Euro Trip Part 1

As long ago promised, here is a summary of my trip to Europe last summer. It was so much fun, and I wish I could go back! Even though I thought I had, I didn't fully appreciate the freedom that I had this summer. I really wish I could go back to being able to do whatever I want, whenever I want. But I guess that's not supposed to be part of being a real adult.

This first blog will cover the first part of our trip: London. I will try to remember all of the major stuff we did. And I must say - I LOVE England. I'm still trying to convince my dad that he should go back to work over there, just so I have a reason to visit.

We flew over on June 3rd, arriving on the 4th due to the 10 hour flight and changing 6 time zones. We spent our first full day in London hitting the major highlights: Big Ben, Parliament, the London Eye, and Westminster Abbey. There was a really creepy rent-a-cop at the entrance to the Abbey who insisted that we all give him a hug and take a picture with him. Creepy. That night we went to see the musical 'Wicked' on the West End. I absolutely loved it! I already had the soundtrack memorized even though I had never seen it, and finally seeing it was amazing!

Westminster Abbey, a very beautiful and amazing building!

Creepy, creepy security guard at Westminster

Our 'Flight' on the London Eye

The view was amazing. My new camera could even zoom enough to see Buckingham Palace.

The House of Parliament and Big Ben

Wicked!!!! That's all I have to say about that.

The next day we took a river cruise from Westminster to the Tower of London. It took most of the day to see the Tower, but it was worth it! We joined one of the tours of the grounds that the Tower guards, the Beefeaters, conduct each day. We even got the see the Tower Bridge open.

Getting off the cruise boat in front of the Tower Bridge

The Tower of London - where many a famous person was imprisoned, executed, or murdered.

Carly and I with one of the Beefeaters at the Gate

Our Beefeater guide, with the Tower Bridge raising behind him

Memorial dedicated to 7 people who were executed on the scaffold that once stood here, including Queen Anne Boleyn

On Saturday we took a bus tour to Windsor, Bath, and Stonehenge. It was a long day full of history. Windsor is the preferred residence of Queen Elizabeth II, who was there that day, as indicated by the royal standard flying over the tower.

The tower the Queen resides in at Windsor, with the royal standard flying above.

Roman baths at Bath - I don't think I would want to bathe in that water!

Kristin posing at Stonehenge - I'm not sure she knows how to take a serious picture

Sunday we went to the British Museum, and I think another museum but I can't remember which one. We also went to Kings Cross Station to see platform 9 3/4 which you can take to get to Hogwart's. Monday we did some laundry - laundromats are NOT my favorite - and walked around Hyde Park and Kensington Palace before making a quick trip to Harrod's.

Lots of mummified pets at the British Museum - monkey, alligator, eel, cat - I think the Egyptians like their pets a lot

All aboard for the Hogwart's Express!

Kensington Palace

Largest department store I've ever been to - I could afford some chocolates, but that's all

That about wraps up the London part of our trip. It was loads of fun, and it was only the beginning!

Catch-up again

I've recently started reading blogs again after a long break, and decided I should finally try to get back into my own blogging again. In my defense, since I last blogged, I've moved, had wisdom teeth removed, evacuated for a hurricane and spent days without power and even longer without internet, started my first 'real' job, sent my little sister off on her mission, moved again and didn't have internet for about another 2 months, and then the holidays came. Hence, no blogging. Not having internet for so long made it especially hard. Since finally getting internet at my apartment, I'm still trying to get used to having it and actually using it.

Since I've been sick and getting nothing done this weekend, I thought I might as well try to get some blogging done on what I've done the past several months. I'm hoping to get some blogs done for the major highlights. But this also comes with a warning that 'busy season' for my job is now here, and once I start working from 9 AM to 10 PM, I don't expect much blogging will be done. I'm already looking forward to when those hours are over! April can not come soon enough.

For those of you who have been waiting for me to blog more, I'm sorry for the lack of, and will try not to disappoint. And even though I don't comment on blogs much, if you're someone who's looking at mine, I'm probably looking at yours as well. Here's to a (hopefully) new habit for 2009!

Paranoid

Just as I was about to fall asleep about an hour ago, I heard a knock on my door. Thinking this is very strange, I walk to the door to look out the peep hole and see a guy in a baseball cap that I do not know. Then I hear him ask someone else "Do you see any other cool looking houses?" This seems obvious to me that they don't think they know me, and they aren't just knocking on the wrong door. But this makes me wonder what on earth these two guys are doing at 2:30 in the morning knocking on doors of people they don't know in "cool looking houses."

Then they stood in front of my neighbors door for a moment before walking down the street, I assume, in search of another "cool house" to disrupt. So I call the College Station police to let them know there are suspicious people in the neighborhood. About half way through the phone call, I begin to wonder whether this is worth bothering the police about at this hour of the morning, or am I just paranoid? Any thoughts? Justified notice to the police, or paranoia?

Life Happenings

I have received much criticism for my lack of blogging. In my defense, I was out of the country for a month and have been recovering and working for the past week of so. I guess I can try to catch up now.

First, I want to announce that I passed all 4 parts of the CPA exam!!! I got the score for the hardest section, Financial Accounting and Reporting, on my birthday. That was a nice birthday present. Then it took another week to get the score for Audit. This had me very worried because I took that section April 4th and everyone else I know got their scores in May. Then I heard stories of people's scores getting lost. So when I finally got my score, I was indeed very happy. I never thought I would have been able to pass all 4 the first time. Thank you to everyone for your prayers and support! The only thing in between me and my CPA license now is a year of work experience. Hopefully I can make it through that also.

Next, for those who have been inquiring, Europe was amazing. Loads of fun, and also loads of tired! I've spent much time trying to catch up on sleep the past week. We made it through the whole trip with only one trip to the police station (more on that later). We had no medical or financial emergencies, very few occasions of being lost, and I was even able to handle driving on the left side of the road for 9 days with little difficulty. I'll try to get some blogs and pictures of the trip up soon. I took about 1300 pictures in the month we were gone, so I'm having a hard timing going through them all.

In other news, I'm getting ready to move away from College Station forever. I have mixed feelings about this. I'm glad I'm done with school, but I'm also rather afraid of entering the real world. Gone are the days of naps and staying up late on weeknights. No longer will I be free to run errands or visit friends in the middle of the day. I should be ready for this, but I also don't feel prepared for, or capable of, the job I'm starting in September and the responsibilities that come with being a "real adult."

I also have mixed feelings about where I'm moving to. Since I won't get my first paycheck until October, I'm moving in with the parentals for now. This will be much easier on my finances, but I've also grown out of the desire for living at home. I like going home to visit, but I also love having my own home to return to. My parents also have my nieces living with them part-time right now, which makes their house much more crowded and chaotic than usual. So I've been thinking a lot lately about how long to live in Lake Jackson and/or how early I can afford to get my own place in Houston. This line of thinking then leads me to wonder where in Houston I should live, and how much rent I can afford, which has just been leading to headaches. If anyone has any info on housing in Houston, I would much appreciate any help you could offer.

For now, I'm just working here in College Station and beginning packing and cleaning. My roommate is spending this month in Houston, so I'm also getting a taste of what it will be like to live alone. I'm not sure yet how I feel about it. However, I am enjoying being in College Station and not going to class. This is the longest period of time I've been here without being enrolled in classes. It's kinda nice to work about 6 hours a day, then go home for the evening and have no homework or studying to do.

Anyway, I'm sure I have bored you all enough by now with my thoughts and concerns of late. Look for more blogs with info and pictures on Europe in the near future!

Playing Catch-Up

So my best friend from way back in high school invited me to view her blog, and in trying to catch up on her extensive blogging activities, I realized I am severally lacking in mine! I don't think three posts in almost 6 weeks is quite enough. So here's what I've been up to the past couple of weeks. I've already covered Graduation. Then I dove straight back into studying non-stop (yes, right after graduation). Then I took the fourth out of four parts of the CPA exam last Wednesday. Don't ask how it went, because it was not good. I still don't have scores for the last two parts, but I am expecting one of them will have to be re-taken. That will not make me happy.

After my test, I wandered down to good old Lake Jackson for the rest of the week for Malorie's wedding. Rachel was a Bridesmaid, so she was home and we participated in wedding festivities all weekend. We helped decorate the church Thursday afternoon, and the bachelorette party was Thursday night. Then Rachel had the Bridesmaid luncheon Friday, the Rehearsal in the afternoon, and we both went to the Rehearsal dinner. After the dinner, they had a dance in the cul de sac in front of Malorie's house in lieu of having dancing at the reception. Then Saturday was the big day. Everything worked out very well, and it was such a beautiful wedding! I'm so happy for you, M&M!!!

Bride and Father walking down the aisle - final moments as Malorie Theising

The lovely lattice that Rachel and I decorated with the scrumptious cakes!

Mr. and Mrs. Michael Leyva!

Mal and Rach - the closest friends I've ever seen

Rachel and I were also called into action on Friday to be family representatives at Andie's 3rd grade awards ceremony. Rebecca was working that night, so she was sleeping, and Mom was working at the temple in Houston Friday morning, so Andie was afraid no one would be there. Rebecca called us in the morning and told us about it, so I picked Rachel up from the Bridesmaid lunch early and we showed up to surprise Andie. It was so cute! It was also so weird to be back at Bess Brannen Elementary. My 3rd grade teacher was still there!

Andie with her stylin' TAKS participation metal

Aunt Rachel, Andie and Aunt Sarah

Tobbie also got some awards for 4th grade, but she was in the hospital until yesterday, so we didn't get to go to her awards ceremony. That was rather sad. She is now home and feeling much better, thankfully.

I've also been working on planning our Euro Trip. Oh my great day! I am not attempting a long trip to Europe again until I can afford a travel agent! We finally have our schedule down and know where we're going. We've also booked all of our flights and most of our hotels. What a trial it has been! We leave on Tuesday, and I haven't even thought about packing. Yikes!

Our final decision on where to go includes London, Paris, Barcelona and a visit up to Northern England where my parents lived. We're going to stay with some of their friends there and also pop up to Scotland for 2 days, as the English would say. I'm really excited, but also pretty nervous and anxious about getting around everywhere. Here's a preview:

London

Paris

Barcelona

I think this has been sufficiently long enough to get me caught up. I'm hoping we'll be able to find internet while in Europe so that I can post pics and stuff while we're gone. If not, there might be a ridiculous amount of time in between posts again. There will be pictures when I get home for sure, though! Cheers, Au revoir, y Adios!

When One Door of Happiness Closes, Another Opens

I did it! I finally graduated from college. After 5 years and summer school and an internship, I'm done and I have my Master's degree. I feel excited and relieved, but also confused about what to do with myself now. It was a strange feeling when I realized that I never have to go to campus for anything again. Though I've been ready to be done with college for a while, now that I am I feel strangely sad about it. I couldn't wait for it to be over, but now that it is, I don't know where the last 5 years went.

Graduation was this weekend, and my family came for it. We took some pictures and had some cake and such. It was a pretty fun weekend.


My older sister, Rebecca, gave me a gift that has a quote from Helen Keller:

When one door of happiness closes, another opens; But often we look so long at the closed door that we do not see the one which has been opened for us.

So my goal now is to find the door that has opened. Starting with a trip to Europe in June that I'm planning with some friends. Then I'll be starting my job in Houston in September. I'm excited, scared, and anxious all at the same time. But I'm just going to keep looking for that door that has opened and see where life takes me!


Once an Aggie...Always an Aggie
Fightin' Texas Aggie Class of 2007
WHO7P!!!

Welcome!

I've never really thought of creating a blog, but since my little sister did, I thought I would. Rachel's is titled Lovell Me Tender, so mine naturally became Lovell Me True. I'm sure there will not be much work done on this for the next couple of weeks, with graduation coming up and all. But I then have the whole summer off. Hopefully with a trip to Europe, when I can use this to post updates on all of my travels. So for now, Welcome! As for what's to come... who knows?!