davidoflondon and I found out on our last visit that these 11 otters at this zoo are all female. One mommy who is 11, I believe, and her daughters born in various years between 2003 and 2008 or something like that.

I feel like I've had colds back to back. And, well, I have. I just got over one and then came down with a new one. Poor davidoflondon doesn't get a quiet peaceful night due to my... *ahem*... snoring issues with being sick.

This last one was a pretty big doozy. I was so very congested that I even had a few problems being able to breathe through my mouth. Forget my nose. Breathing through my nose has been out of commission since last Thursday. (Actually, today is the first day I have been able to breathe through my nose again.) But I was so super congested... I dunno... my head felt like a vacuum. Anyways. Y'all don't really need to know that.

But I'm finally feeling better. I broke down and got some OTC meds and either they did the trick or it finally ran its course... whatever... end result is the same. I'm finally on the mend.

Dear, darling husband,

I love you! Sorry about the noise interference with your peaceful slumbers.

Your gorgeous wife xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

P.S. Happy 6th month of us being married! I couldn't love you more. Except I will, tomorrow. And even more the following day.

And speaking of husband... my sweetheart brought me a nice treat last night. I was feeling yucky due to the cold and the meds I had taken for the cold. I was in the office while he was reading in bed. He went downstairs and came back up with a couple of cubes of mature cheddar cheese for both of us. It was just what I needed!

Oh my gosh, I am so, so, so excited. I cannot WAIT to marry my beautiful, darling, beloved, sweetheart, amazing David. Soon I will be his wife and he will be my husband.

My friend Fred has arrived, that's a story in itself... I had to take the Tube to meet him and David estimated it would take about an hour, in fact it took 1.5 hours. Poor Fred was wondering where I was but we found each other. However, I feel bad I wasn't there at the gate waiting for him. Poor guy. But he's a laid back kinda guy so he wasn't really panicking or anything.

:-D My friend Fred is here!!!!! :-D Makes me happy. I'm so happy to see him, have a friend, a familiar face. And to know that I'm worth him coming here for my wedding means a lot to me.

David's sister has arrived too. :-)

(I'm having to rush this entry because of all the details to tie up before the wedding and I have to dash off to meet Fred.)

I had another fangirl experience on Sunday... I met and talked with Boba Fett! Jeremy Bulloch is so very nice, and we did really have a conversation! How neat! :-D I also met Kenny Baker and got an autograph from him. :-D

Okay. My head is spinning. So much to do, wish I had a little more time to write but hey, if this keeps me from being verbose for once in my life that's not a terrible thing. Ha ha.

Gotta go.

I'm marrying my sweetheart, my one true love, the love of my life, my best friend. I'm so happy.

I believe we have a winner of an idea, courtesy of my beloved. As I said before, we're not partying type people who love lots of alcohol and dancing. Nothing wrong with that but it's just not us.

Yesterday, during lunch with David, he suggested bowling. Which I think sounds like a very good idea. It's something we both like and enjoy and it would be fun. Even if people don't love bowling they probably can still have a little fun, yes? BTW I never did write about how David and I went bowling many weeks ago... it was fun. I, um, beat him. ;-) I'm rusty but I was pleased to break 100 on my second game... I forget what I got exactly now... 119 or something? I can usually get around 150. David really has some awesome power and he accomplished more strikes than I did, but he also hit more gutter balls than I did as well. I only got one strike, I think, and a handful of spares.

ANYWAY. We had a good time that night. So now we're thinking that we'll have the ceremony at 11:30... take some photos after that... then David and I will come to our house and change into different clothes and then meet everyone else at the bowling alley. We'll rent 3 lanes and pay for the rental and the shoes, but not for people's lunches and whatever. If people want a snack they can buy it themselves. I'm already thinking I might have a small order of nachos and a soda. :-)

So I don't know how long that will take... if everyone comes we'll have 13 people there... although that's assuming one person will bring a guest which he may not. So we'll have either 12 or 13 people, including us. That would be 4 to a lane, and we'll bowl two games. We'll probably make it to the bowling alley around 13:00??? David and I really need to go one more time to see just how long it does take to get there and then see how long a game will last, even though it'll just be the two of us. Hmmmm.

Well, I'm getting all tied down in logistics when I don't have to yet. (Although I can't help it, that's how I am.) So after bowling we'll then go back to the house, change back into our wedding attire and grab our overnight stuff, and meet everyone at the hotel for the reception. Preliminary thinking has us guessing the reception will start around 16:00. Then we're guessing dinner might last around 3 hours? AUGH. It's bugging me not to really know but I don't have to right now. The one thing I'm not fond of is the fact that the bowling alley is quite a distance so traveling for that eats up some time in our day. :-(

After the reception David and I will leave for a night in a nice hotel. We were thinking of staying in the honeymoon suite at the same hotel we're having the reception at but we got a look at it on Sunday and it's nothing fancy at all. It's just a basic room that's a little bigger with a four-poster bed. It was really boring. So we're looking for another place to stay and David did a search and found another place that looks nice. It'll be about an hour's drive from us. We'll see. These are little details we'll hammer out over time. Soon.

Back to the point. I really do like his suggestion. It feels so like us. It feels right. Something fun that we will enjoy. :-)

I made a (rather stupid and lame) suggestion that David and I just stay at home for the night and have stuff like chocolate covered strawberries. David said that wasn't a good idea because he just imagined dipping a strawberry into the chocolate to feed to me and at the same time he has to fight off Thal who is trying to eat it and/or stick her head into the chocolate. Then, after hopefully successfully fighting her off, he'll turn to me and Quinnis will be on the other side of me and make a quick move with her fangs and grab the food. Oh my sweetheart love, you do make me laugh. He has a very astute point.

Finally, I want to share a David Story that his mum told me the other night. This is so quintessential David and it's just one of the countless reasons I love him so much.
When he was about 8 years old he wrote a note to his mother, folded it many times and put it on her pillow. It read "Top Secret: Do Not Show Dad". Then as you unfold it more it read "Seriously. Do Not Tell Dad." More unfolding yielded more of the same, "I Mean It. Do Not Tell Dad, This is TOP SECRET." Finally, when the letter was all unfolded the message at the bottom said "Ask Dad to wake me up in the morning."

I love this man more than is humanly possible. He makes my heart and soul burst with happiness and love. I am honoured to know him, love him and be loved by him.

I love my sweetheart davidoflondon so very, very, very much. He is just incredible and amazing and I am so happy.

Yesterday and today we started working on the house, making it into our home. Nesting. Adding straw and mud and stray cat fur. You know, the usual.

My stuff arrived nearly a week ago (Tuesday, April 19) and I've been staring at the boxes since then. 33 boxes plus my bass guitar. You know what I should've done? Put the "fragile" stickers on the books that way the movers would've kicked the shit out of those boxes instead of the ones with porcelain otter figurines and the like. *eyeroll* It really doesn't matter, I know. They really don't give a crap about my stuff. One box was pretty badly mangled but it only had my sewing machine in it with TONS of packing peanuts so ... frankly if any box would've fared best from that, it would've been that one. Still, we'll see how my machine works.

So I've been unpacking and finding nooks to put my stuff in so we can use the boxes to pack away more stuff. Oh yes. Just when you think you have all the fun you can tolerate... I get to simutaneously unpack my stuff AND then repack books!

Honestly though... I'm touched by this repacking. My beloved has been thinking about how he can make room for my stuff in this house and that entails having to pack up lots of his books and schlep them up into the loft. I'm very grateful by this act, even though he asked "What else did you think was going to happen?" But it really means a lot to me. Really.

I love seeing some of my stuff out and about now. We put my Titanic ship above one of the fireplace mantles. It looks lovely. We're figuring out where my millions of stuffed animals, mostly otters and ferrets, will go. We know where my lovely stone/porcelain/etc. collection of animals will go, in the music room. There were shelves of books on two sides of the room and now there is quite a lot of space for my stuff.

Anyways. This is all boring details really and I'm not explaining it very well to begin with. But suffice to say... I'm genuinely happy and touched by all this work David has done for me. How he wants this to be my home as well, OUR home.

I am so sore from all this work. We packed away 11 three foot cubic boxes of books into the loft, which is scary all by itself. I had to grit my teeth to handle being up there to do all this work and coming up and down the ladder. Not fun. My sweetheart worked his gorgeous ass off in the two major book rooms, rearranging and sending the books up to me in a plastic bag. We are both knackered.

Man, there I go again. These details are not that interesting! But as I said, it means everything to me. I love my darling David. He is the best. THE BEST. I love him more than words can ever hope to express. I just want to be with him forever and ever.

We're also working on turning one of the bedrooms into a full-on ferret room. Where the ferrets can be out and about all day long, which will be so great for them.

But I'm so tired now. And sore. So I'll end now. I hope to catch up soon, it's really more than a full time job trying to get settled. I do think about y'all often, really. I miss you. Y'all take care.

My engagement ring is currently on my finger. Oh yes, yes it is.

I know, I am awful... I'm not going to post pictures tonight because I am tired... but I had to "document" the day that I received it. It is the MOST GORGEOUS ring I have ever seen. It is beyond perfect, it is everything I have ever wanted. Most of y'all know just how sodding difficult I am with jewellry but this ring is so beyond perfect that there needs to be another increment available to describe it.

Most of all... I love the fact that David picked it out for me, he listened to me and found the perfect ring for me... which is something that is just so incredible about him and leaves me breathless at times because he listens to me and cares and just gets me. I love that it illustrates how perfectly in-tune we are with each other, how we're on the same wavelengths, how we're soul mates and kindred spirits.

Furthermore, I love what the ring symbolizes. Our pledge to each other, to get married and be committed to each other for the rest of our lives. A symbol of our love and affection, our connection and promises to each other.

So details of the day: we had to meet the guy who made the ring for us at lunch and after playing a little phone tag, we found each other and went into a shop to buy sandwiches. Mark presented the box and I gleefully opened it and was stunned by the beauty of the ring. I tried it on and it fit perfectly, in more ways than one. Yes, the size fit perfectly but the nuance of the ring, the essence fit me, Shannon. It was like it was made for me. (Which it literally was!) But I mean... it's just like David... just how we were made for each other, this ring is so perfect for me and it represents David because it is made for me.

Yeah, okay... forgive me... my brain is a little tired and I am really lacking descriptions because I am actually still kinda "speechlessly happy" about this ring and everything it represents.

David and I got back a little while ago from a celebration dinner. The food was excellent... I had a feta and pesto tartlett, and a mushroom burger (think portobello) with goat's cheese and delicious thick cut fries fat chips. Dude... I cannot get chips and fries straight in my head anymore. Well, I can... I instantly think of American chips no matter how hard I try to change my thinking. Anyways. Then I was full but decided to have some chocolate ice cream. David had a goat's cheese and tomato salad, and a burger. He said his food was delicious.

I took one of their business cards for my keepsake scrapbook. :-) To remember our celebratory night, the day I received my ring to complete our engagement. I cannot wait to be Mrs. davidoflondon. I love you, my sweet David, more than words can ever hope to express. xxxxxxxxxxx

Life is starting to fall into place, settle down as it were, a little bit around here. I should be able to be online a little more and catch up (FINALLY) with y'all soon.

I just wanted to make a post to document something very sweet and special. Today David and I mailed our "Save the Date" cards. :-) We finished the printing and then took a walk to the post office, to get postage stamps for the USA destined cards. Well, actually we dropped the UK bound cards into one box before visiting a post office, then put the USA bound cards into another box after visiting the post office. I now get to smile when I walk past these post boxes in the future. Awwwww. And it was a lovely day, cloudy, overcast, cool. My favourite kind of weather.

Remember when I mentioned getting some prescriptions filled here? Today we popped into that same pharmacy and the person totally remembered me from meeting me once weeks ago and asked how the wedding planning was going. That's awesome customer service right there, wow.

I love my David. We will be getting the ring on Friday. I cannot wait to see it. But all I want is my David, forever.

Here I am!

I had an uneventful, but long, journey. All my boardings, disembarkings, take-offs and landings went quite nicely though. No problems at all. Just sitting on the plane for 7-8 hours for the transatlantic flight was a pain. Ugh.

I am so completely happy. I cannot believe I live here now. This is it. Here I am. It is amazing. I'm with my David, my darling love of my life David, and just so happy. It's so surreal to be working on changing everything I once knew. I have to get used to new ways of money, traffic, dealing with rubbish--literally, etc. So much!! I'm so excited though.

It was hard to leave the home I knew. I watched the Rocky Mountains in the window for as long as I could while we took off. The stupid plane windows were really low on that flight... my breasts had a great view however. In the second plane from Chicago to London the windows were in a good position. And we flew over Canada so I got to say hello and goodbye to Canada. :-) I watched the sunset over Canada.

This journey was not as difficult as the last one. I'm acclimating more like I expected on the last trip. I know that it was my first time for a lot of things, such as first time on a long transatlantic flight, first time in a new country, etc. But I always felt unbalanced the last time I was here. Disoriented. And I never could really regain my composure. This time... I have barely any jet lag at all. When David and I came home I did take a 2 hour nap... and then we went out to get some stuff... came home and I took another 20 minute nap, and that was it. I was mostly fine the entire day. I fell asleep at night, with David, and awoke this morning with David.

At the Colorado Springs airport I realised "Oh bloody hell" I had packed a whole bunch of toiletries into my carry-on bag. So I went to the restroom and threw out most of it. Which I was very sad to do because everything was new and hardly used. I lamented about this on the phone with David and he tried to cheer me up by saying we'll go out and buy new stuff when I arrive, which is what we did yesterday. I was still upset though, because I said "But I don't know exactly where to find this stuff in England!" But we managed yesterday. There's just two more things I need to find to replace and that will be easy enough. I replaced most of it yesterday. And dear sweetheart David went out and bought me some lotion while I was still on my journey to him... and guess what? He found the exact right stuff I needed!

He met me at the airport with a bottle of water and some pistachios. Awwwwww. What a darling. I love him so much. I'll never forget his smile as I walked out of the international gate at Heathrow. I'll never forget being in his arms. I'll never forget the feeling of "I don't ever have to leave again. I'll never leave from Heathrow without David and I'll never have to leave David." It's so amazing, awesome and surreal. I cannot believe I live here now! With my David!!!

My plans for today are to get ready, probably take a shower, and then mum will be picking me up to take me to a tube station so I can go meet David for lunch. Then I'm going to check out some jewellry stores for my/our rings. :-) David won't be able to be with me the entire time so I'll just browse and make notes of what I really like and show him later. It's going to take me some time, I think, to find the rings I want since I am so damn picky. But he and I both will decide on the final rings.

I cannot believe I live here with my beloved!!!!

I am so happy.

It's my beloved's birthday! :-)

My darling David,

You're having the birthday but I'm the one who has received the greatest gift ever... YOU!

Happy, Happy, Happy Birthday davidoflondon! Here's to a million more that I get to spend with you. xoxoxoxoxoxoxo

Life ain't dull at the moment that's for sure.

I turned in my resignation to work today. It is actually a little sad. This was never to be a forever job for me but I do enjoy driving commercial vehicles and this job was pretty damn cushy. My boss is a good boss and all my coworkers are very nice. Like I said one of them said I tone down the "beefcake-ness" around there. LOL. But my last day of work will be March 10th. On Friday March 11th I have to work on all the outprocessing among all the other last minute things before I move on Saturday March 12th!!

So I've been still having problems with my back molar. It's the very last molar on my lower left side. I had a filling fall out and I've already had them repair it for the second time about a week ago. So when I went in this morning he suggested I get a crown. >.< Awful. But I'm getting a crown just in time for me to move to a monarchy, yes?

Talk about pain. I was in pain before the appointment and then of course, after. For awhile my painkillers wouldn't touch the pain and then all of the sudden, they did. Right now I'm surprisingly pain free. HOWEVER. Here is the gory story. He had to cut into my gums thanks to my mouth being so overcrowded and so I was bleeding pretty bad. Here I was, first thing in the morning, having all this drilling done and lots of YUCKY tastes going on in my mouth from various dental stuff... and lots of blood. Ugh. Also I was having a difficult time getting and staying numb. I had 4 shots to get me mostly numb and even then, I still felt a lot of the work.

When he told me about needing a crown... I started shaking like a leaf for some reason. I started shaking and became really, really cold. It was not fun. Then they had trouble making my temporary crown and had to use a more permanent glue to keep it on there. This is going to suck because I have YET to have my final impression done for the crown and I have to go back tomorrow to do it. This is because I was bleeding so badly. So I get to go back tomorrow, at 18:30, and have the temporary crown removed, get the impression and have the temp put back on. THEN I have to wait about 2 weeks for my permanent crown to come in. Which means I'll be having that done just a few days before I move to London.

As for my illness... I finally started to feel a little better today. It's been bad. I've lost my voice, had lots of congestion and I've just been in pain from this.

My car was fixed today, though, so that's good. I had the rear struts replace a few weeks ago and there was still an awful noise coming from that area. I just didn't have time to bring it back... and I finally did today. They did seem to fix it. No more noise! Now I get to enjoy my last moments with my car in peace.

Oh and about the crown... they wanted to charge me full price ($750) and I asked that they give me a discount since this is due to a problem with the filling they did. She said she would check with the doctor and let me know. I sure hope so. Freaking expensive!! :-( I called David and was crying due to the pain, the work that will be done in the future and the expense. Phooey. I just hope that this will do the trick. I am a little worried.

That's the up-to-date stuff from me right now. That's the story, morning glory. I'm going to go down to the basement now and start packing more sh-tuff. Oh the fun to be had! Y'all know you're jealous.