so we're in Idaho now. I don't necessarily want to say we LIVE in Idaho because it technically doesn't feel like we do yet.
let me rewind.
so we packed up all of our crap and drove across the country. the few and the proud who follow my instagram were tortured for 3 days straight by my constant road shots from the passenger seat (sorry about thaaat.) . let's relive a few of the highlights:
WHAT UP GUYYSSS?
St. Louie
Mom Jeans in Nebraska. I'm not a woman anymore, I'm a mom.
Ohhh I was so jealous of her.
That all seems so long ago...
So here's what's happened since we've arrived in Idaho Falls:
Taylor started his job. He likes it so far. Some really devastating news for me is that he has to wear a respirator mask AND SO HE CAN'T HAVE A BEARD!!! I mean, it makes my heart hurt just to type it. So he's keeping the mustache but it just isn't the same.
Our first week here, we stayed at the super 8 while we decided to look for rentals. That didn't go great. On Sunday at church we met a lady who is a mortgage officer person lender guy madam sir. Whatever they like to be called. We ended up getting pre-approved with her on Monday for a home loan and decided it would be a good time to buy, instead of throwing away money on a stupid rental again. The mortgage sir lady gave us the name of a realtor who we decided to go with and he is great.
So, we house hunt while staying in the Super 8 and house after house we don't have a ton of luck, until Friday when I find this adorable perfect little house. So we put an offer on it and our offer got accepted! Yay! But less yay! after the inspection happened.
By this time it's week two and we're staying in an even WORSE hotel hoping to be able to move in to this house early but it turns out, this little dream house was actually a wet dream and I don't mean that in a perverse way. The basement was wet and moldy and the only way to fix it would be to excavate from the outside and fix the foundation. This was a very stressful time for us because we did not want to keep living in hotels because IT'S EXPENSIVE! But then by the grace of God and the goodness of the people of Idaho, we got hooked up with an RV in an RV park. So yep. We're living in an RV. It's okay, you can call me trailer trash, I won't even be sad.
I know what you're dying to hear, WHAT HAPPENED WITH THAT ADORBS HOUSE? Well, they refused to fix the foundation before we bought and so today we were like SEE YA!! Which I'm not really sad about that either because I can't deal with wet basements. I really hate em.
This blog just got way too long, even for me. And Taylor is eating an apple way too loud so I'm in a bad mood right now.
But to sum things up, we are starting the house hunt over tomorrow, we are RV trash, we are doing okay, and we have some really cool friends near by. Also it's getting cold, which sucks. But, I love to be fat and wear sweatshirts, so BONUS.
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!
On Sunday we got up and had a delicious breakfast. Then we got ready and headed off to Edinburgh, for our last day in Scotland.
the b&b
April signing the guest book
i look like a fat drunk but i posted it for the memories.
Initially we has planned on making a stop in Glasgow, but no one, not even the Scots recommended that we stop there. So, we went ahead and cruised straight on through.
The two things we wanted to do in Edinburgh were number one, get Taylor a kilt and number two, go to the Edinburgh Castle.
UNFORTUNATELY, we didn't get him kilt. But we did go to the castle.
the entrance to the castle.
the view from one of the castle overlooks.
SWORDS
they were awesome.
my twin
all of those headstones are for DOGS. sad. but cute.
being naughty. don't look at my hair.
a park. but i'm not sure of the name.
the paparazzi after us again.
Kilts are actually, really expensive.
So the castle was awesome, but really overwhelming because it was SO HUGE. After we were done (they were closed) we went into this Kilt weaving shop and it was pretty cool, Taylor bought a tie, so even though a kilt wasn't in the cards for us, we still got something. Then we had to head back down into England, where a hotel in Leeming Bar was awaiting our arrival.
But we did get some cool cloudy coastal views on our drive.
So I suppose that concludes our Scottish adventure, but not necessarily our vacation (we stopped in York on Monday).
So before I jump right back into day 2. I thought I should give a general idea of our trip. We basically made a very crooked loop around the UK.
It was a lot of driving but because of mine and Taylor's planning skills, we stopped enough places that it actually didn't seem that bad.
So anyway, we got up on Saturday morning, stopped for breakfast and headed over to Caerlaverock castle (which we STILL don't know how to pronounce). The drive was a short 45 minutes away and it gave us a chance to really take in the landscape of the countryside. It was a gray and drizzly day, but we felt like it added to the experience.
A church and graveyard outside of Gretna Green.
So we arrived at Caerlaverock and I was super stoked for this castle because it had a real moat, with actual water in it. No alligators though. :(
If you're wondering, yes, I fell on my face after this.
I started this new trend of jumping up the chimneys. stay tuned for another.
So after, we explored the castle for a little bit, we headed over to:
THAT'S RIGHT! THREAVE! I was really amused but this name. If you haven't seen the SNL Jeopardy skit, click here. (you can skip to 5:00 to get to the threeve part.)
The cool part about Threave castle is that it's on an island, and you have to take a boat to get to it! So we did.
you have to take a ten minute walk on a trail to get there.
there were like 12 of these little guys inside the tower.
another chimney shot. they work a lot better for taller people.
this was a really big ordeal...
just to get this shot.
the boat ride
a slug.
So then after that adventure, my shoes were soggy and I was starvin. But to my dismay Taylor and April wanted to go see the Threave estate gardens across the road. and fortunately we were able to see the reception of a Scottish wedding. Kilts and all.
So finally we drove through the Galloway forest and headed to the coastal town of Ayr. It was about a 1.5 hour drive. We checked in at the B&B which was absolutely lovely:
Then we went into town and got dinner at a place called Vito's. On the menu they had a dish called Chicken Valdostana. Which blew Taylor and April's minds since they are from Valdosta, Georgia. So naturally Taylor ordered that dish to pay homage to his hometown. He said he wasn't disappointed.
After dinner we went back to the B&B to rest and watch/listen to the second session conference on April's iPod. It was real weird listening to it live at 8:30pm. But as always, it did not disappoint.
So, that was our Saturday. I'll write about Sunday tomorrow.
