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