Home Sweet Dover

Aack! It's been almost 2 months since my last blog :( But I have a good excuse, I promise. We finally closed on our new home and have spent the past 7 weeks "moving in". We had a move in day, but that was followed by "buy new furniture day" (which was followed by "wait for new furniture to be delivered week") and "hanging up the pictures day" and "i don't feel like doing anything day", not to mention a few trips home (i'm so happy we can finally do that!!) and a few visitors here. I still don't have pictures hung up in the basement or the bedrooms and I'm still without a rug in the living room (not to mention the totally destroyed walls due to the moving and bad paint...but that will have to wait until the fall), but it finally feels like we're moved in (note to self: don't let anyone look in the closets...they are not "moved in" and will probably stay like that for a very long time). 

I was super lucky and was able to get a part time job in the Education Office on base just a few days after we got here and I'm really enjoying it. I'm still actively looking for a full time university job, but I am also enjoying having the time to work on the house and take trips.

We're loving Dover and the surrounding area...there's tons to do: DC & VA are so close (i've already made one trip to see A & V and I'm so excited that I'll be able to see them so much more now), home is only 2.5 hours away and the beaches are only 30 minutes. Speaking of beaches, I should get packing. Mr. L, Lily and I are headed to Ocean City, MD have a little vacation...can't wait.

It's nice to be back in blog-land...though I'm not looking forward to catching up on all my favorite blogs...I'm pretty sure my Google Reader said something like 300 missed entries since I last checked. Eeek!

The Road So Far...

[cue kickass rock music - shout out to my SPN fans!]

Okay so a LOT has been going on since the last entry. Let's just get to it...

As we figured, Mr. L's training in Altus was delayed. This put a small dent into our travel plans, but we tried to readjust however we could. We ended up not leaving Altus until Friday afternoon (5 days after we were supposed to start our trip). That alone would have been enough to make us a little edgy, but it got even better:

• Our government travel card was canceled. The Inn suggested we just use our personal credit card...for $4000! Uh, I just about had a heart attack. 30 minutes later and we sort of figured it out. At least enough to not put $4000 on our card.
• Mr. L decided to put air in our tires before the trip. Couldn't agree more. But something happened and before we knew it, the valve had blown off and we had a flat tire. Seriously? I think Altus didn't want us to leave. One hour later, we had a new rubber replacement valve and our fingers were crossed it would make it 1000 miles.

First stop was to see Joey in Little Rock. We had a fab time and even though we could only stay a few hours, we were so glad to see our friend. It had been almost a year since the last time we saw him and he's Mr. L's BFF from pilot training. It was awesome to get them back together (not to mention that my life is emptier when I don't have a second husband to feed ;)

We continued on our trip and discovered it was prom weekend (along with some festivals) in Memphis and there wasn't a single hotel room anywhere in the city or surrounding areas. Finally, at 4am, we came across a small backwoods town that had an Econo Lodge that was more than happy to check us in. 7 hours of sleep later, we were ready for our trip to the 'burgh.

Pittsburgh was ah-maz-ing. It's the first time I've been back since I graduated (4.5 years) and I just loved being in the city again. It makes my heart happy. We walked around campus, bought lots of new tshirts and trinkets and saw my Little and Nancy. We had Uncle Sam's for lunch, Rock Bottom for dinner and Bruegger's for bfast (I hadn't realized how much I was missing everything bagels and half&half in my life). Onward we went...

After quick stops to Dburg (to see the L's) and Etown (to see my parentals), we picked up Trudy (the new ride) and drove to our new home city.

that's a pretty patriotic photo montage

We arrived at Dover ready to embrace our new town. However, it wasn't ready for us. The base had misplaced our reservation, so we were relegated to a small hotel room that we were supposed to live in for 13 days. Just a mini fridge and a microwave, one bed, one tv, one chair and a bathroom. Not what we asked for. So, luckily for us, a local hotel with suites took us in for our designated military-paid time, that would take us to the closing on our new home...

Our first day in I took the above picture. Pretty much looked finished except for a few outside things. On the 9th, one week before our closing, I called the builder to see how everything was going. The first words out of his mouth were "we've hit a snag". Uh oh. Turns out a meter was placed in the wrong space outside and it was taking about 3 weeks to get the meter moved. This stopped the driveway and sidewalks from being poured and other important outside factors. We would not be closing on the 16th. This means paying out of pocket for a place to live (not in our budget) and canceling our furniture and fridge delivery, plus my parents were coming to visit the whole week and had already taken vacation which couldn't be changed. We were told the earliest we could move in would be the 27th. Needless to say, my sparkling personality went out the window immediately...I feel very lucky my husband loves me a lot because I've been been less than sweet for the past week and a half...

So here we are. Lots has continued to happen, the builder apologized, worked some overtime and  (fingers crossed, I realize things could still happen) we're closing tomorrow. I can't wait to get into our new home and see our stuff for the first time in 6 months. It will be just like Christmas in May :) Please Dover, can we finally have a win? I promise I'll control my spending and be a better person and all that jazz if you just let us move in tomorrow...thanks bunches <3

Drumroll Please...

We have been waiting for a year, a very long year, to find out what plane Mr. L will be flying for his career and what our first base would be with that plane.  Mr. L trained for a year, worked so super hard, and we filled out the dream sheet.  Then we waited...and waited...and waited...and we finally know!

THE C-17 GLOBEMASTER

to

We are SOOOOOOO excited!  This was the number one choice on Mr. L's dream sheet and getting your number one choice doesn't happen a lot!  First of all, Mr. L has wanted to fly the C-17 for such a long time.  he loves the mission, loves the crew airplane, and loves airdrop.  He didn't want to jinx himself, so he kept it to himself most of the time, but he wanted this plane soooooo badly.  I'm so happy that he will be flying it.  Moving to Dover is going to be awesome.  It's 2.5 hours from my family, about 3 from his, and we have lots of friends in the area. 

We've lived in the south for about 4 years and have enjoyed it a lot (especially the no snow part), but we miss the NorthEast and being able to go to our neices and nephews birthday parties, game nights with my family and spending the holidays with people we love.  We are thrilled that these things will be possible for the next 3 years.

We have no idea when we'll actually be going yet (remember, we here in the L family don't hold our breath for Air Force timelines), but we definitely still have some time left in Columbus.  Mr. L has to attend survival school and then go to Oklahoma for C-17 training...this will be about 4 months of time.  Add in some upcoming holidays and just the pace of these transactions and we could be here for another 6 months.  But trust me, Mississippi looks a LOT better when you know you're going to say goodbye soon!!!!!!!!