Halloween...or the lack thereof

Today is Halloween. There's another 3 hours left in the day before the clock rolls around and declares November's birth. Despite my best efforts to prepare for this day for Weslee, it has come and gone without trick-or-treating, parties or events, though we do have a costume for Wes (he was supposed to be a jack-o-lantern this year...but we bought it a little big, so I guess he can wear it next year. We may take some pictures of him in it tomorrow for the grandmothers' benefit, if nothing else). We found out yesterday that the base's Halloween event for the kids was the day we arrived. Even if we had known about it, I wonder if we would have made it. We were so exhausted and it seemed that we could stay awake little more than a couple of hours at a time before falling again into a deep and dreamless sleep. Even Weslee, who usually protests against naps was happy to become better aquainted with his bed that day.

We asked about trick or treating. The Brittish do celebrate Halloween or All Hallow's Eve with going house to house for candy. But, after searching around for a while, we realized that it would be too far a walk to the nearest neighborhood from our current room (nearly 3 miles one way) to enjoy the candy gathering festivities. Plus, the temperatures are nearing freezing. We enjoyed a nice "winter mix" today for part of the afternoon. I really wasn't expecting Mildenhall to be so chilly. I even sent most of my sweaters and long-sleeved attire with the movers, thinking that I wouldn't really need it until closer to Christmas.

So, instead of going door to door in the freezing cold (and hiking 6 miles to do it on the narrow roads in the dark), we stayed home and made tacos. Then, we let Weslee eat mini Halloween oreos that we brought with us from the States to his heart's content while we searched the internet for houses in the area (not exactly the most fun way to spend Halloween...but still exciting in a certain sort of way).

I am so excited by what I see. There are so many cute homes that are within our price range. There are some I've fallen in love with even though I haven't seen them in person. We may end up with alot more room than we had at first thought (though those homes are quite a distance from base and would be very expensive to cover with utilities) or we may end up with a cute, and cozy little home closer to base and save the money from heating bills to go exciting places like the Swiss Alps and Italy. Who knows?

P.S. By the time I was done writing this post, Wes looked like he did in the last of the pictures. He found his "sheepie" and cuddled on the cold linoleum at my feet in the kitchen area and fell asleep. I didn't even notice him there (I was a little preoccupied) until Kevin pointed him out. He was using the sheep as a pillow and snoring softly as if he were in the most comfortable bed ever. So, this is what happens when you let a little kid eat 5 bags of mini oreos...they get hyper for about 10 minutes and jump around singing "bite, bite, bite, bite, bite, bite, bite, please, bite, bite, bite" until they get it all out of their system and then they crash HARD! Goodnight and happy Halloween, Weslee!

Denae's Delicious Taco Dip

This was a dip my friend, Denae, made for our going away party. She cooks alot like me, which goes something like this... "Hmmm, I need a taco dip and didn't buy any Velveeta. Oh well, I've got Mexican stuff on hand. We'll see what we can whip together". Thus, this recipe is just as Denae gave it to me, verbally, I might add. She apologized, like she always does, for using us as guinea pigs. I'm with her husband when he says that we must be the "best fed guinea pigs ever". It was an amazing dip. I haven't recreated it yet, but it's here so I won't forget it. If you're intimidated by recipes that include instructions that use terms like "throw in a little of" and "to taste", this recipe is not for you. I will try the recipe and try to post it later with more specific instructions. If you are daring enough to take the taco dip challenge with me though...this dip was WAY better than anything Velveeta ever made!

Ingredients:
Cream of chicken soup
Hamburger meat, browned and simmered in taco seasoning
Cream Cheese
Sour Cream
Small jar of cheese dip, just the plain cheese not with spices already in it...(on a personal note, I'm thinking it's like cheese whiz or something)
Colby Jack shredded cheese
Rotel tomatoes (you know, the canned stuff you usually combine with velveeta)

Directions (pretty much directly from Denae's mouth, but modified so I can understand them better):

Well, I just threw together all of the stuff and let it simmer in a crockpot until it was time for the party. I think I used one can of cream of chicken and just a jar of cheese dip I had laying around. It was the kind without the spices and stuff in it...just the plain cheese. I made hamburger meat like I was going to make it for tacos and just threw it in. Really, I just kept throwing stuff in that I thought would go together and make it cheesy and creamy.

Teri says while eating her fourth plate of dip: "I like it alot better...crunch, chomp, gulp..."

Denae: "Yeah, me too. I'm glad you like it".

Teri: smiles, gets more chips and dip.

Please read the instruction manual before using this appliance!

So, after writing my last post, we happily went to the "baby commissary" as it's called here...mainly because it has a small supply of a whole lot of random things that really make no sense at all and it is, well, really small. We have "shoppettes" or "convenience stores" that are larger than this commissary. But, I am happy that there is some place to purchase food just a few footsteps from my hotel room. It makes it very nice and very convenient.

After purchasing a bunch of random edibles, we headed to the hotel room, where I would cook our finds into a lovely meal...complete with fruits and veggies...things I've missed over the past couple of days. After all, we have an oven right in our hotel room...pots and pans...everything I need...RIGHT?

Well, I guess that thinking was a bit naive considering that I AM in a foreign country, even though it doesn't really feel like it. One look at the oven, and I knew I was in trouble. I couldn't even figure out how to turn the darn thing on! The appliance has a note boldly written across it saying "Please read the instruction book before using this appliance". That should have been a dead give-away. But, honestly, I didn't even see the warning until after I had pushed all of the buttons and made a royal mess of things. Kevin handed me the instruction manual and I began some serious reading. After figuring out which cycle was the "normal" baking cycle (just curious...can any of you tell which one it is by the picture???) I realized I had even greater problems. The temperature is in centigrade. I suddenly wished that I had paid more attention to that portion of math class. We tried our best to figure out how to get the oven to 400 degrees. I'm still not sure I even got close.

But, to my credit, the oven eventually got hot. The chicken eventually cooked. And we, eventually ate. I guess that's all that matters immediately. But, I'm going to have to get this centigrade thing down if I want to attempt any real baking in the future.

Day 1, Sleep Walking

Wes, during his "I don't mind seatbelts" phase of the trip. This lasted about 10 minutes and no longer. It was during our first flight from Omaha to Minneapolis. After this phase, the rest of the time was spent between "I want to climb all over this plane and talk to every person on it" and "leave me the heck alone so I can sleep" phases. The picture below was taken during the "WOW!" phase of the trip where he looked out the window at the earth below passing beneath our feet and kept turning to shout "WOW!" over and over again. We were nearing Minneapolis at this time.

Hello from the UK! We've been here a grand total of 31 hours. We landed yesterday at 7:15 am (UK time) looking like walking zombies and have maintained that look until 2pm today when we finally woke up and got ready for the day. Too bad by the time we got ready (at 3:30 pm) the sun is already going down. It gets dark here fast! Daylight doesn't last too long. From what we've seen of England so far (and it hasnt' been much because we can't seem to stay awake) it's beautiful! Green hills, beautiful deciduous trees that are bright orange, gold, and red, and quaint little farms. I missed the whole drive through London from the airport because I was pretty much asleep as soon as I sat down. And, that happened even though I was actively TRYING to see it all and take it all in. Right now we're living in the temporary living facility (which is like a glorified hotel room with cooking abilities) on Mildenhall Royal Air Force Base. It pretty much feels like I'm still in the United States except for the lovely accents I encounter in the commissary, the base exchange and the Taco Bell??? We start house hunting tomorrow and I can hardly wait to find OUR house and start living there out in the English countryside and out in the culture.

But, there are things to write before that happens, like our adventures while travelling yesterday! We left our hotel room in Nebraska at 6:30 pm, packed the taxi van full to the ceiling with our stuff, and all of the people and pets that had to go with us. We drove first to the storage unit to store some last minute odds and ends (basically everything that couldn't fit into our suitcases that were practically bursting at the seams) and then to the airport, 2 hours before our flight. Good thing too, because it took us an hour to check in. The taxi driver helped us unload that heavy baggage out of his van and a porter helped us take it inside. You could literally hear the three clerks gasp when approached the check in counter. I could picture them calculating in their heads how much our baggage would cost us since airlines now charge you for actually taking luggage with you on your travels. We showed up with 6 bags (over 300 pounds of stuff), several carryons, a cat, a stroller, a car seat...and just 3 people. We were glad to be spared the expense of the baggage by our military orders (which allow you to pack an insane amount of luggage for permanent changes of station). And when I say insane...you know I mean it! I couldn't lift some of the bags! It took the longest to get Cricket ready for the plane. None of the clerks had ever checked a cat before and they stayed on the phone checking regulations for nearly an hour! When it was all done, you could barely see Cricket's carrier for all of the stickers...red, green, yellow and white ones posted all over the place stating that she was a "live animal" and shouldn't be turned upside down. You would have had to be an idiot to not know which way was "up" on that carrier.

After checking everything, we still had about 100 pounds of stuff to haul around in our carry-ons...and that doesn't count Weslee! (I know we're crazy, but we have to live off of whatever we could carry for the next 2 months.) We got to the plane just a few minutes before boarding time.

The actual flights were uneventful. The plane worked wonderfully. Wes was an angel (which I SO appreciated) and cried only a couple of times when he slipped off of the seat into the floor trying to play with the television on the back of the seat. He made friends with everyone on the plane...especially a little boy named Jaylen on our flight to London. Jaylen was nice enough to share Cheetohs with Wes on the ride, which Wes happily ate and then smeared the excess cheese on the back of my shirt (without my knowledge). Yummy! By the end of the trip, I was pretty nasty. Between the usual grossness of traveling for 24 hours, the sweat, bad breath, greasy hair and the feeling that your nose and throat will forever feel like sandpaper is lodged in them...and the added nastiness from Wes (fruit cocktail on my jeans, snot on my shirt, etc...luckily, I missed out on the spaghetti sauce from the airline dinner. Kevin proudly wore that part). He even slept well on the plane. However, Kevin and I pretty much went the entire flight without sleep. Poor Kevin went the entire day without sleep, but I caught a few hours of rest at the USO in Minnesota.

Let me tell you about the USO. It's a place for military personnel to rest and clean up between travels. This one was run by volunteers and it was SO NICE. There was a bunk room for ladies with a pack-n-play for Wes to sleep in and a bunk for me to sleep in. We turned out the lights and slept for a good 2 1/2 hours. I was expecting to have to fight with Wes to sleep out in a busy terminal. Instead, he quietly went to sleep for a good amount of time and I even got some rest. It was so nice. They even fed us hot dogs and ham and cheese sandwiches. They had toys for Wes to play with. I felt so blessed that was had a place to go to for our 8 hour layover!

When we finally arrived in London, we looked so comical trying to steer Weslee's stroller and two huge carts full of luggage around. We had no idea where our cat was and trying to find out was a little bit of an ordeal. The other ordeal was trying to figure out how to get from Heathrow airport in London to the airforce base in Mildenhall, over 2 hours away! Our sponsor (one of Kevin's co-workers at Mildenhall) was unable to show up because a laurie (a semi, basically) had run into his truck recently. But, he told us we could catch the Mildenhall shuttle which left the airport twice a day to Mildenhall. Yeah...we got there in time for that, but they wouldn't take us with a cat. So, we sat in a freezing cold waiting room while Kevin looked for taxis. The hardest part was trying to understand a "foreigner" (Indian, Iranian, etc) speaking poor English in a Brittish accent over the phone. Kevin couldn't tell what their prices were half of the time. Finally, a taxi driver noticed Kevin coming back and forth to the taxi booth for information. His own customer had not shown up and he offered us a ride in his taxi to Mildenhall for a reasonable price. We felt so blessed. He even took us half a mile away to pick up our cat from quarantine. We only had to pay $340 to get there! Yikes! Some of the other taxis were charging like $500 to drive us the 2 1/2 hours!

Needless to say, when we arrived at the front gates of Mildenhall, we looked like we had been run over by a truck a few times. We were so happy to be here, though. A sargeant came and picked us up, helped us get our hotel room, took us to the commissary to get food, to the BX to get a litter box, food and litter for our cat, and to the post office to get our new address. He even showed us the food court where we ate more Taco Bell than any one person really should. It was a happy moment and I understood why the Nephites kissed the ground when they finally landed in the Americas. I wanted to kiss the bed I saw when I entered the hotel room. It has been my good friend these past 31 hours!

We all went to sleep at 7pm last night and mysteriously all woke up at midnight. We stayed up and ate Lucky Charms until 3 am and went back to sleep and all woke up again at noon. It's been such an odd feeling being so off schedule. But, we're adjusting and we're happy to be here! Now, it's time to really go to the commissary and get stuff to make dinner for my family!

Here we go, into the wild blue yonder.......

Tonight is monumental. This is our last night in the United States for several years. The last few weeks have been filled with more emotions than I could sometimes hold. Sometimes I gritted my teeth in frustration (mostly when getting my house ready for cleaning inspections). Sometimes I found myself giddy with excitement. Sometimes, the tears would come without any warning whatsoever. And now, at the pinnacle of it all, I sit in a small temporary military living facility with all of our luggage neatly stacked on the couch, waiting for our departure tomorrow morning at 6:30 am.

It's late, but part of me doesn't want to sleep. When I wake up, life will change in quick succession. Friends, that I just spent sweet moments with just a few short hours ago at our going away party could become just another part of my history...perhaps never again to be seen face to face. Those that I've become close to, mere memories of times long past, like so many before them; placed in my life to shape and change it, and then gone as quickly as they came.

And yet, the gypsy in me is jumping at the opportunity for excitement. The "new" of moving. New friends, faces, places, memories, and history. A new home. A new environment. The itching wanderer inside of me can't wait to board a plane and fly into the unknown.

And so, in this small apartment, I'm filled with strange sensations. A dichotomy of feelings broiling under the surface of my skin. Life, though I'm still awake, feels like a dream. Though reality long ago set in (with the scrubbing of my walls and the digging up of the garden and the departure of all my treasured belongings) that I am IN FACT moving, my mind still cannot wrap itself around the distance we will travel tomorrow and the permanency of our situation. I say that I will miss my friends and family, but in fact, I can't really believe that I'm going so far away that I might not see many of them for several years. I'm sure the tears of sorrow at my loss will meet me sometime in the next 24 hours.

Bellevue Pumpkin Patch

So, with the lack of decorations around here, no pumpkins to carve, and an empty house...there is a serious lack of the Halloween/Fall spirit. So, we decided that in order to enjoy this festive season, we'd have to go out and about to find that Halloween excitement. Today started our festivities with a visit to the Bellevue Pumpkin Patch. We didn't pick out a pumpkin, because truly, we'd just have to throw it away in a few days anyhow...but we enjoyed looking around. Weslee kept running around shouting "Bapple! Bapple! Bapple!" Everything that's round and has a stem is an apple. So, actually, I guess you could say that this was our trip to the giant orange "bapple" patch. We enjoyed being outside in the crisp, fall weather too!

This was also my first attempt at family pictures with my tripod. Not bad!

The Park

This is a trick Wes has been doing for a while...since about June. He loves to go across the street to the "Weeeee", otherwise known as the park. He runs up the equipment over and over again and then slides down the slides. It gave me a heart attack the first time he did it by himself at the big slide...but now, it's old hat and it just makes all the other mothers cringe. He's very good at it and is very careful.

As an aside...this is my first storyboard EVER to put together. I rather like it, and you'll probably see more like this from me!

My poor child...

Any mom out there who has travelled for any distance in a car with a toddler can tell you that toddlers DON'T like to be restrained in a car seat for any length of time. They don't enjoy the scenery. The don't appreciate long, much needed naps (like their mothers), and they don't appreciate playing with the same toys, reading the same books, or even eating the same foods for days on end. They like variety and adventure!

So, being the smart mom that I am...I created some adventure. Sometimes I danced like a crazy person to the music coming from the radio. Sometimes I gave "Popcorn Popping" a funny, crazy twist. Sometimes I went far beyond the limits of normal. This is one such moment. After hours of driving, Wes decided he had had enough. We were only 30 minutes from our destination, and of course, we didn't want to stop. So, SUPER MOM had to come to the rescue. I put on his travel bag as a hat, used his "super mask" from one of his favorite books...and Super Mom made an appearance in the car. Wes immediately quit crying and looked at me as if I were the most retarded person on earth. You can still see his stunned look in the pictures above. He didn't quite know what to think.

Kevin, on the other hand, knew exactly what to think. He apologized to Weslee for having such a strange mother and then laughingly accused me of making our kid strange. I told him that I wasn't making our kids strange...I was making them interesting! I still hold to that position.

Somehow, looking at these pictures, I realized that somewhere down the road, Wes won't just look at me with a stunned expression. He'll turn red, and walk very quickly away from wherever I am, and pretend not to know me. My days of being an embarrassment are starting, I think...and he's not even 2!

The long drawn out goodbye

So, I'm finally at my leisure, sitting in my empty living room, on my knees no less, with my laptop propped up on an empty cardboard box and finally getting to post something. Perhaps the pictures will come tomorrow. But, for now, I'm enjoying peace...a commodity that has been hard to find for the last month. There were garage sales...massive ones to rid ourselves of all of our excess junk. Then, the obligatory trips, multiple to trips to Goodwill to get rid of everything that didn't sell. Then the true moving began.

For two weeks straight, we sorted through 8 years of "treasures" to decide what needed to be shipped to England (we're only allowed 8000 pounds of stuff, and we moved to Omaha with over 10,000...and that was before we had kids.), what needed to be donated or trashed, what needed to be stored, and what needs to go on the plane with us. It was a chore, but one that is happily now completed.

Moving day came and went with little headache. The movers came and neatly (and carefully...I was totally shocked) packed all of our belongings on one day. Then, they came and loaded them onto the truck (again, very carefully...I was still shocked) the next day. The very day after that, we loaded our stratus up, rented a car as well, and headed to St. Louis to ship our car overseas. (We're now driving our "ghetto supercar" that we drove in college all around town. You can hear us coming from about 2 miles away and it may win the Guiness book of world records for most duct tape on a vehicle. It rocks...and of course, we know you're all jealous. That's why we're bragging about it here.) But, don't be too jealous. My sister becomes owner of the supercar in 3 weeks. The supercar will escort her to her student teaching adventures in Utah. If you're on the road and hear a loud rumble, much like a giant lawnmower on the road...please move over. She hasn't driven in 3 years, and the supercar, while super, isn't too nimble anymore, hence the name "ghetto supercar".

We ourselves are camping out in our shell of a home until the 27th of this month. We have little to call our own anymore. We have an air mattress, a pack-n-play. A couple of blankets. A couple of obnoxious toys. More food storage than any 2 and 1/2 human being could eat in 3 years let alone 3 weeks. You know, the usual.

But, now more than ever, as we try to sleep on an air mattress that squeaks with every movement, and hear our voices echo throughout our house...we're ready to go and start our new adventure. I will hate to leave my friends, but my excitement to go only increased with the empty-ing of my house.

We just got home from a week long trip to say our goodbyes to our parents out east. Kevin's are on a mission for our church in Philadelphia. Mine are working and living in Baltimore. We've said goodbye, and now, it's time to go.