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!

Abundant Life

"I have come that they may have life, and have it abundantly." -John 10:10b

I was driving to work this morning, admiring the bright blue skies and bright yellow flowers carpeting the fields around me, singing really loud along with Gloriana's "Wild at Heart", laughing at myself when I sang the wrong words, and all of a sudden this Bible verse popped into my head. It was kind of funny, really, because it has nothing to do with the song I was singing, and I haven't even studied John recently (we're doing Proverbs in OCF). However, as random as it seemed, I decided God wanted me to think about it, and as I did, I realized how much it described what life has been for me recently.

"Abundant" does not necessarily mean happy, or easy, or fun. The months leading up to our inspection were definitely not fun, working 20-hour days when Libya operations kicked off was not at all easy, and I am certainly not happy that I missed out on two planned trips or that Martin was not with me for this last trip due to the sudden deployment. But was life still abundant? If you check Thesaurus.com (essential EPR-writing tool), "abundant" means "plentiful", with synonyms "full" and "overflowing". Antonyms are "lacking" and "scarce".

So Jesus came so that our lives would be plentiful, full, overflowing... with what? 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 calls us to "Be joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus." I admit I am not always full of joy when stress or problems arise, and I don't always give thanks when bad circumstances arise. But I can look back and say that even during those times, my life was plentiful, full, and overflowing -- abundant with meaning, if not always joy. I can certainly never say it was lacking or scarce. I think that's what the first part of John 10:10 refers to: "The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; [but I have come that they may have life, and have it abundantly.]" Satan seeks to convince us that our lives are empty, "lacking", or "scarce" - the opposite of abundant. But the lessons learned leading up to the inspection will hopefully make me a better leader in the future, and as I mentioned in the last entry, being involved with Libya operations is something that I will remember the rest of my life, an opportunity I should be grateful for. My life has meaning because God helped me to deal with those circumstances and to come out on the other side for the better.

And then there are the times that "abundant" DOES mean happy! My life has been full of those times recently as well. :-) I'm engaged to a man who I am in love with and can't wait to experience more of life with. I had the amazing opportunities to travel to the Czech Republic and Portugal the last 2 weekends; travels I used to only dream about. I discovered Sintra (Portugal), an unbelievable fantasy world of castles, mountains, forests, and tropical gardens all in one. It is the wonderful season of spring in England, and there are fluffy baby sheep, bright colored flowers, green fields, blue skies, sun, and just natural beauty everywhere you look.

I think that abundant life means knowing I have a purpose, that God loves me enough to send Jesus to save me even though I continue to make mistakes and don't always do what He says. Everything I do and everything that happens to me means something-- it all matters. Knowing this frees me to appreciate the gifts He gives me, like Martin and castles and yellow flowers. :-)

So that is what I thought about today. I owe you entries/photo albums for Prague and Sintra, plus two other posts I have been writing off and on... one about Martin and me, the other about running. Hope to have some done by this weekend! :-) For now, here is a picture of the yellow flowers I keep talking about: the rape (pronounced rah-pay, to avoid being awkward) plant, which blooms in April/May and makes fields across England turn into carpets of bright glowing yellow. I have heard it is made into a type of oil.

What a Week... (!!!)

I will never forget this last week. And I use the term "week" loosely, because everything really started last Wednesday night, but today is the first day I have had to really decompress and process everything. Last Wednesday afternoon, I left work on a gorgeous afternoon, giving my sore legs a break and actually not working out after a couple days of great running in preparation for the Prague Half Marathon on April 1st. I planned to get a good night's sleep and run an 8-miler after work the next day. I Skyped with Martin, and we talked about how excited I was to go to Dublin that weekend with a group of our friends, and then to go visit him in Madrid the next weekend.

At 10:13pm, my phone rang, waking me up after about an hour of sleep. It was my swing shift forecaster, telling me there was a recall of the Crisis Action Team (CAT), a group consisting mostly of base leadership, but which I am a part of to provide weather info as needed. Recalls are done occasionally for exercises and drills, so needless to say, I was not thrilled to get a call in the middle of the night. Hoping it was just a drill and I wouldn't need to report, I called the command post and asked if they had more information. The controller told me he could not give any more info, but it was a full CAT recall and the report time was 11:00pm. I looked at my phone for the time. 10:18pm. I live 35 minutes from the base, and I was in my pjs in bed, half asleep. You do the math. AHHH!!! Next came a flurry of activity as I scrambled for uniform pieces, hair elastics, car keys, etc., then sped like crazy to make it to the command post with about 90 seconds to spare.

I can't go into detail about everything that happened after that point, but if you have watched the news lately, you have some idea. The next several days passed in a blur of activity mixed with periods of waiting... and almost no sleeping. It didn't seem real. The moment I remember most clearly was the end of a conversation with our vice wing commander, when I expressed my amazement at everything that was going on. He just smiled at me and said "Yep... you'll remember this the rest of your life."

There's a lot more I wish I could write about, but there will be a time when this is all history that it will be appropriate. Needless to say, I didn't go to Ireland last weekend, and I am not in Madrid this weekend. Still hoping for Prague and Sintra... but now I'm getting ahead of myself. In the middle of all the craziness, Martin came home from Spain early. This was awesome, until he found out less than 24 hours later that he was leaving again, for an undetermined amount of time. He woke me up from a dead sleep after a long night shift to tell me he was deploying... but then said he wanted to leave me with something... and pulled out a diamond ring!!! He asked me if I would marry him, and I believe my response was something like "Is this a dream?!?" (Remember, I was OUT.) Once I convinced myself that I was actually awake, I squealed "YES!!!" and began a sort of happy dance that alternated between hugging him, bouncing around the room, and giggling as I stared in disbelief at the gorgeous sparkling ring on my finger.

So that's the big news, everyone... I'M ENGAGED!!! :-D It turns out that Martin's plan had been to propose at the finish line of our half marathon in Prague, but when he learned that he would be leaving so soon, he decided to pop the question before he left. He got my Dad's work number from my cell phone and called him that morning to ask if he could propose to me. (Probably the last thing Daddy was expecting to hear at work... but thanks for saying yes!!! :-) ) I have been asked a couple times already if we've set a date, and the answer is definitely not, haha. Martin left less than 24 hours after proposing, and we've only talked twice for a total of about 10 minutes since. Also, so much is up in the air right now about deployments for both him and for me, so it would be pointless to start talking timelines.

I'm SOOOOO excited and happy to be able to share this news with you! I'm not advertising it on Facebook yet, because I want to give Martin more time to get in touch with all of his family members (he talked to his parents right away, but didn't get much farther due to his deployment processing). However, I figured it was safe to tell you because I think I can count my blog readers on my fingers, hehe. :-) I wish more of you knew Martin already, but I can't wait to introduce him to you! Aaaand along those lines, I have already started thinking about a post to tell our story... there's a teaser for you! ;-)

Good List:
1. Martin. I love my fiance!!! :-D
2. The F-15E aircrew from Lakenheath who ejected over Libya are safe.
3. American Idol + DVR. (One is necessary for the other.) I got to catch up this morning, and though I nearly had a heart attack over the most recent results, I can honestly say I love this show. Go Scotty, Paul, James, and Pia!!!
4. Seeing my weather flight members take on challenges and new things and excel at them.
5. Uncle Ben's Brown and Wild Rice. Especially mixed with sauteed mushrooms, baby corn, and broccoli.
6. Finding a running buddy for tomorrow's 9-miler!
7. Great conversations over Proverbs 2:1-8 at OCF last night.
8. My bed. I appreciate it even more after trying to take a nap on my cold office floor one night last weekend.
9. Dreaming about weddings and dresses. :)
10. Hope.

Morning Drive

What an absolutely PERFECT morning. Have you ever been so inspired on your drive to work that you just can't wait to get there and put pen to paper (well, fingers to keyboard...) and write about it? That's how I felt this morning. First of all, my music choice for the drive could not have been better. Rascal Flatts "Feels Like Today" album is just amazing... I'm pretty sure it's scientifically impossible to be in a bad mood while listening to that CD. :-)

The sun was up! Just after sunrise has got to be the most beautiful angle for light across landscapes, and this morning was just STUNNING. The fields have been growing so they are like carpets of bright green, and when the sun hits them it is like they light up from within, like each leaf is glowing the most vibrant green you can imagine. The sky was an incredible shade of blue with wispy cirrus clouds that looked like they had been sculpted with a paintbrush, like the ethereal paintings we saw in Rome. One shortcut that I take through a small town takes me past a playground and soccer field lined by tall trees, and this morning the sun was filtering through the trees so that you could see each individual ray of light falling across the playground and field, lighting up the grass and reaching out towards me. It was so gorgeous I actually found myself holding my breath, and then bouncing up and down in my seat with joy and excitement just thinking about it.

I wished I had a camera, but the incredible thing about this scenery is that I am so blessed to live here and experience this beauty every time the sun rises. You know, there are some days I'm not thrilled with the bumpy, muddy farm roads, cars parked in the street in the small towns, and the 35 minutes it takes me to drive to work. But then there are mornings like today where I wouldn't trade my drive for the world. For those 35 minutes, I am part of a painting, part of this landscape that transcends time, part of these villages and winding roads traveled by people for centuries before I became a speck on this earth. It's like finding a part of myself, a dream I didn't even know existed until I found it.

I LOVE England. I may never be able to explain why, even to myself, but I know I have never felt so ALIVE, like the world held so many possibilities, like every day held the chance to be inspired. I think I lost sight of that over the last couple months, and I don't want to do that again no matter what happens. Martin told me a few times that he was worried I was letting the situation at work change who I was, and how I approached life. I hated hearing that, and I hated even more that I was afraid it was true. Maybe God showed me this morning that his gifts have been here the whole time, and that's what I should remember when times are bad, that God is always good. When I was enroute to Louisiana with dreams of Germany shattered, God was already planning the joy I would find in England. While I spent every minute outside of work the last few months dreading the next workday, God was planning this morning's sunrise.

But I think the most important lesson is that I found joy in Louisiana, too, once I let God show it to me. So what joy have I missed out on over the last few months? How much of that can I rediscover now that it's over? This is such an exciting thought, to view every person and every moment as a form of beauty, a part of my life story.

And, no better day than today for... a Good List! :-)

Good List:
1. Martin. He deserves a lot of credit for putting up with me over the last couple months, for encouraging me even when I was too frustrated to listen, and inspiring me to set goals and go after them. He is TDY in Spain this month, but thanks to Skype I still get to "see" him almost every day! :-)
2. USAA. Not only do I have a new credit card gaining airline miles, but they provide travel insurance so I can get my money back for an airline ticket if I get deployed before going home in May.
3. American Idol. I have NEVER watched this show before, but I watched the top 24 perform last week and am now hopelessly addicted. I actually had a dream last night that I met Scotty McCreery and told him how much I wanted him to win.
4. Random hilarious office conversations.
5. Girl Scout cookies! Martin brought home a box of Samoas one day before he left... they were gone by the next day. Oops.
6. Sunshine.
7. This video produced by neighboring RAF Mildenhall's wing staff: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uBbi1jsoSMg If you're not in the Air Force, you probably will not think it is funny, but I laughed my butt off. The best part? The tall Col is the leader of my OCF Bible Study!
8. Travel plans. I was talking to my friend Laura yesterday about our plan of attack for Dublin next weekend. Must-sees are the castle and a tour of the Guinness factory!
9. Cracked Pepper & Olive Oil Triscuits.
10. Amy's blog. Yes, I would love to go running in Carlisle with you! ;-)

Inspection = DONE!!!

WE PASSED!!!!!!!! Thank you, God. I'm not sure it has entirely hit me yet. I'm writing this in my office on Friday afternoon. After sending my people home early on this gorgeous weather day, I'm just hanging out before OCF tonight at Mildenhall. We got the results of the inspection last night, and the official outbrief to the Wing Commander was this morning. So throughout the afternoon, I have had various levels of leadership wandering into our office grinning from ear to ear and congratulating us, but I'm still kind of in a daze. I'm not sure I'll believe it until I have time to relax this weekend and realize I don't have a dark cloud over my head anymore, that I don't have to constantly stress and worry about work.

Martin left yesterday for a month-long TDY, so my plans for the weekend include sleep, chick flicks, and more sleep. Yay! I should probably also get a run in, since my half marathon training has been up and down so far. I'm really excited to start the spring-summer travel season, because I already have so much planned! Looking forward to these trips has been one thing getting me through the last couple months.

The weekend after St Patrick's Day (18-20 March), I am headed to Dublin with a group of friends. I'm interested to see how differently the day is celebrated in Ireland, and I have heard it is beautiful there. We won't be close enough to the Blarney Stone, so I'll have to plan another trip there to kiss it! The next weekend... Martin's TDY is in Spain, a short train ride from Madrid, so we are going to meet in Madrid for the weekend! I scored a pretty awesome deal on a fancy hotel in the middle of the city, so it should be a great experience with hopefully warm weather. Then the first weekend in April (Martin comes home 31 March), we are running the Prague Half Marathon! We are taking leave the following Monday to give us an extra day for sightseeing after the race on Saturday. The second weekend in April is a 3-day thanks to a Family Day for school Spring Break, so we are tentatively (as in tickets have not been bought yet) heading to Sintra, Portugal. Never heard of it? Type it into Google and hit Images, you'll figure out pretty quickly what the draw is. :-)

Last but certainly not least on the "already-planned" list is a trip home to the good old U.S. of A. in May for Lisa's graduation from the University of Virginia. Still haven't bought those plane tickets (amazing how it will probably cost more than all of my European tickets combined), but I'm getting more confident that I won't be short notice deployed, so I'll probably get them in the next couple weeks. I'm also hoping for a reunion with college roommates Carrie and Jamie on that trip!

Let's see, what else is going on... I think I found a Master's degree program I am actually interested in, which is a pretty big deal I guess. It is from Penn State via their World Campus program, which is awesome because even if I deploy or move while I'm in the program it won't affect my progress. It is a Masters of Education in Earth Sciences, so the courses are mostly a variety of earth sciences with a few education courses and a capstone project. I've talked to two professors via email who lead the program, and I was really excited by their responses about how the program would work for me as a military member. The only hurdle now is financing, because there are a few different options for getting money from the AF, and I have to figure out what is the best combination of those... Penn State is not cheap! I have an appointment at the base education center on Monday to get some advice.

That's about it for now, except for the tragic news of the Lakenheath airmen shot in Germany. It's a very sad and scary thing for everyone on the base, so please pray for the families of the airmen and the Lakenheath community.