One Step at a Time

I am one step closer to leaving. I have been calling the AFB all week and the guy who I am supposed to call to find out if it is in. Well he hasn't answered once this week so I figured he might be on leave and to call the customer service desk, well they directed me to someone else and he told me that it was in. So I went in today and applied for my Visa and try to figure out my flight information. Well I am not allowed to take care of my flight stuff here so I need to call some people at Nellis and figure it out tomorrow. I was told my visa should only take about a week but since it is the end of the week it won't be back until next Monday. I am so excited and I am very happy this is all finally happening.

Festivities

Our weekend was very much fun filled up here in the northwest. Friday morning we woke up and cleaned the house. The boys and me cleaned their room because they needed help or else it wouldn’t have gotten done. Since this task took hours it was almost lunchtime when we were finished. After lunch Steve and Gina went to pick up her new bike and I babysat the boys. Well after two hours of them being gone I was very confused as to why they weren’t back yet and they had issues at the bike store apparently. So at this point it was dinnertime and after dinner we all got ready to go to the Poulsbo Fireworks. They didn’t start until 10:30 but we knew we would have to get there early to get seats and we were told that there were carnival rides and other fun stuff for the kids. We got there around 7:30 and it was pretty crazy how busy it was. We walked around to see what there was and then went on the mission to find a spot big enough for our blanket. We ended up squeezing in somewhere where there were tons of blankets but no people. We ate some funnel cake and the boys got some toys that light up. Eventually one of the blanket owners grabbed his stuff and moved so spread out a little more. Since there wasn’t really anything to do but wait, that’s what we did for about 3 hours. While we waited for the fireworks we took pictures and goofed around. The lights finally turned off at around 10:15 and again there was more waiting well the fireworks started a little late and only lasted about 15 minutes. Jaxon loved them we sat and talked about our favorite ones. Mason liked them but didn’t like the really big ones because they scared him a little. After the show we made the trek back to the car and waited in traffic. We eventually made it home at around 11:30, which is way past the boys’ bedtime.

(Xander pretending the boys toys were daggers)

(Jaxon watching Steve play DS)

(The best picture I could get with Mason)

(The boys and their 4th of July glowing things)

(Me and my favorite boys)

(The best picture I could get with Jaxon and apparently Mason wanted to be in it as well)

(Gina and the crazy baby)

(Some of the fireworks we saw)

Saturday was pretty relaxed around the house. I was trying to feel better and I just lounged around until about 2. We all had to shower because we were going to a 4^th of July picnic at some guy’s house that Steve works with. It was a lot of fun and I finally met some of the people that Steve works with. The guys were setting off fireworks and the boys hated it. They ended up sitting inside watching the Manhattan fireworks and after those the Boston fireworks were on. When the Manhattans fireworks were on it was hard to go back outside because they were so amazing. Xander successfully slept outside with all the fireworks going on for quite awhile. He eventually woke up but I don’t think any of the fireworks did it. We ended up head home at around 11, so again it was another late night for the boys.

Sunday was just a regular Sunday and very relaxing compared to the rest of the weekend. We all just sat around and I eventually ran some errands. I bought myself and Rob running shoes. I also started packing more of my stuff up to get ready. I don’t want to be blind-sided when they finally call me to say that my passport is ready.

Also, for those of you who don’t know, I was informed this morning that my stuff was picked up from Paula’s house this morning and is on it’s way to England. So in two months I will finally be opening those boxes and unpacking.

Without a Car

So, I didn’t want to post on here until something exciting happened. Anything exciting that might be happening to me would most likely mean that I’m one step closer to being out of here.

So as of Tuesday I sold my car. This was a huge step in the process and a painful one at that. This car has been with me since I was 15; it is my baby. It has been through many of road trips and it brought me to where I am today.

I took Steve and Gina and the family out to dinner to celebrate the selling of my car. We went to a great sushi place in Port Orchard and yet I still have no idea what it is called. The boys were very weird about it at first but I had them try some of my Salmon sashimi and they both loved it. As for Xander, the kid eats everything and he loved the rolls that Steve ordered.

Last night we met up with our cousin Kevin. He just got married last weekend and him and his wife are on their honeymoon in Seattle and wanted to meet for dinner. He left it up to us to find a restaurant. Well since we don't really go out much and bringing the kids really narrows down our choices. We looked up restaurants for 2 hours and finally decided on Sakura. It is a Japanese Steakhouse so they cooked the food right in front of us which I thought the boys would love. They hated it, every grill that made the huge flame when they first get to your table made them scream. Although this was semi-hilarious, it was also something we worked on every time it happened. I promised them that we wouldn't let anything happen to them and we wouldn't take them somewhere that they could get hurt. Jaxon ate all of his food like a champion and some of mine. After dinner we went to get doughnuts from Krispy Kreme, since the only places by our house that sell doughnuts are grocery stores it is a nice change.

As for what I am doing in all of my free time, I started training for a 5k. There is a really cool program called Couch to 5k and it basically has you working up to a 5k in 9 weeks. My issue with running usually is that I jump right in at full force and end up getting shin splints or some other type of injury, so taking it slow is working very well. On my days that I am not running I am walking in the morning. As of next week I will start running everyday of the week just some days more severe than others. I am also reading a lot. I just finished the hilarious book called I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell by Tucker Max. It is a bunch of stories that this guy put together about his college partying basically. It is insane and there was one part I was sitting in my room laughing so hard I was crying. Anyways, I am trying to read as many of Steve’s books as possible before I leave. Our weekends seem to fly by but the week days are pretty slow and now I am carless so I am stuck in the house for the most part.

New Home-Renters!

Rob has signed a lease! This means that he is moving into the place on Monday. I can now put up pictures so everyone can see it. These will be our before pictures. Because I will put up pictures once we are both settled and have decorated a bit. It’s a two-bedroom house with a small backyard which doesn’t really matter to us. As a reminder, Rob is not the best photographer in the world and you might not be able to see much.

(Our kitchen)

(We are the one with the blue door)

(This is one view of our living room)

(The other side of it)

(The master bedroom)

He didn’t take a picture of the spare bedroom. But I will be sure to take better pictures so you can actually see the size of things once I get there. He is so excited to be moving out of the hotel although he will be without Internet until about the middle of July. I have finished packing anything that I can do without for the next two months. So for those who know my love of clothes… my closet is empty. I have been hanging out with the boys and Gina and Steve. The weekends have been busy same with the nights. I have officially put my car up for sale so I’m hoping that it will be taken off my hands soon. Also, I figured I would like to put Rob’s military address on here. If you send him anything it should cost as much as sending it anywhere in the US. So his address is:

PSC 41 Box 83

APO AE 09464

UK

Well as soon as I hear anything else I will let you know. I will definitely be posting again soon once I found out something about my passport.

Catching you up!

Rob’s first couple of weeks in England has been very productive, or as productive as you can be without a car for the first couple of days.  So yes, we now have a car.  His sponsor sold us his car, so we now have a 1996 Subaru Impreza.

So to everyone that he told that we would not get a manual car, he did.  He has since gone apartment hunting.  He looked at four places on Friday and we found one we liked and it is right by the train station. I will put up pictures once we for sure have the apartment, I don’t want to be over optimistic.  He has also done a bit of site seeing in the towns nearest to base.  As for me, I have gone and sent in my passport application and that will take about 8 weeks, is what I was told.  Once my passport comes in I need to apply for my visa but that will only take about a week.  So as of right now it is just a lot of waiting.  I have sent in my application and did my phone interview with this new school and I was accepted.  Now I need to get them my most recent transcript and work out my financial aid situation. I have done a ton of packing, my closet is nearly empty and I am trying to completely empty it out and try to just put them in my wardrobe.  I have started sending boxes to Paula’s house.  Just a heads up you should start getting them soon.  Lately, it has just been packing.  Although, I did my medical approval to leave the States and I went into school to visit some friends while I was taking care of some stuff.  I really miss being in school and the people that are there.  I can only hope that I meet as nice of people at my new school.  Other than that there has been a lot of time with me hanging out with my Steve and the family.  We have spent a lot of evenings outside and the weekends are mostly outside.  Yesterday we bought pools, one for the boys and one for Xander.  So we blew those up while Steve and his friend split wood.  I’m sure we had more fun than they did.  The weather is gorgeous here right now and it doesn’t get dark until well after 9 o’clock.  Rob starts work on Monday and he should be excited because he is always complaining about how bored he is.  Due to everyone over there being deployed they aren’t working regular shifts.  They work around the flight schedule, so they are crazy hours and longer than usual.  The time difference is hard.  He is waking up as I am getting ready for bed and when I wake up he is getting off work.  So when he is going to bed it is usually the middle of the day.  It makes it hard to do anything when he is sitting in a hotel room wanting to talk all during my day.  But we are making it work.  So the waiting has officially begun, especially since I feel like I have packed more than half of my room up.  

Two Weeks of Family Time

Week 1

Well Hello everyone! Things have been very busy for us for the past couple of weeks.  So in my last post I know I told you about how we were both having pretty bad travel days, well after that happened his flight out of O’Hare and into Indy was delayed by an hour so I was sitting there for 4 hours.  Luckily, Paula (Rob’s Mom) and Heather (his sister) came and we loaded all of my luggage into the car and we sat and talked for about 2 hours.  We ended up getting home after one am, so it was an extremely long day for the both of us.  The following day we had a BBQ at Paula’s house and I met everyone in his family.  It was a lot of fun and we had great food.  We were then supposed to go out with a couple of friends from his hometown but we ended up passing out at like 9.  Obviously we are big partiers if you couldn’t tell ;)  Saturday morning we went out to breakfast with Rob’s friends Emily and Paul.  It was Paul’s birthday and we were all getting together so we could go to Ball State for the night.  Once breakfast was over we drove on up to Muncie, IN.  Ball State is a beautiful campus (I made Paul give us a driving tour).   During the day we just hung out and watched a couple of movies and smoked some Hookah.  We went out to dinner and then we came home and started getting ready to go out to the bars.  There have not been many times since I really miss ISU (my old school) but this night was one of them.  College bars are amazing the alcohol is cheap and everyone is just out to get drunk and have a good time.   After we successfully liquored Paul up, Rob and I got a ride home from one of Paul’s friends and just passed out.  On Sunday we had to drive back to Eaton and go to his other sister’s house for another BBQ.  This was the day I was going to meet his dad, so I was a little nervous.  We had some hamburgers and hot dogs and hung out with our nieces (Lucy-5 and Nicole-2).  Overall it was a very good day and when we got home we were able to just relax.  Monday morning we went to get Rob’s new id since ours will expire while we are over in England.  We then spent the rest of the day going through boxes and boxes of stuff from Rob’s childhood.  It was surprisingly fun and I learned a little bit more about my husband.  That is all we did on Monday so it wasn’t really busy at all and then Heather made us baked spaghetti for dinner.  Tuesday we went to the mall in Dayton, so Rob could get some jeans since he owns like a pair.  The sad thing was, is that I had to convince him to buy them since we are moving somewhere that it is actually cold instead of Vegas.  After the mall we went to his grandma’s house for dinner and we went through pictures and had another great night with the family.  After we got home from his grandma’s we rushed home to watch Biggest Loser, because Rob is obsessed with it.  After that we called it a night and then onto a lazy Wednesday.  During the day we laid around and watched movies and then did the same thing through the night.  Thursday was definitely more interesting.  We went out to breakfast with his dad at Waffle House and then came home and cleaned out the garage.  Rob and I had made plans to celebrate Mother’s day with Paula on Thursday because we weren’t going to be there on Sunday.  So we went to the puppy store and played with some adorable baby puppies.  We also went out to dinner at Panera Bread and then went to see Star Trek.  Paula is a big trekie and we thought it would be fun to go see it.  After the movie we came home and gave her, her mother’s day presents, which she loved.   On Friday, we had another BBQ with the family since this was the last time they are seeing Rob for a year and a half.  We were again supposed to go out with friends afterwards but it wasn’t going to be until super late and we both had to pack and get up at like 6 in the morning so we decided against it. 

 

Week 2

On Saturday morning we went out to breakfast with friends again and sat there for about 2 hours after we were done eating, so I am sure the waitress loved us.  From there we met my parents and they met my in-laws and Rob and I unpacked the van of all of my stuff that is going to England and then we packed it full of our stuff that we needed.  We sat around the house chit chatting for an hour or so and then decided to take our parents out to lunch, so we drove to Richmond, IN and went to Chili’s.  We then proceeded to have a 4-hour car ride and then went out to dinner with Grandma in the city at Flat Top Grill.  It’s a great restaurant that I would recommend to anyone.  It is a create your own stir-fry place and such a fun time.  So Saturday was another very long day.  On mother’s day we went to the Sox game and had amazing seats thanks to my dad’s work.  We sat right between home and first about 10 rows up.  We went early and tailgated and played bags (corn hole for my Ohio readers).   

  Rob and my dad became best friends as they drank the day away.  When we got home they both passed out for a couple of hours so my mom and I ate dinner and watched some TV.  Monday we went out to lunch with one of my best friends from home, Missy.  We also found out the Rob’s dad was in Hammond so we drove out there to meet him and talked for a little bit and took some pictures and said our good-byes again.  From there we had plans to go out to dinner with some of my friends from school, we went to Mongolian BBQ which is another create your own stir-fry place.  It just isn’t as good as Flat Top.  After dinner I said we said good-bye to some friends and met some more at the bar.  We went to Rizzo’s in Naperville, IL, which on Mondays has dollar beers.  I also overlooked that fact that there was a Blackhawks playoff game on, so the bar was packed but it was a good time and I loved seeing my friends and seeing Rob with them.  On Tuesday we went to get my new id for my new name and to renew it.  Since the DMV is about 3 blocks from my mom’s work, we stopped by with lunch.  After lunch we went home and got ready to go to dinner with my cousin Michelle and her husband John.  I tried to give Rob the full experience so I made him ride the train.  We went to a sushi place in the city called Sunda.  It was delicious and such a great time.  After dinner we stopped and picked up Garrett Popcorn for my parents and for us.  It is the best popcorn out there.  It is something I feel I must do when going into the city.  On Wednesday we drove up to New Buffalo, MI to meet my cousin Emily for lunch.  Yes, I got Rob to go into Michigan, something he told me he would never do.  We went to a really nice bar and grill and just caught up and ate some delicious food.  We then drove home in a pretty nasty rainstorm but it wasn’t anything we weren’t used to.  For dinner we stayed home to eat with my parents and had steak, baked potatoes, and broccoli.  It is one of my favorite meals ever, very easy but such a classic.  After dinner my Aunt and Uncle stopped by and brought dessert.  Thursday was our last day together and we spent the morning packing and cleaning his stuff up.  We then drove up to my dad’s work so he could say good-bye and then it was up to my Aunt Cathy’s house.  She lives about 15 minutes from the airport and someone I really wanted Rob to meet.  We hung out there for a couple of hours and had Aurelio’s for dinner.  Aurelio’s is one of the most popular pizza places in Chicago and has amazing pizza.  From there we left at 630ish and we drove to O’Hare and had our tearful good-bye.  It’s a lot harder saying good-bye to someone when you aren’t sure when you are going to talk to them again.  I drove back to my Aunt’s house and hung out there till about 1 am catching up and just talking.  On Friday my mom and me spent the day together running errands and just spending time with each other.  The weather was absolutely miserable but it was an overall good day.  Saturday was my cousin Jenna’s graduation/confirmation party.  It was amazing to see all of my family again.  We played bags and ate and drank.  Saturday night Emily stayed over and then on Sunday my mom and Emily brought me to the airport for another good-bye.  

Getting Things Done

So things haven’t been incredibly busy for us these past couple of days.  We are just trying to get informed on what I need to do before moving.  It is hard because I am an hour away from the Air Force base up here and there are a lot of things that I’m sure it would be easier if I could just run over there.  I’m working on getting a new passport with the government and getting anything else that I need done.  No one has really told us what that is quite yet.  We hear different things from different people at both bases.  It’s been stressful but not too bad.  We are both very excited to go home and see everyone.  I am currently working on packing up my stuff for my vacation there and packing up stuff I don’t really need till I get to England.  I am packing up my room that I just got settled in.  Rob has basically nothing except a bag that he is living out of.  His stuff is already in transit over there.  We have been looking at apartments online together because he is afraid to decide on a place without me.  Some things have finally come into place, I am officially on Rob’s orders which if you don’t know means that the Air Force will move me.  I am currently sitting on a plane since today is both of our travel days going to Ohio.  We are flying into Indianapolis and will probably not get to Eaton until after 11.  It so far has been a very stressful and long day for both of us.  His flight was supposed to leave for Chicago at 8 and was delayed due to the weather in Chicago (shocking).  My flight was supposed to leave at 11 and didn’t take off till about 11:30 and I had a connecting flight to catch in Denver that I just barely made after I sprinted across the airport.  I will be so happy when today is over.  We will be in Ohio till May 9^th and then in Chicago till the 14^th.  I will be staying in Chicago till the 17^th.