Absence Makes the Heart Grow Fonder

       The phrase "Absence makes the heart grow fonder," dates back to the 1800's from a Roman poet, which is fitting since we will be moving to Europe in less than a month. This phrase can pretty much sum up Sam and I's entire dating relationship. We met at my sisters wedding in 2007 and by the time we had our first date we only had one full week together before Sam had to head back to the Academy in Colorado Springs. In fact by the end of our time together Sam was ready to be a "facebook official" couple (because everyone knows its not real until it is on facebook) but I was hesitant since he was heading back to the Springs and I wasn't real sure how living twelve hours away, not being able to see each other until November, would go. So we didnt become facebook official right away, but we did continue talking every single day for hours and hours and hours, in fact, now that we are married, I have no idea what we came up with to talk about for hours, but we sure did laugh a lot.

Sam and I's first official picture together. I went to visit him with my sister, Ben and mom in October 2007. We just couldn't wait until Thanksgiving to see each other! Aww young love!

        A few weeks after Sam headed to Colorado with his brand new car, and his dad, he came back to Springfield to surprise me. I will never forget walking up to my house, talking with Sam like our usual evening phone calls, and there he was standing in my driveway. This was the first week in August of 2007 and I loved having another week with him. He disclosed to me later that he actually didn't have permission to leave the academy at the time he left, so had they called him or something he would've been in serious trouble for being in Missouri instead of Colorado. I figured a guy who is willing to drive 12 hours and risk getting in trouble just to see me again was worth the distance. At the end of Sam's surprise visit we did become "facebook official" and began a four year long distant relationship that was worth every mile, tear, airplane ride, car trip and late night phone calls. Unfortunately, due to my husband's (I love being able to call him that) line of work distance will  always be a part of our relationship, even now that we are married. On August 5th we took Sam to the airport and so began our four weeks of living apart.

Putting Sam on the plane. I cried at the airport, Sam doesn't like to hear that I cry when he leaves, so he probably wouldn't like to know about the nights that I have cried alone, while he is away...good thing he doesn't read my blog unless I read it to him :-)

        
       I feel like I don't have a whole lot of room to complain about my husband being gone for a month. I have friends whose husbands have been deployed for three months, six months, and even twelve months. However, most people never have to live a part from their husband or wife unless they take a short business trip or vacation for a few weeks. Although, with the economy in a slump more and more people have to live a part from their spouse for awhile because of work, but those are unique situations and in the cases I have heard about they still get to see each other on the weekends. Sam gets very passionate about that, he said if he got to see me once a week then its not a long distant relationship, so the time he lived in Enid and we saw each other every weekend isn't considered to be a long distant but rather short distant relationship in Sam's eyes. Regardless, being apart from your best friend and love of your life for any amount of time sucks. I decided to view these four weeks as training for Sam's first deployment. I know Sam's deployment is not a phrase that any of my readers probably want to hear, but trust me as his wife "deployment" is the worst word in the world. However, Sam is finished with his training and this is the reality we live. If we were PCSing (permanent change of station) somewhere in the states, instead of the UK, Sam would most likely be deploying right away, but luckily we will already be over seas so we aren't sure how deployments will work. Since Sam is a pilot his deployments are only three months long, but my heart and prayers will always go out to those who have longer deployments to endure. Since we are not settled in a permanent home right now, and I am still without a job, for the month of August I decided to head back to Springfield to visit my family and friends to keep myself occupied while Sam is away.

One of the many delicious perks of Springfield

Reunited with the roomies! They introduced me to dipped cones from McDonalds...AMAZING

        The weekend before Sam left we invited his parents to Enid so they could see Sam before he headed to Washington. It was a great weekend and they came to see Sam off at the airport too. After I left the airport I headed straight back to Springfield and ran into Sam's parents on the trip home, they were helping us by driving my car back since one of my big tasks for August was to sell Sam's car, thanks Kevin and Becky! I had a Sunday lunch with my family and then meet up with one of my best friends, Anna at her house and we went to the pool, ate some Qdoba and had Orange Leaf with our friend Emily. It was a great first night in town! My first week in Springfield was filled with errands, making dinners for my mom, making dinner for my second cousin Sharon and Leon and my Grandma, lake day with some friends, and my mom and I headed to Kansas City for the weekend. It was so great to see my sister and Ben! We went ate at a delicious tea room, went shopping and got manis/pedis (thanks mom)! We headed back to Springfield on Sunday for my other besties, Stephanie and Nate's couple shower at South Haven.

My nephew Bentley

Yummy lunch at the tea room! Thanks Shauna and Ben!!

My mom didn't branch our much on her nail color, I tried out french tip shellac (sp?)

My pedicure! Very relaxing!

         I had a very busy and great first week in Springfield, but I still missed Sam and though I was keeping busy being a part from him was harder than I was expecting. Since Sam left I have yet to sleep through a full night, its hard to fall asleep without him by my side, but its also hard staying asleep. Sometimes, even when we were in Altus, I would go to bed thinking about all my friends and family who were going to bed that night alone either because their husband/wife is deployed or recently passed away, then as I would say my prayers, thanking God for my amazing husband, I would pray for those who popped into my head and were falling asleep alone. My second week in Springfield was also busy and fun! I worked on detailing Sam's car (I only had to spend an hour on it after the "professional's" were done), I got the recalls on his car fixed, Anna and I took a road trip with Hercules to Enid to stay the night and get some things in order for our upcoming move, I hung out with the girls at the pool, I ate dinner with Sam's family, spent a day with Sarah and Hazel, and attended a wedding expo with Anna, her mom and Emily. It was another fun and relaxing  week in Springfield.

This car has so many memories for Sam and for me! He had just bought it a few days before our first date, so this car with his Justin Timberlake "Bringing Sexy Back" playing when I got in, has been around for our whole relationship.

Nice and Clean! I have many memories of long road trips with this car....Springfield to FL, FL to Oklahoma, Springfield to IL...Its a great car!

The detailing job on the inside...I still had to scrub a bit on the ceiling, but it looks real nice

We will miss you Hyundai

Hercules on his first long road trip...preparing him for the long plane ride. He logged 8 hours in the car. He is wearing a Thunder Coat in this picture, it calms them down in stressful situations, hope it works for the plane ride.

Hercules crashed out on our couch in Enid, it was a long trip for him

Sweetest niece in the world, loved our day together!

Love her!

Sarah and I wanted s'mores but there is a no burn ordinance in this drought so we used a candle

Experiencing EVERY photo booth at the wedding Expo with Anna and Emily

More photo booth fun...cant wait to get in the photo booth at her wedding!

She brought the bag I made her! It came in real handy, but she was still over whelmed.

      Oh I almost forgot! The highlight of last week was selling Sam's car and his table and chairs! Military spouses do more than just holding down the forts while their spouses are gone, things are really coming together for our move. The worst part about Sam being away has been when I can't talk to him, but again I can't complain too much as I know people who have gone much longer without hearing from their spouse while they are away. As for my last week and half in Springfield I will pretty much be doing the same thing. Making dinner for my mom, hanging out with friends, working on making my car nice for our move, and taking a trip to Osage Beach to visit my friend Erin and her class of wonderful 8th graders! I have done a pretty good job at keeping myself busy, though it has been a slow moving month, full of many different emotions, with really long nights, I am excited to know we are on the downhill slide and we will be reunited in 10 days! Then we will begin our next big adventure, making our permanent move over to Mildenhall!! I am so excited for the next chapter in our newly wed lives!

Thanks for reading!

Oh yeah...I got bangs. I decided I was bored with my hair, since I haven't done anything with it since we got engaged a year and a half ago, but didn't want to cut it short so I got bangs. Hopefully, I wont always get bored with my look every time Sam is gone...but you never know. I hope he likes this look!

Call Me Never

        Our five months of TDY (temporary duty) in Altus, OK has come to an end. It has been a bitter sweet week for these newly weds. Sam was excited to be done with his training, especially after a rough final flight, and I was ready to move on to something more permanent. However, I made a really good friend in Altus, who made the experience great, and I was not ready to leave her behind. Its not everyday you click really well with someone and even in a short five months you can develop a lasting friendship. This is just part of the military life though, you meet people, experience things together that no one else would understand, and then you go separate ways. However, that means we will have great friends all over the world and free places to crash for a few days on vacation!

       Sam and I have come a long way since heading to Altus on March 6th. Before heading to Altus we had gotten into a routine and neither one of us were too excited to be in the middle of nowhere. I remember driving there and we had to slow down to 25mph every 15 miles, it seemed, for a small town. We went at night so we couldn't see much of anything and then we ended up in a hotel room on base. That seems like it happened ages ago. After a few weeks we became comfortable and really began to like the base. We had to tackle a few moves during our stay, but each time our rooms improved and we ended up in the RITZ, so it was worth it. The gym at Altus AFB is 10000000000000 times better than the one here at Vance. Their commissary, BX, and Shopette are pretty comparable, but the ones in Altus are open later. Basically, Altus became home to us and is way better than Vance AFB. It quickly became our new comfort zone. I enjoyed meeting lots of new people, playing at the pool on base (when it wasn't 110*), BBQs, going to movies with friends, hiking, and many, many, many other memories we made in Altus and will never forget.

       Another thing that improved immensely during our stay in Altus was my cooking. When we first got married I wasn't confident in my skills so I mostly stuck with the recipes I had made before, which were more comfort type foods that you bring to parties. Then when we moved to Altus and only had a microwave, I had to get creative, making microwave tacos. Then I read Tosco Reno's book "The Eat Clean Diet" and that had a major impact on my cooking. I did a big pantry clean out and started making recipes that had ingredients I had never heard of, which required lots of research, but I enjoyed it. I also only had a stove top, crock pot, and toaster oven to work with. Sam and I both gained a few pounds in the beginning of our marriage, but since I changed my/our diet and started seriously revolutionizing my cooking in May we have each lost some weight. I think my total weight loss to date is right around 11 pounds since the end of May. You can't out work a bad diet, though I tried and tried, and I am so excited to have a big kitchen back!

       Sam and I came back to Enid, Oklahoma yesterday. We spent today unpacking all our stuff from Altus, which was about six tubs and a few boxes, and did some intense cleaning in the kitchen. There are still a million things I feel like we have left to do, but we put a nice dent in the list today. Sam leaves for SERE, which is survival training, on Sunday. He also has water survival training. He will return to Oklahoma on August 31st. We have gone much longer than a month without seeing each other in the past but I have grown real fond of having him around all the time these past six and a half months so it will be a long and tough month apart. I have lots of projects to keep me busy and help with our move across the pond, so hopefully August passes quickly.

       When Sam gets back labor day weekend we plan to spend a week in Enid tying up lose ends to prepare for the big move. Then we will take a mid west tour to visit family and friends one last time. Our stops will include Kansas City, MO; Quincy, IL; and Springfield, MO. Then we will have hopefully around four days left in Enid and then PCS (permanent change of station) to Mildenhall, England. Where we will find one house.... that we love and live in for 2 to 3 years..... and never move anything during that time....because I for one am ready to be in once place for longer than a few months.

Since we have finished up our first military assignment I decided to highlight my favorite memories of Altus AFB: (In no particular order)

1. Meeting/Making new  friends
2. Rattle Snake Round Up
3. Learning to crochet
4. Water slides
5. Charley's
6. Reading
7. Homemade pizza nights
8. Hunger Games
9. "Take the baby, take the baby"- BBQ with friends
10. Working out twice a day and living across the street from the gym
11. Trip to Dallas for a wedding
12. Lawton road trips with Lauren- which included Orange Leaf and Ross visits
13. Laying out by the pool and adult swim time
14. Hiking in the mountains and trying new recipes
15. Basically anything and everything we did with our friends Kedem and Lauren and their dog Tex

       It is nice to be back in our house, where the living room is as big as the room we lived in for five months, but I am ready to get to our permanent base!

Thanks for reading,
Amanda