2010 in 12

I am in awe that the final day of 2010 is tomorrow. In many ways this year has flown by, but it has been filled with so many amazing things that it seems like it has lasted an eternity. Here is the summary of the year 2010 in 12 pictures...

January

 In January we had to return Daddy to basic training after his amazing Christmas Exodus break.
 February

In February we were able to celebrate KS's graduation from BCT. He then moved out west for AIT and the kids and I began to throw together a move three weeks later that no one was prepared for. We decided to join KS at his AIT location on a whim in March rather then June. 

 March

 In March with the help and hours of labor from family and friends we succeeded in getting us moved out west within three weeks of KS's BCT graduation date. We had never been farther west then Alabama so this two day drive out west was a sight to see!! We also got the kids enrolled in their new school a week after we arrived out west, I had planned the move so we would arrive out west on the day their new school's spring break would begin. We signed the lease for our house on the base on Colin's 5th birthday.

 April

 In April KS was finally moved to stage five in his AIT training and was allowed to live with us once again. IT was so nice to be family of five again and not have to worry about getting him back to the barracks on time or having to worry about formations on the weekends anymore. We also got to celebrate Easter at their school and with the housing office, both threw wonderful Easter egg hunts and parties for the children.

May

 In May Kiale graduated for Kindergarten and Colin had his K-4 graduation ceremony. We took the boys bowling for the first time and the boys discovered some wonderful lakes to go fishing with KS's and his friends. We also got a new addition to our family, a little kitten named Casey, and I pulled out the slip-n-slide which proved to be hours of fun the entire summer. One of the best parts about May, the pool opened!!

June

 In June we went to the pool almost every day and began to make lasting friend ships with some amazing people who have become a second family to us. We also began to explore the town around us and enjoyed spending time together as a family. I discovered that Cayleigh-Grace finally had enough hair to pull back into pigtails.

July

 In July we celebrated one of my favorite holidays with our some of our favorite friends, the 4th of July! The boys also began their swimming lessons which would prove to be the best thing for both of them. It really got Colin to come out of his shell. We also had our first visitors in July, my grandparents came out to spend a week with us. KS and his buddy D raced their RC cars almost every weekend together, which continued until we moved in September.

August

 August was spent with even more swimming, also had friends over on a near daily basis. We celebrated Kiale and Cayleigh-Grace's 7th and 2nd birthdays early since everyone had to part ways the following month. I began organizing and cleaning the house to prepare for our move  and we finally found out where we were moving to, about a week before KS's AIT graduation date.

September

 In September KS graduated from AIT and we started to say goodbye to all of our amazing friends that we made out west. I also completed another three week notice move (I think this will just be my thing) and we were successful in moving back to the east coast. Close to home but extremely far from the majority of our closest Army friends. We got the boys enrolled in school and KS started his to actually do his job. Cayleigh-Grace got moved to a big girl bed and we were able to go home and see family for a couple of days. The first time we had seen them in six months.

October

 In October the boys started to make friends and began to finally get good and settled into our new home and post. We celebrated Oktoberfest and the kids rode their first fair rides, and KS found a neat RC track to race his cars on. Halloween got here and instead of two sons and a daughter we ended up with a Gronkle, a NightFurry and a little Ladybug. We also went to the units Halloween bash and the we bought the boys their own rock crawlers.

November

 In November we went home to have Thanksgiving with family and we really enjoyed our time there and had lots of fun decorating my parents house for Christmas with my sisters and their boyfriends. I was able to complete Cayleigh-Grace's duvet cover for her bed and made curtains for some of the rooms in our house.

December

This month we experienced our fist snow and our first Christmas away from family. We also had lots of visitors to our home this month, KS' mom, sister her husband and their son E, my aunt, uncle, cousin, her husband and their son, as well as my grandparents.

Kids Bedrooms

We are in the process of redoing the kids bedrooms with new bedding and dressers so once that is all done and they are finished I will post the end result. This is what they look like right now though.

Kiale's Room

Colin's Room

Cayleigh-Grace's Room

100% DONE!

Well, we finally did it we are 100% unpacked and getting settled in. Here are some pictures I took before the movers came and dropped off all of our HHG.

Kiale's Room

Cayleigh-Grace's Room

Master Bedroom

Colin's Room

Kitchen

Great Room

Backyard

Update

Internet... check!

Unpacked... 80%!

Like it here... understatement!

Pictures... as soon as I find my cable!

We are here!!

Well we made it to GA! KS ended up driving straight through five states in 24 hours so we could go home and visit our family and friends for a couple of days. It was so nice being home for the first time in six months. We signed the lease on our 4 bedroom 2.5 bath yesterday, which also happened to be Kiale's 7th birthday. I cannot believe I have a seven year old already, it just seems do surreal. So far we love the house, the rooms are a little smaller then I was hoping for but it was what I was expecting in a 1556 sq ft house. I still haven't decided if we are going to have the boys share a bedroom and give them a playroom or split them up in separate rooms. About the only thing we have decided on is which bedrooms will go to the boys and which bedroom Cayleigh-Grace will have. The boys are getting the two smaller equal size rooms while CG will have the larger room with the larger closet The house is really nice and was just gutted and remodeled. My phone wont let me type anymore...

---------
Sent using Mobile Email

Sweet Success

Today has gone off smoothly and without a hitch! The housing inspection went great and we were not charged extra for anything! Praise the Lord! We done and driving off base by 10am. Aside from having to say goodbye to our neighbors today has been great. KS has been doing all of the driving, which doesn't bother me at all since driving is by far not one of my favorite things to do. At this point we are still driving and we will continue to drive until we have gone through the current state we are in. Hope everyone has been having a great week.

---------
Sent using Mobile Email

Today

Well, today has gone smoothly for the most part. Woke up took the boys to school, cleared out the living room and boys room and waited on the carpet shampooers to get here. They arrived 15 minutes late, but really it was no big deal, they finished the entire house within 2 hours. The big deal came as the guy was putting everything away. I had gone into the dinning room and closed the bi fold doors, then after I remembered I needed to put the blinds down for the inspection tomorrow I opened them up and walked towards the window only to hear a loud crash behind me. The bi fold door crashed into the door to our hot water heater closet. So I sit there fiddling with it for a couple of minutes trying to fix it to no avail. Thankfully the cleaner guy was still here so I walked out there and asked him if he hit or messed up the door and he said yea he caught it on his hose. So, I explained to him that it just crashed... he couldn't believe it. He came inside and tried to fix it but there was no fixing it, it was good and broke. I noticed that the maintenance crew was in the next housing so I had him come over and look at it. Thankfully it was no big deal since they are removing the doors after we leave anyway. My neighbor watched Cayleigh-Grace after the carpet cleaner left and I ran my errands today which was great. It was so nice to go and have three hours sans kids, even if I was cramming in 6 different stops into that short period of time. After I finished running all over creation I had thirty minutes to get home pick Cayleigh-Grace up and get to Kiale's school for cupcakes (his birthday is Tuesday) thankfully we made it there right at 2:30 with no time to spare. Kiale and his classmates really enjoyed the cupcakes even if the icing was falling off of them due to the insane heat here. After we got home I started washing the walls and getting the last little bit of stuffed cleaned up (which I am still not done with, dang bathrooms...) when KS said have you seen this yet?? I had no clue what he was talking about and I was not happy when I realized what it was. When the bi fold door fell it busted a hole in the water heater closet door, it is an almost perfect triangle hole from the corner of the door. Needless to say I was on the phone with maintenance immediately, they didn't have time to come out here and look at it today which sucks because our inspection is first thing in the morning. He is going to try and come out around 8 which would be fine since our inspection is around 10:00, and see if he can fix it. All I know is I sure as heck better not have to pay for a dang door that I did not break. At this point I am just hoping and praying that the inspection goes well and they don't find any stupid stuff for us to have to pay for. In my opinion this is just a  way for them to make more money, but hey what do I know?

Its All Gone

Well its all gone. After 2 straight 8 hour twork days the truck just pulled out and left with all of our household goods on it. Unfortunatly the truck is going to beat us to GA so all of our HHG will be going into storage for a while before it is delivered to our new house. Well, now its time to make this place spotless and beautiful before we have our final inspection in a few days.

---------
Sent using Mobile Email

Packing Day One

Well, it is 4 o'clock and the packers just left. Thankfully they are 90% done. They still have to finish up the living room and doing the inventory throughout the house. Then they have to do all of the stuff on our back porch and everything that is in our shed. They also have to do under our stairs. They are coming back first thing in the morning to finish packing and then to load the semi. By the end of the day tomorrow we will be sleeping on air beds and living in an empty house. Do you realize how much an almost empty house echos??? Yea, not fun with 3 extreamly bored and loud kids.
Sorry for the typos and spelling mistakes, I will be blogging from my phone until we get to GA and get settled again.

---------
Sent using Mobile Email

Almost Ready

Today has been one busy day. KS woke me up at 10:00 this morning and I was in total disbelief that the kids let us sleep in that long. I kept asking him if it really was 10:00. It felt so good to sleep in that long, I have been so tired lately. KS made everyone breakfast this morning since we had about a dozen and a half eggs to go though, and I hate making eggs. The smell turns my stomach, I sure like eating them though. We ate every single one too! After breakfast KS and I started on the house, he was such a big help today. He did all of the major scrubbing and cleaning while I did all the organizing and sorting stuff. Now its almost seven o'clock and the house is clean our cooler is packed with all of the clothes that we will need for the next week+ (I pack us up in a cooler b/c we own a truck and its the easiest way to pack lots of clothes and things and not have to worry about rain) until we get our HHG shipment, and I think we are finally ready for the packers to get here tomorrow morning. I cannot believe it is moving week, I am so excited and ready to start on this new journey.

Guess who is getting a big girl bed once we get to GA?

Boo!

Yea I know its still a month+ until Halloween but I couldn't help myself. Its been pretty dang quiet around here lately hasn't it? Well for good reason, we are moving... next week. I have been going crazy the past two weeks between KS's graduation last week, then friends leaving this past weekend, and I just dropped off 3 more friends at the airport a few hours ago. Not to mention all of the cleaning and organizing for the packers that come on Monday. All in all though I have to admit I am so happy and excited to be moving again. (I may have lost my mind...) I just cannot wait to get to a new place and explore and settle down for a couple of years, and in a lot of ways I am looking forward to when these few years pass and we are moving again.

Since it has been so long and this is so short I figured I would leave you with some pictures from the past week. 

Me and my munchkins. 

My girlfriends and I after graduation.

Kiale and Colin saying goodbye to their best buddy. 

KS, D, and R + the kids at our after graduation dinner. 

My little Gator girl with Albert, and sporting the cutest pigtails I have ever seen!

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!

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.

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!!

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!

Get the Crap out of my House

I figured I would start this challenge off with tackling the closets in this house, then I realized just how many closest there were..9 including the laundry area closet. That is when I started feeling a bit overwhelmed, but I figured if I didn't go ahead and hike up my big girl panties in a Steve Urkle like fashion and get to it all of this crap that I have already moved once was just going to get moved again, and honestly I just don't feel like unpacking it all again just to have it sit around and never get touched. Instead of tackling all 9 closets this week I decided to just do the 7 upstairs closets. I was also hoping to get my storage shed cleaned out as well, but since that would only leave me two days to get all the closets done and the storage shed. I decided it can wait until next week to get tackled and cleaned out with the two down stairs closets. Here are all the before and afters, I have to admit I feel so relieved after getting all of this finished. I feel so much closer to being ready for the movers, having this done will make the moving process go so much easier for the packers and for when we unpack!

Upstairs Hallway Closet

(before)

(after)

 Linen Closet

(before)

(after)

The Boy's Bedroom Closets

(before)

(after)

Cayleigh-Grace's Closet

(before)

(after)

 KS and I's Master Closets 

(before)

(after)