Going down the list

I have a list of all of the lists of things I have to do...both at work and at home. We got a bank account set up yesterday. I scheduled to pick up a rental car on Friday. We have appointments to look at a few houses this weekend. I passed my air force driving test today. We have a year to get a British driving license. Ug.

 On the list was a new tea set for Augi ...bone china, made in England. Very sweet.

Em is having the hardest time adjusting to the time change. Poor guy. He wants to sleep during the day, like he is in this picture...

 

Then he wakes around 11 pm and  wants to party all night.

 

Augi is on her same old schedule. Late to bed and grouchy in the morning, but otherwise sleeps all night! She is really such a joy. She falls apart once in a while, but for the most part she is trying so hard to create some normalcy and she makes the most out of all of it. She tries to get Emmett to pretend with her. She was so incredibly excited to meet a little friend on the playground today. He is a really sweet little 7 year old named Paul. We also met 10 year old Ben tonight. They were both very outgoing and chatty. Paul likes to tell some tall tales, but he was entertaining. He told me he had 19 girlfriends in Japan before he left. After a while he fessed up and told me it is really just one girl who keeps following him around at the hotel. He can't remember her name. He is cute with Augi and she was delighted to have some children to be around.

 

I'd like to congratulate Chris on his first official craft project with the kids...VALENTINES! They were really cute and I think he even let the kids decorate some of them by themselves.

The highlight of each day is the playground

I had a little bit of a nervous breakdown yesterday for just a minute. I just started to feel really overwhelmed. There is so much to get done, like phones and utilities and cars and houses etc. I just want to get moving on the site-seeing and forget about the moving and working. My supervisor, John, put it perfectly: it can feel like we are in a minimum security prison if we don't leave the base! Our rental car is scheduled to be picked up on Friday. We will be free to roam! 

I have this 3 page list at work that is sort of like a scavenger hunt. There are "in-processing" tasks that have to be completed by this Friday. They are things like getting set up with insurance or email. I have to run all over the base, find the office, and try to decode the acronyms. I get "maam'd" for this and that. They all wonder where my husband, who must be the active duty person, is. The military culture is really the biggest shock I am having. Partially because we haven't really left the base, but also because it is really a different world. I can definitely see the benefit of the order that they create, but it seems so artificial and I imagine the real world can be hard to manage for someone who relies on the military to tell them what to do.

My favorite part so far has been the trainings by the Brits. I learned a few things about British culture to look out for:

• Only teenage kids wear white, bold sneakers
• Men do not use straws in their drinks unless they are advertising to other men that they might like to get together.
• You are expected to open your drapes during the day and close them at night. Otherwise you are dead or doing something suspicious. 
• If you wear a hoodie indoors you are probably about to rob the place.
•  Always say please and thank you. Being polite is very very very important.

Wish us luck for tonight. We tried to keep Em up til 9 by dragging him to the library, then the grocery store, in the freezing rain. Then, we popped in a movie from the library, ate some ice cream in the living room, and read our library books. Em got grouchy and grabbed his weebee and pillow with a firm, "MINE!" and headed to bed. I am going to shower and try to get a full night's sleep. Wishful thinking, right? Especially since we have heard gun shots for the last 4 hours. Nice.