Thank you!!

A big thank you to Scott and Minda (Ty's brother) for the mysterious Christmas tree that arrived on our doorstep last week! It was such a great surprise. The tree was followed by some yummy chocolates of few days later. Scott and Minda might be the most thoughtful people we know. We really love them.

This is a picture of us at Oxford Circus. We went on a double decker bus ride to see the lights and brave the crowds. It was so much fun.

Well, I have always accused Tyler of being incapable of keeping secrets or surprises and he has proved me right once again. We were talking on the phone this week and he was saying that he was pretty busy 'but that it won't be a problem when we are in Par...' And I said 'WHERE?!? When we are in where?!?'

So he spilled the beans early. We're going to Paris this week! I am so excited! He was going to surprise me for Christmas, but I don't mind that the surprise came early. He found really cheap tickets, so we're going from the 27th to the 30th. It will be a blast. I can't wait to be able to spend time with him, he's been so busy with work, that I am really starting to appreciate any time we get together.

Merry Christmas to everyone!!

I think we have a secret Santa...

We had a Christmas tree delivered to us over the weekend!! There was no note or anything on it. Did someone feel bad for our little tree? It didn't have a return address on it, but the postage was British, so we have no idea. So now we're blessed with 2 trees, it's a Christmas MIRACLE! Anyway, we love it and thank you to whoever sent it.


I'm doing the twelve days of Christmas for Ty. And on the second day- thanks to Nanette's creative genius- it was '2 home made stockings'. She made stockings for her and Jared last year, so I really wanted to make them this year. So after many emails of detailed instructions from Nanette I finished them! Ty's name wasn't meant to be in italics but, that's how it turned out, slanted and beautiful! I really love them, I only had to redo the first one I did 3 times, the first becuase the stocking was backwards from the letters. And even though both names are just 2 letters, they took me hours! It wasm't until Nanette scanned me a hand written graph paper she made to help me figure out how to center the names did I get the letters right (well, the term 'right' is used very loosely). Man, I miss Nanette. If anyone sees her over the holidays, will you give her a big hug from me?

Today is the 6th day of Christmas, it was '6 warm pancakes' (you can tell I put alot of money into the 12 days' presents).

Is it too much?

We may have gone a little overboard with our Christmas tree this year. We hope it's not too ostentatious. But we love it! It's real, smells of delicious pine and is the perfect size for our flat! Every time I look at it, it warms my heart. We had quite a journey by bus to lug the tree home, so when we saw this one, we knew it was ours! Below is a picture of Ty carrying our decorations back on the bus. We had such a fun time. It was a funny thought of trying to get a huge Christmas tree back on the bus for the ride home. Don't worry, I've rearranged the ornaments to be a little more evenly spread out. And yes, that is a red t-shirt of mine wrapped around the bottome of the pot. I love Christmas so much, it's such a fun time of year.

We were in charge of planning our ward Christmas party, so I'd thought I'd post some pictures of the big day. It was really fun. But you won't see any pictures of Ty because he got called into work just an hour before we went to go set everything up...very convenient. But the party had to go on without him. We had Christmas Karaoke, a Father Christmas from Jamaica and a pot luck which meant a very diverse mix of food.


This is Jean, one of my greatest friends here. She just turned 67, and she danced and sang the night away! It was so fun.

His and Hers...

We really needed cell phones, so I decided to let Ty go up to the phone store without me so I could make dinner. He came home with these 2 phones. Guess which phone is for me. Is it the sleek gold-plated one with the built in camera and mp3 player? Or is it the heavy gray brick that you have to scroll over about 10 times in order to read a few words in a text message? I was grateful when he gave me my phone, but when I saw his, I really could not stop laughing. I don't need a camera or an mp3 player anyway, but it was pretty funny. To Ty's defense, he got the gold phone for free with the plan. And my wonderful gray phone, that I lovingly refer to as 'The Brick' is perfect for me. It has already made it through being dropped twice. I guess Tyler knows all too well that getting a nice phone for me is a mistake becuase I tend to drop them every so often.

It is a beautiful day in London today. I decided to take a few pictures of the park by our flat. The fall colors are so pretty. Usually I'm happy to see Fall go becuase it means the beginning of the ski season, but since the ski season doesn't really exist here, I am sad to see the leaves falling.

I'm starting to really love it here. For a while there, I thought my body was rejecting this country, but I'm loving it more and more every day. I am so excited that the Christmas season is here! It is such a fun time to be in London. All the streets are decorated with lights and decorations, it is so much fun to walk around and see all the window displays of the big department stores. The ice skating rinks are open at the parks here and I was so excited to go for a Christmas date, but we found out that it was $24 a person, so we decided that neither of us really like ice skating that much anyway.

I love all the huge trees lining the path in the park. It feels like your walking through a forest and it's just minutes away from the city!


This is the view of the city from Parliament Hill at the Heath. The pollution was bad this day, but I took it becuase you can see Ty's building in it. I wish I knew how to insert an arrow so I could point it out.

Pinback

Hey all. This is Tyler, Emily's husband. Work is slow and I am feeling the need to blog. On Thanksgiving night Emily and I had the opportunity to see Pinback at the 229 on Great Portland Street. The venue was perfect. The sound was great. There was no smoke and they played a great mix of songs from their new album Autumn of the Seraphs and their older stuff. I was in heaven and Em was loving it too. Well, we love and miss you all and want some visitors soon.

GREAT news!!

TY PASSED THE BAR!! We are so excited. It's been a long wait to find out, but the results were posted this week. He is very relieved. I am so proud of him. Although I wouldn't have been too devastated if we had to move home for a few months so he could study and take it again in February!

Well, the firm is already putting him to work...serious work. He has been so busy and putting in insane hours. Ty can chill and relax with the best of 'em, but he can work with the best of 'em also. He went to work the other morning at 9am and didn't get home until the next day at 6am. We've just switched to a later schedule and it's working out fine. I'm realizing that if I get him home for dinner by 10pm, I'm lucky. I've had good days and bad days, but we are adjusting more and more every day. Ty keeps such a positive attitude about it all, I am so grateful to be his wife.

I am nannying for an awesome British/French family. They have 2 little boys named Alex and Theo and they are off the charts cute! I just love it, it's been great for me to start working.

Happy Thanksgiving to you all! I am a little homesick this week for family, friends and the festivities of Thanksgiving, but we are going to have a holiday bash of our own here!

Home Sweet Home

Back to reality...Ty looking sharp on his first day of work

We're all moved in to our new flat. It is so nice to have a place to call home. We've been nomads for about 6 months now. We are living in a small flat in Hampstead Heath in London. We love the area. There is an awesome 250 acre park within a 5 minute walk of our place, that is so beautiful. It is nice to be able to walk a few minutes and be surrounded by trees and nature and out of the bustling city. We went to our ward for the first time yesterday. There are only about 70 people in the ward and everyone is very nice.

We're happy to be here but I still can't believe that I'm here for good. It is going to be an adjustment getting used to life here, but I know we'll love it. Here are a few pictures of the flat.
The kitchen- not made for more than one person to be in at a time as you can see
The major downside of our place..the fridge. There must have been some kind of accident and the other half of the fridge got cut off when building this place. And that little sliver of a drawer at the top of the fridge is supposed to be a freezer. This should be interesting.
The bedroom, sorry it's blurry.

I meant to take a picture of the outside, but I guess it didn't work. It just looks like a normal apartment complex anyway.

A day to see the sights

The National Portrait Gallery- I was trying to get the cool cab in the picture, but I only got the back of it

Ty in front of the WestminsterAbbey
Buckingham Palace
The London Temple
We found the booth to get theater tickets for half price. We saw Spamalot and it was hilarious!
Trafalgar Square
Big Ben

Tasty Sensations

Just FYI....I have added my sister Heidi's recipe blog, Tasty Sensations, to my favorite blog list. If you're in need of a great recipe, you'll find alot there. She is an amazing cook with alot of fun recipes- alot that have pictures of the meals when she's made them!

Tagged...

My wonderful cousin Miranda tagged me to list 6 things that people pay not know about me. It was hard for me to think, I feel like an apen book, but here goes...

1. All the Reality TV shows that everyone complains about and makes fun of....I love them all. Ty wouldn't tell you himself, but he can't get enough of it either... (Oh he just read this and says that he's proud of it)

2. I've waterskiied naked in the middle of a beautiful sunny blue sky day

3. I have tiny ears, I can't fit any ipod earphones in them. I have to use the ones made for kids.

4. I was on the JV tennis team my sophmore, junior....and senior year of high school.

5. I'm really grossed out by fingernail clippings (namely the one's Ty lets shoot all over the bathroom when he cuts them), but I have no problem leaving used floss around the house.

6. I've been a dental hygienist officially for 6 months now and have worked 3 days and that number won' t likely increase for the next 2 years. After 5 years of college, I'm probably going to be a nanny.


Now for the 6 people I am tagging...

Heidi Maxfield
Nanette Hosenfeld
Karen Shaw
Marnae Bake
Mckenzie Johnson
Sarah Metcalfe

Cheerio Mates!

After months of anticipation we're finally here in London! We're staying in a flat downtown for 2 weeks while we look for a permanent place. I feel like we've walked about 50 miles in our first few days here. I'm usually exhausted and completely spent by 2 or 3 in the afternoon, but luckily I'm married to Mr. Positive so he keeps me going all day. I love being here with Ty, everything is "SO awesome" and "so incredible". I'm not as comfortable in this city yet, it's so massive I just can't imagine fitting in here. But I know I will grow to love it more and more everyday, especially once we our settled in and can get into a routine.

I was thinking that 2 weeks was going to be plently of time to find a place to live, but now I'm not so sure. We think we've narrowed it down to either live in Islington or Hamstead Heath. There is so much diversity here. We had an awesome experience at church today. Church was held in an elementary school in downtown London. There were only about 80 members, 70 of which were African immigrants. I had a hard time before trying to understand British accents, but throw in an African accent as well and I felt like they were speaking a completely different language. Many of the women in the ward were wearing traditional African clothes and headdresses, it was so cool to be there. Unfortunately we don't think that we'll be in this ward permanently!

We hope to see you all soon! Let us know when you're coming for a visit, we have blow up mattresses all ready for you! I'll post pictures of our flat as soon as we move in.


The London Bridge
Our first dinner here
We love the market at Portobello Road! I don't know who this random guy is, I just liked the sign
In front of the Marble Arch by Hyde Park
Ty in front of the building he's going to work in at Bishopsgate

So long, farewell!!

This is a picture of us with the moving van. We're off to London tomorrow morning! We are so excited for this new adventure( although I may not look excited in this picture). We love you all and will miss you. I will post some pictures ASAP once we find our flat!

Turkey & Greece are Nothing Compared to Kentucky

I'm visiting my favorite sister in Kentucky right now.

Check out some of the highlights of my trip so far...

If you don't know who this bust is, you must not be familiar with extra crispy or original Kentucky Fried Chicken. Colonel Sanders is the founder.
Me & Owen having a moment of silence for the Colonel.

My sister Heidi and I made these awesome zucchini brownies.
Not. The brownies were like goop.

Tyler's New Do

Before

Halfway Through the Haircut...
Frontal shot....
Finished Product.
Who's jealous?

Pictures

Sitting in the New Mosque in Istanbul
I had to cover my head in all the mosques. They wouldn't let Tyler in one mosque becuase he was wearing shorts so he had to wrap one of the head scarfs around him like a skirt to cover his legs, it was pretty funny. I had a hard time being reverent in the mosque with Tyler walking around in a skirt.
Ty eating the "McTurco" from Mcdonalds in Turkey (it was so nasty!)
The Cave of the Apocalypse in Patmos where John wrote the book of Revelations
Ephesis where Paul wrote his epistle to the Ephesians
Samos, Greece
Our beautiful faces after our night train and 24 hour journey from Athens to Istanbul
The Blue Mosque in Istanbul

After the Turkish bath they wrapped us in a million towels and put us in a room that was about 110 degrees to sweat out all the toxins...that's why my face looks like I have a major sunburn or just ran 5 miles. We just laughed our heads off.
Night time during Ramadan
Waffles with Nico in NYC!! I was so happy we got to stay at their awesome apartment, they were such gracious hosts!!
Athens
The parthenon at the Acropolis
Our well balance diet for every lunch and dinner on the trip: Gyros from street vendors for $1.50! Sometimes we'd go big for dinner and get a greek salad...I think we ate about 10 lbs of feta cheese on the trip.