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.