So Many Updates from America

So many of you want a bit of an update on our adventure over the last few weeks months in the United States.  I have started writing this post a few times, but then was distracted and never finished...  Most of you know that Jeff, Mackey, and I all headed back on the same flight.  Unfortunately, Jeff had to go back for the month of July.  But we sure did accomplish a lot in the 3 weeks he was home.

Our home for the first two weeks was the Omni Hotel.  We enjoyed our stay here, and it definitely started feeling like "home".  Although, we absolutely were over the whole eating out thing.  It is difficult to eat out and still stay healthy.  I think we did pretty well with our food choices, given what we had.  But I'm not going to lie, we had Mexican food three times (2x was Taco Bell alone).  Haha!  We enjoyed seeing family and friends.  We also enjoyed picking out an apartment the first day we were back.  I had planned on living with my parents and couch surfing while Jeff was back in England, but we found a great deal on an apartment downtown...so we went for it.

Every few days we were moving things from our storage unit into the apartment.  We didn't take too many loads, and we only have the bare essentials in the apartment.  It still looks nice, and will be a great home until our renters move out of our house.  We get possession back September 1st  August 29th (things change when you start and don't finish posts).  We had a great location for the fireworks on July 4th! It is fun being a resident of another part of downtown.  We also just picked up all of our UK belongings.  They arrived at my parents house 2 weeks after Jeff returned from England.  Lots of boxes to move into our apartment, and move back out in a few weeks. Moving. Moving. Moving.

Moving Day in our apartment

 Our lazy spot to watch fireworks.  Still pretty good view, but it would have been even better on the parking garage to the right in our community. 

Our boxes from the UK. They are still just sitting there. Other than finding a few pieces of clothing, those boxes are staying there until Move #3 of the year! 

I also was able to move things from my old elementary school and storage into my new classroom.  I love my new classroom, as it has so much storage!  I hate when clutter sits out, so it allows me to hide all of my teaching materials.  I have also been able to meet a few members of the staff, which has been great. Update: I have been in school now since July 30th, and I am loving every minute of being a first grade teacher.  The kids came in so small and clueless on Day 1, but we are already seeing some improvements and growths..which is awesome!  I'll try to add some classroom pictures before ending the blog. 

We also bought a VEHICLE! We test drove quite a few small SUVs, and ended up purchasing a 2015 Jeep Cherokee, which I am in love with! It is the perfect size for us, and has all the new features we were looking for in a vehicle.  No pictures to post, as Jeff and I don't want to jinx it! ;)

Jeff has a rental property he owns with a few buddies. We also spent a late night cleaning that place from top to bottom.  We put in a new microwave, did some painting, heavy duty cleaning, and made sure it was all ready for the new tenants to move in the next day.  This was one of the reasons Jeff had to come back for those 3 weeks. 

We even had time to go on a mini vacation to Cincinnati, Ohio for a wedding. We were able to catch up with close friends and have quality time to catch up on things we may have missed.  The wedding was beautiful and we had a great time.  Jeff and I were also lucky to be able to fit in a small vacation with Jeff's family to French Lick, Indiana.  His family go almost every year, and we missed out last year---so we were looking forward to that quality time with his family.  We had a great time hitting up the casino (and winning a little money!), golfing, tennis, and some pool time (although the sun was not being our friend that week).

French Lick, golfing (I won!)

Jeff headed back to England for the month of July and even did some traveling (a few posts to come on that...and no he is not writing them).  Are you surprised!?  During the month of July, I was in my classroom almost daily setting things up and preparing for my new adventure in a new school/grade.  My mom was a huge help, as always.  She spent a couple days downtown with me to help with my classroom and spend some time together!   I spent lots of time with my nephews, niece, and sister...making up for lost time.  I also had the pleasure of going on a small vacation to my family to St. Joseph, Michigan to get a little beach time in! We had a great time and beautiful weather.  I enjoyed the quality time with them all.

 Indianapolis Zoo day with my sister, nephews, and niece. 

 Spending time with my wonderful parents

 The construction site. This kid was literally rolling in the dirt at one point. I think there was even some snow sand angels....

 Covering Daddy with sand!

 And Miss. C. had the best place in the house with her own personal tent!

 My sister, Mom, and I

Sweet baby, Corina

Let's see...what else. Well, Jeff is now home from England, as of July 29th.  It is great to have him home and be on the same page.  We have been really busy getting back into the swing of things at work, packing for our next move, and continuing to see family/friends.

A few more posts to catch up. I am trying to finish all of these posts that have been sitting in my Drafts section of my blog now for, well 2 months.  Whoops! I guess people were right when they say Americans are always go-go-go. No time for anything! I know you are all patiently awaiting closure to our amazing experience abroad.

On to the next adventure...

Enjoying a Beautiful English Wedding

This past Saturday, we headed down to to Hereford (about 2 hours southwest) to a couple of our friends' wedding.  Jeff met the groom, Tom, at work and I was lucky enough to become friends with the bride, Sarah, last spring.  The ceremony was at this quaint church out in the countryside.  It was so interesting experiencing the differences between and American vs. an English wedding.  As we sat down, we enjoyed the company of some of our other friends.  I learned that often times the bride comes down before the bridesmaids.  This is so that the bridesmaids can hold the train of the bride's dress, although Sarah came down after the bridesmaids in her wedding.  There was no groomsmen, only ushers (including a best man).  They did not stand up front or go down the isle. 

 

Not the clearest picture, but you can see the adorable invitations. 

Inside of the programs

The wedding began, and there was lots of hymns and readings.  The minister asked if there were any objections, which I had not heard at a wedding in a long time.  I also found it interesting that they signed the legal documents during the ceremony.  Our friends laughed when Jeff told them we signed it at our reception on the back of our best man, Scott.  We threw dried flower petals at the couple as they walked out of the church and into their cute little ride. 

Flower send-off!

We headed straight to the reception, which was held at this winery. It was a beautiful set up, as we all sipped on cocktails outside on a beautiful day!  They came around with a few hors d'oeuvres, and then the reception began around 4:30.  Our meal, which was called the Wedding Breakfast.  I asked weeks ago about this, and it is called a breakfast because it is the first meal as husband and wife.  Cute, right? We sat down for our three course meal.  Jeff had chicken liver pate, chicken breast & vegetables, and eton mess for dessert.  I had the pea & mint soup, chicken & vegetables, and chocolate roulade.  No cake for dessert, but it is still tradition to cut the cake.  They cut the cake and put it out later for you to eat later in the night or take it home.

Loved picking out my fascinator for the wedding.  So much fun!

If the Mackins are reading this, we decided to wear the exact same attire we wore to your wedding since it was about a year ago.  We partied in your honor. 

We enjoyed the wonderful meal, and left completely stuffed.  The speeches started, and there was legit betting going on at how long the best man's speech was going to be.   Apparently, it is known that the best man always takes a really long time embarrassing the groom.  Jeff and I put down 7 minutes and 22 seconds for our bet.  We ALMOST won, as the winning number was 7 minutes and 35 seconds.  People started to heckle the best man to keep talking, so I think if they didn't do that...we would have won. Ha, wishful thinking?! The money is normally used to pay for drinks at the bar anyway.  All three speeches were great! The father of the bride spoke, the groom, and of course the best man.  It was really cute to see the groom speak at his own wedding.  I liked that.  

Next up was dancing.  There was a good amount of people dancing throughout the night, and often times to songs I had never heard.  My favorite part was when they brought out more desserts and cheeses to nibble on throughout the night.  Me being obsessed with food, shocker...right? This was mostly for the second round of guests that had arrived.  There were two invitations.  One invitation was for the entire day's events, and the other was to come after dinner. We had a great time, and felt so lucky to be able to not only experience and English wedding, but to celebrate with our dear friends, Tom & Sarah.  Congrats, Tom & Sarah!!

On to the next adventure...

 

R.O.C.K in the U.S.A

Wow! Wow! Wow! Jeff and I were so blessed to be able to travel back to Indianapolis to visit with lots of family and friends.  Originally we had not planned to make a home trip as we wanted to take advantage of all of our limited time in the UK.  Although, we missed everyone so much, we decided to come home before heading to a wedding in Cincinnati. Now, I try my best in all my posts to give a general "play by play" but it might be hard to summarize every single part of our experience home.

We planned a lot of different dinners, lunches, and coffees with friends and family, but our first stop after getting off the plane was...Taco Bell. Ah, I am pretty sure I demolished not 1, but 3 tacos in less than 5 minutes and they were ahhhh-mazing! We headed to the dry cleaner and randomly stopped by Jeff's grandparents for our first of many family visits. It was such a great feeling to be around people we love so much and miss daily.

My choice: double decker & 3 crunchy tacos. Jeff's choice: 1 spicy chicken burrito and some tortilla chips. Who was craving Taco Bell more? I will never be embarrassed about my ability to demolish Mexican food. 

We took advantage of all the time we had. I was able to get some shopping in with my mom and sister.  It was so nice to be able to shop with my crew again!  The next few days we were able to have a few special dinners with both of our families. We had wonderful home cooked meals.  Our family spoiled us with our favorite foods throughout our time there. We are so lucky to have such special families!

Jeff's mom & sister

My brother-in-law, sister, & nephews

My parents

Jeff's grandparents.  

Sorry Greg, looks like we dropped the ball after the soccer game and lunch....and forgot to take a photo or two! 

It was so much fun to see my nephews in person. We Skype a lot, but it just isn't the same.  My nephews also enjoyed their little London buses and taxis I brought them back, but of course my sister and I got more out of the cute little outfits I bought them.

 Little squirmy things would not sit still. Their shirts say "Keep Calm and Play Footie". 

The shirts came with matching shorts. Too cute. 

But being outside playing water guns, cooking out, and just spending quality time with loved ones was such a special feeling for the both of us.  Jeff was even able to get a round of golf in, and later in the day we were able to see my grandparents.

We were shooting at the "alligators" at this point in our water gun fight. 

Mexican dinner at our favorite hometown place with my grandparents and parents! Yum!

Seeing friends, even if it was just for a short while was wonderful.  I was able to get coffee with a few wonderful friends, dinners, and even spent a whole day just hanging out and catching up.  It is so nice to know that things just go back the way they were before we left. What amazing friends Jeff and I have!

Jeff and I's friends from his hometown

Great friends from work. Glad we squeezed in some sun-time!

So, because I was trying to soak up as much time during all of our friend-dates we had...I was awful at remembering to take pictures. Sorry, my dear friends, for your lack of debuts because of my spacey brain!

We have been following the World Cup to some extent over here.  We were in Indianapolis at the right time, because we were able to watch Team U.S.A. Our favorite street, not far from our house, was shut down and massive TVs were placed there to watch the game. We met up with a friend and watched the game in the middle of the street. It was fantastic to be surrounded by Americans cheering on our home-team! We obviously stick out over here while we watch US sports. Although, Team U.S.A lost, we still felt the huge amount of patriotism when the crowd would chant: I believe that we will win!

I was loving the ability to call it soccer, and not worrying about someone correcting me with "football". 

So packed! I love it!

The last few days before heading to Cincinnati were difficult knowing we would not see many of these people for another year.  Time definitely flies by over here, so we know we will be home before we know it.  We were able to spend time with more friends when we went to Cincinnati for our friends' wedding. Lots of eating, drinking, and sharing stories between the group.  It was also great to be in the United States for the Fourth of July. For our friends' rehearsal dinner, we went out on a riverboat on the Ohio River to watch the fireworks. Saturday was another great day and we enjoyed the wedding festivities so much.

  On the riverboat.

 Great group of friends. 

 Hooray for being in the US for the 4th of July

 Beautiful venue for the wedding and reception in Cincinnati 

 Groomsmen at the wedding. 

Sunday came too quickly.  Jeff and I were dreading the long plane ride and traveling, but surprisingly we had one of the best flights of our life.  We sat by ourselves in a row of 3, had personal TVs, and decent food.  Although we were tired, we loved getting back to see Mackey (who kept waking us up on our first night home because he was purring so loudly) and get back into our routine.  Let's hope this jet lag doesn't last too long.

I think he is glad to have us home. 

A special thanks to all the people who gave up their normal schedule to hang out with us.  We truly enjoyed every minute of our time back in the states.  We wish we were able to come home more often. I'm sure it'll be a blink of an eye and we'll be back bugging you all soon enough! We love each and every one of you!

U.S.A, U.S.A, U.S.A

Time flew by on our 5-day journey back to the United States for our close friends' wedding in Boston. Jeff and I had a great trip over here, although taking a train, metro, and a plane was a bit much to/from (Nottingham---London).  We got into Boston about lunch time and immediately met up with friends to start soaking up as much time with them as possible. As the weekend went on, more and more of our friends showed up to celebrate the wedding weekend festivities.

Jeff and I were enjoying all of our social time so much that we only took a few pictures. Sadly, none of the bride & groom...Sorry Andrew & Julie! It was a beautiful outdoor wedding, with wonderful little details & surprises throughout the night. Gorgeous. Jeff was in the wedding, so I didn't see much of him. Although I enjoyed some quality time with other friends.

And now for a few friends debut on the blog...

We had great company during the reception!

The time change had a small effect on us, although coming home (back to England) has been a rough transition. Jeff and I aren't feeling the best and the jet lag isn't helping matters. Don't worry, Mom. We're fine. 

All-in-all, it was a great weekend and we were so happy to share their special day with them. This was 1 out of 8 weddings we have been invited to this year. We were so blessed that we are able to make a couple, but sad that we are missing out on the others.

Short post this time. Sorry! I'll leave you with a picture of Mackey and his helpfulness in the packing world.