6 months today....

Six months ago today I was getting ready for the biggest day of my life.  I was surrounded by all of my friends and family and thinking, "Is this really happening?"  I was a tad bit excited...ok bursting at the seams excited, as some of you witnessed on that very important day.  Well a few things have changed since that awesome day...I live in a different country, I have brown hair, I don't have a job, I have had to learn to drive, I learned how to cook, to name a few.  But the best part is that I get to live with my best friend.  And while people sometimes say the first year is the hardest....I say rubbish!  (tehe my new fav. British word!)  If this is the toughest year than by all means bring it on!  If we can conquer all of the craziness and change that has happened for us both in the last 6 months then anyone can!  So Happy 6 month Anniversary!

To be honest it seems like forever ago that it happened...and that stress of it all...phew...I am glad it is over. But wow...to say I have been married for 6 months now is a bit like...wow...really!?!  Anyways...on with the rest of life. lol

So not much has been new this past week.  Doing the same old thing.  Mark and I have been really trying hard to lose some weight and eat healthy and that is starting to pay off.  I fit in my "skinny" jeans for the first time since my wedding and wouldn't stop telling my hubby...over and over and over again...tehe!  Gotta love me!  It is nice to have hard work pay off.  While I won't tell you what size I am down to...lets just say it makes me one super duper happy woman!  I am by no means thin... and still in double digits but when you can wiggle your way in jeans you couldn't fit in at all a month before it is sheer bliss!!!

With our focus being on keeping healthy and fit, and of course trying to save money we bought our new big first purchase as a married couple.  A bike for Mark!  Now I know that might seem like well how on earth are you saving money if you buy something that expensive.  Well, with the price of gas over here it will literally pay itself off with in a month and a half on gas savings alone.  It will also keep the boy slim and trim and to be honest it was on sale and I just couldn't say no to someone so cute.  lol (Don't tell him that!)  It is a nice bike and hopefully it will do all we want it too.

Saying that, it means I get the car.  Not that I can drive it yet...but ya know in theory.  I have a few more driving lessons before I go for the big test.  But I am getting better everyday.  Mark and I have been out for a few drives and he says I get better every time.  The clutch and I still have our moments but I am slowly but surely gaining confidence with it all and where I need to be on the road.  Hopefully that will come quickly because I have started to apply for jobs.  Obviously it is kind of important to know how to drive in order to be able to get to work.  I am not finding much success in getting a "high school history" job.  So I am looking at other school related jobs and even some office manager type work.  Just really something to get me out of the house and earning some cash.  

So that is my little update.  Oh...started training today for the Lincoln 10K that Mark and I are going to do on March 25.  I am hoping to run most of it but we shall see.  So here is to 6 months.  Hope those of you who read this are well and enjoying what I hear is a wonderful winter so far back home.  Lots of love from over the pond....me

Second time is the charm!

So...I studied once again all day yesterday for my driving test.  If you recall I got 50/50 on the multiple choice test last time but I only got 43 when I needed 44 to pass the hazard part.  While this may not seem too frustrating to anyone else, it was beyond frustrating to this over achiever.  I made Mark do one of the practice tests and even he was like this is so not accurate and unfair.  So after studying all day yesterday and nearly having a panic attack upon walking in the test center, I PASSED my written and hazard driving test. I guess it was all that much more frustrating to me cause I did so well back in high school with drivers ed.  I was one of the lucky ones who passed everything "car" related at school so that all I had to do to get my license was show up, get my picture taken, and I had my license on my 16th birthday.  While I may have a lead foot and have gotten my fair share of speeding tickets, I never had an issue with driving.  I just couldn't wrap my head around missing a driving test by one tiny point.  But hey like I said...second time is the charm.  I am so thankful to have passed it today...I got 57 points which is way more than the needed 44.  I did however get one wrong on the multiple choice part but hey...only thing left standing in my way of getting a driving license is the road test.  A few more lessons and practice time with that stinking clutch and I should be terrorizing the streets of Lincoln.  tehe

Time is flying...

So honestly nothing is new.  LOL  It has just kind of dawned on me that it is already mid January and I have been here almost 4 months.  Crazy!  Things are getting a bit easier in the ways of grocery shopping and cooking and things like that.  My driving is coming along...my super hubby let me drive out to the park on Sunday (brave man) and all went well.  The gears are slowly becoming more familiar and I know what side of the road to turn on to which is always helpful.  Day to day seems the same.  I have nothing really to do but manage to stay entertained usually all day long.  Wether I am cleaning yet again, or watching the news, or working out, or who knows what.  I am impressed with my skills of entertaining myself. haha.  Mark and I both have committed to trying to live healthier this year and so we are both eating better and working out more.  I have gone to 2 new classes at the gym this past week...boxercise and spin.  While I thought spin was going to kick my butt, it was the boxing that literally knocked it out of me.  I was dead after it last week...hand killing me and arms like jello.  All totally worth it cause this week I am not in such a state.  Although my abs are a different story lol.  It really shouldn't be this hard for a 31 year old to do but I guess I am more out of shape than the military people I am doing it along side.  Those girls are buff!  I officially applied for a National Insurance number here (their equivalent of our social security number) so I am hoping that will come through quickly.  As soon as it does I am off to get a job!  Well that is the update...I wish I had something more entertaining to write about but I don't.  It does amaze me how a week can go by so fast though...it is totally beyond me.  Till the next time....

I'm back.....

So it has been 10 days...now 11 since I have updated "the" blog.  I was told this by my mother who I speak to regularly...she knows what is going on in my life but would just like to see it in the blog too.  Mom's are so strange sometimes and yet at the same time...I find myself being more and more like mine! Now that is truly scary!  (Just for you mom...I even save peanut butter jars to later use to make your salad dressing!....what have I become!)....anyways...

It has been busy here the past few weeks...not like the busy I was last year at this time...wedding planning getting into full swing, but busy none the less.  Christmas was chilled out...different than usual but good.  Boxing Day (the 26th) we went up to Mark's parents house and had more chill out time.  It mostly consisted of us sitting around watching full series of t.v. shows that different Tetchner's had gotten for Christmas.  Mark and I did make it down to the beach where we had gotten engaged last year.  Cool to go there exactly a year after he had proposed and see how crazy this past year has been as well as all the changes that have taken place.  It was a really good time!

We left the Tetchner's on the 28th because early on the 29th we had to drive down to Heathrow (3hrs. one way) to pick up my friends Andrea and Nick.  It was SO good to see and hear people that speak "proper" English.  Although they kept telling me I was saying things funny and would get the giggles sometimes at what I said.  I don't think I sound any different but the hubby tells me my harsh American accent is softening...yeah whatever that means...I still sound as Chicagoian as they come.  But it was really great to be able to spend time with them.  We went to the castle and cathedral in Lincoln...and some other touristy type stuff.  NYE another friend from Chicago was here, Jessi and her boyfriend Nick.  So the 6 of us had a good night out ringing in the New Year. (Pics on NY Day post)

 Andrea and I on the castle wall with cathedral in the background.

 Same thing but with Mark

 Thought the light rays were cool...on a beach in Mablethorpe.

 Mark and I.

 Me and Andrea....then the 4 of us.  Mark, Nick, Andrea, and I.

Sadly on Jan. 3 we had to take Andrea and Nick back to the airport.  You never appreciate how close Midway and O'Hare are until you make that 3 hr. journey one way.  They got back home safe and sound we got back into the routine of things here.  Mark went back to work on Wed. and somehow I lost track of time...wether cleaning the house or what not the week since then has just flown by.  There was a minor bleep on the radar on Saturday.  Sat. morning was my driving test here.  Now I had studied for it like I have never studied for a test before.  I could tell you just about everything there is to know about the rules of the road in Britain...but they have this hazard perception part.  Fine and dandy...I've driven now for 16 yrs....bring it on.

Well....not that easy.  I scored perfect on the multiple choice part of the test.  Yahoo!  But the hazard part is video clips.  In the clips you have to click every time you see a hazard.  If you click to much it thinks you are cheating and boots you out.  Well I got booted out on the first two clips.  There are 12 more but the issue is I have been a driver before.  I look ahead and see a hazard way before a new driver does.  It only gives you a small window to say it is a hazard.  My problem...I see it too soon and click before the computer says it is a hazard.  I don't see how that is a bad thing...it should be good that I see it before I have to take action but the computer doesn't grade like that.  So at the ripe old age of 31 almost 32 I failed my first test...EVER!!!  Lets just say I was a basket case the rest of the day...I didn't know what to do.  Maybe I should have failed something earlier in life to get that rejection over with cause lets just say it wasn't pretty.  Thanks to Mark I survived and booked another test.  But seriously...if I don't pass the next one I think the world might just end.  Ahhhh.....frustration.

This week so far consisted of taking down the Christmas tree, doing a boxercise class that has left me incredibly sore today, and washing clothes.  I know...what an exciting life I lead.

On a much more serious note...I do have a prayer request....My maid of honor, Rebecca's, little niece Courtney is about 2 months and a bit old.  She has gone to a bunch of doctors and they have been told that Courtney can't see.  They think it might be genetic DNA issues or a chemical imbalance.  They would really appreciate your prayers with what to do and where to go and the right doctors to treat little Courtney.  They haven't been told she is blind...and so they are just praying for a miracle.  I know God can to amazing things and so I am asking all of you to please pray for little Courtney and the whole DeHoog family.  I know they and myself would really appreciate it.  Thanks!

And with that...I will put a few pics up and call it a day. Peace I'm out.

Happy New Year!

Hard to believe that just over a year ago Mark and I were just engaged!  SO much has changed in a year I can't even believe myself that it has only been a year!  I hope that this new year is the best yet...although last year will be hard to beat!  I am so thankful for all of my friends and family...it is amazing how life puts just the right people in just the right spots at just the right times.  Hope all of you had a wonderful New Year's and an even better 2012!  God speed!