Can you belieeeeeeve it???

Yes, I'm actually posting on my blog. It's been 1 year, 3 months and 18 days since my last post. I think it's safe to say I officially suck at blogging.

So, where do I start? I just had a quick read through my most recent posts (if you can call them 'recent'), and the last time I wrote I had just received my permanent residence visa, we hadn't begun our kitchen renovation, Paul was working in Ayelsham, I hadn't even won the magazine contract yet, we had just started the Quest for a Martini (that would be the IVF process in Donna-speak), and Elijah was waking us up with lectures about monster trucks.
Elijah is still waking us up with lectures about various boy-related things, but all the other topics mentioned above have, um, evolved is perhaps the word I'm looking for?

Elijah is all growed up - he can ride a big boy bike without training wheels. It's one of those parenting milestones that I never expected to make me emotional, but it did (yes people, I do have emotions). He's been practicing for a while, but this weekend when he had a sleepover at Grandma and Grandpa's, he took the leap from little boy to big boy and doesn't need any help anymore. Sniff sniff. I'll get a video of him soon.

A little while ago we went to Dover Castle - here are some pictures from our day. They've done loads of work to the castle, and now it's a real attraction type thing rather than just an empty cold building. We had a lovely time, we did.



Onto other subjects - our kitchen is completely done (though it has been for about a year or so). Here's the before, under construction and after pics:

Before (with the garage door still there) - that's our whole kitchen on the right:

During - ceiling & wall are down, garage door is blocked up:

After:

Here's another one, for some added drama:

There's still a lot that needs doing to our house, but it's all little stuff. We're probably gonna move to another house anyways, so I'm happy to say that all the major work is done.

Last time I wrote Paul was working in Ayelsham. Well, he's not only no longer working in Ayelsham, he has a totally different job. He was working as an electrician in Ayelsham on residential houses - now he has a job pricing huge commercial projects at hospitals and things. Don't let him fool ya, he don't like it none. It's a big boy job with lots of responsibility and he's always stressed out and has to deal with idiots all day long. He sometimes gets to wear proper office clothes and looks quite nice, but he doesn't seem to think that's a job perk. He's just waiting for me to make enough money so he can quit and be a domestic queen. That would be nice. Then maybe I wouldn't have to iron no mo'.

Ok, onto the next subject. Last March I was approached to design a magazine (I've been running a design studio for, um, a while now). I won the contract and coordinated the design for about 6 months, and then moved into an editorial role with it. I was havin' a grand ol' time with it, but, to make a really long story short, the magazine's publisher was another one of those business guys I seem to attract - you know - the dishonest, crazy, sketchy, bad guys. He never paid me on time, the magazine was always printed late, he was allllll talk, and was bound to ruin my reputation at some point or another.

Sooo - the magazine's publishing director (Adam) and I left the dishonest, crazy, sketchy bad man and have started our own magazine and publishing/design/digital communications company. Despite weeks of legal battles with the sketchy bad man and thousands in legal fees, we've come out on the other side and had our launch party for the magazine on Tuesday night, which was faaabulous. We gots clients comin' out of our ears and I might just get an ulcer from stress, but hey, it'll all be worth it when we can sell the company for £5mil. I've finally found someone that works as hard as I do, wayhay!

My job is pretty stressful and I work about 80 hours a week, but it's definitely not all bad. I get some amazing perks. No one tells me when to be at work or when I can and can't take time off. Paulo and I got to go to Bruges and Greece a few months ago, and we're always getting posh nights at nice hotels, gourmet dinners, and all sorts of press passes for cool stuff. Here's a visual selection of some of the perks of being Editor of a lifestyle magazine - all these experiences and meals were free. You are allowed to be jealous (just ignore the working 80 hours a week bit).




The only problem with all this free posh stuff is I'm gonna get supa chubby if I don't watch out!

The most recent freebie event for the magazine was the Leeds Castle Open Air Concert last Saturday. Here are a few videos of the night. It was amazing - set right next to Leeds Castle with the London Philharmonic Orchestra, and everyone has picnics and just has a lovely time. Here's my biz partner Adam being patriotic (nevermind Paul's superb singing):




Here's the concert finale - fireworks and cannons to the 1812 Overture:




I hope you're all enjoying every letter I type, cuz it'll probably be another year before I do it again.

So, onto the last subject mentioned above - the Quest for a Martini (a baby). Where do I even start with that one? Paul and I have gone through months of poking, prodding, shelling out ridiculous amounts of cash - and in the end we found out we have to have IVF with ICSI & PGD.

Don't know what that is? I shall enlighten you.

I think most people know what IVF is (test tube baby - well, more like a petri dish baby). We also need ICSI - which means they actually inject the eggs with sperm rather than let the sperm swim anywhere (don't want them to get tired, you see). Then PGD is where it gets really crazy.

PGD stands for Preimplantation Genetic Diagnosis. After fertilizing the eggs, they let them grow in a petri dish until they're 8-cells. Then they take a single cell from the embryos and do a biopsy on that one cell to make sure the embryos have no chromosomal abnormalities. Hopefully there will be at least one embryo with balanced chromosomes, which will then be transferred back to me and hopefully I get pregnant, though there's definitely no guarantee.

I've been on the IVF drugs for 19 days now, and hopefully only have about 8 or 9 days left. One of these nights I'll video me doing my injections (2 every night), so you can feel really bad for me. Here's a picture of all the crap I have to do every day. It's making me quite moody. Irritable. Emotional. Bitchy. Yes, that sums it up. I'm going to eat some chocolate.

Monster Trucks

Howdy ya'll. This morning Paul and I awoke to something like this, "GOOD MORNING! When I'm a grown-up, and I can drive, I'm going to have a monster truck. Not one that goes in the sea or the water, but a big one, one where the whole top flips up like this [uses hand motion to illustrate that his monster truck will be a convertible], and one that can knock down buildings. And know what, know how you get in it? It's really huge. And know how you have to get up it? You have to climb on it. Not with a rope, you have to climb up on the wheel and then get on, not on the roof, at the back of the door, you get in and close it and if you want you can open the whole top off."

He's so awesome.

Oh - most exciting news! We got our passports back yesterday with shiny new visas inside. Indefinite Leave to Remain - awww yeah, we can come and go as we please with no conditions forevaaahh! Though it's not ALL over yet - I will be applying for citizenship for the both of us in a few months so we can get British passports.

Even though I haven't written in a long time, there's seriously nothing much new. We're starting the crazy house demolition in April - taking the wall down and building the kitchen. We're having a kitchen designer up to the house next week, so hopefully he'll have some amazing ideas to maximize the small space!

Elijah is doing well. Grammy sent him some books to read, and it makes me realize how much better English schools are (this is a generalization based on the books she sent and reading I did on American school curriculums, so dont' get all upset about me saying that something is better in England). The books she sent are for 1st and 2nd graders (ages 6-8), and he's 5 and can read them with no problems whatsoever. He read me a Curious George book the other day. And his cursive writing is amazing! I gotta show E off every now and then. Woohoo for English schools whooping the kid's butts & making them wear cute little uniforms!

Paul's still working on residential houses in Ayelsham - a bit worried that he won't have a job when this contract is finished, but I think he's being a drama queen. There's no use worrying about it. I'll just have to step it up a notch with my biz.

Things are going well for me - got some new things ready to launch, and have a meeting for a potential big contract next week. It's for magazine design for multiple publications, and would just be plain awesome. Will keep you posted (maybe).

Ok, sorry this is short - but I gotta go feed Elijah - I'm taking him to a Saturday morning movie at 10am. They play second-run movies for a pound at the movie theatre here - cheap date! We're going to see The Tale of Desperaux.

Byeeeeee.

Punks

Are you so excited I'm updating my blog!?

Well....

All I have to say is...

All ya'll in my family are slacker punks and haven't updated YOUR sites in like, 4-eva. No Christmas pictures, no pics from the family visit, nothin'. So yeah, that's all I have to say.

Fog and toothpicks and babies and things

Howdy doody ya'll. Tis a very foggy day in Capel - I guess that's why they call it "The Village in the Clouds". It's quite cold out - about 38 degrees, and it smells like snow. No snow in the forecast though, just cold gloom - such is England.

Ok, now it's the next day - didn't get far with yesterday's post! It's not foggy today - there's a lovely blue sky and sun, but it is quite cold. Only a few more days and Elijah is off for 2 weeks, and Paul gets off from Christmas until after the New Year - so it'll be nice! I'm taking the time off too; ahhhh, vacation.

So, as some of you know, and some of you do not, Paul and I have been referred to a fertility consultant because of various issues to see where to go next with this whole baby thing. We went for our first appointment in October, they referred us to another doctor, and we had our second appointment on Monday (yes, 2 months later - stupid NHS). To make a long story short, we were explained something by an Indian doctor that we couldn't understand, but at least understood we have a lot of tests to take. Our next appointment isn't until March. I did some research and reading, and the average wait time for IVF in the UK is 3-5 years (on NHS). Holy crap. Elijah will almost be ready to move out of the house when we have another kid! We'll have a think about going private, but the cost is exorbitant. Dunno what's gonna happen, but whatever decision we make, it will need to involve having a child before the end of a year or two - I ain't having a newborn when Elijah is 10. It's great having a kid that can dress himself and wipe his own butt - after too long I think I won't want to go back to square one.

So Elijah and I went out shopping for Paulo's Christmas present the other day, and I told E he could choose whatever he thinks Paul would like (for under a certain amount of money of course). After searching and searching, he saw this larrrrrge package of toothpicks; 1,200 toothpicks to be exact, all in 12 separate little containers of 100, and he said "Oh yeah, that's what I want to get Dad". I asked him why, and he said with a slight nod and a very serious face, "Because it's really cool, and Dad can use them to poke holes in stuff". Heck yeah, Paul's gonna love poking holes in stuff - and it only cost me £1.

Elijah had his Christmas play last week - here's a video of him with his attention span of zilch.
And here are the words so you can sing along!
"He's a hopeless camel, can't you see,
a very hopeless camel, oh dear me.
He's witty and he's funny, can't be bossed,
but the very hopeless camel keeps getting lost.
Harumph, harumph, wiggle the hump.
Harumph, harumph, now do a jump.
Harumph, harumph, wiggle the hump.
And don't forget to swish the tail."



Here's one of him reciting his lines:

Steven Spielberg's crack-fried brain

Paul and I watched Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull last night. I could write a long and mighty post about how embarrassingly awful it was, but I'll just say Steven Spielberg has smoked too much crack and it has severely damaged his creative and general mental capacity, and I'll leave it at that.

My house is clean. ish. I called in sick to work today. Wait, no I didn't, I just didn't go in cause I don't have to if I don't want to. Yay for not having a boss. I had a stomach bug over the weekend and still didn't feel all that great this morning, so I worked from home and caught up on some housework. I still have forty two loads of laundry to do, but that doesn't really count.

We're all doing well - it's getting cold out, winter is here. It snowed up in the midlands and Scotland last week. I hope we get it here - there's such great sledding hills around that we didn't get much fun out of last year, at all.

Elijah was out of school all last week for the October holiday. He had 2 Halloween parties, and we went trick-or-treating even though it's lame! I'd say only 1 in 6 or 7 houses actually give out candy, and half have signs that basically say to piss off if you're a trick-or-treater. How sad. We went up one street, and he got a decent amount of candy and was a happy boy. It was cold and raining, so we were all pretty happy when it was over.

I put up some new pictures, and here's a video of Paul & Marc Zorbing!

Paul & Marc Zorbing

Conkers & chestnut pickin'

Have you ever heard of conkers? I hadn't before I moved here. Kinda sounds like it would be used in this context: "Paul put Nutella on his chicken, you'd think he'd gone conkers!" No no, conkers are large nut things that fall off conker trees, and in England, you play a silly game with them where someone inevitably ends up getting injured (read about the game of conkers here). Anyways, yesterday me and E and Emma and her boys went out horse chestnut & conker pickin'. We ended up not getting any conkers really, but got a load of horse chestnuts to roast on an open fire. It was a lot of work, and they were gross in the end. Oh well, we had a great time with the boys out in the wilderness - you can see the pics on my Picasa!

Today is an awful blustery rainy day, but we may venture out into the warren anyways and get all soggy wet. Paul has decided not to do any work on the house today, so we must take advantage! We'll see if actually end up going out - we may end up playing games or something inside. Yeah.

This week is gonna be a week of selling for me. Matt and I are venturing out door to door - yuck. It must be done though - gotta make people aware of our amazingness. Haha. We're putting together a Folkestone Christmas Coupon book, and have to get advertisers. We're donating to Operation Christmas Child for every business who includes a coupon, so that'll be fun to get all that put together and donated! We need 34 advertisers for Folkestone, and we may also do Canterbury depending on how this week goes. Wish us luck!

Paul's birthday is in a week - he'll be 32. I'm planning something fun for next weekend, I'll tell you all about it (not on my blog) if you wanna know!

That's about all that's happening here - aren't you so impressed I've posted twice in a week!?

I like to singa...

about the moon-a and the june-a and the spring-a.

I'm quite surprised how many English folk have seen that little Disney cartoon with the jazz-singin' owl and his operatic parents. I love that little owl.

Sooo...for all of you who read this and might not read Brian's blog - go to it now and check out Dominic's Halloween costume. It's pure glory.

Ok, so, where do I start? I need to write on this more often so I can ramble about my every day issues and complaints and happenings and things, rather than try to cram the previous 2 months into one blog. I say that, but I can almost guarantee I won't write more often. I'm terribly sorry, I have no excuse that will satisfy you blog-hungry beasts.

I'll start with today. Today I woke up, took a shower, got ready, got Elijah up and ready, took him to school, went to the office, worked on some stuff, picked Elijah up, came home, cooked dinner, ate it, did Elijah's homework with him, and put him to bed. Now I'm sitting here, Paul is grumpy for some reason or another, watching mind-numbing TV, and there ya go. A typical day in the life of us. Our cat is growing her winter coat and looks quite hearty, verging on chubby. So, in the summer, her name is Iaia (said "Yah-yah"), and in the winter, her name is Jaba. So, for those of you with no real seasons (such as Florida), you can call her by her full name of Jabaiaia. Actually, I may call her that all the time too.

So, as you've all asked, I'll tell you alllllll about my business stuff, cause I know it excites you as much as it excites me!! I only wish. I think I know how Brian feels now when he gets really excited about some geneology thing, but no one's as interested. Yeah, that's how I feel about business, but eh, I'll just be all excited on my own and bore you all to death with business jibba jabba! Speaking of jibba jabba, we got a GPS for the car, and it has a Mr. T voice, and it's awesome. Check it out (watch the whole thing)...



So, yeah. I started something new, again. Well, not really new, but sort of new. Uh, yeah. I've stopped the stationery business (taken over by my lovely friends the Bates'), and have merged with another local business guy who I was sharing my office with. I don't want search engines picking up this personal blog of mine, so I'm gonna just gonna give you the link to my new site here. Matt owned a company that does advertising bikes, and with what I already do, we've created a super marketing & design powerhouse! We're very busy indeed, lots of new clients coming in, lots of new plans in the works. Let me know what you think of the new site, and I'll let you know when we pull in our first million pound contract!

Ok, so by this point in my blog writing, I seem to run out of interesting things to say. I've posted some new pics for you to see...so that should satisfy you a bit. I'll write some bullet points below of things I think you'd find interesting, useful, or amusing:

• We got a parking ticket the other day
• My pastor and his wife are kind of like dark-haired barbie & ken dolls
• I have found a new favourite thingy to eat, called "Fruit Flakes" - little processed fruit bits in yogurt, kinda like yogurt covered raisins, but raspberry and strawberry instead
• I feel a draft - it's really cold in my house and Paul won't let me turn on the heat
• We took out the fireplace in the weird middle room in our house
• Our washing machine died and we got a new bigger fancier one. Now we just need a new bigger fancier dryer.
• I got a new unnecessarily large iMac
• Becca & Ward are coming to visit in the Spring
• Mummy Martin has Colitis - pray she feels all better and can manage it soon
• Elijah can read the book "Go, Dog, Go" all by himself
• 45% of Americans don't know the sun is a star
• Paul has beaten me at Hand & Foot about 21 times in 3 week.

Speaking of Paul, I'm gonna go give him a wet willy and see if that takes him out of his grump. Good bye!

I'm actually posting!

Howdy all - I know, I know. It's been longer than ever since I last wrote. I was sitting here, designing a postcard for a new client, and thought, "What the hey, I'm gonna upload some pictures and write a little something exciting for everyone". Aren't you so happy!?

We just said goodbye yesterday to my Momma & Pops who were here visiting for 2 weeks. We had a nice time - just hanging out, didn't do anything touristy, so we were able to just relax. It was really nice to see them - hopefully we'll start planning our next trip to the US soon.

Well, the past few months have been exciting and productive for all of us over here on New Dover Road. Elijah finished his first year of big boy school, and just started Class 1 on Tuesday. He can write legibly (most of the time), and can read mo' betta all the time. He has his 5th birthday party last weekend - it was amazing. We had about 40 people over, including something like 18 kids. We had a bouncy castle, and Elijah got to show all his friends his new amazing birthday present - a crazy pimp swingset playground park thingy. I put pictures up on the picture part of my site. He's a spoiled boy indeed. That was his present for the next 8 years. He not only got that, but he got about 15 presents from me and Paul, Grammy & Papa, Grandma & Grandpa Martin, and other various family members and friends. Then he got another 15 or so from his little friends. Toy overload, lemme tell you. He now has multiple laser guns that make obnoxious noises, a bunch of new weird looking Ben 10 figurines, about 64 Power Rangers, and all sorts of other stuff. He's a lucky lucky kid.

Paul has been kind of a nomad at work. He's been working at the Pfizer plant for the past 6 or 7 years, and now all the electricians at Pfizer have been relocated. He's been here and there in London and in Kent, not really happy about it all, but what can ya do? I think he'll be up in London next week. Yeehaw! His leg is almost all better - he still has a cankle sometimes, bahaha. And he still has a small lump where he really hurt it (we call it his 'baby'). He has yet to give birth. Speaking of birth, his birthday's coming up for all those who don't know - October 13th to be exact!

Little kitty Yaya is good too, if you care (and you better). We've decided she's a satan-worshipping murderer; she kills various living breathing cute furry animals per day. Voles, mice, birds, etc. The other day I even saw her with a motha huge caterpillar. Anything that moves, she kills. Siiiiiick.

Things have been going really well for me - lots of exciting things in the mix. I got an office - long story, but I was looking at a specific office last year that I loved, but waited too long and someone else took it. I went up to see if it was possibly still available, and someone from a marketing company had taken it (saw his business card). Well, months went by, I was lightly looking for another office, went into the Chamber of Commerce one day to get my mail, and met a random guy named Matt. He gave me his card, and I was like, "HEYYYYYYY, you're the guy that stole my office!" So, to make a really long story short, he sublet it to me, we've been sharing the space, we compliment each other's businesses and have decided to join forces and merge. I have a shiny new business partner. Exciting exciting! New business name to be decided, I'm sure you'll hear about it when it's all up and running. :-)

That is all! Goodbyeeeeee...

Hello I'm Alive

Hey yaaa'll - of course I don't really have time to write much of anything, it's 10 o'clock and I still have lots to do before bed! But, I'm alive and well, and everyone is doing well. Paul's leg is still pretty bad, he's off work for 2 weeks just laying around playing video games. Elijah is good - school's out in a few weeks. I'm working my butt off and have lots of exciting things in the works. That's about all - I'll try reaallllllly hard to get on this soon and write a super duper update from Engerland!

Life is just THAT exciting.

Yes yes, I know how much of a slacker I am with this blog. It's been about 2 months since I wrote anything. But life is just THAT exciting. Yeah. I'm even gonna put up some pictures. How very exciting!

I've been so busy lately, I feel like I haven't had time for anything during the week. It's a good thing though, got steady orders coming in, I'm stepping up my advertising, and Monday was the "official" launch of the new biz. I say new biz, but it's been in the making for about 8 months really. I'm planning a full-day Creative Thinking Workshop for July, so I've been spending loads of time doing that - getting the word out, writing press releases, sending out invitations, etc. Mary's been a huge help - she'll be going around town with me next week to go into businesses in person to try to get people to sign up. Aw yeah, it's fun - it'll be a fun day, already have 1 person signed up! The goal is 30. We can doo eeet!

So I won't bore you with talk about my biznasses anymore. Let's see, what's happened in the past 2 months. Last weekend Paul and I spent some time up in London - we stayed overnight and went to see the Foo Fighters at Wembley Arena. They're not my favorite band, but it was still fun. There were 86,000 people there - holy moses! I put a few pics up of it, and our time in London town. We had a chance to just stroll along the Thames, visit Covent Garden, and I saw St Paul's (never made it there before when visiting London). It was beautiful, but not quite as impressive as Canterbury Cathedral. It was really nice getting away from Folkestone for a night - I do love going up to London. We need to do it more often for sure!!

Elijah is doing well - he's getting great at reading and much better at writing. I put a picture up of some of his writing for school. He knows it's summer and keeps asking me over and over when his birthday is. And he's become obsessed with dancing lessons - he's constantly asking me if I've looked into it yet. He wants to do 2 kinds of dance, "the one with the shoes that make tappy noises", and "the one where people spin around on the ground". I'm assuming he means tap and break dancing, so I'm gonna have a looksie into those. I'm sure he'd love that.

Wow, so now it's about 9 hours later, I got really busy and forgot about my blog. It's 9:30pm now, Paul and I are about to eat dinner nice and late, so I'm off. I'm gonna spend a few minutes uploading some photos to appease my family though. :-)

Oh, and here are some videos!

St Paul's bells on Sunday morning

By the way, Elijah had "Sports Day" on Wednesday, where all the kids get into teams and do little fun activities, and the parents are allowed to go and watch and take pictures - so here are some videos. The skipping rope one is the best.

Elijah tossing the bean bag

Elijah running through the ladder

Elijah skipping rope

Elijah kicking the football

Check me out, updating again

Look at me - updating my blog and pictures again already! Yay me.

Today was Elijah's first day back at school after 5 weeks off. He had the 3 weeks in America, then 2 more weeks of school holiday when we got back. I think he's happy though - ready to play with his friends and stuff. I was ready, haha.

So what's new...
This weekend Paul and his dad did some massive tearing up of the back patio thing. I've posted a picture for you to see. It's getting prepped for decking - I can't wait! They tore out the existing crappy patio and leveled the ground as best they could. I looks better as a huge pile of dirt than it did before! The plan is to build a two-level outdoor area, the top level will be decking and then we'll have a slap patio of sorts below it. It'll be so nice to be able to sit outside this summer.

Uhh...what else. Man, what a boring life I lead, I never have anything exciting to say. My second branch of business will officially launch soon, I guess that's pretty exciting! That's where all my time is going still, a couple more years of this and hopefully I'll be able to step back from it. It'll be worth it in the end!

I have nothing else to say. So there.

I'm bad at blogging...

Hello all. Yes yes, I'm bad at blogging. I haven't written in a few months - sorry 'bout that. Again, I won't waste your time with excuses.

It's a beautiful day in England today! Nice and sunny, though a little chilly, spring is in the air. Elijah is off on school holiday, so we may go to the park or something. We've been back in town for 3 full days and I've been crazy busy catching up on work. I feel good though - everything is falling into place, business is getting better all the time, woohoo.

We had a great time in the States - the first 4 days were spent in Orlando for Molly & Maury's wedding. Their wedding was BEAUTIFUL in every way, and I'm so happy for them! As soon as she sends me the link to the pictures, I'll post it up here. I threw Molly a bachelorette party and rented out a bar for just our private party, then hired Burlesque dancers - it was great! There's some pictures of the party on my Picasa thingy. The wedding itself was perfect - it was a great day, a few sprinkles of rain here and there, but overall it was really nice. The church was gorgeous (Knowles Memorial Chapel on the Rollins campus), and the reception was supa fun! They went to Costa Rica for their honeymoon, we got to spend a little time with them when they got back and saw the pictures, it looked amazing. Anyways, yay Molly & Maury!

After that we went to Colorado for a week to visit my bro and Crystal and Dominic and new baby Ezummmms! That was a good time too - 'cept both Paul and I were gasping for air every time we walked to the car. I always forget how much the altitude affects me (and how out of shape I am). We didn't do much, just hung out, played the Wii, and went out to eat a few times.

Then we went back to Florida for another week, to hang out with my parents. We were also able to go to Universal with Chris, Miriam & Isabella for a day - that was a good time! We totally traumatized Elijah by making him go on the Spiderman ride (we thought he could handle it, and oh boy were we wrong). Then I thought he'd cheer up on the Shrek 3-D movie thing, but again, I was wrong, and he spend the whole movie whimpering into my side with his hands over his ears. Guess it's all just a little overwhelming for him still. Maybe next time! Anyways, we had fun!

I ate my weight in food every week there - you know - had to stock up on the American fatty goodness!! I definitely do miss the American food. Paul and I are casually talking about moving out there someday - not soon, but someday. We'll buy a little house on the beach, oh yes yes.

I'm gonna go post pictures now!

Being sick is stupid.

I'm sick and miserable and I'm gonna take this opportunity to whine. I can't breathe outta my nose, and I can't sleep! So I'm super tired, but still can't sleep, and my head hurts, and my sinusseseses are pissed off, and I got the chills, and I can't hear out of my left ear, and waaah waaaaaah wah.

Elijah is on half-term this week, so he doesn't have school all week. We don't have anything exciting planned - perhaps go on some outdoor adventures when I feel better, and I think we're having James sleep over one night. Then maybe Kidz Planet on Friday afternoon. Elijah's been a bit sick too - but mostly just a runny nose.

We bought our plane tickets to Amer'ca! We'll be coming into Orlando on March 19th, and flying back to London April 7th. Molly & Maury's wedding is the 22nd, and then we'll be spending a week in Colorado, from March 24th-31st, though we haven't bought our tickets yet. Elijah has a little calendar on his wall where he can cross off the days til we go to America. He can't wait to play with his old toys and eat Goldfish crackers!

Despite my stint of the plague, I have managed to finish the new stationery site, and I've even landed a nice new client for the new biz. Yay me. I sent an email to all my past clients and sample people, and have had 156 hits to the site since this morning. Weehaw! Now that that's done, I can concentrate on the design & marketing business, cause that's where I want to spend most of my time. Things are right on schedule, now I just need some investors so I can fund some advertising to get more business!

Paul and I are finally going to have our driveway done! We're tearing up most of the front lawn and putting a drive there to fit 2 cars, and we'll be redoing the brick wall out front too. We'll finally get rid of the white trash huge pile of crap out front that's been there for a year! I might actually like coming home and looking at my house!! Haha.

Not too much else new - I hope I feel better soon, that's all! Elijah is watching Dunderklumpen at the moment, I must go join him.

Lamborghini!

Man o man, it's been a realllly long time since I wrote anything or posted new pictures. Nothing exciting has been going on, or nothing anyone wants to read about. Now that it's been a few months, I'm sure I can think of something to say.

This past weekend Paul and I went up to Leicester (about 3 hours from here, north of London). We spent the night and Saturday morning went to finally use Paul's Valentine's Day present from last year - a drive in a Lamborghini! It was SO cold. I mean, like, SO SO SO cold. We had to wait outside for a lot of the morning, and both of us couldn't feel our feet or hands after a while. When Paul was actually driving, my nose was running, but my face was so cold I couldn't feel it. How embarrassing. Here I am, standing around with boogey track marks running down my upper lip and I don't even know it. Awesome! Anyways, Paul had a briefing, had 3 laps in a new BMW as a passenger, just to learn the track a bit, then got 4 laps in the Lamborghini. The 4 laps took about 20 minutes or so. He was a pretty happy boy - here are some videos of him driving, and after he finished.

Lap 1

Lap 3

How was it?

It was really nice going up to Leicester on our own - we went to dinner and saw the first 1/2 hour of Cloverfield before I had to leave the theatre cause of motion sickness - and because the movie was utter poop. That's just our opinion though - I've heard some people liked it. So we went back to the hotel and sat in bed and did crosswords and ate peanut M&Ms! Much better than a crappy movie.

Saturday night we went out to a nice dinner with Paul's parents to celebrate David's birthday. That was a nice time. We went to a restaurant called "Paul's" - how appropriate! Then we went to church Sunday and Paul backed into the house with his new van (you can see pictures of it on my photo site). He took a nice chunk outta the house and dented his van. Heeheehee.

Elijah is doing very well - he just got over a cold (again) - he's finally back to his normal self. There's all sorts of viruses and things going around here - all of us have had something. Paul had to stay home 2 days last week cause of being sick, and I was sick one day. I still don't feel 100%, I hope it goes soon, being sick sucks. Elijah is learning handwriting and reading, he's getting better all the time. He can read pretty much any word you give him with a little patience. He got a sticker last week at school for doing a good job with his handwriting. When he comes home from school and I ask him what he did, he always answers "I played Transformers with James Bates!" or "I made a Transformer out of Lego!". He's been having school lunches, and when I ask him what he ate, it's always "I don't know!" but he says it all impatient like a little teenager, like "IIII don't KNOOOWWAAH". Haha, Mama is so annoying already.

Paul's still working at Pfizer - but he thinks after our trip to America he may be sent up to London again. There's all sorts of talk about Pfizer getting rid of EDF (the company Paul works for), so all the guys will have to be relocated, or lose their jobs. Paul's sure he won't lose his, but if they send him to London again, he may look for something else. We'll just have to wait and see. As for me, I haven't been keeping up with my blog cause I've been keeping myself super busy with my master plan to take over the universe. Well, to take over Folkestone at least. I've totally redesigned the Joosi site (it's not up yet) - and it has a new name. I also started a new branch (which isn't totally done yet either) - but I already have three clients for that who want corporate identities, websites, marketing planning, etc. I'm hoping to officially launch the beginning of April, but any clients I get now are fine with me! My main sales "pitch", if you will, is I offer design & marketing education, rather than just offer design & marketing services. I've had a really good response about it so far, so I think it'll do pretty well. I'll be doing workshops and classes in different areas of design & marketing, and one-on-one training, and all sorts of other things, but you can read more about it on the site. I've joined the Chamber of Commerce and they're letting me advertise a full page in one of their newsletters for free (goes out to about 400 people) - so that will hopefully get me some more clients. I won't be advertising 'til April though. So yeah, that's what's going on with me! Busy busy.

I think I'm gonna spend the rest of the day cleaning my house from top to bottom. It needs a good thorough sweep! That's all for now!

Sorry...

Sorry it's been a while since I've been on this thing. I've been quite busy! Got the new business in the works, so that's been eating up half my free time, then Joosi is eating up the other half of my free time, then Elijah, Paul, Christmas, stuff. Everything's going very well though - I'm done Christmas shopping, and Elijah is off school for a few weeks. Joosi is doing quite well, and I'm expanding to another biz - I'm even registering as a limited company, wooohoo. And I even have an accountant - haha, I'm officially official, now that I have an accountant. The best part is his name is Mick Jaggar. Oh yes, it is.

Honestly there's nothing exciting going on over here. Elijah had his school play last week - here's the video of him saying his lines, and one of the kids singing.

Elijah's Lines

School Play Singing

Let's see, what's happened since the wedding. Uh, hmm...really nothing! How boring! Paul's back at Pfizer, so he's not working in London anymore, which is nice. He has a bunch of time off for Christmas too - a whole week and a half! We're just chillin' here Christmas morning, then I think we're going over to the Martin's in the afternoon.

I posted a few new pictures - I didn't have much to post, I haven't been taking my camera around. Last night Paul and I played around at cameroid.com - if you haven't done it, you must. Check out the pictures on our site for a taste of our evening laughter last night!

"Were-wuff" Elijah

Ello there -
Yesterday was the Halloween party for all the primary school kids at the Village Hall. Ahhh, small town life. It was kind of a strange little get-together for small kids, there was nothing organized, just a DJ playing loud cheezy dance music. Elijah and James got ready together at James' house - the were both werewolves. Elijah calls it a "were-wuff". I only thought of a Halloween costume for Elijah the day before (I am so not a super-Mom), so we ended up buying him a store-made thingy. James got the homemade deal with blood and all. Ha. I think Elijah looked more like Chewbacca than a werewolf, but hey, that's just me. Anyways, here's a few videos of Elijah and James busting a move solo on the dance floor:

Little Pumpkin Sam & Dancing Werewolves

Bustin' It

Dancing Transformers

Hmm, what else is new? There's only like 10 days before the Americans take over Capel - weehawww! Everyone getting really excited now? All the wedding stuff is falling into place, so that's good. It'll be so nice to have 2 weeks off with the fam - even Paul is taking all that time off. Soooooper.

Elijah goes back to school Monday - it was "half-term" this week - so all the kids got a week off. He's been a good boy, though I think he's excited to go back to school. We haven't done too much - it's been REALLY cold. We went down to Folkestone one day and we met up with my friend Mary and her little girl Stella. We went to the pirate ship park and the beach even though it was freezing with the wind blowing at 92 miles per hour. Mary may want to join me on a business venture of some grand proportions, and you know me, I'm all crazy ideas and enthusiasm, so heck, bring it on. Oh, and Mary & her hubby Jonathan volunteered to make homemade truffles for our wedding favours, how nice is that?? Joosi is going extremely well - much better than I expected only a few months into business. I had 3 orders last week, 2 this week (one custom, so a tad more money!) - my goal when I started was to have an average of 2-3 orders per week by the end of year one, so yeah, things are going well indeed!

Paul is doing grrrreat - he has an insanely amazing afro at the moment, it's great. And almost a full beard - bring it. He's like an English Yeti. Hahaa, I love it. The house renovations are kinda just movin' along slowly but steadily. The flooring in the back bathroom is going down at the moment, then the toilet and sink can go in, then all we need is some baseboards and a door and it'll be done! We went to IKEA last weekend and got some stuff for our bedroom and some lights for the back room - I love IKEA, like, so much.

Speaking of last weekend, it was our 1-year anniversary! We went up to Canterbury for the night on Saturday - it was nice to get away by ourselves. The hotel was poo, but oh well, it was still nice to have some time on our own. We saw the movie Stardust - thought that was pretty good. Uh, yeah.

That is all. Bye bye.

Paul's surprise & update on your trip to England!

Sooo, yesterday I forgot to post the video of the initial surprise for Paul - so here it is!

Surprise Paul!

Also, I've updated everything on the Wedding site - there's all sorts of info about what we're planning on doing, where we're going, and a basic idea of how much everything will cost. Check it out here! Info for US Travelers.

How embarrassing

I was just on the phone with a client (named Scott), and at the end of the conversation, I said, "Speak to you soon, thanks Simon". WHAT? Goodness me, how embarrassing. Don't you hate when that happens. I'm hoping he just misunderstood me with my American accent and all, maybe he thought I said "thanks man" or something cliche American. Ha. Oh well.
Speaking of clients - I've had 3 orders this week! I also had a meeting with the hotel yesterday and though nothing is solid yet, they're at least gonna get a website, and I'm sure some print stuff, menus and a logo perhaps. Either way, business is going quite well. I also had a great feature in Wedding Ideas Magazine here in the UK. I'm gonna get a copy today and scan it in so you can see! I'll get some pictures up sometime today too.
Elijah is doing well - though he's a bit of a trouble-maker at school. Him and James are not behaving, and don't listen when spoken to, and do punk-like things, such as color on toys, etc. So James' parents and I have decided to keep them apart for now - no walking to school together, no playing after school, until the teach tells us they've been better behaved.
This weekend is me and Paul's one-year anniversary! Crazy, eh? The Martins are taking Elijah for the ENTIRE weekend, holy moly, so we're gonna have a good time. Friday we have no plans, but Saturday we're spending the night in Canterbury, and we'll probably go dancing at a Cuban restaurant and bar all night. FUN!!!
Everyone's coming out here in less than 3 weeks - weehee! I'm getting excited for the wedding too - that's gonna be great. So the plan has changed a little bit, cause we realized we need to be around the Friday before the wedding to do last minute planning things. So, Wednesday will still be Leeds Castle, Thursday is still Canterbury, Friday will be possible Dover Castle or another local thing, then the rehearsal in the evening, Saturday wedding, and Sunday London. Ya'll are gonna have to peel yourselves outta bed Sunday morning, all hungover from the night before, and somehow work up the energy to go to London. You can do eeet.
K, I gotta go, got lots to do! I'll try to post pictures later today!

Oh yes yes yes

I landed a HUOOOGE (well, huge for me) graphic design project! I've been contacting pretty much every single wedding venue in the UK about my wedding stuff, and the other day, I got an email from a hotel in Hythe (about 20 minutes from where I am) asking if I did other graphic design. Well, we set up a meeting, I went in yesterday, and they want me to redesign everything they have. Brochures, menus, promo cards, new logo, website, EVERYTHING. Like, thousands of pounds worth of everything. I'm getting quotes from my printer at the mo', then I'll meet with them again next week with the quotes and my "professional suggestions" on how they can improve their image. They desperately need some creative help in all areas, the hotel is in a great location, but it's basically been left to fall apart - it needs serious updating all over the place. The owners are slowly trying to redo everything, hopefully they can turn it around. It'll take years to improve their rep. Anyways, that was pretty exciting. We'll see how much I can milk, haha. I also have a meeting with a wedding client tonight at the local pub to place their order. Keep your fingers crossed that it's a bigg'un!

Paul has been keeping his eye out for a super cheap little van thingy to drive. We're really really needing 2 cars - I'm needing the car more and more for meetings, and taking E to school. Last week we had to walk to school and it was dumping rain and freezing cold, and by the time we got there, we might as well have jumped in a pool. I proceeded to phone Paul and demand a vehicle other than my feet or a bike. Haha. He has a friend that may have a van thingy for him for really really cheap - it's a V-dub, I can't even explain it cause ya'll don't have 'em in the US. Another thing to keep your fingers crossed abooot!

Tomorrow is Elijah's last day of half-time school. Next week begins full-time school for the rest of his life!! He's still loving it. He has homework (like writing his name, "reading" wordless books, etc) - he loses concentration really fast at home doing his homework, oh boy. Just wait little man 'til you have to do fractions and crap. Enjoy the wordless books while you can!!!!!

The back bathroom is prolly gonna be done this weekend. The toilet needs to go in, it needs to be painted, needs some lights, and, uh, a door. I think that's it. Then we're gonna do some funky wallpapering on the small wall, and the back room will be done for now!

Not much else new - the weather's been weird - really cold one day, really hot the next. I have swollen neck glands. Blah - I think I have the plague.

Is everyone gettin' excited to come to Engerland?!!?

5 weeks!

All ya'll Americans will be landing in England exactly 5 weeks from today - getting excited!? Here's the plan so far - Tuesday we gots Momma & Pops, Brian, Crystal, Dominic, Aunt Anne, Becca, and Molly flying in. Wednesday Chris, Miriam, and Isabella. So, Tuesday we've rented a mini-bus to get everyone at the airport, and we'll probably just spend the day hanging out at our house eating fish and chips, drinking a good pint of British beer. Tuesday, we're thinking we'll send everyone off to Leeds Castle, and either just Paul, or Paul and I will go up and get Chris, Miriam, and Bella. Then we'll meet you at Leeds for the rest of the day - I think we'll get back from the airport at 1-ish, depending on customs. They may not be up for Leeds Castle as soon as they get here, so we may take them to the house, it's really up to them. Anyways, Thursday is Canterbury day - we'll stroll around, have lunch, do the Cathedral or whatever else you want, then in the early eve, the girls and boys will split up for their respective Bachelor/Bachelorette (Stag & Hen night) parties. I don't know what the boys are planning, but for the gals, we'll all go out to dinner, then just go around to pubs or something - nothing too exciting. The old folks (hahaha) can decide if they want to stay out all night with us youngens. Then Friday will be Londontown - weehee. I need to make a plan for that day - let me know what you'd all like to see. We can start the day with a double-decker bus tour or something cheezy like that, so you can get pictures of all the famous stuff. Then we can do the London Eye, Tower of London, Buckingham Palace, walk around the meeeellion pound shops in Kensington, er, gimme suggestions! Then Saturday is of course wedding day, Sunday will probably be relax day for a lot of us - or you can just take the bus or train wherever. Monday Becca and the Chris family will be leaving, and I haven't planned much for after that. We'll probably go to Brugges on Tuesday. That's it - so let me know what you think!

Elijah has the most obnoxious schedule at school this week - he's only there from 1-3. So by the time I get back to my house, I have like an hour before I have to head back. I think I'll just have a cuppa at Mark's house, cause he lives right by the school! Elijah is doing well, learning more and more everyday. He'd rather play Transformers than read anyday, so it's hard keeping his attention. James is sleeping over on Friday - they're both just a bit excited about it. I think Mark & Emma are too. Haha.

Business is going well - I've had lots of positive things going on lately, I think in say, 6 months, things will be going REALLY well. It seems as if brides order samples WAYYYY before their wedding, so it takes a while before they actually place an order. Yesterday I got a great email from a girl I sent a sample kit to - she LOVES it and can't wait to order, but she's not getting married for 15 months, so she's gonna wait a bit. I've actually had quite a few emails like that. I've contacted about 100 companies in the past week about creating partnerships (we refer each other, I pay them commission, etc). I've had a decent response, and any referrals will be supah dupah. Anyways, I'm starting to plan my other venture, mwahhahaa - I cannot stop! This one is more business than creative, but it still has to do with graphic design. I'm gonna start a student freelance type of company to get students freelance work before graduating so they have professional level stuff to put in their portfolios. I'll give you more details when I plan more.

The back bathroom is comin' along! Paul plastered most of the wall, so now we just need to finish that plastering, paint the walls, do the flooring, stick in the toilet and sink, and it should be nearly done. Slowly but surely the house will get done!