Home Sweet Home..kindof..

This post is also a little overdue, but better late than never! Skylar and I were put in military housing. It's off base, but contracted though through the military. It's actually pretty cozy. We hadn't heard a lot of good things about Lord's Walk (which is the name of the housing area). 

Once we had moved in though, we realized it wasn't even bad. There are just a few quirky things that make me a little crazy.. 

 Such as: washer and dryer in the kitchen(as if it wasn't too small already..),

a door on the kitchen,

totally bizarre floor plan.. 

We've learned to just deal with the weird things though and try and see the silver lining. 

Like, we can make pancakes and change over laundry at the SAME TIME!!!

Bet you are SO jealous now!

I was so glad to hear that we could paint if we wanted. So I took the creative reins and went with it. I wanted to make the house my own. We are a long way from home right now, and I wanted a place that we could feel comfortable in. There really isn't a lot of room to go completely crazy with the creativity, but I really like what we've been able to do with it so far. 

We're going to be here for the next three years, so I wanted to have a home that would

make me forget about that fact.

I really am so grateful for a roof over my head that we have the means to make it a nice place to live.  

  Now we just need family to visit! C'mon people...we have two bedrooms!

 

My waaaay overdue England post :)

Yeah..this has been a long time coming. I've been dreading updating my blog! But here goes nothing...

 Big Ben!

 On the London tube

 Leeds Castle. It's kind of on it's own island

 The White Cliffs of Dover

 From the top of Dover castle

Skylar and I have been here for over three months now, which is CRAZY! Time has flown, which is kind of a good thing. I'm in a weird state of mind about being here. It kind of feels like we're on a super long vacation and it's time to go home. But that's not going to happen for a while. There are a lot of things I love about being here, don't get me wrong. But, I have had a really hard time lately with homesickness. I miss my family and friends. I miss the U.S.. I cannot believe the things I took for granted. Skylar and I made up this little nickname for England...inconvenience land! Not all the time, but it seems like the British do everything the hard way. Everything is takes a lot more effort. This has just affirmed my belief that the United States is indeed the greatest country in the world. Even with a psycho president. But enough sadness....on to the good things! We've been to London twice since we've been here. We also took a trip to Dover to see the white cliffs and Dover castle. We also stopped and saw Leeds castle on the way. I can't describe in words how beautiful this country is. The history is fascinating. Dover castle totally took me back and made me feel like I was in some kind of fairytale! It was amazing. London is fantastic. There is always stuff to do and see. We went the first time by ourselves, which was scary, but we loved it. We figured out the bus system and how to get from place to place, which was the most important thing. The London tube got us from our station in to London and back. The second time we went to London was with friends. We definitely learned from our mistakes from the first London trip, so we got to really enjoy London the second time. We trying to plan some more places to go and things to see. There are sooo many. I am grateful that we get to have these experiences. I don't think it would have happened any other way.

My little slice of paradise :)

Things have kind of settled down enough for me to write about our trip over the pond

and our first impressions of the next three years. We drove to San Diego on the 30th of May to drop our car off at the port to be shipped. I happen to LOVE San Diego. The weather was beautiful and it was the perfect place to spend our last couple days in the country. Our hotel was awesome. It overlooked the San Diego harbor and the beach was just a short drive away. We just relaxed and tried to remain calm about our impending journey.

 

                                                 

  

Our flight was at 8:15 pm on the 31st. We checked all our bags and when we finally boarded, the reality set in. I almost wept when we took off. It was a 10 1/2 hour flight straight to London. We slept most of it. The seat next to me was empty, so I luckily got to stretch out and sleep. Skylar wasn't so lucky, but neither of us slept very well. We made our decent into London around 2:45 pm London time. The pure adrenaline of finally being there had us both awake and alert. We made it through the border easily and met our driver, Chuck, who drove us the hour and a half to RAF Lakenheath. We both tried so hard to stay awake during the drive over there to take in the sights of the country side and villages. We both only made it about half an hour into it and we conked out. We arrived and got settled into the lodging facility. Since then it's been non-stop craziness! So much paperwork and so many appointments. We rented a car, and Skylar has been driving. He adapted so fast to the driving, which actually isn't a surprise. He adapts quickly to everything. But we've driven around the local area and we are starting to really love it. It is so beautiful. Everything is so

green and fragrant. You can practically feel the history behind everything here. This may be a little premature, but I can see myself three years from now when we leave this beautiful place, and I'm being dragged kicking and screaming from it. I know I'm going to fall completely in love with it. We're just going to experience everything we possibly can while we're here and make some good memories. It's going to be sweeeet :)

                                            

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          

D-Day

At 2:55 p.m. on Wednesday, May 30th, mine and Skylar's lives are going to drastically change. We will board our plane and make our journey out of the United States. When I got our itinerary email this morning, I had a huge, massive reality check. We're leaving our home. Not just our family, but our beautiful Arizona state, and our country. We're leaving our country!!! I had a minor meltdown..which ended up requiring half a box of tissue. Don't get me wrong, I am soooo excited for our experiences that we will have. We're going to be able to see things and go places that we could probably wouldn't have been able to otherwise. My home is wherever Skylar is, but we both are slightly dreading leaving the only place we've ever known as our home, and going off into the unknown. I understand why everyone I talk to about it tells me that this is once in a lifetime and I should be so excited. I am excited. But, today it started to rain outside and I thought to myself, "I'm not going to smell Arizona rain for a long time..". We all know that Arizona has a unique rain scent. It's A-M-A-Z-I-N-G. I'm sure I'll get my share of rain while we're in the UK, but it won't be the same. Here, rain is treasured. It's prayed for and is as precious as gold. I think that's why it's so special to me. That little rain moment brought on the "I'm going to miss this, and that, and this.." list. I'm feeling better about everything than I did this morning, and I'm trying to stay positive. All I can say is that Skylar and I are going to miss our families so much. It hurts to even think about it. In our four years of marriage, we have never once had to miss our families for too long. We have been so blessed to be able to visit at our leisure. This will be the hardest part. But, Skylar and I have decided to really start trying for a baby, of course because we want children, but also I don't think mine or Skylar's mother could stand not being there afterwards. So they'll have to come!! Haha! Anyways, we are excited about what's to come. Definitely nervous, but excited. We love our family. We're so thankful for their support and love. If anyone needs a place to stay in Europe in the next three years, we'll be there!!

Everything might be a little bigger in Texas...but most definitely not better!

I cannot believe that almost a month ago, I drove to Texas to be with Skylar. I mean, where did all that time go?! Fastest month of my LIFE. Let me just start by saying that I developed a little resentment towards Texas when Skylar graduated from BMT. The weather was so weird, and I just did not find anything pretty about the landscape...plus Skylar had to leave me to go to Texas. That's a good enough reason to have a bone to pick with Texas right there! But, since I've been here for a month...I can honestly say that I will NOT miss Texas. Wichita Falls is like a small city. A little bigger than Flagstaff. The weather..I seriously cannot get over the weather here! It is so bizarre. There was one night that there was a craaaazy storm. It happened to be the same storm that brought those horrible tornadoes to the Dallas and Forth Worth areas. That was almost one of the scariest nights of my life. I am scared TO DEATH of tornadoes. I woke up to hail and wind and thunder that was setting off dozens of car alarms at once. I was literally planning an escape route. I was up for hours. And the images that crossed my terrified, irrational mind were like this....
And some were a little like this...


In other words, I was making myself crazy. It ended up all OK, but it was a really scary night. Weather reporters in states like Kansas and Oklahoma, and others in tornado alley, are beefing up the language they use when giving storm warnings. Because apparently, people don't run out their front door and drive away when a tornado is announced. They're going to start using descriptions, such as "unsurvivable"...or "catastrophic"..."mass casualties". If my weather man said "mass casualties"...I would be out the door before he finished his sentence. But that's just me. But, other than the horrible storm, Wichita Falls hasn't been so bad. It's actually very green, and I like green. They actually have a lot of historic sites and some really pretty architecture. I'm just glad I got this time with Skylar. He'll be in North Carolina for one more month, and we'll be off to jolly ole' England! Cheerio!

Sooooo..it's been a while!

It's been a loooong time since I've posted anything. I'm not feeling in an updatey mood, so I'll just say that the last several months have been quite boring. Seriously..like SO BORING. Skylar did have exodus in December for Christmas and was home for about a week and a half. Then my old laptop decided to die. So I've been without a computer for about five months. LAME. So this is just to say that I'm still alive, and I still kind of care about this blog..but not really. I just have nothing else to do. I'm currently in a hotel room in Wichita Falls, TX waiting for Skylar to be done with duties for the day. I've been here for about a week and will be here until the 18th of April when he goes to North Carolina for a month of follow on training. After that, we'll be on our way to Lakenheath, UK. So crazy. I made a very fast decision last week that I could not go one more day without seeing Skylar. So I woke up and drove to Texas. Should have done it a long time ago, but I'm so glad I'm here now. I still haven't quite wrapped my head around the fact that I'm moving to England in a couple months. It's just so surreal! But I am so stoked about it. There are so many places that we'll get to see that we probably wouldn't otherwise. It's a blessing for sure. A really awesome one. So anyways, I'm here and alive, and I'll probably post more often now that I have my new laptop. Signing off...

My journey down the road of weight loss...so far.

The day after Skylar left for basic training I made a decision. It was a decision that I had made several times before, but lacked the motivation and will power to follow through. After a couple years full of big decisions and some let-downs and stress, I found myself unhappy with ignoring my health for so long. I hadn't hit rock bottom or anything, but I definitely wanted to change. Not just a change, but a complete overhaul! So I woke up the morning after Skylar left and jumped on the treadmill. I knew that first day, that I could do it. I changed what I ate, and started exercising four days a week. Somehow, in some strange way, I felt a little connected with Skylar when I would exercise and push myself just a little harder. I knew that he was enduring intense physical stress, so I pushed myself too. I lost six pounds in the first week. Mostly water weight of course, but I can't describe the feeling of having your hard work pay off. I wish I could bottle it up and take it in doses during the day. What a pick-me-up that would be! I continued to work and push and sweat, for seven weeks. I weighed myself the day before I left for Skylar's graduation. I had lost 18 lbs. I felt like a boob, because I started to cry. Haha. I was so proud, and relieved that I hadn't let myself get away with ignoring my health any longer. Skylar was pretty shocked to say the least! I'm still going at it. This was a lifestyle change, not just a short lived goal. Skylar gets to come home in December for a couple weeks, and by then I hope to be down another 6-10 pounds. It's definitely going to be tough, with the holidays and everything. All that wonderful holiday food! I definitely won't be depriving myself, but I've learned how to do everything in moderation and still feel satisfied. But anyways...gotta run. I've got some exercisin' to do!!