Bury St. Edmunds

Wednesday was our second great adventure here in the UK. We went with a "newcomers tour" to Bury St. Edmunds, a larger town near our base. We totally enjoyed ourselves. We started the tour on a big bus, winding down what looked to me like a sidewalk with cars driving on it. There were several times I thought the bus was either going to whack a road sign or an oncoming car. The whole trip, the bus was brushing up against the hedges growing alongside the road. The whole while, our tour guide, a seasoned military member, gave us the history of the area, dating back from the Roman time period and told us about his adventures in the pubs and with his metal detector. Apparently, it's a popular passtime to go out with a metal detector and look for old artifacts. The tour guide reminded us that because Britain is so small and so old, there isn't a square mile that hasn't been lived upon at some time or another. The country side is literally littered with coins, brass clasps, arrowheads, and other valuable artifacts. All finds must be reported to the British governement. If they decide it's of national importance, they pay you for the find and display it in a museum somewhere. If not, you get to keep it. Our guide (who also happens to be one of our new neighbors in Mildenhall...surprise!) has found tons of coins that he makes necklaces and other jewelry out of for his friends and family. Kevin and I are thinking about renting one and seeing what we can find for family night sometime. It'll be fun just to be out in some random field with the detector.

When we finally got to Bury, we stopped first at the Nutshell. It is the Guiness Book of World Records holder for being the smallest pub in the world. 10 people can comfortably fit inside around the counter (which is pretty much all the pub is...a counter)...but they have crammed over 100 people in the pub at once for fun. Seriously, after seeing the pub, I can only guess they must have sat on one another to get that many people in there.

After the Nutshell, we headed to St. Edmundsbury Cathedral. It's only recently become a cathedral. It used to only be a parish church. It still serves the parish, but has been fitted with a tower (actually, the tower is still being built along with the double buttress roof). There are scaffolds all over the place where the workers are reroofing the building. The tower is actually quite special to the people of Bury. The mason who created the tower taught his crew a 500 year old art of masonry to make the tower the way the masons would have made it back when the church was built. Each piece of rock had to be measured twice...once on the computer and once with a tape measure, because the rocks had to fit together perfectly. It cost them 12 million dollars to build. The government only funded half of the money. The people in the parish had to raise the rest. Most of the money actually came from the United States. The church has strong ties to the Magna Carta (the basis for our Constitution) and many of the first settlers to the USA came from Bury St. Edmunds. In fact, the founder of Jamestown...the one who raised the money and hand selected the first voyagers (including John Smith) came from the parish in Bury St. Edmunds. His daughter was the vicar's wife. Another interesting thing about the cathedral is that it was built (or at least the parish church was built) for the parishoners because the abby was too busy taking care of pilgrims that came to pray at the tomb of St. Edmunds (an early king that was martyred by the Danes because he wouldn't renounce his God). Myth has it that he was beheaded and when the peasants were looking for his head to bury with his body, a wolf called out to them in Latin, "over here, over here". The wolf had the king's head between his paws and allowed the peasants to take it (and he didn't try to eat it). The wolf stayed in the village for the duration of the funeral and then departed, never to be heard from again. Myth also has it that when they put the head with the body, his head reattached itself to his neck straightway. His body was supposedly dug up in the medieval time period to see if, in fact, it did reconnect, and reports were that it did. However, no one knows where his body is now, so they can't check it again. St. Edmunds used to be the patron saint of England and there is talk of making him the patron saint again...but who knows what will happen.

During the tour, Weslee began to have stomach problems and soon afterwards, began having explosive diapers. I was the lucky one holding him at the time. We left the tour group to change his diaper before any more of the goo got on my jacket (I smelled horrible the rest of the trip). While changing his diaper, the tour group moved on, leaving me alone...and lost. Weslee and I walked around the outside of the cathedral for a good 10 minutes...and even into the ruins behind the cathedral searching for the group of 12. When we didn't find them, we headed back to the front door (mainly because Weslee had exploded out of his diaper yet again...why, oh why didn't I think to bring extra pants for him?) and found the group looking for us. Kevin was good enough to take the kid and the explosive diaper off of my hands. I tried to get the goo off of me as best as I could with a wipe. Wipes do great things for getting goo off of baby's bums...but not so great with cordurouy jackets. Oh well. The group was pretty understanding.

After the cathedral, we headed to the Queen's Arms (another pub) for the best lunch I've had here so far. I had a chicken bacon sandwich on a "grainy" (a whole wheat baguette). Seriously...it was some of the best food I've had in a while. I am in love with English bacon. It's thick like Canadian bacon and salty and greasy like American bacon. Not healthy, I'm sure. Oh, but it was delicious. I'm sure my entire meal wasn't exactly healthy...I don't think Brits are known for their healthy foods...my baguette was smothered in really good mayo.

We spent the rest of the day touring the ruins of the humongous abbey that was torn down during King Henry VIII's reign. All that's left is the flint that filled the thick walls. Everything else was taken by the villagers to build their homes and garden walls. So, in essence, the abbey is still in Bury...it's just spread all over the place. We also toured St Mary's church, which is smaller and darker than the cathedral. But, I liked the interior a little more. The dark, rich wood made it seem more comfortable and less imposing that the stark white limestone of the cathedral. It seemed more "homey".

On our way back to the bus, we hit the market. There were so many things I wanted to stop and look at and possibly purchase...but we were just barely going to make our bus back home. I quickly purchased 2 pints of raspberries from a vendor on our way out. 2 pints for 1 pound 50 pence...or roughly 3 dollars. I thought I had scored big since a pint of raspberries at the commissary is $3.50. We enjoyed crepes later that night with lots of fresh berries. They were delicious. We had heard (and now we agree) that the open markets in the little villages around here are the only places to shop for fruits and veggies. They are so much cheaper and taste so much better.

Anyway...the last picture is a funny sign I saw right before the bus stop. "Fatty Bun Buns". In the states, someone would shoot you if you named your sandwich shop that...and they certainly wouldn't come and purchase your sandwiches. If you look closely, the lady in front of the shop actually looks shocked...likes she's been caught doing something she didn't want to be caught doing (like eating a sandwich that will give you fatty bun buns). It makes me laugh, and so it's included here.

Tuesday- Norwich Castle

Weslee and Kevin outside the castle gates. Weslee had JUST woken up from a quick nap on Kevin's shoulder.

They had so many armour suits on display. This one caught my particular interest because it's what you picture when you read a fairy tale.

This was a REALLY DEEP well in the "keep" of the castle. This well serviced the inmates in prison as well as those servants that worked downstairs for the king. Seriously, this picture doesn't do it justice. You wouldn't want to fall down this well.

Weslee looking out at Norwich from the windows in the castle's medieval restrooms. They constructed a whole hallway of toilets for the inmates to use in medieval times (which I thought was rather humane for those times). There were four holes on two benches that faced eachother in each room (and there were several rooms) so that you could plausibly sit on the toilet facing someone else and pass the time just chatting it up. And, then I realized the toilets didn't flush and that there were probably rats...and I realized that maybe they didn't linger afterall.

We all "left our mark" on this piece of stone at the museum with a dull metal oval just like the inmates used to do. Weslee particularly enjoyed it and actually spent a good deal of time here while we read about the suits of armor and weapons. It was nice to get to read something.

Weslee and Kevin inside the toilet hallway. Notice how short the doorway is and how narrow the hallway is.

This was another thing that interested Weslee for a long time. Each of these silver things is a radio type device. You push the button and put the silver thing to your ear. A voice tells his or her story while they were in the dungeons. Weslee thought they were phones and listened intently while we read about the burial rituals of some of the Anglo-Saxons in the area.

Truthfully, we had meant to see more in Norwich, but there were several reasons this did not happen. First, we woke up late. We're still having trouble getting on a good solid sleeping schedule. Second, we had to rent a car, fill it up with gas, and find our way on streets that are alien to us. Third, um...well, we're driving on the wrong side of the street, for crying out loud. I am so glad that Kevin decided to drive today. I am still SO NERVOUS about getting in a car and travelling at 60 miles per hour past large semis on roads that are little bigger than a sidewalk. It's insane. I poked fun at Kevin as he ran over a couple of curbs and such...but I KNOW we would have been much worse off if I had done the driving. He did an excellent job of navigating round abouts in the middle of the freeway, tons and tons of pedestrian shoppers crossing the streets at random times in Norwich in the shopping district close to the castle, and in general getting us where we had hoped to go.

Once we parked in Norwich (which is a pretty large city...it used to be the second largest city in England, second only to London). Now, it has a reputation for being small and "back-woodsy". But the truth is, and any Norwich citizen will tell you, they are liberal. More so than practically anywhere else in the country. It is a metropolitan area that has all of the modern conveniences. It's within a 30 mile drive of Great Yarmouth at the beach...and it draws people from all over. We'll definitely be coming back...not just because our stake center is here, but because it's just a really cool city, full of history.

Today, we chose to see the castle, mainly because it was the building we actually found. We walked around the city for 30 minutes looking for it and finally found it. We got there late and were able to pay the cheap price to just "pop in" for a pound. We saw almost the whole museum, though we didn't get to read everything. But, then in reality...we probably wouldn't have gotten to with a child anyhow.

Tuesday- Wymondham

Many people here have favorites villages. Some like them because of a particular pub. Some like them because of the shopping. Wymondham was a small village just south of Norwich that I had found on the internet last night. The pictures of the abbey drew me in and I had to go see it. We stopped to see it before heading into Norwich. After viewing the abbey, the old rustic homes, and seeing the local countryside...I may have found a favorite village of my own.

The abbey is an imposing building, built in 1106 by Normans. It used to be much larger, but was partially destroyed when Henry VIII declared the separation of England from the Catholic church. The monastery was sold off, the monks kicked out, and eventually, the monastery (the only remains of which are the arch way you can see in some of the pictures) fell into ruins. The abbey still functions as the town's parish church.

It was terribly cold, or we would have stayed longer. Weslee's hands and lips began to turn blue. Kevin and Wes headed back to the car early while I took a few more pictures. This, so far, has been my favorite building to take pictures of. In a matter of a hour, it changed its face so many times, it was like shooting a different building with each frame. As the sun came out and shone upon the lovely limestone and fall trees surrounding it, it looked like it positively glowed. At other times, when the sun would hide momentarily behind a cloud, it looked almost gothic and gloomy. Very interesting and very fun. We're thinking of returning here in December for their 30th annual Dickensian Evening ringing in the Christmas season in quaint village style.

Tuesday- Thetford Forest

We woke up today feeling adventurous. It was an American holiday and Kevin didn't have to go to work, so we hiked the mile to the nearest car rental facility (with car seat, stroller, diaper bags and camera in hand), rented a VW Jetta and headed out on the open road. It was a gorgeous day and wonderful for our first real outting as a family. I can't tell you what incredible freedom I felt, being in a car with just my family, going where I wanted to go at the time I wanted to go. Weslee, as usual, was a fabulous traveler. We just kept handing him "tooties" (known to the rest of the world as graham crackers) while we were driving, and he was a happy man.

On Sunday, as I mentioned previously, I became enamored with Thetford forest. It's a lovely forest that stretches for miles around here. We had to drive straight through the heart of it on our way to Norwich (where we had decided to go for the day. We spent a good portion of last night researching the things we wanted to do and see at the Community Center the night before). The colors in the forest are breathtaking right now. Kevin found a little road that went into the denser portion of the trees and we pulled off to take some pictures.

The sun was streaming through the golden leaves on the trees and the amber ones lying on the soft ground. The ground was so soft, it felt like you were walking on a pile of carpets. The air smelled like wet vegetation, slowly rotting, but not unpleasant (remember, it's been raining all week...and is generally moist here anyway). The leaves continuously fell, one at a time, from the boughs onto the ground. I felt like I was in an Elf kingdom in the Lord of the Rings series. I wondered if forests like these were the inspiration for J.R.R. Tolkien when he wrote about wood elves. It was enchanting. I think we'll return, in all of the various seasons. You can get lost there...both physically, and just mentally. It was wonderful.

Monday- Mr. Personality

Weslee is surprising us everyday with his “toddler-ness”. Everything is big in his world. He plays big…throwing his arms all over the place, throwing toys (in a playful way), running around, and laughing these huge, fake, cheesy laughs with his mouth wide open. His emotional swings can sometimes be big…one minute giggling like crazy, and the next throwing himself on the floor and screaming in anger just to get up in another minute to run around and play like nothing ever happened. Half the time, I’m exhausted just keeping up with the mood du jour. And, of course, now that he’s talking more and stringing words together a little better, there is the constant chatter. He talks to strangers one minute, shouting “HI!!!” as we enter a quiet room, and the next, he’s hiding his head between my legs in embarrassment. It has been fascinating to watch. My baby isn’t a baby anymore. He’s becoming a little boy.

With his growing up has come the ability to work the system. We figured out yesterday that he can convincingly “cry” at the drop of a hat, just to turn it off the minute he gets what he wants. Seriously, this kid can pull a face that will melt your heart and make you think that he has cut himself or something. Tears are also sometimes involved. Kevin came up with a solution. We now have the “whining/crying corner” in our hotel room. It is a wonderful invention for both parent and child. When Weslee begins whining, we simply take his hand and lead him to this corner (and believe it or not, he will actually walk there himself and sit down with his back against the bathroom door). Here he can whine, cry, wail…whatever…to his heart’s content. But, there’s a catch…he can’t cry, whine, or wail anywhere else unless he’s really hurt. The other catch is that Kevin and I go about our day while he’s in this corner. We don’t pay any attention to him other than the sideways glances when he’s not looking to make sure he’s safe. We tell him when he goes there that he can come out as soon as he’s done. An astonishing thing has happened…the whining has pretty well stopped. No more dramatic crying. No more incessant whining. He’s not getting any more attention when he does it, so it’s not fun anymore. And, we have our happy Weslee back.

The one time he’s had to go there today lasted only a couple of seconds. He began his Hollywood cry when I didn’t get the juice fast enough. Instead of getting ticked and preaching to him about not whining, I just took his hand and led him to the whining corner, looked him in the eye and told him I’d love to get him some juice when he was done crying. Seriously, the kid turned it off in 5 seconds flat…before I had even made it to the kitchen counter again, wiped the tears and said “Doos peas?” I got him juice and he didn’t whine anymore. It really is amazing. A spark of genius from Heavenly Father. It's making our house a peaceful place again, saving my sanity, and helping me feel like a better mom by helping me respond to Weslee in a more loving way.

Sunday- Stake Conference in Norwich

Today was a gorgeous, sunny day…the first we’ve seen in over a week. Melvin and Sharia, two ward members here, gave us a ride to Stake conference over an hour away. Sharia didn’t come because one of her children is sick, so we met Melvin and his 2 year old daughter. The drive was gorgeous. The kids stayed busy watching Dora the Explorer, which left time for me to really view the beautiful countryside.

The trees are all changing colors…vibrant golds, oranges, and reds. Little parish churches are set amongst the trees, and historic houses, making the whole drive feel like a painting. It was a joy to just sit and watch the fields and forests go by. Kevin and Melvin talked in the front seats while I took it all in sitting in the back.

Our stake seems like a good mix of British and American personnel. Our ward, we found out, is huge. 270 strong, 80 percent of those are American military personnel. Our primary is over 100 strong and the nursery is bursting at the seams. A typical military ward, it sounds like. I feel good about it. When we first thought about where we’d like to be, I thought I might like to be in a ward that was mostly British. But, we’re in a British neighborhood, and we’ll have plenty of time and ability to make British friends. It will be nice to have ward members that will understand the life of an American military member living overseas. I hope that many of them are glad to be here and can tell me about their exciting travels.

I’ve met too many military spouses on base who don’t like it here and have nothing but negative to say about being in the UK. Some complain about lack of conveniences. Some complain that everything is too expensive. Some complain that we’re just too removed from it all. Yeah, there are some inconveniences here…and yeah…things are expensive, to be sure. But, I’m hoping that when someone asks me a year from now how I like it, I can honestly tell them that this is a wonderful place and that I’ve taken a lot of good from the experience.

Kevin’s sponsor here is one of the few people I’ve heard who are totally positive about living in the UK. He has nothing but good to say about the Brits, the food, the travel, the countryside, and his house. He has a saying that has stuck with me and I hope to live by it. “Your stay here will be exactly what you expect it to be”. Basically, the UK is what you make of it. If you decide to travel, rub shoulders with the Brits, and enjoy the experience, realizing it’s not forever…you’ll love it. But, if you decide to dwell on everything you miss from home…you’ll hate it. The choice is yours. I hope to seize the opportunity to have a truly British experience and love every minute of it.

Speaking of British experiences, I made my first batch of scones tonight (Thanks, Janene for the scone mixes!). They were maple cinnamon flavor. We ate them with fresh butter and maple syrup and had some wonderful hot cocoa to go with it. Ahhhh.... delicious.

Friday and Saturday- Sick

I guess I should have known it was coming. With the time change, the stress, and the lack of sleep…it was only a matter of time before someone in this house got sick. Weslee was the first. He came down with a fever and diarreaha on Friday morning. He got a horrible rash on his bum which made it all worse. I ended up having to go and purchase some more Desitin because although I know I packed diaper rash supplies somewhere in our six humongous bags of stuff…I can’t find it anywhere. I don’t know where I put it. I’m even beginning to have doubts that I brought it at all. Perhaps it got sent to storage by accident. Oh well. We have fresh supplies now.

I was the next to come down with it. I didn’t ever run a fever, but I felt awful. Kevin was sweet and let me sleep much of the day on Saturday. I slept in until 1pm. I was only awake a couple of hours before I needed to sleep again. I slept while Weslee napped. And, by the time I awoke, the sun had already gone down, at 4:30 pm! So, Saturday was a day in which I never saw the sun.

It had some bad consequences for us. I get cabin fever pretty easily…and we found out tonight that Weslee does too. We kept him inside today because it was raining and because all of us are exhausted and not feeling well. Well, even though he wasn’t in tip-top shape didn’t mean he didn’t have a ton of energy…and he took it out on every thing and every one he was near. The poor cat received several beatings from him, which annoyed and scared the cat and exasperated his parents. Kevin was almost whacked upside the head several times with the broom that Weslee was swinging around. And, by the end of the night, the whining alone would have driven anyone bonkers. I wondered at the end of the night if we would survive the next two weeks stuck in this tiny room until our house is ready for us to move into. I’m excited that tomorrow will get us out of the house. We’re headed to Stake Conference in Norwich.

15 Wamil Way, Mildenhall

So, we finally settled on a house to live in...and this is it! 15 Wamil Way, Mildenhall.

As with all European houses, it's tiny...but oh, it's so charming. Even it's quirks (things that would NOT be good in the United States, but are perfectly normal in Europe) enhance the charm of the house. The house has a rock exterior and a timber interior covered in plaster. This means that over the hundred or more years since it's been built (and it's had it's remodellings over time to make it more modern, don't worry), it's settled...which means that the upstairs floors have twisted a bit and have left the floor a little uneven in places. We'll have to build up our bed with cinderblocks and other things to level it out. The entire property is surrounded by a rock wall (which makes it nice for Weslee and the cat...they'll both be safe). It has a wood burning stove that is both functional and decorative. We'll have to get a grate for that to protect Weslee from getting too curious.

The garden is my favorite part. It's surrounded by perennial flowers and herbs. The woman doesn't mind if we plant veggies. It's just beautiful. It's also nice that it's only minutes from base, minutes from the doctor's office, right in the heart of an English village with a beautiful abbey and tons of cute shops and pubs. It's just a short drive to Lakenheath where the commissary and BX are. Probably the farthest we'll have to travel for necessary things is to church in Thetford, 20 minutes away. (Really, the roads are known for being dangerous around here...so you don't want to take public transport...the bus station is within walking distance too...as much as possible.)

It has 3 bedrooms (one of them is little more than a box), plenty of storage, believe it or not (there's an attic, a shed, and all sorts of cubbies throughout the house), and a cute kitchen. Any of you who come to visit will be shocked by how teensy all of the British appliances are. The fridge looks like a dorm fridge. The washer looks like you can only fit one pair of pants in it at a time. So...this should be interesting. Definitely a new way of life, and we're excited to experience it.

We were so happy to get this house. There were alot of other people looking at it...and several seriously considering renting it. Period houses (or remodelled historic homes) generally don't come for rent often. People, once they settle in them, generally stay put. So, we're so happy that we get to live in one for our stay here. We won't get to move in for another 2 weeks as the landlords need to paint, clean up the garden a bit, and move the rest of their stuff out. The pictures above are from the agent's listing online and you can see all of the owner's furnishings. When we went to look at the house, they were all gone, but there were a few odds and ends left in the cubbies and storage areas. The base also has to conduct a safety inspection to make sure it meets certain safety requirements (like smoke detectors, fire alarms, no lead pipes, etc.)

Anyway, we hope to invite many of you into this home and that we'll have many good memories here as a family and with all of you!

Wednesday- Houses, Security, and Rudolph!!

Today was a busy day. Kevin was informed yesterday that he was scheduled for security briefings at his squadron during the time we had allotted for house viewing. This was a bit of a problem because transportation is hard to come by here and the only time the housing agent could take us to view houses was during Kevin’s briefings. The security briefings couldn’t be delayed and so, I went house hunting alone.

At first, I was going to take Weslee with me to see houses. But, he went to bed at a weird hour last night and woke up really early and wasn’t happy when he greeted the morning. Kevin decided to take him so that I could pay attention to the different houses and use more scrutiny when finding us a place to live for the next few years.

In the morning, we drove out west, first to a little farming community called Burnt Fen. The house we were supposed to look at out there said that it was close to base but “away from it all”. I think they emphasized the “close to base” part too much and didn’t put enough emphasis on just how “away from it all” it really was. After a 15 minute journey down the most dangerous road in the area (there have been 7 military fatalities on that road in the last few years. That alone was making me have some second thoughts about Burnt Fen as a housing option for us), we turned off the main highway onto a deeply potholed dirt road that went on for what seemed like forever. The agent jokingly remarked that she hoped our car had 4 wheel drive if we planned to move out there. The exterior of the house itself was cute. It had a long row of black berry bushes lining the fence, a gorgeous view in all directions of the fen (which is basically very fertile, black soiled farmlands) and a big front yard. But, I nearly killed myself walking up to the front door. The sidewalk was covered in a slimy moss. And, the moment we opened the door to the freezing house, I knew it wasn’t the house for us (as if the million other warnings before hadn’t been enough). It smelled rotten and dank inside. As we viewed the bedrooms, you could tell that the radiator was leaking. The agent kept talking about the gorgeous views and how she’d like to wake up every morning to those views. I was still looking at the huge, wet stain on the carpet and thinking about the horrid smell. It also crossed my mind that I would be the only person alive out there for miles…and it was a frightening thought, particularly when Kevin is deployed. I quickly told her that I didn’t think it was the right property for us. She accepted that with little complaint and we moved on to the next property, even further west (on the same treacherous road) in Littleport.

In Littleport (such a cute little hamlet), we saw two houses. One was completely unfit for renting. The house itself was in good repair, but it was on a VERY busy highway and the fence had all sorts of holes in it. Wes could have just run out the back door and into the highway. The agent told me that all of the houses the military rent have to go through a “safe living” inspection before we can rent them. She said that the house had too many large problems and that it wouldn’t pass the inspection. We moved on without doing more than looking inside the windows at the property. Honestly, if we were purchasing a house, it would have been a good home. The problems would have taken time to fix, but would have been worth it if we were planning to own the home. Like I said, the house itself was a gorgeous, well taken care of, Victorian style home. The other house was more modern and honestly, I loved it. It was spacious, cute, had a great back lawn and a ton of parking. It had a giant kitchen for the UK and even a green house out back. At the end of the morning, if I had to choose a house, I would have taken this one. I could picture our family there. The only problem was that Littleport wasn’t close to ANYTHING. We would have had to drive 20 minutes to the base where Kevin works. 35 minutes to the base where we will buy groceries and other supplies. 45 minutes to the base where Cricket will get veterinary care and 30 minutes to church. The expense of gas would have killed us and we again, prefer to use that money to actually tour the country instead of just touring (over and over again every day) the same stretch of road.

When I returned home from my morning of house hunting, the CUTEST sight awaited me! Kevin wasn’t able to take Weslee with him to his briefing, so one of the staff took Weslee to a place on base and kept him busy for a couple of hours. When Kevin picked him up, she said they had “gotten creative” with some of the supplies in the room. He looked like a little Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer with pipe cleaner antlers and a red nose. I couldn’t quit taking pictures when they got home! I know he’s my kid…but I can’t help saying it…he is the cutest thing I’ve ever seen!

Later in the afternoon, while Weslee was taking a nap, (Kevin stayed at the room with Wes while I toured the properties), Kevin’s sponsor took me to see two more houses. We saw one 20 minutes north in Brandon first. I had loved the pictures of this house. It was a really large, red brick home with beautiful landscaping. The location wasn’t terrible. It was basically in the middle of everything. Not terribly close to anything in particular, but a short driving time from everything that’s important to us. However, the landlord was ambiguous about the rent, kept changing her mind about the deposit amount, and mentioned that she would be coming to Brandon (this was her retirement home when she was done with the military…she was American) every month to check on things. I just didn’t feel right about it. I loved the house. The neighborhood seemed nice. But honestly, the whole thing seemed like it could be a real financial hassle. So, I moved on, even before seeing the next house.

The next house was in Mildenhall. I’ll be honest. I had already fallen in love with this house before ever visiting it. I kept going back to it on the Right Move website to look at the pictures. After touring it, I loved it even more. When I returned home, I told Kevin all about it and he wanted to see it immediately. We scheduled a time for tomorrow to view the property and decide for sure if it’s the one for us.