*Pant* *Huff*

Good grief, this is getting outta hand!

I've been making a scrapbook since I was initially offered the England job. Pictures of family, friends, home, hobbies, etc. It started out as something I could look at when homesick and is quickly turning into my life story.

I have it before me now, as I've been typing up little captions and descriptions to glue on the pages next to the photos. This book now contains 9 pages of pictures of my parents, and 7 pages of the beloved feline, Millie. I have designed pages for pictures of friends--and I don't even have pictures to put in yet! I figure I'll get those before I go and then just quickly glue them in.

There are pictures of me as a little girl, pictures of me growing, and recent pictures of me. This book chronicles a few hundred different hair styles and colors, fashion statements (and faux pas) and major events in my life (graduation, holidays, my first legal margarita...).

I have put maps of where I live, pictures of my hometown, and postcards of California in this book--to show the Brits who will invariably ask that I actually live quite far from an actual beach. And they'll ask. They did 5 years ago. I printed out the lyrics to what I consider my theme song--"Drops of Jupiter (Tell Me)" by Train.

This book contains so much of who I am. The place I call home. The people who make it home. I'm sure it will be an important memento to me as I make a new life in England this year.