The last few weeks in pictures

I finally got all the pictures uploaded on a computer so figured I would update while my boys are sleeping. We are in between BBQ's (the weather is that nice here) and saying more goodbyes.

This is Chase's last day of preschool. They had an Easter party before the long break. I was hoping to get a cute picture in front of the school or something but it never goes as planned.  Here he is giving his teachers a thank you gift. 

Having an egg hunt outside.

We got to go with some friends for a very special tour of the fire station on base. I love how he is plugging his ears - not sure what to expect. Some of the kids got the spray the hose and all the kids got to go on a ride.

 All our stuff in boxes. Hopefully it will arrive in the states before too long!

My last wives social. It was a Royal Wedding theme so we all had to dress up and wear hats! Going to miss all the excitement here next Friday. As of now I plan on getting up and watching it but we will see. Might be a little tired from everything.

The next night a group of us girls from church went to a nice dinner and a show in Bury. We saw Beauty and the Beast. Wasn't quite the same level as Wicked but still very good!

Yesterday we hung out one last time with some good friends from our village. Chase and Charlie were in the same preschool and us moms got along as well. It is so nice to have someone close to switch off watching kids or to meet at the park or whatever. Hope it won't take 2 years to find that again in our new neighborhood.

A while back we cooked them a good ol' American steak and potatoes dinner. So they returned the favor by cooking some delicious Indian food. I had to strategically place myself so I couldn't see the snake during dinner. When I was outside the snakes came out. Chase loves seeing it and always asks every time we go over. I hate them but is glad that he doesn't seem to be afraid.

 

As we were driving to their place Chase kept asking to go home and see ner-ner (Wagner). He really has been a trooper for not understanding why so many things are different right now.

Had a small egg hunt in the back garden. Here the kids checking out their loot.

Trying to keep busy in our one room apt. with almost all the toys shipped. We've watched a lot of Thomas and Lightning lately. Here dad was trying to get Chase into Angry Birds.

Not sure about the Easter bunny.

And another egg hunt. He hasn't gotten tired of these yet :)

Another couple days and we will be back in the states. I am really dreading the flight and everything that goes with it. Not sure how we are going to lug 5 large suitcases, several carry-ons, a car seat, a toddler, a dog and dog crate to the check in but somehow we will manage.

Update in Numbers

The computer that we have hooked up to the Internet right now in our TLF has no SD card reader so I can't upload some pictures from the last few weeks. So in a (poor) effort to be creative here is a quick update on our lives in numbers.

1 - the number of houses we are responsible for. We officially checked out of our cottage last week.

3 - the number of us sleeping in one room for the past 7 nights. That equals a lot of lost sleep and some grumpy family members.

4 - number of times I got up to go to the bathroom last night. This is getting old!

9 - the number of crates (almost) all our earthly possessions fit in.

23 - the number of degrees Celsius it is supposed to be tomorrow. That is warm for England standards - break out the shorts! Looking forward to our park playdate tomorrow.

32 - number of weeks I am pregnant. I had a sonogram yesterday and he is still a boy, he is head down and my placenta has moved up! Three very good things. Time needs to slow down though - we are so not ready for him!

750 - the amount of money we lost on our deposit because the exchange rate is so much lower than it was 3 years ago. Anyone know if we can claim that loss on our taxes?

Too many to count - the number of goodbye's I have to say in the next week. Definitely the hardest part about this lifestyle. We know we will see some people again but its especially hard saying goodbye to our British friends.

I'm sure there is more but that is all I can think now.  Cheers!

House

We have a signed contract on this house!!

It's been a tiring process and its really just beginning. We are definitely making some renovations before we move in (remove wallpaper and paint, replace kitchen & utility room floor and replace one of the bathroom floors) but we are so grateful that God provided us with a house. Thanks to everyone for praying for us and a huge thanks to the Strohmeyer's for checking it out for us and helping us in other ways. We look forward to moving in in about a month!

Wicked

We took one more trip down to London this past weekend to see Wicked with some friends. We went 3 years ago but loved it so much that we jumped at the chance to see it again. We got Chipotle beforehand and Ben's cookies afterwards so a pretty good day! Huge thanks to Dani and Gordon for watching Chase and his buddy Daniel so we could go.

Thanks for all the prayers for the house. We actually put in an offer on another house that we are waiting to hear back from. Waiting is so hard! I will keep you posted! By the way this is my 30 week belly shot. With number 2 I am not as eager to get pictures.

Praying

We always laugh when we pray because Chase acts like he has the hardest time keeping his eyes closed. He shuts them so tight then moves his head side to side. It is so cute. The funny thing is we are not big sticklers on keeping eyes closed. Don't know if he picked it up from church or what.

Yes this is at dinner and we are eating pancakes. This was actually on Pancake Day or Shrove Tuesday what they call it here in England. The day before Ash Wednesday. Don't really know the background but I will take any excuse to have chocolate chip pancakes for dinner!

It was appropriate to blog this picture now because praying is something we've been doing a lot of lately with buying a house. I am really picky where I want to live at our next base and we kept coming back to a house there that was older but fit our needs. Our realtor kept trying to steer us away from us but we felt it was the best financially and I loved the location. After about a week of offers sent and rejected we finally came to an agreement - even though we had to give more than we wanted. We were just going to hold our breath for the appraisal. Well last night we found out that it was on a septic system not the city sewer - one of only 10 in the neighborhood not on city sewer and we would be paying city taxes. I think that was the straw that broke the camels back so we withdrew our offer. It helped that another house came on the market right around the corner that we were interested in. Well of course we come to find out that the other house isn't available until mid-July. Doesn't really work with a baby due in mid-June. And to top it all off we need to have a contract on a house by April 30th to get the tax credit for first time home buyers (it was extended for military overseas). So we are back to square one with a month to figure it out!
We talk about housing options and mortgage numbers from the time Brad gets home till late every night. We have to remind ourselves that God knows where we are going to live. When I turn to him He reminds me of my eternal home. That my place there is secure because he sent his Son to die in my place and take the punishment I deserve. That perspective is keeping me grounded when I am tempted to doubt.  Ok, sorry for my soapbox. I normally keep this blog pretty light but this stuff has been on my mind. I know many people are praying for us - so thank you and keep it up!

Horses

Chase loves horses. As I mentioned before there is a big horse racing town a couple miles away. There are studs in a lot of the villages surrounding the town including ours. So on our walks we go by the studs so Chase can see the horses. It took a while to convince him that both white and brown horses were in fact horses. He kept saying the white horses were cows.

 We had a free morning the other day so I decided to take Chase to watch where the horses practice. He loved it! We need to go on a Saturday when it is a lot more busy.

Big groups would go by (I think some type of school).

The jockeys would wave and Chase would just get so excited.

Starting to get a little sentimental about leaving here. We are going to miss seeing horses on our walks or when we drive thru Newmarket.  

Baby Shower

I am not sure if I've mentioned it before but there are 4 girls in our squadron due within 12 days (yep 9 months after the deployment :) For 3 of us this is not our first rodeo so when the talk of showers came around I suggested we could have a joint one. Showers can be a lot of work and I didn't want every Saturday before we leave to be busy with baby showers. So they did. Our good friends put together an amazing shower for us yesterday. We received so many generous gifts from our friends.

A baby book for each of us with cards to write prayers or a note.

The table with food and gifts underneath. They did an adorable bird theme I wish you could see all the details - a branch is running across the table with birds nest, the bird cage in the back and butterflies. The favor was a bird seed cupcake. So creative!

An attempt to get a picture of the three of us. I was not purposely hiding behind the flowers.

Kelly shared a few scriptures. One was going with the bird theme, Psalm 36:7 "How precious is your steadfast love O God! The children of mankind take refuge in the shadow of your wings." With recent current events that affect some of us or overseas moves on the horizon how wonderful to know we can take comfort in the shadow of our Father's wings.

Then came time for the gifts! We got in 3 different corners of the room and it was like Christmas. We divided up the gifts and dug in!

We are always happy with diapers! We know how many you go through with a newborn.

E is the only one with a different gender on the way. So she got a ton of blue stuff!

Showing off one of my gifts.

Please, I don't need any pictures of me eating :)

Thank you to everyone who came or gave gifts. I was blown away by your generosity. 

This picture was actually taken earlier in the week when we threw a surprise shower for K in lieu of bible study. I thought this was a good picture of all us preggos. 

Buying a Candy Bar

We are officially a member of the minivan club! Brad was able to take a trip back to the states last week to begin preparing for our big move. One thing we thought would be nice would be to have a vehicle as soon as we get there. We will ship his truck back but that could take a month or so. So as Brad landed in Raleigh he took a cab to the dealer to buy a car. Several hours later he drove away in the van after writing a check for $25,000. The funny thing is, this decision is sooo small compared to buying a house. Brad said that it felt like stopping at the gas station and buying a candy bar. He didn't even send me a picture, whereas I have looked about 500 different house pictures. We barely even talk about our new vehicle and have spent hours talking about the house.

The only way I saw the van was if it was sitting in front of a house he was looking at. So here are a couple pictures I found looking through the house pictures. By the way we are close to putting an offer in on a house but it is not this one.  

I think we are going to be big decisioned out....so any help with names for our boy would be most appreciated :) I'll keep you updated on the house front!

P.S. Huge thanks to the Strohmeyers for picking up the van at the airport when Brad left and keeping it for us for a little bit.

Family Time

On the full day of the retreat last weekend there was some free time in the afternoon. We went to explore a cute little town nearby. We walked along a path and of course the boys had to throw rocks in the water.

Chase was all excited to be able to walk thru a tunnel.

His scowl. He did not want to take a picture with mommy. He's been starting to do this face more and it is so hard not to laugh.

When we got to the park area we had to take the little train ride.

Don't know why there is a water park in England when there are only about 2 weeks a year you could use it but Chase loved it. I love this smile in these next two pictures.

Then we went to feed the ducks. The only thing we had to feed them were peanut butter crackers. The ducks were not having any of that.

A guy had pity on us and gave us a couple pieces of bread. The ducks liked that a lot better.

Some things we will miss about England...beautiful countryside with random castles/estate house.

Thomas the Train

We went on a retreat this past weekend with the chapels from the bases. It was a good time of learning more of God and hanging out with friends. I don't have any pictures of the retreat but on the way home today we stopped by the Midland Railway Centre to see some trains. It ended up being a Day out with Thomas day so that was an added bonus. We were too cheap to actually go on the ride but Chase loved seeing the trains.

When Chase saw this he just started yelling and pointing saying "Thomas, there's Thomas, mommy Thomas." He was so excited.

He couldn't sit still for 2 seconds - he just kept pointing and yelling what he saw.

More pointing :)

They had some old trains that were turned into picnic areas and play areas.

They had minature trains and Chase was excited to see Annie and Clarabel (Thomas's coaches).

When looking at this picture tonight Chase said this was the Island of Sodor. Where Thomas lives in the books and movies. Maybe in another year or so we will actually take him on the train ride.

When we were reading the Thomas books before bed tonight he kept saying " Saw Thomas today. Saw Annie and Clarabel today." It is fun to see your child so excited about something!

British Lingo

Chase has been going to a preschool here in our village 2 mornings a week. I get asked every now and then if he's picked up a british accent. I think he is too young for that and we hang out with Americans a lot more. But as he was jumping on the couch this morning (I corrected him after this video) I noticed he was saying Ready, Steady, Go! That is something he must have picked up from preschool since we would say Ready, Set, Go!

According to my ticker we are in double digits for baby #2. Hard to believe we are only about 3 months away! We haven't done really anything to get ready. The move is definitely what is consuming our thoughts and plans. We are working on Chase being more independent such as dressing/undressing, not being carried everywhere and just doing more things for himself. He is nowhere close to being potty trained - I am still hoping for this summer. Sounds like a good job for grandparents!

Chuck E Cheese

I forgot I had one more post from our trip to Kansas....We met some friends at Chuck E Cheese in Topeka one afternoon. Our kids are at the age where we still had to follow them around so we didn't get too much adult conversation. I don't want Chase to grow up too fast but times like these I wish we could give him some tokens and send him off!

He was actually content to just watch dad play some of the games. Which dad did not complain about.

The adults had some friendly competitions. Brad and I tied when we played.

Chase was dangerous trying to roll those skee balls!

 Showing off our bumps. Jill is having a boy 2 months before us.

Can you say college roomies just like their daddies?

Trying to get a picture with all the kids. One funny part of our conversation. I was asking Kate (the 4 almost 5 year old) about what activites she's been doing lately. Her mom mentioned I should ask what she did last week so I did. She matter of factly told me she wiped her bottom all by herself. It was so funny. I had turn away I was laughing so hard!

We all go so hot at Chuck E Cheese - that place is crazy! - we figured we better get some ice cream to cool down. This was the most adult conversation we got!

Thanks guys for meeting us! It was good to hang out!!