my special juice is gonna help me bloooog.

i was really feeling like i was keeping up with blogging until i realized that it's been a WHOLE month since i last blogged.  so geez.

well, basically everyone already knows this but...

WE BOUGHT A HOUSE!

She's so cute right? I mean I would someday like to paint the house on the outside, but whatever.

In other news in Idaho; nothing.

Oh except that last week it snowed so I woke up to this:

but this week it has been in the 60s so I was like whaaaaat. is going on. But I'm totally not complaining. I'll take what I can get in this spud ridden frozen tundra. 

We are mostly moved in to our house except that my clothes are still in space bags and covering my bedroom floor. DONT JUDGE ME, I need a dresser. and I'm lazy. But anyway, this house is HUGE (to me) and I feel like I need to buy a bunch of crap to fill it up (aka hoarding). Luckily I'm basically obsessed with target clearance/the D.I. so that should be happening in no time at all. Look for me on A&E or TLC soon. 

Wednesday, as you know if you are a regular person, was Halloween. Our Mexican friend, Vickie had a little Halloween shindig giving us an excuse to dress up. So, I got Lux a dog-wig

She's a pink lady if you didn't catch that.

 and we dressed up as old people/Florida retirees. 

I'd like to inappropriately note that those are not my real breasts.

So that happened. The best part was when a girl showed up to the party we were at and thought she was at the wrong party because we were the first people she saw and she thought we were legitimate old people. So that made me feel good because I put minimal effort into these costumes. (the fact that my shirt and pants matched so dern good was an act of God, found them separately at the D.I.) 

This evening we had our friends over for LOW COUNTRY BOIL! which I will be blogging about TOMORROW, to give you pics AND the recipe. Cause seriously, you haven't lived until you've had a good old low country boil, says me. 

Also I made everyone try go-go juice, which if you live under a rock, is part red bull part mt. dew.

 In other words, I am super buzzin right now and maybe gonna die. If that's the case, I have to apologize for not giving you the Low Country Boil recipe sooner. 

But lets hope we make it through the night. 

HOW TO COPE WITH UNEMPLOYMENT.

look, I already look kind of homeless and it's not so bad.

sometimes your husband gets laid off, and sometimes you need to do things that keep you from being depressed while taking a break from near constant job hunting.

 here are things we've been doing instead of crying:

well for starters, I've been cooking/baking a lot. Like almost every night. And I'm sure better housewives (and mothers) than me would scoff at that, but I mean I've been going HARD in the kitchen. Like I am getting in trouble because we have too much leftovers.

For example, I've made this (as pictured above). and this. and this to go with these. and this. and these.

And most of it was with the help of my lovely new kitchenaid!

Which I'd like to point out was pretty much free.

We spent almost 5 days straight in the house in attempt to find a job for Taylor and also save money, obviously. BUT yesterday we caved and decided to go see The Dark Knight Rises. DON'T WORRY, it was the super matinee so it was only 5.50 a ticket. And Batman is my favorite so I had to go, finally.

It was sooo grood.


To supplement our income and also to be nice we have been dog sitting for the family that I "nanny" for while they are out of town for the week. It sure is different having  TWO regular sized shedding dogs in our house on top of my sassy little virtually shed free cotton ball. But they are really sweet and Lux likes to boss them around and make sure they don't get on the couch and they think she is an idiot, but strangely, they are also scared of her. Also they are basically in love with Taylor.

the boss

lily and ella

And then today we decided to plant some flowers in our ugly back yard.

IT'S SO BEAUTIFUL I MIGHT NEED TO HAVE A GARDEN PARTY!! and get some G.D. garden lanterns.

If you're wondering how the job search is going, it's going well. I mean not well in the sense that we have any specific leads but there are plenty of jobs for Taylor to apply for. In fact, so far I've compiled a list of about 80. And that was a list I made while being picky about locations. Currently Tayl is thinking about switching to teaching so we're trying to get more information about doing that. So if anyone knows anything about becoming a teacher in the state of Georgia (for someone with a Masters Degree), holla at us.

All of your kind words and prayers and helpfulness and well wishes are GREATLY appreciated. We love you all! We're gonna be okay. Probably. But if not, I think I could find a way to make a cardboard box a home. I'm resourceful.

an official announcement.

I am excited to officially announce that Taylor and I are becoming parents for a SECOND time.

and when I say parents I mean dog parents. We are getting another dog! and, perfectly enough, another Havanese! I will have two little white fluffballs running around my house. I CAN GET THEM MATCHING OUTFITS.

We've been talking about it for a long time and I think this might be a little crazy (CRAZY FUN!). But Lux is so lonely and my great aunt has to get rid of her dog because she's only allowed to have 2 at a time where she lives. Which is really sad for her but really awesome for me. I'm not totally sure when she will be here yet but probably sometime in the next month.

Her name is Cricket and this is the only picture I have of her and it's 4 years old. But she is just so sweet and I am just elated. I love doggies.

hiatus. tayl returns!

it's sad that my life is so that when I don't blog for 6 days it feels like I haven't blogged in 12 years. But, I mean, blogging is really one of my main duties as a wife and I should at least be blogging on Wednesdays and I totally skipped. Sorry to all my dedicated readers of Wifed Up Wednesday (aka just Jen.)

Monday felt like Monday, Then Tuesday felt like Saturday and a little bit of Sunday. So Wednesday felt like Monday and everything was out of control. In a good way.

The real Monday (not Wednesday) is when Taylor came home, finally.

His flight wasn't due to arrive until 3:55 PM so I went about my day as normal as the strong independent woman I had developed into over the past 3 weeks. In the afternoon, I was doing my make-up I got a call from Taylor at about 3:50 PM saying that he had landed, collected his luggage, and was waiting for me. I felt bad that I wasn't there waiting for him, but I forgot that Savannah airport is not like Atlanta.
So I hauled my butt out the door to get my man.

When we got home Taylor and Lux had their reunion and it was like I stopped existing to them.

Lux missed her daddy, and his leg:

The day went on and we relaxed and did normal married people stuffs. I did Taylor's laundry. (The first non-asian to do his laundry in weeks.) Then we went to the Hunger Games (again for me).

Random note, homecoming day also happened to be wildlife day in casa de Taykyns. 

That morning April came over to play tennis with me and she brought the mail in with her and informed me that this was in our mailbox:

 It was dead, obviously, but so pretty. I hope that in spite of the fact that it was dead, it was still a good omen.

Then while helping Tay unpack I went to hang up his coat in the coat closet and I saw this next to the frame of the front door:

And I was like, what the hef is that?

Oh no big deal, it's just a tree frog, in my house.

Don't worry, I set it free. I'm just glad it didn't suffer the same fate as it's forefather. (see:  the massacre of 11/11/11)

Anyway, the next day (Tuesday, which felt like Saturday) I woke up and I couldn't believe that my husband was home. It was weird to roll over and see not just a pile of laundry and a fluffy bed hogging doggy, but a MAN IN MY BED.

Someday I'll show you pictures that he took in China.

wifed up wednesday: sigh, tissue pom poms.

today i realized it was wednesday. i came home from work and i got distracted by video games. because i'm not really a good wife, i just pretend.

i was going to do a picture tutorial like last week but then some other things happened so i made this video. i realize that probably everyone on the planet knows how to make these.

sorry that i look disgusting and sorry that i'm so large. and sorry about my weird hair. and sorry about my dog. but really i'm not sorry about any of it. but i'm truly sorry for the aeropostale hoodie, I don't even know where it came from. i think my friend's exboyfriend. awkward.

here you go! enjoy. next week will be better, i swear.

Tay edited this video for me. I am grateful but I wasn't supervising so weird things happened.

Also, I took way too long and the camera cut off so there's no ending. but here is the end result, in my mouth:

i really hope i don't make a habit out of this video thing or it will defeat the purpose of a blog...

shocks. pegs. lucky.

this isn't going to be my full post about Christmas, but rather a quick little post to brag about one of my Christmas gifts.

That's right you crafty ladies, It's a Cricut 2. And for those of you who have no idea what that it is, it's basically a die cutting machine. Top o' the line die cut machine.

Taylor totally surprised me with this one, I didn't even ask for it. I mean, I have said off and on throughout the year that I wished I had one. But, you know what I'm saying.

Anyway, I don't scrapbook. I don't have the money or the patience for it. I think this is mostly used by scrapbookers. But I feel like the possibilities are really endless for me.

I used it for wrapping our nieces birthday presents for their first birthdays that are coming up. I realize a 1 year old will not care about the wrapping job, or even probably care about what's inside. But this is mostly for me OKAY?

Oh yeah, I have also gotten into making my own bows. Did I mention that yet? It's super easy and fun and cheaper. You can find the tutorial by clicking HERE.

I am excited to get down to some serious crafting business after the holidays are over.

In other news, we are still down in Valdosta and I am sick and Taylor has bad allergies. Boo. I woke up the day after Christmas super sickly and I mostly laid on the couch all day. Lux was my super cuddly buddy.

Also, Thomas:

home coming, house hunting, and another hospital visit.

So, we made it in one piece with all 6 pieces of luggage!

Everything went pretty smoothly on our way home, surprisingly. Even though we had to recheck in our luggage when we got to Atlanta to fly into Valdosta.

I was pretty tired when we finally made it to Valdosta but my first order of business was to go get Lux from Drew and Julie's and I was really scared she would forget who I was. But, when we walked in she was really excited. She was shaking and licking the crap out of us when we picked her up. It made me happy.

It made me even happier when I fell asleep that night and I woke up with her in between us on her back under the covers with her little paws and head poking out. I love my sweet puppy.

Our initial plan on Saturday was to get up and go to Savannah and look for a place to live since we are coming back to Valdosta for Halloween weekend. But we of course, didn't. We stuck around and visited with everyone. It was nice though. And my sweet Mother In Law saw my blog and made sure to have Diet Dr. Pepper waiting for me. :) Thanks Sheryl! You're the best.

We finally made it out of the house by 12:30pm. and headed to Savannah to look at house that I was pretty sure was going to be the one.

That was until we got there. AND THE BEDROOMS AND LIVING ROOM HAD DIRTY WHITE LINOLEUM [like linoleum that they used to put in school halls and cafeterias] instead of hardwood or carpet. I can deal with a lot of things, but I just can't deal with living in Lunch Lady Land. Also when we went back outside and the yard was huge, but it had a chain link fence and our potential neighbors had some crazy redneck situations going on in their backyard. And yes, I often judge people based on how they keep their yard. SO WHAT?

Anyway, it just wasn't for us, I just didn't like the vibe I felt when I was in there.

So then on Sunday we went to the ward we will potentially be in and it seemed pretty good. A lot better than when we were in Florence and no one was under the age of 75 (very sweet people, just no one to socialize with). Then we met up with Aunt Martha and Uncle Gary (who are so graciously letting us crash at their place and feeding us delicious food!!) for lunch and I ate some Chicken and Waffles for the first time and I have to say, GREAT COMBO! Taylor ate fish and grits. I love America. and I really love Georgia. and I really really love Savannah.

After lunch we spent about 5-6 hours driving around looking for rentals. We found some, and we were able to get a feel for the neighborhood better. But we weren't really able to look at any on the inside. But all in all it wasn't a totally wasteful day. We decided that our preference was to live in town. Since we're so hip and cool and indie.

On Monday Taylor had set up a couple of showings during his lunch break (he's already started working)  so I met up with him to go look. The first place was okay but it was a little pricey and a lot of repairs needed to be made and it had a separate occupied apartment upstairs which I wasn't very keen on. Then we headed over to the house that I had my eye on for awhile when I was looking on the internet from England. I actually blogged about it (with pictures!) here. I was nervous to go look at it because I had been disappointed by so many and I really wanted it to be as cute as it looked online. Luckily, it was! It was dirty (they will have it cleaned though) It has wood floors all throughout, a separate dining room, fireplace, 3 bedrooms, a HUGE two car garage (maybe we can get started on some food storage), a fenced backyard and a big screen porch.

So we have pretty much decided that that is the one we are going to go with. We turned in the rental application today so we should hear back in a couple of days whether or not we got it. If we don't, that will be awkward and we will be homeless some more.  But if we do get it I am going to be way excited!

Today has been a busy day for me. Remember how I had to go to the hospital last week in London and they told me it was food poisoning? Well the horrible pain has been coming and going all week (its even woken me up in the middle of the night it's so bad) and I talked to some friends and my dad and they all said it sounds like I have kidney stones. Which makes a buttload more sense than food poisoning. So I finally got to see a doctor today and then the doctor said it could just be gas (seriously?) but it's possible that it is kidney stones, so he gave me a prescription for some pain killers and sent me over to the hospital to get Xrays just to see if I need to go as far to get a CT scan.
They gave me a wrist band when I checked in for my Xrays. Which made me a little scared that I might be trapped there forever. But it only took like 45 minutes.

It's still kind of crazy to see my new last name on stuff.

hopefully those numbers don't mean anything significant. don't want my identity stolen.

Also, when I dropped my prescription off at Walgreens, the pharmacist dude looked like Drake. Which automatically made me like him.

I had to drive all over town going to doctors offices and the hospital and target and best buy and the real estate office, which normally I would have hated but I went so long without the freedom of a car in England that I was actually just grateful to be able to drive myself around. 

OH. Speaking of Best Buy, I got my Kindle replaced. (cause I already broke it, but Taylor knew I would so he got a replacement plan) Unfortunately they didn't have anymore white ones, which made me sad. But I didn't want to seem Ereader-racist, so I accepted the black one. Plus the white ones get dirty so easily. I am just happy to have one again. 

So that's pretty much everything that's happened so far.

I knew blogs would be boring when we weren't England anymore. WELL SORRY! I still love our life!

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...