Our First Few Weeks in England

We have now been in England for a little over three weeks, so I'm due for some updates and to share some pictures. We moved here because of a really great opportunity Miles was given through the military after he was awarded a scholarship last fall. The scholarship enables him to attend a grad school of his choosing so long as he studies something in the realm of counter terrorism (meaning, he can't just use it as a chance to get an MBA). He applied, and was accepted at, some good options stateside, but also wanted to apply to Oxford and fortunately for our family, he was accepted and the Army said, "sure, we will move you guys there! You just owe use a few years in return for paying for your school" and Miles said, "deal!"

We took an overnight flight leaving Savannah in the evening, connecting in New York, and then had a six hour flight to London. The kids did really well traveling and both slept a little on the flight, but it definitely took them a few days to adjust. We rented a car for a bit as we didn't want to have to schlep six suitcases, a stroller, and two carseats on public transport. Miles did a great job navigating the other side of the road and driving a standard transmission. We are only about an hour outside of London and we stayed in a two bedroom flat (an Air BnB) just north of the city center when we first arrived. We have since had to change to another flat, in a different part of town, but both places have been nice and made living out of suitcases very tolerable. 

This was our first flat. 

We knew we would only want one car while we were here so started looking right away at options. We went to several dealerships and looking online and at postings on Gumtree (Craigslist equivalent), but as we were driving home from a Ford dealership I saw a small used car dealership and we found a car that met our wants (automatic transmission! space for kids and bags for traveling) at a good price so ended up coming back to test drive and purchase the car. Miles also go a new set of wheels and picked up a hybrid bike. We have road bikes that are being shipped here, but it's much easier (and safer) to commute on the streets on a hybrid.

While we haven't done much exploring outside of Oxford, it's been really nice getting familiar with this lovely little city.

We've taken a bus tour, visited a museum, walked through the city center numerous times, and visited over a half dozen parks and playgrounds.

We started house hunting the day after we arrived and looked at lots of houses and found a good option in a good location, but it is not ready for us to move in until next week. Fortunately, the Army covers our lodging expense for 30 days and we will use all 30 of those days. I look forward to moving in to a space we can call our own, but we still are looking at at least a couple more weeks until our stuff arrives.

Miles has had some events to attend (registration, orientation, etc.), and tonight he and a dinner at his college, but his official first day of class isn't until Monday, so it's been nice to have a few weeks here to just ease in to life on the other side of the pond. His facial hair is officially the longest it's ever been and the civilian life seems to be suiting him, and us all, just fine.

................................................................................................

Summer 2016: Texas

The last trip of our summer was out to Texas to visit our family who live near Austin. We squeezed this in right before moving (literally, nine days after we got back from Texas we moved!) and I'm so glad we were able to make this trip happen. Finn is such good buddies with his little cousins and I hope that through FaceTime and mail, they stay just as close these next couple of years.

While in Texas we rented a pontoon boat, took the kids to the movies, got to go on a kidless date night, Miles went on a ride-a-long with his brother, and Jenny and I snuck in some Target and Starbucks visits. It was the perfect trip to wrap up all our summer travels.

 The littlest of the cousins were always eating. 

Like, ALL the time.

 Love how my sister in law has my kids displayed.

 Goodbye group hug

................................................................................................

Our Last Week in Savannah

I've got several blogs I need to get caught up on, but since tomorrow marks one week since we flew out of Georgia I figured I would start by sharing our last week in Savannah.

The movers spent three days packing up our house. Some of our things went in to storage for the next two years, some things got boxed to be sent over "early" and the rest was packed and crated and should arrive in England in about six weeks. We ended up moving in to a hotel for the last several days since we had no furniture and were living out of suitcases already. Despite the chaos that accompanies all moves, we were able to squeeze a lot in to our last week which felt like a nice way to wrap up our time in Savannah. I wish we got to live there longer as we had such a great time living in such a charming city. I'm so grateful for the friends made and the experiences and memories that we take with us.

One last date night:

My last class with Stroller Strong Moms:

 Lunch at one of my favorite places, Slys:

 Breakfast at the Funky Brunch:

Tunnel to Towers 5k:

 Beach trip to Tybee Island

Went to mass so Finn could practice his music note writing:

 Sold my car:

 Took a trip to the Savannah Candy Kitchen.

Mary was not happy she had to take a picture before she could tear into that bag:

Had a lovely girls' night with the most awesome cake:

House still for sale. Sigh.

................................................................................................

Huppy Love

Today was hard. Early this morning I drove Roscoe up to Atlanta where I had to say goodbye, though I hope it was just goodbye for now.

It was pretty confusing and stressful sorting through all the logistics of bringing Roscoe to England with us. But we had mostly figured it all out and knew it was going to cost a lot (around $1600), but it felt like the right thing to do - to keep Roscoe with his family, even in, especially in, his older years.

But literally the day we had decided on our plan, Roscoe nearly collapsed after running around outside. Several months prior he completely collapsed after sprinting around with a puppy. That time was very scary and we thought he might have gone in to cardiac arrest. Fortunately he recovered and went back to his normal behavior and routine that same evening. 

But because of this more recent "syncopal episode" the vet told us she could not recommend flying with him and thought that even though there was a small chance he would be ok, there was a greater chance he wouldn't. 

That combined with his age (8.5), and the fact that he's a short muzzle dog, flying Roscoe to England with us no longer felt like the right thing to do for him.

The good news is that after running some test (and ECG, blood work, and ultrasound of his heart), the likely cause of his collapsing is due to heart arrhythmia which is something that can be controlled with medication. Even better, Roscoe's arrhythmia doesn't warrant any medication at this time as it's not severe enough. In the future he may need medication, and he can't sprint around acting like a young pup anymore despite him wanting to, but so long as it doesn't get any worse, Roscoe will likely die with arrhythmia and not from it.

There is a transatlantic cruise that has a kennel for dogs, but it departs from New York and we just don't have the time to figure out how to get him to New York (and I mean that literally - we leave in a week), not to mention the cost is pretty steep (more so than flying) AND he still would be in a kennel for large periods of time and for a much longer duration than a flight which would just put more stress on him than I'm comfortable with.

Thankfully we do have a great plan for Roscoe. My brother and his wife have graciously offered to take him in and give him a loving home. They are expecting a baby in November and I love the idea of Roscoe being around my baby niece. I told him last night it was his new job now - to take care of her.

The complicated aspect of this plan, because of course there has to be some challenge, is that my brother moves to Oklahoma four days after we fly to England. Fortunately my two closest friends are helping to transport Roscoe out to Oklahoma. I met my friend Deb in Atlanta today and she took Roscoe to Mississippi and will watch him for a week until she links up with our other friend Anna who will transport him to her home in Arkansas and watch him for a week and then link up with my brother once he's moved. So today starts Roscoe's own little Manifest Destiny as he begins his journey west.

I know it's the right thing for him, but selfishly I want him with us. He's a member of our family and has been through so much with us and saying goodbye was really, really hard. Literally an hour or so before he collapsed the other week Miles said to me (as I was stressing about how to bring Roscoe) "the thing is, Roscoe has been more of a constant in your life these last seven years than I have." Which was funny, and depressingly true, and sweet. Miles has been deployed five times since we've owned Roscoe, and been away for countless training events and field time. Roscoe was such a comfort to me after losing Cale and the night Miles called to tell me Daren had been killed Roscoe literally would not leave my side. Dogs are so in tune with emotion, I really do think that. And that made saying goodbye even harder as I didn't want him to be concerned with why I'm so sad and crying so much. I was a little worried he would be confused when he got in a different car and I drove off without him, but he really seemed to be ok with everything which made it a little easier.

And I know we can't pass up this opportunity for our family to live in England and for Miles to get to study at Oxford, I could never turn that down for a dog, yet there's this part of me that feels like I'm abandoning him by leaving him behind. I just feel really guilty about it, because like I said he's part of our family so even though bringing him wouldn't be right, not bringing him doesn't feel right either.

I can only hope that Roscoe is still alive when we return and that today's goodbye wasn't final. But if it was, I am so thankful for the wonderful seven years we got with him. He's sure had his dog shaming moments, but he's been the most loving and loyal dog and and will forever be our Huppy.