Cleaning

I've worked out how to post videos now just like Brandon and Alison! No one else was up at 12:45 a.m. to video except Colin and Basil, so here is their video debut!

Back by popular request

I had a request for the kitty basket picture so thought I'd throw in a million more of when they were little. The were so tiny...the bottom left photo is Basil standing on the books which were steps into the litter box since they were too tiny to climb in!

Home Sweet Home

Tom flew back to England on Thursday morning. He'll continue the job search and hopefully find us a place to stay too! He's looking forward to seeing his family while hopping between Watford and Hull. I'll be joining him in 7 more weeks, lots ahead for both of us!

Bon Voyage

Our stuff is on the move once again, en route to Watford, England. Tom, my dad, and my brothers loaded up a truck from our storage unit and then transferred that all onto a shipping crate. From here it goes to the ocean and will magically arrive at our place in Watford in about 5-6 weeks. Glad it's all taken care of, now I only hope it's all legit and will arrive safe and sound!

Skydiving

So I learned a valuable lesson today: Don't make promises you don't want to keep. You see, I promised Tom a few months back that I'd go skydiving with him. Unfortunately it was in front of a lot of people and so I knew I had to follow-through with it. So today, we took a dive. Wow, I don't think, well, I know that I've NEVER been that scared in my life. I was fine, not really nervous, until I had to phsically jump/be shoved, out of that plane. The free fall was immense, feeling like 2 hours rather than 60 seconds, and I was so glad when he pulled the cord to let us float to the bottom. I'm glad to have done it, Tom and my dad are thrilled and can't stop talking about it. Good experience, but one that I'm definitely glad is behind me! What a day! (You can click on any of the photo collages to make them bigger)

Dr.Dennis

We had a party yesterday for my brother, Dennis. He's graduated now with and a Doctor of Psychology! It was a fun BBQ with lots of family and food and games and a nice fire to finish it off with!

How long is that cat???

How Colin likes to sleep...all stretched out! He's getting really really long!

Working

The work continues around the house. The latest project was the driveway...grating it down and then getting new sand-like gravel brought in. What a lot of work! No wonder Tom's leaving early!!!

Cha-ching

So we've saved our coins for a few years now...what was meant to be our 'honeymoon money' just has kept growing. We've stolen from it a few times, but mainly just kept adding slowly over the last 5-6 years. I know, not many coins for that long, but welcome to the age of Debit cards...we hardly ever carry cash. Anyhow, as we're moving to England, a jar of US coins won't do us much good, so Tom took it to the bank today and cashed them in. Well, turns out that our trip to Monaco in November is now covered thanks to a few years of emptying the coin purse!

Hiking

Tom and I went hiking with John, Rachel, Emily and Josh at Opal Creek this weekend. Nice hike in and an amazing creek/pools and a waterfall. Everyone but wimpy Jessi went into the water because it was about -20 degrees in there! Even Josh was swimming across with all his courage! (And no, Emily's not practicing yoga or sleeping, just being goofy in the picture!)
Josh and Rachel hiking in
John having made the trek across...the first one to brave the waters.

Josh very proud of himself for making it through the water...I still can't believe he did it!

Fishing

We attempted to go fishing today, but didn't manage to catch anything. My mom dug out the poles from the attic and we took off, getting some bait along the way. The kids had fun, especially Josh casting and casting and casting, even if the fish weren't out!

Off we go

We got our tickets!!! It's official now and we've finally got some dates and plans coming together. Tom is flying out in the morning on August 24th, back to England to find a job and a house and get settled. I'll be flying on Sept 5th to Phoenix for a week, then leaving from there for Dominican Republic on Sept 12 until the 12th of October when I'll be flying to England to join up with Tom again. It's great having dates and times and it all to be set, but now time seems to be flying past as it nears the end. So many things to do and people left to see still...we can do it!

Wedding

We went to Carrie Stewart's wedding on Sunday which was really nice. I went to high school with Carrie and have only seen her a few times since, but it was great to see her again and all of her wedding. I even ran into a few other people from school, including Lindsey Miller who I haven't seen since 8th grade! Fun to see old friends and hear about what they're up to now.

Swimming and Running

Tom and I went to Salem yesterday to play with the kids (and John & Rachel too). We got to see them during swim lessons; Josh showing off his bob and Emily doing really well at jumping off the diving board and swimming with her face in the water. We rounded off the evening with the Bush Park runs, just some fun runs for kids and adults at the park there. Josh did the 500 meter, Emily ran a whole mile, and Tom, Rachel and I did the 5K. Finish it off with a night at work and it was a full day!

Collages

Just playing with a new photo program to do collages and cute things with pictures. I like it so far, pretty easy to use! Thanks Alison!