Snowy London Town!

This week I have been off work for half term holiday!! It has been the best week ever! :) I love half term! I especially love it this time because I'm getting paid for it! I love having a real job!

On Tuesday night out of the blue it started snowing!! In October! That's crazy! Lately it's been real cold all of a sudden, about 5 degrees everday (I suppose that's about 40ish in Fahrenheit...look i'm trying to learn Celsius!!) But Tuesday night it was -2! It was raining hard and then started snowing. I was SO excited! It was sad though because no one was home to share the fun. :( But everyone was outside taking pictures and throwing snowballs. From what I understand it doesn't snow much in London, but if it does it would be in Jan or Feb--so October is kinda crazy! It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas! It feels like proper winter right now, and all the stores are getting their Christmas stuff in. Usually people hate that, but I'm loving it! Since I'm going home to New York in a month, and probably won't be in AZ for Christmas...Thanksgiving is going to feel like Christmas, and that's in a month! So I'm starting the holiday cheer right now! :)

Yesterday was a really fabulous day..but it didn't start out so fabulous. Actually it started out in a VERY traumatic way. I've been trying to get a hold of my passport from the UK homeoffice for 2 weeks now. Yesterday I finally spoke to a lady at Brent Council (that's the borough that I live in, and they're the people that put the application in for my visa) Basically..long story short. The lady tells me that they just received a letter stating that my leave to remain was denied, and that I need to leave to country IMMEDIATELY. I just about died, and quickly called Nick. He then called the homeoffice to see what's going on. (it comes in handy when your boyfriend is a lawyer!) I was then panicking to Nadia thinking about how awful it's going to be leaving my job and the KIDS!! What about the kids!?? I've created a life in London...Then Nick called back, with good news! My visa was approved immediately and is good until August 2012 (ok don't panic, I probably won't stay that long!!) BUT the leave to remain was denied. Basically it's just the rules that you can't switch visas in country, I had to leave the country to apply for a new visa and then come in on the new one. Dumb rules, but it's ok. Nick and I will probably appeal it (I really don't know what that means, the important thing is he does!!) The good news is I can stay!! :) And I can pick up my passport!

Today I went to the opening of a new shopping centre in Shepards Bush, Westfield Centre. It's the largest shopping mall in Europe!!! It was so amazing, and they served champagne while you shopped. I haven't been to a proper mall in a long time, I'll def be going there more often!

This weekend is Halloween and Nick and I have been getting our costumes ready for parties this weekend! I've been trying to talk him into being a hot dog, but he's not goin for it (can't really blame him..) I think I might be a snow bunny, or a cat...I actually don't have any good ideas. I'm going to go to a couple costume shops tomorrow to get something! Over here they call costume parties "fancy dress parties" Which doesn't actually make any sense. For example if Nick was a hot dog, I would hardly call that "fancy dress"!!!

Easy peasy lemon squeezy

Things have been good here in old London Town. Last week Nadia got 2 free tickets to this fashion show/concert at the Royal Albert Hall. It turned out to be pretty cool, Seal and Christina Aguilara performed and there were several fashion shows with Tyson Beckford and other famous models. Here are a couple photos of the event!

Everything at work has been really good, we finally took a trip to Sainsbury's this week for a little grocery shopping. It was really good, they were all really well behaved in the shop and were good at finding the things that we needed. It's now half-term break, so I'm off work for a week!! I'm not traveling anywhere because my visa is still being processed and my passport is at the homeoffice! It really sucks, it's been taking a while to get my visa now, and I'm getting a bit concerned about having my passport back for Thanksgiving! I visited the US Embassy yesterday to inquire about a temporary emergency travel passport. It's good to know that it's a last resort option, but they told me to chase up the homeoffice a lot about it before I go that route. While I was at the Embassy I voted!! Woo hoo, it was so much easier to do than I thought! I had been looking at absentee ballots online, and it was doing my head in! No one was at the Embassy when I was there so I just quickly filled out this form, wrote who I wanted and it was done!! I do feel like I'm missing out though. I had to watch the debates on youtube, and I don't get to see all the terrible campaign ads from the candidates and stupid things that celebrities have to say. I miss America..
Nick and I are talking about getting a bunny!! :) I thought of the idea because he's moving into a new flat. Well it's a property that he owns that he's currently renting out at the moment. In that place he'll have more space and a garden. I suggested that we get a bunny and he really sounds very interested in it!! We'll have to see, I want us to do a lot of research before we do anything, but it would be so cute and fluffy!! I have to think of a good name :)

Turns out I haven't updated in a while...

I really didn't realize how long it's been since I've posted anything!! The past couple weeks have been very good! I really love my job, I love the kids a lot and it basically is my life during the week. SO that's probably why I haven't posted much, but of course...working in a special needs school, A LOT of funny/crazy things happen daily. So I don't have much excuse for nothing interesting to say. I have a lot of fun with them, we go on walks around the local area, walk over to the park and run around and play. I'm starting to cook with them. I'm hoping this week we can hop on the bus to the grocery store, do some shopping and then cook!

In other news..at the flat we had a bit stressful week with a little bed big infestation. Yes I know, it's really gross...but luckily the place has been successfully fumigated and all bed bugs are gone! That sucked hardcore!! We had to take everything to the launderette to have it washed, dried and put in bags. Our whole flat was turned upside down. The bug man said that people usually get them when they go on holiday and come back in your suitcase. We had a bunch of girls over for Nadia's birthday so maybe they were in one of their cases, or maybe we brought them from Spain. Moral of the story..check your hotel beds for bed bugs and then when you get home stick all your clothes in the dryer for a bit to kill any that may be in there! They can even be in 5 star hotels!

The past couple days we've had great weather! Unfortunately for me, I have the flu. I got it on Thursday evening, I had a really horrible headache and felt exhausted. I slept all day yesterday and will probably do the same today. It's a real shame because Nick got us tickets to this massive break dancing competition in Brixton. I really want to go, but I don't think I have the strength to make it...we'll have to see

That's about it from here, I booked my ticket for Thanksgiving. I'll be in New York from November 25-29. I'm so excited!! I can't wait to be back in America for a little while, I really miss it. It will be really good to see all my family and E lo! AND I'm saving up money now for shopping!

For your viewing pleasure I've put in some photos of the Queen's guards, a some cool statue thing from Kensington Park, and the Tate Museum.