It's The Little Things

I am not a good sick person. I admit it. Luckily, I usually don't get sick very often. Except for the last month. Actually, I have been sick for over a month. It started out with a cold that took a long time in going away, then it morphed into 'lingering cough/pretty bad morning sickness' (for those of you who don't know, yes I am). And just this week, as the morning sickness has finally started to die down, I got another cold. It's important to note that I wasn't quite over the last cold(s) that I had.

And this most recent one was a doozie. I can honestly say that I've never gone through so many tissues/kleenex/paper towels (last resort) in my life. My nose would not stop dripping/running/being an overall pain in the face. I went through an entire box of kleenexes in four hours. I went through an entire roll of TP earlier that day. And I wasn't wasting these things...I used every part to its fullest capacity. Then we ran out of TP and kleenexes, so I had to use paper towels. Ouch. And yeah, I feel like a real winner with this chapped skin around my nose and upper lip. I'm such a hottie these days.

But I don't want the blog to revolve around me and my ailments (though your sympathy is always welcome...even when I'm not sick). No, I'd like to give a shout out to my wonderful husband. I really did something right when I agreed to marry this guy. He's been wonderful. He's shopped especially for the softest tissues for my nose. He's handled my food aversions and sickness without a word of complaint. He's come home to me groaning on the couch, half delirious mumbling incoherently and either made dinner, or actually ate what I'd prepared in my delirium (like frozen veg that wasn't quite unfrozen) he's done all of this without any complaint. He's always concerned about me.

I've been trying to be a more positive person. Like I said, I don't do sick very well, and it's fine when it only hits me once a year or so, but this fall I've been having is rough. However, having such a great husband has helped me want to be a non-complainer. So I'm trying to power through with a smile. Personally, I prefer the complaining, but you know...I'm always up for new challenges.

So here are some of the quirks about my husband that I love. He'll be horrified that I did this, but our six month anniversary just passed and well, I feel like doing it.

So here it is, just a spattering of things that I love about Matt:

How he has to sleep with three pillows (I have one) and how he creates what he calls his 'fort', which involves two at the head, and one along the side of the bed (not my side, the side on the edge...I suppose I make up the other wall of the fort) this is very important to him. In fact, one night I asked to have one of his pillows because my doctor suggested that sleeping with my head propped higher up might help me drain. He willingly gave it over, but the next night the pillow was off of the spare bed and making up the missing wall of his fort.

He loves playing Fifa on Xbox. I don't begrudge him this. He works hard, he takes care of me, and he really loves it. It allows him to live out his fantasy of being a football (soccer for all the yanks out there) manager. He can sell and buy players and then play them in matches. Currently he's managing Fulham, which is both of our favorite team in the Premier. He gets so excited when he scores goals and wins games, and kind of pouts a little when he loses...it's funny.

In the middle of the night when I wake both of us up with one of my infamous coughing fits, he always sleepily asks me if I'm okay and if he can do anything. He usually stays awake to hear my response.

He debates things with me. We don't really argue, but we both tend to have strong opinions and are kind of stubborn (which according to our most recent ultrasound, our child has inherited). But he doesn't let me win. He, of course, is always right and always wants to be the one to win...then again so do I. We're competitive that way (friendly though).

He's a great uncle. When he married me he inherited 11 nieces and nephews. And he couldn't be happier. He's always on the lookout for things for the kids and will often say things like "we should pop into that McDonalds there and see if they have any good toys for (insert niece/nephew name here)" and on their birthdays he always insists that the presents be perfect, even if I, with all my years of vast experience think otherwise. This is why our very active 4 year old nephew got a battery powered water gun that shoots up to 25 feet. Sorry again Bek.

He daydreams with me. And he listens to my dreams and fears and hopes. And he does everything he can to make them come true. Even if some of them involve winning the lotto or inheriting a large amount of money. Which he's still working on.

He's a great provider. He's a great encourager. He's convinced that I can do whatever I want and that I'll succeed.

I could go on and on, but let's face it. Most of you stopped reading about five paragraphs ago. I don't care. It's our blog and our history and I'm just very appreciative of the wonderful man I get to spend forever with.

Mock me if you will. I don't care.

Now, I've got to go and tell Matt how proud I am of him because Fulham just beat Liverpool in PK's (on Fifa of course, that would never happen in real life, unfortunately). That's my man!

We built this city!

No this is not about the Starship song but more about the most populated city in the European Union. Yes, that’s right London.

One of things that strikes you as you walk around the many streets of this city is the amount of construction work happening all at once. The term hustle and bustle is aptly described by what you find in London with the constant flow of vehicle and people traffic complemented by the noise of the dust raising construction works. I work in one of the busiest districts of the city, right by the world famous Oxford Street and would often go for a walk around the block during my lunch hour. I thought it would be a good time to let you in on what I mean by building this city.

Early morning works by my office.


Lunch time walk around the block. Some the side streets.

Oxford St - This construction site seems to go on and on.

Is there anywhere where I can escape all this construction madness? This is what I'm thinking as I head back into my office…oh no, what's this, they've started in my building now...no, I guess not.

Things That Make You Go Hmmm...

I ate some peanut butter on toast today and it made me feel a little sick afterwards. Not knowing what I could do to alleviate this ailment, I decided to then eat some peanut butter cups.

I felt better.

Hmmmm...

Still Laughing...

Here's a joke I told Matt yesterday that he thought was really funny. In fact, he thought it was so funny, it was 'blog worthy' so here it is:

What did the tie say to the hat?

You go on ahead, I'll hang around here.

Pretty funny eh?

Yeah, you can thank us by sending money. Isn't a little bit of laughter for your day worth it?

Forced Update...

I don't really have much to update right now. But my semi-abusive husband told me if I didn't update our blog, then I would have to suffer the consequences. I think that means either a beating (if he has the energy) or I have to go without dinner tonight.

People told me that marriage would be hard, but I didn't think it would be this hard. Ah well. I made my bed and now I've got to lie in it, right?

So an update...hmmm...

I think I'll update about our neighbors who live upstairs from us. We live in an apartment complex. There are neighbors to each side of us (who we never hear) and neighbors above us. We didn't always have these neighbors, they moved in about three months or so ago, we remember hearing them walk around a bit, but nothing too major.

But then they got louder. And louder. We've determined this about them. They're of asian ethnicity and don't speak much English (that's kind of important later in the story) and they're young and they're loud. Really loud. We know there's a girl that lives up there and she has the most annoying laugh. It's really bad. And really loud. And not just loud during awake hours, but loud at night when we're trying to sleep. On a weekday.

But we were able to live with that. Until a disturbing trend started. We started noticing that several nights (on a school nights too) their door would buzz (our building works so that people outside buzz and you have to buzz to let them in, very Jerry Seinfeld) around 11:00 or so. The guy would be let up and we'd hear them talk and that annoying laugh would filter on down through.

So Matt and I head off to bed and all is well, right? Wrong. About 1am is when the dreaded guitar gets taken out. And it's not just quiet singing they do (we're pretty sure there's more than two, but usually its only the guy singing) but it's loud. And off key. And not very good. And often if he doesn't get the right chords, he'll go back and do it again and again. You know it's loud when you are sound asleep and are woken up. And you can't get back to sleep. No matter what. It's at these times when Matt and I start talking about what we can do to shut them up. Throw a rock at their window? Possibly. Go outside and buzz them pretending we're the police and we've had a noise complaint? Good one, but we need to improve our accents first. Go upstairs and knock on their door and when it opens push past them and head straight for the guitar and then break it? That one has come up more than once. Being sleep deprived will do that to you.

The worst thing isn't that they've ruined some of our best loved pop songs. Its that they have a particular liking to one song, a song we both used to like. But not anymore. This song is 'Torn' by Natalie Imbruglia. I personally think it's the only one in English that the laughing girl knows. I've actually heard her practicing by herself in her flat during the day. And it always gets played. Every time. More than once. Without fail.

These guitar sessions? They'll last until 4am. Not cool.

So we've talked to the porter, we've heard other neighbors knock on their door and complain (and get into a nice swearing match with the offenders) but nothing changes. What can be done?

Well, Matt and I are petty people. We know that. We accept that. And we have our own little form of revenge. Every morning Matt leaves for work and this has occurred. He buzzes them. They haven't had much sleep being up so late singing (of course, neither have we). But when the buzzer goes, you think someone is at your door. It makes them get up and check. We'll also buzz them when we get in at night. Yes, it's petty. Yes it doesn't do as much damage as we'd like it to.

But it makes us feel better. And really, when you're as sleep deprived as we are, you have to hold on to what you can.

Hopefully this update is good enough for my tyrannical husband. Do you know what he just did? Made me lunch! Doesn't he realize that I'm an independent woman who can make her own lunch? See what I mean? Abusive.