P-I-C-T-U-R-E-S!!!!

Um, I'm adding the posts that I couldn't post while I Had no internet. So, while I am often Chatty Cathy lately, I'm not THAT bad today!

I think I have one or two more to add, but its getting kinda late and I would like some sleep.

SO, without further ado, I shall leave everyone with something I've been promising for awhile.

PHOTOS!!!!!

Yeah, I'll admit it finally, sometimes he really IS that sweet.
Come on now Mike, really really no relation to Bill Cosby??? Are you sure?
Uh oh, he's been wathing his big bro at work too much already...
Mike and the boys by a hut on Huntstanton Beach

Here is Kade trying to sport some 'tude in the backseat. 3 years old is way fun!

Cody at the beach. Tide is out!
Wouldn't you think their first trip to the beach would be wearing swimsuits and building sand castles? Only in a perfect world I guess. haha! We stayed for a whole 10 minutes MAYBE. It was cold as hell and windier than that and rainy too!
Kade and I digging up "clams" on the beach

Well, I hate to say, it's an ecclectic mix and short of many more I was going to add. I can't hold the lids open anymore. Can't hang like I used to, for which I'm glad by the way! I left Kade and Daddy cuddling and snoring. I would say I would go join them, but it only takes about half an hour of sleeping with Kade to realize there is no such thing.

So...instead I will go move Kade to his bed and snuggle with my Mikey.

Night all and back to finish the rest of my old posts, one very important one, and add more photos!

Love love!

If you want a certain outcome, choose the right flower

What’s that you say?
Well, if you want to play the “He loves me, he loves me not” game, then you should certainly choose the proper flower to receive the outcome you wish for. If you are hoping he does not, then you might go with a flower with an odd number of petals you know.
Me, obviously there’s no wishing to it, but I’d always pick a flower of even numbered petals of course. Not to mention I have a weird OCD issue with even numbers anyway, so regardless, I’d still get the same outcome. Perhaps a subconscious method to always be loved according to a flower? Who honestly knows, only if I’m paying attention when I pick up that flower.
Luckily I’ve not had to play that game in ages, nor had I since I was very young. You can obviously figure out it has nothing to do with love whatsoever. I am loved, however, very much. I am just lucky that way these days. Maybe it’s from so many years of NOT being that I am overwhelmed with it now. Lucky me, lucky me indeed!
So you long line of gals waiting for me to croak so you can have your spot in line… I’m going to live forever just to be a shit. Granted, all of you close enough to me to know what a great guy I’ve got, know me well enough that I am just that much of a shit. So properly called on many occasions!
What the hell is my point? Not much really. Just to show off my lovely lilies. Mike learned, in a very short time in our relationship that flowers as an apology will get him nowhere but a longer sentence in the dog house. I LOATHE what I call, “ass kissing flowers” with all my being. I always have. If there is anyone on this earth that thinks a $25 dozen flowers that will wilt and die in a matter of days is going to fix any issue at all in any form of relationship, you are in a state of serious denial. What I DO love though, are the “just because I thought of you when I saw these” or the “I heard you say once that you would love these” flowers. Those flowers are awesome. They are the very best kind indeed. Sure, there are the times that you might just want them on Valentine’s Day at the office because well, it sucks to be the only one with that empty corner on your desk. Granted, you can come into work the next day and brag on the candlelit bubble bath and chocolate covered strawberries and wild monkey lovin’ you got the night before. That’ll usually shut em up! Ha!
Anyway, I’ll share a photo now. These. These are my lovely lilies, the lilies I can see sitting in my fantastic kitchen window every morning first thing. Everyday, all throughout my day that remind me that he did listen that time, and he did think of me and he did fulfill that tiny little insignificant fantasy I had.

Since we’ve been here, I’ve already learned so much about the area and with that, I will try to share that knowledge with you. You can read on and close your eyes and try to imagine it for yourself, then…when you come to VISIT it will just make it all the more interesting to see for yourself, right?
Let’s hope!
In the traffic handbook, and/or driving class you might or might not read and take, you learn about lay by’s. Something I’ve found very nice about driving here is that they most definitely mean for you to take a rest if you need to. Whereas in Texas, at least, it always seemed that if you needed to pull off for a break, you had to drive for 200 miles for the next creepy rest area or gas station. God forbid you ever pull off on the side of the road for a few ZZZZ’s because you’d surely have some form of law enforcement tapping on your window wanting to know what the hell you are up to and trying to shove some spitbox in your mouth and make you walk a straight line. Which I could never do stone cold sober as it is, and NO for the record I have never once been pulled over for drinking and driving, nor given any form of field sobriety. I just know a lot of folks that have!

This is coming from someone who in the last few years has become one of those people who constantly gets very tired from driving. Used to I could drive for hours on end before I even needed a potty break, much less getting tired! Road trips were awesome! However, as the insomnia took over more regularly my ability to stay fully awake for the short drive from Abilene to Merkel was often rare. Which, of course, is very scary, especially with the cargo I often have in my vehicle. Here though, there are lay by’s every so many miles, I mean it is dizzying sometimes how many there are. The ways that they are utilized is more and more humorous and nice all at the same time. Have you ever seen a mobile barber? They have them here, they pull off on the lay by, so perhaps if you’ve been driving too long and also are looking a bit puffy headed, you can stop off for a rest and a cut. That definitely called for a 2nd look! I see him there all the time, just off the A-11 near Thetford.

There are also hot dog vendors, that truly freaks me out, but so do the food vendors on street corners in large cities. Best of all though, there are the flower vendors. Signs lead the way and give you plenty of notice that there are fresh cut flowers ahead for an extremely reasonable price. As you drive on by him, you see these enormous beautiful colorful bouquets of flowers that will make any woman smile.
One of the many times we drove by, and I made my point to vocalize the very obvious signage, I made the point of adding how neat it would be, for Mike to bring a new different bouquet home each week on the same day. I’d love to have a vase of fresh flowers on our kitchen table, and have a variety all the time.
How neat it would be now, how neat it would be to tell people that each week, he brings me a new bouquet of a new flower to put on the table on his way home from work. How neat would it be that he were STILL doing that when we were old and gray?
It’s something that I could see my grandparents doing, either set, if they’d have ever found an ounce of value in a bouquet of flowers that is. Now that we don’t have the mindset from the depression though, it’s okay for us to waste that bit of money.
So, one day, home from work he sends the boys rushing into the kitchen where I’m cooking dinner each with a bouquet of these giant gorgeous lilies straight from Holland. How neat is that? For a gal from West Texas? Pretty darn cool I must say. Fresh cut flowers straight over from Holland? Uh, yeah that’s pretty cool!
I think I need a larger vase though, I had to trim a LOT off of them to fit in there.
Aren’t they just gorgeous though? Isn’t HE just gorgeous too? For finally, actually taking a mental note and REMEMBERING it? (It IS Mike we’re talking about here).

He’s a sweet fella, what can I say? We’re raising some sweet little fellas too because they tell me, each on their own almost daily how pretty my flowers are and that they were just for me. So, honestly, I suppose if you were on your way to impress a lady, a lay by might be a good spot to stop in. Have a hotdog (okay perhaps skip that because I can only think of bad breath and spending the evening in the toilet) get a haircut and buy her lots of flowers. Showing up to a date with a fresh cut you and an arm load of fresh cut flowers? Big points guys, big points indeed!

Rainy Days

I love them so much. Yes, still. Everyone says I’ll get tired of them quickly, but I don’t know about that. Today is finally a rainy day. Day before yesterday was sort of. I think we went about 3 whole days without a drop and Mike and I both almost at the same instant said how we wished it would hurry and rain again.
Now if only I had something to put in my fireplace to burn and some super comfy jammies, I could be having a very perfect comfy moment right this instant. It is cool and raining out, both boys are napping at the same time, which makes for a luxurious afternoon, no matter what is on my project list. The house is totally silent except for my ticking away on the keyboard here. Other than the sound of rain, that is.
We decided to go ahead and put my office on the ground floor, for which I am very thankful. I have windows. Sure there was A window in the original room it was going to be in, but a very, very small window that was up too high to really see out of anyway. I must have a window to see out of, lots of natural light and some bits of nature to flow in. Right now, I can look out my window and see the rain falling on the adorable fence between mine and my neighbor’s yard and just beyond that above the trees, I can see the church. The ancient old church, from the 1700’s I believe, but don’t quote me. Come to find out this particular church, which I can’t name at the moment, was a station for US troops during WWII. Don’t you know that got Mike all excited to see that?
Anyway, it is the reason our “road” is called what it is, our subdivision, whatever you call it here, Church View Close. Love it.
Have I ever yet mentioned that I absolutely ADORE where we live? I really do. We’ve not made it to the pub just yet, hopefully soon though. There are a total of eight homes already built, one in the process back here. One is still empty, one we’ve not met yet but all the rest we know and they are fantastic!
Two of those, of course, are the other two military families that moved in the same day we did. Three others are English families and they are so so friendly!
See how friendly they are? Barely a week in the place and I get a fresh basket of carrots straight from the garden! Okay, they were really in a bag, but I laughed so hard at our friend around the curve when she asked if mine came in that basket because hers had come in a bag. Haha! I thought they were pretty and could serve as part of the decoration here until they are all consumed!
I’ll be making a roast in a couple of days that will likely take up a majority of them! I just love it though. This little “hood” just makes you feel all cozy. We can receive packages for one another from the postman and watch out for the repairman or keep an eye out for each other while someone is on holiday etc… We’ve all had a laugh here and there at the differences in our countries as well.
I can envision Christmas parties and just because parties and Mike and I have already decided we will ensue Tex-Mex night so we can enlighten them with my (what will now for SURE be) world famous quesadillas and enchiladas and some corona etc… I’ll be sure to have plenty of tums and pepto on hand for everyone! At any rate, the people here are all so very friendly, they have been so helpful and we’ve tried however we can to return the favor. I have not ever lived in any neighborhood like this back home, so it is definitely making this change much easier and nicer.
It is such a comfortable place and I still love our peacocks! They say they’ll drive me batty soon enough, but for now we still find them very endearing. I’ve also found there are many, many more here than we’d originally thought. We’ve now counted out 3 grown males and 2 grown females who each have babies totaling out at 6. Hmmm….if you’ve ever been around peacocks, you understand they can sometimes be pretty noisy. Eleven of them in one tiny little village might get a little crazy come spring time! I still giggle out loud every time one of the mama’s makes her warning honk. The boys laugh so hard and copy her, and then she does it again because they made a weird noise at her.
They also like cheetos. Hope that isn’t seriously detrimental to the health of peacocks, because we feed them curly cheetos often.
At any rate, if anyone was worried about where we were to end up living, we absolutely LOVE it here. You really don’t ever know the prison is back there at all. You do hear them playing football once in awhile (to us Americans that’s soccer) but you’d never think anything of it as it sounds just like any other game being played any other place.
Oh the other nice neat thing? The police. They actually came by each of our homes and knocked on the door and introduced themselves, told us how nice and quiet it is here and gave us their cards if we ever needed anything at all. Isn’t that sweet?
Mike has met a few buddies he can play golf with also, there are several teenagers around that can babysit, the other ladies all seem wonderful. Can it be real?
We love our house (now that the kinks are finally getting worked out), we looooove our yard (otherwise known as garden) and we love the people here and the little ‘hood’ we’re in.
I’ll even admit though, that I can’t wait till that dumb dog is here. She’ll complete our little white picket fence scene. Granted, our family in its entirety would totally complete it, but we’ve got our little family here all together and that is what we are so grateful for. Missing everyone back home for sure, but enjoying our new home!!!

I made it!!!

Yep. I've survived 2.5 weeks with no internet! I did have access to my gmail...to read it, but rarely to actually respond. I mean...I could respond, but it would just get lost and make me sign in again. Wasn't THAT fun? Especially with some of the things I was trying to deal with! No one ever needs ya until you can't get back with them right?
I wasn't very interested in staying up all night long and racking up a $500 phone bill, so its all had to wait until now. However, a lovely chap brought me some internet today. No, I did not kiss him, hug him or high five him. I simply signed for my package and shoved him off my front step and slammed the door! ha!
I know everyone can totally SEE that too. hehe
Anyway, we're back and in action again. Although, I've got a lot of running around to do this afternoon. Dr's appt. today, which is a complete and total waste of time but I won't complain about the military healthcare system and the lack of organization or communication here. Nope not a word. Then I have to actually go to a LAUNDRO-MAT to wash Kade's comforter (don't ask) b/c although I was miraculously able to shove it in the teeeeeny tiny washing machine, while it took every limb I had to get it in there, it didn't do much washin. THEN I'm off to shop! Nothing major really. The nearest Sainsbury's is opening up their new side which includes homewares and clothing and I DO love their childrens clothing, so I'll be stopping off there on the way home. THere are still so many little things we need for the house.
Who'd ever have thought of all the damn bathroom stuff I've got to get now? Yikes!

At any rate. I guess while being completely and totally cut off from the outside world beyond my fence I've sorta gotten used to this whole blogging thing. So I wrote out a few I'll have to post later on to get it all caught up.
We had a big day here last week. Bittersweet indeed. :)
Definitely have a good one on that! :)
Oh and....AND....I CAN POST PHOTOS AND VIDEO NOW!!!!!!!!!
YAY!
Everyone (that gets stuff from me i.e. family and close friends) get geared up to be ordering some new pics!!! I'll be trying to load stuff through the evenings for quite awhile now. I had to buy the biggest darn internet package they had here so I could just share stuff! ha

At any rate. I've been paying for my damn internet provider back home this whole time because I was a dummy and did not forward email correctly. I've just now opened it and its still going wild. Holy hell. I hope that's mostly stupid spams!
So...if you sent an email, be patient and bear with me because I am just now seeing it! Um, well not just now because its still going insane, meaning I'll wait for it to all load and then I will have to sift through it all.

****** ON THAT NOTE --- VERY IMPORTANT!*******
Please make sure that you have the CORRECT updated email addresses for us because the old ones are history as soon as all of this loads and I can get the company on the phone. Hopefully they will be forgiving too, since we for some reason, ended up with the wireless tower HERE when it was supposed to be left with my dear sister. Whoops.
If you do not have our email info, I will send out an update AGAIN as I get all of my personal contacts added now to the new one with our new info.
Otherwise, art.image.attitude@gmail.com is my biz basically, but honestly the one I check most and where my info@aimeepayne.net SHOULD have been forwarded to but was not. And our family email is the exact same as it was, but ends with gmail.com instead of clearwire. Nuff said, easy enough.
It will NOT change again peeps. I promise. Scout's honor! :)

WIth that, I need to see why the boys are so quiet and get ready for the LAUNDRO-MAT. Yay. At least its on base and during work hours so hopefully it won't be too bad and no one urinates in the tubs and is sleeping on the seats while I'm trying to wash our drawers. ha.
I'm so funny sometimes I swear.

P.S.
We absolutely totally miss EVERYONE back home VERY much....
but
We love it here! We love love LOVE our neighborhood. LOVE our house. LOVE our neighbors! Its wonderful and the boys are really enjoying it too!
Now I'm out to find some good rain gear for them so we can learn that you CAN go out in the rain here without being blown away in a tornado, beaten to a pulp by baseball sized hail or otherwise electrocuted by lightening, washed away in a flash flood etc... etc...

Love!!!!!
XOXO
Aimee
(too excited about being back online)

sometimes i feel like i'm in a foreign country

I suppose that might be for good reason?
Today marked day 1 of me driving on the British roads. Not too bad. I asked Mike to ride quietly unless he was asked something because I noticed that when he was with me I did terribly but when I was alone (on base of course) I was alright. There are still a few areas that I question myself.
Overall, not too bad. I really see the need for an English car and the danger in driving an American car. Especially for someone like me who's about 6 feet off with depth perception.
We drove out to our soon to be home today and it looks like they've gotten just about everything done. Still some gardening work to do and it looked like some trim work.
It was so neat walking up around the back to find a large male peacock just chilling on the back patio.
I am so ready to be in our house!
We also met one of our next door neighbors and she was an absolute doll! She has lived in that subdivision for about a year and a half and said it is QUIET and so nice and they love it. Everyone knows everyone right there and she seemed very excited that all the houses except for one were filling up THIS weekend! Its going to be insane over there if there are shipments coming in for the other two families that are moving in on Friday as well. Can you imagine? Well, probably not since you've not actually SEEN the little area. SUbdivision is such a long thing to call it, I'll have to come up with something else. haha. Its not really even that. I don't suppose 8 houses can make up a whole subdivision can it?
Mike is out playing some poker this evening, I'm glad he is out meeting people. Ha, how long has it been since MIKE went out on a Saturday and I stayed home? Yes, awhile. Long while.
There is an antique fair in Newmarket tomorrow at the racetrack. I love that town, although I've heard a lot of people really don't, but the shopping was fantastic after going so long without even SEEING a single shop. Not that I went in a single one, but it was nice to know that they were there. That coupled with these enormous estates with horses littering the landscape, absolutely right up my alley. They juse use the wrong kind of saddles around here.
ANyway, we may swing out there and check it out. I'd like to find some thrift stores in the area. My thinking is that all of this modern furniture that I love so much is so very very common here, that no one really thinks much of it like I do and perhaps they might like some of our furniture. I'm hoping we can find someone with a large large bedroom that would like our gorgeous bedroom suite. Why?
Well, just as I suspected our bedroom (which it was the same in every home we've seen) is too small for our furniture. I don't even know that it will actually even fit in there, but if it does, there'll be no way to walk around it.
*sigh*
We'll see. I've got a lot of work ahead of me. Mike has a long weekend this coming week, so he'll be there for 4 days to get us going. I'm looking forward to having our bbq grill again, and the trampoline!
I won't admit the other thing I sort of kind of miss that I didn't really say to Mike earlier.
It'll be shipped along by his Mom in a couple more months. : I think I just miss having a dog in general, not THAT one. I'm sure of it.
I am so appreciative that this is such a dog friendly place. There are dog parks, dog beaches and ALL the beaches are dog friendly certain times of year, when I've called about homes and mention a pet, they get very reserved and ask what kind of dog. Now back home when I'd mention what kind of dog, it was rarely a good thing b/c they expected people to live with little yippy dogs only (ew). Well they get quiet and I tell them its a labrador and suddenly their tone changes and they often say, "OH GREAT!!!! Absolutely!".
So funny to me. They are so destructive at a young age, that's a dog as a landlord I'd have to pass on. ha! Granted, if its an older one, i'd know they were lazy as all get out and do nothing.
Oh man.

I hope everyone can stick with us for a bit longer. I promise there won't be all these boring posts with no photos forever. I'll have some other people to talk with soon enough and won't have to chat endlessly on here.

Sure do miss everyone!

The Bidet Chronicles

Everyone keeps making fun of my bidets. I'm trying to figure out what I'm going to do with those things. Ew. Do people REALLY use those anymore? Do they even come with instructions? How does one know what to do with that? Maybe we can make some neat creative fish bowls with them??
I mean seriously...out of sheer curiousity I've got to google this. The things that come to mind are just too much. Seriously....

So, this morning I took the test for my British license. Shockingly I passed! Barely mind you because someone didn't study at all. Apparently, though, I could've been driving this entire time. It's okay though because I think it did me some good to just ride with Mike and pay attention and learn. At least its nice to KNOW that I CAN drive when I feel like it. I am just going to have to work up to it, build from smaller slower towns to somewhat larger. Very large populated busy areas? Um...I'll pass thanks. Luckily trains are big here. I'll take up train riding. Train riding doped up on Dramamine of course.

So likley not a whole lot that is all that interesting. Today we went to Bury to see some sofa's I'd found online, soooo nice! Ikea got voted off the island when I saw these AND they were within delivery range AND they are on sale! Lots of sofa's that are my taste, but not so far out there that Mike will faint. Since he went off and said the words, "You have full control of decorating our new house, I don't care what you get, just decorate it!". Now he's pretty worried when I send him e-mails out with bright green or orange leather sofas with crazy curves or no arms etc... (they ARE cool though). This one store has many that we can both FINALLY agree on! Well, they were closed. Do they have "normal" store hours? No, one night they close at 8pm, then 6, then 8 then 6 - so on and so forth. Seriously? Well that was a lovely waste of petrol. (Yep, get used to it, I'll be tossing out some British terms where I can, it really does catch on quickly).
We were able to stop off at a store my friend Carol recommended for clothing and I'm so thankful!!!! Oh man oh man am I EVER excited to get a day to myself to go out and hit some of these shops!!!! I got the boys several shirts (since the illustrious BX here has NOTHING) and they are simply ADORABLE! So, that made me feel a little bit better! I was able to pick out a few things to go back and buy for some folks back home as well.

The boys are doing really really well, they're getting adjusted and honestly acting *knock on wood* better than they did for awhie before we left. I'm so relieved. I'm so proud of them lately! Cody is really showing his Big Boy side and Kade is coming back to himself FINALLY! Always my big boy and well.... back to being MOmmy's little man. They've fought less and hugged more and are getting much better at playing TOGETHER. I found some neat toys at the BX on another base, (there are 3 US bases right near each other and each offers different things at their store, but...even collectively, its still super sucky shopping) and they have had SUCH a blast with them! Its awesome to FINALLY spend money on a toy they PLAY with!

Mike was informed today that our first shipment has also arrived, so next Friday we will be taking posession of our new house and ALL of our things will also be delivered! What a relief! The final date was the 28th and I personally didn't want to mess with temp. furniture, so I was just going to make us tough it out for a week, but now we get to set up the boys new rooms and watch our new TV again!
We are really excited, in case you didn't gather that much already!
Today I began making out a list of just general things we need to get. Not only did we sell off a lot of things, we also (obviously) have never had such a large home. Not that its any mansion by a stretch, but seriously, just think of all the trash cans... wow. That's a lot! ha!
At any rate, that is our update for the moment.
Perhaps tomorrow I'll be sure to make an effort to go deal with the JERKS at the office so I can dump some pictures. Maybe...

I would like to send out a very special congratulations to Sarah, Nick, Angel and Hudson for the arrival of their new baby girl Haven! She is absolutely beautiful and I can only imagine how adored she is already and how much she will be for always! I hope the boys get to see her very soon and that she is a fantastic sleeper and an easy going content baby!
(If you are curious about Angel, please check out his site - link in my fave links to the right top of the page).

AND...while we're talking babies, a good luck and thinking of you to my dear friend Christy, back in Tennessee....SHE is having her baby girl Averie tomorrow morning! Its baby central around here! I can't wait to see her! Wish I were there to photograph it! Praying all goes quick and easy as pie and that she is also an easy going little gal. Goodness, with her 3 BIG brothers... no need for Dad to worry about the boys bothering her!

So, on that note....I'm going to say something to make all of you back in the South ill, I'm going to turn on some HEAT because I am FREEZING!!!!!!!

Seriously, the world is out to get me

So I'm trying this yet again....



Our humble abode! Just 10 more days to go!!!! (Yes, they are taking care of that weed problem)!

Unfortunately there were no vacancies here.
Great, English country-side, across the street from the base, because that is the only time someone is still enough for me to take a photo. Thank goodness for the red light huh?
This is what nap time looked like for several days in a row. That's what you call a little trooper.
Just in case, you were not in the mood for the Half Gospel Church that day.

A park here on base. Kade has named her Milly and she does come to see him everytime we go over there.

He's just the ham. He shoved Kade down earlier to be in a picture.
Seems that maybe his camera phobia is fading? Not 100% but its getting better! (I still want to know who on earth taught my son to say "cheese", whoever you are, you are in trouble!). haha
This is our village church, it is directly across the street from our little subdivision. Every village has at least one church like this and yeah, they ALL are on a road named either Church Road, Church Lane or Church Drove etc...
I'll try some more this evening, Cody just ripped off his clothes and peed in the floor. *sigh*
I guess my "me time" is over for the day.