How is it already almost April?!

I have decided that St Patrick's Day is my new favorite holiday

When it comes to holiday themed food anyway

I don't know why it never full clicked in my head that St. Patrick's Day = green and green = mint

And I just happen to LOVE mint flavored things

Mint ice cream, mint Oreos, chocolate mint....

So if you're friends with me on Pinterest, I'm sorry for inundating your page with recipes and the like

It's sure to calm down soon :)

But I only pin the most amazing things, so I'm sure it will be worth your while ;)

****

This post was supposed to say:

"Yay, I'm going on my trip!!"

We decided that it needed to happen and I needed to go, so I planned it all out

I told my friend I was coming and she was going to let me stay with her

I told my family I was going and to expect souvenirs

But I decided to wait to announce it to the rest of the world until I had my tickets

Finally the day had come, I sat down to purchase my tickets

After finally picking the airport, I found a really good deal and after telling Hubby what I found, I went to book it

I got to the point of entering my information when I had a little thought

"Self, remember how Papa Smurf told you to make sure you could travel with your passport still being in your maiden name and everything else in your married name?"

Oh yeah

I should look into that

I'm sure it will be fine, but better safe than sorry

Cause I'm really good at coming up with the worst case scenarios in everything

Called the passport people, explained the situation, and felt my heart drop when the lady told me that I couldn't travel with my passport and license in different names

If they did check more ID than my license I would be in trouble

I could risk it if I wanted, but she couldn't guarantee anything

Seriously?

I told her I had my marriage license, cause everywhere else has accepted that, but she said that wouldn't do any good

It just about broke my heart

I had already told my friend I was coming and now I would have to tell her that I couldn't

I waited a few days, trying to decide if I really was going to play it safe, or if I was going to take the risk

I read a lot of reviews online of people who had traveled in different names and had been just fine

And I was *this* close to saying "to heck with it all, I'm going!!"

Trying to be all reckless and brave

Something I'm not really good at

But then the over-thinking part of my brain took over and all I could think of was not being able to get back into the US, if I could even leave at all

It doesn't help that my passport expires on the 5th of April

What if I got stuck in England and then my passport expired?!

Then I'd be in big trouble

I could have renewed my passport, but there wasn't enough time to do it by mail and the only other option was a passport agency

The closest one is about a 2-hour drive

And even then there was no guarantee

Bother

Looks like I'm not going

And then she messaged me asking when I was going to fly in

Fine, I won't put it off any more

I pretty much cried the whole time I was writing the message

And felt this huge weight settle on my shoulders...and a rock settle in my stomach

I hate not always being able to be there for people

Or help them

Or anything

I just don't like feeling like I've let people down

And I had a hard time shutting up my anxiety until she messaged me back

Obviously she was fine with it and understood, but just hearing it made me feel a lot better

England

That's where I was going to go

London specifically

That beautiful place that I have always wanted to visit and explore

Hubby has already told me that we'll plan a trip to go soon, so at least there's that

But I'm still a little bummed

There is a good thing that came out of it though

Instead of using our taxes for the trip we were able to use them for some new furniture!!

That will be delivered today!!

(Because as always it took me a few weeks to write this post)

We're only slightly excited :)

Having a lovesac and the floor as our only seating has certainly made us grateful for couches and the like

Especially when the lovesac isn't big enough for both of us

I will be sure to take pictures when they arrive

And Hubby is taking a half day off to be here when it comes

Which makes the day even better!!

****

And our marriage has become officially inaugurated

The other night Hubby went to brush his teeth and accidentally grabbed my toothbrush

And didn't notice

And I wasn't in the room so I didn't either 

Until it was pretty much too late

Mine is the blue one

I had a little bit of a hard time with it

(I know, it's not like we don't share germs anyway....but still....)

It certainly took our marriage to a whole new level ;)

New furniture and sharing toothbrushes

That is how we do things in Iowa