One Step Closer

We've been in this house for almost 2 weeks now & today we are one step closer to being finished with moving in. Usually I am unpacked by about the 3rd day after the movers bring in all of our furniture & boxes, but we've hit a few snags along the way. Our rooms are MUCH smaller than we are used to, & we knew from the beginning that our entire bedroom set wouldn't fit in the master bedroom of this house (I'm using the term "master bedroom" loosely.)

So we had the movers leave our long dresser in the dining room so we could either sell it or figure out what the hell we were going to do with it. As we were unpacking we figured that it would fit in the master bedroom as long we moved the tall dresser out. So today we finally had someone come move the big dresser up the narrow stairs and into our bedroom. It was quite funny watching these two guys try & maneuver that beast up the stairs!

So we finally have a bit more walking around room downstairs, but our table is still in pieces on the floor. The movers somehow lost the hardware to put it back together & we haven't been able to find hardware that fits anywhere! (UK stores carry metric hardware, we need US Standard, so anything we find here will be either slightly too small or too big.) Luckily I have awesome parents who will be sending us the correct hardware as soon as their able to go to the store & pick it up!

My poor little table. (& my poor tablecloth needs to be ironed! It fell behind the table & got a bit wrinkled!!)

x Jenna

I love England

I know that I have been complaining about a lot of things going on, but living in military temporary housing for 5 months & only having the items that fit in a suitcase will do that to a person. Also, finding out you don't have a choice of where you get to live & getting forced into a tiny home which results us having to get rid of some of our furniture can make a person a little grumpy. Though, I am attempting to not to be bitter. It turns out that I don't have to try that hard. I mean, I AM in England!! I'm in happy, shiny England!

My happy, shiny England:

• Beautiful views: Even the 5 minute drive in between bases is filled with beauty. Everything is green, even though it is winter & everything is also half frozen.
• Brick buildings: I love brick. I love old things, and I love beautiful things. Old, brick buildings are beautiful to me. 
• Shopping: First, there is the Cath Kidston store not too far from me, plus I am very much looking forward to going shopping for antiques!! I've already discovered a 3 story antique store near here that I cannot wait to peruse. My only problem is that I don't have anyone to go with yet =( I wish Melissa was here!!
• Snow: We didn't have snow in California where we lived. In fact, we didn't have any seasons in California where we lived. It was basically 60 degrees all year round & alternated between foggy days & sunny days. We now live in a place where we can experience all of the seasons again!

So these few things are what have me excited about living here. So far it's been great & I'm actually getting really excited to move into our house soon. We pick up the keys on Tuesday & will find out exactly how long after that our homegoods will be delivered. Keep your fingers crossed that it won't take too long for everything to be taken out of storage. 

I can't wait to sleep in my own bed & be lazy on my own couch! I cannot wait to start going through all the yarn I have packed away waiting to be turned into crocheted goodness!

I'm even warming up to the idea of living in this tiny place. I've even decided to name our home 'Tulip Terrace' because I love tulips & alliteration, plus it's a terraced home.

We're in the center home.

Finally!

Our move to the UK began in the spring of 2011 when we found out the air force would be sending us to RAF Mildenhall. Jer finished his course at the Defense Language Institute in California in early August, and we were set to leave soon afterwards. Well, we were forced to wait around for some paperwork to be finished & didn't move out of our house until October.

As soon as we moved out of the house Layla & I went to stay with my parents for a month while Jeremy went on to Offutt AFB in Nebraska for a TDY en-route. It was only supposed to take a few weeks or just over a month at the most, so after staying with my family for a month Layla & I joined him in Nebraska hoping to leave soon. Our original report no later than date was 30 November, but it had to be amended because his short training was taking longer than planned, due to paperwork.

While we were waiting around for some paperwork, we discovered that Layla & I didn't have the correct passports! Jer's checklist just stated that family members needed a passport, and that we could get free, government issued passports. Our first sponsor gave us the advise that we should pay for our own passports instead of getting the government issued ones because the free ones just got us into the UK, and if we wanted to travel to and other countries in Europe we'd have to get the other ones anyway. So we listened to him, and on out-processing from DLI no one said anything regarding this issue.

Luckily we found out about this prior to leaving for the UK, but we were told this process takes 8-10 weeks. We were already months passed when we were supposed to be in the UK, and now we were going to be forced to wait even longer! 

Turns out the process took no more than 3 weeks for us. We got lucky that the state department wasn't busy & issued out passports within a week. We quickly got them sent out with our applications for our visas, and the British Consulate General took only 2 weeks to approve & issue our visas. I was very impressed with how quickly the process was & how well-informed they kept us throughout! We received an email for every step our visa applications went through. Finally, we had all of our paperwork in order & everything was approved!

Then, in mid-January Jer's training was finally finished!

Things were looking like they were finally happening & after months of living out of suitcases in temporary housing we were looking forward to finally finding a home and getting settled. We went in to the travel office on base to FINALLY book our tickets, but the guy couldn't book flights for Layla & I because the address on our orders had our address in California & he couldn't fly us out of anywhere other than California or a 'port' city. Yes, it is as stupid as it sounds. Someone made this rule thinking that it would save the military money, but in fact it just makes things difficult, and could actually cost the AF money in some cases.

Our options were to either get Jer's orders amended with mine & Layla's address changed, fly out of Chicago, but make our own way there (last minute flights were horrific, and renting a car to drive that far in the midwest during winter seemed like a really stupid idea,) or fly out of St. Louis and have our car shipped out to the UK for us.

So according to the air force it's cheaper to fly 3 people & ship a car out of St. Louis than it is to fly 3 people out of Omaha with no car.....no wonder this country is in debt!

We were going to take a day & think about it, but the guy called us the next day & said that since it's cheaper to fly us out of Omaha than it would have been to fly us out of California he would be able to book the flight for us. Gee, thanks mister! Why couldn't you have told us about this option yesterday & saved us all the stress of having to figure out what we were going to do?! 

So you're welcome air force, we just saved you some money! (So sorry that we had to make you use your brains for a little bit.)

Idiot travel guy goes ahead & reserves our tickets, but we couldn't pay yet because the lodging office decided to go ahead & charge Jer's government travel card for a whole extra month ($2100!!) so we had to wait until that was refunded so we could buy them. The refund was taking forever, and Jer contacted the travel card people so the limit could be raised in case the refund didn't go through quickly enough (we only had a few days!!) The limit raising took a little while, but at 5.30 the evening before leaving it was finally raised & we were finally going to be leaving the next day!!

After months of waiting around we finally arrived in England yesterday morning! After flying into London we took a 2 hour bus ride to our base & checked into lodging. We should only be in lodging a few days, but we really have no idea how long it will take to move into a new home.

We also learned that my dream of living in a beautiful English cottage is not possible because they're forcing all E-6's to live in on-base housing. I don't normally have a problem with base housing, but I was really looking forward to the experience of living off base in an English home. & I've been living on bases around the states for the past 6 years now, and was really looking forward to something different. I really hate that I'm being forced to live somewhere that I have no choice in. I think we only have to stay in base housing the first year, and then if we want to move we will have to pack up and move everything ourselves. Not sure if it will be worth the hassle since we'll probably only be here another 2 years after that, but we will get to that issue when the time comes. 

I'm really looking forward to getting out there & exploring my new town. (I am especially looking forward to going shopping!!!!!!)

I'll try & get some pictures soon and post them asap!

x Jen

Moving

It's not a secret that I'm moving.
Though, I haven't really updated the blog on how the move is going.

Well,
it's going
uh
at a glacial pace.

Jer graduated his course in early August. The rest of his classmates had PCSd quickly after that. We were stuck in Monterey (Not a terrible place to be stuck, mind you.) but we were ready to move on since all of our friends had already left. So we FINALLY got out of the house mid-October when I left to go stay with my family while Jer went on to Omaha to do some kind of training that needed to be done before he left.

So being the hopeful, optimistic person that I am we bought plane tickets for Layla and I to join Jer in Omaha so we could spend some time with his family before moving across the pond.

Well we pulled the trigger too quickly.
His training is taking FOREVER. FOREVER.

He still hasn't started.

So time is being wasted.
Money & resources are being wasted.

& worst of all we have a 3 year old who is displaced & confused. She doesn't understand why she can't sleep in her bed. She doesn't understand where all of her toys & books are.

Moving around & living in temporary housing is tough on her.

Though I'm trying to make the best of it, this period of adjustment couldn't come at a WORSE time.

It's the holidays.

We should be in our own home with a Christmas tree lit up & decorated. All of my fun decorations spread throughout the house in every nook & cranny. I like to make this time of year a whimsical winter wonderland for Layla.

Last year was the first year she understood the concept of Santa & I was really looking forward to living the magic through her eyes this year.

I'm still trying my best to give her some of that magic, but seeing as how we don't have any more room in our luggage we can't get decorations for our temporary home & we can't get her any presents. So Santa is going to have to skip us this year, and the thought of that just devastates me. I love being Santa for my little girl. I love seeing her face in the morning.


So it's almost December & we're STILL not moved into a new place. We're still not even close to being in the country we're supposed to be making our new home in. This was supposed to be done September.

So please keep us in your thoughts. Send good Juju our way & hope that the Air Force stops this whole "hurry up & wait" business. It's wasteful, annoying, and difficult for families.

Off to dream of being on a plane making it's way to England.

Squeeeeee!!!!!!!!

Ever since we found out we're moving to England I have been daydreaming of rural English cottages made of stone surrounded by beautiful flowers and green foliage. Yes, I'm going by what I've seen in movies, because really that is my only frame of reference. Unfortunately the last time I was in England I only stayed in London & the only countryside I saw was from the window of a bus as we headed to Dover to be loaded on a ferry & then made our way to France. 

Well I found a blog that hasn't been updated since 2009 that was made by a woman stationed at RAF Mildenhall with her family. Even though it's a few years old it was quite helpful in suggestions for day trips with the family. She had lived off and on base at different points of their tour & she was a strong advocate for living off base. She had many tips & made me even more hopeful that living off base would be the best decision for us. There was even a link that sent me to a website that finds homes & flats for rent that lets you choose the size of the place & gives you a good idea of what your budget should be. Well, I found quite a few 3 bedroom homes WELL UNDER our budget that are in the town we're really hoping to live in! They're not as rural as I would hope, but I'm excited to get to know our English neighbors! I just hope they like me. I know Americans aren't universally loved abroad, but I'm hoping that since there is a large number of Americans living in the area that my English neighbors will be friendly & welcoming!

Another exciting post from the old blog was about Antique shopping! She listed quite a few places within driving distance that offer great deals & have an excellent variety of antiques. I cannot wait to check out these markets for exciting treasures for my home as well as great gifts to send home to friends & family!

cheers,

Jenna

She's Spooky & She's Kooky

Halloween is my favorite holiday. I go all out decorating my entire home, and I love sitting out on the driveway or porch in a lawn chair handing out candy to all the adorable monsters & witches and super heroes & princesses. It's gotten even bigger for us every year since Layla was born as she becomes more aware of the festivities around her. Last year was the first year she was really starting to understand what was going on & I was devastated at the fact that we were in the process of our move from Nebraska to California. I had no home to decorate & we had no neighborhood to go trick-or-treating in. We had made it to California the week before Halloween, but we wouldn't be able to move into our home until the first week of November. Well, the Halloween lover in me would not stand for it! Jeremy knew the neighborhood we would be living in, so I dressed Layla up as Cinderella & grabbed a Halloween themed bag to go trick or treating.

I was saddened by the fact that I couldn't decorate my home or throw a Halloween party for friends, but I just kept telling myself that I'll be settled in a new home next year & I'll be able to dust off my spooky decor to display for the entire month.

Well, we got our orders, and since we're moving overseas, things aren't moving as quickly as I'd like it to. Jeremy has to re-enlist, then go TDY to another base for some re-qualification, & only after that can we leave for England. So for the entire month of October all of my Halloween decorations will be in crates making it's way across the Atlantic to our new home in Suffolk.

& again I am devastated.

At this point in time August is approaching us. If you know anything about the bay area in California you know it stays a comfortably chill climate all year round...so technically it feels like Autumn...so...maybe...why not? Start decorating for Halloween in August & then take the decor down when the movers get here in September?! I THINK YES!!!

Actually, I'm still a little on the fence about it since I didn't think I'd be needing my decor at all I put it in the way back of our storage closet. I don't really want to dig all the way through there and have to rearrange my boxes all over again, but I think it might just be worth it!

Cheers,
Jenna

P.S. I hope you don't think I cover my house in bright orange & black with glittery, cartoony pumpkins, spiders, and monsters. No, I have more subtle decor with a hint of gothic macabre.