Fragile bird.

WOW.

So this is probably going to be our last blog post in England. So as a warning, it might be long.

In fact, I really should be packing but this sounds more enticing.

On Tuesday, we had our last date night.

We went to dinner and then went to see The Three Muskateers in 3D. It was actually really good, and was surprisingly released here in the UK before the U.S. which is not typical I've learned.

They gave us the left over Harry Potter 3D glasses. I initially declined them because I am not a Potter lover, but the lady said they were more comfortable so I was like, fine.

They were more comfortable.

Last night [Wednesday], was the night of the City and Colour concert at Roundhouse in London.
The Venue was actually really cool and LED ZEPPELIN played their first show in London at Roundhouse so I thought that was pretty rad. I'm not sure if I've ever been to a venue where the greatest heavy metal band that ever existed played.

I found the original flyer for that concert so I had to post it. Awesome.

So, we drove into London and parked at an underground station and took the underground to the venue, it was a pretty simple process. And when we got there it seemed like we had to wait forever for it to start, but luckily we had seats on the upper deck, but unfortunately they were kind of crappy, there was a pillar and some speakers blocking the stage. But I could see a lot better than I would have if I were standing down on the floor. It sucks being short at shows.

Taylor got up early [5:30 AM] to do the early shift at work so that we could leave early enough to get there on time. (We probably would have been fine if he didn't though.) He was pretty tired. He actually fell asleep while we were waiting for the opening band to start. 

the view from our seats

the ceiling.

i tried to take a picture of Taylor sleeping and FAILED.

So after what seemed like days, City and Colour finally came on stage. They looked super classy. Dallas Green had on a white suit coat. But he wasn't wearing his 50 year old dad glasses.  It's fine though.

See what I mean about the speakers? Oh well.

The music was, well, music to my ears. I love every second of that concert. After a few songs the band left the stage and Dallas Green played some of his earlier City and Colour stuff, solo. At one point he busted out his harmonica and asked everyone to put the their cell phones down and stop recording, tweeting, facebooking, texting whatever, and just enjoy the song and live in the moment, for at least that one song [body in a box], and surprisingly everyone listened. It was really cool to be above the main crowd and watch the cell phone lights go out. During the song, one by one, lighters started to go up. It was pretty awesome.

You can kinda see all the lighters. It was like we traveled back in time.

All in all, it was an incredible concert. The really cool thing about City and Colour was that it was *I* who introduced him/them to Taylor, and he loved them. And so basically all the songs are tied to memories with Taylor and I. It made me really happy, and it was also a kind of romantic. I think I teared up at one point. 

Here is some baby makin' music, if you need it. We recorded this.

This is the part where things get kind of dramatic and disgusting, you have been warned.

So after the show was over we got on the train and headed back to the car. We were both tired and I was really thirsty. We started the drive home and kept getting stuck in traffic but I suddenly got a burst of energy and was acting kind of crazy [in a fun way]. I had to go to pee kind of bad and then I started to get this pain on the right side of my stomach. I wasn't really sure what it was but I told Taylor he needed to stop so I could go to the restroom as soon as he saw one.

Suddenly the pain got REALLY bad, and I also had to pee really bad as well. So I started freaking out a little bit. Plus we were trapped in the car in traffic. I was so desperate for any kind of relief but the pain was just getting worse. It started kind of spreading to the middle of my stomach. We finally were able to stop only to find that there was no restroom open at that time. I got out of the car and debated peeing behind a bush but there was a truck parked by the bush so I decided not to. I climbed in the back seat of the car and realized that I could have appendicitis. "GREAT" I thought, "JUST GREAT! Couldn't it wait until I was back in America??"

I told Taylor to take me to a hospital. which is really weird for me because I avoid the doctor at all costs. I never go to the doctor and I don't think I have ever been to the hospital for myself, let alone the emergency room. But for some reason I just felt like it was something we had to do. 

Then I started to feel nauseated and Taylor was trying to find a hospital on the GPS, that's when I felt like I was going to throw up so I opened the car door and threw up just a little bit. At this point I started shaking and shivering and I couldn't stop. It was a combination of the fear, the cold, and the vomiting.  Taylor was kind of scared I could tell and I felt so bad because it was midnight and I couldn't imagine how exhausted he was. I took the GPS out of his hands and found the nearest hospital and handed it back to him. It was about 10 minutes away  so we drove there only to find that it was just a day clinic. I decided that I just was going to pee behind a bush so I did. I only felt a little better, the pain was still there. Taylor called 911 to find out where the closest hospital was to us. I grabbed the two little grocery bags in the car and doubled them up in case of another puking incident.

He finally found the right hospital on the GPS and we headed over there. I was still in the backseat in pain and shivering but trying not to scare Taylor anymore and I just kept apologizing to him. That's when I really puked. Right into the bag luckily. Normal when I throw up it's really dramatic and I like cry and stuff and I hate it but I just did not care about the vomit because I was in so much pain. Luckily, in spite of my pain I was able to get all my vomit into the bag. I held the bag out the window so Taylor didn't have to smell it and prayed and prayed that I did not throw up again before we got there.

FINALLY, we made it to the hospital. We went inside and checked in. The lady told me it was going to be a 3 to 4 hour wait and I was like THIS IS ACTUALLY AN EMERGENCY! So she got me in basically right away. The nurse took my blood pressure and told me she needed a urine sample. This was literally like 8 minutes after I just peed behind that bush so I was like MAN THIS IS GONNA TAKE FOREVER. But I got some. I brought it back to her and she took my blood, gave me some pain killers and sent me back out to the waiting room telling me the blood work would take two hours. It was about 1 in the morning now and I hated that it was going to take that long but I was grateful they had at least seen me. About 10 minutes later the doctor called me back again and took me in a room and did the rebound test and asked me about various things and let me know that I wasn't pregnant. She said that I probably has premenstrual symptoms, OR had food poisoning. I figured it was probably food poisoning. She said that she didn't think it was appendicitis but if I get a fever within 24 hours to come back, but that I could go home with anti-vomit medicine. Taylor asked her about the blood work and turned out that she didn't know that I had got blood taken so she couldn't let me leave until the results came back. So she sent me back to the waiting room and the painkillers started to kick in. I had Taylor say a prayer with me that I would be okay.

I have never in my life hoped I had food poisoning, but if it was food poisoning, at least I would still get to go home on Friday.

So we waited about 2 hours and finally the doctor came out and told me everything was normal and that I could go home. I was sosososososo happy but SO tired, and still in a little bit of pain so I asked for more painkillers. They were nice. DON'T WORRY I'M NOT AN ADDICT.

On the drive home I wanted to sleep, but I felt guilty sleeping since Taylor had almost been awake for 24 hours. So I stayed up and talked to him. We spent most of the drive talking about the bright side of the situation, and how it could have been worse. I've noticed we always do that, at least we're kind of optimists, well, Taylor is. 

Kyns: "At least it didn't happen at the concert."

Tay: "At least it happened while we were in the car."

Kyns: "Good thing they got us back there quickly."

Tay: "At least you're not dying."

Kyns: "Good thing it happened to me and not you cause I couldn't drive this car."

Tay: "At least we don't have to clean puke out of the car, you did a really good job of keeping it clean in spite of your condition. I'm impressed."

Kyns: "Thanks, I'm professional."

The good news is that I'm alive. The bad news is I'm not totally sure it was food poisoning, just because, I didn't throw up again. But, I did have those anti-vomit pills which work like a charm. But it ISN'T appendicitis and that's what is most important here.

Also, Emergency room visits in the UK are free. So even though I have travelers insurance, last nights little fiasco didn't cost a dime. But they still treated me really well

Overall I was satisfied with my English healthcare experience, but now I am ready to come HOME!

See you tomorrow America.

we're coming to america.

We may or may not be a little more excited than necessary about our rapidly approaching departure date to get back to the U.S.A.

The reality of it all is really overwhelming me. I have various emotions but my biggest one is anxiety, because even though it is now only FOUR DAYS away, it feels really far away.

We've both been talking about the things we want to do when we get back. So I decided to make a boring blog about our "IMMEDIATELY TO DO" lists when we get back.

Please note, I only have three, but that's because I also want to go bowling, eat zaxby's, and play halo and I didn't want to get too repetitive.

(I made collages to make this seem more exciting than it is.)

We also plan on driving up and down the streets(on the right side of the road mind you) singing the Star Spangled Banner out of our windows.

I know we're way lame.

I have a feeling this blog is gonna be way less exciting when we aren't in a foreign country...

love is a battlefield.

Our initial plan for Saturday morning was to get up at 8AM and make the 2 hour drive down to Hastings for the Battle of Hastings event.

If you know us at all, you can probably guess that it didn't happen that way.

Not only do I loathe the morning, but since I am still battling with my sickness, the mornings are when I feel the worst. So it was hard for me to drag myself out of the warm bed. But eventually I did.

So anyway, by about 11:30 AM we made it out of the house. We got stuck in some traffic but we finally made it to Battle at around 2:30PM. I kind of felt guilty because I knew that Taylor was really looking forward to the battle reenactment that only takes place once a year, and I figured we'd already missed it. The event for the day was supposed to go from 10AM - 4PM. So when we got our tickets and program we realized that the reenactment was the LAST event of the day and started at 3PM, so we got real lucky. And I was actually glad we didn't get there at 10AM cause I don't think I could have hung out there for 5 hours.

To me, it wasn't actually that exciting, but it was pretty cool, and as always, it makes me happy when my husband is happy and I think he enjoyed it. 

Here are some pictures to help you feel like you were there with us.

If you're a girl, you probably think is boring. Sorry.

So then we went into Hastings because we just wanted to see the coast one last time. So we drove into town only to discover that we were there the same night as their huge bonfire night.

They have this big bonfire society and they do this to celebrate the Battle of Hastings as well as the downfall of Guy Fawkes, who tried to blow up parliament. (Remember, Remember the 5th of November) So they were having a big old carnival on the seaside, and then they had a parade with torches, not unlike an angry mob, and then they lit this huge thing on fire.

i guess they don't know about burning crosses and how it's not kosher.

 and of course once Taylor learned about this, he NEEDED to see it. Which I was fine with, at the time. SO we walked around and stopped for dinner then walked around some more then waited on the street for the parade. It was getting colder and colder and I was getting more and more impatient, and sicker and sicker and

BOOM!

There was a huge boom that rang in our ears and everybody screamed. I looked around to see if there was any indication where it came from. I had initially figured it was part of the parade. 

Then we quickly learned that some idiot teenager kid threw a firework, not unlike an M80 behind the crowd, and it landed right behind us and right next to a lady and her two small children. Luckily no one got hurt, except the guy standing next to us got hit in the leg and it was swollen up pretty bad. He had a pretty good attitude about it but everyone was really mad. The police came but the kid had already taken off. If I had children there, that kid would have gotten his face smashed into a car windshield long before anyone was able to report it to the police. But I digress. Apparently this kid and his friends had been walking up and down the street dropping these fireworks near the onlookers waiting for the parade. I don't know what kind stupid person does things like that, but apparently they exist.

The nice thing about the incident was it made me forget how cold I was for a minute. 

So FINALLY the parade made it's way down to us and it was cool for a second, but then it got really repetitive and a little too loud. They were pushing these tin barrels and kept throwing exploding fireworks in them. So after I begged Taylor finally agreed that we could go, luckily he was also cold. So we had to figure how to get across the parade of fire people to get to the car park. This was really tricky because A) I am pretty sure it's not allowed to walk across them and B) There is A LOT of fire and a lot of explosives going on (which is so stupid and unsafe.)  

So I am standing on the side of the road waiting for a break when another firework goes off right in front of me, but the genius missed the barrel so it just exploded all up in our faces and I got hit in the leg with some piece of something and it hurt SO BAD. At that point I was mad at the entire British population and my adrenaline was going a little bit so I weaved through the crowd (Taylor following) to find a break in the parade to run across. At one point I heard Taylor yell "LOOK OUT!" from behind me and another explosive went off. We saw a break without fire or explosives and ran across as some people yelled at us about how we couldn't do that. But I didn't care. They were all idiots to me at that point, and they can't tell me what to do.

Smokey the bear needs to get his rear in gear and get over here and teach these people about fire safety.

We have a video of most of the parade but I am too lazy to wait for it to upload. SORRY. but here's a video from the parade two years ago that I found on youtube. it's the exact same

5 Days until we come HOME!

7 days to homelessness.

I can't believe it. I can't believe we only have 7 days left in Jolly Ol' England.

I remember two days before we left America, spending 5 hours in the southern heat, just the two of us and our restless dog, unloading the U-Haul into the storage unit. I remember hating everything Taylor owned and swearing to get rid of all of it. And I remember when we finally finished, taking one last look at all of it before we pulled the door down thinking, "I don't have to deal with any of this for 3 months, hallelujah." 

Now, I am just days away from having to deal with it.

I'm less worried about dealing with all of that and more worried about FINDING A PLACE TO LIVE!
I realize that I don't have to decide RIGHT now, and I also realize that we will find a place to rent but it is tricky, let me tell you why:

1) Savannah is not necessarily a safe place and even though  I ain't never scared, I still would like to live somewhere relatively safe, since my dog is useless as far as protection goes, and really, who wants to live somewhere they might get shot up? Anyway, it's really hard to determine where is safe and where isn't safe when all you have to go off of is this crime rate map.


2) I've said it once, and I will say it again, my husband is a diva. I found this super cute (old, but still really fun) house that has a fire place, a garage, 3 bedrooms, a washer and dryer, a separate dining room, and a big screen porch. And on top of all that it was cheaper than any one bedroom apartment we've found (that ISN'T in the Ghetto) Here are some pics:

Okay, so yeah it's a little ghetto right? But still, it's cute. I like it. But Taylor was trying to act like it's not good enough for him. It might have been cause I was PMSing but I thought I was going to go all Wayne Brady and choke him out. Doesn't he know that I am a woman and I can make anything awesome? Anyway, moving on.

3) We don't want to rent an apartment, I understand that beggars can't be choosers and we are definitely beggars right now. However, usually with houses you have privacy, and they are the same price if not cheaper than smaller apartments. I also understand that we don't necessarily need a bunch of bedrooms. Sue me if I want to have a craft room and a place to put Taylor's computer without it being in our bedroom.  Also, if we have enough space we won't need a storage unit.  On top of all the that, I always want to have a guest bedroom, because I want people to come visit me all the time, and I feel like since I will be super close to the beach, that will lure them all in. Anyway, so the problem is not that we can't find a house to rent, but that we would ideally like a lease that is not a year long (just because Taylor hasn't passed is "trial period" at work yet) and most house rentals require at least a year (that we've found so far.)

So what is a young married couple to do? I don't want to temporarily move into a tiny apartment because I JUST WANT TO STAY PUT SOMEWHERE FOR CRYIN' OUT LOUD. I hate moving. But you wanna know what I hate more than moving? I hate living somewhere knowing it's only temporary for a couple months. Even though my best friend's beast of a sister-in-law once referred to me as "UNSTABLE", I am not, and I don't like feeling like our lifestyle is unstable either.

Normally, I would like to put this all aside and enjoy the time we have left, but I've been sick and stuck inside for 3 days, so I've only just had time to think and worry.

Don't feel bad for me though, I'm like the luckiest girl ever. I got a man who love me and 3 months of English vacation under my belt.

There's about two things left on our English agenda, Tomorrow, the Battle of Hastings reenactment and then my most favorite thing...

CITY AND COLOUR CONCERT IN LONDON ON WEDNESDAY.
I can't really describe to you how stoked I am to go to this concert, not just because I love LOOOOOVE City and Colour, but because I get to go to a show in LONDON,

EAT YOUR HEART OUT HIPSTERS!

and now, I shall leave you with a video of City and Colour so if you aren't jealous yet, you can be.

booya.

"i'm in a glass case of emotion!"

um, so this week was super crazy.

Wednesday morning, April left. I woke up to an empty apartment. Something felt weird about that morning. A text came in on the borrowed phone that I have that was across the room, but I figured it was probably some junk message from the service provider, so I ignored it. About an hour later I got a call on the house phone from Taylor at work.

This is how the conversation went:

Tay: "Hi, did you get my text message?"

Kyns: "Uhhh no."

Tay: "Okay well, you probably won't like this but today I talked to my boss, and it looks like they will be sending me to China for a month."

Kyns: ........................

Tay: "And unfortunately they said I can't bring my wife."

Kyns: ......................

Tay: "You're crying aren't you?"

I was crying. That might sound like a stupid reason to cry, but who in the world wants to be away from their husband for a month? Let alone any time period at all. AND THAT'S NOT THE ONLY THING, we haven't even established ourselves in Savannah and now that was going to be delayed even longer.

So I spent all of Wednesday feeling sorry for myself.
Thursday accepting everything, but secretly wishing that he couldn't get his visa to go.
And then Friday rolled around and I had just written a "woe is me" blog about the further delay of my normal life when I got another phone call from the Mr. himself.
and this is how that conversation went:

Tay: "So, what would your emotional reaction be if I didn't go to China?"

Kyns: "Well, obviously I would like that."

Tay: "You would be happy?"

Kyns: "Yes! Very."

Tay: "Okay then I won't go."

It turns out that they decided it wouldn't be fair to send Taylor to China when we hadn't been given a chance to get settled in Savannah. Once again, I am extremely grateful that he has a manager who cares at least a little about his family life.

I kind of feel like I had to experience that moment of drama to be sure that I appreciate the mediocre life that is ahead of me. Because that's really, all I want is to call somewhere home and have some sense of stability.

Taylor was a little bit bummed, cause he was a kind of excited to go, (there is still a chance he could go, but not until after we get back.)

So naturally went to get Chinese food to celebrate. We found a pretty good place in Oxford that was pretty legitimate for real Chinese food. They had "Hot Pot" which is not a drug, but basically Chinese fondue. [Are you ready for another Wikipedia link? Okay aaannnd NOW.]

IT WAS DISGUSTING. But Taylor enjoyed every second of it. It made me happy to see him happy, and in general I was just happy that things might actually go my way. So nothing could get me down, not even plastic flavored meat or shrimps with their heads still on.

It's pretty crazy to think that we have LESS than 2 weeks left here, 12 days to be exact. But as you can tell by my previously mentioned dramatics, I am more than ready to get back to America and be a normal boring human being with my little puppy and my husband.

P.S.
Today is our half-anniversary! We celebrated by eating delicious salads and portobello mushroom sandwiches.
And we watched Mean Girls 2 which is the worst movie on the entire planet.
Anyway, yay for marriage!

our weekend ended in shambles.

and by shambles, I mean, The Shambles, a little shopping street in the town of York.

We spend Monday after noon exploring and visiting York Minister, which was pretty amazing.

I don't really feel like writing today so here's the pics.

Clifford's Tower

For Jamie.

For Niki & Warren