Strolling Around London

I just had the best time in London over this past weekend! My mother and I left early Friday morning and got to London around 8am. I, being the smart one I am, chose to just pull an all-nighter so I didn't have to bother with an alarm clock that morning. That bit me in the butt big time later on that day. Anyway, we checked into the hotel and, right off the bat, the fun began.

Day One:

The Elevator
As my mom and I try to get up to our room on the seventh floor, we encountered some problems. We go into the first "lift" that's available and continuously hit the '7' button. It never lights up. My mom looks at me and says, "Did it work?" It obviously didn't because we shot up to the 22nd floor so a flight attendant could get on and ride back down to the ground floor to check out. Lovely. So then we get into a different "lift" and my mom says to the buttons in a British accent, "Can you take me to the seventh floor?" She hits the button and nothing happens. "Apparently not," she says and we hop into a another "lift". This time more people get on with us and, as my mom is pushing the '7' button, a man says, "No, no, no. You have to put the room card into the slot first." How security-ful of the British. Now the buttons are working. Everyone is saying the floor number they want and my mom is pushing the buttons. A man in the back says, "Just hit all the buttons!" Obviously kidding. My mom says, "Okay!" and makes a whooshing noise pretending to hit the buttons. She then says, "Ooooh, it's like a Christmas tree!" If you don't get that movie reference, you're no longer my friend.
The whole situation reminded me of this youtube video:

Helping the Poor? Not Our Style.
It was freeezing in London! I was taking so many pictures, mainly because I'm in love with my dad's camera, and my hands were practically numb. My mom gave me her mittens to wear for a while. As we are turning a corner, a lady starts to ask me if I can take a picture for her and her friend but sees my mittens and decides it wouldn't be a good idea. Good thinking, stranger! My mom sees this going down and offers to take the picture for them. This leaves me to fend for myself for a minute. Shouldn't be hard, right? Wrong. I get into a lovely conversation with some poor lady who is handing out pink flowers. She puts one on my coat and then asks if I will be willing to donate to the poor. I tell her I have no money but my mother does. My mom comes back, sees what I have done and rolls her eyes. My mother is asked if she is willing to donate to the poor and my mom says, "Uhm. No!" The lady came and took her flower back. How sad.

Big Ben? Who's That?
As we are walking down some random road, a lady approaches us and asks if Big Ben is in the direction we are coming from. My mom says, "I wouldn't know. I never met him." She cracks herself up.

Pictures from Day One:

The London Eye

St. James's Park

Buckingham Palace

Fish & Chips! Yuum.

St. James's Park

Big Ben

My Photogenic Self

Day Two:


Snow!
We woke up to a good 4 inches of snow! I thought it made everything look so pretty. My mother thought it made everything look dreadful. She was not looking forward to walking around in the snow all day. It didn't bother me though. I loved it :)

That's Awkward
On one of the bus tours, a tour guide came up to us and said to me, "I'm going to take your beautiful sister out to dinner tonight. I'll give you my number so you can get ahold of her or myself if you need anything, okay?" Awkwaaaard. He then goes on asking where we are from and so on. I tell him we are from New York and he says, "Oh! You guys have guns!" and walks away.

I Want Hard Rock!
I reallllly wanted to go to the Hard Rock Cafe while we were in London. We saw it from the bus tour that morning. I looked at a map and thought we could cut through Hyde Park from one of the bus stops and get to the Hard Rock Cafe for lunch. I tell my mom that I want to get off the bus at the park and we do. As we are cutting through the park, it becomes clear that the walk is pretty much...Hell. It was icy, slushy and puddles were everywhere. My mom wasn't wearing snow shoes so her feet were soaked! She looks at me and says, "WHY did you want to walk in the park?!" I say, "I thought we could walk through it and get to the Hard Rock." At the time I didn't know it was a good half hour walk...in sunshine. She looks at me and says, "You're such an ass!" and turns around and starts walking back to the bus stop. I follow. A minute later she turns around and says, "I'm pissed!" As if I couldn't tell by her previous comment. She starts doing her "I'm mad" walk that so many mothers have perfected. It was making me laugh so I took a picture...

"I'm PISSED!"

The Hard Rock Cafe

We finally got there around 5:30pm. We had to do the whole tour of London over again on the bus in order to get back to the stop for the Cafe. The food was delicious! My hamburger was huge though. The waiter asked if I liked my meal 'cause he didn't think I ate a lot. I was actually proud of how my plate looked when I was done. I thought I put a real dent in the food. I guess not.

Pictures from Day Two:

Lovely!

Tower Bridge

Big Ben and...Such

The Tower of London

A Walk in the Snow

It started snowing yesterday afternoon and I hoped that it would stick around until this morning. I wanted to get some pictures of it before it all melted! It never snows enough here and the snow we do get melts way too fast. It's funny to see the children trying to make snowmen out of a half inch of powdered snow.

I woke up early and bundled up. My dog and I made our way up to the farm fields. He had a tennis ball and I had my dad's camera. We were prepared :)

Early Morning Sun

Farm Fields

The Road Home

Always with a Tennis Ball

I Need A Baby.

Yes. This is the thought that went through my head numerous times in church today. Of course, there's a great story behind it so here it goes!

Before the start of Sunday School, the teacher was walking around asking if anybody was willing to read quotes she had printed out. I turned to my mom and said, "Just don't make eye contact." The teacher walked by and guess what! We weren't given a quote. Yay!

As the teacher is still preparing before the lesson begins, a woman comes and sits in the seat in front of me. She has a baby in a carrier and places it on the floor next to her chair. The baby girl was adorable. She was sound asleep with her eyelids and fingers twitching every so often.

The teacher starts setting up her microphone and the speakers were turned up waaay too loud. The baby carrier was rather close to the speakers. The baby started stirring but hadn't fully woken up yet. Then the lesson began and the teacher's voice eventually woke the baby up.

Apparently, when babies wake up, they have to be fed. Wanna know how I learned that? This is how. The mother turns around, looks at my mother and I, and says, "Can one of you two read this quote? I have to go feed her and I won't be back in time to read it." Ah, fetch. I take the quote knowing my mother wouldn't read it. I was never so opposed to reading outloud as I was at that point. Mainly because I hadn't been paying attention to the lesson up to that point seeing as my mother had brought M&Ms to church and I was focussed on picking all the blue ones out to eat.

All I kept thinking was, "I need a baby. If I had a baby, I could get out of anything. They eat and cry so much. I need to borrow somebody's baby. Right. Now."

"Who has quote number 2?" says the teacher. I raise my hand. "Do you need the microphone? Somebody get her a microphone, it's better this way." I beg to differ. So I'm given the microphone and, because I'm so close, it starts making this noise that sounds like a spaceship. So I just start talking louder and hold the microphone as far from the speaker as I could. It was a sight to see. The quote paper in one hand and the microphone in the other, nowhere near my mouth. Longest quote ever. Or, at least, it felt like it.

I finish the quote and hand the microphone back to the guy that gave it to me. I was happy to get rid of that. My mom says, "I'm proud of you. You spoke even though you didn't want to." I turn towards her and smile. Then her face goes into this huge smirk. "Ohhh noo," I'm thinking, "What now?" "You're lips and teeth are blue...very blue," she says. Of course they are.

The mother comes back with her baby no more than five minutes after I read that quote. She turns to me and says, "Did you read it yet?" "Yes." "Oh, thank you!" "No problem!"

Lesson learned: Don't eat blue M&Ms in church. Or better yet, pay attention to the lessons! :)

Who Says Girls Can't Throw?

Anyone that truly knows me knows I have a talent for finding trouble. I'm 100% sure this talent was inherited through my mother and, if you're ever lucky enough to be around us at the same time, be prepared. It can get a little crazy. It's been less than a week that we've been together and there's already so many stories I could tell but last night's story tops them all.

My mother and I have decided to start going to the gym. I repeat - we DECIDED to start. We haven't actually gone yet. We were supposed to go last night but we thought xbox kinect would be more fun. She bought the Jillian Michaels fitness game so we thought we could easily count that as gym time. As my mother is taking her turn, I'm being supportive saying things like, "Hey! You're doing it right. Look at you all fit and stuff." She finishes up her turn *cough*givesup*cough* and I get up to take my turn. As I'm taking my turn, my mother is saying things like "You need to bring your legs up higher." & "Why can't you balance?!" & "You have to stay with Jillian's pace." Ohmyheavens. I wanted to scream. As I'm doing a set of sit-ups, my mom says, "Is that how you always do them?" in a disapproving tone. So I grab the tennis ball my dog had and throw it at her. As soon as it leaves my hand, I'm thinking "Oh no! Don't hit her in the head. Please don't hit her in the head." Where does it go? Right smack in the middle of her forehead. When is my aim ever good? She was mid-sentence when it hit her. She sat there stunned for a minute and then grabs my legs. I'm trying to get away because I'm scared for my life but there's no point 'cause she is one strong woman. She has me pinned to the ground and she grabs another tennis ball and throws it at my face. It hit me in the jaw but that was the least of my worries. I'm still laying there wondering how much trouble I'm in but we both just look at each other and bust out laughing to the point of tears. I haven't laughed that hard in awhile.

For the rest of the night, I got to hear about how she believed she had a concussion. I guess we also know where I've learned to be over dramatic.

Oh My Bishop!

Ever since I began going to church, my mother has taken it upon herself to make sure I keep going and be good. If I say a bad word, I get the, "Emily Rose Rice. What did you just say?!" Meanwhile, she's swearing up a storm over some guy driving too slow. If I even start to crave coffee and tell my mother about it, she says, "Ah, I'm telling the Mormon God." I've asked her a few times about who she thinks that is. She doesn't know. If I wear a dress that's a tad short, she looks at me and says, "Would Jesus be seen wearing that?" Nope, don't think so but thanks for that image. So tonight, my mother was wearing a pair of jeans that wouldn't be allowed at the school I go to because there are holes in them. I took the opportunity to get back at her for some of the above reasons and say, "Mom, your jeans are against the dress code." She goes, "Well pardon the expression but they can bite my ass," which leads me to my next story.

My being home has led my mother to try some new things. One new thing is going to church with me. She has gone with me for two weeks and loves it so far. I'm also teaching her other expressions to say other than her usual, "Oh my God!" or, in some cases (most cases) her explicit phrases. So far, it's been pretty interesting. The other night, we were in the kitchen cooking whatever and she says, "Ohmygod!" and I said, "Mom!". She quickly says, "I mean ohmybishop!" I nearly died. I did not teach her that. Ohwell, I think we are getting somewhere at least.

I love her!

Capture the Fun

I've decided that I'm going to try one of those 'Photo-A-Day' challenges only I'm going to make it my own. I wasn't a fan of some of the things on their list. Who really wants to see the inside of my bathroom cabinet, my front door, or the inside of my closet? I'm hoping you don't because it's not happening. I will, however, be taking a picture of something that makes me happy each day in February. Hopefully this turns out to be fun. Wish me luck!

Oh, on a side note, my mother brought some gifts back from the States. She bought me some clothes and she brought me the Christmas presents my family was too lazy to send. She also bought herself a little present. It's a sensor that lets out a very high pitched noise that makes the dogs stop barking. Everytime they bark, the noise goes and the dogs stop barking. There's also a big button on this alarm that you can push whenever the dog does something bad and it makes the noise. At first, I thought this was a great idea. We would finally have well behaved dogs! Humans can't hear the high pitched noise so I didn't see how this could be annoying. Well, I'm going to tell you how it can get annoying. My mother has been walking around the house and everytime the dog makes a noise she says, "Don't make me push that button!" or, "I'm going to push the button!" or  "Where's the button?!" I have four dogs. They make a lot of noise. Put the pieces together. I feel like I should tell her that the dogs don't know what "the button" is.

Skype. My New Bestfriend.

Since I've been back in Germany, nothing exciting has really happened. There has been the occassional daytrip somewhere but that all came to an end when my mom left for her business trip. She was gone for two weeks and, during those two weeks, it was my job to stay home and keep things in order. Simple stuff. I took advantage of my time spent at home. My room is now spotless with all of my drawers cleaned out. My closet is now organized. Even my scarves are hung up nicely! I learned how to grocery shop effectively and plan *actual* meals out for the week. But, despite all of my accomplishments, there were some rough moments. Here are a few that you might enjoy:

My dad comes home one Saturday with a new movie. He says it's supposed to be really good such & such. He pops it in and guess what. It's all in Chinese. He bought a movie in Chinese. It had English subtitles but who really wants to read a movie? I don't even read books. He made it half way through it and then we shut it off. He looks at me and says, "Still, the only Chinese I know is '10 minute'."

My dad goes grocery shopping without me one day and comes home with milk, cheese, bread, a cake mix and tampons. "Did I get the right kind?!" Yes, dad. You done good.

After that awesome shopping trip where he obviously bought enough food for the whole week (sense the sarcasm) I went to the kitchen to make dinner. An obvious choice that stood out to me was grilled cheese. So I'm making the grilled cheese and I'm showing my dad how I make it and, when I finish, I say, "And that's how I make my grilled cheeses." My dad looks at me and says, "Cool. Now show me how to make this cake." That was code for, 'I don't want that, make this.'

For our next grocery shopping trip we decided to make a list of things we needed. A good idea considering how the last trip went. I tell my dad that we need lettuce and that I prefer iceberg lettuce. He looks at me and says, "Em, lettuce is lettuce whether it's made from ice or not." Good point? We did end up getting iceberg lettuce but it cost $3.57. Oops.

Then there were the nights. My dad works nights so I'm home aloooone. I was okay with this. I love being home alone. I'm so productive when people aren't around to tell me what to do. But then I was dumb and started watching Criminal Minds. And, after watching a disc of Criminal Minds, I was pretty much convinced that somebody was plotting my death. Every. Night. It doesn't help that our cat weighs a gazillion pounds and sounds like a man running up and down the stairs. But, luckily for me, when it's night time over here, it's day time in the States. And where do a majority of my friends live? The States! So I began skyping. A lot. Bedtime is now at 5am and I don't usually wake up until 11am.  

Now that my mother has come back (and with presents!) I'm going to have to change this little sleeping pattern. Why? Because we're about to take advantage of this long break! I'm so excited. So far, the plan for the next few weeks is looking like this:

Ireland/London

Florida

Italy

New York

:)