Weekend Bullet Points

 Once again a totally random weekend post.

* Fixing to celebrate Kiale's 7th and Cayleigh-Grace's 2nd birthday with a party and a BBQ in a few hours
*All the guys graduate this week
*Only 2 more weekends here before we PCS out
*will be seeing my family in about a month!!
*Tried out this recipie for amazing cupcakes and cake, will share pictures after the party.
*Is in TOTAL denial about my sweet little princess turning 2 and my first born turning 7... that is right I said 7.    Wow.
*KS got a leave extension so we all get to leave together instead of just the kids and I.
* Pringles Xtreme Blastin' Buffalo Wing chips are my new favorite thing.

Our friends will be here soon so I need to go finish getting ready, hope everyone has a wonderful weekend!

Packing Up and Moving Out!

That is right folks we are packing up and moving out!! In about three weeks we will be swimming in cardboard boxes and mountains of packing paper. Yesterday I went from thinking I would be moving back home in lieu of being homeless for two months while we wait on on post housing to today receiving a phone call stating that they have a house for us. KS and I have been scrambling around today setting up the movers and filing out tons of forms and turning them in. What is really exciting is that we were even able to get an address and even better news, our new home was just remodeled and is just now being released from the remodeling process! I am so thrilled that things are working out so well. This just goes to show you what you get through tons of prayer and being extremely nice and polite to people, even when you call them 4-5 times a day trying to figure everything out. The boys are only going to miss about a week of school once everything is all said and done, which isn't too bad in my opinion. I have to admit though, I am not looking forward to unpacking again. Hopefully KS will be able to help out as much as possible. Oh, and did I mention its a 4 bedroom 2 1/5 bath!

1st Day of School

Monday was the boy's first day of school and I have to tell you they loved it! I think both of them were really happy to be back with their friends after a long summer break.

Kiale's response to the first day of school: It was awesome, I went to the playground 3 times, did one paper of math, got a crayon box, and had lunch.We went to music and the gym, when we came back we packed up our stuff and then played the quiet game. Then I went home.

Colin's response to the first day of school: I was sort of happy, I played with Play Doh, drew a picture, took a nap and went home.

Kiale - 1st Grade

Colin - Kindergarten

Eating breakfast in the cafeteria

Cayleigh-Grace had to bring her Tinkerbell backpack too, she didn't want to feel left out.

All Quiet on the Western Front.

Things have been so quiet around here since I found out our orders. I wish I had been blogging so much more this summer, but I always have such a hard time doing it while the boys are on their summer vacation. Now that school started back up today I am hoping to do better with keeping this more up to date. I hate that I slacked off so much this summer because I know memories only stay fresh for so long, but I am going to try and play catch up, and go through and post about all of the things I left out during this summer.

I have done as much as I possibly can until my application for on post housing has been reviewed, its been 3 days, not counting the weekend. I am very impatient, and I know they have lots of applications and mine will be dated on the 17th which is when I filled it out online, but I have so many questions to ask and they are not going to be able to be answered until that application has been reviewed and processed!! I called and left a message today asking about how I had heard of people who are coming straight off of BCT and AIT getting back dated from when they started BCT on the waiting lists, but of course the lady never called me back. I will be calling again first thing in the morning. Has anyone else heard of this? I know Ft. Campbell and Ft. Bragg do this but I am not sure if it is something that is practiced across the board or not. I saw it on my upcoming Post's website but the lady who runs the front desk new nothing about it, granted she has only been there for a month or so, so that could be why.

At this point it is looking like I will be moving on my own again, oh joy, and by on my own I mean no KS here to help oversee packers and movers etc. Thankfully Daddy was able to drive the kids and I here, but it is looking like I will be the one who gets to drive across several states this time. Did I ever mention that driving is not my favorite thing to do? KS just got caught back up on his leave since he took the two weeks off during BCT for exodus and we have no interest in him going back into the hole again. It has taken 9 months to get him caught back up with a little extra, and by little I mean 3 days. Impressive right?

What does everyone know about permissive TDY? We were thinking about using some of it to go back home in September/October to visit family but I don't know if its something that you have to stay within a certain number of miles from the post or if you can go out be gone for a few days with it? I know that it isn't something that is certain we will be able to get, it all depends on how busy his unit is at that time. Where we are moving to is within 5 hours of home, so we would love to head back for a few days and celebrate the kids birthdays with our families and see everyone we haven't seen for 6 months now.

I was talking to a lady I met out at the pool today, her husband is Air Force, and I just wanted to double check with all my Army gals. I had asked about whether or not we would be able to go home on long weekends whenever we wanted or if we would have to have KS actually take leave for it even though he wouldn't be working anyway, and they said that we would have to take leave, because he wouldn't be able to be called in whenever they needed him. It made sense to me I just wanted to make sure that that is how it worked in the Army too. Oh and I had another question, if we don't have housing when KS has to leave in the next couple of weeks can the kids and I stay here on base until our housing is available? Will they put KS in the barracks while we are still here or will we have to pay to put KS up somewhere? I called today and was told that they will only pay for 10 days of hotel housing while we try to get put in a house since there is no temporary housing on post, so we are going to have to time this move just right. KS wants me to move with him, but our stuff in storage and then go home to family until we get our housing. I have to keep reminding him that the boys are in school now and we cant just leave them out for a couple of weeks and everything be okay with their records.

Well, I guess this post has been long winded enough. If you can answer my questions or offer me any advice I would greatly appreciate it. Here are a couple of pics to make this long post all worth it.

Funny

My good friend Kelli sent this to me this morning, and I just had to pass it on. Happy Wednesday everyone! 

Why Does the Chicken Cross the Road?

We have....

Our orders!! KS called me about an hour ago and let me know that we FINALLY received our orders... and we are headed to......

The East Coast
(and only 5 hours from home!!)

Right now we are just praising the Lord, because his contract for Airborne training has been canceled. We are guessing that they reviewed his medical profiles and decided he wasn't fit for it. We knew that and we are so thankful that they realized that before they shipped him over there just for him to get medically discharged from it. At this point I am exhausted and headed to bed considering it is 12:48am right now and I have to be up early to take the boys to get their school physicals done.

Excited!

I Just checked KS's ERB and we have finally been moved to Rule 5 in his ASK, we should have orders VERY soon!!!

(I hope)

Totally Random

1. Still no orders :-(
2. KS was able to get me two POA's so once I do get the orders I can get everything setup to move and acquire housing.
3. School starts in a week, and I have to admit I am ready. I love having my boys home, but my goodness what is it about those last two weeks of summer vacation that makes them go CRAZY???
4. I have managed to get my downstairs spotless today... now to start on the upstairs.
5. We are planning a birthday bash for Kiale and Cayleigh-Grace it is also going to be combined with a graduation party for all our friends since we only have a couple of weeks left before everyone starts parting ways and heading to their duty station.
6. KS made expert on his weapons qualification last week, he made sharpshooter at BCT and was disappointed in himself. He is thrilled now, you cant get any better then expert, 37 out of 40, I am very proud of my man!

Well... I guess thats about it, its been a pretty boring week around here. Hopefully I will have good news soon! I hope!!

Amazing Grace

Surprise, Surprise...

No orders today, I cant say I'm surprised we didn't get them today, I had a sneaking suspicion we wouldn't be. The thought that "yea, they said we would have them today" was way to good to be true, Then today gets here and they are a no show. Typical Army fashion, everything on their time. I guess the guy down at S1 didn't have quite as much pull as he thought he did when he called up and said that all these troops need orders by today. Thankfully its really not that big of a deal, we will get our orders EVENTUALLY and once they do get here I have a feeling I will be racing around like a mad woman trying to get everything ready to move in a short time frame... again.  Oh well, like my good friend Kimmy said "Maybe short notice moves will be your thing..." I have a feeling she is going to be right about that one. I put my first move together from start to finish in three weeks... who knows how long I will have to put this one together in, we are down to six short weeks at this point. That is still longer then three though :-) Maybe we will have orders tomorrow, or the next day, or even the day after that... oh well c'est la vie

Stress... Cleaning... & More STRESS!!!

Well the stress is rolling in. I just found the move out instructions for our housing office and I already have a racing heart. The amount that they can charge you for stuff is insane!! I don't know how I am ever going to get all of the cleaning done, thankfully I have already started so it will be easier for me in two months (really a month and a half at this point... but whose counting right?) when we do finally vacate this housing, but my goodness! The boys had markers in their room for the first few months and of course there are some marker stains on the carpet now, and I have no clue how to get them out. If you have any suggestions please fill me in!!! The carpet is my main concern and really its just their bedroom. Everything else here is still immaculate, especially since we have only been here for 6 months when it is time to leave. I am just so worried that I will get everything clean to the best of my ability and then they will do the walk through and come up with tons of stuff that they have to clean. If that happens then I will be getting a lovely bill and hopefully we will have the money to cover it, and if we don't... I don't even want to think about that. Thank goodness school will have started and I can do the cleaning with the boys gone, although Cayleigh-Grace will still be running around so that will be fun. KS will have about 10 days after graduation and before he has to report to his second round of schooling so I am hoping and praying that between the two of us we can tackle everything and get this place looking shiny and new. If we can manage to do that all I have to do is keep the house clean for the couple of weeks KS is at school before we move... but then I start to worry about the movers messing up the carpet again if KS and I were able to get it cleaned already....ahhhh!!!!

Oh, and by the way, this is just one of the many reasons why markers are not allowed in the house. 

News

Its not THE news but it is news, we WILL have orders on Monday. Or so we have been told from S1, the guy who actually prints and hands out the orders. He has taken names of everyone orderless (so not a word...) and has promised orders by the end of the day Monday.... I will believe it when I have the orders in my hand. Until then its still just wishful thinking.

I have started my lists again, I am up to 3 so far. If you remember when I moved here for KS's AIT I had probably 8 lists going at one time. Hopefully I won't break that record. I would like to keep this move as simple as possible, although the words simple and PCSing just do not go together.

I have been obsessing over the post we will most likely be PCSing to. I have housing picked out, I know which elementary school the boys will be attending on post and I even found out that they have a swim team and swimming lessons all year.

Hopefully I will be able to get on here Monday and say that we FINALLY have orders!!

Orders...

Why is it that just when we think we are going to get orders literally any day now, human resources decides to go on vacation??? No orders for AT LEAST another week.

August

I know its a day late but... HAPPY AUGUST everyone!! Wow, I was catching up on the weekends events in blog land when it hit me this could be the last full month we spend in this place. I have to admit I do love it here, yes it started out rough, but what did I expect. This is my first move; I went from living with my parents to moving 13 minutes away when I married KS and now we live 1200+ miles from our families. Even though I have been homesick here and there I love where I live now. I love being away and feeling more grown up. I don't have that sense of dependency I had when we lived back home. As crazy as it may sound I feel like a 25 year old who finally grew up, even though I have been married for seven and a half years with three kids. Who would have guessed some distance was exactly what I needed to boost my confidence and make me feel more adult. I don't rely on people like I did before, and to be honest I don't feel like I rely on anyone, I can get done whatever I need to get done on my own. I don't need someone looking over my shoulder making sure I am doing it right. It is very refreshing to feel this way, but don't get me wrong if something goes wrong or if I need anything Mom and Dad's phones are ringing instantly. No matter how grown up I may feel now I still know that no matter what I can always, and will always go to them whenever I need them and they will do whatever they can to set things right.

Anyways... that was not where I was going with this post today. August... wow. So much will happen within this next month and once September gets here things will really start to get crazy. This month will be full of vacation Bible school for the boys, swimming lessons, and spending as much time with friends as possible before everyone leaves following graduation in September. Not to mention I have already dug out my "moving folder" and my portable filing system. These two things that must be permanently attached to my body during the moving process. Plus school will be starting in just a couple of weeks so we have all the prep for that going on right now. Thank goodness I went ahead and enrolled them at the end of the school year last year so that is one thing I don't have to worry about, although I do have to get their school physicals done before they can start. I finally switch us over to Tricare Prime, we had been on Standard since KS started BCT and I just hadn't got around to switching us over yet, thankfully we haven't even used our insurance since we moved here. KS will have a week in the field playing Rambo with his friends, hopefully they will enjoy it, but with this heat I doubt it. They are going to be miserable. This month is going to fly by I just know it. Soon we will be celebrating our big birthday month, September, I cant believe I will have a 2 year old and a 7 year old very soon. September "should" also be filled with packing and moving... I hope. If we ever get orders... Gotta love the Army's hurry up and wait motto... or is that just the Army wives motto. Either way its the truth!