Soooo... it's been kind of a long week. I almost didn't want to blog tonight because I was afraid it would sound complain-y, but I have some good stuff to talk about too... and the truth is that sometimes in life you have a "down" week, so I will try to be okay with that.

I'll start out with good: Brian and Christine are awesome! And their daughter Abby is the most adorable 2-year-old ever, so it has been so much fun getting to know them and helping them get settled here in England. I think Brian and I are going to work really well together in the flight. They are still working on finding a house, car, etc., so he probably won't be in the office much until after the 4th of July weekend, but I'm really looking forward to having him and his family around.

Today was a frustrating day because I am on standby this weekend, so when we got word on Friday there would be flying today, there went my Saturday. I wasn't too upset at first because the weather was going to be bad anyway, so better to be stuck inside today than Sunday. Well, after 9 hours at work and delay after delay... the entire plan was postponed. So guess what I am doing on Sunday? Yeah... another 9 hours at work, on what is supposed to be a gorgeous day. Needless to say, I am not a happy camper at the way this is being handled. I hope that when I am in a position to affect more people than I am now, I don't waste other people's time just because it is an easier route for me to take. But enough about that.

Time for something else good: Martin and I booked our Mediterranean cruise!!! It is in November after he gets back, and we have an amazing itinerary, awesome ship, great cabin location, and I am SOOOO excited!!! I can't wait to spend time with Martin again. :-D Here's a peek at the places we will visit:

Since booking the cruise was probably the high point of my week, I guess I should now mention the low point. I was still at work on Wednesday just after 6pm when my cell phone rang, and it was my landlord. She dropped the bombshell that they have just made plans to sell the house... so they need me to move out by October. Apparently the house was for sale for a while before they changed their minds and put it up for rent, and then I moved in. Now someone who looked at the house before has made them "a very generous offer", and their financial situation has declined so that they really need the money.

I was very calm on the phone with her, I think mostly because I was in shock and wondering if it was even legal. We signed a 2-year contract last August, so I thought I was settled until I leave next July. I re-read the lease later and the wording on the issue is slightly confusing, so I will have to go talk to the housing office to get clarification on my rights. I don't think I have it in me to fight them on it, because even if I was right, what would I win? Ruining a good financial opportunity for a single-income family with 3 small children in a tough economy? Is that something I want to do? Not really. It just makes me sad because I feel like I am losing my home, as much as I tell myself that a house doesn't make a home.

I don't know what I am going to do yet. They said October, but I am not sure if I find somewhere to move earlier, if I am allowed to do that or if I have to wait until October. It seems to me that if the landlords are the ones who say they want to break the lease, that I should have the right to move when it is convenient for me, not them. If I have to move in October, there is no point in looking for a new place now, because no one would hold a house for me for 4 months. If I can move whenever I want, I guess it will be time to start looking at new places. I will have to see what the housing office says.

Well, I can't end with being a Debbie Downer, so here is my Good List:
1. Martin. And the very sweet letter I got in the mail from him this week :)
2. My OCF friends. I love having people in my life who I never feel like I have to impress or pretend to be someone I am not. They are like a breath of fresh air and always remind me what is really important.
3. Under Armour cushion running socks. Best. Socks. Ever. Where have you been all of my running life?
4. Sintra pictures posted! (From the trip with Martin in May) http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150683606885002.698913.701905001&l=5b64662d93

5. Pop Secret 100-calorie bags of Kettle Corn. Possibly the best food invention since the peanut-butter-and-banana sandwich.

6. 4th of July plans. Travel buddies didn't work out for a longer trip, so I'm driving down to Brighton Beach for the weekend to stay in an awesome B&B (a block from the beach), relax, and explore the popular seaside getaway town. I'll even be back in time to enjoy the 4th of July party at Feltwell!

7. Paninis made on the George Foreman grill.

8. New laptop! My amazing fiance designed one on a build-your-own website and I ordered it last week. My current laptop has been a faithful friend for 4.5 years, but that is ancient in computer years and it has earned its retirement.

9. Two OG softball game wins this week!

10. Slippers. (Yes, it is still cold enough at night to wear them here.)

Summer Things

Well, I did it... registered for the Loch Ness Marathon! It's one of the things I decided I wanted as a goal for myself this summer. I run much better when I have an event to look forward to and motivate me, plus I got tired of telling people I was just thinking about it, haha. I've always wanted to see Loch Ness, and since it's on island I won't even have to use precious days of leave for the weekend! Martin won't be back from deployment yet, but a few friends have told me they were considering running it, so hopefully I'll have a travel buddy or two. I booked my hotel too, got a nice place right near the expo and finish area. So now I am officially in training!

I ran two 5Ks this weekend, sort of by accident... I told a friend a while ago I would do a charity pub run in Cambridge on Sunday, then forgot the date and challenged my weather flight members to run the base 5K on Saturday. None of them took me up on it, but I didn't want to back out, and sometimes if there's a small showing at these base runs I can snag a place with a prize, so I figured what the heck. Racing always motivates me to run harder anyway. Well, to put it bluntly... I got beat, pretty soundly by two girls I very much underestimated at the start. Oh well... still got a t-shirt! :-)

The pub run was a good time, even though it was cold and rainy. The course in Cambridge was really pretty, along the River Cam and through some of the city. We started at one pub, ran 1.8 miles to another pub, had a drink (I had water), then ran a different route 1.5 miles back to the original pub, where more drinks were had and the pub owner cooked up some burgers for us. The run organizer said we raised over 300 pounds (that's GBP, I don't know how to make the pounds symbol on an American keyboard...) for Cancer Research UK, so all in all a good day.

Okay, since my non-running readers are probably bored now, I'll talk about something else...more plans for the summer! One big event is this Thursday... my new boss (Brian) arrives. As you may remember, I have been the acting weather flight commander since November, when Jose deployed. Now, you all know me, I am not the type of person to have control issues, or to worry about being a notch lower on the totem pole. I guess my anxiety is about how I will define my role in the flight now. Since I've been basically doing two jobs for the last 6 months, what am I going to do with myself when half or more of that is gone? I'm sure it will be fine, it will just take some time and getting to know Brian to figure out our working relationship. He seems like a nice guy from the email communication we've had, so I'm looking forward to meeting him and his family on Thursday.

That sort of brings me to my next topic... travel! As much as I hate to stay put over 3-day weekends, I'm going to this weekend because I am Brian's sponsor... and I decided it would probably be rude to pick him up from the airport on Thursday and then leave town for 3 days. So I'm going to look at it as a chance to show them (he has a wife and 3-year-old daughter) some of the local attractions, like the Bury St Edmunds market or maybe even Cambridge. My next chance to go somewhere will be 4th of July, but I haven't decided where yet... thinking somewhere beachy, but I'd like to find a travel buddy!

One exciting thing that happened last week was a phone call I got from a member of the USAFE weather staff. She asked me to talk at a focus group at the USAFE weather conference in September about a binder I made for our inspection that covers all of the staff element checklist items. I got the idea from the Spangdahlem weather flight commander, but she just happens to be moving this summer... so I get to present the idea at the conference. So why is this exciting? Two main reasons: 1) The conference is at the gorgeous Edelweiss military resort in the German Alps, and 2) The new weather assignments officer will be there. This is crazy important, because it will give me a chance to meet him/her face-to-face and talk about joint spouse assignment options for Martin and me, so I won't just be a name on an email or voice on the phone.

No, we still don't know when we are getting married. A lot of it will have to do with what we can get out of our respective assignments teams over the next several months. Having him in Korea now makes it even more complicated, but it's just one of those things we will have to adapt to. I've been really blessed in the last month or so to have conversations with several military women/couples who have worked through their own circumstances and willingly shared their stories with me. It is good to know that others have been through this, and that we have some options to make this work.

Martin and I have been able to Skype almost every day, though the time difference (he is +8 hours) is a challenge. Skype is such a wonderful thing. I get so excited every time I see the spinning circle saying "starting video", because I know it will just be a few seconds until I see his face! Weekends are the best, because we can talk for longer periods of time. We are looking at a Mediterranean cruise for after he gets back this fall, so that is really exciting!

Good List:
1. Martin (and Skype!)
2. New music. Currently listening to The Veer Union, who I think sounds somewhat like Skillet, and Green River Ordinance, who reminds me of The Pat McGee Band.
3. Free APO-to-APO mail. This means I can send Martin all kinds of fun things whenever I want! :-D
4. Being reminded not to judge a book by its cover... or not to judge at all.
5. Peanut butter.
6. Finally getting around to posting Prague pictures, and re-living all the great memories and moments they contained. http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150672294250002.694943.701905001&l=cc94081472
7. My Brita water pitcher.
8. Productivity. I cleaned all my kitchen counters and appliances, re-organized the cabinets, and cleaned out the fridge and freezer. Now if only I can continue this with the rest of the house...
9. Opportunities to meet new people and do new things.
10. OG Softball. I actually got a couple hits and scored twice last week!

Reset

You know that feeling you get when you are so busy leading up to an event, or a series of events, and then the event is over... and you look around and say, "Okay, now what?" That's kind of how I feel right now, because a lot of things I had been looking forward to (like my US visit with family and friends) are in the past, as well as things I was not looking forward to (like Martin leaving for his 4-month deployment). Now it seems that I have reached a "reset" point, where I can reassess where my time goes and what I focus on in my life.

I am somewhat embarrassed that my last blog post was on April 11th, almost 2 months ago, and this was pointed out to me several times while I was in the States, haha. So here we go! Martin came home from his deployment supporting Libya operations on April 17th, a month after the infamous whirlwind weekend when he came home early from Spain, proposed(!!!), and left for Italy in a span of about 24 hours. He got home just in time for Easter, and we celebrated by dyeing eggs together, one of my favorite traditions. :-)

On April 29th, while the rest of the world watched the Royal Wedding, we had Wing Sports Day at Lakenheath and ran around outside playing various sports (while my DVR was working hard at home, of course!). I was the 5th female finisher in the 5K race, which irritated me because I was SO close to three of the four girls ahead of me, but just didn't have it in the sprint to the finish. Oh well... motivation to get back in shape! The next day, we had a few friends over and Martin grilled amazing steaks while the girls watched and provided commentary on the Royal Wedding coverage. ;-)

May 1st-5th, Martin and I traveled back to my dream world of Sintra, Portugal. It was so exciting to share all of the beautiful places and incredible experiences with my favorite travel buddy! I may have been a bit more excited than he was at the amount of hiking involved (I love you babe ;-) )... but he helped me to slow down and enjoy the culture, food, and people of the area as well.

May also took us to my first horse race in Newmarket! Martin had been once before, but we finally got a group together and got all dressed up for a day at the races. My friend Laura and I went shopping for the perfect "floppy hat", a necessity to look the part! It was such a great time... we bet on horses, with varying success (Martin analyzed statistics, while Laura and I picked the funniest names!), mingled in the club area, watched a presentation in the winner's circle, and afterwards went out to an amazing dinner at a Turkish restaurant.

On May 19th, it was a bittersweet morning as I hugged and kissed my future husband for the last time until October. I left that day for a two-week trip to the US, and he left a few days later for a 4-month deployment to Korea. This will be the longest we have been apart since we met, but we are very blessed to have constant email and Skype communication, which will hopefully make it seem like he is not quite so far away.

My trip to the US was amazing, much as I expected it to be. I got to see my beautiful little sister Lisa graduate from the University of Virginia (eek, that must mean I am old...), and share laughs and memories with my parents and a majority of our extended family (missed you, Amy!). We went to a garden party for Lisa and her 7 housemates, had a campfire with s'mores, watched the entire graduating class process down the UVA Lawn, took lots of pictures with the family, and Lisa and I took a sunrise hike the morning before heading home.

After a few days at home with my family, I went to PA for a roommate reunion with my best college friends Carrie and Jamie! I got to meet Jamie's 9-month-old daughter Alexis (who I am quite convinced is THE most adorable baby in the world), tour the Penn State branch campus where Jamie's husband Ben is a professor, take several long walks and talks with my best friends, and had the most fun I have ever had during a power outage. ;-) Love you girls!!!

The Sunday after returning from PA, I had a wonderful morning at church catching up with so many people I grew up around, reminding me how thankful I am to call St Mark's my "home" church. That evening, my parents and I went to dinner with some of their friends who were in town briefly. We went to a tavern in Colonial Williamsburg, which felt a lot like being back in England!

After a couple more days with my parents, it was time to head back to England and back to work. Lucky for me, we had this past Friday off, so I only worked one day before a three-day weekend. How about that for time to reset? On Friday, however, I went to my first-ever hen party (that's bachelorette party in England) for my friend Lauren! Lauren is getting married on July 8th, so a bunch of us girls took her out in Cambridge on Friday night for some crazy adventures before she ties the knot. It was an eventful night, and ended with a walk back to Lauren's apartment as it was starting to get light again (but remember, that doesn't mean as much during England summers...). Fun stuff!

We hung out at Lauren's until early afternoon Saturday, then I came home and took a nap (haha), Skyped with Martin, caught up on Glee, and then stayed up way too late being sucked into my new Dan Brown book, The Lost Symbol. Today has been equally as relaxing, giving me a chance to think about some new goals and plans for the next few months... and what life will look like after hitting the "reset" button. I'll share that in my next post (which I PROMISE will not be two months from now, haha), since this one has gotten long enough playing catch-up. Hope you enjoyed the pics!