Socialized Medicine/ Faith...etc.

Ah....yes...a few things to chat about today.
Number 1:  Socialized Medicine...known here as the NHS (National Healthcare System)  This is the concept that everyone deserves to get medical treatment and where the rich insurance companies don't get richer.  Where people, all people, get to have the needed medicine they need and get it just as fast and free as the rich.  Now...I have grown up in the states where people pay crazy amounts of money for healthcare and insurance.  Neither is well done or fair.  I have waited FOREVER to get an appointment back in the states and usually wait another hour in a waiting room to only see a nurse ( I love you nurses and you are most likely smarter than most doctors) but still.  It is not the nicest waiting room and usually the nurses are so over worked that they aren't always the friendliest and 9 times out of 10 you only see the doc/nurse for about 30 seconds.  We all have waiting room stories or have left more agitated then when arriving from a doctors office.  Well, I am here to tell you it doesn't have to be that way!  Now yes, they pay higher taxes here, but, they actually have a system that serves its people.  I wanted to have some blood work done to see what is up with my system (whole different story all together) so I called on a late Tuesday afternoon.  They had a choice of appointments for me to pick from for the NEXT day!  My jaw about hit the floor...when I went, the staff was extremely friendly, I didn't have to fill out some 10 million crazy forms where you never know exactly if you are doing it right.  I saw a doctor who apologized profusely for being 2 minutes late...2!!!  We had a conversation...she took her time...and when she agreed I needed some blood work done she asked if I minded waiting 15 minutes to do it.  Now back home you would have to make a whole other appointment!  The lady who drew my blood apologized for my less than 15 minute wait.  I told her that this experience was truly bliss.  She smiled and said we get that lots from people who come over from the states.  I asked her some questions while she was drawing my blood.  She had worked in the states as well, as a nurse, and she was shocked that we hadn't come to have more socialized medicine like here.  I just can't tell you how great of an experience it was.  For all of you people who think socialized medicine is bad....look at it again with new eyes.  I really am impressed with it here.  And maybe it would help even the ever growing gap of rich people and the average American.  Just a thought.  Nothing political just my experience.  (And once again a shout out to all you nurses...I def. think you should get paid more! Along with teachers of course ;))

Number 2:  Church...in particular the song Shout to the Lord...aka My Jesus, My Savior.
So on Sunday morning in church we sang that song.  It brought back SO many memories.  It took me back to my senior year in high school when I learned the song on our youth group service trip to Mexico.  I got to think back to what I thought life would be and where I would be in the "future".  I thought about all of my friends who were there and where they are in life now.  I remember singing it in front of church for Marty and Deanna's last Sunday...um totally emotional.  I remember singing it at college and then again back at WSBC.  The thought that I was now singing it so many years later with my husband by my side and in England, none the less, was just an extra ordinary moment for me.  It was like a flash back of my life as I sang and then the thought of WOW what is God going to do next?!  When the chubby girl who saw everyone else get married thought "God are you really going to give me my dreams of being a wife"...he answered in His time and provided such an amazing man.  And when I said "God are you really going to get me through this whole moving ordeal"...He provided.  It was just so cool.  These words can't fully describe what I felt or even what I feel now but man thank you God for it.  It gave me hope and an awesome feeling about the future.  And just this peace that God is in control even when I think man what is He doing now?!?  It just was a God moment ya know.  And what a great song!

So yeah...lots of ramblings...some other side notes.  The dead flowers I got for Valentine's Day got fully reimbursed from Intraflora with a very sincere apology letter no questions asked.  Impressed!  I ran the longest I have ever ran 3.5 miles...no stopping and was pretty pumped about that last Sat.  I get the results from my blood work on Monday...so that should be interesting.  And...if you made it this far you must be as bored as I am.  LOL  Sorry this was a long one.  Hope all is well.  Later.

Just Chillin...

Ahhh lets see.  Life is pretty much the same over here.  Last week Mark's gout started to act up again.  Now I am not one to give much sympathy usually, but I was extra nice to him this time...breakfast in bed...ya know.  Poor guy could hardly walk it was so bad...bless him he did come to the grocery store with me since I still can't drive on my own.  That turned out to be an adventure so we really just stayed in the house most of the weekend.

On Friday I got an awesome package from my parents.  It was filled with all kinds of yummy American food I can't get over here.  They spent way too much on sending it but it felt like Christmas all over again to me!  It was wonderful.  Mark got to try Jell-o chocolate pudding for the first time and I think it was love at first taste lol.  Speaking of taste I tried to make Italian beef for the first time.  I used the crock pot and it came out...ok...man I miss Italian beef.  So for those of you who are in the vicinity of a Portillo's eat one for me and enjoy every minute of it!

What else...Valentine's Day was good.  So great to be on the same continent as your Valentine!  I actually got flowers this year, which is a story in and of itself.  Flowers came half dead....now how to you tell your hubby that you love the flowers and the thought but that he should call and complain.  Well it was entertaining and we both got a good laugh out of it.  I really do love them...I just didn't want him to have to pay for dead flowers ya know.  So we are still in the process of dealing with that.  Never a dull moment.  His gout had gone by Tuesday...but we hadn't made plans cause we both just couldn't see the point in going out.  So I made dinner here...spaghetti and garlic bread and we ate by candle light.  It was nice...really nice.

That really is the excitement over here....I have continued with driving lessons and those are going well.  I got to make a super hero with the Fazal girls on Monday which was fun.  In fact I am going swimming, indoors of course, in a bit with them because it is half term break...meaning no school for a week.  I have heard back from a few jobs that I have applied for with no luck.  I really wasn't qualified for them but figured I would still try.  MMM yeah...OH best news ever....I am coming home for a MONTH!!!  Mark will be there with me for the 1st two weeks but then he has to come back to work.  tehe  Then I get to stay for another 2 and half weeks.  I am so excited!  So that is our news.  Hope you all are well...peace out.

Great weekend!

So this past week has been fun!  We didn't do a ton but I actually felt like wow...we are a married couple doing something out and about and wow...this is fun!  lol  We have been doing really good recently about eating healthy and such.  Which in turn means we haven't been eating out AT ALL!  Now this might not sound like a big deal to most but to me it is huge!  Most of my life has consisted of eating out and even once I got to the U.K. at least once a week we would get something...even just a pizza or kebab or whatever.  So we decided that Friday night we would have "date night".  It was awesome!  We went out to dinner!  Yahoo for me...no cooking!  It is one of our favorite places but on the pricey side but it was a nice treat.  They serve better for you kind of food so we both did well with our choices and enjoyed each others company.  We then went and got coffee...being that we were an hour and half early for our movie.  (tehe...guess that means we ate dinner just a wee bit fast lol) Movie was a Mark pick...the 2nd Sherlock Holmes film?  It was ok...Im not a huge movie kind of person...but he really enjoyed it.  Good date night!

Sat. I got up and ran...I know...that is not a normal thing for Shara to do on a Sat. morning!  But it was good.  Bettered my mile time by like a minute...I was thrilled!  Working hard for that 10K come the end of March.  We then did some shopping and it was just a good Sat.  Sat. night was our first snow fall here.  It wasn't a ton...well by my Chicago standards...but for here it was a lot.  We got about 7 or 8 cm so like 2-3 inches.  You would have thought it was 2 feet!  Hilarious.  I of course was out there shoveling as soon as we got up on Sunday.  Gotta get the snow of the drive before you roll the car over it...makes it a mess!  (Yes that is for you pops!!! I did pick that up even though I use to think you were crazy about it!)  So there I was....no one else shoveling... and I mean no one...eventually some of the guys came out when they saw me out there doing it.  Where was Mark you ask?  The deal was I shovel he does breakfast.  Deal for me every time!  When all was said and done our driveway was the cleanest.  Doesn't make much of a difference cause they don't plow the roads here...or anywhere in England.  One big ice rink on the roads...so crazy.  No parking lots get plowed nothing!  Oh the money I could make if I could drive a big truck like that!  Anyways...entertaining.  Because of the snow we didn't venture out to church.

The rest of the week...well...was back to normal.  They say it is super cold here...I don't think so but I guess I am use to it.  It was "soooo" cold...brrr...a whole 32 F or 0C.  Bring it on....at night it has gone down to about 20F but again you would think the place was the North Pole.  I walked to the gym and the worker lady looked at me like I had 6 heads...."too cold to be out there."  Oh...if they only knew what Chicago usually gets like in the winter.  It's called a real winter coat, hat, gloves....ya know???
Anyways.  Hope you all are warm and well.  adios!

This is fricking amazing...

So I tried to make something new last night for dinner.  You never know exactly how it is going to go but you hope for the best.  Mark and I both love kebabs.  Not the ones on a stick but the ones you eat in a pita...kind of like our gyros in the states but with chicken.  I looked up a recipe online and then made a few changes to it not knowing if that was a good thing or if it would taste terrible.  I was nervous when Mark got in....didn't want dinner to taste like crap.  SO....we sit down and I don't tell him that I had changed it a bit.  The first words out of his mouth were and I quote, "this is fricking amazing!"  I was thrilled.  Like I said before we are trying to be healthier so this was a healthy way to eat something that is not normally healthy.  I am thrilled...like did a lil dance in the kitchen after dinner thrilled.  Just thought I would boast a bit here cause I can tehe.  Now I am not a chef nor do I claim that I can cook BUT I have come a loooonnnngggg way since Sept.  Tehe.  Yahoo!!!