Snow Afternoon!

I woke up hoping for a snow day home from work, but didn't have much luck there. However, we did get an early release for a snow afternoon! So the rest of these pictures (apart from the first) are all about our snow afternoon.

This first one, however, is Caleb's JC Penny catalogue model pose. We got that outfit (pants, shirt and vest) for $12 at the BX. Thanks, 50% off rack!

These next tow are from our drive through town here. It was really coming down at that point! All day long, there would be these wicked bouts of downfall and whiteout for about 15 minutes or so, and then it would let up and be crystal clear for a while. A bit later, the crazy snowfall would begin again.

This is our backyard, which is one of our least favorite features in the house. The house was brand new when we moved in, and the landlord decided to lay gravel instead of sod because he was worried the dogs would dig up the grass. Instead, we just have an eye sore of a backyard that's more like a littler box than anything else. But under a blanket of snow, it doesn't look half bad!

This is Caleb meeting a snowman in our neighborhood. He wanted to kick it. I managed to talk him out of it.

This is Caleb throwing a snowball at me. Or, rather, a snow lump. He can' t quite make them into balls yet.

And this is Caleb standing in my snow angel and yelling something unintelligible.

Apparently the forecast has more snow in store for us overnight. We'll see what tomorrow brings!

OH! And by the way, I just read on Shannon's blog that it's De-Lurker week. So if you read this, but don't comment, I'd love to know who you are. I suspect it's mostly my mom who reads (hi, mom!) But, again, I 'd love to know who you are, and if you have a blog, I'd love to check it out!

Do Not Pass Go, Do Not Collect $200

I'm a New Years resolution kinda gal. I know there are plenty of people who think New Years resolutions are a bit ridiculous, but I like the idea of a fresh slate, and a new year kind of feels like a good time to start over and try again.


Most of my resolutions aren't necessarily resolutions in the formal sense, but more so ideas I'm trying to manifest or goals I'm trying to work towards. Reaching the goal would be awesome, but even just moving a bit closer towards it has got to be worth something, right?


So, I don't have a real firm goal for physical stuff this year except to work out more consistently and lose some weight. Okay, there's a number in my head, but honestly, it's less about the number and more about just taking better care of myself. I'm not a spring chicken anymore! It's time to take care of the one and only body I've got on in this life.


But I'm naturally inclined to laziness and tend to come up with any excuse to find a way out of going to circuit training class. As a result, I try to pack my gym bag the night before and put it right by the front door so I can' t leave without seeing it. Sometimes it works. Sometimes I still find an excuse not to go.



But for 2010, so far so good. Three days into the work week, and I've been to circuit training class twice. Okay, so that's nothing, really. It's easy to be motivated the first week. Let's see how committed I am in a month or two. But, hey! I have to start somewhere! So here I am...starting.

6/365

Well, nuts.

Sunday, we took down our Christmas decorations and packed them away. Then Monday I came into work and realized, ugggh, I have to take down the office tree and decorations, too.


It's so much fun in early December to pop Elf in the DVD player and get into the holiday spirit by putting up all the decorations. But come early January, you're so full of cookies and gingerbread popcorn and turkeys and hams and Christmas parties and cookie exchanges that taking everything down is such a chore. There's nothing fun about putting it all away and shoving the boxes back in closest and garages that don't have enough room anyway.


Bah humbug!


So Monday, I took down the office tree and packed it away in the supply closet, which took some serious negotiating.


And Tuesday, I found one lone pink ornament that didn't make it into the boxes. Curses! In the process of taking the lone ornament's picture, I realized there were two mini trees and a Santa bear still sitting on the front of my desk. Nutter butter! How did I miss all of this yesterday?



Oh, well. Guess I'll be diving back into the supply closet tomorrow!

5/365

Stained

Oh, here it is. The first day I don't feel like blogging. Yep. Knew she'd be here some day! Fourth day of the year...that didn't take long, did it?


So I'll keep this short. Nothing worse than an unnecessarily boring blog.


I didn't take a picture today. But I did take this one yesterday. Close enough in my book!



It's one of the stained glass panels in the base chapel. I find myself staring at them frequently during service, and this one is my favorite. Mostly because it's the most relevant to the base as I know it today.


This past Sunday, the sun was shining brilliantly through the windows, and it was definitely distracting, if not a tad blinding.


Beautiful, really.


I wish the picture did it justice. You'll just have to come visit me to see it.


4/365

Cars

Caleb loves cars. Actually, Caleb loves any mode of transportation...cars, truck, buses, boats, planes, trains, bikes, helicopters...you name it, he's a fan.

But cars are the easiest to carry around (and, unfortunately, the easiest to lose. The count of lost cars in the month of December was five. Out of those five, 100% of them were brand new Christmas gifts.) Even with five men down, our house is still filled with cars.

He likes to push them around, race them on any surface, and make motor noises for them. He likes to announce what cars he has. As soon as he walked into the nursery at church today, he held up his Dinoco blue Lightning McQueen and announced, "I got Yakeen!"

He's really keen on lining them up very neatly, as seen here, and then running at them and smashing them all together in one big movement with his arms and yelling "CRASH!"

The only thing Caleb doesn't like to do with his cars is share them with other kids!

3/365

Movie Time

Day 2/365! It's on!

Today we took Caleb to the Cineworld theater in Bury St Edmunds for his very first theater movie. He's a huge fan of the first Alvin and the Chipmunks movie. (Me? Not so much.) So when we heard there was a sequel...err, a squeakquel, apparently...we thought this might be a good opportunity to try a theater with him.

This Caleb, pre-movie, wearing Lightening McQueen shoes, McQueen shirt, and holding both regular and Dinoco McQueen cars. Overboard? I don't know the meaning of the word!

This is my wonderful husband scraping the ice off the windsheild while Caleb and I warmed up the car. Thanks, babe!

And this is Caleb overwhelmed by the candy options at the theater. We eventually decided on strawberries and cream cone-shaped candies that were okay.

Caleb actually did pretty well at the movie. He wasn't heavy enough to keep the theater seats down and kept getting folded up, so he sat in my lap most of the movie. Unfortunately, when I left to use the restroom, he wanted to follow me.

When I returned, Tommy and Caleb were waiting on the edge of the theater for me, and after that, he wasn't willing to return to his seat for about ten minutes or so. So I spent some time trying to prevent him and his blinking McQueen shoes from running across the front of the theater. Luckily, after a bit, he was willing to return to my lap. I may or may not have lured him with popcorn.

We went to the movies with some friends from the squadron. They were on the same Paris trip we went on over Christmas and Caleb loves their kids. He thinks their son is the funniest person alive!

On the drive home, it began to snow! Big, fat, beautiful flakes that my husband said reminded him of peices of bread. (??) It lightened up for a bit, but it's snowing again as I type this! I'm hoping we'll get enough to make another snowman since Caleb love singing Frosty the Snowman. This is me from our front door.

And now seems like a perfect time to curl up under a blanket and read a book. So on that note, have a great day. See ya tomorrow!

Happy New Year!

Happy new year!


I'm looking at my list of blogs for the last year and realizing I wasn't not a stellar blogger in the past twelve months. I barely managed an average of two a month.


I know, I know. Slacker. Seriously.


So my friend Tina is participating in a Project 365 2010, which encourages bloggers to take a photo every day and blog about it. As this is officially our last year here in England, I really want to a.) make the most of it, and b.) make sure I remember it. So I'm going to try and take part in the Project 365. I know I won't make it every day, but it's nice to have a goal, right? And I may not have a picture for every day, but surely I'll have a thought or two on most days.


My alternate, personal goal is to make sure this blog isn't 100% about Caleb. But I'm going to go ahead and fail at that goal today, if you don't mind.


Caleb woke up this morning demanding a cheeseburger for breakfast. I don't know where he got the idea, but he was fixated on it. Nothing I offered as an alternative appealed to him or distracted him in the least bit.

So I gave in and made the kid a cheeseburger. Sometimes it's just easier to make the kid happy than to create a battle out of nothing. So here he is, eating a cheeseburger and drinking OJ at his new airplane desk my husband found at the base thrift shop. How cool is that desk?!


Here's a picture of him last night pushing Pooh Bear around in Hanna's baby stroller. We had fun ringing in the New Year with the Hayeses. We played a lot of Wii games (meaning I lost a lot of Wii games.) I had trouble staying awake till midnight. I don't remeber growing up along the way, but I must have. I seriously turn into a pumpkin at 10 pm these days. When did I become my mom?!



Just for vanity and self-indulgence, here's a self-portrait before we headed over to the Hayeses. I had no intention of dressing up, but then I saw my dangly purple earrings and really wanted to wear them. So I thought, shoot. It's New Years. If you can't wear dangly earrings at New Years, then when can you?! I had to dress up a tiny bit to do the earrings justice.


And finally, here's my coworker's desk. He's notoriously bad for not updating our office calendar when he's going to be out, so I thought I'd give him a reminder, or a couple hundred of them. I like to call this one "Executive Officer Training, 101."



Okay, day one: mission accomplished. Welcome to 2010!

Thetford Fireworks Night

It's getting colder, that's for sure. And darker. Winter's on it's way, and there's fat little we can do about it!

We went to our town's local firework display/family day event this afternoon. It was fun! There were plenty of rides and English fair food (which, I have to say, is a bit different than American fair food! Not nearly greasy or sweet or salty enough! I guess that could be applied to most English food, though. Not just fair food!)

One of the rides was a small train, which immediately caught Caleb's attention. We took a few turns on the tiny, circular track, which made his day.

Caleb also tried cotton candy for the first time. He spit it out the first few times, but eventually caught on to it's sugary goodness!

I wasn't sure how Caleb would do with the fireworks, but he did alright. He didn't freak out or cry, but after a couple of minutes, he buried his face in my neck and said very quietly, "No, no, no." After a few minutes, we left, and when we got far enough away from the fireworks, he lifted his head and said, "Go 'way, fie-wohks." However, since it never escalated into all out fear and freak-outtedness, I'd say he did all right!

All-in-all, it was fun! We'll have to do it again next year when Caleb will probably want to ride more rides and eat more cotton candy and, who knows? Maybe he'll want to see more fireworks!

Approaching Our Last Year

I've been feeling a bit reflective lately. Just kinda stuck in my own head. It happens sometimes. I'm going to blame this session at least partially on the change of season and the time change we experienced last week here in the UK. It's now SO dark by the time I get home that I can't be bothered to do, well, just about anything. Making dinner is such an accomplishment these days. So instead I read and reflect.

I've been thinking a lot about the fact that next year is our last year in England. Unbelievable, really. This upcoming January will mark three full years here, with just one left to go. When I think of all the things I still want to see and do, I realize a year is not nearly enough time. There are so many cathedrals, so many castles, so many estates, so many countries and cities that have yet to be tackled. And I'm supposed to do it all within the next year? Impossible!

In many ways, I'm so ready to get back to the states. Even though I realize I probably won't be living in the same city as my family, I miss be at least in the same country. The time zone difference alone can be very frustrating. It'd be nice to be a two hour plane ride away as opposed to a nine hour plane ride away. (Stupid Atlantic Ocean! Why you gotta be so big?!)

And I won't miss our frustrating laundry situation in this house, which means dragging my dryer into the middle of our kitchen to vent out the window on laundry day. I won't miss our strange parking arrangement that means I have to park five houses away from our own. I won't miss balancing three checkbooks and paying half our bills in dollars and half our bills in pounds.

And I certainly won't miss Friday afternoon traffic on the A-11. UGH.

But I will miss Tesco. And I'll miss the Thetford town center, complete with its river and ducks and Saturday market and fresh rolls and doughnuts at Baker's Oven. And I'll miss the way the fog lies low on the fields along the A-11 on an early drive into base. I'll miss driving through the Thetford Forest this time of year when the leaves are all changing colors. I'll miss being able to drive within two hours in just about any direction and finding the ruins of a castle or a preserved estate house to explore.

I don't like thinking about the fact that this next year is the last. I guess the obvious solution is to "make the most" of this last year. See as much as I can, do as much as I'm able, and leave with no regrets. But the sad fact of life is that often we are busy with various activities or just too tired from our regular week to make the efforts we should. Life happens, and I find my weekends slipping away without having done what I wanted to do.

Foof! That sounds depressing, and I don't mean it to be. I guess what I'm saying is just that I'm thinking a lot about our last year. But I don't want to get stuck in my head and let life prevent me from doing those things I really want to do. Some of them require serious saving and planning, so the time to start is now. I want to go out with a bang and remember my time in England fondly. If I have to bother living a "last year," then I kinda want to do it right, ya know?

So...here goes!

Planes, Trains, and Classroom Transitions

This week is transition week. Caleb is moving from the 1 year old class where he's been since January into a new 2 year old classroom (which, incidentally, is much further down the hall from the entrance. Sheesh!)


So far, he's done okay. He wasn't excited when his teacher brought him to this new room. He kinda wigged out the first time on the new playground. And he hasn't napped as well as normal. But I suppose these are all normal signs of transition.


I was super lucky and had Monday off for Columbus day. Normally, most everyone on base would have had it off, but we're in the middle of a Big Fat Not-So-Greek Inspection. Or we were at that time. It ended today. Hooray!


These guys and girls on base have been gearing up for this inspection for months. Records have been scrubbed, gear has been checked, scenarios have been played out. These only come once every so many years and they are a big flipping deal. We'll find out Friday how it went. Fingers crossed!


One of the best (and worst) things about working where I do is that I drive around the perimeter of the flight line at least once a day. It's a pain because Caleb's day care, as well as nearly all the food and completely all of the shopping options are on the opposite side of base from my office. But driving around the flight line a few times a day affords you some pretty cool sites.


For instance, this week I was driving past the "play area" of the inspection where all of our players were "deployed" and playing out the scenario set by the inspectors. As I was approaching the area, bright red smoke was billowing towards the sky. I don't know what the scenario was, but I imagine our guys and girls were geared up to the teeth and running around trying to assess the situation and determine the next best steps.


And there I was, just a few feet away, driving with my windows down, listening to BBC Radio 1. Crazy. Anyway, it was such a surreal and oddly pretty sight, those big towers of red smoke. Certainly not something you see every day.


I also love when I get to base first thing in the morning, and there's almost no activity on the flight line. It's getting darker in the mornings, and sometimes there's a bit of fog on the ground, and it looks like the planes are all tucked in for the night. There's just something about being on base when nothing's going on that feels so peaceful that it almost makes you forget about the greater, real-world missions taking place around the globe.


But the best is when a plane takes off right over your car as you turn the very edge of the runway. I love that. I really do.


I wish I had pictures of this stuff, but it's not Kosher to stop your car on base to take those kinds of pictures, unless you're PA. If I was a bird watcher just outside the fence, that'd be a different story. But I'm not.


Anyway, I do have pics of my trip to the zoo with Caleb on Columbus day. So I'll just share those instead.


Here's Caleb inside the Farm portion of the zoo. The goats behind him were just babies the first time we went to the zoo this past spring. They've grown up, just like my big boy!

I've been wanting to get a picture of Caleb and this big ol' dinosaur for a while, but he was kinda freaked out by it. There's also a dinosaur park about an hour away from here, but I'm not sure he's quite ready for that yet.

I wasn't excited about bringing his stuffed Mickey Mouse to the zoo, because I thought for sure he'd be dropped a billion times and possibly lost. But Caleb absolutely insisted on bringing him with us, and he carried it the whole time! Never even put it in the stroller or asked me to carry Mickey. (In case the pic is too small, Mickey is peeking over his shoulder.)

Caleb loves trains. LOVES them. We've never been able to ride the little "train" they have at the zoo, so we stuck around with the express intention of getting to ride the "too too ten." I was worried he'd get bored and want to get off, but he loved it! When the ride ended, he waved at it, saying, "Bye bye, too too ten! I miss you!"

One more shot of my big boy and his Mickey on the train. One sure sign of Caleb fatigue: those two fingers. It was about 2:30 at this point, and he hadn't had a nap yet. He did really well, though, and we had a great time together!

It was totally awesome having a fun Mommy/Taybub day. I loved it. Hope we can do it again soon!