So... there I am fast asleep... well my nights and days are still pretty screwed up so I sleep half the day and half the night... anyway so I finally get to sleep when I hear God Save the Queen. You know the song.... and its being played LOUD. Infact I haven't opened my eyes yet cause I'm still part asleep and I ask my husband if that is him playing that song in our room. I thought maybe he had it playing on the lap top. He tells me now and then he says... just wait the national anthem is next. Okay so EVERY morning on base they play God Save the Queen followed by our national anthem. Seriously is the speaker RIGHT outside our window?? I'm telling you, I thought it was coming from inside our room it was that loud. So yeah thats a nice little wake up call. I mean at Hill they would play the anthem every morning but we lived about 5 minutes off base so we could barely hear it... lol
A quick update about everything. We are living in the Liberty Lodge. I guess everything has the word liberty in front of it out here. Can I just say I LOVE it? Maybe it is because we were living in my parents basement 3 weeks before we moved here and that seemed depressing but this lodge kicks butt. Our room is huge, it has wifi, it has cable, a nice sized bathroom, a laundry room, a fitness center, and my favorite part... an ice machine lol. Okay onto the funny part. So in the book for the lodge it said the rooms had microwaves and a fridge. So we looked all over our room but didn't see on. So later that night we go down and buy some hot pockets (yeah that was the best option of the food we had available) and we search the lodge for a microwave. We thought it was a community one. So we look everywhere and find nothing which frustrates us.... so then I notice this door that has a lock on it. We just assumed it was the door to the next bedroom.... well when i slide back the lock and held my breath.... it was a TINY KITCHEN!! Hurray, a hidden kitchen no one thought to tell us about lol!! So I think we have it made quite frankly. The lodge is right next to everything. Infact I ventured out yesterday to the BX and commissary. I felt SO brave ;)
Last thing, we picked up our rental car yesterday!! I was SO scared when we got in it and Keri started to drive off. The roads are SO small here, not to mention the whole driving on the opposite side of the road. I was proud of my husband though, he didn't get tripped up once. He drove like a pro.. Well thats the quick update!!
Tuesday, September 23, 2008
Saturday, September 20, 2008
My journey to England....
So the morning started out normal ... Kelly, mom, Sissy, and I were all piled on the bed. I got up at 9am and thus my adventure began. After MANY tears I was onto the airplane and leaving my old life behind to welcome the new one. Things started going wrong right away OF COURSE. We sat on the airplane in Salt Lake forever... knowing we only had a 50 minute layover in Chicago and we had already sat on the plane in Salt Lake for an hour waiting to go, I knew we were going to be in trouble. We got off the airplane in Chicago and ran (well you know the run of a pregnant woman) to our gate. Ahhh luck, the plane was still attached to the gate!! The guy at the gate told us to hurry and let us on the plane. Right as we boarded they sealed the door closed. We were literally the last people to get on the plane. Ahhh don't you just love the stares of a hundred people looking at you as you find your seat? Well our next thought was that there was no way our luggage was going to make it, but by some mirable the pilot (ah the blessed pilot) announced we were going to wait for some last minute luggage!!! Halleluja!
Initially I had been dreading the 8 hour flight to England but it turned out much better than I expected. They have a monitor built into the headrest in front of you and you have your choice of 5 movies to watch that play continuously the whole flight. I watched two movies and took a nap and we were basically there. Well if the flight was nice, the part after was a nightmare....
So our lovely sponsor decided she didn't want to pick us up from the airport, so after a total of 11 hours on airplanes we had to take a 2 1/2 hour BUS RIDE to base. Now I thought the 3 hour wait for the bus to arrive was going to be the worse part.. turns out trying to FIND the bus was the worse part. So the directions our sponsor gave us to find the bus was hideous and made no sense. To put things into perspective we had 3 hours until the bus arrived and we ended up finding the spot where the bus would come, only TEN MINUTES before it arrived. We circled that whole airport at least 3 times. The worse part is we were both trying to haul 2 suitcases each and we went down this huge ramp thing and I thought.. boy I bet this is hideous to go back up.... turns out I didn't have to imagine what it would be like for too long because we ended up going back up it lol. Well after our 2 hour and 50 minute march around the airport we finally located the spot. Which actually was about 5 minutes from where we got off the plane and collected our luggage. All that walking for nothing!!
Anyway, I was pretty depressed on the bus ride to base. My ankles were the size of watermelons. (The first time they had swelled up since I'd been pregnant) and I was starving as we hadn't been able to eat since the plane gave us this litte 2 oz banana bread loaf. Now I don't know if you understand but I was use to eating like every 2 hours. Not even joking. I get hungry a lot being pregnant and the fact that I couldn't eat or have water was making me panick. Anyway back to the bus. So I'm crying on this bus thinking how bad I have it right.... luckily the bus ride went by fast mostly because I was amazed at the driving. It was so weird to be driving on the wrong side of the road, and really weird to peek into the cars we passed to see the driver on the right side of the car where the passenger should be.
So we're cruising along, and I do mean cruising.. that guy had a serious lead foot and we make it to the first stop. RAF Mildenhall. It was kinda funny... so the bus actually drives onto the first base right and the military cop comes on base with his big gun to check for our military id's. I've worked on a military base for 10 years but this seemed really intimidating for some reason. So anyway we drop off a handful of people at Mildenhall and we're off to our base which is Lakenheath. So we get on base and........ our BUS DIES!! Not even joking. So the guy gets out and does something gets back on..... we go a few feet and it dies AGAIN. He gets back out does something... we drive a few more feet and for the third time it dies but this time there is no resurrecting it. It is completely dead... and the worse part is the guy kicks us off the bus and tells us it won't go any farther.
So we all get off the bus, collect our lugguage and are left standing there literally not knowing what to do or where to go for that matter. I look at Keri and he actually says to me your guess is as good as mine....so I realize I have to make a decision what to do. Here I am 5 months pregnant stranded on the side of the road in a foreign country. Mind you our phones didn't work so it wasnt like we could call someone, even if we knew someone to call which we didn't. So everyone starts walking so we decide to. Mind you we have NO idea where we are going. We knew we were staying at the Liberty Lodge but we had no idea where that was on base. I felt really bad for this young kid though. He had 5 pieces of luggage and just himself to drag it. He kept up with us for a little bit but eventually he just sat on top of one of his suitcases and stayed there. I have no idea what happened to him but it broke my heart. I wished I could have helped him out but I had 2 suitcases myself to handle.
So we are walking along in no particular direction and by chance this girl pops out of a building and asks us if we had just arrived. We told her our bus broke down and we had no idea what we were doing. This girl must have been sent my an angel because she told us she had a car and she would take us to our lodging!!! Seriously I wanted to cry again.... well actually I was probably still already crying. So she gets her car and we load up our luggage. Well you can imagine 4 big suitcases filled her big car so Keri ended up still having to walk to the lodge. But it turns out we weren't too far from it at this point. So this girl drives me to the lodge and I am able to check in. Turns out she had been here 3 months with her husband and she was a great deal of help. She told us a lot of good information about living on Lakenheath.
Well we got to our room which really isn't bad and the next problem was food. I think my husband doesn't realize I am carrying a person inside of me and not only do I have to eat but so does my baby. I ended up walking to the BX which was luckily right across the street to get some food. Came back, propped up my swollen feet and actually feel asleep. I just woke up a minute ago and it was 8:30. I had no idea if it was AM or PM. It is so confusing with the 7 hour time change and apparently it gets so dark here early, so that was weird. We opened the blinds and it was pitch dark outside. Like a scary Alaska dark. lol! Anyway, that is the first page of my adventures in England. I'm thinking it only goes up from here....
Initially I had been dreading the 8 hour flight to England but it turned out much better than I expected. They have a monitor built into the headrest in front of you and you have your choice of 5 movies to watch that play continuously the whole flight. I watched two movies and took a nap and we were basically there. Well if the flight was nice, the part after was a nightmare....
So our lovely sponsor decided she didn't want to pick us up from the airport, so after a total of 11 hours on airplanes we had to take a 2 1/2 hour BUS RIDE to base. Now I thought the 3 hour wait for the bus to arrive was going to be the worse part.. turns out trying to FIND the bus was the worse part. So the directions our sponsor gave us to find the bus was hideous and made no sense. To put things into perspective we had 3 hours until the bus arrived and we ended up finding the spot where the bus would come, only TEN MINUTES before it arrived. We circled that whole airport at least 3 times. The worse part is we were both trying to haul 2 suitcases each and we went down this huge ramp thing and I thought.. boy I bet this is hideous to go back up.... turns out I didn't have to imagine what it would be like for too long because we ended up going back up it lol. Well after our 2 hour and 50 minute march around the airport we finally located the spot. Which actually was about 5 minutes from where we got off the plane and collected our luggage. All that walking for nothing!!
Anyway, I was pretty depressed on the bus ride to base. My ankles were the size of watermelons. (The first time they had swelled up since I'd been pregnant) and I was starving as we hadn't been able to eat since the plane gave us this litte 2 oz banana bread loaf. Now I don't know if you understand but I was use to eating like every 2 hours. Not even joking. I get hungry a lot being pregnant and the fact that I couldn't eat or have water was making me panick. Anyway back to the bus. So I'm crying on this bus thinking how bad I have it right.... luckily the bus ride went by fast mostly because I was amazed at the driving. It was so weird to be driving on the wrong side of the road, and really weird to peek into the cars we passed to see the driver on the right side of the car where the passenger should be.
So we're cruising along, and I do mean cruising.. that guy had a serious lead foot and we make it to the first stop. RAF Mildenhall. It was kinda funny... so the bus actually drives onto the first base right and the military cop comes on base with his big gun to check for our military id's. I've worked on a military base for 10 years but this seemed really intimidating for some reason. So anyway we drop off a handful of people at Mildenhall and we're off to our base which is Lakenheath. So we get on base and........ our BUS DIES!! Not even joking. So the guy gets out and does something gets back on..... we go a few feet and it dies AGAIN. He gets back out does something... we drive a few more feet and for the third time it dies but this time there is no resurrecting it. It is completely dead... and the worse part is the guy kicks us off the bus and tells us it won't go any farther.
So we all get off the bus, collect our lugguage and are left standing there literally not knowing what to do or where to go for that matter. I look at Keri and he actually says to me your guess is as good as mine....so I realize I have to make a decision what to do. Here I am 5 months pregnant stranded on the side of the road in a foreign country. Mind you our phones didn't work so it wasnt like we could call someone, even if we knew someone to call which we didn't. So everyone starts walking so we decide to. Mind you we have NO idea where we are going. We knew we were staying at the Liberty Lodge but we had no idea where that was on base. I felt really bad for this young kid though. He had 5 pieces of luggage and just himself to drag it. He kept up with us for a little bit but eventually he just sat on top of one of his suitcases and stayed there. I have no idea what happened to him but it broke my heart. I wished I could have helped him out but I had 2 suitcases myself to handle.
So we are walking along in no particular direction and by chance this girl pops out of a building and asks us if we had just arrived. We told her our bus broke down and we had no idea what we were doing. This girl must have been sent my an angel because she told us she had a car and she would take us to our lodging!!! Seriously I wanted to cry again.... well actually I was probably still already crying. So she gets her car and we load up our luggage. Well you can imagine 4 big suitcases filled her big car so Keri ended up still having to walk to the lodge. But it turns out we weren't too far from it at this point. So this girl drives me to the lodge and I am able to check in. Turns out she had been here 3 months with her husband and she was a great deal of help. She told us a lot of good information about living on Lakenheath.
Well we got to our room which really isn't bad and the next problem was food. I think my husband doesn't realize I am carrying a person inside of me and not only do I have to eat but so does my baby. I ended up walking to the BX which was luckily right across the street to get some food. Came back, propped up my swollen feet and actually feel asleep. I just woke up a minute ago and it was 8:30. I had no idea if it was AM or PM. It is so confusing with the 7 hour time change and apparently it gets so dark here early, so that was weird. We opened the blinds and it was pitch dark outside. Like a scary Alaska dark. lol! Anyway, that is the first page of my adventures in England. I'm thinking it only goes up from here....
Wednesday, September 17, 2008
Game Day!
There is nothing better than Saturdays... why you ask? Because it's football season baby!! Dad, Keri and I watched the BYU/UCLA game before heading up to Logan for the USU/ Utah game. It is our very last football game for three long years!! Well unless the Cougs go to the Sugar Bowl and then I'm taking a boat from England to Lousianna to attend! I'll row across if I have to ;)
My bestest friend came to dinner!!
Since we are leaving for England in exactly 2 more days I invited my very bestest friend over for dinner!! She has the absolute cutest family ever. She has two darling kids Payton and Paige and I'm not suppose to tell anyone but she is pregnant with her third! She is due one month after me!!!!! I am so excited we will have kids the same age! (Especially since I got a late start with mine!!)
Aubs, Mike, and I were the three amigo's for the longest time. We did everything together to include trips. One of my favorite memories was our trip to Las Vegas. We stopped in at the M&M World and Mike and I got bags of M&M's. Well the funny thing is those m&m's are NOT cheap there and Mike decided to get the peanut m&m's which cost even more. So he is carefully going through and picking out all these colors to fill his bag with... which would have been cool if it weren't for the fact that he is colorblind!! Who pays $12 for a bag of m&m's anyway? We swear the maid was stealing some everytime she cleaned our room!
My next favorite memory of them was when we went to the BYU/USU game in Provo. Aubs is not a football fan but we convinced her into going, infact we made her drive. So we are maybe only 15 minutes out when Mike and I start whining. If anyone has been to a Cougar game they know game day traffic is a NIGHTMARE. Especially to Provo! So we start whining about how we should turn around, and how we have to use the bathroom, and then Mike started talking about how good pizza sounded and if we turned around he'd buy us some. The only reason we made it to the game was because of Aubrey and she wasn't the one that even liked football! We had the best time but geez that drive is killer!
Aubs and I made countless trips to Park City together. We would even drive to Provo to shop at Abercrombie and Fitch long before they had a store in Salt Lake. One time we even made the trek to just buy some perfume we loved. We always had a tradition that I would sleep over on Thanksgiving night and we'd get up early to go shopping on Black Friday! We did that every year! She has been the best friend I could ever ask for. I will miss her so much!!!!
My Baby Shower
One of my very best friends threw me my very first baby shower with the help of my sister and mom!! It was so awesome. Absolutely everyone that was invited came. I couldn't believe it. It was so nice to be surrounded by everyone I love plus I got so many cute things! Aubs gave me one of those baby bouncers and Lizzie gave me this HUGE basket chuck full of scrapbooking stuff for the baby! Good thing I will have plenty of time on my hands in England to scrapbook! I couldn't have planned a better party!!
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