I’ve missed you all so very much!!

I know we don’t know eachother, but I really do feel like I’ve found an awesome group of girls that I “know” through the daily reading of blogs! From time to time I thought about Christina and if she had taken her big test yet, and if Jenny would wait on my recipe (thanks for waiting!), and Renee, Zoe… okay about a million of you, seriously! Don’t think I’m crazy. I probably sound that way, but being away a few days did a number on me!

Where to begin?

Well, we are in… we are not moved in, but we are “in.”

Will is moved in, but of course he would already be done- he’s a guy and had like 3 bags to mess with. I, on the other hand, have about a weeks worth of stuff I need to find a place for. I brought entirely too much with us. When we moved, the company paid for 100 pounds per person plus 2 suitcases. we shipped over 200 pounds, plus our 2 suitcases.

200 punds really isn’t that much, but boy did I bring a ton of crap that at the time I just KNEW I’d need here.

heh.

I now have 3 1/2 boxes of winter clothes. What a dork. I live in the most hellish place on earth and wanted to make sure I brought my favorite sweater. When in the world am I going to need that much!? It gets cold come December, but I certainly didn’t need the 2 coats and 53 million sweaters. Oh well. Then, I brought like a box and a hlaf of comfy clothes- as if people don’t wear yoga pants and sweats in Kuwait or something. What a goof. That’s me though. Okay, let me recap…

Wednesday I had the day off to move. We slept in (which was very nice) and got around and got our million boxes downstairs and in the Sooner mobile. We made sure to inspect the apartment before moving all our stuff up. We didn’t want another freak apartment incident like last time. Everything looked great. I am going to have to do some cleaning still, but I’m not even going to mess with it until I can see the floor again and no sweaters and boxes.

Will was finished moving Wednesday night. I however, am going to require much more time to sort through the plethora of crap I brought along. Space is not utilized very well in the apartments over here either, so I am going to have to buy some stuff FAST. I am going to the PX today to look for some storage bins, but I’ve also heard IKEA has some great stuff, probably better than the PX. I don’t know if I can wait that long! I’m going crazy with our stuff strewed everywhere!

Our apartment is really nice. The decorations are pretty terrible, but I’m sure we’ll look past that in time. We’ll be able to add some of our own stuff, so it will help with the yucky curtains and weird pictures. There are a few things that are going to take some getting used to.

We don’t have outlets in our bathroom! That is going to drive me crazy. What bathroom doesn’t have outlets!!!? Apparently we are not the only ones here that have that problem. So, I guess all of our appliances will be decorations for our small dresser. How lovely. I just love a good beard trimmer on top of my underwear drawer!

Another thing that I’m going to have to get used to is the stove. We are starving at our house! (not really) We have a gas range and I have no idea how to use it. I asked my mom and she doesn’t know either. I told Will I’d make him dinner Friday night, but I didn’t want to blow up the kitchen, so I thought I better wait and have someone show me how to do it. He comes home so late that he misses dinner anyway, so I’l be fine with Easy Mac or cereal or PBJ for a while until I can have someone show me how to feed the crazy couple.

The last thing (so far) that is going to take some getting used to is the freakish middle of the night scare I will have for the remainder of our time here. I seriously think we live in the middle of Mosque Central. No lie. There are mosques on every corner just like baptist churches in the south, but for some reason I truly believe we are near about 4 or 5. The first night we were there I was in a deep sleep, but at about 3:30 the prayer over the loudspeaker started and I seriously thought I was going to pee my pants. If you aren’t ready for it, it can be a little scary sounding. They finish the prayer and then I readjust myself, contemplate using the bathroom, and begin drifting off to sleep, only to hear another prayer, a little more in the distance. This happened 3 times.

I just stared at the ceiling thinking, “You’ve got to me kidding me.”

I’m not going to enjoy the wake-up calls!! And also, since Ramadan starts this week they have upped their prayers to like 15 times a day (okay, it just seems like that, but it is more than just the 5). I was getting ready this morning and I heard it 3 times throughout the morning. Of course, it could be the 13 different mosques around us.

Who knows.

That will be the biggest adjustment. Almost everyone is near one, but we were a little secluded in our last place, so this will be an adjustment!

One thing that I won’t have to get adjusted to is being with Will. It has been so nice to have our own place. I honestly feel like we’re just married again. I remember the first week back from our honeymoon I would be at work and think, “I get to go home to Will and we get to have our own place and play house and do whatever we want.” It was such an awesome feeling, and I am feeling it all over again. It has been so much fun. i truly feel like a newlywed. It is amazing how refreshing going from being with your parents to being alone again has been. i dont mean that in a negative way, but this weekend was so great becaue it was just us and we were in our messy, winter clothes laden house. Ahhh

Thursday morning was spent putting some stuff away, but not as much as I truly needed. Will is so different than I am when it comes to this stuff. He’s the, “life’s too short, let’s enjoy the day, “ guy, while I’m the, “If I don’t get this house unpacked today I am going to enter into a huge mouth foaming fit, with leg twitches and all” type person.

I remember the immense stress I was under right before we moved to Kuwait. We had a week to do everything. Between getting a realtor, a power of attorney and storage unit and insurance stuff and packing- I thought I was going to go crazy. Will acted like we had 3 months to get it all done. He broke no sweat… “It’ll get done.” Anyway… I gave that whole speech to say his carefree attitude won Thursday.

We unpacked a little and then watched a couple hours of King of Queens. I had an eyebrow appointment at 3:00, so we went to that and then decided we might as well enjoy our weekend instead of packing (because, in the eyes of Will, “it can wait.") After that we went to the movies. We were early (and starving) so we bought our first movie meal ever. We split a hot dog and nachos and cookies. You know we’ve been married for a while when a hot date is a late lunch at the theatre. ha ha. After our movie we walked around. It wasn’t miserable outside, so we walked up and down the street by the mall. It was a lot of fun, and I forgot about the million things I needed to do. We ended up having a late dinner at Johnny Rockets. We both had never been, so it was lot’s of fun.

Friday was shopping day. We got up early and I did something I haven’t done in 5 months… DRIVE! It was scary and a little hectic, but I made it through okay. The round-a-bouts are the worst! I don’t know why they insisted creating them here. I’m sure they make sense in Britian, but here no one waits their turn and people are literally 4 in a row. It is insane. That is one thing I will never get used to. Luckily we went early on their holy day, so it wasn’t too bad. I’m going to have to practice that!

Grocery shopping was so much fun… for me anyway. I’m sure Will would say otherwise. That probably sounds crazy! It had been 5 months since Will and I had been to the grocery store together, so it was so much fun being together and picking out stuff… and just plain grocery shopping for us! Crazy, I know. It’s amazing. We spent around $375 and having nothing to show for it. We have 3 things in our freezer, butter, pickles, and something else small in our fridge… we are still extremely sparce. I forgot how expensive setting up a house is! We had to get cleaning stuff and detergent, and bath mats, and extra dishes. It was an expensive starter trip. Now we’ll just have to get groceries next time (and a few other things… I NEED A SWIFFER SO BAD!!!! I can’t find one anywhere! They either sell the swiffer but no refills or don’t have it at all.. I’m going crazy with an all tile house!). We got to the checkout line and Will used his card but forgot the pin. It didn’t go through. He tried again, but still couldn’t remember it. Any other time in our lives we would have been in a panic. My face would have probably turned red and thought, “Great. He forgot his pin and now we are going to have to put everything back.” However, we just used our living allowance and were able to take care of it. That was the first time ever something like that wasn’t a big deal. Grocery shopping was sad before we moved over here. I can’t even tell you how many Lipton noodle nights we had! God always took care of us, and we always had what we needed, and we knew what we were doing what He had called us to do, but it was a nice feeling not to have to worry when we went yesterday- another blessing from God.

Anyway. Enough about that! After that we put our stuff away and met my parents for lunch at.. Johnny Rockets… again. We didn’t mind. We really liked it. It was nice to meet them for dinner and get to talk and “Catch up (since it had been soooo long since I had seen them!)” and know that we were going separate ways afterwards. Just like old times. Such a nice feeling.

We came home and I did a little more unpacking and then Will and I sat down and had a financial meeting. We sat down and really talked about our bills and what we wanted to get rid of and pay down, etc. and then we set our financial goal for being here. We talked about how much we wanted to dsave a year. We both had numbers in our head. We talked about them and came up with a number and then figured up a budget to see how much we would be living off of once we out that number back. It was really good for us to talk about and plan because now we are truly working towards our goal.

After our “business meeting” we sipped crystal light and sat on our balcony. It was so nice. We talked about our big Green Bay trip, work, about how much we love King of Queens… just about everything! We went back inside and watched… any guesses?… 4 King of Queens. I don’t know what we’re going to do when that show ends! It will be a sad sad day for Will and Brittny. We are obsessed with the show. This is so very sad. This morning when we were getting ready Will looked at me and said, “How old are Doug and Carrie?” like they were our real friends or something.

Wow.

We’ve got to get our more.

This weekend was so great. I know it just sounds like another weekend of grocery shopping, talking money, and stuff like that, but it was so new and refreshing for me. I am already looking at the clock thinking about going home and unpacking some before Will gets home. I’ll only have about half an hour with him until he has to go to bed, but it will be half an hour of his undivded attention in our own serenity. That is the most amazing feeling. I truly forgot the power of togetherness in your own space. I am getting all giddy just thinking about it. It is something I think we can take forgranted if we’re not careful. This weekend really brought me back to my first weeks as a bride and trying to unpack everything and turn our place into a home and being excited knowing my husband is coming home to me. How exciting.

Wow! I’ve rambled a lot!The amazing thing is that I could go on and I have about 4 more things to say! Oh well. I’ve been gone a long time, so that is why! I won’t have access to a computer tomorrow, so I look forward to catching up with you all in the next couple of days! I’ve missed you all!

Will and I are planning on getting a computer in the next 3 weeks or so, so that way I’ll be able to stay in touch with America better.

Have a great rest of the weekend. Give you husband a huge hug tonight and truly soak in the fact that you are alone together in your own space. The thought of that has overwhelmed and enveloped me all day