Rome part 2

The rest of our trip was entirely sunny and beautiful. 70 degrees, sunshine pouring down on our shoulders, and we loved it. All the Italians were wearing their heavy coats because this was cold weather for them, but we were running around in tshirts.

Saturday we spent all day at the Vatican - St Peters, Vatican museum, and seeing the Sistine Chapel. Incredible, amazing, beautiful. Henry fell asleep on our way to the Sistine chapel, but woke up right as we were leaving, so we explained to him why we were all craning our necks to stare at the ceiling. He didn't care too much. ;) The most interesting part of visiting Rome was learning that the Papacy took lots of materials from other buildings (the Colosseum, the Pantheon, etc.) to make their cathedrals, their altars, etc. The Colosseum used to be covered in marble, but the Pope stripped the marble off to use it for St Peters square. Isn't that crazy?

We found a tasty little restaurant across the river at O' Pazzariello, amazing pizza with the fluffiest and chewiest crust, yum, and my first cacio e pepe - really tasty.

Sunday, our last day, we headed to the Colosseum, checked out the Roman Forum, and ate lunch by the Spanish Steps at Il Gusto's, which had the most amazing pizza, the best al fresco dining, and most delicious pasta I've ever had. Il Gusto's was it for me. I was so happy to have found it, just in the nick of time before we left! We found the Spanish steps after finding more gelato after lunch, and sat there for awhile people watching. Little known fact: Mark proposed to me on the Spanish steps in DC (an homage to the original Spanish steps), and I had always wanted to go to the real Spanish steps with him, but never imagined we'd actually make it there. But there we were. I was so happy to be there with him and with our little baby Hen.

Finally, we headed to the Villa Borghese gardens (Rome's biggest park - sort of like Central Park, but also with some incredible museums within the park), and rented a rickety - rickety - rickshaw to ride around the park. It was so fun, and Henry couldn't believe his luck to be on that bike. Perfect last memory of Rome for us.

We had a great trip and hope to return some day, but next time, we'll tack on a trip to Venice and Florence! Italy had never been on my list of must-see places, but now it's right there at the top to return. It's such a beautiful country, the people are so warm and friendly (Henry got more head pats and kisses than I can remember), and the food. THE FOOD. That's enough right there to get me to come back.

Henrys Roman birthday party

I was feeling a little sad about being far away from family this year for Henry's birthday, so on a whim we decided to go to Rome. We bought plane tickets, rented an airbnb apartment and 4 days later, we were off! After all, you only turn two once, so why not celebrate in style, right? ;) Considering his favorite things right now are fountains, pizza, ice cream, motorcycles, and cool cars (seriously, he points at little cars and says, "cool car!"), it was sort of a no brainer to go to Rome, a 2 year olds paradise.

We stayed in a beautiful modern loft apartment right next to Rome's Termini station, the main train station, so travel in and out was very easy. The apartment also had an amazing roof terrace with views of the city which we thought would be nice to enjoy during Henry's naps or at night after he went to bed, but we ended up being quite the night owls exploring the city so we didn't use it too much. Rome is a late city - most restaurants don't open for dinner until 7:30 or 8:00p, so we mostly tried to get Hen to nap late, then we would wake up around 6, explore Rome at night and eat dinner at 8, and put him down to sleep around 10:30/11 (which is RIDICULOUS, but he was such a good sport about it).

We arrived in Rome the day before Henny's birthday, so after he took a nice long nap, we woke up and walked to the famous Trevi fountains, got some gelato, and threw all the coins we had into the fountain. Henry was over the moon.

On Henry's birthday, he woke up to some yummy Italian pastries, then we checked out our loft rooftop to gauge the weather. It was going to be a cloudy/rainy day, but we made the best of it. We spent the morning exploring the Roman forum and searching for the Capitoline museum, which we never found, but we did happen upon the Altare della Patria, or the Alter of Fatherland, which commemorates Italian unification, and is an eyesore to local Romans apparently - it was built in the 1800s and destroyed some of a medieval neighborhood - but we went inside to escape the rain and found a museum dedicated to recent wars, which was sort of interesting. On top of the building, we ate lunch at a nice cafe with good views over the city, which was a good place to be during some heavy rain. After the rain, we retreated back to our apartment so Hen could enjoy a nap and we could regroup and rest. Round two was much better - we walked to the Pantheon, which completely took my breath away, gave me chills, and was our absolute favorite thing we saw in Rome. We spent some time walking around the Piazza and then found dinner at a nearby restaurant. I tried Pasta Carbonara and it lived up to the creamy hype. Then we walked through a few narrow crooked streets to land the best gelato we've had in our lives, at Giolittos.  Yes, that is fresh whipped cream on top of the cone! They gave Henry a free little cone with a bit of vanilla gelato. He loved it - his first ice cream cone, too. Not a bad place to have your first ice cream, Henny!

I'll share the rest of our trip from Rome tomorrow - more beautiful Rome, Vatican City, and Spanish Steps. 

Things that have happened

This poor little neglected blog. Between chasing around a toddler all day, searching for jobs, and settling into our house, who has time to blog?

I will say that I've even written a few posts, but decided they were moot or unimportant, which is most of what I blog about anyway, but I just haven't felt the fire lately.

I've learned the art of online grocery shopping. Coupled with daily stops by the local market to pick up a few things, I am finally feeling like I can cook for my family. I even started baking my own bread and making our granola, that's how square one it's become around here. Scary, even for me. I used to want to be this way, and now here I am, making my own bread, and cooking beans in water. Don't worry, I still have the cans of beans because who knows that they want beans for dinner 8 hours in advance? Not me.

I hung up a gallery wall that I like 80%, which is enough for me right now. Once I figure out a way to hang up this world map, and once we find a rug, the living room will be complete. I still need to paint our bed, hang up a few pictures in the hallway and in Henry's room, and oh speaking of Henry's room it has sadly become somewhat of a storage area since our storage solutions here are non-existent.

Speaking of Henry, he is a little angel. We've been spending most mornings in our pajamas lately, and we watch a little choo choo with breakfast, then it's play with cars and trains, music/dance, reading, we play hide in mamas room, read in mamas bed, snuggle, eat lunch, then it's naptime and I zonk. It's been raining a lot lately, mostly in the mornings, so we play inside in the mornings, then we go outside for a walk after he wakes up.

This post is also boring, but wait! There's more!

Henry turns two next week and I'm so excited about it. I've been teaching him about birthdays for the past couple weeks. We read books about birthdays, sing the birthday song, practice blowing out candles, and we even watched a birthday party on youtube. Because I refuse to have a repeat of last year when he wanted nothing to do with cake and wished his first birthday had never come to him.

I'm really happy how Henry is turning out. He is so well-mannered and polite, I laugh about it often. I will pour him a glass of water and he looks at me and says "Thank you! without prompting. He says hello to new people and asks to run everywhere, except the way he asks to run is "Three?" because Mark plays this game with him where they count to three, then run. His vocabulary improves every day, and it's seriously astounding to watch it all happen. Today we re-read the book Romeo and Juliet a million times just because he wanted to point out "Juliet!" and "Wo-wee-wo". I think he gets his memory from Mark - he truly remembers everything and wants me to repeat it after he says it just to make sure he got it right. He dances when a song comes on, loves to sing and do the motions to Wheels on the Bus, Twinkle Twinkle, and Popcorn Popping. I spend all day with him and I can tell he's just getting smarter and more confident each day, and it makes me so happy and proud to be his mother.

For anyone interested in a good bread recipe, this one really killed it for me the other day (and who doesn't want bread in 90 minutes?)

Also, chocolate beet cake. If for some reason you have lots of beets laying around (we did!), it's a good way to use them up and a sneaky way to feel like you are eating healthy cake (you are not.)

I promise the next blog post will have pictures, don't you worry. So much catching up to do around here.

Settling in

We finally got internet installed yesterday. So I will be updating this blog with things London-y.

For now, just...well...we are loving the parks near our house, enjoying the good views of the tall buildings downtown, and I love our tiny little flat. We bought nearly all the furniture we need and I hang up more pictures every day, and I'm pretty proud of myself for not taking forever to make home decorating decisions like I normally do. I'm learning! Also learning that strollers really put a kink in my home design plans (and bikes! geez! stop taking up so much valuable space already!).

I just placed an order on Mex Grocer UK for salsa verde, chipotles in adobo, and corn tortillas because I'm honestly dying for an enchilada over here!!

Henry walked all the way home from the park (1/2 mile) yesterday, I was so proud of him. He's doing so great here. Eating well, sleeping like a champ, and his vocabulary is really taking off. He tells me to put everything "right rere (right here)" or "up ere (up here)". Every time he takes a big step or a big bite, he says "big boy"! He loves to "pay mamas room (play in mamas room)" and READ! Oh boy, he wants to read and play all the time, which is great considering where we were 3 weeks ago, when all he wanted to do was suck on his pacifier and watch Cars or Thomas. It was a rough transition there for awhile.

Ok, more pictures later when I have a bit more time. I have a job interview tomorrow (!) that needs some prep. Wish me luck!

New home!

We've been in our house for about a week now. It's really lovely here. A leafy quiet little part of London, with secret parks on every corner to explore. I'm glad I spent all that effort selling most of our furniture in DC because we don't have room for much of anything here! It's a tiny place, but ironically it has the biggest and nicest kitchen of any place I've ever lived in. Thank you, London, I'll take it!

So now that we finally have a working bank account (it only took us 5 weeks to get it set up! Don't get me started on HSBC), it's time to fill in the holes and find a small desk for our computer and also...(wait for it)...a new sofa! Mark has resigned himself to the fact that it's sofa time, and he's just removed himself from the situation, which is probably best anyway. I've been looking on made.com, and Loaf. I've given myself this week to find "the sofa" in a random furniture store in London. You know, the perfect cute and comfortable sofa that costs around $200 and doesn't need any reupholstering or anything. I've been combing the streets of London on the dry days, and nothing yet. But tomorrow I head to Chalk Farm and Marylebone. If I don't find anything, I might even resort to an IKEA sofa, that's how much I'm trying to be flippant about this sofa situation. Last time was too much, though we did end up with a nice gray sofa that I liked, in hindsight. I'm really liking the rolled arm look, like this or this. We also need a bed frame, but the mattress on the floor is actually ok for now. Henry thinks it's his little playhouse, and we have a good time playing hide and seek under the covers and reading books on it.

We love having our stuff back. It already feels like a home here, even though we don't have a place to sit. On Sunday, my friend Cristy was in town for a visit, and she stopped by with a friend. They were our first official guests and they really helped our place feel even more home-like, even though we have piles of stuff littered around our living room, and we sit on pillows instead of sofas, and we hang out on our mattress on the floor in our bedroom as our lounge area. It's a little college-y, and maybe that's why I like it, for now. It feels like a familiar casual that gets you back in touch with your former self, you know?

Columbia Road flower market

As soon as we arrived to London, Mark scheduled a trip back to the States to go to a conference. I tried to focus on not feeling abandoned and rather hey - I'm here in this new place with new things to see everywhere! It worked about half of the week, but then Henry and I both came down with monster head colds, wherein the only thing that alleviates our grumpiness is croissants, Cars, and the playground. Luckily, there is a playground around the corner, a great bakery around the other corner, and Cars on the ready on my laptop. I'm not ashamed to admit we watched it 2 1/2 times today. Hey, man, whatever keeps us happy, right?

Anyway, before we came down with these stupid colds, we had a grand old time exploring our new city! Last Sunday we walked about a half hour to the Columbia Road flower market in Shoreditch (or Hackney? not sure). I'd heard from a new neighbor that it was "not to be missed". Oh boy am I glad I listened to her! Beautiful fragrant cut flowers and planted flower pots, ornamental trees, ferns, ivy, you name it - it was there! It was suuuper crowded and I had a stroller, so it was sort of like swimming upstream, but we made it out with a perfect bunch of happy pink peonies. And besides the flower market, Columbia Road is awesome! The best shops - vintage, handmade, local, high-end, low-end all kinds of anything, and so much good food. Henry ate a croissant the size of his head, so you know he was happy (and he has a big head, so!) and we sat down a watched an adorable East-Londony band perform their fun music. Henry was dancing in the middle of the street, it was so good.

You'd better believe I'm dragging Mark back there next time we get a free Sunday. Officially in my top 3 things I've done in London!

Our flight to London and jet lag

The great thing about flying to London, Mark always said, is that you fly the red-eye and you arrive right in the morning like you never missed a beat. But, while that may work for him, it really doesn't work for our family! Boy, oh boy.

We took the 6pm flight - which was our first mistake - and arrived at like 6:30am London time. Too early to leave and too early to arrive! Henry was ok on the flight, but he was extremely preoccupied and excited, spent about 30 minutes poking around behind us (see above photo - you'd think the passengers in that row would be delighted to see a cute baby face, but they didn't even say hi, and Henry just kept waiting for them to talk to him. So sad!) and didn't fall asleep until nearly 10, then we had to wake up him at 2:30am his time and he stayed awake once we landed. We were all walking zombies, but we decided we'd walk around in the morning and take afternoon naps. We put Henry in his stroller and he was zonked by about 11, so we went back to our apartment to take a nap. SEVEN hours later, we all woke up. And then it took us about 2 days to get adjusted, but Henry was sleeping in until 10 or 11 for the first week. It was pretty great, I have to admit.

Next time we fly, we will take the 10pm flight and arrive at 10am like normal people, thank you very much. And that's what I recommend for you people, too. Unless you are like my Dad and fly all day because you are retired and don't care. :)

Temporary

Mark's office was generous enough to give us a month of corporate housing while we found our permanent home. A month of living in this place - I'll take it! We love the light, the views, and the free British TV! But if you asked me would I take 2 or 3 weeks of housing if his office would put more funding into finding us a place to live, I would say YES! Don't even get me started on the crazy process of finding our home and how truly lucky we were to actually find a non-shoe box dingy flat in a weird neighborhood. But I digress.

The first day we arrived, it was Sunday (3 weeks ago!) and due to our flat being located in the financial district, nothing was open. No stores, no restaurants, nothing. No people on the streets. It was eerie. We were exhausted, and I decided I hated this weird grey city. Over the course of these past three weeks, I've come to love being here. We are close to Mark's office, which is the best part. We found a totally rad playground for Henry. The grocery store is seriously right around the corner. We have a favorite restaurant just up the street where we order the same thing every time: hummus and pita, avocado and halloumi salad with green olives, and chicken kabob. It's centrally located so you can be anywhere within 30 minutes or less. I've discovered east London, which has completely stolen my heart (I'm looking at you, Hackney and Shoreditch), but I've relegated this neighborhood to a past me, the me without a 2 year old that needs parks and well, other kids to play with if we're being honest.

Henry really has taken to this flat, and it's completely become his car haven. He lines them up on the window ledge. He lines them up on the sofa. He brings them to the table with him for breakfast. I'm getting a little worried that once it is time to play with actual human friends, he will want nothing to do with them...so...I should probably find a friend here with a kid so we can have playdates, right? We'll save that for North London, which should be teeming with small children from what I hear. We will just enjoy our balcony, proximity to Borough Market, and around the corner grocery store, thank you very much. We have about 10 days left here and I plan on enjoying every last one of them.

Now onwards to the Barbican flat tour. Don't mind that Sean Connery look-alike in our living room, he comes with the place (I wish, we miss you Papa!)

Life right now

I'm sitting in our temporary flat with the windows open. The weather is a perfect crisp 63 degrees with the sun peeking out through the clouds. I hear music drifting in from the music school below all day. Today it's French Horn. Yesterday was opera. Last weekend, it was the bassoon. It's glorious.

Life right now is a mix of lovely and chaos. We wake up in the mornings, eat breakfast, see Mark off to work, then get ready for the day and take off for exploring. Somedays we stay out the whole day (like yesterday - created the perfect itinerary for visitors!), and somedays we come home for lunch and a good nap. Mark's office is about a 5 minute walk from our flat, so he comes home for lunch most days. It's so nice to be able to see him in the middle of the day, play with Henry for a little while until nap time, then talk about our days so far and laugh about the differences. For example, today I told Mark about the duck that nearly choked on our bagel offering in the park this morning, the bird who almost walked into our flat via the open balcony door, and the awesome new playground we found. He told me he sat in his office for awhile, getting ready for his business trip. Of course, on those days where I come home for lunch, I am taking care of business. Checking to see who needs which documents from us now, checking on our bank accounts, and trying to determine if we can get a cell phone yet.

Yet, between the chaos, I know this is a very special time in our lives right now. Being so close to Mark's office is great. Being with Henry every day is a dream. I love it. I do miss work, and I hope to find a job soon, but I'm focusing on having fun with my almost-two-year-old baby and trying to sculpt a life for us here in London.

I got a log of lavender-infused goat cheese at Borough Market yesterday. I asked for a good goat cheese and this French man - who looked like he just took the Paris express that morning to London - told me "zees eez zee mozt lugzuroius chez, you muzt 'ave zum". So I tried it, he was right, I purchased it on the spot and he smiled big and told me, "I love my job". I bet he does. He spends all day outside, selling cheese to people like me who just want something that tastes delicious, which happens to be just what he sells.

After the cheese experience, we walked to the Tate Modern and ran into some more people who love their jobs.

It was uplifting and inspiring to be around people who truly love what they do. I want to find that in my life. And it might not be from my career, but it might be a side thing, like playing music again or singing. I've been missing that extra part of life that makes my heart beat a little faster...for awhile now. And I'm so much happier with it. London, you are so dreamy.

Walking London and Other Things

I have way too many photos to upload and limited space, so sorry for the lack of photos on my recent posts. I can assure you we've been really busy, but if you still don't believe me see my instagram feed for a little taste of what we've been up to.

When my dad was here, we must have walked half of London trying to see all the good stuff. I'm always one to keep walking just a little further because I have major neighborhood FOMO (fear of missing out). I would hate to miss that secret little park or majorly gorgeous house because I decided to stop too early. Also there is so much to see in this city, and who knows how long I'll be jobless!? Definitely trying to take advantage of these warmer days of freedom with Henny.

We walked all over the Financial district, crossed nearly all of London's bridges - sometimes twice (missed the waterloo and southwark), walked markets, walked to find restaurants, walked Oxford Street for shopping, walked Westminster and Parliament, walked around Bath, etc. etc. I could go on. And I will definitely do separate posts on our time in Bath because that town is truly breathtaking.

Since my dad left, I've kept up the walking pretty well. Yesterday Henry and I went to Shoreditch and Spitalfields market, which is actually just about a 10 minute walk from our current flat. I didn't realize we had so much so close! It feels very business-centric where we are, but taking a couple different turns really puts you out somewhere completely different. Today I logged 5 miles walking around the London Zoo, up to Parliament Hill, over to St Johns Wood, then back into Regents Park to see the boating lake and the gardens, finally ending at the tube stop to go home. We were exhausted.

Every night my legs and feet are exhausted, but every morning we wake up, eat some breakfast and my mind gets moving about another place we haven't yet seen. And out the door we go on another adventure. It's fun, but I'm wondering how long I can keep up my momentum! Also, Mark is headed on a business trip next week and I'm trying to not get nervous about being completely alone in this new country. So if anyone wants to come visit (mom? Jenny? Laura? people?) our doors are open! :)

I really am grateful to be spending this time with Henry in this new place, figuring everything out together. He is at such a lovely stage - nearly 2 years old and proving it every day. His no's have gotten louder, but his cuddles have become sweeter and his smiles and laughter more frequent. He's learning to say "no, thank you" instead of "NO!" and "more xx, please" instead of "MORE!" - we're working on it. We read every morning, do a little coloring, and go out for an adventure. I'm slowly trying to break him of the pacifier, but it's like a drug for him and this transition time is maybe not the best time to be pushing him...so I'm being pretty gentle about the whole thing. But I left the house without it yesterday which I thought was pretty brave of me (moms, can you relate? or do I just sound like a total excuse-maker?!) I'm glad I have a little buddy to go on adventures with me and make me laugh. He really was cracking me up at lunch today. We had penne pasta and he got this little smile on his face in the middle of eating lunch, and he decided he would stick his finger in the pasta tube instead of using a fork. We both laughed about that one for awhile. He ate the rest of his lunch that way! Loved his little creative moment and his funny sense of humor. I totally get him. Most of the time.

Tomorrow it is supposed to rain, so I'm hoping we can find something indoors. Maybe the aquarium or another museum. We haven't hit the Natural History museum and I hear great things!

2 weeks in London

Whew. My Dad just left after spending 10 days here and I'm starting to wake up from the fog of daily croissants, indulgent lunches, and dessert every hour and realizing that I'm actually not on vacation. I won't be getting on a plane to go back home because somehow this is my home now. It's an odd feeling to be an in-betweener at this stage of life. Married. Kid. Grad School. Etc. But I guess this is the life many live, and we are so used to our stable, predictable, nice life in sunny DC. Now it's a bit topsy turvy and we are having a little trouble adjusting to be honest!

We had a few crazy days in between all the sight seeing and fun-having (Big Ben to London Eye to Bath to Tower of London to Borough Market (twice!), but those crazy days were rough. Namely, a bank account (took us a week to get it because we needed the piece of paper to prove we moved here permanently from Mark's office), a home, and a cell phone! We spent a full day with a relocation agent to look at 15 houses that ranged from a crack den shoebox in notting hill (but it overlooked that lovely park from the movie!) to a 2 bedroom in West London with an en suite bathroom and even a full size refrigerator! We ended up putting a deposit down on a lovely little flat in Highgate, a stones throw from Hampstead Heath. But from the haze of looking at 15 places in one day, the details of the place sort of escape me, but I do remember it had a gorgeous kitchen, definitely the biggest I've ever had in my married life. And it's also a lot further than we thought we'd be from City of London, but in the end the relaxed and quiet neighborhood was just what we were looking for to get away from our old urban H street house in DC.

Tonight we ate dinner on our beautiful balcony, trying to take advantage of the nice weather while it's here and trying to take advantage of this nice apartment while we have it! But it was the first time I felt at peace with my family here. I've had crazy nerves about this transition and I keep waiting for it to feel like home. It doesn't yet (that might not happen until we actually move into our real place and get all of our stuff back!), but I felt a bit of it. And it was just what I needed to feel good.

And now I'm off to watch Downton Abbey because it comes out earlier in the UK - the biggest plus of moving here! ;)

London, Day 1: exahusted

We arrived in London at 6am Sunday morning, 1 hour of sleep for Mark, 4 hours for Henry, about 30 minutes for me. We were exhausted, but the sun was out so we thought we'd take advantage. A quick walk down the sunny streets took us to Mark's office near Finsbury Square, into Pret for early lunch, then back home around 11 for a quick nap. That nap turned into a 7 hour siesta. We all woke up at 6pm, undeterred from getting out there again for a big walk across the Millennium Bridge, a stroll along the South Bank through Borough Market (closed, sadly), then back over the London Bridge to home.

I couldn't sleep last night. I woke up at 7:30am this morning, Mark woke up at 9:30, and Henry is still asleep and it's 10:30. Jet lag is taking its toll.

It's colder here than I expected and since all of our stuff is on a boat somewhere, probably still on the US coastline, we'll be shopping for some coats and sweaters for all of us, especially tiny Henry.

We're staying in temporary housing for a month and the apartment is a little odd. It's the penthouse apartment which is lovely, but we have to take the elevator, then walk up 2 flights of stairs to get to our apartment. With a stroller and baby and bags, it gets a little hairy, but we'll manage for a few weeks. The area we're staying in - Barbican - is near the Financial District, so it's sort of like staying in McPherson Square or Wall Street. Nothing is open on the weekends, especially on Sunday, so we were walking around like ravenous wolves last night looking for food. I started to panic without access to food, until we found a Tesco express open - a convenience grocery store. In normal circumstances I would be like - barf - but it was like a gold mine! We filled our basket with all we could get our grubby hands on and ate like kings last night. Well, Tesco kings, but still.

Mark starts work this afternoon, so it will just be Henry and me until my Dad shows up late tomorrow evening. I'm glad he's coming! We are already feeling so homesick and displaced, and we will be glad to welcome fun Papa Mickey here to brighten things up and provide some needed reasons to get out and see London.

Transitions and Emotions.

Our visas came in the mail today, all nicely packaged, with our family name on the outside of the folder, looking like a 7th grader wrote it, complete with circles above the i's. It was sort of adorable/sort of scary that someone who handles visas have the penmanship of a 7th grader, but whatever. We have our documentation, which is a good thing since we are needing them in 4 days. I'm trying not to freak out too much, but when you pack away your kitchenaid because it won't work on the UK voltage, it starts to get real up in here. Same goes for our record player, and I'm going to cry because who am I without cookies and good music?!

I told Mark last night that it feels like we're going to London for the semester, since we are coming home for Christmas, and we are packing up and purging and planning on buying stock in IKEA for our impending move-in to unfurnished apartment. And, well, I guess that's why I'm not TOO sad to be leaving. Because although life will change, it's not goodbye forever to DC. We'll always have family here and we'll always be back. Thank goodness for that, because I don't think I could ever leave DC for good. 

This Monday has a case of the Mondays

I made this epic to-do list yesterday. You would not believe the amount of stuff there is to do in the next 2 weeks. It's painful. But, I was excited to wake up this morning and get to work on crossing off those to-do's - which I submit, there is nothing better than crossing those off!

And then...I remembered a doctor appointment I had in the morning. Ok, no biggie, Mark agreed to watch Hen while I went and then I'd take him to work.

So we get in the car and...the car won't start. Yes, our new(ish) VW was just not going to start. The same car that we are selling on Friday to someone who has already put money down on it. The same car that has never given us any trouble and FOUR DAYS FROM OUR GOODBYE, IT DIES. Really. Thankfully, it did start eventually, but I made a mental note that I'd go to the shop later in the day, after I crossed off some of those things from the list.

So we went to the DMV to get some paperwork for selling our car...and the DMV is closed. Really. The ineffective department of motor vehicles that always has a line out the door is also only open Tuesday - Friday. I shouldn't be surprised.

I decided to take Henry to the park, because we both needed a break. We stayed for a while, then got back in the car aaaaaaaand...the car won't start. For real this time. I call Mark and he agrees to come get the car while I take Henry home, and basically cry and get depressed because I'm not crossing anything off this epic to-do list and I have like 2 seconds before we move and I'm dying here.

Henry naps, and I post nearly everything we own on Craigslist. I get a few interested buyers. We decide to meet our friends at the pool. I bike over there with Henry because a stupid old broken car won't keep me from friends and pooltime. We have a great time with friends and enjoy the sun and amazing views and cool water. Then Henry takes a huge poop in his swim diaper. Thankfully it was contained, but oooooo if that wasn't the most disgusting adventure I've ever had - changing a poopy swim diaper.

Anyway, this day has royally sucked and I want a redo.

But on the bright side, our car is fixed (it was just a dead battery, of all things), I sold some of our furniture, and I got a workout on the bike and some time with friends - all things on my list! Oh, and I even cancelled our cable. So productive of me, I know.

Things I didn't know before this week

If you want the best Fair food and people watching, look no further than Minnesota State Fair.

Henry loves a good waterpark.

I can do crossfit, but it will take me at least 4 days (and counting) to recover.

I love crabmeat but busting them open with a mallet makes me feel like a murderer every time.

You can play the saxophone in Sacrament meeting. Who knew?

Somehow I'm busier than ever without a day job

How is this possible! I thought I'd spend these days of unemployment on leisurely walks to the playground, trips to the pool, visits with family and friends. But somehow all this moving garbage has really snuck up on us, not to mention random events that are coinciding with this big move, including:
my brother-in-law and his family moving from ABQ to Charlottesville, VA
throwing a sweet friend a baby shower
trip to Minnesota to see Laura and the kids
performing an instrumental duet in church with Mark (woot!)
family reunion in MD
trip to NYC (fingers crossed)

Ok, granted, I would maybe not be squeezing so much in if we weren't leaving so soon, but the pressure is on to see and do everything I never did all these years of DC/VA living. And so, yes, we will ride our bikes for a night time monuments tour, and yes we will drive out to that really dumb restaurant to eat those stupid pork salads I can't get enough of, and shoot I will do my best to visit every awesome playground we always pushed aside for another day. The months have whittled into weeks, and now we are t-minus 19 days until take-off, and my emotions have completely taken over. Everything we do makes me sentimental. Everything we don't do makes me sentimental. I'm getting all sappy and weepy just thinking about it, until I think of where we will be in a few months, once we've settled and the fog clears, and the reality sets in for our new life. It's just so much to take in.

One of these days, I'll sit down with a good book, drift off for an afternoon nap, and really have a day off. But I'm afraid that won't likely happen until we're under the gray London skies. And well, then we'll be in London and who has time to sleep when there is so much to explore!?

Some big news

Ready for the worst kept secret in the world?

We are moving to London!

We move in about 4 weeks. We are totally up to our necks in the to-do list and visa paperwork and all the craziness that comes with a big move. Our emotions are all over the place. I can't remember the last time my mind could settle down a bit. I've been holding onto this news for awhile and I didn't want it to get out before I quit my job and we told our families, but I know it slipped out quite a bit and most of our friends already know since I have a problem talking about anything else these days. :)

Mark got a promotion a while ago and the bosses asked him to please move to HQ. After a lot of deliberation, we decided that we are in a pretty good place right now to move overseas - we don't own a house, we don't have any kids in school, everything just sort of lined up, so off we go. It will be hard to leave behind our family and DC friends, and I know I can suffer from homesickness something fierce, but I hope we will be able to have visitors and come home to visit a lot.

There are still a lot of unknowns to figure out - where exactly we are going to live, what we're bringing with us and leaving behind, where I will work, if I will be able to survive in a place without bagels or pizza, but I am so excited for the adventure (and luckily Mark's job will help with a lot of the details, thank goodness).

I crave the thrill of a new place - to settle in and find my new places that speak to me. To make somewhere else all my own. I've done that so many times in my past, but never with a husband and child. I can't tell you how much I'm looking forward to finding our new home in London.

4 years go by...like that.

Today is my last day at my job. I wrote about my job here last year. I've been through a lot at this job - grown professionally and personally, and I also got married, had a baby, and learned how to be a working parent. I cherish the memories I have of this place and feel lucky to have started my career at such a wonderful organization with truly kind people who care about making a difference. Of course I will miss the work, but I'll also miss the people - as crazy as they make me, they are what made this place have heart. And it's hard to leave behind such excellent and caring colleagues! Here's hoping I get as lucky next time.

I have next steps sort of lined up. Things are in the works. I'll be sharing more here next week. Stay tuned.