Anticipation

On December 14th, the list of possible assignments for Martin and I to move to next summer was released. I would like to say that I was excited about this, but in reality… I was terrified. The assignment process is stressful enough as it is, but now with two people and two careers to consider, it is especially daunting. I worried that we wouldn’t have any bases in common, or that the only ones we had in common would not be good career choices for one or both of us. Obviously, our first priority is to be together, but in an ever-downsizing Air Force, it is important that we both fill certain job types within our career fields.

When the lists dropped, the biggest shock was the sheer number of jobs available, especially for me. Previous cycles have listed about 20-30 jobs, yet this cycle had over 100 listings. I never thought I would say there were “too many” possibilities, but this was ridiculous. Trying to shave that list down to jobs that were “right” for me was an overwhelming task, which I had to put off until the weekend when I actually had time to read all of the details and descriptions. Martin narrowed his list down pretty quickly, then we spent several days talking over the pros and cons of jobs and bases that we liked/disliked.

We turned in our requests yesterday, and after they go through our leadership, will be sent to the personnel center for decisions to be made and released in the Jan-Mar time frame. I’m not going to talk about what we requested… not because of “jinxing” (don’t believe in that) or anything, just that it is really pointless to lay out all the possibilities and talk about all the locations when it is such a short amount of time until the official announcement. I think we made good decisions about what to request based on what was available for both of us, and we just have to hope that the assignments officers agree.

This is sort of surreal in one aspect because I can’t believe we are talking about leaving England. Living here has been a dream come true, and I want the last 7 months to go by as slowly as possible, not rush them with talk of our next assignment. Strangely enough, however, all of this assignment talk has also made me think a lot recently about my time at Barksdale. Maybe it is because I have been talking to two of my mentors from there to ask their advice about my next job, but I have just had a lot of flashbacks to all of the good times I had at the 26th Operational Weather Squadron.

You all know by now that I was not excited to be assigned to Barksdale, and I was definitely not a fan of the Shreveport area, but I truly LOVED my squadron. Especially my second year there, when I had the chance to be a flight commander and Lt Col D was the squadron commander. He was an absolute phenomenon as a commander, the type of person who comes into a unit and transforms it along with all of the people in it just by the example he set and the things he empowered us to accomplish. I don’t think I really understood the concept of being the type of officer that your people want to follow into battle until I saw it in action with him. I would be the first to say that I would go anywhere to have the opportunity to work for him again. I am so blessed to have been given the chance to be a flight commander when I did at Barksdale. I worked with so many incredible people who taught me so much, and I wouldn’t give that up for the world.

It was amazing to watch the camaraderie and morale soar among squadron members under Lt Col D. I have so many treasured memories from that year. There was the group of us who decided to train for a half marathon and did increasingly long runs at morning PT, at some points being dropped off in the woods at the back of the base in the dark, following glow sticks dropped by our first sergeant (our fastest runner) so we didn’t get lost. There was the continuous joking and laughter with my amazing officemates (Maj W, MSgt R, and MSgt M) who made every day a good one, no matter how stressed or frustrated we were. There was the group I went skydiving with to re-enlist an airman while jumping from 14,000 feet. There were the camping trips in Texas with all the officers for professional development sessions. We started doing field training at a nearby Army site and I learned to drive a HUMVEE.

I could go on and on, but the point is, I had an incredible time and my life is better thanks to people at a place I never wanted to go in the first place. And I think that remembering all of these things is helping me have a peace about our next assignment, wherever it may be. I believe that God has a purpose for everything that happens in my life and every situation I am placed in. I also believe in Ephesians 3:20, that God is “able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine”. Even if I am disappointed in my next job or our next location, God already knows the joy I will experience in the future. While I was upset about being assigned to Barksdale, God already knew the adventures I would have here at Lakenheath, and that I would meet the man who will be my husband.

So for that reason, I am no longer waiting for news of our assignment in fear, but in anticipation of our next exciting step in life. I am so thankful for the blessing of having Martin home for the holidays after all of the time we were apart this year. I can’t wait to marry him next July and move into our first home together… wherever it is!

Good List:
1. Martin. I love the fact that I am teased by co-workers for being “young and in love” when I talk about how excited I am to spend time with him every day… I plan on that being true forever! :-)
2. Flavored Egg Nog. We were able to try Gingerbread and Cinnamon before the commissary ran out. Both yummy!
3. 4-Day Christmas Break. Enough said.
4. Snow! No accumulation yet, but we got flurries twice last week and it was beautiful while falling.
5. New Year’s trip. Berlin is booked! We will celebrate the arrival of 2012 at the biggest street party in Germany… excited!
6. Football. Penn State is in the TicketCity Bowl on Jan 2nd against Houston… stupid name but great opponent, should be a good game.
7. Skype. In the last week, we have talked to both sets of parents, Lisa in California, and Martin’s aunt in Indiana. We plan to “see” everyone again over the Christmas break!
8. New Daughtry CD. I also must thank Martin at this point for fixing my car speaker so I can actually listen to it! :-)
9. Surprises. Can’t wait for Martin to open his gifts on Christmas! ;-)
10. USPS. My mom sent a package of gifts on Thursday and it arrived here on Monday. Miracle!

Thankful

**Disclaimer: I started writing this over Thanksgiving weekend (just didn’t finish gathering
all of the pics and posting until now… sorry!)**

As I sit on the couch writing this, Martin is sitting next to me on my left, our Christmas tree
lights are glowing on my right, ornaments are shining and sparkling, a fire is burning in the fireplace in front of us, and a Toll House Chocolate Pie is baking in the kitchen. Need I say more about being thankful this season? :-) I apologize for my, umm, neglect of this blog over the last two months... life has just been so busy (in a good way) since Martin got home from
deployment that I haven't had time to write about it!

Since this is Thanksgiving weekend, I thought it would be most appropriate to bring you up to
speed with a list of things I have been thankful for over the last two months, with a picture for each one (because it may be a long time until I get all these albums on Facebook, haha). In
chronological order, here we go!

Thankful List:
1. Sep 26: Martin returned from his 5-month deployment!!!!! :-D I don't have a picture of us from
his homecoming, but here is the welcome home cake I made for him:

2. Oct 2: I ran the Loch Ness Marathon in Scotland. This was my third marathon, but due to my move and long work shifts, my training had gone down the tubes. The longest run I had done was a half-marathon (13.1 miles), 6 weeks earlier. I mentally prepared myself for a run-walk race: running for as long as I could, then taking walk breaks as necessary for what I expected would be the majority of the race. I told myself I would not care about time, I would just enjoy the scenery and look for Nessie (haha). I was thrilled that Martin got home in time to travel to the race with me, and our friend Laura was also along for the trip to run the 10K race.

Race day started miserably: I had to walk through a muddy field in my running shoes to get to the bus, then once we arrived at the start, it was raining steadily and frigidly cold. I have (self-diagnosed) wet shoe phobia, so I was a mental mess. It rained continuously for the first 6 miles, and it took about 3 miles to regain feeling in my frozen hands and feet. Once I got warmed up, however, things started to look up. After the rain stopped, it was still foggy, and running through the cool fog kept me from getting sweaty or overheated. The fog lessened around mile 8, and I could see the Loch, which was beautiful… it was the kind of day you could expect to see Nessie poke her head out of the water! Miraculously, I was able to keep running until mile 17, when I stopped at a porta-potty. After that, I took a few walk breaks, but once I got into the town of Inverness (just past mile 23), there were spectators lining the route cheering, and I could actually hear the announcer at the finish line on the other side of the river loop. That gave me the last mental boost I needed, and I said “let’s finish this.”

I ran the last 3 miles, smiling and waving at Martin and Laura as they cheered and took pictures on one side of the river, then crossed a bridge to watch me finish. I have no idea how this happened, but I finished my third marathon (the one I felt the least prepared for) in 4:37:11, a personal record by 21 minutes.

3. Oct 8-10: Dublin re-do! As you may remember, a group of friends and I had planned to go to Dublin for St Patrick’s Day back in March… but had to give up the trip when we were called to support military operations in Libya. Well, we finally made it up on a 3-day weekend in October. We toured the Guinness Factory, rode through the city in a horse-drawn carriage, and took a bus trip into the beautiful green countryside.

4. Oct 23: The Chicago Bears and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers came to play an NFL game in London, and the NFL gave 1000 free tickets to the Air Force bases at Lakenheath and Mildenhall. Martin and I were lucky enough to be given 2 of them, so we got on a bus with the rest of the crowd and spent the day at Wembley Arena. We participated in the pregame show by standing in a formation on the field holding up foam tiles to form the American and British flags, then watched the game from our (nosebleed section) seats. I got to see former Penn Stater Robbie Gould kick for the Bears!

5. Oct 29: A couple friends joined us for a concert and 10K run in Nottingham, one of our favorite English cities. Funny story about the run, however… it was Halloween weekend, so we wore costumes for the race. The start was at a sports center outside the city, and due to traffic from a soccer game letting out, our cabbie told us “just walk straight down this road…” Well, after 45 minutes of wandering and trying to follow signs, while being honked at by passing cars who appreciated our costumes, we never found the sports center and missed the race! We made up for it by running our own race back into town, and celebrated with a trip to Hooters for yummy chicken.

6. Nov 1-15: Mediterranean Cruise!!! Our long-awaited vacation (had been planned since June) to celebrate Martin’s return was everything we dreamed it would be. The destinations were incredible, the ship was fantastic, and we had so many amazing experiences that we will remember for a lifetime. I can’t decide on one favorite port, but the most picturesque was Santorini, Greece, with its stunning whitewashed houses and blue-domed churches… I had dreamed of going there ever since I saw the movie “Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants”, and it did not disappoint! Our most adventurous port was Corfu, Greece, where we took a bus to the other side of the island, found a beautiful deserted cove, went snorkeling, and took pictures of fish with the waterproof camera Martin gave me for my birthday.

7. Nov 25-26: After a relaxing Thanksgiving at home, we went down to London for a couple days. On Friday, we ate at Chipotle (a treat since it is the only location in the UK), shopped at our favorite 5-story toy store (Hamley’s), and enjoyed the Winter Wonderland festival in Hyde Park with some mulled wine, candied nuts, and carnival games (Martin won me a stuffed penguin!). The next morning, we went running in Hyde Park (something I needed to check off my “England bucket list”), then ice-skated at the Winter Wonderland rink. That afternoon was the Top Gear Live show at an arena just outside the city, with stunt driving, shiny expensive supercars, and the famous show hosts/comedians Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond, and James May.

That’s all the big events, but I’ll finish out my Thankful List to 10…

8. Christmas decorations! Thanks to Martin (I am a procrastinator), our tree is up and decorated before the end of November.

9. Christmas parties. We have two this year (my squadron and Martin’s), and I am excited to dress up and celebrate with our friends.

10. Wedding planning. Yes, this news is somewhat buried at the end of the post, but… we finally picked a wedding date! =D Martin and I will be married on July 21, 2012, in my hometown of Hampton, VA. I now have about 25 million things on my to-do list, which is slightly overwhelming, but I am so excited to finally have a date on the calendar! Many more updates to come, but for now I am thankful for the help of my parents, maid of honor Lisa, and bridesmaids Carrie and Jamie. Church is reserved, reception site is being investigated, and bridesmaid dresses are being considered. Yay!