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.
Friday, January 23, 2009
Sunday, January 11, 2009
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!
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!
Tuesday, January 6, 2009
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.
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.
Friday, December 12, 2008
The military wife
I received this in a forward, and I thought this is one that sums it all up. It's a pretty good description of the military wife.
To all the military wives.
To all the wives who hold it together and those of us who
on occasion lose it...Thank you for being so wonderful!
They may look different and each is wonderfully unique.
But what do they have in common? They have this in common:
Lots of moving. Moving far from home.
Moving two cars, three kids and one dog----all riding with
HER of Course.
Moving sofas to basements because they won't go in THIS house.
Moving curtains that won't fit.
Moving jobs and certifications and professional development hours.
Moving away from friends, moving toward new friends.
Moving her most important luggage; her trunk full of memories.
Often waiting-
Waiting, waiting; waiting for housing; waiting for orders; waiting or deployment; waiting for reunion; waiting for phones calls; waiting for the new curtains to arrive; waiting for him to come home for dinner----AGAIN!
They call her 'military dependent', but she knows better.
She can balance a checkbook, handle the yard work, fix a noisy toilet, bury the family pet... She is intimately familiar with drywall, anchors, and toggle bolts.
She can file the taxes, sell a house, buy a car, or set up a move ---- all with ONE Power of Attorney.
She welcomes neighbors that don't welcome her.
Reinvents her career with every PCS; locates a house in the desert, the arctic, or the deep south and learns to call them all home. She MAKES them all home.
She is fiercely IN-dependent and somewhat hasty; Leaps into decorating, leadership, volunteering, career alternatives, churches and friendships.
She doesn't have 15 years to get to know people. Her roots are short but flexible. She plant annuals for themselves and perennials for those who come after them.
Military Wives quickly learn to value each other. They connect over coffee, rely on the spouse-network and accept offers of friendship and favors and record addresses in pencil.
Military Wives have a common bond. The Military Wife has a husband unlike other husbands, his commitment is unique.
He doesn't have a job, he has a 'mission' -- he can't decide to quit -- he's on-call for his country 24/7, but for the military wife, he's the most unreliable guy in town!
His language is foreign:
TDY
PCS
OPR
ACC
BDU
And so, a Military Wife is a translator for her family and his.
She is the long-distance link to keep them informed the glue that holds them together.
Military Wife has her moments ---- She wants to wring his neck, dye his uniform pink, and refuse to move to Siberia. But she pulls herself together. Give her a few days, a travel brochure, a long hot bath, a pledge to the flag, and a wedding picture. And she goes. She packs. She moves. She follows.
Why?
What for?
How come?
You may think it is because she has lost her mind. But actually it is be cause she has lost her heart. It was stolen from her by a man who puts duty first, who longs to deploy, who salutes the flag, and whose boots in the doorway remind her that as long as he is her Military husband, She will remain his Military wife.
To all the military wives.
To all the wives who hold it together and those of us who
on occasion lose it...Thank you for being so wonderful!
They may look different and each is wonderfully unique.
But what do they have in common? They have this in common:
Lots of moving. Moving far from home.
Moving two cars, three kids and one dog----all riding with
HER of Course.
Moving sofas to basements because they won't go in THIS house.
Moving curtains that won't fit.
Moving jobs and certifications and professional development hours.
Moving away from friends, moving toward new friends.
Moving her most important luggage; her trunk full of memories.
Often waiting-
Waiting, waiting; waiting for housing; waiting for orders; waiting or deployment; waiting for reunion; waiting for phones calls; waiting for the new curtains to arrive; waiting for him to come home for dinner----AGAIN!
They call her 'military dependent', but she knows better.
She can balance a checkbook, handle the yard work, fix a noisy toilet, bury the family pet... She is intimately familiar with drywall, anchors, and toggle bolts.
She can file the taxes, sell a house, buy a car, or set up a move ---- all with ONE Power of Attorney.
She welcomes neighbors that don't welcome her.
Reinvents her career with every PCS; locates a house in the desert, the arctic, or the deep south and learns to call them all home. She MAKES them all home.
She is fiercely IN-dependent and somewhat hasty; Leaps into decorating, leadership, volunteering, career alternatives, churches and friendships.
She doesn't have 15 years to get to know people. Her roots are short but flexible. She plant annuals for themselves and perennials for those who come after them.
Military Wives quickly learn to value each other. They connect over coffee, rely on the spouse-network and accept offers of friendship and favors and record addresses in pencil.
Military Wives have a common bond. The Military Wife has a husband unlike other husbands, his commitment is unique.
He doesn't have a job, he has a 'mission' -- he can't decide to quit -- he's on-call for his country 24/7, but for the military wife, he's the most unreliable guy in town!
His language is foreign:
TDY
PCS
OPR
ACC
BDU
And so, a Military Wife is a translator for her family and his.
She is the long-distance link to keep them informed the glue that holds them together.
Military Wife has her moments ---- She wants to wring his neck, dye his uniform pink, and refuse to move to Siberia. But she pulls herself together. Give her a few days, a travel brochure, a long hot bath, a pledge to the flag, and a wedding picture. And she goes. She packs. She moves. She follows.
Why?
What for?
How come?
You may think it is because she has lost her mind. But actually it is be cause she has lost her heart. It was stolen from her by a man who puts duty first, who longs to deploy, who salutes the flag, and whose boots in the doorway remind her that as long as he is her Military husband, She will remain his Military wife.
Friday, December 5, 2008
My favorite time of year
Well, it's time to play catch up. Every time Doug comes home, he brings Tristan a present. This time it was a big gun with a scope on it. The main part was that it had a scope or a pipe as Tristan calls it. I'm not sure who's played with it more, Tristan or Doug.
We went to Pekin for Thanksgiving. Our trip was nicer this time, only two stops on the way up and one on the way back. Gavin is becoming a good traveler. He turned five months on Thanksgiving and decided to start rolling over, back to tummy. But he's forgot how to roll tummy to back, so he gets stuck. He was a pretty happy boy though, more people around to hold him and all.
Tristan's big idea of something to do was to go ice skating. It's been YEAR's since I've ice skated and I'm happy to say I didn't fall once. I almost did but I just pulled the muscles in my back doing that wiggle arm wave to keep from falling. Tristan got to push around buckets to keep from falling. He had a great time and even skated a little bit with no buckets.
Now that we're back home, it's just been busy getting ready for Christmas. I love Christmas. Decorating, cookies, shopping, Christmas music... Tristan decorated his tree and we got our tree yesterday. We have more outside decorating to do and of course lots of shopping. I'm actually having a hard time thinking of things for the kids. Tristan has everything and Gavin has all his old toys. Between the two of them we have a least a quarter of a toys r us store. No matter what, December will just go to fast and I will never get everything done that I want to. But it's still my favorite time of year.
Tuesday, November 11, 2008
It's Fall!
We took full advantage of the last few nice days of fall we had. It was in the 60's and 70's, sunny and just so nice to be out after school. Tristan raked some leaves into a pile to roll and jump in and throw.
I finally got the baby saucer out for Gavin. He loves it and sits really well in it. He loves to sit and he pulls himself up if he's laying back at all.
Gavin is trying to wrap Doug around his little finger. He is just smiling and talking to him now. He knows that he has trained other people (Grandma and Grandpa) this way. If he is smiley and cute, he gets picked up. It's nice that he warmed up to him pretty quick. Although for some things like eating and sleeping, only Mommy will do. And most of the time, that is ok with me. He's such a cute and cuddly baby boy.
I finally got the baby saucer out for Gavin. He loves it and sits really well in it. He loves to sit and he pulls himself up if he's laying back at all.
Gavin is trying to wrap Doug around his little finger. He is just smiling and talking to him now. He knows that he has trained other people (Grandma and Grandpa) this way. If he is smiley and cute, he gets picked up. It's nice that he warmed up to him pretty quick. Although for some things like eating and sleeping, only Mommy will do. And most of the time, that is ok with me. He's such a cute and cuddly baby boy.
Wednesday, November 5, 2008
I'm glad it's over
I didn't even watch all the political stuff last night. I knew I wouldn't be up late enough and I'd hear about it this morning. I'm just so glad it's over. I was so tired of all the political commercials with the "he did this, he voted this way", "no I said this and voted this way". Uh. I agree with my Mom, why can't they just say what they are for, what they want to do and stop with the negative ads. I guess it would be a perfect world. It would also be a perfect world if it wasn't so much about race. So there is a black man that's President now. Can't we move past race? He's still just a man. Get over his color, look past that. What's he going to do for our country? So finally the political commercials are off and now comes the Christmas rush.
October and early November is too early to be playing Christmas music in the stores. And this is coming from the biggest fan of Christmas. I love Christmas, it's my favorite holiday. But while I'm still shopping for Halloween stuff is not the time I want to be listening to Christmas music. And I never realized how many toy commercials there are until I went from watching Disney channel or PBS kids to Nick Jr. Oh my goodness. We are only watching commercial free PBS kids from now til after Christmas. Every new toy Tristan sees, he wants. Every commercial, even it's a doll or girl toy or baby toy, he wants it.
So, Doug is home again. He came home last night, dropped all his bags and stuff throughout the house and went to work this morning. He's home for a couple weeks, leaves, comes back for a while, leaves again....so it goes. But Tristan is so happy to have his Daddy back and poor Gavin doesn't know him. I feel sorry for military kids sometimes. When Tristan got up this morning, Doug wasn't back from PT yet and Tristan saw he was gone, you could see the worry and disappointment in his eyes when he asked "Where's Daddy?" I told him he would be back soon and he was relieved. I'm just happy Doug will be here for the holidays. He'll be gone all around them, but home for some the good family times. I'm lucky and thankful for that.
October and early November is too early to be playing Christmas music in the stores. And this is coming from the biggest fan of Christmas. I love Christmas, it's my favorite holiday. But while I'm still shopping for Halloween stuff is not the time I want to be listening to Christmas music. And I never realized how many toy commercials there are until I went from watching Disney channel or PBS kids to Nick Jr. Oh my goodness. We are only watching commercial free PBS kids from now til after Christmas. Every new toy Tristan sees, he wants. Every commercial, even it's a doll or girl toy or baby toy, he wants it.
So, Doug is home again. He came home last night, dropped all his bags and stuff throughout the house and went to work this morning. He's home for a couple weeks, leaves, comes back for a while, leaves again....so it goes. But Tristan is so happy to have his Daddy back and poor Gavin doesn't know him. I feel sorry for military kids sometimes. When Tristan got up this morning, Doug wasn't back from PT yet and Tristan saw he was gone, you could see the worry and disappointment in his eyes when he asked "Where's Daddy?" I told him he would be back soon and he was relieved. I'm just happy Doug will be here for the holidays. He'll be gone all around them, but home for some the good family times. I'm lucky and thankful for that.
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