Monday, December 20, 2010

We're Home!

I had a big draft typed out and now I can't import it. I'm not retyping it now. I'll figure it out later and add it.


The baker in her apron...


Tuckered out after a long grocery expedition. We had groceries in every crevice of the car. Only Eric had room since he was driving. I offered to drive, but he declined...


The girls' first nap in their new room on moving day...

The girls helped Daddy decorate the tree...










The girls' play room..

The family room..


The dining room...

The kitchen...


The (8:30) sunrise...this is the view across the street...


This is our street. It IS a two-way street...






Sunday, December 12, 2010

Happy Thanksgiving

Here are some pictures from our visit to NY just before we moved. We had a wonderful Thanksgiving with everyone and enjoyed getting a four generation picture with Jama and Aine (we tried to get Leah to sit in for it, but her majesty could not be bothered at that point in time). However she did serenade us at the fireplace, and once Uncle Frank gave her a coin for her singing...she went through every song she knew :) The girls had a great time when Faitra came over. Leah kept her hopping playing hide and seek, and Aine was busy trying to keep up with them! Leah kept calling Faitra's name, so Aine had to too. In fact when I uploaded the picture of the three of them Aine saw it and said her version of "Faitra". I can't seem to get the formatting of the pictures to work, so you get what you get.
Miss you all.


























































Sunday, December 5, 2010

We're Finally in England!!

Well, after knowing we would be moving to England since February, we finally arrived one week ago (Nov 30). It was a long flight, and none of us slept much...although Aine slept the most (about 3-4 hours). We were exhausted when we arrived at London Heathrow! A nice customs agent let us start a "new" line (basically let us skip the entire line) which saved us at least 45 minutes....thank you thank you thank you! Then we had to collect all our bags. You should have seen us trying to navigate the airport with a stroller and two overflowing luggage carts. Thankfully our sponsor's wife was there to pick up the girls and I while a taxi from the base was waiting for Eric and our luggage...and thoretically, the cat. Unfortunately Eric couldn't pick up the cat that day and had to make the 2 hour trip to London again the next day. Fortunately a friend's wife was a available and drove him to spring the Boo Man! We were welcomed with snow and snow-covered hillsides....so beautiful! We got checked in and have a comfortable (if not older) TLF room. Unfortunately, they didn't have any pet-friendly ones available until tomorrow, so we've been hiding Boo and declining maid service. We can't do that forever, so Boo had a sleep over with Marc and Rachel for two nights. But we got him back yesterday and will move tomorrow to a new pet friendly room...at least that's the plan!
It's been a crazy time so far. Eric did a lot of prep work on the computer to find a home a car. He and Marc looked at a couple homes while they were running errands, but the first one we looked at we fell in love with. We couldn't live like that in the States. So we are in the application/approval process and have been told we can move in on the 16th. Thankfully only a week or so. It's about 25 minutes from base and a beutiful drive through hilly farmland. At two places the road gets really narrow, but I'm sure we'll get used to it in time.
Eric's always wanted a BMW, but we couldn't afford it before. Since they're pretty common over here, we wanted to work it out for him. He researched the internet and found a private seller in Birmingham (about 2.5 hours from here) selling the 330 he's always wanted, so Saturday we went on our first English road trip. All I have to say is thank you Jesus for GPSs!!! We had borrowed a car from a guy in Eric's squadron who's deployed, but his cigarette lighter doesn't work, so we've been relying on the GPS' battery. Well on Saturday, the GPS battery took us to Marc and Rachel's to drop off Boo and then to the seller's house in Birmingham. As soon as we turned around to get some lunch first, the battery died!! How's that for timing :) Since we hadn't taken our driving tests yet, we didn't have a gas card for base, so we had to get gas "on the economy". It was expensive...105 pounds to fill up both cars....approx 160 dollars. Thankfully the guy took a hundred pounds off the car when Eric asked. When Eric tried to get the gas cap open, it wouldn't...he had to go in through the trunk and open it manually. So it's in the shop now (the man offered to pay for it though). So I'll post some pictures once we (hopefully) get it back tomorrow.
Mildenhall has an indoor playarea for the kids with a computer area right there...so smart. We've been there alot! I had been planning to take pictures of the snow covered base, but it warmed enough on Saturday to melt the snow. Oh well...I'm sure we'll get more. Today everything is iced over, so I made sure to get some pictures this time! (they're below).
Now we're just in waiting mode. We've set up a bank acct, got cell phones (Eric got me an iPhone for Christmas...LOVE it), found a house and car, have our household goods scheduled for the 17th. Now we're just taking care of little things. It feels nice to have the big stuff done. We miss everyone, but absolutely love it here so far. Hope you're all well :)






























































Monday, November 8, 2010

Catch Up

We've been so busy lately (and I've been so tired) that I haven't updated the blog in a while, so here you go. As usual, I had a hard time picking out the pictures, so there are lots of them :)

We visited West Palm a couple weeks ago to see some family before we head over to England. It was Aine's first flight and she did great. In fact she slept most of the way. It was so wonderful to see family and watch Leah and Aine interact with their cousins: Jillian, Kristen and Mitch.

I'm short on time now, so you get the condensed version :)



She eats like me :)

In West Palm, my dad showed Leah how to do a puzzle and she LOVED it. So we got her one when we got back to ABQ. Here she is after finishing it (mostly on her own)...


With Kate and then dad and their masterpiece jack-o-lanterns...


I put this on here because I love both of their expressions...

I have to brag on my dad a bit here. He MADE this! He had a bare piece of wood that he carved, shaped, sanded and painted. He made all the smokestacks, handrails...everything. Isn't it great?!


Rob and Alys had us over to their house and so we got to visit with my mom and Aunt Linda. (Most of the rest of the family showed up too.) The girls had a blast. Alys and Heather schooled us all on how to hula hoop. Leah was trying her hardest, but couldn't seem to grasp it.

The girls with my mom...
Kisses for Grandma...

Aine and Kristen are only a month apart. Kristen is a...big...girl. They looked like David and Goliath next to each other. :)

Aine is fascinated with airplanes flying overhead, and since Alys and Rob live near PBI...there was plenty of aircraft activity.

The cousins: Mitch, Jillian, Leah, Kristin and Aine. Thank Mitch for humoring me with this picture.

Our group at Rob and Alys' house...

We went to the Breakers for lunch one afternoon and then let the girls run around on the open lawn.

Tackle....Leah better get it out of her system now because when AIne gets a little older it's going to be a different situation,


Stopping to smell the flowers...





Kisses...




I think this one is too cute. She's walking around the Breakers dragging Leah's purse around like she owned the place...



Leah and Jillian at the hibachi restautant. Here they are sticking out their tongues...


I remember hiding and playing under the pool table when I was little, so this really tickled me :)

Aine giving Kristen a kiss...



Janice met us in Pt St Lucie and we had some lunch. Leah was not in the mood to have her picture taken.

Bill and Cynthia had us over for dinner...

Showing off all her teeth...

More kisses for daddy...

Working on the puzzle. Aine wasn't much of a help...

Saying night night to daddy...

Aine passed out on the airplane...


Yikes...someone is a mess!
We stayed a couple days this week with Eric's cousins, Gary and Lynne. The trees are changing colors right now and look amazing against the red rock. Beautiful!

Oh Yahhh, lookin' good!