Happy Anniversary to Us!

We did it - we made it a full year! And, what a year it's been! We had many ways of celebrating our anniversary this weekend, and I'd like to document how we "rang in" Year One!

On Friday afternoon, I treated myself to a manicure and pedicure with my favorite little girl. Mara and I relaxed after two full weeks of back to school, getting our feet and hands massaged and beautified. Then, Sam and I joined our cousins/friends for a nice dinner on the restaurant patio in the perfect September air.

On Saturday, we slept in before packing up to go back to "the scene of the crime" where we got married. We checked in to the Marriott hotel around 3:00, watched the Texas/Rice game, then got ready to walk around the area. We ate dinner at a nice Italian restaurant, again sitting on the patio enjoying the beautiful weather. Then, we got an ice cream treat and walked around the pond, stopping on benches to talk and reminisce. Finally, we returned back to the hotel where we played Scrabble and hung out watching movies.

Our suite
Before dinner in our hotel room
Out enjoying the night air!

On Sunday, we slept in again before we got ready to check out of the hotel. We walked around the lobby, looking into the rooms where we made our vows and where we partied, took a few pictures, then left for a breakfast at Original Pancake House. We came home to relax a little before heading to a childhood friend's wedding.

A year ago, there would have been a chuppah here and we would have been standing under it with friends and family all around us!

Reception Room: first dance, cake-cutting, toasts, serenade, etc!

On Monday, our actual anniversary, we slept in before we cleaned the entire house, worked in the yard, and picked up groceries for the week. After a brief Labor Day visit to Sam's parents' house for family time, we cooked dinner for just the two of us and ate while we watched our wedding video. It was kind of fun to see things we had forgotten about or even to notice things we had never been made aware of before. We teared up at certain parts, while in others we were laughing hysterically.

Around 8:00pm, our parents came over with last year's cake to taste. Although we were all expecting the cake to be horrible and completely freezer-burned, it was actually pretty delicious! We all agreed it certainly didn't taste like it had been in a freezer for a year. Thanks to Mom's amazing wrapping skills to keep it well insulated and to our baker, Lauren, for baking a sweet, delicious cake, we were able to enjoy it again with all of our parents.




After our parents left, we exchanged gifts. For this, our "paper anniversary," Sam gave me a beautiful card and a very generous gift certificate for a long massage! I don't know who was happier - me for getting the massage or him for not having to be the one to give it to me! :) I gave him a card and a "virtual photo book" - a DVD documenting our first year together week by week. He was completely surprised by the video, and he was emotional through most of it. I have been working on this project all year - literally starting the second week after we got married - so it was nice to see that he appreciated it so much. While working on the DVD, I noticed several things that I included in writing at the end of the video: We are surrounded by so many amazing people in our lives. Our friends and family truly love us. With every upset, there has been a blessing. With every frustration, there is some kind of peace. In every scary moment, we were there with each other. In every celebration, we smiled with each other.

To my husband: I love you more than you could possibly know. I am grateful for you, for us, and for our marriage. Happy 1st Anniversary! I cannot wait to see what Year 2 holds for us!

I Don't Wanna Do It

"Don't make me go! I don't wanna do it!" I feel like screaming as my summer ends and I get ready to be forced back into the work life I have NOT missed at all. I have loved being a stay-at-home-wife and homemaker this summer. I am so not ready to go back to work, back to the routine of getting up early, being a big girl, and being responsible for anything outside this household I love so much. I really don't have much to say other than I feel like a toddler running after her mother down the hallway of the preschool at which the kid doesn't want to stay! Just like that kid, I know I'll be fine. I know as soon as I'm back in that building, back in my office, I will calm down and will really enjoy seeing my friends and all those familiar, sun-kissed student faces. I know it's inevitable that my autonomous summer must leave me behind until next year, but I'm entitled to a little bit of crying, bitching, moaning, groaning, whining, temper-tantrum-throwing, and utter frustration at doing something I don't want to do yet! I'm just not ready. Just like that toddler wants to play with her toys at home and spend time with her mommy, I want to be on my own time, available to make dinner and clean the house and run errands and play with friends and spend time with MY mommy and eat when I want and wear shorts or jeans whenever I want and not be exhausted by the end of the day! Sam asked me the other day, "Is there ANYTHING you're looking forward to about going back to school?" My response: "Yes, my days off!" Good answer, right? No, really, I DO like my job, and I'm glad I have one and that I really enjoy it when I'm there... it's just that having a reminder of what it's like to live with such little stress and responsibility simply reminds me of how much I like to not be stressed out with work-related issues and how much I love spending carefree time with Sam and my family and friends. So, call me a toddler if you'd like, but when it comes to saying goodbye to the lazy days of summer and the freedom I've had to play for about 7 weeks, I DON'T WANNA DO IT!

The Race for Second Base

In honor of my mother's fight against breast cancer yet another time, my sister and I wanted to start a team for the local Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure. With the start of a new school year imminent, I have two weeks to really get this organized, and (as you might imagine) my brain has been nonstop full of ideas for how to best fund raise, how to get people involved, what our team name might be, what our team shirts will look like, etc. The first order of business was to come up with a team name so that we could register our team with the website. THIS was quite interesting, hearing everyone's input. From "Can't Attack My Rack" to "Boobs or Bust!" to "Cups Runneth Over," we thought of almost everything. . . which was either taken ("Rack Pack"), family unfriendly ("Knocker Walkers"), or just plain corny ("Thanks for the Mammories"). Our favorite was "Save Second Base" because it appealed to both men and women. Hard to explain to the kids, but fun and creative. Unfortunately, this team name was already taken, so we continued to think and think. From "Boob Troop" to "Fran's Cans" we just couldn't give up on coming back to the 2nd Base idea. It also seemed to go with the fact that this was Mom's 2nd time facing cancer. So, we tweaked it to "Saving Second Base," and viola! we had a team name!

Next, we'll be designing a baseball-themed t-shirt for our team members to wear on the big day. We also have a goal of raising at least $4,000 for the cause, so trying to get family, friends, colleagues, and acquaintances involved in our efforts has taken priority. From Facebook to emails to evites to well...blogs, we are trying to reach out to communities near and far! Please check out our team website or my personal page (or any other team member's page) to join or donate to our team, Saving Second Base.

Sam also has his own personal page - which I'd like to invite any and all of you to go to, as well. You should know, however, that he and I are having a friendly competition to raise at least $500 first! So, far - I'm winning! :) IF you feel so inclined, please contribute, join, get others involved, bring others with you, etc! No matter what you do, keep saving second base with early prevention through self breast exams and routine mammograms!

What's On Your Plate?

As you may remember, about a month ago, I wrote a post about stress and a professional development class I took about taking care of yourself. If you don't remember, go back and read it, because this posting is all about one of the ideas from the class. The idea I'm referring to is the "What's On Your Plate?" activity. After the class, and after our honeymoon, I went to Container Store to buy 2 dry erase boards for us to use for this ongoing activity. My motivation for using them was so that Sam and I will always know what is on each others' minds that we feel responsible for or worried about.

So, here's how this worked when we sat down to use the boards: I wrote what I needed to complete/work-on in the next few weeks and what I wanted to get accomplished. Maybe I used it more as a "to-do" list instead. My list really wasn't that long compared to what I had originally written in the professional development class back in June when the question was: What are you responsible for? Sam took his board into the bedroom and sat on the bed for a long time. I really didn't know what he was working on, but when he said, "Okay, I think I'm done with mine," I turned around and noticed what he was doing. He turned his board towards me, and I was shocked that it was covered with black dry erase marker. "Wow! That's a lot!" I said. Then, I asked him to tell me about each word/phrase that he had written in a collage format around the board. He said he didn't know where to start, so I just pointed to one word at a time and he would explain why he had written that.

Sam had written anything and everything from "pay the bills" to "clean out the garage" to "Amber." There are a few items on his list that I'd rather not post, as they were pretty private, confidential things that only he should talk about, but what I loved from this activity was that I could really get to hear what was on his mind. We just sat there together, no TV, no interruptions...just down-to-earth, good-old conversation! It was really one of the most intimate, sacred talks we had ever had - both of us in tears over some of the items he had listed. Some of the items brought back pain from his accident; some of them were just silly, but it got us talking - I mean, REALLY talking! I've always thought our #1 strength as a couple is our ability to communicate and talk things out - I sometimes think I tell Sam too much! But, this opened a whole new level of understanding, especially because it gave Sam a platform to discuss his thoughts and feelings, which (typical for most men, I think) often go unspoken. As we talked each word/phrase out, I said to him, "Isn't this nice for me to know what you're thinking about each day in the back of your mind?" He said, "I guess I just don't want to stress you out with what's on my mind."

"But, if I don't know, I can't help you. And, if I don't know, then I think you're NOT thinking about the same things I'm thinking about, and therefore, I may nag you or continue to bring up things that you're already stressed about." He finally got it! I explained that if I know he wants to clean the garage, then I know I don't have to bring it up all the time when it's on my mind equally. We can use this plan to take things OFF each others' plates, and we can help manage each others' stresses better. I think the plan is especially helpful for women, who often think that men are stuck in their "nothing boxes," while we are constantly worrying and stressing over every little thing! I can be more sensitive to him and his feelings about those really big issues and things that he's truly concerned about. And, he can see what I'm thinking about, too, without me having to remind him constantly!

So, one item at a time, we made a plan for how we can tackle these stresses and worries! We started with making a plan to clean the garage - and within the week, it got done!!

Oh, We Women of Worry

This past weekend, we celebrated one of my best friends and her fiance at their couple's shower. The bridesmaids and the groomsmen hosted the event, and as one of her matrons-of-honor, I helped coordinate many of the details. One of my assigned tasks was to communicate with the groomsmen who were not very good at responding to the first round of emails that were sent out by my cousin/friend/co-matron-of-honor. I learned that guys don't like to respond to lengthy, detailed emails mostly from just putting myself in their place - but also from talking to Sam about it all. Why were these guys not at least emailing to say, "Let me get back to you," or something else at least acknowledging that they'd received the email(s). Finally, I took the guys' names off of the mass email and talked only to the girls when planning. Then, when I addressed the groomsmen, I wrote about 4 sentences (at most!) to get their attention - just short, to-the-point emails that resulted in a response from all of them! YEA! I had broken the male code that elicited a response from them!

The bridesmaids continued to banter back and forth for weeks with endless details about what needed to be done, what ideas we had, what responsibilities we wanted to take on, etc, etc, etc! Again, all I did to communicate with the men was to tell them what they needed to do, and they obliged and responded positively. What I found so amusing, though, was that about 5 days before the shower, two of the three groomsmen's wives emailed me to ask more specific information to make sure their husbands were not overlooking anything: did we need cups, should they bring ice, how much would they owe for other things, was there a group gift or should they get something on their own, were spouses included as hosts, what were we all wearing, is there anything else they were forgetting or needing to do, etc. I shared these emails with Sam, and he thought it was quite entertaining, too, given the length of the wives' emails and the lack of response from the actual groomsmen.

It occurred to me that the worrying and detail-oriented thinking must truly be a female thing. I mean, really, the groomsmen were in charge, too - not their wives - but their wives were the ones with responsive questions, with the concern about getting the job done, and so on. What is it inside of us as females that think this way - that makes us take on all the stress? That makes us jump in and try to do everything? Why is it that men just don't think this way? That they don't seem to need to control everything or even care if a task gets done or not?

One night, a few weeks ago, Sam and I were discussing some of these male and female tendencies/roles. Our conversation included something about how I had talked to the above-mentioned friend, and how we were venting to each other about how many times we often have to remind our significant others to do this or that. Then, Sam made an interesting comment that, quite honestly, I had wondered myself but never really vocalized for fear of sounding pretty condescending. He, very seriously, said to me, "It makes you wonder how we ever got things done before marrying ya'll." At first I thought he was being sarcastic, so when I laughed it off and became slightly defensive, he said, (again, very seriously) "No, really. It makes me wonder how guys ever did anything right before we marry women that help us with everything." He went on to say that I always remind him of due dates and deadlines that he would have otherwise forgotten, yet he's a big boy and was just fine living on his own before we lived together or got married. We started to talk more about this topic, as we decided that the typical bachelor stereotype holds true: rewearing dirty clothes and not doing laundry, sleeping in sheets that have needed to be cleaned for weeks, not worrying about the dishes in the sink or the vacuuming that needs to be done. When Sam married me, all those old habits had to go out the window. He would tell you he's much cleaner, more sanitary, healthier, and more organized as a married man with a wife who forces these things upon him. I often leave reminder notes, make reminder phone calls, or "calendar" with him every couple weeks to make sure we're on the same page.

I have no desire to be Sam's mother or mother-figure. He has a great mom; he doesn't need another one. But, why do we women always have this need to take care of everything and everyone? There is such a fine line between taking care of and enabling. Wouldn't the groomsmen have gotten the job done without their wives intervening? Wouldn't Sam either pay that bill or pay the consequences? I guess it's just that now, as wives, our husbands' lapses in judgement, mistakes, failures, and forgetfulness both impacts and reflects on us. If Sam missed a deadline in college, it didn't affect me. Now, however, if he forgets to pay a bill or mow the lawn, it affects me. But, if I keep reminding him every time, won't he then rely on the reminders and therefore need them all the time? Or, do I let him be the big boy he once was without my reminders and let him figure it all out? How can I, as a worrying woman, let this go now that we're an "us" and it affects me?

Just to be clear: I am in no way upset about the shower emails, the groomsmen's responses, the wives emails, or anything Sam and I have discussed. I am merely, once again, using this blog site as a means of discussing something that many of my female married friends and I often feel is universal. I think the wives' emails are just one example of how I'm not alone in this worrying/controling/making-sure-my-husband-is-doing-the-right-thing feeling. My only inner struggle is how to integrate the two opposing ways of handling this feeling: taking care of vs. enabling. Any ideas?

By the way, as a somewhat-related aside, the dry erase "What's On Your Plate?" idea I discussed last month is a HIT! It also really helps with the issues at hand in this posting as it provides a way to communicate without nagging or reminding or frustrating anyone. More to come on how this works in my next post!

Big Finish, But Keep on Keepin' On

On June 30th, I was in London. My mom, however, was thousands of miles away from me going through her sixth and final round of chemotherapy. A finale I was not able to help celebrate, I continued to think of her throughout that entire day, wishing I could give her one big celebratory hug of congratulations for making it through hell and back to face this disease a second time. Luckily, I have an amazing friend who went with my mom to hold her hand through her last treatment - the treatment Mom had been waiting to finish for months. The day was described to me by my friend and by Mom as "very emotional," as Mom was proud of herself for finishing, relieved to be done, scared of what the next few weeks would hold getting through another round of poison in her system, worried that maybe 6 treatments wasn't enough to get rid of the cancer for good, sad to say goodbye to her nursing staff, filled with questions about what comes next, grateful for how far she'd come, and "prayerful" that she'd never have to see a chemo line again.

So, we're celebrating the end of a long few months that brought about such pain and uncertainty for all of us, but mostly for Mom. From stomach pains to nausea, from bloatedness to losing her taste, from mouth sores to hair loss, from exhaustion to dry skin - she's been through it all. It's nice to know that those things will begin to improve for her soon, and we'll continue to celebrate one step at a time!

But, this week, Mom had another surgery to alleviate pressure under her arm after the lymph node removal surgery before she even started chemo. Once she heals from this, she'll find out the plan for radiation therapy from a different oncologist. After that, it's back to more surgery. By the end of this long road, Mom will have been poked, proded, sliced, carved, drained, - you name it, but she will still be my mother, she'll still have that "go-get-'em" spirit that got her through all of this, and most importantly, she will be!

Hang in there, Mom! It can only get better from here. I am SO proud of you each and every day for everything you've gone through and for continuing to fight! Thank you for putting up with all of the pain and all of the frustration. We all love you so much, and I am so proud to be your daughter!

You are my sunshine,

my only sunshine.

You make me happy,

when skies are gray.

You'll never know, dear,

how much I love you.

Please don't take my sunshine away.

Honeymoon: Part 2

After a full week on the cruise, we docked in Barcelona, our final port-of-call and where we bid farewell to our marvelous time at sea. We decided to partake in the Barcelona City excursion to have a tour guide show us around the city while monitoring our luggage on the locked bus. We couldn't check in to our hotel room until after 12ish, so we had all morning to go sightseeing. There was no way were toting our bags around with us, so the easiest thing and to get the most out of our cruise experience, we booked the excursion while on board the ship a few nights before. It was perfect! Our guide, Pilar, was amazing and told us loads of information about Barcelona. We visited the Gothic Quarter, Sagrada Familia, Montjuic, the Cathedral, and traveled past La Ramblas and some more of Gaudi's famous architecture. Our bus dropped us off in Catalunya Square around noon where we could walk 2 blocks to our hotel. We had to wait about an hour before our room was ready, which gave us ample time to plan the rest of our day and night there. It also gave my feet a chance to rest after much walking and walking and walking!

Our hotel room was very nice. We had the honeymoon suite, and it had LOTS of space. Our favorite part was the balcony overlooking the city - we could even see Sagrada Familia in our view! The bed sucked - hard as a rock; my neck and back were stiff for 2 days after that one night in Barcelona! Anyway, the first thing we did was figure out our way to the famous Picasso Museum. This was our first time to use the Metro there, and I was proud of us for figuring that out so quickly. I was NOT proud of the fact that once we got there, our maps were either missing streets or were not updated. Yes, mapS - with an "s"! We had two between us, and we could not figure out where the heck we were going. I was getting very frustrated when we figured out our maps were either wrong or not helpful...when finally we came upon the tiniest little street that had a sign at the end of it pointing to the Picasso Museum. I guess I had it in my little mind that an important museum like this one would have a bigger building, a bigger sign - hell, a bigger street! It was just a tiny little hole-in-the-wall kind of place, but it was nice once inside. My favorites were his early years and his sketches before the abstract stuff I just don't care that much for. Once we got passed the Blue period, I was kind of ready to go - as everything slowly turned into kindergraten-looking drawings (in our opinions, we thought our nephews could have drawn some of these things, but I know LOTS of people disagree with us and find this period to be very talented. - Not that my nephews aren't talented... oh, nevermind).

Later that evening, we navigated our way to the Lessops, the Metro stop we needed to walk to Parc Guell, Gaudi's famous park. This was our favorite part of Barcelona; it was so much fun and very peaceful. We felt like we had stepped into either a Dr. Suess book or into Alice's Wonderland. Then, we walked back to the metro after buying my niece a Flaminco dancer doll. My aunt had bought one for me when she lived in Spain when I was little, so it's only fitting that I bought MY niece one.

That night, we ate dinner on our balcony. We had picked up dinner from a local grill (not very Barcelonian, I know, but we needed cheap and tasty). We loved looking out over our balcony to Barcelona at night. Beautiful!

The following day, we checked out of the hotel and made our way to the airport for our flight to London, where we spent 4 more nights before having to travel back to the states. When we got to London, we had to figure out the Underground/Tube system. I'll spare you the details in how my husband refuses to ask for help or assistance and demands that we figure things out on our own and how I usually get frustrated enough for both of us and ask someone myself. Needless to say, we got the tickets we needed, and we traveled the hour long ride into Bayswater, a neighborhood in London. We checked into our bed & breakfast, a quaint little place with a brilliant lobby. Our room, however, was not so brilliant. It was just LITTLE. We barely had enough room to put our actual suitcases, not to mention what things were INSIDE the luggage. This room was tiny, tiny - and we paid some not to tiny money for it! Honestly, we had a tiff about whether to leave the place or not since we were paying SO much for such a tiny place, which at that time felt like it had no air conditioning. Realizing the room was really already paid for (they had charged our credit card upon arrival) with no refunds, we decided to calm down and make the most of it. I did a little bit of room rearrangement - flipping a stool onto the "desk" chair, moving the "desk" as close to the wall as possible, and then we had room for our suitcase to fit on the floor! We figured out how to turn on the A/C (trying to figure out the Celsius conversion), and we unpacked only what we needed for the next 4 days. Soon, it was time to go eat dinner, and we walked just around the corner to a little cafe to buy some "picnic-y" items (sandwiches, fruit, water). Then, we walked just across the street to Kensington Gardens. We picnicked there, watching all the joggers, the strollers, the studiers, the businessmen and women walking home, etc. Then, we enjoyed a little walk in the park before calling it a night.

The next morning, we woke up very early for a full day of sightseeing. We started with our first breakfast at the B&B - a full English-style breakfast. I stuck mostly to what I knew and ate fresh fruit, toast, some eggs, and a little hash brown cake. Their breakfast was so yummy, and we ate there every morning as part of our room package. Then, we headed to the Tower of London for a full morning of a Yeoman's tour, the Crown Jewels, stories of prisoners and executions, and other history and mystery. A few hours later, and we were about ready to leave. Just a quick stop at the Tower of London Gift Shop to see if we could find anything for our nephews. We came across these little paper models enclosed in a glass box with a button that, when pushed, showed you how the paper models worked. Too funny, we had to buy these little models for our 6 and 7 year old nephews, knowing full well that the gift may be inappropriate, but that the boys would love it - it was a paper model called The Executioner which depicts a man's head being chopped off when you turn the handle on the model. The executioner's axe gently falls as you turn the handle, and as it makes contact with the prisoner's neck, the head falls off! We giggled at it, so we thought the kids would love it - even if their parents would have liked a sombrero from Spain or an Italian piggy bank or something a little more innocent. Ha!

Soon, we headed to London Bridge to find a nearby restaurant. We found this cute little shop called Pret A Manger ("Pret"), where we could buy fresh, healthy food for a decent price for both of us to get what we wanted. We enjoyed a nice sit and a yummy lunch while we mapped out the rest of our day. We walked across London Bridge after lunch, admiring the view of Tower Bridge across the River Thames. Tower Bridge is much more impressive than London Bridge, so it was a nice little view there. Then, we made our way to the Globe Theater, a replica of Shakespeare's famous playhouse. We got a short tour before being able to watch a portion of the rehearsal for Henry VII Part 2 from two different aspects in the Globe. I felt like I was part of the audience in Shakespeare in Love, as I watched the actors and the directors interact. We learned a lot that day - like why noble people would say they went to "hear" a play (rather than "see") because quite often, the higher class seats were so high in the theater that they could not see the action but just listen to the play. A play was a social function, where higher class people sat higher up so that a) everyone could see them and b) they could "look down" on lower class citizens. We thought this stuff was interesting to learn about. Next, we walked over the Millenium Bridge to head back to a tube stop to head towards Picadilly Circus where we could eat dinner and look around a little. We had heard about a restaurant chain called Wagamama, a Japanese noodle joint. We ate there after looking around Picadilly a little bit. The restaurant was good, but different than I had heard about. After that, we were ready to head back to the B&B for a nice relaxing evening. . . but first, we wanted to head to Speaker's Corner at Hyde Park, so we exited the Marble Arch tube stop to hear all the speakers we had heard would be there. Of course, when we got off the tube and saw the corner, there was NO ONE there. Not one speaker; not one protester; not one listener. We thought it was ironic and even made sure that we were in the right place by looking at a Hyde Park map - which we were. We took a picture of the empty corner, then we got back on the tube to head "home."

The next morning, after another lovely breakfast at our B&B, we met Helena, a London Walks tour guide, just outside the Westminster tube station. A friend of ours had recommended London Walks tours, and it was a great suggestion. We loved this walk (one of many that the company leads) which was an overview of Royal London and the most famous parts of the city. We saw Big Ben, Parliament, Westminster Abbey, the Jewel House, famous schools, St. James's Palace, Piccadilly Circus, Leicester Square, Trafalgar Square, Admiralty Arch, Buckingham Palace, and the changing of the guard. Our tour guide was a tiny but powerful little woman with a big, British voice. We really liked listening to her informative, funny stories which gave lots of background insight that we would have otherwise missed. Our tour ended in Trafalgar Square, where Sam and I saw another Pret restaurant. We thought, heck, we already know we like it and that it's cheap, so we decided to grab lunch there again. And, again, it was delicious, and it gave us some time to figure out what we wanted to do next. We decided to head to Abbey Road for some photos of the famous Beatles crosswalk near their recording studio. We got some pictures, and then we added our own message to the wall outside the recording studio. After several road-crossings, we finally headed back to our B&B. After some down time and getting ready to go, we ate dinner at The Stockpot, a "cheap but cheerful" London restaurant in Picadilly. Then, we got our will call tickets at Gielgud Theatre for our show that night, Hair. The show was amazing - very interactive (the actors came out to the audience many times, even rubbing on our heads and hair a couple times). That night we roamed around downtown for a little bit, not wanting to leave except for our tired feet! I wish we had had more time to go another night to see another show. . . it really was spectacular.

On our last full day in London, we woke up to spend some more time in Westminster Abbey after yet another delicious breakfast at the B&B. Westminster was cool because of all the famous people buried inside - from kings and queens to famous minds like Chaucer, Newton, and Dickens (just to name a few). My favorite part was seeing the irony of Charles Darwin's tomb inside this holy church. Next we went to another part of London where we explored the home of Dr. Samuel Johnson's home - much to my husband's excitement. Dr. Johnson was a famous lexicographer, the man who wrote the first English dictionary. We took some fun pictures, and then went to the well-known pub nearby where Dickens and Johnson often frequented. Sam got a bitter beer here, and then we went to lunch - where else other than another Pret, which happened to be conveniently located next door to the pub, Ye Old Chesire Cheese. 3 days in a row, we enjoyed this cheap, nutritious chain - we hear there are Pret's being established throughout the US - already in New York and DC, on its way to Chicago, and maybe headed here if we're lucky! Anyway, that afternoon we took a much needed amazing nap before going out for our last dinner in London, an Italian place near our hotel. We got some gelato after that and then spent the rest of the evening relaxing and packing up.

The next day, we ate our last breakfast at the B&B before checking out and heading to the airport. Our tube ride took an hour to get to Heathrow, but that was only the beginning of a LONG day of traveling. We even had one more lunch at Pret at the airport! Our flight went to Boston, then we had a flight home after that - overall, more than 12 hours in the air alone.

Our trip was amazing - full of sightseeing, new experiences, and loving each other. We find it hard to believe that it got here so slowly and passed by so quickly and that we've already been home for almost 2 weeks. It will be a long time before we get to go away for 2 weeks straight, but we hope it will be sooner than later. We also have so many memories from our trip that will last us a lifetime. My favorite part of our trip was knowing that I got to come home and spend even more time with Sam - that we still have our lives to spend with each other and that our honeymoon doesn't ever really have to "end."

Here are some more pictures from the second part of our trip: