Monthly Archives: January 2012

Shopping & Snow

Ryan and I spent another Tuesday date together.  This time we went up to Crawley for a little shopping.  I love shopping but I do find it hard to spend money on myself, compared to buying things for the boys.  I am however a love for deals.  So while Ryan and I enjoyed some time together, I kept my eyes open.  I got a new iPhone cover for just £1 with Mr. Men on it (to make the boys smile) and two pairs of shoes for a grand total of £11!  But better than any deals was the weather.  Yes it was cold but instead of rain we had snow.  It started snowing while we were out and at one point the snowflakes were quite big.  I loved having the snow fall! It made the day out so beautiful and special.

Out with Ryan in Crawley 

Cold and Rainy

 It has been very cold and rainy in England recently.  I go outside in so many layers. There have been some mornings where I will wear two or three pairs of tights, knee high socks or leg warmers, boots, and my warmer pair of dress slacks on top for just the bottom half of my body.  No joke. After living in Hawaii I am a wimp with this weather. Which is crazy when I remember being a little girl growing up in Norfolk, England wearing shorts in the cold weather.

This morning it was quite hard to get out of bed.  The covers were warm and looking outside it was wet and cold.  Brrrr….

They joke that the English talk a lot about the weather.  I did not get it until I found myself checking my weather app constantly.  I not only look at the weather here, but the warm weather temperatures else where in the world.  Heres to hoping for rainbows.

Rainy weather in England. 

Sweet stuff

 I will admit that I love to do special things for my boys and spoil them when I can.  So with Ryan gone and a bad sweet tooth myself, we had breakfast at Starbucks before school.  Starbucks is the only place on the way to school since we walk and do not have a car.  I let each of my sons choose what they wanted, within reason, and had hot cocoa to warm up from the cold.  When I picked them up after school we decided we would have takeaway as a special treat for dinner.  It is pretty much just curry or chinse, though there is a ‘Chippy’ (Fish & Chips joint) a little further away.  We opted for Chinese and brought it home to eat.  The boys love getting Lemon chicken and fried rice with egg.  I chose the spiciest option, but sadly not as spicy as I would like.

Ronan and his donut choice. 
Maddox and his pastry choice. 
Chinese takeaway… its the mexican ‘to go’ from England. 

Football in the Park (and the rain!

It is just the boys and I for the rest of the week while Ryan is away on a trip with his classmates.  Despite  not having their dad here, I aim to keep life fun.  Even though England is giving us some pretty miserable weather, I took the boys to the park straight from school.  I did not really plan on the mud and right away we were all slipping and slidding. Or to be fair, I was the one slipping and almost biting it hard in the mud.  To add to the theatrics, the boys afterwards were ready to take aim at my backside with the muddy football. It was lots of laughter and smiles and we had a whole bunch of fun.

I took the boys to the park after school to play football.
It was wet and muddy but we had quite a bit of fun never the less.
The rain really started to come down but frowns were nowhere in sight. 
After homework we watched TRON from the 80’s with dinner. 
Keeping the diet Ryan cooks we had Salmon for our meal. 

Manifold [Meet Bonnie Rose]

NEW: Newest article is now published online at theManifoldmag.com Click the link below to read it. http://themanifoldmag.com/post/16438804851/meet-bonnie-rose
1. WHO:
Who are you?  In 100 words or less (a hundred words usually comes out to a small paragraph). 
Who are you? The answer to that question is as easy to answer as the question, “Where are you from?”  That seemingly easy question of just four words still always gets a dramatic pause from my lips. I used to answer it simply, “No where.”  In University I was taught to embrace a more positive response of ‘everywhere’.  A bit of an exaggeration, but  provokes a smirk or chuckle from the questioner. I am a proud TCK (third culture kid…google it), a military brat, a semi-missionary kid, former military wife (still married, just not to the military), and traveler with two citizenships who holds her personal identification to 4+ countries. 

You last meal consists of two things, what is it:

Vegetables and Brown rice. I have labeled my family ‘Flexetarians’. We have been vegetarians and vegans for certain periods of our life. In the past I have been frustrated with individuals who would make fun of my vegetarian diet or question whether the way my family ate was ‘healthy’.  Or then be teased in periods when I did eat meat for not being a then strict vegan.  Labels can be annoying, especially for a girl who finds herself in the grey area of life.  To me food is more about the health benefits and my love of good tasting food. My husband and I do strive to continue to use food as fuel for our bodies and some nights may be a vegan meal, while another we may be eating fish.  The important part for us is to be flexible, and embrace new ideas and keep life enjoyable.

Two websites aside from email/facebook/twitter that you go to the most:

Pinterest.com   

I did not want to join, finally got sucked in and it is a great place to find ideas, inspiration and motivation. 

Projectfree.tv 
My only way to keep up with my favourite American shows since sites like Hulu, Pandora, and IHeartRadio do not work in the UK. 
Two favorite cities and why…

This is really hard for me to answer because I could easily put a number of two city combinations here.  I have traveled so much in just 29 years of life. I am going to side with emotional reasons for places being my ‘favourite’, and perhaps not the wonders that I saw. 

I say the closest to home I have is Napoli because we had the opportunity of living their twice for a total of just about six years.  During that time I have gotten to go to Lucca.  It has these Renaissance-era walls that surround the city and you can rent bicycles and ride on top of it. In the summer they have amazing artists come and I got to see James Taylor play (with Sting as his improntu guest for a song).  It is such a beautiful and historic location.
Austria. Salzburg. Innsbruck. To be quite honest, I love the whole country.  My favourite time to go is during the skiing season for snowboarding. I love the beautiful sights, the snow, and of course the food.  Germknödel anyone? 
3. What?

What do you do for a living?  

I am a mum first and foremost to two boys.  I also work as a hair designer at two salons here in Burgess Hill and Brighton. On top of that I am a freelance pro photographer who specializes in lifestyle portraiture and fashion and a makeup artist trained in airbrush makeup.  I love being creative.  

What was the first and last album you bought?

First album was Grave Dancers Union by Soul Asylum and the last one was  Lights is the debut studio album Lights by English recording artist Ellie Goulding.

What is your nickname, how did it come about?

‘BonBon’ is the nickname most people come up with who become close acquaintances or friends in my life.   I have a close friend who calls me Bonzai. Not sure how he came about with that one, but I like it a lot. My sister calls me ‘B’ which I may prefer over Bonnie.

What tattoos do you have if any?

After my father passed away I got his plane tattooed on my forearm, an F-111E.  Without meaning too I have added to the tattoo by burning my arm on an iron while protecting my kids from it.  Now my plane looks like it has a jet stream leaving it. I also have an outline of a black star on my right foot by the toes for my Esther, my favourite female in the bible.

4. IF.
If you could anywhere in the world, all expenses paid, where would you go?

New Zealand. Closely followed by Russia and Morocco.  I chose New Zealand because it was one of the those places I wish I had gone when I went backpacking around Australia.  I am a huge avid fan of Tolkien’s books like the Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings trilogy.  Having seen the films many times over I would love to go see those beautiful landscapes in person.

If you could only pick one person to go with you on this trip who would it be?

My partner Ryan.  The last place we got to go on a real trip to was Thailand back when I was pregnant with our first child.  We were there for the summer doing mission work and helping Thais practice their English.  Since then I have gotten to go back to Thailand and go to Cambodia. My husband has gotten to go explore Japan shortly after the tsunami last year and is going to Marrakech, Morocco shortly with his classmates from University.  I look forward to getting to actually getting to go on travels and trips with him around the world together.  It is a passion of mine and something we have not gotten to do much of with his previous commitments with the military.

If your friends were to describe you what would they say?

It might depend who you ask and what country they are from to say how they would describe me.  In England, I am perceived as an American. In the USA I was perceived as not really American but a girl from Europe. Despite whatever cultural differences people may describe about me I would think they would say that I was passionate, creative, driven, and loving mother.

Where can we get a hold of you:  Here’s where you give us all your links:

http:www.bonnie-rose.co.uk