This one has been big in the wedding planning department.
After our positive post last month about our bridesmaid dresses, we went to order them and guess what - they were sold out of our colour!! We chased for weeks to find out when they were getting more in, to no avail. So we got our girls on the job. Received links to so many different dresses from our bridesmaids, which was so lovely they were so excited to help out! We liked a few, though not quite as much as the ones that were sold out... then magically right as we were ordering a fabric sample for one of them, our dresses came back into stock, and we quickly bought all six then and there. Phew! So now they are on their way to Mum's house, hopefully ready for when we arrive in a week's time, when we can bring our UK based dresses back with us!
We met with a florist over Skype, who we really love, and who hopefully will come to our site viewing with us when we are home. He was so excited about our vision for the day, and had a lot of creative ideas (including a possible floral headpiece for Laura!) - we can't wait to see all our gorgeous flowers!
We received a sample menu from a potential caterer this week, which we couldn't be more excited about. As you know, we LOVE all things food - so we'd put a lot of thought into what we would like on our menu, actually wrote it out on the car ride home from Lauren & Sarah's wedding, and the caterer really brought our ideas to life! We get to do a menu tasting when we are home, which will be so exciting. Potentially, there are three types of desserts, all gorgeous and with different berries in them!
Finally, we have our makeup trial on the day of our engagement session, which will be great to help us look better in the photos, but also to give us an idea of what we want to look like on our wedding day. We've never gotten professional makeup done before, and are not generally very good at it, so hiring a makeup artist is a must for us. As well as hair - we are not very girly when it comes to those things!
This is what we'd look like if we did it all ourselves - yikes!
We've decided on a location for our shoot, the Boise foothills just before sunset, so it'll be gorgeous and desert-y, and hopefully how we've always imagined them. Our wedding photographers are great, so we are so excited! We just need to find the outfits, which is on the agenda for tomorrow! Women be shoppin' - women. be. shoppin.
One week to go until we are HOME!! Seriously just can't wait!!
Almost 6 months ago to the day I wrote this post (Here) about how my parents did not take the news of our engagement well at all. Re-reading the post is hard in itself, at the time I was at the stage of deciding if we should cut my parents out of our lives.............
Fast forward 6 months and I wanted to record an update - where better to do it than our blog?!
Yesterday Laura and I did what I am sure hundreds of Brits do on a bank holiday weekend - we went to the parents' . What makes this unique for us is that it was my parents' house we were at. It was the first time in 4 years that we drove home as a couple, were welcomed as a couple and spent the day hanging out with family as a couple before leaving to drive home together.
We arrived at 2pm as my Mum had asked us to help get the house ready before the rest of the family arrived. This meant an hour was spent moving chairs and tables, but left an hour for sitting around catching up. That's right,the 4 of us - Laura, me, my Mum and my Dad together- it's all I ever wanted. I knew in my heart that there was no reason why we couldn't all get on, and yesterday proved it.
By the time the rest of the family arrived we had caught up on all our latest news and were in a good place, it was a great way to start the day. As with my 30th party - the one where Laura had been invited without my knowledge and I officially got more for my birthday that I could have hoped for (full post)- the gathering was in my parents' back garden and we just chilled with my sister and her boyfriend, Aunt and Uncle and cousin and his girlfriend.
Nothing particularly eventful happened, L and I both found out that we are relatively good at boules and not too bad at quiz games, but that's all I ever wanted to happened- us just to be accepted into my family, no drama.
At points I would stand and watch the scene without anyone knowing - not creepy I promise- and wipe a tear of joy away. How can so much have changed in 6 months?
Driving back yesterday L and I were talking about how things have gotten better, we were trying to find out if there was a turning point or something that happened to tip things towards acceptance, especially with my Dad, and neither of us could think of one single moment where everything changed. How strange is that - over 6 months things just changed!
Whenever I have been sent encouraging emails, messages or comments by the wonderful supportive people who read our blog, I always get overcome with emotion and feel so grateful that someone would take that time to share their story and advice with me. Although I always felt somewhat challenged and unable to accept that things would get better for me, for us. It wasn't that I didn't want to believe, it was in giving myself hope I feared that if things didn't get better it would be harder.
The thing I have learnt in the 4 and a half years with L is that you have to expect the unexpected - with family, with friends, with colleagues and with complete strangers, both in the positive and negative. The biggest challenge, however, is being prepared for the reactions- I don't think I could ever advise anyone on when and how it gets better, or how to prepare for it but I could not be more thankful that L has always been there to listen to me.
I know our journey is just getting started and I couldn't be happier with where we are right now. In less than 2 weeks we will be over in the USA seeing our wedding plans come to life and this time I won't be worried to come back and sharing details with my family. My Dad won't be joining us for the wedding - that issue isn't resolved although he's come further in the last 6 months than I could have imagined- and to everyone else -my Mum, my sister, my extended family, Laura's family and of course my amazing Laura, I am so amazed thankful and overwhelmed that differences aside they have all pulled together to support me.
So, we didn't do the last two weeks of Throwback Thursday. Oops!
But this week, we are back with a vengeance. Well, maybe not a vengeance, but we are back anyway. Aaaand actually we've just learned that this is the last one, so hey we're back for one!
Back to tell you one of our memories of high school (or secondary school for the ole' Brit).
Laura:
I loved high school so much. I had good friends, loved my classes and activities, was good at school which helped, was the thinnest I've ever been in my life and spent my days zipping around in Jerome (my car, read the post!). My favourite class (besides choir, we were Glee before Glee was Glee, fool) was Advanced Placement European History. It just sounds super exciting, right? Besides the basic reasons I loved the class (Europe schools America in history SO hard!) it was the way Mr. Stan made everything come to life.
Riding a flamingo on Mr. Stan's lawn in high school
In this class, we staged a mock EU (I was the Baltic nations), put together presentations on European countries, where I had the UK, I put together a video of clips from classic British shows like Mr Bean, songs from the Spice Girls, Beatles, etc (my Britain was pretty England focused), brought in scones with clotted cream and jam, and none other than my Dad, Agent Smith, who taught the class some London cockney. It was so badass, everyone loved him. I digress - My favourite thing we did in AP Euro was when learning about the Luddites, who protested against newly developed labour-saving machinery from 1811 to 1817 by destroying the new technoogy - we brought in our own technology (that we no longer needed or worked), and took to it with axes and giant hammers! Talk about an affective lesson! I brought in an old microwave I think, and we smashed it to bits. Just so cool. Mr. Stan had a bust of Lenin on his desk throughout the year, and on my last day of school, I took him and left a ransom note saying he was going travelling for the summer - I took him with me on my family trip to Europe, photographed him in front of landmarks and in funny positions, and sent them to Mr. Stan weekly with an email address I set up - leninstravels@hotmail.com. It was so awesome, and a friend of mine later took him on another trip and took over the email. OMG I am such a nerd. Sarah: There are a few memories that stand out from my entire time at secondary school. In the UK, secondary school goes from ages 11 - 16 - so for me they were probably my most formative years.
When I started secondary school I was unlucky enough to be separated from my primary school best friend due to a mix up in Sam's. We had the chance to pick a friend to be put in a tutor group with and I put Sam - my best friend of 5 years and ended up with a Sam I barely knew - sad times! On the plus side, I was put in a tutor group with a girl I knew from my swimming club - so at least I had someone.
It turned out that was not the blessing I thought it was. The girl - lets refer to her as W - had come with her own group of friends and none of them welcomed me as a new friend. In fact, as school goes they saw me as a threat and did not want me around. In the first week when I accidentally put my arm through a Bunsen burner - subsequently burning off my entire sleeve - they took great joy in coming up with all kinds of fire related names, all unpleasant!
For two years I took their unpleasantness and bullying and as we did a lot of classes in our tutor groups so I could never escape them. They trapped me in lockers, 'lost' my homework and did everything they could to make going to school horrible. The thing was I realised pretty quickly I didn't want to be W's friend, but I was trapped in classes with few other people to turn to.
As the years went on classes became divided by ability and I gradually found new friends. It was this time that stood out to me over any other. One nondescript day I had a geography class and as usual we were passing a notebook of notes along the row of girls I was sat with. On the row was a girl I hadn't met till that class but she became my confidant. I still have the notebooks and find it funny looking back at how she invited me to join her group.
At lunch time that day we had agreed I would very publicly leave where I sat with my old group and join her group. It's so funny looking back - I doubt anyone really cared but for me the moment was huge. As I play it back in my mind, the whole of my year fell silent as I packed up my stuff and took the 10 steps from old bitchy group to new friends. I never looked back. The new group were all so friendly I wondered how I had never got to know them before.
From that moment onwards, my school life changed forever, I had real friends. Friends who wanted me to hang out after school and wanted me to be part of their group and most of all share opinions. Year later the old group and I found a way of making friends - I even went on to live with W, but that's a whole other story!
Woah, I haven't posted a recipe in a long time! Last week at work, people LOVED my Butterscotch White Chocolate Chip Cookies, so I thought I'd post it on the blog! It's pretty simple really, just a take off regular Choc-Chip, but my lovely Cookie Monster (Sarah) loved them despite not being a Butterscotch/Caramel/Toffee fan.
NOMNOMNOM
To make 20 proper American sized cookies, you'll need:
2 x eggs
1 cup softened butter
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1/4 cup white sugar
2 x packets of butterscotch Angel Delight (or if you are in the USA, 3.5 ounces butterscotch/caramel instant pudding mix!)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon baking powder
2.25 cups plain flour
1 pack of white chocolate chips
Step 1: Preheat oven to 190 degrees C (375 degrees F)
Step 2: In a mixing bowl, cream butter and sugars together. Add Angel Delight, eggs and vanilla. Combine flour and baking soda; add and mix well. Fold in chocolate chips.
Step 3: Drop by tablespoonfuls onto ungreased baking sheets. Bake for 12 minutes or until lightly browned.
So, as you all know, I've been on a bit of a health kick, in prep for the wedding next year. I've always had weight issues, but rarely (in my adult life) felt bad about myself or the way I look, which is on one hand awesome (woot self esteem!), but also means I have had little motivation to get myself in shape. I'm happy, so why change?
It also means, that when I am trying to get fit, I actually am pretty clueless. So I've to date lost 30 pounds, by eating healthily, exercising, and it was all going well, until I hit a plateau. Hard. I weigh myself every day, which I know seems excessive and obsessive, but otherwise I seem to slack unless I know a weigh in is coming up. So when you don't lose anything for two weeks, weighing yourself each day, it is hard to keep focused. I wanted to lose another 5 before going home in 3 weeks, so I could eat what I like there and be back at 30 lost when I returned, ready for my second wind.
So panicked, I did what I thought I should do - completely cut out carbs, put myself down to one DC per day, and exercised more. I was eating just under 1000 calories per day, once I took into account the exercise, I was at about 700 calories per day.
Still, I hadn't lost anything, so I called on a friend who has lost a good amount of weight, to ask how she got through her plateau. I was getting worried as was not really that hungry, but definitely was losing energy as the days went by. What more could I do to get through it?!?
And, well, I got a bit of a telling off from K. Apparently, I should be eating 1500 calories per day, no less than 1200, including exercise. So, because my body hadn't gotten that amount for weeks, maybe a few months, it was shutting down, and storing my fat as it thought something was wrong. How did I not know that? I'm in disbelief that I accidentally put myself in harm's way!
So I'm going to stop weighing myself each day for the moment, and stop focusing on my weight loss until after we get back from Idaho in September, when I'll give it another go (staying healthy this time!). Still eating healthily, but a good amount and not being crazy about it.
Phew, I'm glad it was caught before it got worse, but its so easy to do!
I have long said that there are few things better than travel - I love to travel, we love to travel and together the joy of discovering somewhere new is even better. The weekend we added an extra element- travelling with best friends!
It's hard to decide what the best part of this weekend was:
1) Having the 48 hours to relax with my beautiful lady
2) Spending the whole time talking and catching up with the friends
3) Discovering a whole new part of the country
4) Eating delicious fresh food!
After arriving in Birmingham on Friday evening we started the weekend catching up late into the night.
We woke up at 11am on Saturday and enjoyed breakfast before driving to Cheltenham to start what is called 'The Romantic Drive' across the Cotswolds. It is miles of beautiful countryside circumnavigated by a road that goes between each of the villages - some with only a few houses and some with town squares but all with a history dating back to the English Civil Wars.
The Romantic Drive is divided into 'the drive for today' and 'the drive for tomorrow'. We did the drive for today that was 70 miles and took in the highest point of the Cotswolds, the beautiful 15th century Sudeley castle is the burial place of Katherine Parr - the last wife of Henry the VIII and the lovely village of Broadway that was visited by both Charles the I and Oliver Cromwell (opponents from the Civil War).
After starting the drive we came across Winchcombe and signs to Sudeley castle, before we knew it we were driving down a narrow road and approaching the castle grounds. After parking we were wandered into a tent where we were told about the history of the castle and what to expect if we entered. As it was such a nice day we decided that strolling around the grounds, rather than the inside of the castle, was the better choice and it really was. The grounds were beautiful and every corner held a new view - either across the Cotswolds or of the castle.
It was so nice just walking and talking and stopping to take ridiculous photos like these:
At Broadway we stopped off for lunch in a local pub for what turned out to be delicious food that was SO filling! Although we managed to save room for a sugar mouse - Laura's first!
We also stopped off at the lavender fields at Snowhill. It was too late to enter the lavender farm and enjoy the official tour of the area but we managed to sneak into the fields - avoid the bees who were loving the lavender- and get a few pictures!
The drive continued around to some places with great names: Chipping Campden: where all the houses are honey coloured,
Moreton-in-marsh: part of the old route between London and Worcester,
Stow-on-the-Wold: The highest point of the Cotswold and the place where the Civil War started,
Upper and Lower Slaughter: Picturesque villages that have the River Eye running through them crossed by stone brides - how very romantic.
By the time we arrived back in Cheltenham it was time to refuel and where better than Whole Foods! Our hunger meant we were probably not the best customers, our eyes were bigger than our belly and after initially filling up our trolley our better judgement took over and what we purchased was about half of what we put in!
On Sunday our English weekend continued with a trip to a Pick-Your-Own (PYO) to collect strawberries and raspberries. It was the first time I had ever eaten a raspberry that wasn't made into jam or covered in cream- and picked off the bush it was DELICIOUS!
After collecting a punnet worth of fruit - for £4 (bargain!!!) we sat in the sun to enjoy an ice cream before returning for a roast dinner and a stroll with the pup.
It's amazing how a drive up the motorway can transport you as if you are on holiday. We returned feeling relaxed and refreshed and can't wait to go back!!!
We have been busy bees lately!! Thought it would slow down in the lead up to IdaHOME in September, but alas!
This last Saturday, we took a last minute trip down to sunny Brighton to attend Brighton Pride (our other fav Pride in the UK!). We dressed in our brand new Wake Up Call Girl T-Shirts, and headed down from London a bit late, as usual. We listened to Britney Spears the whole way down, so needless to say had pretty awesome car dancing parties along the way.
Loving our new Wake Up Call Girls Tees!
By the time we arrived, the parade had already started, but luckily we took our places with Sarah's friend Wally right as the first floats came by.
It was fantastic weather, and the theme was 'icons' so we saw a LOT of Dorothy's and Freddie Mercury's! If we'd had known the theme in advance we would have recycled our princess costumes!
I don't think we're in Kansas anymore...
There was a big anti-Russian government theme as well, its always important to bring as much awareness to those around the world suffering and being mistreated because they are LGBT, so we can do whatever we can to help, and also to remind us just how lucky we are to live in Britain.
We always love Brighton Pride, among other reasons because it is even more 'out there' than London. It's alternative, colourful, and everyone just has an amazing time! We love that everyone there means to be there - no excess of tourists accidentally happening upon the parade, just a whole lotta gays!
After the parade, we headed to the seaside to have a drink and cheesy chips, and walk along the beach. Such a gorgeous day!
We checked out Choccywoccydoodah, which smelled delicious, but was just way too expensive for chocolate, at least in our current wedding-planning financial state!
We couldn't stay for the evening party, as we had Sarah's mum coming up to stay over for a spa day Sunday (I know!) but will definitely explore more in future years.
Because we've been so busy doing things, writing posts, etc etc, we didn't have time on Thursday to put this one up!! So, Throwback Monday (as we're now dubbing it) is about a great summer vacation (or holiday, as the Brits term it) - here we go!
Sarah: Favourite holiday is really hard - I feel like I say that every week, but really this one is hard as I don’t think I can look back and say I have had a bad holiday. So in order to distinguish a favourite to write about on this post, I wrote down all of our amazing holidays we have had together: Australia, New Zealand, Naples, Thailand, various places in the USA and St Malo in France.
Now, New Zealand was our all time favourite trip, but it was more an adventure holiday, so I went with St Malo. The place holds particularly special memories as it was Laura and my first real holiday together (3 months in) and it contained all the things that can make a great trip: sun, sea (a cruise), amazing food, a stay in a fancy hotel and presents – well, it was my birthday!
Due to Laura providing excellent customer service at her job, a customer had thanked her with a pair of cruise tickets to St Malo - so we thought, what better time to use them than a birthday getaway. We boarded the ferry at Portsmouth and set off on an overnight cruise.
The boat was amazing and we spent a few hours exploring before having dinner in our chosen restaurant. One thing we hadn’t considered was booking a room on the boat as we thought we would use their ‘sleeping deck’. With no idea what to expect, we wandered into this room with recliner chairs and people tucked up asleep. We found two spare chairs and joined them.
All I remember about that night’s sleep is that we were those irritating girls giggling a lot. We ended up cuddling on the floor instead of the chairs as the air-con was on COLD instead of fresh (and we don't like to sleep apart)! We didn't mind though, we were alone and on holiday - together!
We arrived in St Malo early the next day and excitement won over the tiredness as we bounded ashore and into this beautiful seaside village. You enter St Malo through huge walls and on the inside is just a maze of little cobblestone streets waiting to be discovered. It was picture perfect. There were street sellers out to greet us and a band playing in a nearby hotel, and you felt welcomed by the noise and bustle.
First stop was to check in. Our hotel was at the entrance to town and our suite (Laura got us upgraded by mentioning my birthday) was at the front overlooking the market square. The room had a massive double bed at one end then a full lounge at the other – our flat now isn't much bigger!
The first day was a mixture of exploring, laying on the beach and eating – the BANGyeahs ((French doughnuts) that’s how you say it not spell it :D) were so good we kept finding excuses to buy them. Every meal we had was delicious and everyone was so friendly.
Laura:
Awww I love Sarah's post! Look how young we look! I'm going to go back a bit further for my awesome holiday. I lived in Sydney, Australia, until I was 5 years old. Obviously, I don't remember much from that time. But I do know I loved travelling back there every few years growing up. We would go for a few weeks, and a good few years I had to reapply for my grades because I'd missed more days of school than I was allowed.
My parents always tell this infamous story, where we had just arrived in Sydney and were driving the rental car - my brother and I were knee deep in a Pokemon quest on our Game Boys, and my parents called from the front 'Kids, we're going over the Harbour Bridge!' - apparently we barely looked up from our games as we crossed one of the most beautiful harbours in the world! However, I remember having a wonderful time on these trips.
We visited the Sydney Opera House:
My brother and I - pre-braces
The Sydney Zoo where we fed the lorakeets:
And we visited with all my family. I loved going to Oz, because I'd be the envy of my whole class in Idaho when I came back! I once did a presentation on my trip, with photos and everything, and brought in crackers with Vegemite on them for people to try. It was one of the most memorable things ever - a few people liked it, but most of the kids threw it out, tried to scrape it off their tongues, generally 'EWWW'd - it's not something most people in America have ever tasted, and we don't have an equivalent! They do say you either love it or hate it!
If you saw our blog yesterday, you'd have read Sarah's reply to an interesting blog request we received the other week on how we went from identifying as straight to lesbian - or as we call it, 'coming out to ourselves'. We thought putting both of our replies into one post would be never-ending and rather tedious, so please find my story below.
I've always had a bit of an interest in women - like Sarah, I had a few 'too intense' female friendships - for example, once in college, against the advice of my best friend, I left to surprise my boyfriend at the time who lived in a different state - the surprise ended up being on me, that he had told all his friends we were broken up, but my friend was betrayed that I'd gone, and we went from being inseparable to never speaking again. Even though I've tracked her down on Facebook twice in the last 6 years and messaged, she still would never reply.
Looking back, there may have been something there, which I took for a normal friendship. Because of this previous experience, when I started spending all my time with Sarah, who made it VERY obvious she didn't like me mentioning my then-boyfriend, I didn't find our relationship strange at all. Instead, I'd just ignore him for the hours upon end that S and I were together. I remember putting my phone on silent while we were cuddling in Sarah's bed, and not thinking it was strange until our mutual friend pointed it out one day at lunch.
Shortly after we got together in 2009 - we were told to make kissy faces. Only one of us listened.
'So, she's jealous of your boyfriend?' - I found myself defending Sarah's distaste for him, and any mention of him, saying that she liked me to be present completely when we hung out. Secretly, I really enjoyed the attention. S had said previously that she had been with a woman before, and though she followed it up with that she never would again, I definitely held out hope. A lesbian fling was on my bucket list, which really should have told me in itself that I liked women!
Still, as much as we spent every waking moment together, cuddled, kept in constant contact, and I texted that I loved her (first, by the way!) only 6 weeks into our 'best friend-ship', I didn't know if Sarah would take it further. I'd decided I wouldn't, partially because as she'd kissed a woman before I felt she had experience, because she was older, and because I felt like I'd be too awkward.
One of my favourite memories during our in-between best friend and girlfriend stage was once I came over, and she said she had found a song that reminded her of me. I expected it to be upbeat and hip hop-y (after all, so far we'd binge watched a whole season of Paris Hilton's British Best Friend and committed to getting 'Dude' and 'Sweet' tattooed on our bodies, not exactly deep stuff) but then we awkwardly sat in Sarah's room listening to 'Unusual You' by Britney Spears. Possibly the most cringe song in the world. Listen to it, below.
It is cheesy and romantic and wonderful, and so very Sarah. And that is when I knew I really did love her.
For the first 1.5 years of our relationship, we did tell everyone that we were 'straight except each other'. It worked for us, but was definitely confusing for the people around us. I think I struggled to label myself during this time, because we were so loved up I barely noticed anyone around me, male or female. But slowly I realised this label didn't work for us any longer. I noticed women, and hadn't been attracted to a man since Sarah and I got together. In fact, I thought, and continue to think, that all men look the same!
So we tried the term bisexual, but it didn't fit us. Probably part of that is the connotations the term comes with, those that lovely ladies like Steph & Corrine are fighting hard to change, but also because men just were not, and are not, on our radar, so it felt inaccurate. We felt a lot more comfortable in the joint term 'lesbian couple' because it is completely accurate - we are two women in a lesbian relationship, regardless of our personal preferences.
It was thanks to the book Sarah mentioned in her post, Sexual Fluidity, that we were able to accept the term 'lesbian' to describe us individually. In the book, it states that throughout a woman's life (and men, more rarely) her sexuality can change - she can be attracted to men at one point and women another. It gave me a way to explain my relationships with my past boyfriends, without dismissing them, but also a reason I no longer wanted any part of them.
L&S circa 2009
They say hindsight is 20/20, and looking back I can see the signs that I was attracted to women throughout my life. I believe that getting with Sarah opened me up to the kind of incredible, multi-dimensional relationship I could never have with a man, and that kind of 'intense best- friendship turned lover' could never be replicated if I were to have a relationship with a man. This makes me think I wouldn't ever be satisfied in a partnership with the opposite sex - I'd always be looking for a deeper, more complete connection.
I'm sure even in the lesbian world, not all relationships are as all-consuming as ours - this is just my experience with it, but in speaking to others I think we are not alone. Being with Sarah has made me consistently happier than I could have ever imagined - coming from a background of depression and anxiety, I didn't even think it remotely possible to be this content. Take away all the material things we are lucky enough to have in our life, and I'm still the luckiest girl in the world - because I've got someone who makes me better and supports me each day, and who I can spend every one of my days thanking and doing the same.
