Two New Years and One Valentine's Day

One of the things that make a long distance relationship difficult is a holiday.  People want to spend the holidays with their loved ones, whether it's Thanksgiving, Christmas, or in this case, New Year's Eve and Valentine's Day.

New Year's Eve is when couples share their first kiss of the year.  Vernon and I had an amazing 2013 by getting married and introducing him to my extended family who welcomed him with open arms.  We are excited for 2014 because this is going to be a great year for the both of us.  Our kids are becoming adults and we are enjoying calling each other husband and wife.  We celebrated 2013 and watched the fireworks over Big Ben and the London Eye.  Vernon turned the computer around so I could see and he sat on the floor.  We were in a silly mood, and had a toast at Midnight Greenwich Mean Time/ 6pm Central Standard Time.  We both had a root beer.

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Then... 6 hours later at Midnight Central Standard Time we had another toast! I was just planning on going to bed after talking to Vern earlier and he says, "I'll set my alarm early tomorrow and we can see in your New Year".  I wasn't even going to ask him to get up early so I was happy that he wanted to do this.  We had a second toast, root beer for me again and I think he had coffee. I had fallen asleep from 11 to 11:30 so I was not as silly as I was earlier. He caught me dozing too as he tried calling me and I didn't pick up right away. He knows me too well. 

Vernon has not missed one Valentine's Day.  He is always so thoughtful and gets me something wonderful every year.  The packages arrived a week early and I was anxious to open them.  A small box from Amazon and a bigger box from Barnes and Noble cried my name every day... "Kimberly! Open Me!" No matter how much I begged, he would not let me open them.  Then finally, February 13, late at night I got to Google Hangout with Vernon while he got ready for work and I got to open my presents! They were perfect!

Leave a comment below and let me know how you celebrate New Year's Eve or Valentine's Day with your loved ones.  I'm curious to see what will happen on Valentine's Day if we ever spend one together. 

Addictions!

I get easily obsessed with things. Well, mostly certain TV shows, movies and songs. Vernon has been the cause of several of these addictions. He tells me about songs he listens to and sends me DVD's that he thinks I will enjoy and next thing I know my daughter and I know the entire series by heart. I am currently addicted to a song by Caro Emerald, I will post the video below. Another good example of one of my obsessions is this blog. I should really be chopping onions and carrots for a stew I'm making for tomorrow's St Patrick's Day pot luck at work, but instead I'm sitting down typing away. UGH... it's gonna be a late one tonight. Here are my addictions that were caused by Vernon:

Song: Back It Up by Caro Emerald. She is BEAUTIFUL and is one of those women who give power to curvy girls! And, I totally want that square necked black dress... LOVE IT!


TV Show: Black Adder, I selected a clip from my favorite season with Hugh Laurie. He is simply one of the funniest actors to come out of England.

TV Show: The Office. I had never heard of it. He sent it to me and mentioned that there was an American version. I picked up the American DVD after enjoying the English series. I wont say which one I like more because they are both very unique even though based on the same concept.


I think my worst addiction of all is the TV Show Vicar of Dibley. Heidi and I like to do the "I Can't Believe it's Not Butter" routine. It's the best!


The final one I will post is TV Show: The Thin Blue Line. I love this. Rowan Atkinson is genius in his comedic timing and facial expressions. I love the writing and Constable Goody... he's a riot! When Rowan Atkinson's character is reading Sherlock Holmes in bed... I wonder if that will be Vernon and I some day. Makes me giggle.

Language Barrier, Blogging and a List

Today we spoke on the phone. I was on the computer and Vern showed up on the IM so I told him I'd just call. We always have a good time on the phone. I love hearing his voice, that sexy southwestern British accent. Whew! Vern read my blog and liked it. I wasn't worried, he is supportive in anything that I do but since this involves him, I did ask if it was OK... and he approves.

I asked Vernon if he noticed that I used the word "dodgy" in my blog. He said "yes" and that he's very impressed. Funny. Why is it that his language is rubbing off on me? Yes, I do watch a lot of BBC and he sends me lots of DVD's but sometimes I don't get all the jokes. There was one joke that I heard over and over again, never understood it until lately, and I can't seem to remember it... Oh yes! In one episode of "Vicar of Dibley" the group is discussing the vandals of the town, and how they vandalized the sign at the "Tuck Shop". Well, it sounded like they said "tuck" but what the heck is a tuck? So I figured they said "Tack" as in horse stuff, but then I thought, "How do you turn 'tack' into a bad word?" So I just gave up on understanding the joke. Then one day Vern used the word "tuck" in a sentence. I asked him to repeat it, and then I was like, "There is that word! What does it mean?" And when Vern explained to me what a tuck shop was it all came together. I felt as if he answered the question of the universe... to which the answer is 42 but we can discuss that on another day. For you Americans who don't speak "English" a tuck shop is like a convenience store, a 7 Eleven, Kwik Trip, something of that sort. I just felt that "dodgy" was the only word I could think of. There are other words I use... I call my linen closet a cupboard. I keep linens, towels, and bathroom items in there, not cups... yet I call it a cupboard. Don't worry, my bedroom closets are still closets for now. Half the time I say "shop" instead of "store" and "film" instead of "movie". I asked him today why it's happening to me and not him... but he confessed... "I say 'sure' instead of 'of course'". I laughed!

As we were talking about our kids and the challenges we are facing right now with our 18 yr olds, he was checking out this Blogger site. He was quite intrigued (oh yeah, I say "quite" a lot more too) with this whole blog thing. He asked me how it works and I really didn't have many good answers for him because I'm new at this. I do want my blog noticed, but not by everyone that I know, just people that can relate to our situation and a few of my closest friends who I know wont think I'm being stupid by keeping a blog. I've always been a writer. I kept journals all my life, until the day I found pages missing from one of my books. It was my "now" ex-husband who went through my sock/underwear drawer for whatever reason and found it. Not sure what the hell he was looking for, but he couldn't read English so ripped out some pages and took it to someone to translate. What a dick. Well, that was the last entry I made. I tried keeping journals since, but it wasn't the same. Things are different now, technology has changed, and I need some sort of outlet since I don't get to talk to Vernon every day. I think he will feel closer to me with this blog, he will read things that we talked about, read about my memories of our times together and also read about things I wanted to tell him that day or that week and couldn't because one of us couldn't make it to the computer. He's all pumped about this blog of mine, and I am too even more now. He wants to start one, he's not sure on what topic, but he will have that to think about as he goes about his day at work tomorrow. I suggested he browse other blogs to get ideas if he needs to. I can't wait to see what he comes up with. Then we got to the topic of Google. I said to him "I Googled myself this morning" and his response was "That's a bit vain isn't it?" I couldn't stop laughing. Because of my job, I pop up. Then I guess he Googled himself while we were talking and he said, "I found my name, but it isn't me. That's OK though, I don't want to be all over the place." He's so cute.

He's got the day off on Tuesday and is all excited about it. Sounded like a kid who woke up to a snow day. He was naming things he wanted to do and then I suggested he write me a letter. "You mean on paper?" UGH! MEN! He's a computer guy but can't type worth crap. I love when he writes me letters. Then he said he was going to make a list of things he wanted to do on his day off. He names several things, then "take cardboard and bottles to recycling guys, write Kim a letter". I enjoy messing with him and got all upset, "I'm below 'take cardboard and bottles to recycling guys?!?!?!'" Of course, he said he wanted to clear everything off his list so he could dedicate all of his attention to me. Good answer. I rarely get one over on him... he's too smart for me. One of the reasons why I love that guy.