Thinking of Moving

This is such a different move for us this time. It's not to another Army base. It's to a place I know so well and family and friends that are close. To a house that my husband will not be living in with us. And I know roughly when my next move will be and where to. Since I got my moving dates today and made some clearing appointments, I guess it is starting to set in that we are moving again. I do like being an Army wife and I do like moving to new places, but we just moved into this house last May. I still have boxes I didn't unpack. And I always get sad, sentimental, nostalgic, etc., just thinking of all the memories we've made here. Maybe it's because my parents still live in the same house I grew up in and I can go back to that house and there's my bedroom, and the sidewalk where I learned to ride a bike. But I feel sorry for my boys. Tristan doesn't remember the first two houses he lived in. Gavin won't remember the first three. I know that this is just a house, our home travels with us. Home is where the Army sends you. But this is the house that we brought Gavin home to, where he's had so many "firsts". I thought the same thing when we left Germany. I miss those houses too. And even though this house is a little small and not enough storage space, I've finally adjusted to it. I will miss it. And I've been thinking of the other things I will miss and not miss about Fort Knox.

Things I'll miss:
1. Living across from an airfield and hearing and seeing the C130's and Apache's fly at tree top level on their approach.
2. The tanks and gunfire from the range down the street. Not as loud as in Germany but I can still hear them.
3. The bugle calls throughout the day and especially Taps played every night at 11:00pm. It's usually quiet enough in here that I hear it. And every night it's a reminder that so many of our soldiers are still at war and so many never came back. I will really miss that.
4. The friends I've made here, although most of them have moved already, I still miss them.

Things I'll not miss:
1. Going through a gate every time to get on and off post.
2. My new neighbors.
3. Some of the ridiculous Army stuff.

Anyway, it's time to start the countdown to moving day. Time to clean, organize, and purge the house. Again.

I finally went through the 370 Christmas pictures. And here's a few of the good ones.

Doug made it to Texas ok and is now in Fort Irwin, California. I'm still making plans to move to Pekin. I feel like I'm operating on half brain capacity right now though. Gavin has not slept through the night since we went to visit family for Christmas. It was enough of a schedule change, or change in bed, or location, noises, I don't know what but he has gotten used to waking up like every hour. I finally gave in to the dark side last night, I let him sleep in bed with me. It was easier to get him back to sleep that way and I finally got a little more sleep. He has started to really scoot backwards and just today got up on his knees to crawl. No forward crawling yet but he does do a little low crawl/scoot somehow. I know because twice I've found him chewing on the dog's toys and once he was chewing on the newspaper. This kid is going to keep me on my toes. Tristan was such a good kid I could leave anything laying out and he didn't bother it. I never really baby proofed with Tristan. Gavin will stick anything and everything in his mouth. He had his 6 month check up and he is 17.7lbs and 27 inches. He's my little butterball baby. My little butterball, but he is moving all over. With any luck he'll wear himself out and finally start sleeping all night again!

Fun, Interesting, and Exciting News

Or something like that. So to make a long story a little shorter....
Doug got an email on December 17, from his new battalion commander wondering where he was. Seems while Doug was in Fort Stewart for four months, orders came in here and the personnel guy put them in a file cabinet and forgot about them. So the brigade got his orders in September, we found out on Dec 17. We were supposed to be in Fort Bliss, Texas. Doug is on his way there now, he cleared and is hurrying to join them and go to Fort Irwin in a couple days. He is deploying in May-ish. Since the timing was short and horrible and in no way do I want to live in Texas, I'm staying here for now. Our big plan is that when he gets done at Fort Irwin, he will get things straightened out at Bliss and then come back here to move us. And I hopefully will not be going to Bliss. I'm moving to Pekin! He's going to be gone for a year, I don't want to go to Bliss and certainly not to live there by myself, so I'm not. I will be the wimpy Army wife and go home for a year. I'm actually kind of excited about it. And then when he comes back from overseas, we will move to Bliss. The only nice thing I know about the place is the housing seems nice. Otherwise all I've heard is that the crime rate is high and trucks get stolen often. We went to the zoo in Louisville last Saturday, and while we were in the desert house I was looking at the habit range for all the tarantulas, scorpions, snakes, yep they live in Texas. More reasons I do not want to move there. I've always said, kind of jokingly, that Kentucky is as far south as I want to go. I kind of meant it. I don't like the heat. I know I'm being a wimp, but I don't care. My parents are on the search for a rental house for me. Tristan is excited to move to Pekin too. I'm not happy about moving in the middle of the school year like this, but it's going to happen in the Army so might as well get used to it.

Anyway, we had a busy Christmas holiday as usual. And I will put pictures on next time, I haven't even put them on the computer yet. We did our family Christmas here at home, then took down the tree, packed up and went to Lockport. We definitely had a white Christmas up there. It was nice and brutally cold. I like it, but it's hard to do anything outside with the kids. I worry about them being warm enough, especially Gavin. Tristan got a cold while we were there, so he didn't get to go sledding like we planned. But we saw all the family and had a nice Christmas Eve and day there. Then we drove down to Pekin, saw some of the family, we went ice skating, and Doug and I went to a movie alone. We came home and Doug started clearing post and getting ready to leave.

And that is all the news for now. There will be big changes coming soon.