Hello There

I've gone a few days with writing, mostly because just about nothing is going on in my life.  Kenny is in the Middle East for work this week- he has already left Kuwait, is now in Bahrain and will finish up in Abu Dhabi before returning to London on Thursday morning.  In preparation for this trip he spent the weekend working, but we still got to hang out and spend some time together.  I am a very agreeable wife:)
 
I met a girlfriend and her boyfriend for dinner and drinks last night.  She is Italian, super petite, very pretty and always perfectly put together.  She came in, gave me a hug and kiss and immediately commented on how I look like I have lost a lot of weight.  I still smile on the inside- and on the outside- whenever people notice that I have lost weight and say that I look good.  It never gets old!  I have been getting a lot more compliments recently.  I guess I am finally at the point with my weight loss where you'd have to be blind to not notice such an obvious change.
 
In other news, we are definitely staying in London a bit longer than we initially expected.  I was 100% opposed to moving to London and made Kenny swear that we would move back exactly two years after our move... meaning that we would be stateside on the afternoon of November 1, 2011 (not like I'm counting or anything).  Well, this is no longer the game plan.  Neither of us wants to be here for too much longer, but we have agreed to stay on for one additional year.  It makes sense for Kenny professionally.  He has a good position here, and it will take him some time to find the correct next step back in the States.  This gives him more time to start moving in that direction.  Again, how agreeable am I?
  
Because our initial contract was for two years, we have to get new visas.  The UK is getting very strict with visas though, so we have to go through the entire application process from scratch.  We've filled out TONS of paperwork and have an appointment for our biometric data scans on Friday.  While this should be a 15 minutes process that takes place in London, we have to go all the way to Sheffield (over 2 hours away) to handle this.  Rather than sleeping until the sun rises (which I like to do daily), we will be leaving our flat at about 5:45am to catch a 6:37am train... for a 10am appointment.  We will have stay there until at least 3pm so that we can return home with our passports.  It will be a very boring day, groan. 
 
Our other minor issue with staying is that our landlord initially wanted to raise our rent by 42%.  We have been negotiating with the group for the last week or two, and it looks like they will accept a 10% increase- still a lot of extra money to be paying, but at least we probably won't have to pack up our flat and move.  We shipped all of our American furniture from the States, so some of our pieces don't fit through a standard English door.  Avoiding a move would be a very good thing.  We are settling on some details of the lease, but I hope we will have clarity by the end of the week.  I will update when we find out.   
  
Off to the gym- happy Tuesday!