My attitude was something that I chose to focus and improve on this month. This month was pretty stressful with the drive back to Missouri, the week long suspense of the residency match and the temporary move to England for Jason's last rotation and I feel like I handled each situation with a pretty positive attitude. Sure, there were times were I lost it but I quickly moved on and tried to fix the bad attitude. - My attitude on the drive home was better than I could have expected for myself. I made it to the Missouri boarder before I had myself a mini-meltdown. 38 hours of constant driving and no sleep finally caught up to me. Don't worry...it wasn't anything too bad! My GLEE soundtrack pulled me right out of my bad mood ten minutes down the road.
- I feel like I constantly struggle with enjoying the present instead of always dreaming about the future. Once we found out that Jason had matched with a residency program, we couldn't help but get excited. We started dreaming about our first house, a new car, starting a family and all the excitement that comes with a move. Sometimes dreaming of the future doesn't take away from the present...it just makes the present that much more enjoyable
- I think it's easy to let our minds wander when the unknown is around every corner. We are the type of people that we like to have a plan and without a plan our thoughts can be all over the place. I'm a very positive and upbeat person so I usually can look at the glass half full when the room sees the glass as half empty. It's so easy to slip into negative thinking under stress and pressure. When I feel myself looking at the glass as half empty, then I look at how much God has blessed our lives. We truly have so much to be thankful for and if I just stop and look, I can see God's grace EVERYWHERE!
I'm so glad that I chose March for me to focus on my attitude. It really helped me during the stressful, crazy, sleep-deprived and hard times.
Finally, the train was coming and I tried my hardest to inspect every train coach. I think my green coat helped me get spotted because next thing I know, Jason is waving at me through the train window. We were united again! What a way to start the day! Once we got to London, we were on a mission. We walked along the river, seeing all we could see and stopping only to grab some lunch. Once we finished with lunch, we walked outside to a pleasant surprise...rain. Usually it rains for 20-30 minutes and then it stops (from our past one day of rain experience) so we decided to just huddle together under our umbrella and continue our walk towards our final destinations. The walk was pretty wet and windy but we kept saying "We aren't going to let a little separation at the station and rain get us down!" Truth be told, we were cold, our jeans were wet and we were starting to get a little irritated with huddling under the small umbrella. We continued on our rainy walk and we got to see quite a bit of things. Everyone was hiding out, under shelter, but we were out in the middle of everything. 
We found Shakespeare's Globe, which contains all the history of Shakespeare. It has a thatched roof, which definitely adds to it's historic feel. 
We kept walking down and then the Tower Bridge appeared. It has a very rich, grand, Harry Potter-like feel to it. 
We crossed the bridge, learned all the history involved with the bridge and made our way for the Tower of London. The Tower of London considered one of the safest places in London and that is why it is still home to the Royal Jewels. Pretty much the only reason I wanted to pay the admission fees was the see the jewels but once we walked in, there was so much more there. We waited around for the Yeoman Morder "Beefeater" to give us a free tour through the tower.
The tower used to be a holding cell for some of the worst criminals. They were held at the Tower and then they would be escorted up Tower Hill for their execution. Pretty intense place...even Anne Boelyn was held and executed here. 
The history in this tower, scratch that, throughout London is unmeasurable. We had such a great time exploring and learning all the historic events that the Tower of London was responsible for. 
The rain did slow down quite a bit during our tour but by then we were frozen to the bone. We grabbed a warm hot chocolate after the tour and made a mad dash for home. Don't worry, when we had to scan our Oyster cards on the way home...we BOTH got off to scan our Oyster cards!! 
The program mailed out a huge packet with the originals this week but since we aren't in Missouri and we won't be able to get them, a faxed copy will have to do until we can get back and get them the originals. 
On our way back from town, we stopped by my favorite park to feed the ducks, the geese and any other bird that was hungry. 
We also stopped by the tiniest little door, which I'm sure leads into the tiniest little house. 
We saw the owner out walking her dog one morning and just about fainted. She didn't appear to be a dwarf but she was the tiniest person I've ever seen. She couldn't have been taller than 4'0 and her feet were the size of my 4 year old nephew. She could easily be on a TLC special. 
The castle was huge (I feel like I say that with every castle) and it had some amazing garden areas. Inside a building labeled "The Queen's Dolls House" was a four foot replica of a house that would have been standing during that period of time. The mini rolls of toilet paper and the small bottles of champagne on the dining table were all said to be real, just tiny. Also on the Windsor Castle grounds, was St. George's Chapel. St. George's Chapel is most famous for being the burial site for Henry VIII, the Queen Mother (mother of the current Queen) and the future site of where the Queen will be buried when she passes. 
Along with the Doll House and St. George's Chapel, we got to see the changing of the guard. Well, we started out watching it...got bored so we decided to walk around for a bit....then we came back to get a picture by the new guard. Another touristy moment! 
We were on a mission during those two hours--see as much as we could see! We saw just about everything that Windsor had to offer, like the Crooked House of Windsor. 
We even walked through the town of Windsor and found where Prince Charles and Camilla were married. He was unable to get married in a church since his first marriage to Diana was in a church so they married in the Guildhouse in Windsor. Our next stop on the tour was Stonehenge. I was a little nervous about this stop because I had heard so many mixed reviews. Some people loved it and others thought it was just pointless rocks on a hillside. Once we got there and we could experience it, I fell in love. 
My mind started racing...how did these huge stones get perfectly stacked without the help of machinery? Why was the monument built? How many years did it take? We were given an audio tour when we arrived and a lot of theories were answered by some of the best of the 'Stonehenge' scholars. 
Stonehenge is literally out in the middle of nowhere and is said to have been assembled some 5,000 years ago. Some of the stones that are used in the Stonehenge monument were thought to have been taken from a spring 240 miles away, which was thought to have healing powers. Amazing! I'm so glad we were there a little later in the day because we could really stop and take it all in. 
Our last stop on our tour was the town of Bath. Bath is known for the large communal baths that are right in the middle of the city. The baths were first built when a man was cured of leprosy when he rolled around in a mixture of the warm spring water and mud. 
He promised that he would build a city if he was cured and he called it Bath. Bath was unbelievable--the whole city had a Georgian style, which consisted of light colored limestone and a half moon shape above the doors and windows. Very pretty! Bath Abbey is a huge, gothic church right beside the Roman baths so we had to take some pictures. 
The Romans baths were filled with so much information. We were given headsets so if we got to an area that we wanted to here more about, we could type in the number and listen. So much history...finally by the end, we turned off our headsets and just took it all in. 
We had such an amazing time on the tour. We had about a two hour drive back to London and then from London we had an hour train ride back to Epsom. About an hour into our drive, our tour guide informs us that the demonstrations (protests) got a little out of hand and the whole city was on lockdown. No buses and no trains were allowed to enter central London. About 200 people were arrested for violent outbursts...scary stuff. We were able to find our way back home pretty easily but it was still a pretty scary situation when the tour guide notified us of the changes. I'm just glad we decided to head out of the city instead of staying in London and exploring. We are so grateful for all the opportunities that God has blessed our family with. We're are getting to see some amazing things, learn some very interesting history and spend some great quality time with each other.
Well, now I know how to properly ask for stamps at the post office and how to drag my basket at the grocery store. Slowly but surely I'm learning the ways of England...ha! 
Hampton Court Palace is huge--the palace itself is ridiculously huge, but the gardens are what most people go to look at. The gardens surround all three sides of the palace and are in perfect condition. We are still a little early for the rose gardens and a few of the 'summery' gardens but we both agreed that we'd love to come back before we leave. Words can't even describe and the pictures don't do it justice.... 
Prostitutes from the east side of London would cross over to the richer side of London and wait by St. Bodolph's Church. The church where all the wealthy went and the women knew there would be plenty of business going in and coming out of the church. 
All five of the women that Jack the Ripper murdered had interesting stories and deaths but seeing all the actual places and the historic parts of London is what really made the story interesting. The Bell pub is the last place one of Jack's victims was seen before she was murdered. 
