Back from a week in the US!!

Scott and I flew home on Tuesday night the 20th for the Thanksgiving Holiday and to attend a wedding of a couple from College!

Tuesday night we flew home and things were well except that I was starting the symptoms of a cold :-( We landed early to our surprise, got our rental car and off we went to my parents house. We got in around 12:30am and Ryan (Scott's brother) was there to see us prior to his trip back up north to Buffalo for the Holiday.

Wednesday we ran errands, saw Ryan off on his 5 hour trip and then went into New York City with my parents, my cousin and my parent's neighbors for my mom's birthday dinner! HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM!!! We had a lovely time and it was great to see everyone and share the evening together!

Thanksgiving Day- can I tell you how much I love Thanksgiving!! We all watched the Green Bay Packers win! YAY!!! Then got all of the food ready and the 10 other guests all started to arrive. We had turkey, ham, corn casserole, asparagus, squash, green bean casserole, stuffing, cranberry, sweet potato caserole, twice baked potatoes, leftsa (norwegian potato bread), cheesecake, cranberry/walnut torte and apple pie! I am full thinking about all of the food!

Friday- Scott was in bed all day with a bug that hit him :-( Katie (my best friend) and I went out for Black Friday shopping! We picked up some Christmas gifts but more importantly found shoes to wear to the wedding on Saturday.

Saturday- drive to Saratoga Springs, NY to attend the wedding of Evan and Melissa. Congrats to the two of them on a beautiful wedding! We were so happy to be able to attend and had a great time. It was so nice to see all of our college friends there and spend the night up there with all of them! We miss you all!

Sunday- up early for a drive back to New Jersey and to miss the Thankgiving rush coming home, get Scott packed up and to the airport for his flight.

Mon-Wed- I worked in our NJ office for the three days, went to check on our house in NJ that we have, got to see my brother at dinner at PF Chang's (yummy!) and then flew back.

We are both now unpacked and recovery from jet lag (well more me than Scott right now). Bailey got some new gifts upon our return (which I will post some pictures of later)!

It was a true whirlwind trip as you can tell but it was a fantastic time spent with all of our family and friends! One of the hardest things to realize when you live away is that you think you have tons of time home (for me this trip was 8 days) and let me tell you it isn't a lot of time when you want to see all of your family and friends and run errands, etc. I was running around like crazy on Wed. afternoon trying to get things done. We didn't get to see some friends that we hoped to see due to time contraints and that is a miserable feeling when you leave. We will say hello again to the US on Dec. 14th!

Wine and Food...what a Great Combo!!!

This weekend was full of lots of wine and food which made for a fantastic weekend!

Friday Scott and I settled in at home for a nice dinner in and a movie. I know for all of the US based Americans it will seem unreal to the movie we watched already, but here in the UK Christmas is in full effect. Christmas with the Kranks was on and let me tell you I love that movie! Histerical!!! Anyway, Scott has never seen it so we watched it which made Scott homesick when it started to snow in the movie (we sure do miss the snow).

Saturday is was up and out the door to the Decanter Wine Show in London. It was held at the Landmark Hotel in Marylebone. The hotel is absolutly gorgeous! There were 100 wineries represented from all around the world and a few of our favorites were there, Meerlust, Stag's Leap, Louis Latour, etc. It was nice though to try some that we have never heard of to expand our horizon of wines!

Sunday, I met a friend of mine and we went to the BBC Food Show in Olympia. We got a nice tote bag that kept filling up with the free goodies that all of the vendors were giving away. We then went to see Angela Hartnett in the Ultimate Cookery Experience there and she made three dishes. I am not convinced that I can make Pasta from scratch (that will be interesting when I try to make it though). She made it look so easy that I was thinking the whole time...I can easily do this. HA. The one item she did make which was really easy was Pumpkin Soup. So what is for dinner tonight....Pumpkin Soup. I will tell you tomorrow how I do!

After I got home from the BBC Food Show, Scott and I were invited over to our neighbors for a Seafood Paella! YUMMY! We had a lovely dinner with them and some wine then off to home to finish packing for the US (We leave tomorrow YAY!!!!).

Well back to work and stay tuned for the Pumpkin Soup tomorrow!

Puppy School

Every Thursday night, Scott and I bring Bailey to Puppy School, to try and teach her some obedience. Over the past three weeks that she has been going she got in trouble once (which was last week), she was jumpy and didn't want to sit, etc. As the owner you sit there and are partly ashamed that your dog isn't behaving. Well I now know after last night's class what it is like to be sitting on the other side while someone's lab, brand new to the class and same age as Bailey, is jumping and not sitting and doesn't want to listen to the trainer. I felt so bad for the owner since they were sitting there obviously ashamed by their pet and everyone was staring at them since the trainer kept using their dog for every example. Hopefully they come back next week and that Sam, their Labrador, will be a little better for them!

Bailey and I got home from school and Scott was just coming in from work. We had a nice dinner which was some Pesto Chicken on a bed of spinach and some wild rice...YUMMY, then settled in for a show which we had seen some previews for.

Discovery Channel aired a show called My Shocking Story (something like that) and last nights was about a man who was half man half tree. Basically since 15 this man had started to develop warts which ended up turning his limbs into tree roots. A dermatologist from the US (University of Maryland) came over to visit him to try and treat him. From what they found after taking 4 biopsies, his immune system was too week which is why he couldn't fight the growing infection of warts. The dermatologist came up with a treatment for him to take and in the end the man decided not to take it. Sad sad story.

On to a positive note, HAPPY FRIDAY!!!!!

House Construction- YIKES!

With about 10 months left to go till Scott and I move back to New Jersey, we have decided to start some construction on our home. We currently own a 1954 Cape Cod House (picture below)

So here is the plan:

1. Make our current Cape Cod style home a Colonial (the means making the upstairs of the house flush with the lower level). That should add some nice sq. footage to the upstairs of the house (thank goodness in the 6 months we lived in it we didn't do work to the upstairs!

2. Where you see the car parked on the left, putting a garage there (it will be set back further then where the car is so that we can still park 2+ cars in the driveway and also have a garage.

3. Making an addition off of the back of the house to add a fireplace and a larger family room downstairs and an en-suite in the master upstairs.

Well that is the plan and currently we have lined up some contrators to give us some estimates next week while we are in NJ for Thanksgiving! We are hoping for construction to be completed in about 6 months which will give us then time to re-paint etc. prior to moving in! Fingers crossed all goes well. Stay tuned!

Go Pack Go!

Well as you can tell from the subject line that yesterday we got to watch the Green Bay Packers vs. Minnesota Vickings on TV here in London (YAY!!!) and watch the Pack to a 34-0 Victory!!!

As for our weekend....the short of it..it was too short, they always seem to be though. Friday we stayed in and had dinner, Scott did some studying and we watched a movie. Saturday, we went out to dinner at one of our favorite Thai restaurants, Busaba Eat Thai, and then met an old high school classmate and her Fiance for drinks in Covent Garden. Sunday we slept in!!!! The neighbors cooked Scott and I a Sunday Roast then we had some friends in for some American Football! I made a yummy Buffalo Chicken Dip (Thanks Colleen!) and relaxed the rest of the night.

P.S.- Mom that picture is for you!

Welcome!

Where to start? Scott and I have thought for about...hmmm 2 years now to set up a webpage so that family and friends could follow our journey while we are living in London. So now with a year to go, we decided to do a blog!

I moved to London January 5, 2006 from West Caldwell, NJ for work for what was suppose to be 18-24 months. Well 24 months will be on Sunday (technically from a Visa perspective) and have renewed for another 2 years (visa wise).

Scott and I got married in October 7, 2006 in West Orange, NJ at a GORGEOUS Country Club! Scott moved over to London to be with me in February 2007 (after months....and we mean long months) of debating with the home office about his dad's paperwork and Scott's citizenship in the UK to come through.

So there you have it in a nutshell the brief background on our move here and little on our life which brings us to London.

We have been here, as I said, for 2 years (me) and Scott 9 months. We have travelled a fair bit since we have both been here to Paris a few times, week in Tuscany, Brussels, Sheffield (visit family), Newcastle (pick up the new love of our life, Bailey), Munich, Salzburg and of course to the US (New Jersey and Buffalo) to visit our family and friends!

Scott is working for HSBC as a Mortgage Manager and I am working for Group RCI (subsidiary of Wyndham Worldwide) as Director of Compliance. I travel quite a bit for work and have been to Copenhagen , Johannesburg, Monteriggione (Italy), Amsterdam, Earby (UK) and Kettering (UK). Scott thankfully doesn't have to travel as we were able then to get the new love of our lives, Bailey!

Bailey is a Chocolate English Labrador Retreiver and is now 5 months and 3 weeks old! She is about 45lbs and is currently in puppy school to learn some commands and hopefully some food manners (as they call it in class)!

So Welcome to our blog and we look forward to having everyone read and catch up on our lives!