Happy Memories

I’ve been tagged by the lovely Babyrambles who has honoured me with the “You’re a Great Read” award.  This means a lot as I always hope that people enjoy what I write and better yet, READ what I write.  Someone must be! 

So, here’s the challenge that comes along with this award: you have to list 10 Happy Memories.  I will do my best to get 10 and then pass on the torch to some deserving others.  These memories are not in any particular order…randomly extracted from my increasingly muddled brain.  So as not to totally forget or irriate anyone, I’m limiting my happy memories to the last 4 years as so very much has happened to me in the last four years.  Ready, steady, go!

1) The Moment I Saw My Daughter For the First Time:  I had a rather long and slightly traumatic labour and delivery of my daughter.  When I finally heard a muffled cry and someone say “It’s a Girl!” I began to cry.  When my Hubby held my Little Miss up to my head (c-section) and I gazed into her deep blue, wide eyes I knew that everything was worth it and that I had never seen such a beautiful thing in my entire life.  I’ve never been happier.

2) Home:  When my husband and I brought our daughter home, I wasn’t 100% well, I was exhausted and shaky.  But when my husband fed her her first bottle in the rocking chair in the nursery with “Songbird” playing on the iPod, I felt complete.  We were a family.

3) Arrival: 3 years ago my dog took a very long, very scary plane ride from the US to the UK to be with his Mummy.  I hadn’t seen him for a year and my Mom had taken very good care of him in my absence.  We should have had him with us on a Saturday morning but a snaffle in a vaccination meant that he had to stay in quarrantine over night.  At 6am, we arrived at Gatwick Animal Control and waited for his kennel to be wheeled out to us.  Opening the gate, out rushed my boy!  He was so happy to see us and we were so happy to finally have him with us.  He’s just celebrated his 13th birthday this weekend…happy birthday boy! 

4) Guess What: Another happy memory was finding out I was pregnant and telling my husband and later (11 weeks later) telling all of our family.  We webcammed with my American family and put up the first scan image to the camera so they could see their future grandchild.  It was a very happy moment for everyone in our family!

5) London Eye:  When sitting beneath the London Eye in 2005, my then boyfriend and I were discussing our future.  He said, “Well, I want to marry you!” and I said “Well, are you asking me?” and he said “Well, I guess I am!”  So I said, “Well, ask then!” and he did and I said YES!!!  It was a gorgeous, unseasonably warm evening on 18 March, 2005 and the London Eye was rotating above our heads.  Parliament was glowing in the background and I was the happiest girl on the planet at that moment.  I was engaged…to the love of my life!  One year later, to the day, we were married. 

6)  Our Wedding:  As my family and friends are American, there were a lot of visitors coming to England for our wedding 3 years ago.  My husband and I operated a shuttle service collecting our family at the Peterborough train station and transporting them to Stamford to the hotel.  It was so thrilling picking up all of these special people and knowing they were here for our wedding.  They had made great sacrifices and financial commitments to attend our wedding and it was very heartwarming to know how much they cared.  We had the most amazing rehearsal dinner (a decidedly American tradition) where everyone ate delightful food and drank too much wine and got to know each other.  Our wedding day on 18 March, 2006, dawned a bit overcast and bitterly cold (3 degrees Celcius) but I didn’t feel a thing!  I was sooooo happy!  And I had all of my family and friends around to see it.  What more could I have wanted? 

7) First Weekend:  I had travelled from the US to Paris in 2005 to begin a study abroad term in Caen, France.  It was a stressful and exhausting trip where I barely knew who I was much less where.  I had met my future husband, courtesy of my friend Julie who happens to be his twin sister.  We had communicated by phone for a few months before I came to France and had arranged for me to fly to Luton airport the first weekend that I was in France.  I slogged back from Caen to Paris to take an Easy Jet flight to Luton airport on 4 February, 2005.  We had never seen each other…only vague pictures and even then I wasn’t sure who I was looking for.  He knew I had a bright pink suitcase, I knew he was tall and I thought he was blond.  It turned out that he wasn’t blond but he was definitely tall and he found me before I found him.  I’ve never been so happy to see anyone in my entire life.  That weekend was the start of what our life is now.  It wasn’t romantic, as such, as we didn’t really know each other but it planted the seed and allowed me to dream.  I knew that I could fall in love with him and very soon after that first weekend, I did just that!

Paris: 3 Weeks after first meeting the love of my life, I made arrangements for us to meet for a weekend in Paris.  He flew over from England; I took the train from Caen.  We stayed at my favourite hotel in Paris (the Hotel Elysee-Union…I highly recommend it) and had the most amazing weekend getting to know each other better and exploring a city that I love.  We fell in love that weekend and have never looked back.  I give Paris a lot of credit as well.  What better city in the world is there in which to fall in love? 

9) Family Visits: I’m not going to pick any one family member or any one visit but it’s so special when my family and friends have come over from the US to see us.  It’s so far away and so much money and they readily do it just to be with us.  Every time we’ve gone to collect them or meet them, it’s such a happy occasion.  The leaving…not so much.  But to have them here means ever so much.

10)  This morning:  As I’m being given time to write this post, my husband and Little Miss are out in the garden.  Hubby is running the lawnmower and I just looked out the window to see hubby holding Little Miss as he mowed.  He’s the most amazing Daddy and loves his Little Miss more and more every minute.  They are best friends and I can’t believe how lucky I am.  I have a goregous Little Miss who makes me smile and laugh every day and I have a Hubby who does everything he can to make our lives special and secure.  We are a family and I can’t imagine my life without them. 

So, there, 10 Happy Memories!  Phew…I’m emotionally exhausted now.  Should go lie down in a darkened room but I have my family to tend to.  Thanks for reading and please check out the blogs which I am passing the torch on to:

And 1 More Means Four , Life with a Little Dude, OMG, We’re Pregnant, A Place of My Own, and Chronicles of Squidgy Boo

These are some amazing bloggers who write brilliantly and make my day some days!  Please do go to their site’s for a read.  How about you?  Can you think of 10 Happy Memories?  Maybe you can write a post about it too!  It’s a great exercise and makes everything a little happier!  Cheers!