Texas and Holly's Wedding!

Even though none of this technically took place while "abroad", I'm still going to update the blog with the events of the past week or so.

Last Thursday, I flew back to Texas to attend the wedding of Holly, my childhood best friend. I got in late afternoon on Thursday, met Dad at the airport and then we headed over to Hobby Airport to pick up Mom from her visit with Aunt Linda in Ruidoso, New Mexico. It was really good to see them both and then of course great to see the girls (and both dogs!) when we got back home that evening. We went for a quick BBQ dinner that night (something I've been missing!), and then it was back home to pack to head to New Orleans the next morning for Holly's wedding.

After I arrived in New Orleans that afternoon, Holly and her husband-to-be, Danny and I ran a bunch of wedding errands. Holly and I indulged in pedicures (ALSO something I've missed since being away!) and then headed over to the wedding hotel to get ready for the rehearsal. Mind you though, that I've been in the US for only about 24 hours at this point and suffering from a SEVERE case of jet-lag!

All went well at the rehearsal and then we headed over to a restaurant in the French Quarter for the rehearsal dinner - it was DELISH! That night all of the wedding party went out to party down on Bourbon Street, but I had to call it a night around 11:30pm b/c of the jet-lag and wanting to be more alert and coherent the next day for the wedding.

On Saturday morning, all of the bridesmaids went down to a cafe down in the French Quarter for breakfast and then came back to the hotel to get our hair and makeup done by one of Holly's friends. We pretty much just hung out for the rest of the afternoon until the photographer arrived and it was time to head over to the church in our SUPER COOL stretch Lincoln Navigator Limos! Woo hoo! :-)

The wedding was really gorgeous though and Holly and her family did an excellent job planning the entire affair. It was great to see all of her family as well, since they've been a part of our family for many years. It was really eerie being in New Orleans and seeing all of the "post-Katrina devastation" though. Of course there are always people trying to make a buck or two off of natural disasters, but I thought it was in VERY poor taste for Greyline Bus Tours to be offering "Katrina Devastation Tours" around the city - Ugh!

On Sunday morning, I flew back to Houston where Tasha and her Mom picked me up at the airport! We headed over to Carter's Country, a shooting range, to shoot a few rounds with Tasha's Dad and I'm actually a better shot than I thought I would be! It was good fun, and kinda a good stress-reliever! (Side note: When I mentioned this to my friend, Jo, back in London she said, "You know, when the English get stressed we go for a walk or have a nice cup of tea. When you Texans get stressed, you go down to the shooting range for a few rounds!" She TOTALLY has a point, but we were really safe and had a great time!) Then we headed back to the house to hang out for a bit with Curt before it was time for me to head back to Katy. It was a shame to not get more time with Tasha, but she's coming to visit me in London along with Curt and her Mom at the end of Sept! :-)

Not much else happened at home, and it was good to just sleep late and relax with the fam for a few days. Oh! We did take Kelly for her first pair of contacts though in honor of her birthday so that was fun. Then Mom and the girls and I did a bit of shopping around town for school supplies for the girls since they go back to school week after next.

Sally came into town on Thursday afternoon and we celebrated Kelly's official birthday with a birthday dinner (Kelly's request: Hot dogs and maccaroni) followed by ice cream cake and presents. Then today, Sally and I went to lunch, and then went to the mall to look around. We're now chilling out before dinner and trying to stay cool since Mom and Dad's downstairs A/C unit went out yesterday. It's HOT downstairs so we've been hanging out upstairs!

We're leaving for Kerrville in the morning to go and visit Maw-Maw and Paw-Paw for a bit. It's going to be a really quick trip (back on Sunday), but I'll update the blog with crazy Kerrville, Texas stories when we return! :-)

4th of July and other travels around England

Hello everyone! Once again I've fallen behind in my blog posts so now I'm going to make an effort to catch everyone up on what I've been doing and the places I've been.

After I got back to London from Basingstoke, I realized that it was the beginning of July and the 4th of July was at our throats! When I went to my BUNAC orientation on Monday, they told everyone that there was a 4th of July cruise down the Thames River in London planned for that evening and it sounded like a ton of fun.

I went down there that evening and ended up meeting lots of great fellow Americans and even a few Canadians. Talk about a perfect evening for a river cruise though - it was SO nice! The weather was perfect and we all had a great time. They had drinks, music, and dancing throughout the entire cruise and my all time favorite moment was when we all started singing (really it was more screaming than anything) the Star Spangled Banner while cruising underneath London Bridge, obviously in "enemy territory." HA! It was hilarious!

They also played some GREAT tunes along the way. We got to rock out to classics like "Born in the U.S.A," "Sweet Home Alabama," "Livin' on a Prayer," "Sweet Child of Mine," ANNNNNNNNNND my all time fave dancin' song......."Pour Some Sugar on Me!" It was fantastic! All of us ended up having a blast and truly celebrated the 4th in style. :-)

A couple of nights later, two of the girls I met on the cruise (Lindsey and Laura) and I went to this cool club in the west end called "Walkabout." It's an Austrailian bar/club with great drink specials and music. I ended up getting there much later than expected, so didn't end up staying much longer than about an hour and a half but we still had a great time dancing and checking out all of the sights. What I enjoy the most is hearing songs in clubs in London that you wouldn't hear in a MILLION YEARS in the States! Will have to go back again when we can all arrive earlier!

My next exciting experience was the following Friday night when I went out with Jo and her roommate NiNi and all of their friends from work. We started out the evening all meeting up after work at a pub called "The Goose" for a couple of drinks and to get ourselves organized. Then after that we went back to Jo's for some dinner and to get ready for a big night out on the town. We had reservations at this really cool club in the west end called "Tiger Tiger" and it was awesome! It's basically just a really posh club (with a dresscode and fancy bars and stuff.

Jo and I had some downright strange experiences with a couple of "odd" individuals that night that made us DIE laughing, but what's a night out without stories to bring home? Let's see...Jo made a guy's eye "bleed", stepped on a guy's foot, and we were BOTH asked "where we learned to dance." It was HILARIOUS! A low point of the evening though was when I asked the WEIRD DJ if he could play Def Leppard's "Pour Some Sugar on Me" and he laughed at me! I thought to myself, "Ok so it's cool to play Justin Timberlake, but not a classic like Def?" Give me a break...

After our fun night out on the town Jo, Ben, and I stopped off at a classic kebab place on the way home. I've heard for quite some time that it is "THE" thing to do after a night out on the town and I've been dying to go to one. Basically it's a place where you get a ridiculously fattening and greasy bit of meat that you wrap in a tortilla or eat off a stick at 3 o'clock in the morning with all of your buds. It's great! :-)

That next morning, Jo and I took the early train up to her hometown near Stamford (about 100 miles north of London) to hang out with her family. I toured the town (which was SO BEAUTIFUL!) while Jo got her hair done, and then we met up with her Mom (Julia) for lunch at the famous George Inn, an old coaching inn. It's over 1000 years old and is even mentioned in Pride and Prejudice - very cool!

The area around Jo's parents home is gorgeous though and I had a lovely time with her as well as her parents that wknd. So nice to be away from the "city" for a bit and see country life at its finest! :-)

Can't wait to go back and visit and see some more of the Stamford area!