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!!