Fun with wax

I had so much fun at Madame Tussaud's...hehe...Ben got a little aggravated with me playing with the statues. Penelope is number 1 on Ben's list, so I had to give her a talking to. And groping a guard has always been a fantasy of mine. ;-)

Me at the TOUR de FRANCE!!!

(In London, of course....)

I had a little US flag and Ben had a little UK flag.

What a day! It was beautiful out. I did not bring any sunscreen with me to the UK, because, well, hello it's the UK and I was expecting rain the entire time. My shoulders actually had a mild sunburn at the end of the day (and I came home with more of a tan than I went with).

The riders came so close to us - there were times when I was leaning over and thought they were going to hit me. So cool.

Jet lag kept us from making it to watch the London - Canterbury stage.

What a trip! We had the best time. First vacation I've ever been on that I wasn't ready to return at the end of the trip.

We had a jolly good time...

....but it was nice to sleep in our own bed last night....especially after having been awake for approximately 22.5 hours.

Will post pics soon.

Hmmm. So, yeah, everyone who actually might still read this probably already knows that our buyers backed out. C'est la vie. (sp?)

So now we are waiting.

We found another house (the lake view house was contingent so we're out of that) so if ours would just sell we could make a move. We'll see what happens.

And...well nothing much else is going on. It's the same ole, same ole around here...but I guess that's sort of abnormal for most newlyweds, but "normal" for us.

Oh...someone came to look at our house and looked in one of my dressers. Yeah, crazy huh? How do I know that they did that? Because I'm completely anal about nothing hanging out of drawers - they are meant to be closed properly. And what was hanging out of my dresser drawer when I came home after a showing? A scarf. Ew. Someone touched my things. I should wash everything. Why in the world would someone go through my dresser? How could a realtor approve of that? It makes me feel so icky.

Oh, yeah, I was locked out of the house one night for awhile too. That was great. I had to sit on the deck in the dark until someone came flying down the road. She explained that I might have to get a hotel because those little lock boxes shut off past 9. It was right at 9 when she showed up. What a slow motion movie like moment as we both held our breath...and the box opened.

I got addicted to Dancing with the Stars this spring. It was sort of random...but it made my weird Mondays and Tuesdays bearable. I'm actually really sad that it's over - but glad Apollo won - they were just too cute. We discussed going to see a live performance, but that's just not working out. Carmina this weekend isn't either. :-( I haven't been to a live performance of anything in 3 years I don't think.

Too much sugar tonight....my thoughts are random.

So yeah. I think I might make this blog pics only and start a completely anonymous one for thoughts.

We need rain.

Our new purchase

We'll have to work on getting rid of all of that clover.

Goodbye Soddy Daisy.

Big sigh of relief....

We sold our house today (and after only 5 days on the market)...so it's a big relief.

In other news, we will finalize an agreement on a house in k-town tomorrow.

We will close june 30, if not sooner. Depends on a few things.

I am really hesitant to buy the house that we will finalize tomorrow - it is more than i think we need to spend and needs work. It's the lake view house I posted the pic of a few days ago. Ben is so ecstatic about it, but he hasn't priced all of the upgrades like I have! I have spent way too much time in home improvement stores this week.

Oh yeah...we're going back to England - we're so grateful to Mike & Maria for allowing us to use the house. I'm excited to go over again - our trip last time was a bit short as we were trying to spend most of our time in Italy. I hope to see the crown jewels this time!

Why is buying a house so hard?

This is the view from the side deck, breakfast area and dining room of the house we looked at today. The lake! Our next door neighbors have year round water frontage. If we buy it. Why do I say "if"? Well, why did they only put 2 baths in the house? And why did they only put one bathtub between the 2 baths that are in the house? We've come across some weird quirks but I do believe that this is the strangest one to date.

Cat stinch, horrible paint (which isn't that big of a deal), gold fixtures & hardware, oak, oak, and more oak on top of not very big (only about 2100 or 2200 sq ft) for a whole lot of money and I just don't know what to do. Very few closets, an insanely ugly stone fireplace and tee-iny bedrooms top it all off.

But look at that view. For lake people like us, it's beautiful - we never dreamed that our budget might possibly afford us such close proximity to the water. Ben is of course sold...but I am uncertain.

Granted, it is extremely difficult for me to make decisions over what to buy at the grocery store...so you can imagine how anxious I am over a purchase this large.

Happy Cinco de Mayo.

Yesterday's Events

The Tour de Georgia came through again this year - here's the lead of the Pelaton.

Last year they were just releasing one at a time, so this was more interesting to see. There were SO MANY.

It's funny how here, there was security everywhere - you couldn't go out into the street to cheer them on. You couldn't even cross the street when they weren't around. In Europe, they're crazy - jumping out in front of them with flags and such.

We're talking about going to watch one segment of the Tour de France this year, but it will depend on a few things. Most importantly, it will depend on the buying of the house. I don't think I've said that on here yet, but yes, we're selling ours and buying another...in Knoxville. I was hesitant to say anything about it bec of the job situation but that has worked out. My boss announced it to our little group, but I'm not sure if people up there know about it yet or not.

We've had some difficulties so far - but we'll find the right one when it's time.

Man. I hate it when popular culture takes something cool and uses it and then it becomes so typical. I used "i carry your heart with me (i carry it in my heart)" as the quote on the program at the wedding - thought about having it read. Love the poem. Love it. And I just watched "In Her Shoes". Ugh.

Also watched "Walk the Line" this weekend. It was good. Didn't know June wrote "Ring of Fire" (played at wedding - haha.) And she gave Johnny a copy of "The Prophet" ('On Love' and 'On Marriage' were read at the wedding.) I swear I did not pick these things because they were introduced to me by popular culture.

Anybody else loving Lilly Allen & Amy Winehouse? And of course the cat's music is super cool. Hehe.

We've been busy preparing & shopping. It's time consuming. I'm not ready yet, emotionally. I suppose there's no turning back though.

Nail biting frenzy going on. Must.Quit. Will be a really busy day at work tomorrow.

I have a secret! It's a good secret.

"always claim they know me, comin' to me call me Stacey"

Have I said on here yet that Fergie is trying to help illiterates one word at a time? They can now spell "taste", "delicious", and "glamorous". I could have said this already, I'm not sure.

Anyway, so has anyone else seen the newest Verizon commercial featuring the razr's and crazr's? Well, they feature a song by Mika. :-) Mika has his own music - I never knew. I had to check it out. You can see him on myspace.

Things are moving along. We've still not made that big purchase we've been working on - but we're still working on it.

I made chocolate mousse tonight - it was yummy. I also made jasmine rice - it was "eh". Next time I think I'll try ginger rice - hopefully it will be better than "eh". I've grown addicted to the seared ahi tuna with ginger rice at bluewater. Yummy!

Good session of pilates tonight. It seems my long runs are causing my body to fall apart, so I'm taking a break and doing some stretching.

AAAAAAAAAACCCCCHHHHOOOOOOOO!

Achoo!


Achoo!


Achoo!








AAACHHOOOOO!

Colorado makes me sick!

Seriously.

Upon my homecoming, I once again managed sinus infection status. I just had one 3-4 weeks ago. I went to the doctor yesterday who said that from now on if we are to have an extended stay out there, I need daily nasal sprays and a humidifier.

Being sick stinks. I have tons of work to do and had to take another 2 days off. I'm not sure skiing is worth the green mucus (sp?), sneezing, sore throat, stopped up ears, extreme fatigue, etc that stems from it. There was talk of an April trip, but I think that's no longer in the works.

My hands look old from lack of moisture. Must remedy when feel well enough.

Apparently someone made Sonic aware of the fact that people were noticing the fake seatbelts - and that seems to be fixed now. And it's sad that I am so cut off from the world that I can only discuss sonic advertising...which I really could do at length. Please let me get better soon!

Discovered new & delicious soup for sicktime eating.

Finished new book by Lauren Weisberger.

Oh, we had snow yesterday...that is definitely worth mentioning. I think I've only seen snow here 3 days (including yesterday) in the six years I've been here.

I believe there were some other topics that I wished to address last evening, but the drugged up haze I was in made it difficult to do anything but lay on the couch.

I can't wait for Ben to come home so I can have some social interaction!

Oh...bought 3 new pilates dvd's...but was only able to do one of them before hellish sickness set in. It was a good one.

My life is currently at a -2 on a 1 to 10 scale.

haha. Just kidding. I may be sick, but I'm still grateful enough to know that I have a great working environment that allows me to take off when it is very much needed, enough money to allow for doctors visits and pharmaceuticals, as well as friends and family who are always there for me. I'm a really lucky girl.

I think I'm gonna go back to sleep now...

Candy & Robert taking a break...

One minute, he's up...the next he's down

Ben is such a fantastic boarder...just a goofy moment after he had already strapped in.

We saw these two drunk women who "forgot" to get off the lift...and they just died laughing as they rounded the dropoff and the guy had to stop it, take off their skis, turn it back on, let them hop off & get out of the way, then start it again. They giggled during this entire charade... maybe they were high. It was pretty funny no matter what they were on - it sucked for the people stuck on the lift though.

Feeding each other the traditional hamburger....hehe...

We thought about singing Rocky Top on the way down...but we refrained.

Introducing our new nephew, Andrew....

We had a wedding while we were there!

Poor Robin...hehe...I made her wear a veil of blue & white tulle to match her ski gear. It was so pretty!

In front of the Collegiate Mountains...

...not sure which one this is though. I'm always so uncomfortable in front of a camara!