Still in limbo

My husband just spoke to his branch manager today. He has the extension paperwork, but will not approve it…at least not yet. There is still no one but my husband to fill this slot and time is becoming more precious.

Rob will call again next week to see if there is any other news. I think there are 2 things about being married to the military that are the most stressful. 1) Deployment. It is never easy to see your Soldier deploy. 2) Not knowing where you’re going to be stationed and when.

If I were a betting woman, and I only occasionally gamble, I would put my odds on we’re moving soon–as in April–soon. I hate not knowing. I hate not being able to plan certain things. I’ve always been the kind of person that can live by the seat of my pants and just go with it, but certain things need to be planned. Like: I want to go back to school. I can’t won’t submit applications to any school if I don’t know where we’re going to end up living.  I would like to have a look around the web to see about a place to live.  And I’ve done some of that already, but in all likelihood, the houses that I am looking at now will not be available when we move.

There are a couple of possibilities, however, the strongest of all the scenarios seems to be at Ft. Lewis, Washington (state).  If we get stationed there, I will likely go to school in Tacoma.  Where should we live?  Should we try to get quarters on post or off?  Will the quarters on post have a yard for my dogs to play in?  The number of animals that we have shouldn’t be a problem.  It’s simply a matter of getting an exception to policy, and for that, it’s pretty easy to do.  We have numerous friends that have more than 2 animals and live on post so I really can’t see why that would be a problem.  I just want a yard.  My dogs deserve to play outside and off leash.  If we opt for on post housing, Gizmo will not be allowed outside.  He’s not really an outdoor cat, but he needs exercise too.  I have put both Lilo and Gizmo on leashes and it just looks silly.  I definitely get looks for it–and quips.  Gizmo never goes far and he’s scared to death of traffic, but he still needs to be able to play outdoors.

On the other side of the coin, living off post, we just have to find a landlord that allows us to have pets in their home.  Typically, a pet deposit will be required and if we live in an apartment building, there might also be additional requirements such as nutering our dogs.  It’s probably going to happen anyway, but I don’t want my landlord to tell me what to do with my pets.  I’m responsible and they don’t go off leash outside of my house or my property.  Some apartments also have additional rules as to the number of pets that can live there and sometimes weight can be a factor.  We most likely won’t be living in an apartment building, but I don’t want to rule out anything at this juncture–I don’t even know where we’re going to get stationed.  Living off post also has other considerations.  Deposits and pet deposits, where to live that is most convenient to both my husband and I and that is a nice neighborhood.  School districts don’t even enter our thinking right at this stage because we don’t have children, but I do want to go back to college, so we need to find a place that is somewhere in the middle for both of us.  However, college will be a temporary thing, so it doesn’t matter if I have to drive an extra say 15-20 minutes to get to campus.  That really doesn’t bother me.

Oh, the life of the military family.  I hate sitting in limbo like this.  I want answers!  (and I am not the only one!)

It’s been a while…

It has been a long time since I’ve even looked at this blog! I spend the majority of my time on Facebook, now.

I’m in the process of finishing cleaning my house. Things have been crazy and we are going to be moving soon. Where and when is still unknown, but a move in our near future. I am trying to go through all my stuff and trying to get rid of what I can. I finally went through my closet and found a ton of stuff that I needed to get rid of.

The progress that I am making is slow, but it’s progress. I didn’t have a lot of goals to accomplish today, but getting the trash taken care of and doing several loads of laundry is on my list. I’m nearly done with the trash and I’ve done a couple of loads of laundry.

I have an FRG meeting tonight and I have to leave in a couple of hours for that, so that is why my goal list is rather short today.

The dogs let me sleep in almost an hour today, so that felt pretty good…of course, we all went to bed around midnight, so they let me have a little extra sleep when I go to bed late.

Anyway, nothing new really going on, but just thought I’d let you know that I’m alright and I’m still around!

Thanks for reading and TTFN!

So bored

Today, Rob and I did a bit of cleaning and we’re going to go out to dinner tonight!  It’s gonna be so much fun!  We even started talking about getting our Christmas cards done soon–I can’t WAIT!!!  Woohoo!!!  I don’t want to give away the surprise, but it’s great!!!

As for Christmas gifts, I am worried that everyone’s going to be disappointed.  I know, it’s a silly thing to worry about, but what we’re giving as gifts this year is out of LOVE!  I don’t want to talk too much about it cuz then I would be letting the cat out of the bag…again, something I don’t want to do!

Okay, so I have to go get ready to go out for dinner!  Thanks for reading!!!!!

Nursing School

As many of you know, I am going for a career change when I get back to the states.  After talking with a friend of mine several months ago, she told me that she thought I would make a great nurse because I love working with people, I want to help them and in her opinion, she says I’m smart. 

Well, after doing much research, I think I’ve decided which college I’d like to attend.  CSU-Pueblo.  The problem right now is that I have about 25 credit hours of prerequisites that I have to take  — and I missed the deadline for admission this coming summer!  ARG!  To top that off, I have to complete 50% of the prerequisites before I can even consider applying to the Nursing School.  This is across the board!  Apparently, there are about 300 students that apply to the program and only about 180 for the 2 programs (accelerated and traditional–I’m going to go down the traditional route) are even accepted!  So, it’s highly competitive!   Okay, I’m can handle it…Seriously, that’s alright!

I’m cool and calm and relaxed and so on…YEAH–NOT!  Okay, so first I have to breathe.  Next, I need to figure out how I can study for Microbiology, A & P and Chemistry BEFORE I go back to school so that I will do well in these classes.  The better I do, the better my chances that I wouldn’t be wait-listed or not accepted at all!  So any suggestions on how to start studying for these classes before I take these classes?  As a student of history, it was just a matter of reading the material and writing some papers.  I guess to me that is easy…chemistry–not so much.

I just need to know how to get started without taking the classes first.  There isn’t time for me to audit a class and then taking it for credit later.  So, I’m going to have to figure it out.  But, seriously, any help would gratefully accepted!!!!

Thanks for reading and have a great day! 

Praying for snow

Yes, yes I am.  I miss snow.  There hasn’t been a snow storm here in quite a long time.  We got a fluffy snow on Easter this year…but I want a fall snow!

I was really disappointed when it didn’t snow on Halloween!!!!

Oh well.  Maybe my prayers will be answered soon!!!!

Getting the plan together

Well, we have more information about what’s going to be happening early next year, but I’m not sure that Rob really wants me to post it on the blog just yet.  As soon as we get more information and Rob gives the green light to let everyone know what the deal is, I’ll let you know.

Today is Halloween and Rob wants to dress up for the kiddies that come by for Trick or Treats, but we don’t have any costumes.  I’ve never dressed up to give out candy…lol  We’re also going to watch The Shining.  Rob got a gift certificate from my brother and sister in law for his birthday and one of the things he got was that movie.  It’s about 1 of 3 scary movies I’ll sit down and watch!!!!

In addition, we’re going to Bitburg to pick up the Mini tomorrow.  Woohoo!  Very excited about this!!!  Pictures to come!!!   This I can promise, even though I’ve been promising for months now to put up more pictures of Codiak and Casey and I haven’t done it.  I know, I’m a slacker!

A few weeks ago, I fell down the stairs (big surprise, Amber falls down the stairs!!!) and I was carrying my computer when I fell.  I hurt my tailbone pretty bad, but I also broke my nice computer.  It was working (kind of) but just barely and finally yesterday, it died, so now I’m using this really small, very old computer that I got right after we moved to Germany 4 years ago.  Nothing on it has been updated in 2 years, so it took a long time to get this computer on-line and everything working properly.  The last time I used this computer was right after Rob came back from Iraq and we took it with us on our trip to Spain and Portugal.  It wasn’t so that I could get on the Internet, but as a storage unit for all the photographs that I took while we were traveling.

It seems to be working, but I really miss my other one, so I really hope that we can get it fixed fairly soon.  The keys on this computer type differently than the other one and there’s no separate number pad (which I used frequently!)  At least the mouse-pad on this computer isn’t as sensitive as the other one!!

Anyway, better be going for now.  Gotta lotta stuff to get done today and I think I’m a bit hungry!  TTFN

Rob’s Birthday BIG #40

This was written by my FiL (Dad) and I wanted to share (hey!  that rhymed!)

This is really  hard to say
That Rob will be 40 today

It was his days playing football that was really a blast
He did a good job at blocking but he never ran fast

In the band a trumpet he blew
When he made first chair Jennifer cried boo-hoo

His grades were great and off to college he’d go
It surely cost us a lot of dough

When graduation came we knew it was worth it all
When is standing there proud and tall

After a few years to Key West he would go
He wanted to get away from the cold and the snow

When he came back home pizza was his game
It didn’t last long we think Pizza Hut was to blame

We were surprised to hear that he was choosing  the Army as his career
His Mom and Dad both shed a tear

The he met Amber and everything is great
We believe that it was truly fate

We’re proud of our son and the accomplishments he’s had
We give you our love from both Mom and Dad

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

Hi!

I know that it’s been a while since I’ve written!  There’s not been a whole lot going on with me or Rob lately.

Codiak is growing like a weed.  He’s about 45 pounds and just turned 4 months old!  The scale at the vet’s office wasn’t working today when we got puppy shots, but the doctor agreed with our assessment of 45 pound (or 20 Kg)!  The vet tech who was working today said that she had a lab and that she knew ours was going to be a big boy!

Rob celebrated his “over the hill” birthday on the 15th.  We didn’t do too much, but I made him a cake and a special birthday dinner.

I started re-watched the Friend’s episodes and right now I’m on the last one.  It makes me sad.  I know that I will always have my “friends” anytime I want, but it is sad to see it end.  I promised my friend Diana that she could borrow my DVDs so she could enjoy it.  I say that I’m a bad sharer, but I’m really not, I play very well with others!

Rob is working late tonight.  I had to chase the dogs from the neighbors yard.  Codiak has taught Casey the intricate art of jumping and crawling through fences.  Grrr!  Definitely going to need a privacy fence when we get back to the states.

Anyway, Rob finally got home, so now I gotta go!  Thanks for reading and have a great day! 

Bumble Bee

Say hello to the newest member of our family! His name is Bumble Bee (like from Transformers) heehee! He’s been paid for today and we got to meet him today. He’s not finished yet, he’s getting hood bonnets put on it next week. Ain’t he just so cute?

Too much information!!!

It’s too much!  Stop!  Wait a minute!  Let me take it one piece at a time!

We got an email today.  Rob’s been accepted into a functional area.  It’s Information Operations.  Very exciting opportunity!  He’ll start off at Ft. Leavenworth, Kansas for a few months and then go somewhere else…where that somewhere else is–is still very much up in the air!

I’m all jittery and stuff–and not from all the coffee that I’ve drank today, either–but because there was just so much information that I’m having a difficult time trying to sort it out in my mind.  Just like everything, it needs to be processed…and put into the correct compartments.

Isn’t that weird?  I compartmentalize my life.  I think a lot of military spouse’s do that.  I think we have to.  With all the information that I got today, I seriously don’t know how long it will be for me to finally be able to understand the whole thing.  Seriously, I don’t know if it’s good news or bad news.  It’s news.  We’ll leave it at that for now.  I can’t say more because I don’t know more…though I wish I did.  Do I really need more information?  I can’t process what I know NOW–would I do better with MORE?  Maybe, perhaps…probably.  At least there’d be more certainty.

This is not what I was expecting, that’s for sure…okay, it was similar to what I had expected, but it throws new, uncertain possibilities into the whole works.  I want to go back to school, but I can’t even really start thinking about that until I have some sort of idea where it is that we’re going to be stationed.  I spent hours upon hours researching schools, areas, apartments that allow dogs–animals in general (I have 3–tough to find a place that allows them is not easy), employment, second bachelor’s degree over a master’s degree.  All of this stuff that I’ve spent the last few months deciding has all just been thrown out the window because now there is this uncertainty that we’re facing and I just want to go back to where it was easy.  Where decisions had been made and it was clearer as to which path I was going to be on.

As I said in my previous post, staying flexible while being married to the military is the key to success.  I do believe it, just some sense of order in this chaos they call the military would be helpful.  So, now, I will take my outdated list of places of where we could possibly be stationed (and it’s a long list) and tell my husband 3 places that I’d like to live for the next 2-5 years.  At least it’s a start, I suppose.

That’s one thing I really commend my husband about.  He always takes into consideration my options.  And basically, he’ll go wherever!  For that I’m grateful.  I seriously doubt that I could have found someone so understanding about the military situation that he takes me into consideration when it comes to moving.  He’s so great that way.

Sorry, does this post seem disconnected?  I’m disconnected.  I’m all over the place right now.  Don’t worry…I’m alright.  Sometimes it’s good to just write out the thoughts.  It helps me sometimes–just to sort it out.  So if this post didn’t really make a whole lot of sense to you, don’t worry, it’ll become clearer as time goes on…and we’ll keep you updated.

Thanks for reading.