Michael Buble

So as many of you know, I'm a big fan of this guy....





and we got to go to this show last night.....



Let me tell you-it was AMAZING!!! He was soo stinking HILARIOUS!! Seriously, I wish I could have video taped the entire show cause he was having everyone dying of laughter. He made fun of several other celebrities-which is always an easy target but you get good laughs out of it. He did poke fun at Bieber ("I'll try to do my Beiber hair swoop for you" then proceeded to throw his head back like his hair was in his face, like this kid:)


he also made fun of Tiger and his wife and that whole mess-he talked about how he's engaged to a South American (Argintine) and how a situation like Tiger's would never happen if he had married a latin lady-the voice impression was horrible yet hilarious. At some point he also made fun of Robert Pattinson from Twilight-which oddly didn't get as many laughs as the others which I thought was hilarious-stupid super hardcore Twilight fans need to lighten up some! And he did poke fun at Gaga for a millisecond. I think some of the funniest moments were when he poked fun at the fans-squealing and jumping up and down like them-it was quite funny. Also, when he introduced his band he gave nice little anecdotes about each one-some true, some not. It started out very sweetly, one guy from Haiti, one just having a baby, then it turned funny and a little raunchy rather quickly. But he rounded it out nicely at the end and had nothing but wonderful things to really say about it very very talented band.

Of course he played some classic Michael Buble-including this very special song to us.....
(it's not letting me download the video right now...I'll try again later!)



If you listen really hard, you can hear Matt singing in the background-it was so special to get to hear this song live-it made me want to dance! Sorry the video quality isn't that great, I was more concerned with hearing than seeing. And we were kinda far away!

He also played another song very special to my bff Jacki and her hubs-their first song was also a Buble and it was Save the Last Dance-it was fun to remember their first dance while he sang it. It was also our last song at our wedding so that was fun too!

We went to the show with our good friends and neighbors Joel and Julie, who is actually about to have another baby girl any day now-we were a little worried for her last night but she stayed until the end! It was fun to get to go with them-they have been a huge blessing to us while we've lived here. Aren't they cute?

We had such a fun time!! Hopefully we'll get to enjoy amazing concerts on the other side of the world too!

Packing....

So I have love hate relationship with packing. The good thing about moving every year (at this rate, that's what's gonna happen w/us! We've only been here a year and a half-got here April 2009-it is now 2010, new year to move!) is you get to go through all your crap and purge a little. Some call this type of activity "spring cleaning" or "sweeps" in England (or so I've heard, via Michael Sheen when he was on 30 Rock, possibly one of the best shows I've ever seen in my short life!). I like to call it "moving cleaning" since we didn't purge in the spring, mainly because we weren't really here. But, every time we move, it's time to figure out what crap you don't need and move on. So far we have a very large and full black garbage bag full of goodwill items! Mainly clothes at this point but I haven't hit the kitchen yet! All books (except for cooking) have been accounted for and are in either a box to go with us (the lucky ones I say!) or to go to storage to not be seen for quite some time I suspect. It's amazing to me how one's home can go from this.....

nice, neat and tidy...


to this....

like the apocalypse has happened in your home alone....



in such a short amount of time! Ours is slowly yet very, very surely going to look like we live out of boxes and not have anything else here! Stuff has already come off the walls, things are taped away, and it's starting to smell a little musky because our boxes have been living in the garage and attic since we last emptied them. Sometimes I wish I could just do this for a while....



I still may....

More Fun Cyprus Facts:

So I thought I would help you all get to know our future home. We (and mainly me I think) have been researching like CRAZY to better understand this new mythical world we're going to. So here are some fun, interesting, and random facts....
1. A person who is from Cyprus is called a Cypriot. You are either a Greek-Cypriot or a Turkish-Cypriot. Kinda sounds like apricot.
They are this:



not this:


2. According to Greek mythology, it is the birth place of Aphrodite, the goddess of love and beauty. I don't really need her though, since I have an amazing love and obviously I am terribly beautiful ;)
This is her rock. Yup, she's in charge of love and all she gets is a rock.



This may be slightly more recognizable. See, she's in the sea. Being born. So one could surmise that the woods to her left is Cyprus.



3. Apparently the Cypriot people are known for their hospitality and warm welcome to visitors. I'm picturing something like this:


4. Although Greek is spoken, there is a particular dialect that Cyprus has. 15% of what is spoken is particular to Cyprus alone. So not only are we going to have to learn some "regular" Greek words, but the awesome, special ones too! And apparently Greek separates things into 3 genders, very forward thinking ;)



5. And my favorite thing I have learned, so far, is that being late, and I mean really really late, like 30-45 minutes late, to a social function, is not only acceptable but expected. So I figure we'll look like this waiting around for our new friends to show up....



More to come later....

The Bird is the Word....

So, we're moving! As most of our readers (all 5 of you!) know, we're off to Cyprus in 1 month! AHHHH! Talk about a crazy life huh? Of course we're super excited but a little overwhelmed at the same time. Lots to do and prepare before we make the huge leap from the sunny west coast all the way to 80 miles west of Syria. Yea.

This is where we're going!!!!!



Needless to say we're up for a climate change, as well as some culture shock! Here are some quick facts about our new home!
1. There is a UN buffer zone. That is because the top 1/3 of the island is under Turkish rule and the bottom 2/3 is part of the EU, it is considered Greek.
2. At one point or another, it was under Roman control and it was a British colony, hence lots of Brits going on holiday there. However, it is close to Syria, Lebanon, Israel and Africa so there is quite the mixture of people living and traveling there.
3. They drive on the wrong side of the road. Good thing Matt just spent over a month in Okinawa where they drive on that side, so he has practice now! He's worried about me-I want to get a scooter!!
4. It gets hot! 100 degrees plus humidity!!! Good thing it's right on the sea!!
5. It is BEAUTIFUL!!! See.....







Jealous yet?
So needless to say, life just got crazy! By the time we get there I may look like this....



Please pray for my sanity.

Southern Exposure

a historic home in GA



eaten alive! AHHH!


Mammoth attacks!


bowling fun!


this is for you eric ;) i know you love the matt booty!



hey cam!



So while Matt was away for work, I went to GA to visit him. And happily we got to head down to Gainesville FL to visit my best friend Jacki and her hubs Steve. I also got to visit with a friend of mine from CSU who is going to grad school at UF also. It was a good (and short) few days with them but it did show we need to live near one another one day so we can always have wild adventures together!
Jacki and Steve work so while they were off makin' the bacon, Matt and I entertained ourselves! One afternoon we met up with Cameron (my CSU friend) and had lunch with her. It was great to catch up and hear how life back on the east coast was (she's originally from SC). As we were driving her back to class, we pulled up behind the Oscar Mayer weenie mobile! Yes, the weenie mobile! So we stalked it through a parking lot and got our picture with it-score! Not everyone can say they have done this!
Also while Jacki and Steve were working, we went to the university's natural history museum. It was fun! They had a butterfly pavilion (that was little much to get in to so we passed) and all sorts of natural history things-lots of interactive stuff for the kiddies-and me ;0) We had a great time visiting our beloved friends (whom I miss all the time!) and goofing off!

Puerto Rico

Our new friend Edith!


And her silly dog Lola!




So Matt had to go to PR and I went down to visit him. It was super fun! We went snorkling and hiking and got tan and just had a blast! You gotta love it when the weather is consistently in the 80s! We also met up with our friend Adrienne's (miss you!) friend, Edith, who is from PR. She cooked us a scrumptious meal, and all puerto rican! Her house was lovely and she had this goofy little dog named Lola, who we became good friends with during our short visit. We felt blessed to have a home cooked meal by our dear friend's friend, who in turn became our friend!
We went snorkeling and horseback riding on the beach and saw some amazing sunsets! Overall it was a really nice vacation (for me at least!).

It's been a while, I know...

So I realize it's been some time since my last post. We've been out of home, town, state, and even country in the last month. But now we are home and of course the first thing we took care of was dead plants and our jungle of a backyard! We're still in the process of overhauling the back-it's a process that will take some time. Sadly, we had some plants die :( In the front, all three hibiscus shrubs died and two out of the three trees died in the back. But very happily some things I thought that would die survived and are doing even better! Whoo hoo!! The asiatic lillies have sprouted and are about to bloom (can't wait!) and the hydrengas (who I thought were in mortal peril) had way more foliage and potential blooms when we got home. We bought some lovely little shrubs to replace the hibiscus, let us hope they don't disappoint like the hibiscus did. Also, the butterfly bush in the back has gotten HUGE!! It's a monster that I love dearly. And all those petunias I planted as "filler" (that were supposed to die since they're annuals) have thrived through the winter and have taken over. But they are pretty and smell nice, so we'll keep them for a little while longer.
And of course with the arrival of warm weather, it comes time to plant the veggie garden! I learned a lot from last years experiment so we did a few things differently. For starters, we made the garden area about twice as big. We're going to do a nice boarder to separate the veggies from the grass, making it look very official and tidy (just how Matt likes it). I also spaced things out a little better so some more timid plants will not be taken over by the heartier ones, like the squashes. I also opted to not do so many trailing plants like the cucumber (that was a joke!). This years crop includes watermelon (that will be tamed!), pumpkins from seeds (also, they will be more tame), yellow crook-neck squash and zucchini squash, red bell peppers, peas, strawberries, parsley and thyme and a hanging pot of celebrity tomatoes. I'm pretty excited to see how it all does this year since it was such a smashing success last year!
As for the inside, things were in pretty good order still. We are putting some pictures in our bathroom, to make it look finished, as well as knobs on all the cabinets! We got on the ball for that really fast and Matt did a wonderful job putting all the knobs on in no time. Now our kitchen looks a little more polished.
Sadly our external hard-drive has been malfunctioning so I'm having to upload pics onto our hard drive, which is taking some time. But no fear, I will be posting pics of all the goings on.
In horse-related news, I have joined a local riding group and am now meeting people! YAY! It's been fun so far and I have met some very nice people. I'll be posting pics from rides on here too.
That's all for now. Once these pics load I'll post them up! And as always, you can find us on flickr for pics to be posted too!