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I. Have. A. Hangover.
The next time I feel the need to find my inner college student - please remind me that I just can't drink like I used to. I feel so horrible. So, so, so horrible. But we had an excellent night out!Labels: Atlanta, My Past
 Why yes, that IS me on Nancy's blog... have a look and you'll see that I haven't really changed that much over the years. I'm still crackin' 'em up like I did in the way back of the way back. Now, of course, the fact that that picture (and yes, if you're curious I was very, shall we say - altered when it was taken) is 14 years old freaks me right out. I mean, other than the obvious fact that I've now learned how to tame my eyebrows, I'm still the same girl - right?
I haven't changed that much in 14 years. I suppose the fact that I'm on marriage number two, country number two and career number four does mean that I've been around the block a few times (watch it, I know what you were about to say and I resemble that remark). I am far more sober now than I was back then and have actually been called responsible a few times. Of course, I'm also now someone's mother - which is both cool and pretty scary at the same time. I've shown Mary Catherine this picture (many thanks to Nan, who had it framed for me - I just love it) and she doesn't believe it's me.
Yes, I know she's four.. but to me it went a bit deeper in that she'll never know me as I was back then. I guess that's probably a good thing. No one wants to know their mom was.. uh.. fond of the good time - shall we say?
Oh well - deep thoughts aside. MC is out with my parents this evening so Andrew and I are heading out ourselves. I'm hoping to meet up with Nancy and give us both a chance to let our inner collegiate selves be free a bit.. Now - if I could just find (and fit into) those awesome acid wash jeans!Labels: Atlanta, My Past
she likes it!
Mary Catherine is sitting next to me and is finally, five days after Christmas getting to know her new Leapster. I'm stoked - as she seems to be able to 'make it go' and is having a good time with the new painting program that we bought for it. Last year, we bought her a Leappad and while she liked it well enough, she's never really been into it. As the product of a very geeky marriage, you can imagine our surprise that our child has been incredibly slow to show interest in anything remotely computerish.
Hence our excitement that she's into the Leapster. Must run - old friend here to visit!
Labels: Geeky, Mary Catherine
Andrew and I are just home from our night out at the Glenn Hotel in downtown Atlanta. It was fantastic - definitely better than the W Atlanta where we stayed last year. As we slept in until 10am, we skipped breakfast and went straight to the Waffle House on the way home. Now that is the perfect ending to a 24-hour long date!
On our way to the hotel yesterday, we stopped at Little 5 Points and walked around and had a look through some of the shops. Some places, like Junkman's Daughter and Wax n'Facts are just as I left them in my high school and college days. We drove around downtown last night and went past a few places where I used to hang out when I was in college. Like, Stan and Fred's house off 10th Street... the now empty lot where Backstreet used to be... the Varsity... Piedmont Park where Alexa and I went to the Pot festival one year and thought ourselves to be very free thinkers.. Ah - memories.
Andrew and I are back at the house now after our 24 hours of being adults without responsibility - but Mom, Dad and Mary Catherine aren't here. So much for getting back because we thought we'd be missed!Labels: Atlanta, Geeky
Santer
Thought I'd share our picture with Santa from Christmas Eve. Mary Catherine was supposed to wear her christmas dress that my mom made her, but at the last minute found a dress that was mine when I was her age and decided that she wanted to wear that instead. So hey - watermelons at Christmas... why not!
You'll also notice that she's not wearing shoes.. well, we were in Georgia, you know.
We're off to the shops for the day after Christmas sales.. Andrew and I are going out for our big night away tomorrow night and I'm hoping to find something a little dressier than jeans and a tee shirt.
On another note, Mary Catherine has learned how to ride a scooter! My mom has a radio flyer one and a house big enough to ride it inside. Man, I love America!
He shoots - he scores!
My husband is a real gem. I'll tell you all about our Christmas morning later, but I have to tell you - Andrew really gave me an excellent present. For quite a few years, I'd enjoyed giving Mary Catherine toys, but always felt a bit sad about being grown up and not having that really cool moment that you had when you were a child - you know, the one where you saw your big ticket toy of the year and were so excited to have such a cool toy.
Okay - maybe I'm the only one who ever felt like that. So, back to my adultness. It's always been fun giving Mary Catherine toys and this year, watching her discover all that Santa left was really good fun. But I've gotten to have a toy moment of my own this year.
I got a new (Red) iPod, that I was expecting - thankfully. I also got a Nabaztag, which I'd seen, but had never really looked into. It's just 100% proof that my husband knows me better than I know myself. It's amazing! (more info here. It's just so very, very cool.
It was at the point that I found myself actually stroking the box as I read what fun lay ahead that I bowed down and embraced my inner geek. Get this - everyone apparently already knew I was nerdy. Go figure.
Labels: Atlanta, Geeky
We had a wonderful visit with Santa at Phipp's Plaza today. Mary Catherine wasn't scared of him and climbed up into his lap without reservation. Of course, as she doesn't watch commercial television - she actually doesn't know what toys are out there to want, so when you ask her what she wants for Christmas, she has no idea! Today she told Santa that she wanted a cake. Thankfully, my mom just made her one to open tomorrow. A big pink cake with a Barbie on it.
On the way home this evening. Mary Catherine told me that she had just one Christmas wish. Her wish? She wants to be a Christmas elf and help Santa deliver presents. Uh - I'm still not sure how to make that one come true! She kept telling me that she hoped it would come true and then burst into tears telling me that it wasn't going to happen. Poor thing - she's so jet lagged and tired.
Speaking of tired - I'm going to bed. Not only is it Christmas Eve and the good child in me knows that I have to go to bed.. but I'm also the mother of a four year-old who was up from 3am until 7:30pm with no nap. I'm exhausted.
Happy Christmas!Labels: Atlanta, Christmas
Home again.. jiggity jig
Well - after 10 hours in a very small space, we're here! Mary Catherine was absolutely fantastic on the flight and while the time didn't exactly wiz by, it went very well. Mary Catherine had fun, doing arts and crafts on the plane and even made a lovely picture with glue, shiny card, tissue paper and foam shapes for the captain. She got a Sindy British Airways doll (think British Barbie) from duty free that also kept us entertained. We were helped by a flight attendant who looked almost exactly like the doll - so had a good time talking to the 'real Sindy'. Sindy most definitely has on an authentic Julian McDonald BA outfit - we checked it out against the real version on our actual flight attendant. That was good for 10 minutes entertainment.
And now for my least favourite part - the three days of jet lag. Normally, it doesn't affect Mary Catherine too badly, but she woke up at 3am this morning and is wiiiide awake. Can't say that I blame her - it is 8am our time and a good 1.5 hours after her normal wake up time. So we played Barbies at 3am - it's still dark and yet Barbie and Ken (thank goodness that mom kept my dolls all these years) have already gone to a party and gotten married then rode their horse.
It's now 4am and we've come downstairs, woken up Mom and Dad and are now all dozing through some Christmas movie Mom brought home from school.
It's Christmas Eve - we're going to see the Phipp's Santa this afternoon after a quick spin through church to light the final advent candle. Hope you all have a fantastic Christmas Eve!
Just a quick one... I've actually popped back into the office because in the hustle and bustle of having Mary Catherine with me today, I totally forgot to do a few things. You know, silly little things, like taking the keys to the pet sitter. Yikes - glad I remembered that one before we were in the car on the way to the airport tomorrow (which is where I do most of my remembering forgotten items).
Packed? No, not yet. But we will be.
Our flight (due to the fog, I don't think I've ever actually prayed for rain) is already delayed by over two hours and it's the day before departure. I'm certain that we'll fly tomorrow, but hope that we're not delayed more than already stated.
Okay - off I go - to the pet sitters, McDonalds for our dinner and back home to Andrew and a hopefully tubbed and scrubbed little monster who is so excited about going to America tomorrow, that I am already dreading trying to get her to sleep.
Next post from the USA!
two more days
My last real working day today... I mean, I'll be in tomorrow - but it's children's day, so there will (hopefully) be no real work going on tomorrow. Mary Catherine can sort my paperclips if I need to get anything done, I suppose.
So the fog has hit London... and it's wicked. Wicked as in - my gosh it's so damn foggy. Not wicked as in 'cool - fog'. Heathrow is in chaos and a few flights aren't leaving Gatwick. They're expecting the fog to stay with us at least through tomorrow. (more here) As I sit on the 17th floor - it's a little disconcerting to be surrounded by floor to ceiling windows of whiteness. I'm trying to pretend it's something a little more festive - like snow.
If you're curious if I've started packing yet - uh, the answer would be no!
Fairy Princess Joseph
Yesterday Andrew and I went to see Mary Catherine's debut on the Southeast End stage. She was Joseph in her class's nativity play. Madame was not too pleased about having to play Joseph and no matter how much we talked it up about how it was a leading role, how great it was to be Jesus's stepdad, etc - she just wasn't buying it. Why? Because her name is Mary and Mary is special because she has a baby in her tummy.
Yesterday morning, she wasn't too keen on getting into her costume, so I finally got her to put it on, but I had to let her wear a fairy dress beneath it. So - Joseph looked great in her costume (made by her mother, I'll have you know) but with her pink sparkly dress showing underneath. Oh well - gotta do what you gotta do!
Today is her class's Christmas party and then she's finished until we're back in January. I don't know who's more excited, me or her! Tomorrow and Friday she's here with me at the Wharf, which is always good fun.
Have we started packing for our upcoming trip? Uh... no. I'm sure it will all get sorted. Thankfully, I ordered all our presents on the internets, so at least I don't have to worry about getting all of those over. As the dollar is quite weak against the pound, we plan to do a lot of shopping for clothes while we're there. So I don't think we have that much to pack.
Famous last words, I'm sure..
It's the meme time of year!
For fun - here are the first lines of the first and last posts I made for 2006...
January
Begins: Happy New Year! Or, as Mary Catherine says, 'Happy New Ear!' My gastric flu is all gone now...
Ends: Mary Catherine woke up at 4:45 this morning insisting that there was a dog under the chair in her room. A big, black dog that apparently barks a lot.
February
Begins: At the present time, I feel like my world is falling apart a little bit. Not all of it, mind you, only the professional part.
Ends: It's official - I'm British!
March
Begins: This whole exercise is like drugs thing - a big fat lie. I just worked out and I assure you, this feels nothing like (what I've read, mind you) being high is like.
Ends: Well - the last minute packing has begun. we're out the door in a few minutes and on our way. well, i say on our way - i mean, on our way to run a thousand errands before we're actually on the road. my husband has decided that he needs to go shopping for a new pair of jeans.
April
Begins: We're back from disneyworld... we had a fantastic time. but my gosh - we're exhausted. more later.
Ends:We're off to Legoland this morning... We were hoping for decent weather, certainly not too hot and possibly a little chilly.
May
Begins: Legoland was great yesterday - it was raining when we got there and fortunately the sun came out almost immediately.
Ends: This past weekend, I bought a bread machine. I know, it's sort of like, 'hey, what don't I own currently - oh I know!'
June
Begins: Last night, I made cinnamon raisin bread that was absolutely amazing. Soft and dense with lots of plump raisins in all the right places.
Ends: It's official, I'm a fully qualified first aider.
July
Begins: I'm on the mainline (or 'overland') train on the way to the Wharf to have my hair done. Andrew and Mary Catherine went to her swimming lesson and will meet up with me later.
Ends:
As I've said in the comment section on the last post, thank you to everyone who left inspiring comments about the recent work weirdness.
August
Begins: This week seems to be doing that weird time thing where it's going past very quickly, but when I stop to think about it - is actually dragging on a bit. Go figure.
Ends:
I know this has only been a short week due to the Bank holiday on Monday - but my gosh, it's been a killer.
September
Begins: I know you're not supposed to make fun of your children... last night when we got in, Mary Catherine headed for the bathroom, per usual.
Ends: Okay.. it's 4:26am. I can't sleep. Whenever my parents fly I always go in and out of sleep.
October
Begins: Well - here we are... the glorious farm in Cornwall.
Ends: We're off to see Monty Python's Spamalot in the west end this evening.
November
Begins: I'm so excited - I'm leaving work today at noon. Woohoo. I mean, so what if it's to trek all the way to the middle of nowhere for a doctor's appointment that I can't quite recall the purpose of.. NOON, baby, NOON!
Ends: I've already spent a good deal of the last 24 hours thinking 'four years ago today I was doing, thinking, feeling, hoping..' etc. Today is Mary Catherine's fourth birthday.
December
Begins: Hi, my name is Elizabeth, a 35 year-old Scorpio expat living in London. You may or may not think that I have fallen off the face of the planet.
Only time will tell how December will end ... what an interesting year so far!
Meme totally stolen from Nan.
1. Egg Nog or Hot Chocolate?
Eggnog - hands down. Of course, you can't get eggnog in this country (well, not ready made anyway) except at Starbucks. So every now and again I will disgrace myself by asking for a Venti eggnog latte, hold the coffee and cold over ice. The baristas usually look at me like I'm a little weird, but hey - screw it, it's Christmas.
2. Does Santa wrap presents or just sit them under the tree?
Normally Santa wraps most items, but the big ticket ones he leaves out. I used to sneak downstairs on Christmas Eve and see what Santa had left. I never stayed long or played with anything, just popped down to see what was there. I am a person who really likes to have her expectations managed, even at that tender age.
3. Colored lights on tree/house or white?
You know, I went through a phase where I only liked white - but now I'm not so fussed. Anything other than the really manic stuttering blinky ones - they make my head hurt.
4. Do you hang mistletoe?
Nah - my Mr Claus and I don't really require any assistance, thanks!
5. When do you put your decorations up?
After Mary Catherine's birthday at the end of November. Because we travel during the holidays, I like to have things up early enough to enjoy them before we go.
6. What is your favorite holiday dish?
Missus Hubbards cornbread dressing.. Nanny Gran Gran's kifflings.. Mom's Sausage Balls.. Dad's steaks on the grill.. GlaxoSmithKline's Tums..
7. Favorite Holiday memory as a child?
Opening all my presents rather slowly and then displaying them in the living room. Other people (and you know who you are) like to pack it all up and put all the new stuff away.. but not me. I like to create a 'Look what I got' display to rival a department store. And then I used to sit back, watch telly and look at everything from afar.
8. When and how did you learn the truth about Santa?
I think it was the year we went to Florida to stay with my grandparents for Christmas. I have no idea how old I was - but I know that was the year I got a grey body warmer/down vest and a Cabbage Patch doll. As we were staying in their condo, I slept on the sofa and pretended to be asleep when they put 'the goods' under the tree.
I hope Mary Catherine believes in Father Christmas for a good long while. Right now we've got her so duped that she's constantly checking the windows to see if he's really looking at her to see how she's behaving!
9. Do you open a gift on Christmas Eve?
If my father had his way, we would open everything on Christmas Eve. Andrew's family goes to midnight mass, comes home and has bacon butties and then open everything way late at night and then sleep in the next morning. I can't get my head around that.
In my family we open our stocking on Christmas Eve. These are usually filled with 'necessity items' like toothpaste, make-up, tums (see #6), a LifeSavers Storybook and other important items like horoscope books, etc. My father and I usually shop for my Mom's stocking fillers on Christmas Eve at the drugstore, so - bless her - she always ends up with rather interesting items! But, it's tradition!
10. How do you decorate your Christmas Tree?
Ours this year has white lights and a mixture of store bought and homemade ornaments. This year I made ornaments with Mary Catherine - so we have a lot of salt dough tiny men and other cookie cutter shapes, painted with poster paint and sprinkled with liberal amounts of glitter.
11. Snow! Love it or Dread it?
Ooooh.. love it. I think because I grew up in the south where just the idea of snow sends everyone running to the grocery store for oreos and toilet paper - I get very, very excited about the idea. When I moved to London I was so excited, having seen all the beautiful snowy scenes in movies. Uh, hello. It doesn't snow in London. Like, ever.
12. Can you ice skate?
I can ice skate - heck, I took lessons when I was a child. I'd like to get Mary Catherine up on a pair of skates soon - Andrew is not so keen. Seems he's rather fond of his bottom and would like to keep it from hitting the ice.
13. Do you remember your favorite gift?
I have no idea. I've been very lucky throughout my 35 years - so lots of favourites.
14. What’s the most important thing about the Holidays for you?
Going home to America and being with family and friends.
15. What is your favorite Holiday Dessert?
Not Christmas pudding, that's for sure! Ick. I love my garndmother's kiffling cookies and am quite fond of eggnog ice cream.
16. What is your favorite holiday tradition?
In the past few years - taking Mary Catherine to see Santa at Phipps and watching her play with the nativity scene. She always makes all the animals and people line up to meet the baby Jesus. Actually, she's obsessed with baby Jesus and likes to carry him around the house.
17. What tops your tree?
A beautiful, glittery, purple salt dough star. It's a bit small and wonky, but as I made it with my daughter, I love it.
18.Which do you prefer giving or receiving?
I'm not going to lie - I like both. But I really do love watching people open presents that I've put a lot of thought into. I think that's why I get so disappointed that we never get to be around Andrew's family over Christmas - I never get to see them open their gifts. I hate that.
19. What is your favorite Christmas Song?
Cheesy 'Fresh Aire Christmas' music by Manheim Steamroller and Mary Catherine singing 'We Wish You a Merry Christmas' because she says 'Good titles we bring to you and your king'. The one song I'm ready not to hear for another year - Jingle Bells. MC has been humming it for weeks and it's driving me nuts.
20. Candy Canes! Yuck or Yum?
Totally yum. Mary Catherine is definitely my daughter.. her favourite things to have at the same time? Candy Canes and Eggnog!
I was just browsing the December archives from my blog last year...
"Tomorrow is a big day around the tiny little company I work for. BIG day. It's been very interesting watching the run up to this time. Apparently things are going to slow down after tomorrow and there will be a lot of champagne flowing in the afternoon...
And from the following day...
"On the work front, not really what I was expecting. I said that I had no expectations, but I suppose I did in the back of my mind. But hey, you know - I'm terribly pleased to have a job that I love and who knows, maybe next year will be my year. So there.
Well - that day, the big important one, has come around again today. I'd been told that your first year is usually rather disappointing and that has proven true. Today has been much better. I'm not talking the world famous City Bonus type numbers (can you imagine?) - but certainly enough to make me feel valued. Anyway - it's been a good day.
Now, if you'll excuse me, I just managed to knock my glass of champagne all over my desk. Classy!
whatnot
You know - sometimes it's good to be the mom of a girl. See that hairdo at the right? It gave me nothing but immense joy to tie big red ribbons into her hair to match her new Christmas dress that mom made. Fortunately, she actually let me. It was a good day!
It's all go go go at work at the moment, hopefully it will calm down next week in the run up to Christmas. Tonight I'm having my hair coloured (watch this space - and hope that it turns out better than last time) and then going to the store on my own to get all those last minute odds and ends that we need for the air-o-plane next weekend. I'm feeling pretty stressed.
But hey - it's the holidays and I'm kind of looking forward to a little late night, solo shopping. I mean, it'll be just me and the Tesco with minimal crowds. I'm after a new colouring book, crayons, stickers and whatever other bits and bobs I see that I think will amuse a four year-old on a 9.5 hour flight.
I'm not that worried (but yes, I did buy a bottle of Medised, for those 'just in case' times yesterday) as she's a wonderful flier, having done it so much in the past. She's very excited about flying and keeps asking me to talk her through the routine we go through at the airport. It starts like this.. I say, 'First we'll drop off our car off with the valet..' and she chimes in with 'and then we'll go check our luggage and they'll look at our passports and then put tags on our bags and then take our bags to a trolley and then wheel them to the airplane where they'll ride in the bottom of the plane..'
See - the child knows the routine!
Santa
Last Saturday we made our second visit to Father Christmas (we have one more to go - you know, an audience with the real Santa at Phipps in Atlanta). Apparently, Mary Catherine would like a Barbie and a piano. Don't tell - but she's actually getting a Barbie Piano - talk about two birds with one stone, huh?
We're going to Leeds this weekend to celebrate the holidays with Andrew's family. Mary Catherine is very excited because she'll get to see her cousin Philippa again. She's only met her a few times in Philippa's 1.75 years - but Mary Catherine is extremely attached to her. To the point where she was asked to draw a family portrait at school and she drew a picture of Mummy, Daddy and Philippa. When asked where she was in the picture, she said she couldn't be IN it, because she was drawing it! I think that makes a lot of sense!
I do think that Mary Catherine sort of inserts Philippa into our family because she really wants us to have another baby and Philippa is the closest thing we have to that. While I'm happy to have Philippa as our 'baby', it does make me a little sad for Mary Catherine in that she has to borrow her cousin as a sibling.
Does it make me feel badly enough to do something about it? Good Lord no! But still...
Friday
Blogger has been giving me major gip - so again, not ignoring you. Technical difficulties suck. Anyway, how are you? Me, I'm okay. I've gotten all of my Christmas shopping done and I think for the first time ever, I'm enjoying not being in a panic over who gets what. Of course, I was in that state a few weeks back - but that's neither here nor there.
This weekend is our last weekend in London before we go to the States for Christmas. I'm feeling rather pushed to get stuff done that I'm used to let slide until the weekend before we leave. Like, I need to get 'airplane stuff' for Mary Catherine (usually new crayons, colouring and sticker books - BA love us) and we must pack the ever important snack box with her choice of goodies. Thankfully, the snack box is pretty small, so not a lot of huge choices there. We have the added fun of the tighter restrictions, so I need to figure out if I can take milk/juice boxes (are they less than 100ml - I have no idea, but the Soya milk I have in my purse for MC this evening is a whopping 250ml, so I'm guessing that those are out).
While I feel a bit stressy about it all - I guess I enjoy it as well. I mean, worrying about snack boxes and sticker books (best thing ever invented for keeping a child happy on a 10 hour flight, I promise you), it does sort of signal my brain that it's the holidays and time to go home and enjoy being with my family.
I positively can't wait to be there. My mother is the sort that (I know this will surprise you if you know her) just takes over everything the minute we get off the plane. I'm no longer the most responsible person around and can revert to flopping on the sofa until I'm asked to set the table type behaviour. It's very stress-relieving.
Happy Friday to you.
Ever wonder about your carbon footprint is? Click above to calculate and then see how much it would cost you to offset and be carbon neutral. UK residents can poke around, but are not able to calculate their footprint. Bummer.
Doughnuts
We had Mary Catherine's 4th birthday party on Saturday. (see pics here) and while it was a bit chaotic - we really enjoyed it. The children all got to 'make' their own donut (I say make - I mean dip in gooey vat of chocolate and then dunk in infinite sprinkles.. in my opinion the bestest part of doughnut making anyway!) and the parents got to stand around, drink coffee and eat their way through four dozen Krispy Kremes. Did I mention it was manic?
Yesterday we had a lovely time at a tree trimming party thrown by one of Mary Catherine's classmates. It's been nice to get to know the parents of her classmates and other students.
Today I am going to watch her end of term ballet class/performance. I'm looking forward to it - as she's given us previews of her slick ballet moves in the past. I am armed with camera!
cath kid
Hi, my name is Elizabeth, a 35 year-old Scorpio expat living in London. You may or may not think that I have fallen off the face of the planet. Sorry it's been so long - I have no real excuse other than Blogger's been a bit of a pain and my week has been hectic. I wasn't neglecting you, honest.
Ah... Friday. Here I sit with my grande, wet, skinney extra shot peppermint mocha. I can already tell it's going to be a good day. Well, I hope it is.
We have Mary Catherine's birthday party tomorrow morning. All of a sudden a birthday party at a crowded shopping mall on the run up to Christmas in a cafe doesn't sound like such a great idea. I'm sure it will be fine. I made up the party bags last night and the cake is ready to go. For those not in the UK - I will explain that at parties, you bring out the cake, the candles get blown out and it gets sliced up and put into the party bags for the children to take home. Cake and ice cream = traditional birthday.. uh, not here!
Okay - I'm rambling because I've not much to say - so I'll spare you. Have a good weekend and if anything else strikes me as interesting, I'll post again.
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