Birthdays, Mountains, Beaches, and Green Cards!

It's another gray morning in Mansfield this week, and while Michael is getting his much needed "lie in" I figured its about time to force myself to update this thing!

The last few months have been a lot of fun! We are most definitely settled in, and I'm pretty sure the honeymoon period is over. Actually, if i'm being honest with myself, it ended after our two month "anniversary." Since then we've been functioning as a couple who's been married for approximately 42 years. :) But I think its safe to say we love each other more every day, and I'm so grateful for every incidence that makes me realize that.

Let's go back to where we left off, shall we? My last post was April 20 (wow...I suck at blogging). To make this bearable for everyone to read, because blogging about 4 months of life would be a bore to anyone, I'll post a few pictures with some details about what we did. :)


On April 25th we went to Aaron's 4th brithday party. It was a Dora and Diego theme. And it made me think...maybe this year I'll opt for a themed birthday party. They just look like they're so much more fun. :) The kids played in the sprinklers and the adults (ha, thats me and Michael too!) sat around the table and talked and laughed. Ah, married life! :)








Michael got in on some of the action with the cake toppers.







And on an unrelated topic, I tried out a new hairstyle. Bangs! (or fringe, for our English readers). I got so many mixed reviews - initially they didnt like it, but then it grew on them, etc - that they have now grown out past my nose. Still not sure If I'm ever gonna go back there...




In June we celebrated Michael's 24th birthday! (It hurts a little that I'm going to have to suffer through all the milestone birthdays before him.) On a side note, almost everytime we go through a door Michael feels the needs to hold the door open for me (yes, very nice) and then add "age before beauty." >:( Back to the birthday fun: There isnt a terrible lot to do around these parts, so we went to Stone Mountain!

At the top of the mountain:

Then, we went to dinner at Joe's Crab Shack. Michael, to the best of his memory(which isn't good) had never had crab before! Since my family LOVES crab legs, he really didn't get much of a choice in where we went. (That and my parents paid for us, so really it was their choice :) )

The waitress made him hold his tongue and sing happy birthday to himself before he could get his cake. :) I think Sara has it on video...






I wanted to get him an Arsenal cake, but sadly, we don't do cake decorations for that over here, so I settled for red and yellow. Tho, I guess this season it would be red and blue....


After dinner and cake, we went back to stone mountain for the laser show. Sadly, I dont have any pictures to post because, well, fast moving lights don't exactly photgraph well.


Well, that sums up June! In July we had our family reunion in North Carolina. We took some family photos....







Here are some random snapshots of our week in the mountains!






Some crazy big catfish at Field of the Woods.






Amazing view from somebody else's cabin :)




Us :)





Yummy candy shop in Helen, Georgia - a little German inspired village, i.e., tourist trap.

picture time!

And then last month we made a trip to Florida for my friend Ashley's wedding reception in Orlando! We took the opportunity to go to Downtown Disney and the beach!

As you can see, Michael was thrilled to drive the WHOLE way!

After Ashley's reception, and on our way to Disney!

We had some fun with the hats in World of Disney :)

There's no story behind this picture, I just really like it!

We tried to make a stop at the Orlando temple, but the gates were locked. This was the best we could do!

This is the aligator in my grandparents little lake behind their house! Eek!

And we finally made it the beach! We arrived in Florida just in time for some tropical depressions, so we weren't sure we'd get a sunny day!

Michael taking his first steps in the Gulf of Mexico.

After all of our fun this summer, reality finally came back to us! We had our interview for immigration the day after our beach trip - August 18th. Our interviewer was NOT fun at all, and Michael couldn't remember any of the dates pertaining to our "courtship," but he passed us!! Michael is now a conditional permanent resident of the United States of America! Woo! No more paperwork or interviews for a while now - fingers crossed! So, with his social security card, work authorization, and green card in tow, he hit the streets to find a job! Two days later he started working 12 hour days with Honda of Conyers! I have, since April, been promoted to Lead Sales/key holder at Ann Taylor Loft and find myself, starting this month, working WAY more than usual! So, now that we both have jobs and our bank account has two paychecks coming into it, life seems like it might just be going perectly!

However, that being said, Michael's best friend Andrew is coming to visit us this weekend for two weeks. I might have to reassess my last statement after he has gone back home to England! :) We'll keep you posted!!

Home Sweet Home

Well, I think we are finally all settled in! Here are some pics of our little basement apartment!!

There are still a few more things we'd like to do around the apartment, but for now we are really happy with it. And when I say we, I mean me. :) Michael's opinion on everything about decorating is "whatever you want, luv." Fingers crossed it stays that way for about 60 years!

There isn't much new going on in our lives. I'm working at Ann Taylor Loft - just part time right now. Michael is practicing for the semi-pros of Mariokart for Wii and our co-op band on Guitar Hero is really bringing in the cash! Life is good! :)

Start a LOVE train....

"People all over the world, join hands. Start a love train, love train..."

As an intro into the blogging world, I decided to participate in the Chain (train) of LOVE. A friend of mine posted a blog similar to this, and I am following through on my part of the commitment. Here's how it works: the first 5 people to comment on this post will receive something SPECIAL from me in the mail. Word on the street is it is supposed to be homemade, but home ec was not my strongest subject! Either way, you'll get something lovely, tastey, useful, etc. from me! If you comment, you must publish a post similar to this one - sending something in the mail to the first 5 commenters. I thought this sounded like a fun idea, so let's keep it going!

About Us :)

Keia's version: Michael and I met in June of 2007 at a YSA dance. He was dating someone else. Come July, he was no longer dating her, and making some serious advances in my direction. Sensing his cowardice, I worked up the courage and asked him out. Our first date was to Harry Potter and the Order of the Pheonix followed by some intense Wii sports competitions. He claims he won, but we all know I kicked his trash. Needless to say, I dazzled him with my charm and he couldn't resist a second date, and then a third, and so on. Michael was my first, and VERY awkward kiss - and a very good teacher. At the end of the summer, I was headed back to America and we ended our summer fling - much to my displeasure. He, however, managed to move on just fine! For almost exactly a year, we were barely in contact - only emailing every few months, but early August of '08, he confessed that he couldn't sleep because he could not stop thinking about me and he still had feelings for me. I admitted that I hadn't gotten over him either, and we decided to give it a try long distance! In September he came to Georgia for three weeks to spend a little time with me. We took a trip to Disney World - his very first time - and fell in love!




Michael proposed, completely unexpectedly(well, mostly), on October 8th - two days before he went back home to England. It was VERY romantic, and I cried - of course!



Michael's version:
It started as Keia said at a YSA dance, and as anyone will know I am an awesome dancer, and I'm pretty sure I had her at '2 step's, then hip swing' - I could see it in her eyes, she dug me. But that's neither here nor there. Keia says at the time I was dating someone else but I have no idea who that was, so I'm gonna take her word on that. Apparently come July I was single, I do remember seeing Keia about and making a point of working my 'moves' on her. Now the bare faced lie she calls cowardice I call weighing up my options - didn't wanna commit myself too soon, guys will know what I'm talking about. Well, maybe just Andrew.
It is true she asked me out first only because, well, she asked me first. I was on it, after all I am from a 'slow country'.... you can stop laughing now Sara;)
The date was, well,to be honest I have no recollection of the date, but it must have been great because I came back for dessert. The second date was interesting. I tried to teach Keia how to bend it like Beckham... i guess some people are just unteachable;)
The mighty third date we made out which was hilarious as it was Keia's first time, but eventually we got there and it rocked my socks.
Keia mentioned something about her dazzling charm. The only thing that dazzled me was her ability to suck at wii;)(for the older generation its a computer game and not what you do in the toilet).
At the end of the summer I brutally ended our relationship, and to this day I can still hear Keia singing 'summer lovin' happened so fast'.
The relationship ended and she went home. In her version she still sounds bitter about me moving on just fine - that's because it's still fresh in her mind as I only told her a few days ago how soon I moved on(men are pigs!!!).
So for about a year as Keia said we barely stayed in contact. I was rebuked by Keia via e-mail for letting this happen, to which she swears she was 'joking', but we all know how vicious she can be.
Anywho, I digress. Where was I... she left, I moved on, a year passed and i can't sleep - oh yeah about that...the reason i couldn't sleep was Arsenal were having a bit of a slump in the premier league - that coupled with gas... well you can imagine.
Again I digress, I am a useless blogger... yes, Keia then told me that she had never really gotten over me and well just some really sweet things, bless her.
We gave long distance a try and after some extremely large phone bills I robbed a bank and took a trip to the states, with no idea of proposing against extremely popular belief. I came just to test the waters, see what these feeling I had were as the closest thing I felt to love was eating my first Wendy's in 2001.
We took an awesome trip to Disney which is were I fell head over heels in love with the woman of my dreams, Minnie Mouse, but she was taken(stupid Mickey) so i fell in love with my eternal companion, my friend, my wife. Who i love more with every passing day, but don't tell her that;)



Over a thousand dollars in plane tickets, a Christmas in England, and LOTS of hassle with the Dunstable/Luton registrars offices, we were married on February 28th, 2009. We had a civil ceremony in the Luton chapel of the LDS church, and were then sealed in the London Temple for time and eternity.







We honeymooned in Italy, and I very nearly stayed behind with my gladiator lover... We had a great time and saw some really amazing sights in Venice and Rome. You can see the majority of our pics on my Facebook page. We are now back to reality and living in my parents basement (cheap rent). I am trying to find some full time work to pay the bills until Michael can get his work authorization. We are struggling to understand the immigration process and hoping that we get all the paperwork right! It will be a glorious day when all of his approvals come through! We hope that you'll join us as we try to make a start for ourselves!