Hormones are killing my brain

   Tesla and I are pooped. She is upstairs passed out on our bed and I am propped up on the couch. We've been dog-sitting a pair of dachshunds for over a week and they went home today. It's nice to have a place to sit on the couch again. Yesterday, Kyle and I drove to Essex ( East of London) to Lakeside Mall, which is right next to where the Thames heads into the city. They had a Build-a-Bear, a Disney Store, a Forever 21, and a Cinnabon! (Though, in my current state, I couldn't even think of eating one, which was very very sad..)  We ate at Wagamama for lunch, and then went to IKEA, B&Q, and Toys R us/ Babies R us. It was fun and I made it through the whole day without feeling too sick! 
   Most of you have seen the pictures and know that our ultrasound went well! But if you haven't, here is the better of the two:

   The baby should look completely different than this by now, but in the picture you can see the umbilical cord, the head (on the right) and the little arm and leg sticking out. The heartbeat was 180 bpm, which is fast but that might be attributed to the fact that I was SUPER nervous before the tech finally zoomed in on the heartbeat. I also had an ultrasound tech friend look at it and she said everything looks good! Since the ultrasound, everything has been going well.  I'm starting to feel a bit thicker around the middle, which is a good sign. The baby should be about the size of a kumquat by now. :)
   Kyle made Honor Guard! He got this awesome medal that he gets to wear on his blues, and I think he will get his specific details soon. He also was able to fix the Jeep this past weekend! It runs SO much better now. 
Not much is happening out of the ordinary this week. I have been craving soul food like nobody's business, so Kyle is taking me to Pinkerton's (A steakhouse at the Liberty club on base) on Thursday. I am so excited! :) We love you all and hope things are going well stateside!

Blessed

     The Jeep is still out of commission, but luckily, a family at church has offered to let us borrow their minivan until we get it fixed, so we no longer have to pay for a rental car. So grateful.  It has already helped out a lot. My nausea hasn't been as bad, this pregnancy, but it is still definitely annoying. I was able to go to a BBQ at our friends house, go to church, out with another friend the next day, and then to my OB class, without any real problem. I felt bad for all the other pregnant ladies looking sick as dogs. There is no happy medium with morning sickness... Either you are miserably sick, or you're worried out of your mind because you aren't sick ENOUGH. I've been falling into the 2nd category but am praying that I'm just lucky for the time being. I was invited to go to a museum in Cambridge today, but decided to try and take it easy at home. We'll be at a friend's house tomorrow for dinner (I'm making a chocolate trifle), and then Kyle's football tournament on Saturday, so I thought a day of rest would be good idea. 
    Our ultrasound is just 3 days away! I am extremely nervous and excited. It is in radiology, so I have a feeling that the tech won't say much... but I am really hoping that they will at least turn the screen my way, so I can see. Kyle will be there, as well, so hopefully he will be able to watch the whole time and help me beg the tech for a picture or two. If it is a healthy ultrasound and we see a strong heartbeat (or two), we will announce shortly afterward to the rest of our friends and family. Praying that it will be a good visit!
     The days are starting to get noticeably shorter here, which is making me anxious for Christmas! We won't be home for Thanksgiving, which pains me to think about, but Kyle's shop splits up Christmas time off so that we will either be home for Christmas or New Years. I will most-likely fly over early to spend time in Arkansas, meet up with Kyle, and then head to Georgia, before flying out of Atlanta. It is a tentative plan, but I thought I'd put it out there in case other people were planning. If September and October could go ahead and get themselves over with, that would be great.. for my sake, and my little bean! 
   Oh! Also, Kyle tests for Honor Guard this next week, so prayers would be hugely appreciated for that! He gets graded on his uniform, flag folding, facing movements, drill movements with a rifle, and reciting the honor guard creed. I'll let you all know how it goes! I love you!!!

Things that happened yesterday

    I am now, apparently, the new secretary of the Lakenheath Players theatre group.... without having met a single member. I started getting messages from someone about my theatre experience, asking how many shows I had been in, etc. I told them I wasn't sure but that it was over 45, and they immediately sent me an official document asking me to be secretary. (Evidently she made herself President, and her husband Vice President) I told her I needed to think it over and talk to my husband about it before giving an answer. (Not to mention the fact that once I'm over being too morning sick to go to rehearsal, I'll be too huge to be in shows.) I woke up to an announcement on Lakenheath's FB page saying "Congratulations to Lolli Mitchell on becoming the new Theatre group secretary!"  I'm not really sure how I keep getting myself into these situations. I think I'll try to go to the next meeting and make my decision after that. If I can find a serious theatre group, it would be great. My problem is that I keep being "recruited" by groups who either want me to do entire shows by myself and out of my own pocket, or think that karaoke is somehow the same as theatre. No thanks.
    I haven't announced the arrival of the jelly bean on Facebook yet, and probably won't until I've had at LEAST a healthy ultrasound, but I did allude to my awesome morning sickness in my status today, because of what happened afterwards! I woke up at 3 AM feeling all sorts of awful, and went downstairs, with Tesla close behind, to get some ginger ale. We went outside to the patio and ended up sitting out there for a good 45 minutes, watching a meteor shower. It was a great distraction from how I was feeling! Tesla didn't think it was that interesting. She went back to sleep in the grass. If every bout of morning sickness could be followed by some sort of celestial display, it would make this pregnancy thing a lot easier.

The Jelly Bean

    Now that everyone has FINALLY been notified, I can talk about the only thing this Mitchell household has been thinking about for the past month: a new member of our family will be showing up sometime around April 6th! My first ultrasound is on the 26th so lots and lots of prayers would be hugely appreciated and I'll try to keep everyone updated on what is going on. So far my only problem is that the absolutely WORST part of being pregnant in England= the food. All the food I want to eat is in the states! I'm tempted to take a military flight to Little Rock just so I can go to cracker barrel. It's going to be a rough 7 1/2 months...
    Kyle is working hard and starting to put together his packet for an OCS board coming up. We are friends with a Captain in NAV on base who is helping Kyle through the process. He only has a couple of months to get ready, so any prayers regarding getting approved by the board would also be hugely sought after! The process is largely dependent on timing, so we are praying that this will work out.
    I've been trying to take it easy as much as I can, but we did go to Audley End on Saturday. We toured through the house, walked through the grounds, saw the horses and fed the ducks. Elizabeth McGovern, who plays Lady Grantham on Downton Abbey was also there, for a concert. After Audley End, we stopped at a Welcome Break and ate at the KFC there. Two interesting things about English KFCs: 1. They serve french fries, and 2. They don't have mashed potatoes, but DO offer a tub of gravy as a side. Weird.
   

Oh woe is Lolli

I am a spoiled brat that God is attempting to make stronger. I know this because my family got to be together without me for the first time this past week, and it hurt. It hurt a lot. I had never even considered the possibility of that happening. I've ALWAYS been there... and I have ALWAYS taken it for granted. However, the positive side is that challenges like this teach us to never take things like seeing family for granted again. The negative side is that I MISS THEM. I told my BFFFRMI (Best friend forever for real, mean it) Mary, that they were in Searcy without me, and she said "Is it okay if I drive down and see them? Because your family is legit." I agree. They are, in fact, legit. Anyway, my reasoning for writing this is to say that though I complain, I am glad that they got to spend time together and I realize that this was a lesson that I would inevitably have to learn. .. but I was still sad. In fact, it made me paint this:

Not a great picture, but hopefully it still captures the turmoil I was feeling at the time.

Today, I went on a girls from church date to Oxburgh Hall (which we will have to go back to because the inside was occupied), a pub for lunch, and a few antique shops. I bought a very large glass bottle that I will, at some point, find a good use for.

An aerial photo of Oxburgh hall. It has a moat!!

Tomorrow will be exciting because Kyle is competing in the Liberty olympics! He is competing in the 100m relay, and Ultimate frisbee. I'll try and take some action shots while I play cheerleader. :)
 We love you all!

Time is going by entirely too fast

   Poor Tesla was stung by a bee today. She sported a cartoonish fat lip for a good five minutes before looking normal again, and continues to try and catch bees in her mouth every chance she gets. I took a page out of "Marmie knows how to fix everything 101" and rubbed a baking soda paste on her mouth, which made her look a little rabid, so I tried to keep her indoors after that.  A woman who was shopping with her son yelled at me to get the stinger out, or Tesla would die... I tried to tell her that not many dogs are THAT allergic to one bee sting, and that it was a bumble bee.. its stinger has no barbs, so it gets to keep it after it stings you.(Thank you, Harding biology dept) She then left me alone and went back to yelling at her son. He and I shared a sympathetic look. 
    Two weeks ago, Kyle and I went to Great Yarmouth for our anniversary, and the first day was AWESOME. We walked on the pier, shopped,  rode rides, saw a movie, had dinner, took a carriage ride, and played in one of the many arcades on the promenade. The next day was not as awesome, however. I woke up at 4AM with THE PLAGUE, which I had apparently gotten from the two girls I babysat on Friday. I hung out on the bathroom floor for 2 hours, pondering my mortality and trying to give Kyle more time to sleep before I woke him up and asked him to go to the drug store. Super fun times. I won't get into all of the wonderful details of my anniversary stomach bug, but it definitely made me grateful for modern medicine. When we got home, Tesla instantly became worried that I was dying and would not let me out of her sight. She cuddled with me for 8 hours straight, until I started to act a little more alive. Hopefully soon, Kyle and I can go out to eat or something to make up for me being dead on our actual anniversary. :-/
     We are celebrating Kyle's first year in the Air Force this week, which is hard to believe. It has been a busy year and we are incredibly thankful for the opportunity and adventure! We hope and pray that everyone back home is happy and healthy. :)

Stevie Nicks is the best dental hygienist ever.

  I finally, after many months of waiting, started on getting my loose fillings replaced. I wish that I could go back in time and keep my past self from going to that dentist in Biloxi. It would have saved me a world of hurt. My dentist here, Dr. Moriarty (His real name is Dr. Anderson), may actually have begun the long journey that is restoring my hope in the dental profession. He took his time and never caused me any real discomfort. He carefully pointed out to me the restorations that Dr. Barnes did in Biloxi and how they were failing. He also used a bite block, which took the strain off of my jaw so that it wouldn't dislocate again. It only took an hour which was amazing compared to holding my mouth open for nearly 4 hours last time. Stevie Nicks came on the radio twice during the procedure and sang me through it. The rest of the time was made bearable by thoughts of petting tigers and cuddling Tesla.
   The 8 yr old I am babysitting sat patiently in the waiting room while I had the work done. He played his video game and didn't even noticed that time had passed. Feeling like I had half a face, I took him to get a donut on the way home. We may go bowling a little bit later after the novocaine wears off. I'll have to go back to the dentist and do this all again, tomorrow. Hopefully that experience will be as good.
   Kyle and I still haven't celebrated my birthday, and now we have an anniversary coming up. He has this friday off, so we are trying to think of something to do. My dentist was trying to give me ideas of where to go , the entire time he was replacing the filling. I would love to got to Alton Towers while I still can (being UNpregnant, and everything.) Kyle wants me to figure out a destination, so I have about a day to make up my mind. We'll have to take the train no matter what, since the Jeep still sounds like it has had a tracheotomy recently. I had better get on that and start planning! I love you!!

Ghost Hunting and Hedgehogs

    Raf Feltwell is supposedly one of the most haunted places in this area, according to the internet and various sources. Many people who used to stay in the old barracks on base talk about "Herbie", a ghostly practical joker who likes to wander around, stealing beers and resetting alarm clocks. They talk about him like he is just another resident, walking around in khaki pants and a teeshirt. One source said that they saw him walk into the day room, and decided to follow him. Once they got there, the day room was completely empty.
   There is also talk of a phantom plane, which makes attempts at landing on what used to be the Feltwell runway, whenever the fog gets thick outside. This is supposed  to be in reference to a man who crashed his plane trying to land in the fog a long time ago. 
   Lastly, I have a neighbor who has in her possession a very eerie picture.  She took it of the small cabin by the elementary school that used to be my band room when I was in the 4th and 5th grade. If you look at the picture, you will see the figure of a man in one of the windows. Very strange.
   A lot of people ask me, since I have so many stories like this, if I believe in ghosts. After all, I DID used to tell ghost stories every year during rough night for my social club for a good 5 years. No, I do not believe in ghosts. There is definitely something strange and unnerving that exists, but I don't think I have the slightest authority to tell anyone what it is. I merely tell stories, put out my disclaimers, and let people make up their own minds. 
    Kyle thinks I am completely ridiculous. I made up a fun theory, that I don't necessarily believe in, but I think is fun to think about. The theory is that seeing ghosts or spirits is really just a form of time travel. People sometimes see Abraham Lincoln walk down the halls of the White House, because in the 1860's, he did... and when "ghosts" interact with us, it's really just a breech in the barrier that lies between our time and theirs..and sometimes, WE are the ones in the past..and we are looking into the future. I think it would make a pretty awesome novel.
    Some of the "personal experience" stories that I tell come from a stack of occurrences that I secretly chalk up to my crazy imagination. For instance, I used to tell the story about being in the Benson auditorium alone at night and feeling/seeing someone rush by me, only to turn and see no one there. I always fail to mention that I had been running on 0 hours of sleep in two days, at the time. If I think about it logically, I can see how my mind could have been playing tricks. This makes me wonder how many people tell paranormal anecdotes, who know in the back of their minds that it may not have happened.
   However, there are a few times that something has happened, either to people I trust completely, or to myself with the company of multiple witnesses. My parents currently live in a house that was deemed haunted by the previous tenants. I'm sure my mom remembers calling my name and asking what I was doing, one afternoon. When I came out of my room to answer her, she stood there looking surprised. "You're not upstairs?", she asked. I was promptly pulled into the front room where I could hear distinct footsteps coming  from the second floor. We knew for a fact that we were the only ones home, and could do nothing but stand and listen, eyes wide. I joked, "Maybe... morbidly obese squirrels?"  The footsteps suddenly got louder and more distinct, startling us. After a fair amount of clumsy speculation, we made a plan to go up and see what it was... with a gun, just in case it was an intruder. We could still hear the footsteps, so I was at least certain that I would be able to find what was really making the noise. I walked up the stairs while carefully holding one of my Dad's handguns, opened the door.. and nothing. Not only was there no one upstairs, but the footsteps had stopped. My Mom and I spent the day utterly confused.
    All of this is really just to say that some girls around my neighborhood and I went ghost hunting the other night at 1 AM. We walked around the entire base, which is very peaceful and creepy no matter what time of day it is. We walked through the old barracks and even sat in the day room. Nothing very spooky happened, but it was still fun to explore and hang out. 
   All in all, I have a very bipolar attitude when it comes to this sort of thing. Half of me is curious and wants truth, and the other half is terrified and sees all of it as something not to meddle with. It causes a dilemma, because most of my curiosity came from experiences that happened while I wasn't being meddlesome at all. Maybe all of this is just my way of stumbling onto the idea that writing a novel about it would be fun. Hmm.
  OH... and yesterday, Kyle, Tesla, and I found the largest hedgehog I have ever seen. It's spines were so long that even picking it up with my jacket was painful. Once I picked it up, I immediately remembered how hedgehogs smell, from when we used to catch them in Ely. Not awful, but not like roses. 
  Sorry that is post isn't much of an update. I hope all is well! :)
    

Ode to ginger ale

    Ginger ale is a wonderful placebo. I can never tell if it is actually helping my nausea, or if my imagination is just rampant as ever and playing tricks on me. I will be babysitting every day for the next week, but after that, I'll be making a Dr's appointment to finally figure out why I've been feeling so gross the past 6 months. It has been suggested that I try to go off of gluten and see if that makes a difference, but.....bread... so I don't know if that will work out. 
  Tesla can't come to babysit with me anymore, which is tragic, but she keeps slipping through the fence and walking into people's living rooms. I thought for SURE that she wouldn't go through the side fence, because the dog in that yard always growls and barks at her. I thought this until I no longer heard growling, looked through the fence and saw Tesla, sitting with the mean dog in its dog house. That little social butterfly...
   I don't know all of the details, but Kyle is having a big day today. He had his name drawn to eat breakfast with the command chief this morning, and later today, will be participating in a POW/MIA ceremony. He will be marching and  carrying one of the hats symbolizing a branch of the military. I wish I could go see it. 
   Later tonight, Kyle is bringing over a buddy from work to grill and hang out. I am providing the potato salad, fried green beans, and banana pudding. I'm really excited about how the potato salad turned out, which I think pretty much seals the deal that I am now a grown-up. It has red potatoes, bacon, onion, and green bell pepper in a mayo dijon sauce. YUM.
   Rena: I did NOT get an autograph from the man at the country fair. He looked like the villain from Pocahontas. 

Not really that interesting... but it happened

      Tesla is growing by leaps and bounds. Well.. her legs and paws are. The rest of her looks pretty much the same, so she looks more like a Disney character than a dog, right now. To make extra money, I have been dog sitting people's pups while they take mini vacations around Europe, which military folk around here do all the time. It has been a pretty good gig, watching pets for 15 GBP a night, but I think I am about to have to say no to a dog for the first time. Kyle and I took Tesla to meet two Westies yesterday to see if they got along. The female seemed nice enough, but we soon learned that the Male is not fixed, and belongs in a tiny doggy straightjacket. The owner informed us that he gets overly friendly with female dogs, but never seems to figure out exactly how it's done, so it should be fine. Dealing with that for an entire week just doesn't really sound like something I want to do, especially with my little Tesla in the house, so I am currently trying to figure out the best way to tell the owner that I don't approve of her dogs's lack of morals.  Spay and neuter your animals, people...
      We got the MOT inspection and light conversion done on the Jeep so that our blinding American lights don't get anyone killed. (Sarcasm). Hopefully soon, we can actually go further than 20 miles out on weekends! Last weekend, we went to the Hockwold country fair. If you have ever seen Jam & Jerusalem (A really good British show about what living in a small English village is like. I think all of the episodes are on Youtube.), it was very much like something off of that show. They had a pig roast, Tea and scones, fish & chips, old English cars, steam tractors, a tractor show AND a push lawnmower show, giant work horse demonstrations, games, and various town organizations. We rode a bus to the fair from where we parked and discovered that English people sing "The wheels on the Bus" A LOT differently than we do.  The big celebrity of the fair was an extra who had been in a Harry Potter movie and the Dark Knight. He was selling autographed pictures of him walking behind Heath Ledger, which was hilarious. I ran into some people who have a theatrical troupe in Hockwold and want me to audition for their Scrooge panto which opens in November. I think it would be fun.
     Kyle seems to be liking his job, from what I can tell. He is good at keeping work and home seperate. I can tell that he is happy to be home, but he doesn't seem like he is escaping from anything when he arrives, so I think he is happy all around..... and that concludes my analysis. 
    I just heard a knock on the door (I am babysitting in a neighboring village) and it was two grinning British boys... and Tesla. She apparently squirmed through the fence and got into their garden, not that they were complaining. She has a pretty wide fan base, here in her homeland. I might take a trial run at leaving her at home tomorrow, because she tends to get really bored here, and it is difficult taking care of a puppy dog AND a puppy human at the same time. :-/
    I love you all and hope that all is well!
   

This will be interesting...

Out of sheer guilt and frustration from still not having Internet at our house, I am attempting to update this here blog using only my phone. Please don't judge too harshly if there are even more typos than usual.  Trying to spellcheck, let alone cling to any sort of organised thought while typing on a phone... Well, it's not easy.
  We have my Jeep, finally! We were going to celebrate my birthday in London, but had to cancel due to some work that needs to be done on the Jeep: inspection, light conversion, registration, and something under the hood that sounds a bit more like a hamster wheel than it should. I have been driving it, though being seen with an Arkansas license plate is definitely something that makes me a little wary, sometimes.  We will most likely celebrate my birthday sometime in June, at the rate we are going. Every week gets busier and busier. Kyle, Tesla, and I walked to the Spring Fling fund raiser at feltwell elementary school after I picked him up today. Something like 30 kids asked to pet Tesla and all said the same thing: "she feels soft! Like a stuffed animal!"
    We bought tickets to get food while we were there and a little girl in line with us told me, "I can tell you we're here during the fourth grade. Wanna know why? You're in a yearbook." It was so weird.  I still can't put together exactly how she knew that I went there. So strange.  Also very strange was that I ran into a very familiar looking woman, who turned out to be my elementary school nurse... The same nurse that Marmie used to substitute for. She was really excited that I recognised her and told me that she still works there and so do many of my old teachers! I saw some of them, including the man who taught the gifted and talented program I was in. It was all too weird. Oh... One more weird thing: thanks to meeting various people, I will possibly be in charge of feeding feral cats in the village this summer because the lady who normally does it is going on vacation?... And Kyle may soon be a Boy Scout troupe leader! His news is a bit more exciting than mine.. It was an interesting day, for sure.
    Not a whole lot of other news... Kyle rolled his ankle yesterday, playing basketball. I made him keep it elevated above his heart all evening to get the swelling down and he was able to do PT this morning, so that is good. The next two weeks will be busy. I'll be watching an 8 year old for ten hrs a day during that time, and Kyle will inevitably have lots on his plate from work. We are getting into the swing of things, slowly but surely. Our house is also finally starting to look like a home! I M coming to terms with the fact that our living room will have to look asymmetrical no matter what.. Which is painfully, but at least we HAVE a living room! I am more than grateful for that.
    I will try to update more often, now that I know it is possible to do so on my phone! Hope you are all doing well!! I love you!!!!

My late birthday post

    Despite Kyle's absence, I had a pretty good birthday. I spent the whole day with Tesla, visiting friends from church. We went to ladies class at Crystal's house, where we had lunch, tea, and a good bible study/ discussion time. Afterwards, we went to Miss Polly's house to spend the night. Miss Polly is one of the few people that I remember from when we were stationed here in the '90s. Back then she had a husband named Peter, who was known for his hat and beard. Unfortunately, Peter has since passed on, and Polly lives by herself with her cat Tigger. I picked Polly up and we went and ate fish and chips with our preacher and his wife, and then grocery shopping. Back at miss Polly's house we had tea, birthday cheesecake that we bought at the store, and watched Poirot on TV. Tesla and I stayed in her guest room, in one of the most comfortable twin beds I have ever experienced. All in all, it was a good birthday. I was unable to pick up my birthday presents from the post office until Kyle got back, but he got home yesterday, so he picked them up for me today! Tesla and I were so happy to have our male back. He takes very good care of us both. :) He had a good time while he was gone and is so glad that he got to see family!
    I opened all of my presents today from Marmie, Dad, Denny, and Kyle. I love them all!!! Mom and Dad got me a Harding hoodie, place mats, a watercolour book, mugs, and lollipops (of course.) Denny got me Jubilee from X-men. (He and Kyle are good at reminding me not to let myself get too old to care about fun things.) Kyle got me a signed picture of Secretariat with his jockey, Ron Turcott. (It's signed by the jockey... not Secretariat.) He knows how much I love that movie and cry like a little girl every time I see it. If you haven't seen it, you need to!
    We are hoping to celebrate my Birthday this weekend in London. I definitely want to eat at Wagamama's and see a show. The rest, we will play by ear. :) I will try to take lots of photos! I love you all!!!

Once more, with feeling

    Today has brought forth so many blessings. The idea to start a theatrical outreach to the youth of surrounding villages and the tri-base area has been approved and enthusiastically dropped in my lap, for me to start thinking about and working on. The acting space is small, but small spaces are only a hindrance to those with small imaginations. I think we are wanting to aim towards a time when kids are on school holiday, so I have lots of time to think about advertising, logistics, scripts, and rehearsal formats. I think it will be a great experience for all of us involved. 
    I can almost see Tesla growing while she sleeps. The people at church are wonderful and ask about her as if she were my child. They even want me to bring her to a service soon, so we will see how that goes. She will most-likely sleep throughout the whole thing. I will be dog sitting 2 more dogs in the next few weeks. It will help keep Tesla socialized, which is very important for the Shiba-Inu part of her DNA. I wish there were a way that I could get Harlo over here.... but I'm pretty sure the emotional scars he would pick up from a 9 hour flight would be impossible to erase. Poor baby.
   Tomorrow is my birthday, and also the ONLY day this week that I have had nothing planned.  I think I might go to the ladies class (if I can figure out where it is), and then head over to Miss Polly's house and stay the night. Miss Polly is one of the few people that I remember from when we lived in England. She was married to a tall bearded man, named Peter. Unfortunately, Peter is gone now and miss Polly lives in Brandon with her cat Tigger. We will see if Tigger and Tesla get along. 
   On Friday, I am supposed to hang out with another person from church, go to the Mildenhall Bazaar on Saturday (which will feel completely wrong not having my Marmie there with me), and then babysit two little girls that night, just in time for Kyle to get back. It has been nice having a car, but I am ready to have my male home. Right now, he is probably getting ready to go to church with Rena and her family. I'm glad they are close enough that they can do that. By the way, this is me trying to sound like I am happy for them and not jealous at all, when in reality, I could go for a nice session of bitterly weeping while eating a substantial amount of cookie dough. I miss all of them way too much!!!  ...So no, I am not happy for them at all. 
    That concludes another update. If I am unresponsive tomorrow, it is because I get no mobile service at Miss Polly's house, but will get back to everyone as soon as I can! I love you all!!
   

A productive day

   Little Tesla, who isn't even 8 weeks old yet, knows how to sit and is fully potty trained. I had to leave her at home in our downstairs bathroom today for almost four hours due to my dental appointment and she STILL hasn't made a mess. I left her food, water, toys, bed, and paper in there and when I got home, she just sat in the middle of the room and looked at me, betrayed. The first thing she does when we go outside is go to the bathroom, and then attack the grass, as though peeing on it just isn't enough. I have no idea how that happened. I definitely can't take credit for any of it.
    This morning I drove (for the second time, EVER, in England) to get to my dental appointment, which turned out to be a huge relief as it was only scary in a funny way, as opposed to being scary in just a scary way. My new dentist has a voice that sounds EXACTLY like the serial murderer Moriarty in the Sherlock series. I had no idea that a person could sound like that in real life without automatically getting arrested. It's pretty creepy, but he really seems like he knows what he is doing. The first available appointments to fix my loose fillings are in two weeks, but he said if I want, I can come in on Wednesday for sick call and they can start then. I am going to try and wait the two weeks for the real appointments with the dentist/ serial murderer I trust. After what happened in Biloxi, I never want to try and rush dental work again. Yeesh.
     After the dentist, I went over to the BX to find Tesla something to chew on, other than my couch and my face. Not realizing what time it was, I got there an hour before it even opened, so I sat down with some coffee in the food court and made friends with a Turkish man who sells antiques. He gave me a custard donut and told me where all the good antique stores are in the area.
     Kyle is probably learning up a storm right now. I gave him Rena and Wheeler's numbers, so they should be hearing from him soon. I think he is wanting to go to church with them. :) I love you all and hope you are having a blessed day!
 
 

Our club is growing

      The Mitchell family has a new, slightly furrier member. Yesterday, we drove towards the East coast of England to a town called Ipswich, to look at some Shiba Inu/Whippet cross puppies. We like both breeds so we were extremely curious as to how a mix would look and behave. Shiba Inus are a Japanese breed, known for being cat-like, independant, playful, and curious. Whippets are known for being able to run at 35 mph outside, while being gentle and lazy couch potatoes inside. The result of the cross was an adorable 7 girl and one boy litter, with 5 girls still available to rehome. We picked the girl with the curliest tail and the tiny stripe on her nose. After an entire day of mulling over names that didn't fit her, we finally found it.
      Tesla will be 8 weeks on May 18th. She still sleeps every hour on the hour, but after two days has yet to have an accident in the house. I have never heard of a housebroken 8 week old puppy before. We bought her toys to play with, but her favorite ones are the hot pink house shoes Christa got me for Christmas. Whenever I put them on, she runs and takes a flying Superman leap into them and wont let go, until I take them off. Then, once she has them defeated, she passes out on them for a good 30 minutes. It must be nice to know that she is the alpha dog of the house, and that the evil shaggy pink cats of death are her subordinates.
    I have a dental appointment at 7:30 tomorrow morning (Joy of all joys), so I had better start fearing for my life/sleeping now. I will let you know how it went and/ or if my dentist is still alive in the next post. Oh yeah... and I have internet again, which you have probably worked out for yourself because you are reading this. :) I love you all!!
   

Going Home

Ely was amazing. We went to Watersides, and walked around for a long time. I wanted to go to Hennessey's for fish and chips, but to my horror, found it closed down... so we went and had mediocre fish and chips at The Lamb. After that we went to the cathedral for Evensong and walked around. Kyle could not believe how big the cathedral was. I told him about how Dad stood at the giant golden eagle lectern and played a practical joke on the other Chaplains while he said the Thanksgiving service prayer one year. I bet Marmie remembers that story. :)
   After we left the cathedral, I took him by Oliver Cromwell's house, and then we drove to our old neighborhood. It is full of new housing, except for our old street. In a few more years it will probably be completely unrecognizable. Our old house was vacant, so we were able to go into the back yard and look in the windows. So many memories. I think I told Kyle 20 different stories.
   I went back to the dentist today and he said that I need to get 2 fillings completely replaced ... but I have to wait a month to do it.. so one more month of drinking through straws and eating soft, lukewarm food. Oh well.
   I have been thinking about the issue of communicating with people back home and probably the best way to solve it would be heytell, since it still works fine, and doesn't cost any money... so if you have a smartphone or an ipad, just download the app and add me through facebook, and we can send voice messages back and forth. (Kind of like voice text messages for those who havent heard of it,) :)

First REAL day in England

We didn't end up going to Ely today because we had to wait for our American car insurance agency people to wake up and go to work, so that we could get insurance on our rental car. By the time we got our rental car, it was around 4 pm. They gave us a station wagon, because it was one of the only cars they had left. It was a bigger vehicle than we had hoped to learn on, but we took it. Kyle was the first to drive and I only had to say "Left side.. Left siiiide" once, and then he got the hang of it. We drove to Bury St. Edmunds and walked around. I had my first cornish pasty in 6 years and it was amazing. We finally felt like we were in England and that the adventure had really started. We were in a bit of a hurry, but we got to see what was around town and check out the cathedral for a bit. Tomorrow we will head to Ely straight after church. So excited! It will be good to be at a place that I know like the back of my hand. All of this haphazard navigating can get old.
  I hope everyone is doing well!! Love you all!

Progress!

   My dentist, though he looks like a 5 year old, gives me hope. He took x-rays, listened to my whole story, did a freeze test (awful.), and told me that he doesn't think the problem is in my teeth. He said he thinks that the fillings I had done look good and that the problem is something pressing on the nerve... either a stressed out muscle, a tumor, or a blood vessel... or possibly a TMJ problem, even though he doesn't see a problem with the actual joint. He admitted that it confused him and that I'll probably need to expect to come back pretty regularly until we can figure it out. I'm going back on Monday for us to talk about it some more. The fact that I'm not clenching in my sleep anymore is a good sign, though.
   We are moving into our house on Wednesday!! We will also get our loaner furniture on that same day to hold us over until our own furniture gets here. Tomorrow, we are wanting to drive down to Ely and explore around the cathedral and town. We're excited because we both think that it will finally feel like we are in England once we get there. So far, we have mostly just felt stuck on base. We have been walking around a lot, bowling, and watching movies. (Last night we watched The Gods Must be Crazy I and II.) We are definitely ready to get off base.
    The man who did our driving briefing definitely knocked the fear into us. Apparently, 1 to 4 people from the base die trying to drive on roads around this area every year. I know Mom, Denny, and I will always remember witnessing those two girls crash their car into the river and only one of them making it out. We knew the roads were treacherous, but I had never heard the odds regarding base personnel before. Scary stuff. We promise to be as careful as possible, and always ride together when we can. I'm glad that our house will be a straight 10 min shot from base.
    I will try my best to update on our Ely adventure tomorrow night. So excited!!!! :)

   I got a dentist appointment for 0910 tomorrow!!! Perserverence is finally prevailing... I hope. They told me yesterday that I wouldn't be able to be seen until May 13th, so going in person to talk to them definitely did the trick. I also got a library card today and feel more accomplished than I have since we arrived.  The past two days have been filled with briefings, which have been informative, but long. We probably could have avoided about half of them by telling them that we don't drink at all. ... but oh well.
   We took our English drivers tests yesterday, after having to study a book on the UK Highway code, and attending a class. I'm just going to go ahead and brag for a second because I was so worried I wouldn't pass, and would have to retest. I got a 96. Kyle got a 92. I beat him. I beat Kyle. The only thing I EVER beat Kyle in is word games.... and a couple times in mini golf, so I am a happy camper. We are a competitive couple, which I am just going to pretend is healthy. We think I might have even gotten the highest score in class, but aren't sure on that one. Anyway, we are going to pick up our liscenses later today.
   Tomorrow, we are meeting with housing to talk about when we can move into our house. We are hoping as soon as possible. Being new to base and living in temporary lodging does something to your psyche as a military spouse. I don't like feeling completely uprooted. We will take pictures as soon as we can. We think it's cute. :) It has a big back yard, two bedrooms, lots of closet space... and that is pretty much all we know about it right now, but we are excited.
   We are trying to save as much money as we can since moving here takes so much (even though we get reimbursed a lot of it), so we are waiting until tomorrow to rent a car. That way, we can drive ourselves to church, and then go exploring to Ely, Thetford, Bury St. Edmunds, or wherever we want to during the weekend. Not having a car makes living in England very depressing. We are trying to see if maybe Kyle can carpool with other people coming to base for work, so we will only have to rent a car during weekeneds. The families who live on Feltwell seem to be really helpful, so it should work out. I guess that is as much of an update as I can offer, for right now, but I'll try again tomorrow after our appointments. We love you all!
  

Learning

   Today, we were picked up for church at Brandon, the same church that I attended when I was younger. The only thing that has changed is the sign on the building. Two people still attend there who remember my parents... at least that I have met so far. One is a black gentleman named George who I remembered when I heard his name called in bible class, and the other is Polly. She spoke highly of my Mom and mentioned them decorating sweatshirts together? I vaguely remember this... or at least I THINK I do. We like the church a lot and plan to keep attending. Our ride fell through for evening services, though, so we were only able to attend in the morning. 
   We got cell phones yesterday through a network call Three Mobile. I got an iphone 5 and Kyle got some sort of tiny rocketship.  Apparently reception in this area is awful for any of the phone networks, especially on Lakenheath because of all the communication equipment. I am hoping that the reception is better where we are hoping to live. If not, we have basically bought really advanced electronic calendar alarm clocks. 
   It has been frustrating not being able to get around, since we don't have a car and the shuttle buses no longer go from base to base. It's weird being in England and not getting to see anything yet. We found out today that we can rent a  car, even before taking the driving class, so we are going to look into that tomorrow if we have time. 
   Tomorrow, I am going to the dentist on base (fingers crossed), and we are going to try and claim our house at Feltwell. Other than that, I am hoping that we will get some sort of schedule on briefings and other things that we have to do to get settled in. 
I'll try to update tomorrow on what we have found out, how long we will be in temporary lodging, etc. Right now, I am going to try to sleep so I can wake up on time. :) Love you all!!!!

Home with a dash of Twilight Zone.

    We're here!!!! We landed in London at 8 AM and were picked up by Kyle's sponsor... who also happens to be Tiffany Williams... one of my best friends from 4th, 5th, and 6th grade. ......what? I really don't think I'll ever get over that. She has the same job as Kyle and will be working in his office with him. He has one of the nicest offices on base BY FAR. Almost nothing has changed since my dad was stationed here... which isn't necessarily a good thing. A lot of the buildings are old. Apparently they are planning to update some of it soon, though, which is definitely needed.. 
  We got a lot accomplished today. We set up a pounds sterling account, got a room at temporary lodging, and looked at a couple of houses. The housing office gave us two options: Lord's Walk and Feltwell. Lord's walk is a more convenient location, since it is practically on Lakenheath, but the neighborhood didn't look very nice, the washer and dryer were IN the kitchen next to the stove, and it was next to a busy street, which we had enough of in Biloxi. Feltwell is 13 mins away, but is much more peaceful, the housing is a lot nicer and it has a fenced in back yard.... so we went with that one. It is under maintenance for the time being, so I am not sure when we can move in, but we will sign for it on Monday!!  For those who know the layout of Feltwell, our neighborhood is RIGHT next to the giant field where they do fireworks for July 4th. :) 
   I tried to tell Kyle not to sleep until it got dark, so that he could beat jet lag and fix his sleep schedule in one night... but he didn't listen to me and has been asleep the past 4 hours. I took that time to walk all over base and memorize where everything is.  That nerd can go ahead and have fun with being awake all night. I will be asleep.
   I walked to the Dental squadron, but they were already closed by the time I got there. I'll have to try again on Monday and beg them to help me out, because I flat out can't eat anymore. I'm really hoping that they know their stuff, and that they won't turn me away for being a spouse. :(

The Whirlwind that was leaving Biloxi

  A few days ago, I fed a moving crew donuts and fried chicken and stared at them for ELEVEN HOURS while they packed up my house. A tyrannosaurus Rex might as well have packed it, with his tiny little arms. He probably would have gotten done around the same time. Once they finally left, Kyle and I were under the impression that we would have a pre inspection of the house, where they would tell us what all to clean and turn off, and then stay in the empty house for another week before the final inspection. As per usual, the world turned upside down for a second, and when it flipped back to right-side up, we were completely wrong. The USAF had changed their minds, amended our orders, and we had one night to clean EVERYTHING to inspection standards (without knowing what they were), throw away 3 carfulls of trash and cardboard in some unsuspecting dumpster in town, and then pack the Jeep with all of our remaining stuff for the trip to Arkansas. Kyle also had to out process and get everything sorted out on base so that we could actually leave, which would take all day. Nice. 
 I rented a rug Doctor and borrowed a vacuum and broom from our good friends, the Dentons. I went to the self help store and wrestled 3 other spouses to the death for a weed eater and some white touch-up paint. (Evidently Irish love knot spoons are very pretty, but aren't meant to be displayed on walls, as they are prone to eat them.) All the houses in our neighborhood have giant white plastic privacy fences around the backyard... so with the exception of those with kids, NO ONE mows their back yard. We did until we realized that nobody cared that we did... so we stopped. 
  Imagine weed eating the Amazon Rainforest. This was not that bad, but I'm sure my memory will always make it seem like it was, so I'll just go ahead and throw out that imagery. Once I was finally done, I noticed that the bottom of the privacy fence was green from the weed eater throwing grass at it. I went to sweep it off. Nothing doing. I hadn't realized that our privacy fence was made from 2 parts plastic and 1 part marshmallow. I had tattooed my fence with high velocity grass. Awesome. 
   Kyle came home and helped while I had to go to work. He shampooed the living rug room twice, consolidated, and swept out the garage. He also tried to take a stab at the fence tattoo, to little satisfaction. He ended up going to bed at 11 pm so that he could survive the rest of out processing the next day. I stayed up until around 4:30 AM meticulously cleaning everything I could think of, occasionally coming across giant problems... like the fact that our new red bed sheet had created a pick rectangular shadow on the wall. Mr. Clean and I tackled that thing for a good hour until it became just faint enough to go unnoticed. 
  I put the last of our belongings in the Jeep about a millisecond before the inspector pulled up. His words were. "Hi. You haven't had your pre-inspection? THAT doesn't sound good." However it turned out that Kyle and I are the first couple, without having a pre-inspection to make it off base without having to pay at least $500. In fact, the only thing we got charged for was some weird red tinge on the carpet that Kyle and I had NEVER seen before. Undoubtedly a robber came into the house while we were sleeping, realized there was nothing to steal, and out of sheer annoyance, spilled his Strawberry Fanta on the carpet. The crime in the country is atrocious.  
  He also didnt notice the fence tattoo, which looked considerably better after I scrubbed it with clorox on a kitchen sponge at 3 AM. Thank Goodness.
  When I was a little Air Force Brat, helping my siblings and my Mom prepare our house for inspection, I never thought it would help me in the future. I vividly remember all of us kids lined up scrubbing the walls and thinking, "I am a slave. We are being treated like slaves." I thought about that while scrubbing the tattooed privacy fence and thought...wow...I really wish I had some slaves, right about now. ....Meaning children, who could help.. Not actual slaves. Just wanted to make that good and clear.
 Astoundingly, we were able to get outprocessed, sell Kyle's car, AND eat with and say goodbye to friends before we left for Searcy around 9 PM. It was an impressive day. One we will never forget.

Here is a recent picture I took of a Biloxi sunset near our house. :)

Excuse me while I hug all of my furniture

   In one day, a team of burly and hopefully equally considerate men are going to box up everything in our house and put it in giant crates to be shipped to England, where they will sit and loyally await our arrival. Is this really my life right now? So much has happened in the past five months at this base, and yet it feels like we are just now getting settled. We haven't even ridden one of those weird aqua tricycles on the beach... :( Woe is us.

   While patiently waiting to be temporarily stripped of our belongings, I've been trying my best to wrap my mind around what is going on. To be honest with you, I'm not exactly sure how any of this has happened. I'm still reeling from the fact that I' married to an Airman. Kyle deciding that he wanted to join the Air Force when we were dating: Total Surprise. Kyle putting England as his top choice assignment: Total and utter surprise. Kyle getting his top pick: How is that possible?  We found out that we were going to England on the same day I discovered that I had miscarried, which I chalk up whole-heartedly to divine providence. God knew that we needed something to occupy our minds, and handed us an adventure.

   The adventure will be bittersweet. In about a week, we will leave the coast to visit family for as long as we can, making every effort to force time to stand still so we can really cherish it. We are both extremely attached to the family we share and knowing that we will be so far away is going to be difficult. My family is a big part of why I love England. In some ways, moving back will be much like greeting an old friend, but for the most part it will be a completely new and unexplored chapter for both of us. However, we are excited. This is, after all, what we signed up for. Our greatest hope is that people come and visit us so that we can share our adventure with others.

   Right now, Kyle is in the garage, replacing the control arms on the Jeep, so that its suspension can survive three years in England. We are going to have it shipped from Atlanta and meet up with it when we arrive.. hopefully.

      There is a lot more to think about, but since time is already going a little too fast, I think I'll leave it for later. Details can wait. Right now, I want to be excited about seeing family. :)

   (East Hall: The first place my family stayed in England that felt like home.)

Off we go.. Into the Wild Blue Yonder

    I decided that keeping up with a blog again would be the best way to update family and other loved ones on  current happenings, since Kyle and I are about to be whisked away to our first assignment overseas. (Yay!/sigh)   …..and Whoa. So much has happened since the last time I wrote any sort of update. I met a Kyle, graduated from Harding, got engaged, got married, gained a whole new family, gained an Airman, moved to the coast, got to be a Mom for a very short but wonderful time, and now I’m about to start a whole new chapter of my life, narrated in an English accent with sarcastic American subtitles. 

    I will do my utmost and absolute best to give the details on what is going on with us, the Mitchell Mayhem… which is what we would be called if we were an Ultimate frisbee team… but don’t worry. That isn’t happening. A two person Ultimate Frisbee team would be awful to watch. We realize this now.