Our house.. our glorious house!!

Today is moving day!! We had to meet with a lady from housing at ten to get the keys to our first house ;) Well it was about 9:30am and I was struggling to straighten my hair (my hair does not like this weather!) when Keri came in with some news!! Some glorious news!! He had gotten a call and OUR SECOND SHIPMENT HAD ARRIVED!!! In our second shipment is our bed, our couches, our tvs ..our EVERYTHING!! Not only that, they were going to deliver everything to our house tomorrow!! SUCH LUCK! I was seriously so excited that I called my mom right away to tell her. Mind you it was 2am her time, but I was too excited I couldn't help myself! Naturally she understood! I think....

So Keri and I got to the house at 10am and went through everything with the lady and she left and... the house is OURS!!! Our house is a 2 bedroom, 1 bath. It is two stories too. It has quite a lot of space. More than I inititally thought it would. It comes with washers and dryers and a fridge and microwave. Ahh we are living high on the hog after living in that lodge for a month with just a microwave!!

Keri's first order of business was to get the british phone up and working. We have vonage that has a kaysville phone number assigned to it so we can call home but we got a british phone number set up too. Our phone is already up and working so that is a relief! Well Keri had to go back to work and I was left sitting on one of my suitcases feeling overwhelmed at the prospect of starting all over again in England. It is exciting to be able to start all over but overwhelming that you have to put your house all together again! We are so blessed that all of our stuff arrived so fast though. I had visions of the boat sinking that our furniture was on! Can you even imagine?!

Well this whole process makes me appreciate my own mom who spent 20 years as an Army wife. She already had baby Shannon when she started her military life in Germany. I've heard her tell the stories countless times but you can't appreciate them until you are sitting in that empty house yourself looking at the bare walls feeling a little lost and completely in over your head! Thank goodness I have an awesome husband who is there to take charge and take over when I am too exhausted to carry on.

The British doctor...

Before I left for the states I had a 3D ultrasound done at MacKay Dee Hospital. Well I had it done about 4 weeks earlier than normal because I was leaving for England. Well when I had my first OB check up here in the UK the doctor said a few key things were missing from the ultrasound (namely the heart and the 4 chambers) so she referred me off base to a British Hospital to get another one done!! YAY!

Well the hospital was on the south side of Cambridge which was about a 40 minute drive. We pulled up and were overwhelmed at the size of this hospital! It was HUGE! So we briskly walk in (we were running a bit late) and ask where to go. Now lets stop here to talk about the hospital itself. Some parts of the hospital are old and some parts are new. Well the new parts were like walking into a mall. There was a clothing store, a bath and body works type of store, a HAIR SALON, a supermarket, a burger king.. I mean it had it all! I was half tempted to do a little christmas shopping whilst I was there ;) Now... the older parts... they were downright spooky!! I mean I bet those cooridoors are haunted at night by ghosts! I don't want to be around that place around halloween that is for sure!

Well after walking the 5K (it took FOREVER to get to the maternity ward) we arrived. I said to Keri.. they do realize we are pregnant right? I mean where are the wheelchairs! I almost needed to be hooked up to some oxygen! AIR! Anyway we check in and about 5 minutes later a nurse dressed in a civil war era type of outfit comes to get us. We go into the room and meet the nicest doctor ever!!

So he has me lay down and starts the ultrasound and the baby is not cooperating. The baby is laying facedown and the doctor can't see the heart chamber which what he needed to focus on. So he has me get up, and says do you mind jumping up and down a few times. So naturally I jumped a few times. He continues to look for the heart chamber and he says to me... do you mind going and drinking a coke and walking around for a minute? So I go out and guzzle a fully leaded coke and come back.... he takes another look and says "oh dear"..... my baby seriously was being lazy and taking a snooze!!! Well after about 40 minutes he finally is able to get the looks at the heart that he needed. It was actually quite amazing to see the 4 chambers of the heart! The baby looked big too. Her face was full and her tummy was pretty darn round.

The doctor said everything looked perfect. He said that due to everything he saw and stuff that I was at low risk for pre-clampsia and high blood pressure and he didn't seen any indications of down syndrom!! YAY! It was a smashing sucess til I got halfway home and that coke hit my bladder and I needed to go ;)

The Amazing Race..

Well my routine in England has gotten quite predictable. I get up later than I should. Watch tv. Check my emails. Go shopping at the commisary for food. Keri comes home. AND REPEAT. Well sometimes I like to mix it up. I have met some VERY awesome lds girls. In particular I've met two red heads who I really like. In the states I didn't have any red headed friends and yet The UK seems to be crawling with them I tell you! I'm hoping we can trick people into thinking we are Irish sisters! I do think it will work ;) Well anyway one of the patterns I've repeated every day is I get up and precisely at noon I turn on..... THE AMAZING RACE!!

Okay I've never seen this show in my life. I never really even knew what it was about ...and now my friends I'm an addict. I watch that show religiously and it helps that they show is every day at noon. Now granted it is a few seasons behind and my sister already knew who won, it was still something new for me!! Well tragically today the show came to its finale and let me admit there were actual tears in my eyes as my favorite couple ("the hippies") sprinted to the million dollars. Some of the tears were of happiness for my new friends who just won a million and half were because the one thing that brightened my day every day was over :( Now I might actually have to get up and do different activites. It was a comfort to know that at noon everyday I could count on seeing my new favorite show on with my new best friends ;) This might sound very corny to everyone but even something as dumb as The Amazing Race coming on everyday at noon was very comforting.

In other news I am scheduled for my next ultrasound on the 14th!!!! I get to go out into Cambridge which is about 20 minutes away to an actual British hospital to have this done! How new and exciting is this? Then on the 15th we are FINALLY moving into our house!!! YAY!! Things are finally starting to come together! Well that is about all I have to report today :)

The story of calling home with a 7 hour time difference!

So there I was in my ever so comfy bed at the worlds best lodge ever.... it was 6:38am and Keri had just left for PT. (Physical Training) Yes I did feel bad for half a second thinking he had to go exercise at the butt crack of morning while I casually lay in bed watching tv and snacking on my Mary Jane halloween candy.. (i keep them by the bed incase I have a late night hunkering!) Anyway so I was there eating and watching british tv (the have a british version of the american show "The View" which is ever so fascinating) when I thought I could call Mom really quick. I did the simple math and figured out it wouldn't be quite midnight Utah time and surely she would still be up. Typically she'd be up watching Fraisure, or that Jon and Kate plus 108.. oops I mean 8.... or something... so I dialed! Yes folks I dialed.. and waited....it is quite the process to dial american from england! Dialing all those numbers alone could give you a finger crap... and forget about it if you mess up and dial a wrong digit!! ;)

So Mom answered but it was a rather sleepy hello . This isn't good I thought!! I thought she'd be awake and perky not sleepy!! So we are taking for precisely a minute when she asks me a question... i answer..... and.... i HEAR HER SNORING! Yes folks there I am on the phone from England and mom falls asleep on me!!!!!!! So I'm yelling her name on the phone ...and nothing... *snore snore snore*.... so I don't dare hang up incase she never hangs up and it costs me like a bizzillion dollars (it costs me 25 cents a minute to use the lodge phone)... so luckily I hear Shaun say "mom are you talking?" to which she wakes up! Shew! *wiping off forehead* Soo I inform her that she fell asleep to which she doesn't really address. For fear she will do it again I say can I talk to Shaun? (who is clearly awake and watching The Golden Girls turns out)

Well mom keeps talking and asking questions when.... *snore snore* SHE FALLS ASLEEP A SECOND TIME!! No I'm not kidding!!!!! I was like... dying! So then I hear Shaun again (thank heavens he was there) say something to mom and finally she passes the phone!!!! I was seriously dying!!

Moral of the story: don't call utah at midnight unless you want to hear mom snoring and you're willing to pay 25 cents a minute to hear it!!;)

The story of Norfolk...

So there we were on a Saturday afternoon wondering what we could do on another rainy and COLD day in England when Keri suggests we travel to a city called Norfolk. It sounded better than sitting in our lodge so we headed out. The TomTom (our friend GPS unit and new best friend) told us it would take us about 40 minutes. So Keri set off as the driver and I set off as the snoozer!! Naturally I woke up right as we entered the city of Norfolk. So we go through the massive roundabout and get onto this crowded street and are waiting to go up the street. That is when I noticed the smoke.....

So I'm like... Keri is that OUR car smoking? Then the smell set in... and there was no way it couldn't be our car. So Keri says "shoot".. (a direct quote by the way) and pulls out of the line of cars and turns around. So now we are going the opposite direction and really starting to smoke when ... our car shuts down completely and it says Engine overheated. So there we are smoking up the road and that of course is when I realize I really need to use the restroom. Of course the pregnant lady would have to use the restroom right then.

So lets recap.. we are in a strange city we've never been to before, we don't have anyones number in our cell phones besides each others number... our car is dead and I have to use the restroom! YAY! So.... I start walking to find a bathroom with no idea where I'm actually going. It only took about 10 minutes before I found some sort of market thing. So I went in, did my business... looked around a bit (c'mon it was a market, I had to) and then proceeded to head back. Luckily my husband is a genuis and poured some water from our water bottles onto the engine and it cooled down enough for us to drive home!! The main positive from this story was... it wasn't raining for once. That is all I would have needed to be stranded and completely drenched from my walk!!

What can I say... just another fabulous day in England :)

God Save the Queen...

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!!

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....