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.

the almost entire month of April, condensed.

I literally just stopped blogging for a minute. Well, longer than a minute. And I know it's not like i have some sort of crazy following where I ruined people's lives from not blogging, but I am kind of sad that I didn't blog very much in April, because we kind of did a lot. Including celebrated our 1 year anniversary! Holla.

Welp, I'll start from where I left off. [and I apologize if you follow us on instagram, you will have seen most of these, cause that's what we've been doing instead of using a real camera. SORRY]

Taylor adjusted back to American life nicely.

He joined a soccer league:

Then, ALL of my sister-in-laws and their children came to visit for spring break and we went to the beach for a couple days:

Tayl put Lux in his shirt:

I got surprised with an early anniversary gift:

We spent easter weekend in Valdosta:

Pregnant karaoke!

Laney girl.

On Sunday we were basically all playing scramble against each other. TECHNOLOGY!

From Valdosta the Tayl and I headed down to Amelia Island, FL to spend a couple of days celebrated our anniversary:

My poorly timed cell phone short of the Florida state line.

Tayl & his driving glasses

 Once we got settled, we went for a walk on the beach:

Random sunglasses I found with barnacles growing on them.

Tay was trying to take this picture of the ocean when this stranger's dog ran by.

Crab shell

Jelly fish

The view from our Hotel.

 Our actual anniversary was actually what I would consider a perfect day:

We got up and went to play tennis.

After tennis we went to the beach.

If you can't tell, this is my face smashed up against the beach chair.

awwwww yeeeeaaah.

After the beach we went back to the hotel and showered and went out for dinner at MOON RIVER PIZZA:

WHEN THE EFF DID WE GET ICE CREAM?

Then we went to play mini-golf (surprisingly, our first mini-golf date together):

After our lovely little vacay, it was back to normal life:

I had to spend forever at the DMV to update my driver's license.

I finally got my georgia plates. Two years later.

I  ALSO FINALLY FOUND CORAL THROW PILLOWS!

We went fishing on the boat with Taylor's cousin Zack:

We went to the Earth Day festival at Forsyth park and learned about composting:

Later in the week we went back to Forsyth park to watch the Goonies:

And on an unfortunate note, my Grandpa Coffin (my dad's dad) passed away last weekend. I was extremely sad that I couldn't go to Utah to be with my family for the funeral. Here's his obituary, I thought it was really sweet, and I recommend it. And even though death is never easy to deal with, it's good to know that he is in a better place and doesn't have to be sick anymore. 

Hopefully I will blog more in May so that I won't have to do this again.

the time Taylor's neighbor got shot.

throughout our travels i have found that when men tell stories to a group of people, their women (wife, girlfriend, fiance) like to "help" them tell the story. even, though, typically, it's a story that the woman was not around for, so most of the time their additions are either embellished or completely inaccurate. and so when this happens, it takes at least double the time for the guy to get through the story because she interrupts, or he has to constantly correct her.

in this video, Taylor tells the story of the time his neighbor was shot in the middle of the night. This was several years ago before we even met, but I help him tell the story anyway.

and sorry, a couple of times I almost busted up, because I think we are so hilarious.

ENJOY. (Nice thumbnail huh?)

 

don't forget about the GIVEAWAY.

best 2 years.

Today I reached a milestone no other female has reached before.

I have officially been Taylor Giddens' woman (girlfriend, fiance, WIFE) for 2 years.

Most people know the story. And I'm not going to get real far into it. But let's just say, Taylor and I had a real immature start. I mean, homeboy, asked me to be his girlfriend on facebook. and let's not talk about how twitterpatted I got over that move.

Anyway, I wish that I could say that we've gotten more mature over the past 2 years, but we have not. We stay up way too late playing video games on work nights. We laugh at tasteless jokes. And we eat children's cereals.

But I think it makes for more fun.

Anyway, I made this little slideshow with a picture of us together for every month we've been together. It took me like 3 days to gather these together, and some of them are really ridiculous cause I REALLY had to scrape...even cell phone pics. (So not our style, right?)

(However, November is missing, because we weren't actually together until December...see: facebook relationship.)

Honestly, you'll probably think this video is lame. But it's FINE.

we're in love.

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.

Scottish Adventure: 1st Installment.

This weekend, Taylor took off Monday at work and we ventured up north to Scotland.

Scotland is the red part. ;)

I've decided that since, we saw and did quite a lot of things that I would go ahead and break up the posts and give it to you day by day.

I absolutely LOVED Scotland. I thought it was so beautiful, and the Scots are so friendly. I love the kilts and the bagpipes and the castles and the landscape. I dare say, I loved it a little more than England. Something about the vibe there, it feels like a strong and rugged (but beautiful) kind of country.

I really wish that we could have traveled up into the highlands to Loch Ness and such, but alas, we were short on time and driving 11 hours to get somewhere to stay for one day, is a little much. BUT, I loved what we were able to see.

The first day, was nothing but driving. We were able to fully experience the extent of the horrible traffic that the Brits so often complain about. Taylor went to work early to get off at 2pm so we could make the 4.5 hour drive to our hotel in Gretna Green. To our dismay, the second we pulled onto the A34 we were stuck in a horrible traffic jam, that we later discovered was caused by a fender bender. It took it us ONE HOUR to drive 5 miles. That was quite the setback, and between the other pockets of congestion and stopping for dinner and potty breaks, we arrived at the Days INN 7.5 hours after we left.

There's not much to be said about the details of our road trip. However, there was a moment of "oh, that's why we're soul mates" when we stopped at a services exit [it's a type of rest stop off the motorways with stores, restaurants, gambling machines, and toilets]. April and I went into the girl toilets and Taylor to the boy toilets. He got done first so he was standing there waiting for us. There are no doors to the restrooms, they just have a long hallway sorta thing (kind of like at airports). Anyway, at the end of the hallway, they have some gumball type machines that have tampons, condoms, tic tacs, whatever. There was this one that I was staring at after I was finished, that had this weird/creepy chewable toothbrush, and it was only 20 pence, so I was like, MUST TRY. Well, low and behold Taylor was standing there waiting for us and saw me start to search my purse for change and knew what I was up to. He yelled my name and I turned around and he held up the little capsule and was like, "I already got you one, I knew you would want to try it."
It made me laugh.

Anyway, tune in tomorrow for the second installment of our Scottish adventure. And fret not, my tomorrow starts sooner than your tomorrow so it will be posted in no time. (Note how I am pretending that people read my blog. I'm cool.)

Here's a sensual picture of Taylor on the bed at the Days Inn to tide you over: