A Quarter of a Century!

On Thursday yours truly turned a quarter of a century old!!! We celebrated with cake the night before since we had plans to be in London most of the day on my actual birthday! Christopher made me yellow cake with Mom's homemade Chocolate Syrup... its my favorite and it was delicious!!!

I definitely licked my plate clean.

On my actual birthday, I slept in a little bit and got up and opened presents! Christopher got me the best gift ever this year... a limited edition, special collector's edition of The Tales of Beedle the Bard. Its part of the Harry Potter books (which I LOVE) and its awesome!!! I know, I know, I'm a huge dork, but I dont care...lol. Anna and Steve got me a special edition copy of C.S. Lewis' Chronicle's of Narnia, a huge jawbreaker, socks, and Wicked Tickets!

We got ready and headed to London to celebrate my birthday!!! Pretty much as soon as we got off the underground at Victoria Station (and came right out onto the Appolo Victoria Theatre...)

Yaaaay Wicked!

It started raining. England. So, it rained and it rained and it rained. Then it rained some more and we got soaked. We saw Buckingham Palace and hung around that area most of the afternoon.

Me and Mom Koenig. Me not so thrilled that it was raining on my birthday.

After we got soaked, we finally decided to head in to an Italian place called Prezzo for an early dinner.

Then we headed to the show!!!!! The Appolo Victoria Theatre was actually first built as a Cinematic Theatre and was later turned into a Theatre-Theatre. Its decked out in Art-Deco styling and is HUGE. I think it seats close to 3000 people!

Waiting for the show to start!

The amazing stage!

After my 4th time seeing the show!

Me with the best husband ever!

Everyone enjoyed the show. Our Elphaba and Galinda weren't the greatest (Elphaba needed to quit singing out of her nose...ugh), but the ensemble made up for them, they were great! Plus, its just an amazing show to see anyway! When we were heading back on the train Steve said he didn't know if he'd ever be able to watch "The Wizard of Oz" again...lol! Christopher also bought me "The Wizard of Oz" on DVD for my birthday, so we might break it out and watch it sometime this week and see...lol. All in all I had a wonderful birthday! Thanks much to all the people who called/emailed/facebooked me birthday love! :)

Mom and Dad Koenig are visiting!!!

So, last Saturday (the 20th) Anna and Steve arrived in Heathrow airport to visit us for 2 weeks! So far, we've done A LOT in a week!

I had to work the day they got here, so Christopher took them to Huntingdon to show them around a little bit and then after I got off work, we went out for fish and chips!!! The next day, we headed down to Cambridge and walked around all afternoon.

On Monday it snowed all morning (seriously, I'm ready for Spring), so we hung out at the house til Christopher got off work then went and walked around St Ives and showed them where we used to live. Tuesday we went to Lincoln and toured the castle and cathedral down there.

One of the towers of the Lincoln Castle

We toured the castle prison and went to the chapel part of it. They used to put prisoners in these coffin-like stalls and lock them in for each service. They couldn't sit or get comfortable at all and so they stood for a 3-4 hour long service every day. They also would be severely punished if they were caught communicating with their neighbors. It was pretty crazy.

After we left the castle, we headed over to the cathedral.

Its absolutely gorgeous inside

The choir stalls

We're having an awesome time... everyone's a bit tired, but enjoying themselves! Stay tuned for more pictures!

Blizzard.

No, not the kind from Dairy Queen. A Blizzard for real. In North Carolina. The day AFTER I got here!

At 4:00 Friday afternoon, Mom and I were out shopping (yay for Target and Ross) and there was nothing coming down at all. By 5:15, we were on our way home (after Nicole met us at TJ Maxx) and we slid ALL the way home! By 8:00 that night, there was 5 inches accumulated on the back porch... so, that's over an inch per hour!!!

This is about 6pm Friday night!

We decided to go for a walk at about 10:00 and walked from Mom's house to the end of the neighborhood to see the main road. We stopped along the way and made snow angels and just enjoyed the pure, majesty of the quiet beauty of the snow. It literally was so quiet you could hear the snow falling.

When we woke up on Saturday, there was about a foot of snow on the ground! We suited up and headed out to play in the snow! Bonnie LOVED it! She refused to go inside... she kept getting stuck though...it was hilarious!

We're all definitely snowed in. There is NO getting out of Mom's driveway, let alone getting out of the neighborhood, so Nicole is in for the long haul...lol. We've been holed up playing card games and eating yummy food, so its all good! Although, as gorgeous as the snow is, it can go on ahead an melt now... I've got things to do (like more shopping and eating good 'ol North Carolina food) and people to see and being stuck in the house is making all that pretty difficult!

Sherwood Forest!

Today we ventured up to Nottingham to see Sherwood Forest... okay, okay I'll be honest, we went because we found a place called "Ginza Sushi" that had a sushi menu that looked a lot like an American one we've been missing so much. Seriously. We drove an hour and a half for sushi. Laugh all you want, it was amazing.

Walking into the forest... we were further up north, so there was still ice and snow on the trail. Which made it interesting to walk around...lol

Christopher and the Robin Hood statue

The Major Oak. Estimated at over 1000 years old, this is the tree that they say Robin Hood and his Merry men would have hidden from the Sheriff of Nottingham in! They think it weighs about 23 tons with a "waistline" of 33 feet and a canopy of 92 feet! It was, in a word, HUGE. The legend of Robin Hood has been around since Richard "the Lionhearts" rule in the 11oo's. Tales of Robin Hood range from him being an ordinary thief, an Earl, or even the mythical green man. There's no real evidence that the Robin Hood we know and love actually existed, but the legend of he and his Merry Men run rampant in Nottingham. It's definitely easy to see how they could have hidden in Sherwood Forest. Even now, its a sprawling place, but then it covered most of the country; so its plausible that thieves or mythical green men could have stayed well hidden in and among the trees.

Up close of the trunk

Christopher and the Major Oak

Me! :)

Us in front of the Major Oak

:)

Also... happy 5 year Anniversary to Christopher and the Navy! I cant believe that 5 years ago today, Christopher was going through his first day of boot camp! Congratulations to my wonderful husband and what has so far been a pretty amazing Naval career! I'm so proud of him and everything he's accomplished!!! :)

Happy England Anniversary!

Well, this time last year, Christopher and I were packing our bags in Mom K's van to head down to the Charlotte Airport to get on a plane to come to England! Seriously? We've been here a year already?!?! It definitely does NOT seem like its been a year... although looking back, we've seen and done so much. We managed (including the States) to see 5 different countries in 1 year! Pretty awesome if you ask me! I think we're going for 6 this year...lol

Hope everyone is doing well!

What a Year!

Its officially 2010 in England! Happy New Year to all our friends and Family! Just like with Christmas, our New Year was a little different. I had to work the night shift. Which means from Midnight-8am. So, Christopher came with me to work and we got here a little early and the girl who got off at Midnight, her husband was there too, along with our friend Jenn who comes and hangs out at work with us. So, we rang in the new year in the Hotel Lobby while watching the Fireworks in London on TV. I got my New Years kiss from Christopher (which makes 2 years in a row! A record since he's been in the Navy!).

As one decade ends I realize how much my life has changed in 10 years. I've started dating Christopher, graduated high school, gotten married, Christopher's joined the Navy, we moved to California, decided to try and start a family (and dealt with infertility), then to England, we've traveled the world, met some amazing people, made friends, lost friends, and have grown up into what I think are pretty awesome people...lol

In the past year alone we've moved to England, been to Paris, Scotland, Germany, had people visit, decided to try IVF and donate my eggs, made friends, lost friends, learned how to be a "normal married couple" (i.e. actually living together all year)--which was been an interesting change from our normal routine, I've finished the first draft of my first manuscript and started on a second one, and got a job. All in all, one hell of a busy year!

I dont do resolutions, because I dont ever keep them, but my goals for 2010 are:

*To get pregnant! *hopefully...lol

*Travel more... we want to see Belgium, France again, Austria, and Italy this year (and Ireland if Aaron and Kellea come visit!)

*Finish working on my first book and look into having it published

*Finish my second book and look into having it published

*Write like its my job (but a job I love)

*Go to church regularly

*Eat less junk food

*cook/bake more

*save more money

I think those are some pretty decent goals to have! Here's to 2010, may it be as amazing as this past year has been!!! I hope each and every one of you have a year blessed with happiness, love, and hope!

Happy Christmas from England!

This was my first year being away from home for Christmas, so things were a little different than they usually are. For one, Christopher and I both had to work on Christmas day. So, we had our big Christmas Dinner on Christmas Eve. We invited some friends over and had ham, pot roast, roasted baby potatoes with Rosemary, deviled eggs, spicy garlic brocolini, Razzleberry pie, shortbread cookies, and my own take on Snickerdoodles. It was delicious! And we had a great time. I totally dont have any pictures of our friends and us hanging out that night, which sucks.

We almost had a white Christmas...this was the day before Christmas Eve.

After dinner, we went to midnight mass at the chapel on base, which was cool. The only catholic service I've ever been to was Aaron and Kellea's wedding, so it was interesting. The priest is on TDY (Temporary orders) to England and is actually staying in the hotel I'm working, so I see him in and out of the lobby on a regular basis. He's from Poland and during the caroling before the service started, he sang a stanza of "Silent Night" in Polish! It was beautiful!

My nativity, with my new Wisemen and the star I hung on Christmas Eve!

After the service, we went back home and finally managed to get to sleep about 3. Christopher had to be at work at 645 and I had to be at work at 745. Its not a good way to start your Christmas morning by a phone call waking you up at 755...ten minutes after you're supposed to be at work. My alarms hadn't gone off. So, I jump out of bed and call work, get yelled at, but manage to make it to work in less than 20 minutes! That was my Christmas Miracle! Everything was turned over and done before the girl I was relieving was supposed to leave, so no harm done.

A couple of my friends ended up coming over and hanging out with me all day, so that was awesome. I skyped with Mom a little bit when she first got up, and then with everyone while they were opening their gifts. Then I got to go home at 4 and I stuffed Christopher's stocking, hung it up, and went to wake him up (he got off at 1 and went home to get some sleep). We got up and did presents! We got to skype with everyone and see them open our presents, that was really cool.

All the Christmas cards we received!

The Christmas Tree with all the presents!

I was SPOILED rotten this year! I got TONS of stuff... clothes, an iPod touch, sweaters, hats, gloves, pajamas, unmentionables (lol), a fuzzy purple pullover, The 10 piece porcelain non-stick Rachel Ray cookware set, Christopher made me a jewelry tree, and it had on it a silver ring and sparrow earrings, and tons of stocking stuffers!!! We're hoping this is our last Christmas just the two of us, so Christopher definitely spoiled me! He got his MacBook, a freeze-dried chunk of grass from the old Yankee stadium and a display box to in, clothes, a new red columbia coat, boots, DVD's (Harry Potter 3 and 6, & Star Trek). So, he got pretty spoiled this year too!

Gus opening his presents!

I took a nap after we opened gifts and then we got up and headed back to my work. We took all our leftovers from Christmas Eve and had Christmas Dinner with Liz and her husband since Liz had to work. Our friend Jenn, whose family is still in the states right now, even came too! So, we microwaved the leftovers, Tim brought their TV tables from home, and we plopped down in the lobby and had Christmas dinner together!

Liz and I in our matching Christmas hats... I look exhausted!

Liz and Tim

I hope everyone had a Happy Christmas! We definitely had a wonderful time! I thought it would be really sad to be away from home, and it was sad at times, but I made it all through Christmas and didnt cry! And Mom didnt either, so that's good! :)