Goodbye, US Air Force!

And this is it...

We moved to our hotel on base on July 27th (sounds familiar? same date as when we moved to the hotel on base in Misawa, and Alex's birthday). 

The next morning we came to say good bye to the house and give the keys back. 

This is our Brampton house. Three years of living here was the greatest blessing we could have asked for in England. It was the best decision we had made back in 2013, early spring, when we were debating whether we should move and if it's worth the hassle especially after our new double glazed windows had been installed. But it all worked out! We have been so blessed to have a neighborhood where children played and spent time together safely, and a neighborhood where grown ups hung out outside and had parties together. We are forever grateful for the friendships we have made here, especially for the Russells, the Woods, the Irvines, the Driggers, the Mays, the Shropshires, and the Ross'. 

The kids had a chance to go see their rooms one last time.

Mark in his tiny room where only a single bed, a dresser and a bookshelf could fit. 

Katya in her beautiful room that used to be painted really bright blue and then she had to repaint it back to something that resembled white before we moved out. The painter for the base was this nice British guy who said to not worry about the blue seeping through and cracking white overcoat, that he would take care of it. It was a huge relief as we were worried we'd have to repaint and repaint that wall (and our living room/hallway walls) till you can't see through at all. 

And Alex's huge room with two big windows. So many memories from here...

The last time Robert wore his uniform, while out processing and running errands on base. We were already living at the TLF. How can I not miss that?

And here is my handsome Major Watson one last time in front of the dental clinic on base. This is bitter sweet. 

After dinner on July 29th we walked over to the front of our RAF Alconbury gate to say more good byes to the Air Force. 

And that's it. 

Can you feel the sad undertones? Should I be excited and feel liberated?:) I am reminiscing our eight years in the Air Force--from the newly baked captain to major. The time has flown by so fast and the good thing is that our memory chooses to focus on only the best of those last eight years. 

Good Bye RAF Alconbury!

Alex Turns ELEVEN!

Oh yes, the best birthday present for a kids in our family is cream soda-hahaha! 

Happy Birthday, Alex! 

So the story of the cream soda doesn't end there. See? It's all nice and neat tucked away by his side? And that huge Toblerone:)) 

And that awesome new hat since you know...we were moving to NC and all.

And moments later...a door bell rings and the people who came to pick up our temporary furniture are here to get the stuff out of the house. AND....Alex drops the whole package of his cream soda on the floor. A couple of bottles shatter! All over the carpet just the day before we are supposed to check out of the house with a house inspection:). We maniacally had to scrub the carpet and clean up all the shattered glass and stay calm at the same time. And that's how this kid's unusual birthday started:)

Oh wait, he did get some other gifts--like this Memory 44 game he's been dying to get for months.

And then this...but I don't know what it is:)

The rest of the day went great! The kids had their soccer camp most of the day. We had lunch at Subway--oooh! I know, super exciting...but for Alex it's a treat, which is so funny. And for dinner we invited the Ericksons, mostly because we wanted someone to bake a cake for us:))Kidding. 

We had a very yummy potatoes and mash dinner, Alex's favorite. Yumm... I got them from the Johnson's Farm, such a cute place that screams British.

And finally the cake! Yay! Alex is eleven!

So wonderful to celebrate it with friends, even at the TLF:)!

A few words about Alex. It's amazing for us to see Alex turning into a young man. He is so excited about growing up, already deciding what he is going to do with his future. As of right now he wants to be a writer. He has really improved in his creative writing skills, mostly thanks to Mr. Church, his teacher. He still loves books and is always reading. His newly discovered passion though is playing the piano pop style. He finds chord tutorials online and then recreates them, memorizing them incredibly fast. Alex loves to sing too! I smile inside every time I think back to his performance of "Beat It" on the cruise ship:)). Alex loves attention from others and thrives from being on stage:). He makes friends quickly and is very social. At home he goes through spurs of being great friends with Mark and then thinking he is too big to play games with him. He is a good helper at home, especially when making guacamole. And he loves hugs! One thing he is learning still is how to deal with disappointments (aren't we all?). He can be quite dramatic, so we need to figure out how to channel that feature nicely:). Alex loves Boy Scouts and is still searching for his favorite sport. His favorite book is still "Heroes of Olympus", favorite food is a hamburger (specifically a "Five Guys" cheeseburger...no judgement here). His favorite song is "Motivation" by James the Mormon, his favorite dessert is Tootsie Roll (why??).

Happy Birthday, Alex! We were so grateful you were born into our family eleven years ago!:)

Lyana (mama).

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Saying Goodbye To Friends (again).

Ah....this is the hardest thing of being in the military for us--saying "good bye". I know we should be used to it by now, but it's still tough.

This time around, unlike after Japan, we had a lot of British friends to say good bye to. Of course, we have made friends through church, but I have also made friends through the kids' schools, through Robert's work and by living in our fabulous neighborhood. I don't have pictures with all the friends I will miss. In fact, some of those friends moved to the states at the same time as we did and I am still hoping to see them very-very soon. But these friends are staying in England for now... and I am quite a bit jealous, to be honest.

My friend Victoria and I. Victoria is my Ukrainian friend who lives right next to the Brampton School. I don't even remember how we met, but she has three wonderful kids and a husband and has been living in the UK for almost 20 years. She has helped me out many times with kids' school pick ups! She and our other friend Natasha have gotten to know each other well and we were so happy to go out for lunch sometime and talk all things Slavic.

The Conways, our British friends who have four adorable (and very obedient) little girls. Anna is a wonderful musician too. We had lots of fun together, especially the last few months in England. It turned out they like mystery dinner parties:)

And this is my sweet friend Liz. She is my FIRST British friend. I'll never forget her as she helped me so much through the first months in England when the transition was tough and I had no idea how to do the whole British school thing. Mark and Hannah were in the same preschool (playgroup) in Bury our first year there. Even after I moved away to Brampton and she stayed in Wistow, we got together almost every month to catch up. She is going through some really rough time right now and I wish I were closer to her, but can still text through iPhones which is nice, but not the same.

We had a ward farewell party for us at the end of July. Our wonderful friends, the Ericksons hosted it and invited people from church. I miss the Ericksons so much....Linnea and I became really good friends from the moment they moved here. If I could I would have taken them on our every trip in Europe as they are so fun to be with and they loved traveling as much as we do. Our kids are great friends with their kids and they miss them so much.

This is Alex and Sam. They have become such good friends over the last two years. They love their army guys and history battles and all those boy things. So grateful for friends like this. 

Katya has made a lot of friends in the ward and at school and in the neighborhood. This is Ella, one of her friends from church. I love this natural picture of Katya:)

This is Sister Jones who also was moving back to the states with her husband after serving a mission in England. She is my older wise friend:). She was also my racquetball partner a few times that we could go to base and play. 

And here are a few shots from our farewell party. Lots of British friends. 

Andy (Robert's running mate), Josh (Linnea's husband), Eric and Robert. 

Our Bishop Wade and his wife Emma, and the Garrick boys:)

Ola, Jo, Lesley, Liz, the girls and Dawn.

Just a few more--Bethany, Patrese, Tammy, Jill and Linnea with a few girls sprinkled in between.

We had to make a special stop in Hemingford Abbots to see the Tholstroms of course. 

They are such a wonderful vibrant family and we'll miss them as well (Tad was Robert's boss).

Of course, this is not all of the friends we'll miss. 

We are grateful for each one of the people who'd crossed our paths. They made our experience in England that much more enriching and fun. 

A New Path

This post was a difficult to write.

It's hard to convey all the many feelings we have been feeling for the past few months in preparation to our major life changes. We were keeping it kind of under wraps in social media about what we had decided to do come this August. After eight years of Air Force life, we have made a decision to change our life course and separate from the military. I won't go into all the many details of our reasoning and thinking, mostly because there are dozens of pros and dozens of cons that we had been weighing in our minds in order to achieve a final decision. It's draining to recap. It's also some of those things with which you feel like it should be a very easy decision if you know it's right but then you doubt yourself and try to figure out if indeed it's your fear or what that stands in your way of a peaceful feeling. 

I'll cut straight to the chase. Late last November, when we were pretty sure that we wanted to join the civilian life, we called up one of our acquaintances-dentists who separated from the AF a year or so prior, moved from RAF LAkenheath with his three friends-dentists and bought a couple of practices in NC. It turned out they needed an associate as their practices were growing and offered Robert to come out to NC and see the area and the office for himself. And that's what Robert did in February. He didn't only see this one friend and his practices, he also visited a few other places and drove around to figure out what this area is like. I am talking about Apex/Cary area near the Research Triangle. 

Upon return, after much thinking and praying, we made the final decision to agree to their offer. And then things just started to roll faster and faster and faster--packing out, travel plans, looking for houses, schools, etc. All the crazy details that come with moving that I don't even want to rehash once they are done and finished:)

I am writing this post much later--two months later actually and the feelings are still quite raw. I am looking at these pictures of Robert receiving his awards from his commander Colonel Venth, and seeing him in his uniform, remembering all the kind words about him...and I am sad. I am missing that recognition in a military sense of that word, I am missing being a wife of an officer, and I am missing the camaraderie that we had in the military. 

Well done, Robert!

And then I remember all the WHY's we chose the new path. The freedom of choice in so many things, the dreams that we still have to fulfill and Robert's passion for actually treating patients and not doing admin work remind me it will all be worth it.

I feel like after living in a new place for two months our family experiences the true feeling of how much we miss what we had, and how difficult it is to adjust to the new things. This shall pass. I hope. 

For now I will look at Robert saluting his boss and think about how awesome it was to see him being saluted at the entrance gate to the base:)) I know it's a silly thing and really wasn't a big deal, but it felt awesome:))

And here is Major Watson with his boss (and friend) Major Tholstrom. We are so grateful for Tad for making these last two years enjoyable at work:)

We all came to the good bye ceremony. Kids were so proud of their dad.  

I love all the British and American flags. 

You want to see something funny?:)) That's us eleven years prior, when Robert was sworn in to the US Air Force in Minneapolis, MN (I was super sick and pregnant with Alex).

Here is Tad, Robert and Jason--the famous trio of RAF Alconbury dental clinic:)

And here is the special display he received as his parting gift. Robert was the last dentist who was still in England and who had worked at both RAF Upwood (before it closed) and at RAF Alconbury. Those are the patches from both bases.

We'll forever be grateful for the US Air Force. It has definitely shaped our life for the better and has given us so much more than just cool places to live. We know we have been blessed and will never forget that. 

But right now, it's time to look forward towards the new horizons.

Lyana (swiping away the tears from my cheek).

Last Day of School Finally!

With much anticipation we waited for the last day of school! Going to school through the end of July can be quite painful some days. At the same time, having nice ten day breaks throughout the school year is not so bad after all either. 

Alex finished his Year 6. Yay! No more Primary School for him. 

Favorite subject this year--definitely Literacy (English). Alex loves writing! He has been working with his teacher Mr. Church on so many pieces of his writing and was praised highly by many. Alex is super excited to go to start the American school for the first time in four years!

This little boy, with awesome funky hair is Mark, who finished his third year of school (he is 7 right now) after Year 2. 

His teacher this year was Mrs. Taylor, a very kind but quite strict teacher. She let Mark progress really quickly and always encouraged him to move forward, and at the same time reminding him not to grow a big head if things are just too easy for him:)) He loves Mrs. Taylor and frequently asks me to send her a message on facebook (now that we are in NC) to let her know how we are doing. He is definitely a charmer and he knows that. 

On the last day of school I told the kids they could invite some friends over for ice cream. Alex and Sarah walked home together--Sarah is his very good friend and they have frequently hung out together or walked home/to school together this year. A few of his friends (Nathan and Jude) said they would come but couldn't make it after all.

Here is Mark with his friends Eddie and Lucas and Laura and their siblings. 

We had to set out our FMO temporary furniture outside as that's all we had, but no one cared. Nice, huge packages of ice cream from the commissary impressed everyone:))

We'll miss this simplicity of life and friends, village walks and school events. English schools have been a blessing to us as they let our kids blossom and learn so much! We are also so grateful for all the opportunities in music that they had as part of the school, we definitely miss that.

Alex is already collecting money to buy a ticket to England to go visit his friends:)

Lyana.