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Happy New Year. I hope that everyone had a wonderful Christmas and New Years. It was definitely difficult for me to be away from home for the holiday's, but having Michael here with me, made it a lot easier. We both commented that it didn't much feel like Christmas this year, but I guess I can't complain too much! =)

Paris was a lot of fun. I found it really difficult not knowing the language. The French aren't the most helpful and friendliest of people, so I found myself getting really frustrating not being able to communicate...I guess I am the typical American - expect everyone to speak English! But other than the language barrier, I had a wonderful time. We went to the Louve and saw the Mona Lisa, as well as other art, we went to Champ Elysee, a gallery, Disney Paris, the French Olympic training center and of course the Eiffel Tower.

Disneyland was a lot of fun, but it was really cold and rainy and it didn't help my cold. The next day I started feeling really sick. By Christmas Eve I was bad, I had a fever, a bad cough and an awful headache. We had planned to go to the Eiffel Tower on Christmas Eve, but when I woke up we weren't sure if I was going to make it. I told Michael that I couldn't come all the way out to Paris without going to the Eiffel Tower. So we found a pharmacy and got some amazing French Cold medicine that worked wonders. We wanted to walk to the top, but I was not up for it, so we took the elevator up. Once we got to the Top the view was amazing, it was completely breath taking. I told him that I wanted a picture of us, so we were trying to find someone who spoke English. Michael found a really nice couple from South Africa and had them take our picture. We first took the pic with my camera and then Michael gave them his video camera for a picture. I didn't think anything of it, since he always has people take video of us. Then he turns to me takes my hands and gets on one knee. I couldn't believe what was happening...I was so shocked. He asked me to Marry him and I of course said YES! I was so excited...I practically jumped into his arms and gave him a huge hug and kiss. It was absolutely perfect! We have it all on video, which I think is so special.

It has been so much fun having Michael here, I am really sad that he has to leave tomorrow. The 2 1/2 weeks that he was here flew by! I know that he is ready to go home and get back to his routine and comforts of home, but I am going to miss him so much. It also looks like I will have to stay out here until February 13Th, so the idea of 6 weeks being here alone is not very appealing! I'm hoping it will go by fast. I am ready to be back in the Bay.

Here are some pics from our trip to Paris, hope you enjoy.

Love You All,

First day in Paris

Michael on our way to Champ Elysee

Disneyland Paris ~ Michael walking down Main Street

Me Posing with the Candle stick!

Waiting in line for a ride.

Eiffel Tower

Getting ready to go to the top.

Almost to the top ~ 2nd level of the Eiffel Tower

View of Paris from the top of the Eiffel Tower

The Proposal!!!!

YES YES YES!!!!! SOON TO BE MR AND MRS RICH!!!

Update from London

It has been a while since I have had had the time to sit down and write a blog. I have been so busy since I returned from the US. My time here with my Mom and Joanne was absolutely amazing. We had so much fun together. They kept me very busy! I needed to take a vacation from their vacation! So this weekend I didn't do much of anything. =) I can't explain how much it meant to me to have them come out here to visit. To see the excitement on my Mom's face is something that I will never forget. It was such a special week for me. I feel so lucky to have such an amazing Mom...and even luckier to have such a close friendship with her. Mom I love you so much....and I miss you tons!

I have been really busy with work as well. It is actually really nice, and I am enjoying all of the projects that I am working on. But it has been long days and will continue to be that way until the Christmas break. Cisco is shutting down all of their offices globally for 2 weeks and forcing us to take PTO. So everyone is trying to get their last minute projects completed...which means the studio is completely booked from now until Dec 18th. I am looking forward to my time off...especially because that will be when Michael is here...10 more days!!! It will be nice for us to have a full 2 weeks together without work.

I am really looking forward to our trip to Paris, but it still seems weird that I will not be home for Christmas. Yesterday was a hard day for me, because it was the first day, since I have been back, that I really didn't have much to do....so I had time to feel lonely =( Plus it was the day that my Family, Jessica and Terry got together to make our Christmas cookies. These are the times that I miss home the most. But on the bright side of things....I will be home in less then 8 weeks.

Today I went out with my friend Anna for the last time. She is moving back to Finland next Saturday =( We were trying to get tickets to go to a football match here, but we couldn't find any games locally that were cheap. Apparently the only local teams are in the Premier league (which is the top league) and tickets to their games are hard to get and very expensive. So we decided to go to a pub and watch a game there instead. It was fun, and we saw a really good match. She has been a great friend and I'm sure that we will keep in touch, but I am really sad that she is leaving.

So that's about it....I miss you all so much.

XOXOXO

Weekend in London

OUR WEEKEND IN LONDON

We had a wonderful weekend in London. Although the weather wasn’t the greatest…we didn’t let it stop us. On Saturday we got up early and went down to Leiscer Square to buy theatre tickets. If you buy them the same day you can get some really good deals. We decided to see Blood Brothers, which is a British musical about Twin brothers separated at birth. It has been running for 27 years here. It had been recommended to me by a couple people, but non of us had ever heard anything about it. The production was absolutely amazing, we all really enjoyed it. After we bought the tickets we waked through the parks, starting at St James park and Buckingham Palace and ending in Kensington Park at the Princess Dianna memorial. It was freezing that day, but we had so much fun walking around the parks. They had a Christmas set up in Hyde park with a skating rink and lots of little rides for the kids. We then walked back to Piccadilly Circus for dinner and then went off to the Theatre. It was a really long day, but it was so much fun. We were all exhausted by the time we got back to my flat. Mom liked London so much that she decided not to go to Paris. They decided that they would rather stay here and see more of London. I was really excited because it gives me more time with them! =) On Sunday we slept in and relaxed at my flat in the morning. It was poring down rain in the morning, so it was nice to stay inside in our PJs and relax. It rained off an on all day, but in London you can’t let that stop you from going out. So in the afternoon we went down to Richmond and walked around the little shops there. I wanted to show Mom and Joanne the area around where I live, so that they could get a feel for my town. They really liked the downtown Richmond area…Mom said that she approved of me living here. After Richmond we took the train down to Westminster Abbey for the Sunday evening Organ Recital. On our walk to Westminster we saw Big Ben and the Parliament…it was absolutely gorgeous at night. We got to the church early and Joanne mad friends with an older chap named Rob who took us around and gave us a nice little tour. It was kind of eerie walking through the dark halls in the dark and rain with tombs and grave stones all through out the halls. But it was amazing to see how long ago the tombs dated back to. Rob said that there were grave sites that dated back to the 13th century. After we walked around the church we went in for the recital. Every Sunday evening they feature an accomplished organ player who gives a 30 minute recital before the Evening Service. I can’t describe the feeling you get when you sit in the Westminster Abbey and the echoes of the organ ring through the Church. It was breath taking. We didn’t stay for the service because Mom didn’t want me to be out too late since I had to work in the morning….At least that was the excuse that she gave!!! =) I let her use me as an excuse!

Here are pics from our weekend. Hope you enjoy!

Friday Morning - Just arrived into London waiting for the Bus to my flat.


Friday Night at Picadilly Circus

Picadilly Circus - Christmas lights in the street

I told Mom to do a funny pose...and she told me to pucker up!!! We were laughing so hard we couldn't pucker...and almost wet our pants!

In the Tube station...acting silly!

Saturday - Our journey through the Parks....

Waiting for the Tube

This is a Militery building in St James Park. We watched the changing of the guards.

Buckingham Palace

The gates at Buckingham

Green Park

A weird looking bird in Green Park.

Hyde Park - Christmas Fair

Crossing the Bridge to Kensington Park

Joanne and Mom and the Princess Dianna Memorial

Sunday - Richmond....This is my neighborhood


Sunday Evening - Big Ben and Westminster Abbey

The Parliment

Big Ben

Westminster Abbey

Back to London

My first blog since being back in the UK.

It was really hard for me to leave home, but once I got here I felt better. It will never feel like home here…but it felt familiar and good to be back. I miss everyone so much already, but I am now feeling like I don’t have a lot of time left here, so I am trying to make the best of being here instead of focusing on all that I miss about home. I think it is easier because my Mom and Joanne are here this next week and then Michael comes 3 weeks after that. So I won’t be alone the whole time! =)

Work has been really busy, I have been assigned several new projects, a couple really fun creative projects. So I am looking forward to working on those. It is nice to get back into the routine here. I really love working here…it is going to be hard to leave.

My birthday in London has been wonderful! This morning I picked my Mom and Joanne up from the airport. It was cold and drizzling…it was great welcoming weather for them! It is suppose to snow on Sunday…so they are in for a treat! I’m not sure they realize how much it means to me to have them come out here to visit me. I am really looking forward to having them here. It would have been very difficult to be here alone for my b-day and Thanksgiving.

When I got to work they had a little party for me…they even bought me some Gluten Free, Lactose free cakes…they tasted pretty good too! It was so sweet of them to do that for me.

This is me with my cake

This is Dawn

Marcus with his doughnut (they didn't eat my glueten free cakes)

This is Tom

Mel and Simon feeding Dom.

This is Stuart presending to pose with Miro who was out on vacation. Stuart and Miro are our engineers and you usually don't find one without the other.

After work I came home and Mom, Joanne and I went out to Picadilly Circus for dinner. We walked around for a bit to take in the London night life and then went to a steak restaurant for dinner. It was such a wonderful day. Thank you to everyone for the calls, cards and gifts, I really appreciate everyones thoughtfulness. You have all made this a birthday that I will never forget!

I will update with more pictures later...my camera is charging right now!

I will continue to fill you in on my adventures this week with Mom and Joanne, I’m sure we will have loads of funny stories to share!

Love You all!

Weekend: Ships, BBQ and NFL!

Man…what a busy week it has been! This is my first chance to blog about my weekend (on my Lunch break!). On Saturday I took the train to Southampton which is about an 1 ½ train ride south of London. I wish I would have gone out there earlier in the day so that I had more time at the docks. There is a fairy that takes you to the Isles of Write and they have some tours you can do over there, but I wanted to work out in the morning, so by the time I got out there it was already half past 1pm. So I wasn’t able to take the fairy. But I went to the Maritime Museum which has exhibits of the Titanic and other famous ships that sailed from the Southampton ports. The Titanic exhibit was so interesting, I learned a lot. One of the most astounding statistics that I found was that out of the 2,206 people on board; 202 First class passengers saved (out of 322), 115 second class passengers saved (out of 277), 176 third class passengers saved (out of 709), 100% of the First class children were saved, but only 30% of the Third Class children were saved. Blows my mind how much class is a determining factor. On the Train to Southampton

The ports

Maritime Museum

Model of the Titanic

Sunday I went with my friend Elissa to Bodean’s, which is an American BBQ restaurant, to watch the NFL football game. It was so much fun, the Chelsea UK football game had just ended (and the stadium was right down the street from the restaurant) so there were a lot of Chelsea fans in the restaurant after the game. There were two older gentlemen sitting next to us, who had just come from the game. They were giving us a briefing of all the different UK football leagues and teaching us the rules of rugby and we were explaining to them American Football. They were quit impressed with our knowledge of sports. They said that women in the UK do not get involved in sports that much. They said they might attend games, but they have little knowledge of the sport or the teams.

This is Elissa

I tried to take a picture of the TV!

Elissa found a couple of other Pubs that play American sports, so we are going to check those out when I get back to the UK. She wanted more of a bar atmosphere…but I was quit happy with the sit down chill atmosphere….she is definitely more of a partier than I am, but then again…I think most people are…except maybe Erica!! =) I don’t think I will ever find another friend like Erica! We are just too much alike…She is the BEST! But it is definitely nice to have some people here to go out with.

Change of Subject….

It is freakin COLD here. On Monday it was -2celcius and then yesterday it snowed when I was in Central London. Nothing stuck to the ground, but it was snowing non the less. I tried to take a picture, but you can’t really see it. They said on the news this morning that this is the first time since 1934 that it has snowed in October. They said that they are expecting a colder than normal winter…GREAT!!!! I don’t know what I am going to do when I get back from PV. I am going to go from 35celicus (95F) to Freezing!!! They were laughing at me at work, because I had on 4 layers yesterday when we were at lunch (a long sleeve shirt, a button up shit, a sweater –or jumper as they call it here, and then a coat) Simon, had on a short sleeve work polo type shirt…he had a jacket too but wasn’t wearing it. They were all telling me that they couldn’t wait to see how many layers I would have in December and January! Hopefully I will start to get use to it!!! But for now…I am freezing my bum off! =)
This is my picture of the Snow! Didn't really come out!

Well…3 more days till I am HOME. And if you didn’t already know..I am so Excited! =) I can not wait to see everyone. Mom, I am really looking forward to our day together….Becca, I can’t wait for you B-day dinner and to give you a great big hug…Gina I can’t wait to give you a big hug too and just hang out at the house with you….Roomie, I can’t wait to chill at the house and chit chat with you…Gianna, I can’t wait to pick you up and give you the biggest kiss ( I will wait till you recognize me so you don’t scream!) Curtis, I can’t wait to share traveling stories….Erica, I can’t wait to talk to you in person and catch up on all that is going on…And Michael I can’t wait to have you in my arms, to be able to see you in person and not over a web cam, to wake up next you and all that other good stuff.

I Love you All!