Hooray for Jennie!

I realizing naming a post "Hooray for Jennie" may sound a bit conceited. But guess what I did? I did my taxes! That's right all on my own. You have no idea what an accomplishment this is. I am sure many of you do this every year but not me. Every year I start them on Turbo Tax but end up taking them in because it is too confusing. But this year I sat down and started...and I finished. Who knew??? I told Micah I bet he didn't think he married a girl that could do taxes and he said he didn't really think that was my thing. But I surprised the both of us. Tanya, you would be proud:). So now we are just waiting for our refund check. And if I did screw up on a few little things (which I doubt) Turbo Tax told me I am at no risk of being audited so the government will never even know:),lol.

So thanks for reading my little brag session. It won't happen very often but I thought it was called for on this one.

Today is shaping up to be a wonderful day. The sun is shining and it has been consistently shining since this morning. Very rare. So after I finish my afternoon of cleaning I think I will venture over to the driving range. I talked to a lady at aerobics today and she told me all about the driving range in Ely. Apparently it has a 9-hole course also so maybe Micah and I will get a few holes in over the weekend.

So in addition to my golf plans and house cleaning I am hoping to make some cookies today. Baking is always a funny thing around here. Micah tells me not to bake because he thinks we need to loose weight. Which I agree with completely. But so he tells me no cookies but then he eats chips. Go figure. So I bake the cookies, he eats most of them and then tells me not to bake anymore. It is just something we do.

So after our exploring day in Ely I talked with my friend Danell and we have made plans to shop in Ely this week. This is kind of exciting because Danell and I always shop in Newmarket and Cambridge, we never stay in my town. So it will be nice to share my town with my friend. We will go for tea like true Brits and probably eat some scones. I love going for tea because the food is always so good! There is a tea house in Ely called "Peacocks" and it was voted number one in the UK in 2007. That is quite something considering all the tea houses in Britain.

Well, once again it has been way too long since the last post. Things just aren't that exciting these days. Last night Micah and I hung out with his squadron on base. They had a steak night so everyone hung out and ate some meat. We had a lot of fun. That was really the first time I have met the people he works with. And tonight we are off to dinner at one of Micah's coworkers house. I am super excited about this because I have been eager to meet people.

Micah and I explored Ely a bit more today. We walked down the the river and check out the boats and the fisherman. It was really neat. We have lived here a while now and I can't believe today was our first time down there. We found a really nice antique shop that has like 4 levels, it was massive. We didn't have time to explore it all but there is always next weekend. Whenever we find cool new places in town we get excited for people to come visit to share all this stuff with them.

Only about a month until Micah's friend from college comes to visit. We are looking forward to that. I have a lot to do before they come. Next weekend we are getting a bed for the guest room. I am hoping to make a trip to IKEA next week to decorate it a bit. They are big soccer fans so we are going to go watch a game with them in London while they are here.

Well that is about all that is new around here. Sorry things aren't more interesting.

I think it is time for a new post but there is really nothing new to share. Micah is still at home he has to go back to work on Thursday. It has been so very nice to be able to spend some time together.

Micah has been busy working on the Mitsubishi. The rear brakes seized up and the car couldn't move. So Micah has spent the whole week trying to fix that. Well today he finally did it! I was very proud of my mechanical husband. We were getting a bit worried. We did not want to buy a new car again and it was beginning to look like we would have to. Other than the car drama we have just been hanging out on base and in Ely. We have recently discovered Facebook and that seems to take up a lot of our time. If any of you are on facebook I am sure you will find us on there quite a bit.

Micah already has to go on another trip next week. I am excited for him though because he is going to go to some fun places. The squadron that he is in now is a bit smaller so there are a lot more opportunities for him to travel. And since we live in Europe he gets to go to more interesting places than just Oklahoma.

One more thing. I have been getting some interest from some of you about coming to visit. I just want to let you all know that the invitation is always open. A buddy of Micah's from college is coming to visit us next month and we are really looking forward to that. So our door is always open, that's all I wanted to say.

Back from Paris!

After a quick but good trip to Paris we are at home relaxing, and putting off laundry:). We had such a nice time. I was pleasantly surprised. I had always heard that Paris is dirty and gross and smelled bad and all that. And while yes it was a bit dirty it was very nice. It seemed like every corner had a trash can but litter was everywhere! Kind of odd. But anyways I'm sure you all just want to see some pictures. We will start off with the Eifell Tower, we went there on Wednesday night right as the sun was setting. Unbelievable. It was beautiful. When we finally made our way back down it lit up with sparkling lights. Oh so pretty. We only have one picture that turned out and it is just us at the top of the tower.

Here is our FAVORITE photo from the trip. We were at the Louvre and saw this awesome sculpture.

Apparently, the high five was invented before clothing:).

The Louvre was a lot of fun. I was blown away by all the amazing sculpture. It was neat to see the Mona Lisa but it is just a painting. Sculpture takes so much more time and detail. It was so cool.

The first night we hung out at the "Great Canadian Pub," we felt very much at home. There was a Canadian guy sitting next to me and he even thought I was a Canadian. Actually he asked me if I had a "hoser" accent. Can you believe that? Everywhere I go people think I'm a Canadian.

Here are some other pictures from our trip. Just some sights from around Paris. We were riding the elevator up the Eiffell Tower and we saw this etching of our President. We thought it was funny so Micah took a picture. They are obsessed with Mr. Obama over here. Maybe he should be President over here instead. What do you think?

Just an update...

Well, Micah and I just finished our first day in Paris. We had an amazing day. We saw a bit of the city but no major sites. We did walk by Notre Dame but it was to late to go in so we just continued our stroll. We ended up spending our evening in a bar called "The Greatest Canadian Pub." It was so much fun. It was also nice to have everyone around us for the most part speaking English. It can be discouraging trying to order when no one understands you:). We had an absolutely marvelous day. It was supposed to rain but the sun decided to come out instead. The forecast calls for a dry couple of days coming our way so we are excited. Tomorrow we hope to see the Eiffel Tower and go through a couple of museums. So tomorrow night we will have some pictures:). So this is just an update. We are having fun so far. It reminds us of a lot of European cities we have seen so far. Lots of old buildings and LOTS of people. That is it for us tonight. Check back tomorrow for pictures!

I'm Baaaaack!

Hey guys, I am back from the "sandbox," what a lovely time we had. I enjoyed all your emails, packages, etc. and needless to say it's good to be back. Not too much has changed, Jennie got a haircut and is now into Facebook. We originally planned to head up to Scotland this week, but now our plan is Paris, so stay tuned in a few days for pictures of us staring at that big tower thingy and eating freedom fries.
I have no fun pictures to post, which is too bad because everyone likes pictures and hates reading. Thanks to everyone who kept Jennie company while I was gone, I know she's generally not fun to be around so I appreciate your sacrifice. Seriously though, you are all appreciated and we can't wait to get back home this summer (Lord Willing) to see you again.
-Micah
p.s. hello to Malachi and Reta, I changed the playlist because I hear you like this song.

My Day in Cambridge

Okay, I spent the day on Saturday exploring Cambridge with some friends. Wow, it is so beautiful. Every time I go I see something new, I just love it. In fact I am thinking about spending a day there this week just on my own. So here are some pictures of things we saw.

Okay, it has been almost a week since my last post. I figured it was time for another. I am really enjoying being back here. I absolutely LOVE being in Washington with my friends and family, but there is just something nice about being in your own home. I'm sure you all know what I mean. This place is feeling more and more like home all the time. I have been spending a lot of time at home because of all the snow we have been having. I don't want to drive the Audi in the snow because it is a manual transmission and I have never driven one of those in the snow. I am just assuming I will get in an accident with it. And White Lighting is stuck in the snow right now and I can't get her out. So I walk. Yesterday we were snow free so I drove to the gym in the morning and got my butt kicked. Then I went on base and ran some errands. I went to the post office and tried to get the mail that was held for me while I was gone. But being me I realized that I threw away the hold slips and now they won't give me my mail. I don't know what I am going do to. Part of Micah's Christmas present(I know, super late) is in there and I can't get it! Don't worry, I will figure something out. Other than that life is pretty slow. I am enjoying the quiet. I am having some visitors this weekend. A couple summers ago I did some home schooling and now that family lives in England, small world right? So the girls are riding the train to visit for a couple of days. I hope the weather is nice for site seeing. Maybe we will get some good pics for the blog!

back at home, safe and sound

I just wrote a huge post!! I went to add pictures and I lost it all. Sometimes the Internet really ticks me off. Oh well. So here are some pictures from my time in Washington and Wichita. I had such a wonderful time. I was able to go on a cruise with my amazing family to celebrate my cousin Nicole's wedding. It was so perfect, the only thing that could have made it better was Micah. Although since Micah wasn't there I got to share a room with my cousin Kristin, and I was so thankful to spend time with her. We used to do so much together and as we grow up we just never see one another anymore. So the cruise was fun, we did a little karaoke, and by a little I mean every single night! We dominated that cruise.
Here is Joe and Tina enjoying themselves on the cruise. We were so happy that my brother could come. In true Joe form, he waited until the Saturday before we left to decide that he wanted to go. It was worth the hassle to get him there, we had a blast.

Besides having fun on the cruise I had a great time at my parents house. It snowed so much! We had a great view of the valley covered in snow and my parents house looked beautiful.

I got to spend time with my awesome nieces and nephew. This is Malachi and Reta on Christmas morning.

I miss my parents dog, Ginger, so much when I am gone. Micah and I love dogs and we really would like to get one. Unfortunately Micah's job makes that kind of difficult. So when we are home we show Ginger lots of love.

When I was done in Washington I headed to Wichita. Most of you are probably thinking, why on earth would you go back there? When we left I didn't look back. But we still have some great friends there, and it is super easy to get back from McConnell. So here are a few pictures of me and the Bouma girls watching the Super Bowl with our 3-D glasses.

So my wonderful vacation is over and do you know what I came home to? A broken pipe in my kitchen. That was the last thing I wanted to find. Fortunately it hadn't been broken for too long. But I am currently without water and that is no fun when you've spent too many hours on an airplane. I am hoping to have plumber here in the morning. I will let you know how that goes.