Girls Just Wanna Have Fun

     My sister in law, Sam's sister Rachel, came to visit me over the weekend. It was a lot of fun! She arrived by train in Cambridge on Friday at 1:07pm. Prior to her arriving my friend Connie and I went to Newmarket for a job fair. The job fair was a fun experience, we met some really neat people and saw some interesting jobs. From the job fair itself I had two follow ups and two job possibilities. One within a bank and one within schools. I have been in correspondence, filled out applications, sent my CV, and even took some tests for some of these jobs, but like the other five jobs I have applied for nothing has come of it so far. No interviews, no e-mail response back, nothing but perhaps lowering my self-esteem even more by being told I am not qualified. This whole job hunting thing is extremely frustrating, being rejected or told you are unqualified after spending four and a half years studying, working hard and earning a bachelors degree well there are no words to explain how awful it can make you feel. But hey that's life and just because you pay the price, study hard and earn a college degree (or even a masters or doctorate) it doesn't mean you are guaranteed to find a job in the "real world". Add in the fact that you are moving every three to four years and living in a foreign country, connected to an American Military Base where there are major budget cuts including a hiring freeze on civilian workers, well that can make it that much more difficult to find a job post graduation. So I will continue to search, apply and be rejected until God reveals his plan. I could still be in the states, putting my degree to use, but I am much happier living abroad with my amazing husband and I am grateful that he is employed and thankful that because of his job we can live comfortably and I can continue to seek out a job that would make me happy, instead of settling for another retail position, with crazy hours, just to have a second income. In the words of my sister, working is overrated, but I do hope my job search does land me in something that makes me happy and that I will get to start blogging about a cool work experience. In the meantime, I will continue telling of our great adventurous and how awesome it is to be a stay at home wife, I mean I can honestly say I am never bored and if I could get paid for tending to household duties, working out, and watching Grey's Anatomy...well I would be rich and extremely happy.

Isn't he cute? When Sam saw him last night and said "Hi Herc! I miss you." Direct quote, I knew he would.

My reaction when Sam suggested I pause Grey's Anatomy

     As I have mentioned in previous blogs, I have a great support system of fellow wives here and I had a car load of my "smallest" friends who came with me to pick Rachel up from the train station. This was not meant to be an insult, as I would never say any of my friends are "big" or "small", but we were all piling into my little British car, all four of us on the way there and five us of on the way back, once we picked up Rachel, which would be a tight squeeze so I told everyone I picked my smallest friends. Luckily, they all found it funny and said its okay, Rachel is tiny so squeezing won't be an issue! Of course, the fact that everyone who went with me doesn't have a job and enjoys tea had nothing to do with it ;). Anyway, we met at my house and thankfully my friends are patient as I was late due to the job fair.  Connie, Taryn, Meleah and I took off for Cambridge, got stuck in traffic and were about twenty minutes late picking up Rachel.(Confession- I also accidentally cut a biker off pulling into the train station, they are all over the place.) After picking up Rachel we headed for lunch/tea at Harriet's. We all ate sandwiches, drank tea and ate scones before heading back to my house where Rachel got to do her favorite thing....spread out! Well at least she says that's he favorite thing but I know her real favorite thing is seeing me and petting Hercules of course!

So glad she came!

     On Friday night we headed out to Bury Saint Edmund's to my friend Jill's house for Harry Potter night. We were on the second HP movie and we are watching the third movie this weekend. Rachel got to meet Jill and Kim, their dogs Zeus and Jack, and my friend Laura. Meleah and Taryn were also there! We ate Zen Noodle, which is a delicious Chinese restaurant in Bury, and watched the movie. Once we were home Rachel and I stayed up until about 2am having lots of girl talk, which of course by the girl code I cannot disclose to my blog readers, but it made for a long night and early morning when the alarm went off at 7:30am.

Snow at the cottage

It is pretty but I am so over it being cold

     We woke up Saturday morning to snow on the ground...what? I was told Springtime around here was sunny and fifty degrees all the time. Well, it doesn't sound like my home town in sweet home Misery (Missouri-one time my best friend from back home, Stephanie, and I wrote a song called Sweet Home Misery, its a pretty great one) has had any better weather as the Midwest has also been getting snow. Jill, Laura, Taryn, Meleah, Stephanie (another sweet friend Rachel met) Rachel and I all headed to a winery on a snowy Saturday. Rachel had found this winery, called Chilford Hall Vineyard and for 35 pounds a person you got to have tea/coffee, tour the vineyard, taste the wine, and eat a two course meal. Despite the snowy cold, we had a great time! We even got to taste extra wine because the afternoon tours canceled due to the snow. It was wonderful company, great food, and tasty wine! After Rachel and I got back to my house we both took a nap and then I made us taco soup for dinner. Saturday night consisted of us eating the soup, plus the delicious dessert Rachel made...even though she left out the flour...I wont hold it over her head for years, like my husband did to her when she didn't cook his b-day cheesecake all the way through many, many years ago, and we watched a movie.

The group of us at the winery. From the back: Me, Stephanie, Meleah, Jill and Laura. Rachel and Taryn are in the front. This is an amazing group of ladies!

We drank a lot of wine ;)

Jill and I trying to stay warm and dry

Taryn, Rachel and I being weird

Taryn Rachel and I being normal...if there is such a thing as normal

Inside the winery, learning how it is made...cool!

Our tasting table

     Sunday brought on even more new experiences for Rachel and I. For me it was the first time I can ever remember attending church in the snow on Palm Sunday. For Rachel it was her first experience in a protestant service and I don't think we scared her too much ;). She said that she enjoyed the service and I enjoyed having her company, I don't really like to go to church by myself. I know that is not a reason to skip church, so I do go alone, but I enjoy having someone to sit with. We headed to La Hogue for lunch, we decided to try their Sunday roast.....which was amazing! So far, since Sam has left, I have kept our weekly tradition of eating there...once a week for the past three weeks, we shall see if I make it sometime this weekend, I don't want to break the trend you know. After lunch we came back to the cottage for about an hour before it was time for me to take her back to the train station in Cambridge. After I got back from taking her to the train station the house felt quiet and empty again, it was sad, but I am so glad she was able to come visit me and meet some of my wonderful friends, I had a great time!

He is my partner in crime...He runs all my errands with me

My deployment friend/hubby Meleah and I had a date for dinner with the girls followed by popcorn and ice cream at the movies...without the movies! It was the best and I am so glad that I have her and so many amazing ladies to go through this with.

    
     I have spent the majority of this week revamping my resume and applying for more jobs, yes I am starting to get tired of the process, but we shall see what happens. Hercules and I experienced "the heath" for the first time yesterday, which is a big hill in the town called Newmarket where they run the race horses everyday, in the afternoon they open it up to the public. I have also decided to start a secret project in our house, I have no idea what I am getting myself into, and no idea what I am doing, but I am excited and I hope it turns out well. I have also started watching Grey's Anatomy from the beginning, I didn't get into that show until the third season or so, and it has been fun to watch everything happen from the beginning, plus it passes time very quickly, though now I'm wondering why I didn't go to school to be a surgeon...they make it look fun!

Hercules at the Heath...maybe he will be a good doggy and learn to be able to go off lead. He has to learn to listen to me first

Hercules was pooped after our walk

      Today is Maundy Thursday, the day that we, as Christians, remember Jesus being arrested in the Garden of Gethsemane and in fulfillment of scriptures being taken to be crucified for our sins, pierced for our transgressions. The church that I grew up in always does a candlelight Lord's Supper Service on Maundy Thursday, the base that we were at last year did one at the chapel, but unfortunately the chapel and some churches here don't do it, which is unfortunate because it is one of my favorite things to do on Maundy Thursday, take the Lord's Supper and reflect on the events that took place the entire Holy week and especially Thursday thru Sunday. So I will miss that and of course I will miss having my husband here for these celebrations as we enjoy doing them together. However, I will not forget Christ and what he did for me, dieing on the cross, even though I don't have a specific service to attend I will still be reflecting. As I have gotten older Easter has become one of my favorite holidays. Sometimes I think Christmas gets too secular and too revolved around the gifts, but Easter is all about the resurrection and it is great to get together with family for Easter lunch, but the main focus of the holiday has stayed in place, though the world tries to replace it with the Easter bunny and egg hunts, it just doesn't seem like one of those holidays you celebrate unless you are a believer, because that is the point of Easter, remembering that Christ died for our sins and rose three days later....Without Easter there would be no point to Christmas, no significance to Christs birth, but God did send his one and only son...sent him to die for us, and that is something that I, as a sinner, don't deserve, but I am so very thankful for. So I wish you all a very Happy Easter and I hope that you feel God's infinite love for you this weekend as we come together as families, as Christians, reflecting and celebrating Christ's death and resurrection! Happy Easter....HE has risen indeed!




Thanks for reading,

Amanda




While I was driving around today I remembered most of the song two young girls wrote many years ago so enjoy:

Sweet Home Misery 

(Written by two eleven year old girls, Stephanie Spickard and Amanda Henson, on our way back from Windemere, Church camp. Meant to be sung with a hickish southern accent)

Sweet home misery

(okay so I don't remember this line...but it was something about cows)

Can't drive till your eighteen 

Get hit by a semi or two

Where you drive on the curvy bad roads

and maybe hit some toads

Sweet home misery

Home of SMSU...SMS....DA BEARS!

Mustache March

Mustache March is annual event occurring in the month of March, where young men in the United States grow mustaches for amusement and to raise money for charity. The idea stems from an early Air Force tradition in which members of the U.S. Air Force would grow mustaches in good-natured protest against facial hair regulations during the month of March. (source:Wikipedia-which I would only use for a blog post, please note Wikipedia is not a credible source)

       Mustache March is in full force and though I was an Air Force wife last March I did not have the pleasure of experiencing the craziness that is mustache March since we were at a training base last year. Now there are mustaches everywhere, especially at the gym and driving onto base...it is pretty creepy. Of course my husband is participating in this silly tradition, but since he tends to loose hair more frequently than he grows it we shall see what his mustache turns out like :). Another tradition for the Air Force boys is to grow a mustache during deployment, so I get the lovely privileged of my husband's mustache lasting until May...or until right before he comes home if he wants any kisses.

Half of our Skype calls include Sam putting his face up to the camera to show off his mustache...its okay if you can't see anything in the picture...it is getting better, I saw it without his face being in the camera when we Skyped recently.

     Sam left on the 7th of March and I will be honest it feels like he has been gone forever and it hasn't even been two weeks yet. One thing is for sure though, I have an amazing support group both near and far. A huge thank you to everyone who has taken the time to send a text, email, facebook message, or call to check on me and encourage me. Sam had an early show time the day he left, which meant we had to leave the house by 3:20am to allow enough time, of course if your fifteen minutes early then you are on time in the military world. It was a surreal feeling, the week leading up to saying goodbye was hard. Emotions were running high for both Sam and I. I even cried when I pulled up to the house the day before he left because he was looking out the window and I was going to miss seeing his face in the window. I made my favorite meal for dinner, hey I needed comfort food, Chicken Caesar Pasta salad...it was yummy and then we went out for ice cream, soaking up every last second together. We were even going to stay up all night, but we only made it until 11pm. Hercules and I both went to say goodbye to Sam and he was glad that we did that. After our goodbye, Hercules and I headed home to cry and try to get some sleep. Another perk to not having a job, being able to sleep in when your husband deploys. Though, it was hard to get up, I am glad it was in the middle of the night and I could go back to sleep. Through out that day I constantly received messages and texts from my amazing friends/family telling me they were thinking about us and praying for us. My sweet friend Taryn came over, with flowers, we took our dogs for a walk and ate lunch at La Hogue. Thursday night was normal, we had the bachelor watch party and I made dinner. My friend Chary even came over early to keep my company. Though I looked like death walking, it was great to stay distracted that day, and Sam made it safe and sound to his destination.

 Great ending to our last meal together for awhile

Beautiful flowers, thanks Taryn!

     My bachelor watch party kicked off a busy weekend for me! I spent Friday with the Bible study girls getting ready for a baby shower and had dinner with Erin and Emily, my sweet friend and her adorable daughter that we met through our Bible study. On Saturday I headed to Snape Maltings with the girls. Snape Maltings is about an hour from us and it is an area full of cute shops and little cafes. We had a great day and it was full of lots of laughs. Hercules and I watched a movie Saturday night as it snowed a little bit. I planned on going to church on Sunday, but I didn't fall asleep until 4:30am Saturday night so I slept in instead. One of the hardest parts of Sam leaving has been trying to adjust to sleeping alone. Sunday afternoon we had a shower for Angela and baby Eleanor. It was called a SIP and See, where you sip tea and see the baby. It was a lot of fun and filled my whole day. I even got to see two of my friends husbands return from deployment, it always makes me happy to watch couples reunited after a period of seperation :).

All the decorations we made for Angela's shower

And again

The food and tea, it was all yummy!

It was a real fancy tea party

One of the diaper cakes we made

The other diaper cake...these are so fun to make!

Taryn crafted that little guest book it is amazing

Chary finally got to hold little Eleanor Rose....but my favorite is the way Erin is holding her baby Emily in the background. These are two of the amazing girls from our Bible study

Taryn made this quilt for Angela...by hand...she is amazing

The girls on our way back from Snape Maltings...representing mustache March. Top left is Taryn. Top right: Jill, Taryn and Me. Bottom left: Me and Taryn. Bottom Right: Kim...her husbands name is Sam too! Not pictured: Lindsey who was driving and planned a great outing for us all....also, making fake mustaches entertained us for much longer than it should've...ahh the little things. Glad there are goofy girls like me to hang out with here!

     Last Tuesday My friend Yuko and I were adapted by my friend Connie and her husband for dinner. We went to Norwich for dinner where they have an all you can eat sushi night for 25 pounds a person...IT WAS AWESOME! And the best sushi I have ever had in the UK, hopefully we will start a sushi club and try different sushi places once a month. On Wednesday I went to a birthday/welcome home party for our friend Matthew. It was a Benson and Blakes which has the most delicious burgers in all the UK, and half price on Wednesdays :). My friend Meleah came over on Thursday night, since her husband had left earlier that day for deployment, and we had a pizza with Jill and little Zeus (a puppy). Friday was a crazy day. I woke up to get ready for a Job Fair, when my power went off. I was thinking this may be a sign that God doesn't want me to work, but Sam said it was a sign that I shouldn't be on the Internet, which I wasn't at the time thank you very much. Meleah came along with me for moral support and after walking around the town for fifteen minutes we finally found it. We walked inside and no one was there, turns out I was early for the job fair...a whole week early. I rechecked my email and it clearly stated March 23rd so I don't know what I was thinking. We stopped for some coffee at Costa and then headed to Bury St. Edmunds to take care of our friend Jill's puppy, Zeus, before heading to La Hogue for lunch. After lunch we went to the commissary to get stuff ready to make Anna Peck's famous enchiladas. When it came time to make dinner everything went wrong.....it is a blog within itself....but the main issue was that my oven wasn't working after the power had gone off and we couldn't figure out how to make it work. Luckily, one of the girls, Connie, came early and she figured out that if you set the clock then the oven starts working...night saved, but then it was overwhelming trying to get everything ready on time. We watched the finally of The Bachelor, which was awesome, and the night turned out to be super fun!

Hair fail, thanks to having no power. Job fair fail thanks to being a week early. Good think you can always count on Costa to give you delicious coffee

Oh yeah...Hercules was a being annoying during the bachelor finally so I let him destroy all his toys...just to shut him up...unfortunately it was a huge mess.

Jill is spraying throat spray in Meleah's mouth...again I love the goofyness of these girls. Meleah has had a nasty cold, so during the finally of the bachelor we were drugging her up, luckily I have a huge medicine drawer full for cold and flu times.

     Since I have never seen Harry Potter, which apparently is a travesty, we started a weekly watch party this past Saturday night! We are going to be watching Harry Potter one night a weekend until we finish the series and then we will go see the set of HP...and I actually liked the first one, so I am excited to finish the series. I visited a new church in Bury St. Edmunds with Jill! It is a non-denominational church and though they were having technical difficulties it was a great experience. The sermon was actually over Psalm 23 which was the Psalm read at my dad's funeral, I briefly made that connection when the pastor read the chapter, but later realized (while crying to my mom) that coupled with Sam being gone, it may have hit me harder than I expected. After church we had lunch and visited TK Maxx, then I had a lazy afternoon with Hercules and a great face time with my mom, those moms are real handy, making everything better.

Taryn's dog...Arizona came to stay with us for a few days

Though they wresetled a lot Hercules enjoyed having a friend around again

     This week has still been difficult, but it is getting easier. Everyone said you will get into a routine and the first few weeks are the toughest, plus the house feels incredibly quiet. Meleah and I started meeting at the gym at 9:30am every morning and Hercules and I are into a good nightly routine. Mainly one where he falls asleep in bed while I read things on the internet until I am sleepy and then wake him up to make him lay on Sam's pillow so it feels like real cuddling...yes Sam was easily replaced by my dog, well at least on the cuddling side of sleeping. The hardest part of my day is at the gym, because it is in the parking lot of Sam's squadron so I always see people in flight suits which makes my heart sink. The easiest part is staying busy, since more than half the squadron is deployed right now I have many wives in the same boat as me and I feel very blessed to have made so many amazing friends as my support group!

My favorite time of the day...Skyping with Sam!

Funny story....I was running errands and when I got out of the car at my last stop I noticed bird poop all down my jeans...I don't know how it got there or when it got there...I guess I fall apart while Sam is away...Can you tell which one of those dogs is Hercules?

Shhh...don't tell Sam but this is how I make Hercules sleep, so it feels like Sam is next to me.

      The highlight of this week was when I locked the only house key my friend has inside her house when I was letting her puppy out. She was at work when I realized I shut the door behind me and it locked, luckily Zeus was outside with me and after disturbing Jill at work I learned the landlord had a spare key, so Zeus and I started an adventurous day together. It began by driving him to our house so I could shower and grab a quick lunch, he enjoyed exploring the bathroom and climbing under the bed. His cousins Hercules and Arizona were outside playing....I felt like a real dog lady at this moment and a bit like a dog kidnapper. Then we drove to Mildenhall in order to get the spare key, Zeus was quite a hit with all the locals. I also took Zeus onto base because I needed gas and I showed him the KC-135 plane that his daddy flies before taking him back home. In England, though everything is only like 7 or 12 miles away, it always takes about 20 to 30 minutes to get anywhere....so all in all our adventure took all afternoon, but it was fun and a great story to tell. I am just so glad Jill didn't have to leave work and there was a spare key. 

Zeus!

He is ready for our adventure

He got a bit sleepy from all the driving around

We saw this sheep cross the road while we were driving...Zeus wasn't phased by it

I guess he found that to  be comfortable?

What a cutie

Long tongue! He is a Newfoundland Lab Mix, so he will be a big boy...look at those paws

All he wanted to do when we got home was sleep

     I am excited that my SIL is coming to visit me this weekend and I am looking forward to her spending some time with all of the friends I have made here! Only a week and a half left in mustache March which means I am one month closer to seeing my husband again!

Pretty proud of my handy work...I hung that up all by myself and I also did extensive cleaning of the fireplace and both of the bathrooms in the house...I still have lots to accomplish before Sam gets back, but its a work in progress.

Prayer Requests While Sam's Away

• Please continue to pray for the safety of my husband, Sam, and his crew and the other crews flying 
• Pray for all of the men and women from our squadron who are currently deployed. And all the military members who our away from families and serving our country.
• Pray for all of the spouses holding down the home front
• Pray for me as I go to the job fair tomorrow 

Thank you for all your support and willingness to keep us in your prayers. I can't express how much each email, facebook message, and text has meant to me. They have all come at the perfect moment and each one has lifted me up in a different way. 


Thanks for reading!

Amanda

The Perfect Month

     February is the perfect month and not just because it holds valentines day and my birthday, though those dates are an added bonus to the perfectness that is February. Anyway, four weeks makes up a month and seven days makes up a traditional week. Thus 4 weeks times 7 days = 28 days. Therefore, since Feburary contains exactly 28 days (except during leap year) it is the only perfect month, containing exactly four weeks. My friend Stephanie and I spent a lot of time discussing this one boring day back in high school, we concluded that February is the only real month and I concluded that its the perfect month. However, this blog shall focus on the end of February, the only real part of the month that matters, my birthday. I was due in March, I believe around March 5th which is my moms birthday, but, much like my personality, I was eager to meet the world and start meeting new people and 24 years ago, on February 27th, I did just that. Who knew that I would be celebrating my 24th year of life married and in ENGLAND!!!

England at its finest!

     The celebrations kicked off the weekend before my birthday. On Friday, February 22^nd, Sam and I met our friends, Luke and Meleah, for dinner in Cambridge. Luke and Meleah were the very first people, from the squadron, to have us over for dinner when we first moved here and were still living in a Temporary Lodging Facility and we hit it off with them from the very beginning. Anyway, I found an Indian restaurant in Cambridge and we had a double date night. It was our first experience eating Indian food and we loved it. The restaurant turned out to be very nice, the waiter was funny, and the company was incredible. Plus, it was close to the train station, which was handy since Sam’s sister and brother-in-law, Rachel and Josh, who live in London, were coming in on the train to visit. After they got here the six of us left the restaurant and headed right next door to a pub called The White Swan.  We had another friend, Mike, who came and joined us for drinks. It was a super fun night and kick off to the weekend, yay for double date nights!

Indian food...YUM!

      I felt bad because Sam and I had tried to come up with things to do around here with Rachel and Josh, but it all seemed like a far drive and we were feeling lazy after our trip, so we ended up having a low key weekend, which I hope really was okay with Rachel and Josh. We slept in on Saturday and headed to La Hogue for lunch. In our local park, Chippenham Park, there was a snowdrop display every Saturday and Sunday in February and since this was the last weekend in February we wanted to see it. We took the dogs and walked over to the park, even though it was really cold. They had the snowdrops, which are pretty white flowers that bloom in the winter, on the property of the estate house. It was really beautiful to see all the land, which is usually private property, of the big estate house in Chippenham and they had ponds as well as lots of forest area and flowers. Unfortunately, I didn’t have my camera, but come visit me in February for my birthday and I will show you in person! After our walk we took Rachel and Josh to the Commissary for them to stock up on their American food and get supplies to make dinner. Sam made a delicious steak dinner with his famous baked potatoes and corn on the cob…yum! Rachel made me a yummy peanut butter chocolate cake and after dinner we played my new game, scrabble…fun!

Steak dinner

Thanks Sam...it was amazing

My teapot from Rachel and Josh! I love it

Rachel's delicious cake

I even bought doggy ice cream for the dogs...they loved it for about five minutes then I think they were frustrated with trying to get it out of the carton.

Scrabble and cake!

      After church on Sunday we had coffee and tea at Starbucks. Then we ate lunch at Taco Bell, since Josh hadn’t had that in a year, and we came home to take naps. We also walked to our local pub in Chippenham, The Tharp Arms. It was a relaxing weekend and I am so glad Rachel and Josh came to visit! While Sam took them back to Cambridge to catch a train and meet one of his friends from pilot training for dinner, I went to meet a precious new member of our Bible Study, Eleanor Rose. I got to hold her, until after about thirty minutes my arms were tired and I gave her back to her mom, and I may or may not have gotten a low grade dose of baby fever, but that only lasted until the next weekend when we got to sleep in :). 

Nap time in Chippenham

"bottoms up" at The Tharp Arms Pub

Eleanor Rose Born February 23, 2013

Sweet baby and her mama Angela from our Bible Study!

      My actual birthday was on Wednesday, which Sam had to fly and he was gone all day….as well as on Thursday and Friday too…so I barely saw him on birthday week! The AF has to make all birthdays and anniversary memorable one way or another, on Sam’s birthday he went into Bravo Alert, on our anniversary he was going through a deployment line, and on my birthday (and subsequent days) he was gone flying.  Despite Sam not being around I still had an amazing birthday! I met the beautiful girls from Bible Study for lunch at La Hogue and they spoiled me with gifts. Then Taryn and I attempted to make red velvet cupcakes and blog. It actually turned out to be a hysterical time, we made a lot of substitutions…like splenda for sugar, egg whites for an egg, some gluten free flour mixed with real flour, and blue/green food coloring substituted for red food coloring….the cupcakes turned out green and uneven, a very interesting concoction for sure, but the icing was yummy and our Bible Study friends humored us by eating a few. Luckily, Erin brought real, yummy cupcakes! Since Wednesday night is normally Bible Study night and we just finished Part 1 of our Roman’s study we decided to go bowling! It was so much fun and by some magical birthday power I actually broke 100 in the second game! I had an amazing first birthday abroad, thank you to all who made it extra special! 

Alayna...we just went to her first birthday party last night

Taryn, Erin and Baby Emily from Bible Study

Darla and Alayna...sweet girls!

Alayna was great help with opening presents

I got some many goodies!

All the girls at lunch!

The Bible Study girls (minus Angela and Chary) at the bowling alley

Cute baby girl Emily

Those two are daddies little girls! The guy with blonde hair is Mark and his baby is Emily...Mark is deploying with Sam

This is Shawn and his daughter Alayna from Bible Study...he has a great voice for when he is pretending to talk like her!

We passed her around a lot while bowling!

See...I broke 100!!

We are so blessed to have found this group of people! From the left: Mark, Erin and Baby Emily; Shawn, Darla and Alayna; Sam and I; and Steve and Taryn. We are missing Doug, Angela and Baby Eleanor and Carsten and Chary! Fun night of bowling. (Picture courtesy of Taryn's Facebook...thank you Taryn)

     Though my husband was busy during the day he still managed to spoil me with presents on my birthday! He got me all of my favorite things! He purchased his first purse….a Coach purse no less….when a few years ago he vowed to never buy me a purse and never buy a sister for the Coach purse I got from Meg Wampler and the Text Bucks crew as a going away present. I was very impressed by the purse he picked out, it is perfect! He also got me a new wallet and the new Janet Evanovich book and m&ms ....oh and two of the same card because he lost the first one. All of this was more than enough, but when I opened my card it had RASCAL FLATTS TICKETS INSIDE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! He definitely got the best husband award….coach purse, tickets to see one of my favorite groups in London this summer, plus a steak dinner…yup I am blessed! 

My new Coach purse!

I cant wait!!!!!!!!!!!!

He just looks so cute and he climbed in there all by himself...haha no that's a lie

      This past weekend was Sam and I’s last weekend together before his deployment so we wanted to do something fun! The plan was to see two castles on Saturday…unfortunately all the flying took a toll on my husband and he slept in pretty late. After an English breakfast at La Hogue we headed to Bodiam Castle, which is about 2 hours away. It is a beautiful castle that was built in the 1100’s. This castle has a real moat around it…something I have always wanted to see. Sam and I enjoyed exploring the castle and had a nice afternoon tea before heading home to eat a frozen pizza and watch a movie. It was the perfect day! Now to follow this paragraph...an obscene amount of pictures of Bodiam Castle for which I am not feeling up to making captions for each individual one...I know this may sadden some of my readers as my captions are normally pretty witty...but it is now passed midnight here and there is only so much you can say about one castle...enjoy looking at the castle, the view from the castle, and the amazing English country side...thank you for your time.

Sam thinks it is hilarious to take a picture of me charging every castle we go to

Taking in the view....

Hi guys...Im on top of a castle...(said in the voice of the narwhall on the movie Elf)

Look at how windy and narrow the stair case is!

We...Love...Castles

      Sam officially leaves for his deployment on Thursday morning. He will be gone for 67 days…but hey who’s counting??!! The possibility for Sam to deploy has been there since December, but no amount of time will ever fully prepare you for separation, but I am ready to start counting down the days until he comes home and get it over with, but not ready to say goodbye. I am glad that he will finally be able to put all his training into action, but sometimes I freak out when I realize I will be living in a foreign country by myself…it is one thing to hold the home front down in the states…but it’s a whole other ball game to hold it down while living abroad! 

I love exploring castles with him

We are very happily married!

Love him!

     I have already been a hot mess this week. I have cried over the littlest thing or something that normally wouldn’t bother me has made me very angry…I am not sure if that is a small glimpse into a pregnant ladies life, but it has not been very fun. However, 67 days is nothing compared to my fellow military wives who have gone through a six, nine or twelve month deployment…now that is a lot of strain on a marriage, and those women are the strongest you will ever meet. Think about it…for those of my readers who are married (aside from fellow military spouses) what is the longest amount of time you have ever gone without your spouse? How did you feel during that time? I know have been guilty of quickly forgetting, when Sam and I are together, what it was like to be apart and not lifting those fellow brothers and sisters in Christ up in prayer, but it is not normal to be apart from your spouse, “in the real world”, for longer than a week or two at a time. I feel very blessed by my fellow military wives. I have received multiple Facebook messages filled with Bible verses and encouraging words from friends all over the world and I really appreciate them. Since there are two deployment locations right now over half of the squadron is deployed…which means I have fellow spouses in the same boat as me…and that always helps. Misery loves company! I hear that the key is to stay busy and though I wish that one of the dozen applications I filled out would’ve landed me a job by now, I know that I will find things to keep me busy. There are always projects that need work around the house, friends to meet for tea, hobbies to start, places to explore and the gym to hit up! 

We are so blessed to live in England and to have each other

So happy together!

One of the many things that will get me through this deployment...Bachelor Watch Parties/Girls night every Thursday at my house! Look at all our food! Anywhere from 8 to 14 girls come every week and I look forward to this time so much...I think all the wives whose husbands are gone will find this time to be very special! Plus it marks off another week that passes...which is one week closer to them being home.

      So now I am calling on all of my readers who are prayer warriors…here are some specific prayer requests.

•   Pray for Sam and his crew. Pray that they will have safe travels and for every mission that they fly and of course a safe return home. 
•   Pray for Mark, Sam’s Air Craft Commander in his crew, this isn’t his first deployment but he is leaving behind his wife and four...almost five month old daughter, Emily. Pray for Erin (his wife) and Emily as they are heading back to the states for six weeks, that they will have safe travel.
• Pray for strength for me on Thursday as Sam and I say goodbye. 
•  Pray for all of the spouses left behind during the current deployments, some have only been here for a few months and are still settling while their husbands are deployed, pray that we will feel God’s loving arms wrap around us at night when we go to bed alone and that we will rely on him for strength during the lonely times. 
•  Pray that everything on the home front runs smoothly while Sam is away. I hear that something is bound to break or go wrong while he is away, but pray that it won’t be anything big that happens and that the right resources will be available when needed. 

      Thank you for lifting Sam and I up in prayer as we continue our newlywed journey with our first deployment. I am sure we will be old hats at deployments at some point in Sam’s military career, , but since this one is our first deployment it makes it that much harder. We appreciate all your prayers, love and support!

Thanks for reading!

Love,

Amanda