anyway, I finally got through customs and picked up my bag, then went to the arrivals gate to meet my boy. :) He was there waiting for me with a bouquet of red roses. We gave each other a hello kiss, which wasn't awkward at all. :) Once we got to the car, he presented me with a diet coke (which he knows is my drink of choice) and some cookies from a local bakery. We drove back to his house, and once we were settled, we made a trip to the store to get some supplies. We took it easy the rest of the day, so I could recover from the long journey, and that night Chris cooked me dinner. :) On Friday we went to the nearby city of Southhampton and wandered around their shopping center. Later that night we went to dinner with his mom, dad, sister, and sister's husband. It was awesome actually...I REALLY like his family...it seems I'm bound to get some good in-law's with this deal. :) They are all very nice and really fun.

Saturday was the proposal day! We went driving through New Forest, which is an area near Chris' hometown that is just beautiful. First we stopped in a little town called Burley and wandered through some shops, then we just went for a nice, relaxing drive through the countryside. The area had wild horses too!! They were everywhere, just grazing by the side of the road. :) Chris thought it was entertaining I was so excited by them, but that's not exactly something you see everyday in America. So we decided to park and go for a walk in one area with a nice lake. We stopped along the way and kissed, then he whispered in my ear "will you marry me?" and got the ring out of his pocket. The first thing I said was "what? no speech?" Haha! But of course I told him I was kidding and said yes. He explained that he didn't want to do a speech because then I would know what was coming and would just be waiting for it, which is a good point, so he decided just popping the question would be more of a surprise. So yes, we were engaged and on cloud nine! After that we made our way back to Chandlers Ford (his town) and stopped at the store for some supplies for a party we were having that night...we even got champagne to celebrate! :) A bunch of Chris' friends came over that night. We had pizza and played some poker. They were all great and I was happy I got to meet some of the people in Chris' life.

Sunday we drove down to Cornwall, which was about a five hour drive. We arrived there around 8pm and told his parents about the engagement soon after. They were surprised, but not shocked, if that makes sense. But they were great about it! His mom told us that she had been saving her grandmother's engagement ring for him too. :) So we are actually going to make a small repair to that and get it sized, then have that replace my current ring once he comes here early next year. I absolutely LOVE the idea of having a family ring. I just saw a picture of it the other day and it's beautiful, so I can't wait. :) And the next day, his parents got us "congratulations" gifts! It was so sweet. Sandy (his mom) bought me this beautiful, handcrafted necklace. I'm wearing it in a few of the pictures, including the ones where I have a bright pink shirt on. Anyway, we picked up his sister Mary from the train station that afternoon and had a wonderful dinner down by the harbor, which we were less than a mile from. It was a beautiful place and the house we stayed in was great. On Tuesday we went and toured an old, Victorian mansion, which was gorgeous. Wednesday we went to the Eden Project, which is the cool place with biomes with different environments like the rain forest. Thursday Chris and I just relaxed at the cottage and watched some movies together. We drove back to Chandlers Ford on Friday (which took 7 hours, thanks for numerous traffic jams) and Saturday we drove to London. The day was spent exploring the central city places like Picadilly Circus, Trafalgar Square, the Thames river, Big Ben, and the Houses of Parliament. To finish the day off, we wandered around the Victoria and Albert Museum, then headed back to our hotel for some room service.

Sunday was the day I left and it sucked. It's only been a week now but feels like we've been apart much longer. We made a plan for him to move here in (hopefully) April of this next year. We are going to be applying for a fiance visa in the next month. The one catch with a fiance visa is that you have to get married within 90 days of the fiance's entry into the country, so until we get the visa sorted and approved, we won't really be able to set a definitive date for the wedding. Originally we were going to just do a courthouse kind of thing here, but his parents said that they wanted to come for it so we've decided to do something nicer. It would be a bit of a waste for them to travel that far for a courthouse ceremony! Although with my almost-OCD like urge to plan everything ASAP, I am getting stressed with the wedding planning since we can't even narrow down the date yet. I'm trying to just calm down and find other things to concentrate on so we'll see how that goes. We are planning to eventually live in England for awhile, but after this trip I can see it will take a lot of adjustment! Their driving is just super confusing, with all the roundabouts and such. The metric system threw me and everything is smaller over there! They also have tons of different food over there, some of which Chris got me very addicted too...such as scotch eggs, a variety of cheeses, clotted cream, marmite, and cider. Yummm!! I've already been searching for places to find those kind of things here. :)

Well this entry is already super long so I better wrap it up. In summary, it was an absolutely amazing trip. I am sooooo happy I got to go. Before Chris, I didn't think I would ever want to get married again, and now here I am planning a wedding and I couldn't be happier about it. :) I know soul mate is kind of a cliche term these days, but I have no doubt that Chris is mine. There might be some cynicism about the wedding, since it's my second and since we haven't been together THAT long, but I hope when people see us together they will see how happy we are and be supportive. As my new maid-of-honor Cheri said today, "this is the one that counts." :)

What a Difference a Year Makes....

I was just thinking the other day how different my life was just one short year ago. I was in the midst of the divorce and getting ready to move back to Idaho. In fact, I have a blog about this very day one year ago:

Monday, October 19th: Monday was my lowest point. I was just so overwhelmed. Where had this come from? It hadn't been explained well. After a day spent arguing about division of assets and threatening to get lawyers, I just broke down. I cried harder than I ever have in my life...I'm just glad no one was around to see me. That evening I wrote him an email asking him why he was doing this. I said I wanted to work things out, that our marriage was more important than this. That night I got a reply from him. Apparently he thinks that to make himself right with the Lord again, he needs to leave me. He said he had felt the Spirit more of the past few days than he had in a long time. He felt peaceful and calm when he thought about getting divorced. He said I had hurt him and we had both changed over the course of our marriage into people he didn't like. He was going to go to the temple the next day and pray about whether or not to try to work things out.

It's funny how much things have changed for me, and in the BEST way possible. I am so much happier now, especially with who I am. I think I've grown a lot in this past year, and gotten to know myself better than I ever have before. I have stumbled a bit, but all and all it's been the best year of my life. At the point that I wrote the above entry, I couldn't imagine how things in my life would ever turn out for the better, but now I am so grateful for all of the trials I went through. I never would've dreamed that I would be heading back to England to spend 10 fantastic days with the absolute love of my life. :) I can't wait! And I am just soooooooo grateful for where I am now and for how I've grown this past year. It's kind of an awesomely fantastic way to celebrate the anniversary of one thing ending, by having an amazing new phase begin. I just wanted to express how truly grateful I am and in awe of life...it's such a gift. I'll sign out before I get too sappy, but stay tuned! I'll update with England details soon!! My trip starts tomorrow with a drive to Salt Lake at 6:30am, then flights to London through Thursday morning.

London Calling... (UPDATED)

Just had to do a quick update (and it's a little late, sorry) to tell y'all that I got my tickets to England!! Hooray!!! :D I am headed over to see my honey in less than three weeks and can't even convey how beyond excited I am! I leave on the 20th of October, arriving there the morning of the 21st. Then I get to enjoy ten whole days with the love of my life before coming home on the 31st. I'm flying out of SLC so I have to drive there, which is a shame but the cheapest and easiest option. We ended up getting tickets for about $740, which is pretty damn good. :) Chris' mom was amazing enough to let us put the flight on her card and pay her back over the next couple of months.

I'm really so super excited! We are going to spend the first weekend together around Eastleigh, and I'll get to meet all of his friends. Then on Monday we are off to Cornwall with his family for the week. On Friday we will head back to Eastleigh and Saturday morning we will go explore London for the day and stay there that night, with my flight departing the next morning. I'm pretty sure leaving is going to be one of the hardest things I've ever done, but the fact that we will be reunited in January (instead of April) should at least serve as a small comfort.

Oh, and to those of you who requested a picture of Chris...I keep forgetting to ask his permission to post one. :P So I will check with him tomorrow and as long as it's fine, I'll add a couple pictures to this post then.

Speaking of pictures, I also promise plenty of pictures of England when I return! For those of you a bit anxious about the prospect of me traveling overseas alone (*cough* Monica *cough* ;)) I will of course be keeping in touch with family while there. Chris has offered me full use of his computer, as well as his cell phone, and international calling cards are quite easy to purchase there. My mother will also have all of his contact info. I only say this to put minds at ease...as for me, I don't have any single, solitary doubt that this trip will be one of the best of my life and I have absolutely no worries about it. :) I really do love this guy and can't wait to be able to see his house, friends, and family in person...and of course him, but no, I don't phrase it as I can't wait to meet him. We know each other so well at this point that it's just ridiculous to say we haven't met. We haven't touched, but we've met. (Wow, that's either my second or third rant about that on my blog...can you tell it's a touchy subject? ;)) Anywho, can't wait to give some updates. Keep an eye on Facebook as well since I'm sure I'll add some pictures there as I travel about. :D

And now for your viewing pleasure...a Chris slideshow! :)