Project Gypsy Feet needs YOU!

So, this week is going to be/ is already mad with moving. To make things a little easier and also exciting I thought I'd do some self advertising and encourage all of you to take a look at The Gypsy Feet, leave a comment AND send us your picture to be featured - that way I don't have to think too hard about posting and you'll be tickled pink to find your picture and story on our site :)

It's win-win.

Send your pictures and stories to wandering_shoes@live.com

Extra points go to anyone who passes this glorious opportunity on to friends. You'll be blessed.

The hoose!

The picture never did turn up so I used my brain and did some magic and here it is!

Update, update, who's got the update?

I tried to post a picture from my phone on here but it hasn't showed up yet...

uuuum, so, Stuart's in California right now. He just signed the papers and met our new landlord. We officially have a little 2 bedroom house in Hayward. We were nervous about living there because we were told very bluntly not to. We've had so much trouble finding a place to live though that we didn't have much choice. We both feel good about it and so that's that.

The house is situated in a little cul de sac with 5 other houses owned by our landlord - who lives in one of the houses too. He's been there for 25 years. So it seems like a pleasant, safe set up. We leave on Tuesday and will move in on Wednesday.

Stuart left yesterday morning with his dad to go down and check the place out. I stayed here because if I want to be able to travel next week I can't be sitting in a car for 28 hours prior and I had a photo session on Thursday that I've been editing. You can take a sneak peek of it here.

I'm glad I've had that editing to do to keep me busy with Stuart gone. I had the worst sleep ever last night and ended up watch 3rd Rock From The Sun until 6am so I could fall asleep. I startled myself awake at 10am *yaaaawn*...

Anyway, that's all for now. Hopefully the little picture Stuart sent me will show up and you'll be able to see our little house.

Housing Update:

On Sunday I was talking to my dad who promised me if I contacted some church members (Bishops) in the area we're planning on being in that we would find a housing solution by the middle of the week. He helped me find some email addresses and phone numbers on Sunday - also my new friend Rachel has been an enormous help.

I sent some emails and made some calls. Two emails were replied to and then a Bishop called me yesterday morning asking for more details. He said he'd look around and think about it.

Then last night I got a call from a man who has a room we can rent in their home until we get on our feet.

So, that's where we're at and it feels a hell of a lot better than where we were at on Sunday, I'll tell you that for nothing!

Thanks for all the help and emails and encouraging words. I appreciate them all.

We've learned a lot from this experience.

Uuuugh...

I made an oath to quit whining so much on my blog. It's boring and pathetic BUT I need help.

For those of you who once graduating from University went on to something else ie. medical school, law school, dental school... more school... How did you manage to pay for things in the beginning?

Right now Stuart and I have a problem. School starts on the 25th of this month ie. super soon! We have a place we want to rent that feels right BUT they want us to have 6 (other places want 12) months rent in our bank account seeing as neither of us are working/don't earn 2.5 times more than the monthly rent. We don't have that money. Our school loans will cover everything but they won't be in our account for a few more weeks. We don't have anyone who can co-sign for the place either.

I've contacted people from church and spoken to a Bishop in the area who's looking for someone who will let us rent a room from them for a short time.

So... what do we do?

Forward facing, future chasing...

Last night I informed Stuart that we're having a huge 10th Anniversary Party ie. The Reception I wish we'd had - we're more than half way there! His reply was, "Oh really?" which actually means, "Super! I can hardly wait!" I'm quite sure of it. I have some theme ideas in mind already...

I didn't plan on posting about those plans quite yet but was inspired by Naomi of The Rockstar Diaries who shared this link to Joanna of A Cup Of Jo who has a series of posts written by different people entitled: Secrets To A Happy Marriage. The posts tickled my heart and got me to thinking; what would I say are our secrets to our more-than-happy marriage? Well, lucky for you I have some things to share. (I'll tell you more about my Celebration of Love/10th Anniversary Party later.)

1. Stuart and I don't go to bed without each other. This happens to be one of Nie Nie's secrets to her happy marriage also. Whilst dating we often spoke about how much we couldn't wait until we didn't have to say 'goodbye' to one another at the end of the day. How much we looked forward to spending our sleep together. We go to bed together, laugh/chat for a bit, say our goodnights/I love yous, we hold hands and fall asleep. It's a special time.

2. We're silly together. I think our silliness is quite evident on this blog. There's more than enough seriousness in this world without us adding to it when it isn't needed. We joke a lot. We laugh a lot. We laugh at each other a lot. We do stupid/embarrassing things just to make each other laugh. I love his smile and he loves it when I suffocate with laughter.

3. We remember how I found him. It's a miracle to us. We don't believe in 'The One' but he's the one I want and I'm the one he wants. We make each other 'The One'.

4. We say 'I love you' in different ways. Stuart often tells me, "you're my best friend" or "you're my favourite" and sometimes I'll tell him "I need you" in reply to "I love you"... We say the actual words "I love you" about 10 billion times a day along with our other ways of saying it. We're not embarrassed to say it in front of people either. I'm not embarrassed to yell it at him in the middle of the Target carpark either.

5. We're on the same team. Whenever he gets snippy with me I let him finish what he's saying then I'll say something like "did you mean to speak to me like that?" and he'll say "nooo, I was just upset" and then I'll say "that's what I thought because I know you know I hate it when you talk to me like that" and he'll say "I'm sorry. I didn't mean it" then I'll say "ok, now tell me what's bothering you." We communicate well. Our problems get solved quick. If either of us are bothering the other - which happens now and again - we can say "you're bugging me" and it's fixed. If he asks for my opinion he'll get it even if it isn't what he wants to hear and we can discuss it without being mean or rude to each other. I love that we can talk.

How does this make you feel?

Dreaming in American.

I always sort of felt like I'd end up in America. How I'd get here I wasn't sure. There were a couple times my parents spoke about selling up and moving here. At one point they had the paperwork.

I always dreampt of going to high school here. Cheerleaders, jocks, lockers, no school uniform, being home early in the afternoon instead of at 4pm etc... I thought about going to school dances, prom, homecoming (whatever that means) or going to football games, dates, high school graduation, getting a drivers license at 16 etc...

Dreaming of America was a nice way to escape the dull, poor life I had. Once I finished high school I was done dreaming of cheer leaders and prom (I still dream of prom actually) and having a locker. I thought about getting a cool job maybe in fashion design. I thought of living in a cool city like Seattle or San Francisco or Los Angeles. I thought of the cute girl friends I'd have as room mates and the fun we'd have.

At one point I looked in to going to a school over here but figured there was no point because an American education doesn't exactly translate in the UK. And to be honest I'm not exactly disciplined enough for higher education, I barely made it through High School. I'm a free spirit. America was just a dream unless some miracle came along...

Then I met Stuart and let him marry me - you're welcome, Stuart ;) And my dreams of having cute room mates in a cute little apartment went away. (I have one handsome room/bed mate.)

Now I'm here. The dream is different. It's a little more complicated but it's still bright and exciting.

Now I dream of having a beautiful big house and decorating. I dream of having babies - that's a big step for me, I also dream of having health insurance but that's not what I'm blogging about tonight. Babies though! I've been dreaming of having one! I know!

I dream of raising children who I hope will dream those same things I did. I don't want to live through my children per se (is that how you use that phrase? I don't even know.) but their lives are going to be an adventure for me. I'll be raising children in a culture I only dreamed of and yet their culture won't be like everyone elses because I'll instill some of my Scottishness (table manners) in them.

I'm so excited to be getting closer to that final dream I have of owning a home and raising children with Stuart. It's close! Yes, I'll admit I've dreampt of the OC life. Rich. The idea is so foreign to me that it's like an alternate ego lifestyle dream thing - where I'm skinny and have nice long, thick hair but that's not who I aim to be. I want the simplicity of not having to spend a ton of money. I want money but I want to save it.

School starts in just over two weeks, we don't have a place to live yet but we have our eyes on a few places. We just need to wait for the money to appear - money does that in America! Then we'll move into our new (rental) home that may or may not have fruit trees in the garden and that may or may not have a garage. It'll most likely have 3 bedrooms and more than one bathroom because that's how houses are in America! It's a dream!

I'm excited to move to California and to be there on time for Halloween. We'll host potlucks and movie nights and we'll be our fun, silly selves. I'm so excited!

This summer marks the end of a lot of things. It's sad but I have a feeling of completion. Like the end of a chapter or maybe even the end of a book. I'm older now. I'm an actual adult, I have been for a while but I've been trying to catch up on my lost American youth. I like to do silly things and behave like a fun sister but it's time for this sister to find new ways to have fun. It might be time to have a baby. I'm feeling pretty responsible right now. The silliness will continue but I can't be dressing up like a pirate more than once a month anymore. We have bills to pay and I have skills that can earn money. I need to get down to it and start setting a more responsible example and apply myself. Don't worry, I'm not going to stop doing Silly Girl photo shoots but I need to change myself a little so I can be more serious and not feel like I'm 17. I like feeling 17 but I should stop behaving like 17.

I want the house, I want the big kitchen and the big bathtub. I want to have fresh cookies waiting for my kids when they get home from school. I want all that. I need to work on getting it. It's time to settle down. Stuart's going to school year round which will help me from reverting back to my state of irresponsibility come summertime. I'm going to be a fun mum - when the time comes. I've had the best example after all so I have no reason not to be.

I'm ready to grow up now. Thank you for watching me bumble about my prolonged adolescence :)

What will I dream of next? I have no idea.

PS. Is 'dreampt' a word?

Summer Reading List:

I thought that since I suck so much at blogging I might do a few book reviews because I've ready some books this summer. If you've read any of them to let me know what you thought about them. I'll be reviewing when I feel like it ;) Most of them in my opinion are 5 stars - luckily, because who wants to waste time reading a rubbish book?

The Boy in The Striped Pajamas *****
I Capture The Castle *****
Nobody's Prize **
A Great and Terrible Beauty***
Hattie Big Sky *****

The Great Gatsby *****
The Five People You Meet in Heaven *****

This was summer.

Brights and black and whites...

This week I've done two photo shoots. The first one was on Wednesday evening and was a Silly Girls shoot. The theme was colour and fun. Check out the pics here and there are some on my website too.

Then last night we had a last minute family photo shoot for Stuart's family because his sisters leave for school on Sunday. For being so last minute it turned out well again, you can see more on my website. When I was processing the pictures I noticed such a big change in the colours. Autumn is here. I look forward to taking more Autumn pictures. I love the crispy, goldeness of this season.

2 Silly Girls Extravaganza!

Today's the day of the final shoot of summer and all silly girls (or girls who need more silliness) are invited! Young, old, inbetween - whatevs! If you want to come, come!

I have balloons of all sizes - ok, 3 sizes - and a helium tank. I have enough bubbles for an army to blow - you might need to bring your own wand. DO IT! Bring props if you want - I'm specifically looking for Hula Hoops.

Dress in bright solids - tshirt, dress, skirt, tights, scarves, hats - whatever you fancy. Accessories are encouraged :) Sharing is also encouraged.

More info here and here.

Here's Megan's 2 Silly Girls Balloon pictures.

PS. Don't worry if you're going to be late, we'll be there a while :)