Bravo for a Birthday

     The beginning of 2013 started out much slower for us than 2012. It was kind of nice, but it was also sad not having a big wedding to see all our favorite family and friends at the beginning of the year. Even though we won’t start every year off with a wedding, we will be starting a new year with big celebrations in January. The first celebration falls of January 13th, Sam’s birthday. This year he is officially “over the hill” as I tease him for turning 26 and being closer to 30 than 20; while I am still young and spry at 23! I decided to surprise Sam with a fun birthday weekend and take him to soccer…err I mean football game. So let me start with how this perfect birthday weekend was planned out in my head:

This is actually in Bury St. Edmunds on Boxing Day, I just forgot to share it.

Going up our driveway

The back of our roof, its the one behind the fence

Chippenham Church with frozen fog on the trees

Walking in Chippenham

The Chippenham Estate...we actually looked at an apartment in the clock tower to this estate

Chippenham Park....In case you haven't noticed these pictures have nothing to do with the previous paragraph you just read

The suspense of Sam's bday weekend is building.....

Snow that we woke up to the day after Sam's bday

     The festivities would start on Friday night in Bury St. Edmunds at a pub called Benson and Blake’s with some of our closest friends. (Benson and Blake’s have the best hamburgers and steaks FYI). While we were celebrating with friends Rachel and Josh would join us at about 10pm once their train arrived in Bury. Sam would open one present before we headed out to dinner, which would be the ever so awesome card that reads: “I know I don’t tell you this enough, but…you are so lucky to have me” (insert laughter) and he would find the tickets to the Norwich vs. Newcastle United football game. On Saturday we would all wake up and Sam would get to open two more presents from me (a Norwich Canaries t-shirt and hat which he could conveniently wear to the game). We would dine at La Houge for lunch and then head to Norwich city (about an hour away) for a kick off at 3:00pm. After the game was over we would head to a delicious Italian Restaurant, Bella’s, for a 6:00pm dinner reservation before heading back to our cottage. On Sunday we would wake up, head to church, eat donuts after church, and then come home and have sushi and the homemade chocolate cheesecake (Sam’s all-time favorite foods). Sam would then open his final present from me, a portable PlayStation gaming system, that he can take on his deployment in March. He would then open Rachel and Josh’s presents and the presents his parents sent while we all sang happy birthday! What a perfect birthday weekend it would be! Now I will tell you how the reality of the weekend went, and even though it didn’t go according to “plan” it was still a memorable and enjoyable weekend/26th birthday for Sam.

Sam's 26th Birthday

Our family celebrating the birthday boy

My lovely decorations!

A KC 135 in the fog...this is pretty much what England looks like all day everyday...well not everyday, but a lot and that fog sometimes freezes creating beautiful trees but not so beautiful driving conditions

Just like the movie "The Holiday"

Snow

The driveway we share with our neighbors...and snow...all this is after Sam's bday weekend

Frozen fog on the trees

Sam with a frosted tree

     While Sam was at work on Friday, I was busy trying to get the house cleaned, bake his cake, and decorate so that he felt the whole birthday experience. As we were getting ready to head to Bury to meet up with our friends Sam received a phone call, which I could tell was pretty serious, and he came to tell me a bunch of military words, but basically he had to enter crew rest (which all pilots must have 12 hours of uninterrupted time in which they could sleep, prior to flying, and you also cannot consume any alcohol for that time) pack a bag for 30 days and be ready to leave within an hour of being alerted (receiving a phone call) and he could get called as early as 6:30 am the following day. I was caught off guard by this news and what all it meant, since I am still new to this military life, all I could say was ”open your card” and try not to let him see me tearing up. We got into the car to head to Bury and I decided to call and give Rachel and Josh a heads up of what was going on, and leave it up to them to decide what they wanted to do. They decided Rachel would come, so she could keep me company, and Josh would stay behind. Once arriving at Benson and Blake’s and talking with our friends I felt a lot better about the situation, because lots of people were put into alert, so to me that meant something was happening somewhere in the world and since I am good at Facebook stalking I must be good at researching world events (which is pretty much how I spent my free time last week). Anyway, since we thought Sam was going to be leaving in the morning we celebrated his birthday quickly, we skyped his parents and he opened all our presents. Then my sister and brother-in-law called and they got to sing to him while we did his chocolate cheesecake and then he opened their Christmas presents, which finally made it, and then we headed to bed. Oh yeah, I forgot, our heat and hot water were out, but luckily Rachel was sleeping in the princess bed so she got a heated mattress pad and a good night sleep! Sam and I both endured a pretty sleepless night. 

Sam opening his bday presents

More birthday presents...the hat and t-shirt I bought him for the Norwich game

Homemade chocolate cheesecake

Singing to Sam

I hope he remembered to make a wish with everything that was going on....also this was at midnight

My sister and Ben stopped by to sing too

Lumber jack shirts

Some of Sam's Christmas presents from Shauna and Ben, so glad they finally made it...Sam was real disappointed after Christmas when he didn't get any lumber jack shirts like he asked. I had to lie and tell him that I decided not to tell anyone that he wanted lumber jack shirts, much like I had to lie and tell him that he was planning his own b-day weekend because his sister was coming to visit. He had no earthly idea about the game...yeah I am that good at keeping secrets!

     Saturday morning felt like it took forever to arrive, but once it finally did and I realized in was 9:00am and Sam hadn’t gotten called to come in I was feeling a bit better. His phone rang at 10:00am and I heard Sam referring to the man on the phone a “sir”, which to me meant that it was someone important and I figured that was “the call”. However, the Major on the phone was calling about the football tickets I had posted a status about selling on Facebook. I was trying to sell them because Sam didn’t feel comfortable going to the game, because it was a bit further than an hour away, and we couldn’t get a refund on them. I figured most people at the base would be working, like Sam, since it seemed like a pretty big thing was happening, but Sam also has a cousin who lives in Ely and has lived here for a while, so I was hoping that he would know someone that could use the tickets. My prayers were answered in a different way, the wife of Sam’s commander saw my post on Facebook and told her husband, who was able to help us out! The social media is a great thing and we are so thankful that the leaders of Sam’s squadron are willing, if they can, to help you out, even if you don’t ask. Not everyone can say that about their boss, in fact most bosses could care less about what you have going on over a weekend (like a game) when they could need you to work instead. It was a huge blessing from above (both from God and the higher ranking military officers). So we called Josh and told him to find a train here ASAP! Rachel, Sam and I went to La Houge for lunch and then picked Josh up in Cambridge. Once we were all together we headed up to Norwich, leaving our cold cottage behind, and watched a professional soccer game for the first time ever! Although, the score was 0 to 0 at the end, it was still exciting to be there and Sam said we had great seats! After the game we also got to eat at Bella’s Italian restaurant, yay for being back on schedule!

The unpredictable AF life was too much for Rachel to handle, she had to rest her eyes on the way to the game

Sam had his gear on and he was excited for the game

Game time

In action

And still no one has scored

Still zero to zero

Rach and I! It was impossible to get four seats together so we sat together and Sam and Josh were together...further down the row

Luckily, since the game wasn't a nail bitter or anything, two seats next to us opened up and the boys joined us

Rachel and Josh, so happy everything worked out

Hydes! Ben and Shauna...you have a furniture store in Norwich

OH NO! He ends on the same day he began

      Sunday, January 13^th, Sam’s actually birthday was a great day! Sam fixed our water enough so that we could all take a hot shower. Then we headed to church and ate some delicious donuts. After church we headed to the commissary so that Rachel and Josh could breathe in some American food before heading back to the cottage. We got back to the cottage around 11:30 and I was on my feet in the kitchen until about 5:00pm, including the cleanup part. There is no way I would’ve been able to pull this meal off alone. Rachel made all the sushi rolls and an apple pie (another one of Sam’s favorite dessert) while I fried shrimp and veggies, made miso soup and edamame. It all turned out delicious, but it was a lot of work, so I hope that Sam enjoyed it! Thank you Rachel for all your help, I know it’s not super relaxing to head to the country and get stuck working in the kitchen all day! We took Rachel and Josh to the train station around 7:00pm and waved them off in Bury St. Edmunds. Then we met up with some friends to watch the Falcon VS Seahawks play off game at a local pub, it was a lot of fun! I didn’t realize, until that night, that I actually miss watching American Football; hopefully we will be able to watch the super bowl!

Amazing kitchen help

Sam reading

Sam sleeping

After at least 2 hours in the kitchen the meal is done

Sushi, miso soup and tempura shrimp, yum!

Thanks for making all that sushi Rachel!

She even made the plates decorative

Sam's second birthday cake...so he could have one on his real birthday...Homemade Apple Pie

I finally got to lay down around 5:00pm and India was quick to snuggle up to me. No worries, Hercules was quite snuggled up to his Aunt Rachel and Uncle Josh

     It turned out to be a busy weekend, but it was a lot of fun! January 14^th, the day after Sam’s birthday, is our wedding anniversary and this year we celebrated one year! I spent the day babysitting the guy who was fixing our heater (turned out we had an oil leak) and Sam had to run around getting lots of shots at the medical clinic. He also had a dentist appointment, but as the snow fell, the schools let out early, and the base closed down. We probably got about three inches of snow that day and it was beautiful! Though, I am glad it was not snowing in 2012, that wouldn’t have been fun on our wedding day. I requested that Sam try and come home before it was dark so we could take some anniversary pictures outside, which he made it home around 3:45 and luckily it was still light outside. Since the weather was bad our plan, instead of going out to dinner, was to eat a pizza, watch our wedding video, and watch a movie that night. We got to have our twenty minutes of pictures and then Sam was “alerted” so I dropped him off at the squadron around 5:00pm and headed home to eat pizza and watch a movie with the dogs…oh yeah and cry a bit, since I thought I had said bye to him for a while. After the dogs and I were snuggled into bed I got a phone call (around 12:30) that they were sending Sam home! So I went out into the snowy night and picked him up, we got home around 2am…talk about a memorable first anniversary! 

Happy 1st Anniversary

Enjoying the snow fall

I said "Sam play in the snow" and this is what he did

My 1 year anniversary picture idea. I am holding a card that says "1", cute I know...I should become a photographer with these Rockin ideas ;)

Either he was trying to catch Hercules or he was trying to decide what frolicking in the snow looks like

I love this dog!

India blends in with the snow

Catching snow flakes on my tongue...can you find Hercules in this picture? He makes the picture awesome

Dancing in the snow...again Hercules makes this picture, action shot

Teaching Sam how to frolick

Frolicking

More frolicking

She is ready to go inside

We survived a year!!! Still a very happy couple!

      Sam remained on alert (the official military term for this alert is bravo) for the rest of the week and he still is on alert. I have truly learned a lot and already felt myself grow as a person this past week. I can defiantly say that this past week has been a bit of an emotional roller coaster, every time the phone rings my heart sinks, I thought we had said bye, but then he was back. There is good and bad to this situation, the bad obviously being that if he gets called into work then that means he will be gone…deployed….for who knows how long, but the good is that he can’t go into work while he is on alert so he has been home with me and that is very special. You have to look for the good, hold onto and cherish the time you have together and celebrate that instead of focusing on the bad. I don’t even like to say bad, it’s not bad, he is serving his country and putting all his training to use and I am proud of him. Sam does have a scheduled deployment in March, which I have mentally been preparing myself for, but these surprise possible deployments, well I don’t think anyone can ever be fully prepared for that, I am just blessed to have an amazing support system around me here in England and friends/family back home who are also there for me. We have had an amazing first year of marriage, full of exciting new adventures, and some bumps along the way, but we are learning every day, allowing God to work in both of us individually and seeking his guidance in building a strong marriage. We have tried to follow our premarital counseling advice and not have any expectations of the other person in our marriage but we are quickly learning that no matter how hard we try there will always be some expectation that is met and we are learning to work through breaking those, together. Sam made a vow to his country first, God second, and me third. I can honestly say that I am okay with that, I love being a military wife, even if it means having some interrupted holidays or things not going according to plan. Yes, sometimes it is difficult to keep things in perspective and not be upset, but with the strength of God and my husband I am able to get by and enjoy the ride.

Me and Hercules (Can you see him, he is the black hole I am holding) on our walk

Sam is not a fan of walking

Enjoying the sunshine

And two dogs walked off into the sunset together <3

A little bit of England scenery...I still pinch myself that this is my real life!

     Thank you for reading. I also want to say a big thank you to all our family and friends who have loved us and supported us along the way. Thank you to those who drove us to the airport, or randomly picked me up (not knowing who I was), listened to us, encouraged us, and supported us in our long distant dating relationship that, after four years, led to a pretty spectacular wedding (if I do say so myself)! And thank you to everyone who has given us support over the past year of our marriage, praying for us, helping us move, offering encouragement/a listening ear over emails, Viber, Facetime, or here in person as we have transitioned to life abroad. We couldn’t do it without you and we look forward to many more happy years in this unpredictable military life and marriage!

Love,

Amanda

I put the dogs in "bed" together to make it look like they were "sleeping" together and I found it to be quite humorous and picture worthy...Sam found it sad and said I needed to get out of the house more :/