Wicked...

As many of you know, and for those who dont, I LOVE the musical Wicked! It is my favorite ever...I've seen it in New York, LA, and Charlotte and will soon see it in London.

Well... a couple of weeks ago I get a phone call from one of my friends in NC telling me that some guy that has something to do with Wicked is at Barnes and Noble in Hickory. Guess who it is... Stephen Schwartz!!!! He is the man who wrote the music to Wicked and he is a genius (he also wrote Godspell, Pippin, and a lot more)... now let me remind everyone that I was JUST in NC! I barely missed him! So, I was pretty upset that I missed out on meeting him.

So, I'm sitting on the sofa, griping about how nothing good happens in NC til I leave, when I get a phone call from my friend Amanda. She tells me to hang on a second as soon as I answer and then this guy says, " Hello Jessica"....ITS STEPHEN SCHWARTZ!!!!!!!!!! He was soooo nice and talked to me for a couple of minutes! And Amanda got a CD cover signed for me and mailed it to me and it got here this week...so, major shout out to my amazing friend Amanda...many many many thanks for such an awesome surprise!

Without further ado....

4 years!

On Thursday, August 27th, Christopher and I celebrated 4 years of wedded bliss!!! It is so hard to believe that 4 years ago we got married...its also so hard to believe how much has happened in the last 4 years...

We've loved, laughed, cried, been through our fair share of heartache, traveled the world, said goodbye for 2 deployments, met some AMAZING friends who have become family, and so much more and I can safely say that with all that's happened in our first 4 years of marriage, I cant wait to see what life has in store for us for the next 100 years...lol!

Then...

And now....

Me with our seafood platter for 2 at Loch Fynn in Cambridge!!!

After!

yum!

And again, for the 3rd time, we got each other the same card!

And here's to many more!

Dad's trip!

Since its been a while since I've made a proper blog, this one is going to cover a lot of ground in one post... Dad got to come back to England with me from NC and stay for like 10 days. While he was here we did TONS of stuff! We were all over England!

The first day we went to Duxford to the Imperial War Museum. It was pretty interesting

At the Imperial War Museum

Me and Dad!

Dad and Christopher

Nose art

Greenwich

inside one of the Naval museums in Greenwich... GORGEOUS stained glass

Dad standing on the Prime Meridian line

Christopher's turn

Where time and measurements started and are all taken from in Greenwich

Portsmouth

Anchors

HMS Victory!

The spot on the Victory where Lord Nelson was killed.

Dad and Me

South Sea

London

The British Museum (AWESOME)

The Sutton Hoo Helmet

China Town!

Dad checking off one of his bucket list items... standing in Trafalgar's Square

Dad and I in Trafalgar's Square

Dad, Parliament, and Big Ben

Dover & Canterbury

ME at the white cliffs!

Dad making faces at France

Me with my feet in the English Channel!

Dad and Christopher at the White Cliffs of Dover

The coast

The White Cliffs

Dover Castle up close

Dad and his Churchill face

The inside of the Canterbury Cathedral

The Canterbury Cathedral...this is where people make pilgrimages...and Geoffery Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales was written about it!

I havent forgotten...

I haven't forgotten the blog...lol. Dad's in visiting and we've been running all around like crazy! We've been all over England! Dad leaves on Thursday (which is the day I have my intro to my new, wait for it...JOB). Yep thats right, I'll no longer be a lady of leisure...I got a job working with the Child Development Center on base. So, as soon as Dad leaves and I get settled into the working world, I'll make a huge update with tons of pictures from Dad's visit!

Back in England!

So, I am back in England after almost a month in the states! I have a blue million pictures, so instead of posting them all on here and taking up crazy amounts of space, here's the links to my facebook page:

Album 1

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2028324&id=1043095942&l=11d5623a13

Album 2

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2029632&id=1043095942&l=6eeaf42037

Album 3

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2029628&id=1043095942&l=05490c0b17

Album 4

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2030375&id=1043095942&l=862170e1c9

Yes I'm still alive...

Well, for those who dont know (though I think most of you do), I've been in the States since June 24th! I just havent had time to update...its been busy busy!

The week after I got here, we picked Jared up from the Naval Science Institute in Rhode Island for his ROTC prep program (he starts NC State in the fall as an Aero-Space Engineering Major and will join the Navy as an Ensign when he graduates in 2 years).

And Frank Drendel, the CEO of Comm/Scope is awesome and let us borrow the Lear 31 for the trip up there! We had a blast!!!

Taste of London

So, yesterday we went up to London with our friends Chad and Liz for the Taste of London! Its a huge festival where restaurants and bars from all over London come together and serve food and drinks. There's music and tons of stuff to see and do and its all right smack dab in the middle of Regents Park. While it was probably a little overpriced for what we got, we had a blast and found a few restaurants we want to go back and eat at later.

Christopher and I on the train...that thing on my head is called a "Fascinator". Everyone wears them to fancy occasions over here...they are fabulous.

Liz and I in Camden!

Close up of the flowers in Regent's Park

Liz and I in Regent's Park

Some more of the park

Christopher and his special run...lol

Me and Liz goofing off in the park before Taste (I dyed my hair brown!!! Yes it still has red highlights....I couldn't completely give up the red)

At the Thailand section

Me and Liz at the Ice Bar stall...they poured drinks through the top of that and it flowed down through the ice into your cup! It was awesome!

Some of the beautifully carved fruit

Chad and Liz

Us!