Speaking Of Boys...

They're so lucky. We girls spend hours upon hours in the search for our wedding gown. We wrestle with the seemingly endless choices of cut and fabric and length and shade of white and on and on and on and then once we find The Perfect Dress, we have to fork over an obscene amount of money for a garment we will wear once. For about 6 hours. Yup. Boys are way lucky. Rented, off the rack, or bespoke, a good suit is a thing of beauty that will last for, well, a while. It can be worn again and again on any number of occasions.

Now, Mongolia was hard on good suits. I mean really hard. All that dirt and ice and coal dust just reduced all The Boy's suits to mere threadbare shadows of their former selves that no amount of dry cleaning was going to cure. He needed serious wardrobe reconstruction, stat! One of the advantages of living in Singapore was that there were a plethora of good tailors, so getting a really nice handmade suit at a great price was pretty easy. Jack Custom Tailors in Far East Plaza came highly recommended and so way back in September we stopped by and ordered what was to be the first of many bespoke suit for The Boy. He's absolutely besotted with them.

Jack's is an absolute must for local and visiting masters of the universe both business and political. He's made suits for everyone from princes to presidential candidates. The best part? Jack does amazing work and his prices range from totally reasonable to as expensive as all get out.

{The Man himself making sure that The Boy's
handmade shirt it to his liking.}

All in all The Boy went home with 12 handmade shirts and 6 suits - 5 suits for work and 1 very special super nice suit for special occasions like getting married. ;-)

My Weekend With The Boys

This past weekend Sister Belle brought over my adorable little nephews for some quality time with NeeNee. (That's me.) My dad was out of town on his Annual Springtime Golf Odyssey leaving Mama Belle and I to entertain The Boys. Thankfully there were a surprising number of things to do in our usually uneventful little 'ville.

Friday night we took them to their very first musical. This awesome production of that TV staple from my childhood SCHOOLHOUSE ROCK LIVE! JUNIOR (yes, I'm that old) had them entranced from lights down to the final curtain call. Just look at these little faces...


Since I love the theater so much, I can't tell you how happy I am that they enjoyed the show! We sat on the very front row and they got to see all the action. At one point the youngest even got up to dance, copying the choreography they were performing on stage.

You never know what you're going to get with high school shows. Generally, even the shows lacking in ability make up for it in enthusiasm. This show was really fantastic because the kids were both talented and genuinely happy to be on stage. They looked like they were having fun and they did a fantastic job. Here are just a few of my favorite moments...

{My all time favorite "I'm Just A Bill".}

{ "Elbow Room" They got the shortest person
in the cast to play Napoleon. Genius!)

("Conjunction Junction")

{One of my best friends, who was the director and conductor,
doing his thing.}

The next day was bright and cool and perfect for The Cotton District Arts Festival. We got up early so that we could catch The Pet Parade. Sadly, it started an hour late and we missed it because The Boys were thirsty and we went in search of something to drink. We did get to see lots of puppies on their way to join the march.

{The Boys and Mama Belle with a Labradoodle...}

{...and a dachshund...}

{...and a very happy Labrador puppy.}

We even got to march in the Scottish Pipe and Drum Parade!

{Ahhh, brotherly love...}

{Me and Santa, who is dressed in his Scottish kilt.}

It was a good weekend.

Grandaddy

I keep things. Little mementos like fall leaves collected from walks in far away lands and simple one word cards. I keep programs from plays I've attended and tickets from movies I've seen. I keep safe the letters from my high school sweetheart, soon to be my new husband, and the notes, cards and words of wisdom written to me by my parents while I was away at college. And I've also managed to keep, somehow, two letters from Grandaddy.

Grandaddy was not a man of many words. His letters, one written on the occasion of my 15th birthday and the other upon my high school graduation, are short and sweet and, though they are simple, they capture in a few words all of his humor and remind me of his love. I find myself laughing with a lump in my throat and tears in my eyes when I read them now.

I went through my letter box the other day and, as I was reading these special letters from a man who passed away so many years ago, I noticed the date on one - May 25,1994. This year, on May 24 I will become someone's wife. And even though I was a high school graduate then, I will on that day graduate to the next part of my life, making this letter just as relevant today as it was then and even more special.

It reads:
" My Dear:
Congratulations to my graduate! You are off to a great start. Keep it that way by giving everything your best...and when in doubt always do the right thing.
Much Love,
Grandaddy "

One Year

Two weeks ago I left The Boy in a new city to start a new job so that I could come home and put the finishing touches on our wedding.

One month ago we moved, once more, to the other side of the world.

One year ago I married the love of my life, my most favorite person, my very best friend. There was no fear. No doubt. Just happiness. Still happiness. So much happiness that sometimes I have no words and everything I feel about my amazing, wonderful, brilliant husband spills over into tears of joy.

My Love, I am so happy and lucky to be your wife. I love the life that we are making together. I can't wait to have you here, to finally put your ring on my finger.

I have no other words except I love you.

Thank you for my pretty pink tulips.

Home

We had been scheduled to see this one little house on both of our official days with the relocation agent, but our attempts at a viewing amounted to driving by to see what the front looked like. When our agent called at the end of our last day with her to tell us that, if we wanted, we could make our way over to view it on our own the next day, we jumped at the chance. It was love at first sight. And so without farther ado, please meet our new home.

Our Little Dockers Cottage

{ There is an awesome skylight over the "office".}

{Our grass-free, very Zen-like garden.}

{Our black and gray guest bedroom.}

{The small and cozy master bedroom.}

There is a bathroom, but I don't have a really great picture of it. I will say that it was the only house we looked at that had the cool chrome steam heated towel warmer that the Brits are so fond of.

Sadly, I have not spent a single night in our new home. I had to leave The Boy in London to start work while I journeyed home to finish weddings preparations. I cried like a baby when I had to say goodbye to him at the airport. It will be six weeks before I see him again and seven before I get to spend my first night in our new home. But you know what? When I do, we will be really, really married and that will make it even more special.

The Great House Hunt 2008

Ahh, finding the perfect house. Is it ever easy? Or stress free? In my experience that answer is a big fat no. The Boy and I have moved four times in two years and each time has brought new challenges and frustrations. The first move was in March of 2006 when I moved from my tiny hamlet in Mississippi to Mongolia. It was my first time traveling abroad. I was navigating the big bad world by myself and I was headed to China. Lucky for me I had The Amazing Boy waiting for me on the other side of the planet. The second move was to a bigger apartment in Ulaanbaatar. Our original realtor turned out to be a real scheister, quoting us one price on an apartment we LOVED only to practically double it when it came time to sign the contract. Number three was the move to Singapore. We stayed in a hotel for two weeks while we tried to look for an apartment by ourselves with no success. Then we tried looking for a realtor, but since we were on a budget, a realtor wouldn't give us the time of day. Luckily we ran into some nice ladies at a Starbucks and one of them gave us the name of her realtor, who found us the perfect place in two days. That brings us to move number four. This time we had a relocation agent who set up appointments to view houses and apartments, a nice man to drive us around London, (he was also an historian, so we were schooled on a lot of really cool history, too) and two days in which to find the perfect house.

I'm a girl who likes a home with history. I've yet to met an old house that lacks character. Even the ones that have been neglected for a while hold the promise of something amazing. So going into the house hunting process I was predisposed to liking the old houses for their adorableness, but also because most of them had gardens. I wanted hardwood floors and old wavy hand blown glass a back garden to enjoy in the summer. I snobbishly turned my noise up at every modern apartment we looked at in London. Too modern. Too boring. Too much like every other apartment I'd ever lived in.

We spent those two days looking at some 15 houses and apartments, frantically running up and down the streets trying to make those appointments. We took a ton of pictures and tried our best to remember what it was we liked and what we didn't. Reviewing all the houses after each day was a little bit like Goldilocks trying out beds.

This one was an adorable 3 story home with a lovely little garden...
{Please ignore the fencing in front. They were working on the gas lines.}

It was too far away from The Tube.

This one was a nicely restored and converted
two apartment house overlooking Greenwich Park.

It was a little on the small side.

This next one was the very first house we looked at
and the one we liked the best.

{Love the red door.}

{The dining room and kitchen each lead to the conservatory and then out into a garden.}

{I wasn't crazy about the merlot colored walls in the kitchen.
I could've lived with it.}

It had other little eccentricities that would probably start off as cute and then end up being annoying - like there was a quirky little two steps down off the master bedroom to a 6 inch landing and then two steps up to get to the dressing area/bathroom. And that bathroom, it needed a good cleaning. But after our two days, this was the best of the lot and we decided to put in a bid. However, there was still one more house to look at...

... Hello London!

Our move to London was one big blur and rather than bore you with my fuzzy recollections of our adventures in house hunting, I thought I would just pile you with pictures of our new 'hood!

{Greenwich Park}

{Greenwich Park this past Saturday via
The Greenwich Phantom}

{The Old Royal Naval College}
{THE WOLFMAN being filmed at The College
photos via The Greenwich Phantom}

{Easter Sunday and snow}

{St. Paul's Catherdral - not in our neighborhood, but still a pretty picture.}

Goodbye Singapore...

I'm so sorry to have been missing for so long. There have been big changes in Belleville this past month, one of the biggest being The Boy and I are offically Singaporean no more. The lead up to the big move was a bit emotional. It's such a wonderful little city-state. We made a few really great friends and so we spent our last week attending dinners and parties and saying difficult goodbyes. As wonderful as our time there was, though, the last 5 hours in Singapore were, well, they were an absolute nightmare.

We had planned our final day to go something like this: We would wake up early. I would finish tidying up the condo while The Boy finished proof reading his final paper. We would then finish packing. Our landlady was scheduled to come by to settle up our condo account at 3:00. After that we would jump in a cab and head down to Raffles Hotel for a famous Singapore Sling, then back to the condo for a pre flight shower and prep and we would be ready to walk out the door at 7:30.

Everything was going pretty much as planned right up until 2:00. I was just getting out of the shower when the doorbell rang. The landlady had asked the day before if the new tenants, "...could drop some stuff off" to which we replied sure, thinking that it would be a suitcase or two. Imagine our surprise when we discovered that the new tenants had decided to entirely move in before we were completely moved out. For 5 hours before we were to get on a plane for a 14 hour flight, there were 4 complete strangers sitting in our living room playing video games on our couch. It was really quite awkward and stressful.

Needless to say, we needed that drink.

Here are some pictures of one of the most beautiful hotels you could ever hope to visit.

{the nice man who helps you out of your car}

If you ever find yourself in Singapore, you HAVE to stop by Raffles Hotel and venture up to The Long Bar for that yummy Singapore Sling.

{...mmm...}

Look at that sky! It had been raining cats and dogs for the previous three days, but the Saturday we left it was beautiful! We just sat back and enjoyed the view!