Lists and a Suprise

My life seems to be all about lists these past few days and adding to them. I am up to 4 pages of lists now... but do you know the best thing about lists? You get to mark stuff off of them! I have a list for bills to pay off with our return, I have a list for what I need to take to graduation, I have a list for everything I need to do/buy to complete the remodel on the house so we can get it rented... here is my do/buy before renters list:

Paint- bedrooms, bathrooms, ceiling, and cabinets
Replace Floors- bathrooms, bedrooms
Other- put the base boards down, replace the board on the ceiling that is missing (decorative), put the trim around the doors, replace the hinges in the kitchen, pressure wash the house, but new garbage cans, replace outlets throughout the house.
Rent- dumpster and clean out garage and yard
Sell- my van
Clean- out closets and under the sinks, organize Christmas decorations, clear out outside toys
Purge- any clothes that are too small or just worn out
Dogs- get both of them updated on shots, and get Zoe fixed
Cats- find homes for all 4 of them

and finally after all that is done...

.... FIND RENTERS!!

I can get all this done in a month right!? I sure hope so since I called the housing company on base yesterday and they said they already have a house we could move into right now, and there is zero wait for a 3 bedroom house on post!! I am so excited, I couldn't believe it when the lady told me we will be moving as soon as I can get renters in this house!! I have already called and got Colin on the waiting list for Pre-K, and Kiale is already signed up as an incoming kindergartner. I even talked to the principle at the school today, she was very nice and answered all of my questions for me. I am getting more and more excited with every passing day. Did I mention that KS will be graduating in just a few short days!! He passed his PT test and beat his shortest time for running the 2 mile. All of his times and figures have improved, so he is doing wonderfully!  We are fixing to end one part of training and then jump in head first into the next phase of training, and I couldn't be prouder of my husband. He has pushed through the pain and overcame what he needed to overcome to complete his goals!!

Thoughts and Decisions Made

I have a lot on my mind these days. We have  a lot of decisions to make and a lot of them will fall on me. The biggest decision I have to make is when to move our family to be with KS. I called yesterday and I have the opportunity to be number 2 on the waiting list to get a 3 bedroom house... Do you realize how close that is to number 1!? I could not believe it when I called, I spent most of the day on the phone to different people trying to get all of my ducks in a row. I have to finish the remodel on our house, clean our yard and clean out our garage before we can move. My goal is to have all of this done by my birthday. That is a month and a half away from now. I think I can do it, I know I can do it as long as I have enough people helping me. The hardest part of this decision lies with the boys and school. If I take them out of school, I will have to enroll Kiale in kindergarten out west, and Colin will just be home with me during the day. I doubt they will have k-4 out there but I will ask when I call the school they will be attending today. After talking to the boys last night many decisions have been made, the boys have decided that they want KS to go ahead and put us on the waiting list for the house and they do want to move in the middle of the school year. They are both sad to leave friends and family but they want to be with KS again. I am so proud of my boys for understanding everything that goes into moving our family. Kiale has taken it the hardest but after the tears he still says he wants to move in the middle of the school year, so that is what we will do. Today I will be calling the housing again to find out what local school Kiale will be going to, I will then be calling them to find out what all goes into transferring a kindergartner and if they have a graduation ceremony. I told him the kids might not talk to him the first day because they will be shy and he told me "that is okay I will be shy too." I am so proud of my son, he may be only 6 years old but he is wise beyond his years. Colin doesn't quite grasp what is going on, he is sad to leave his Brookie and Tres, but he wants to be with KS so bad right now I don't think anything else really matters to him. We will not be doing spring sports after all since we might end up moving right at the beginning of the season, the boys were sad about it at first but they said it was fine. We spent time last night looking at pictures of the houses and floor plans and dreaming of where their bedrooms will be and if we will have stairs in our new house. This is going to be a very bittersweet time for our family, but it will also mark the beginning of our journey into our new Army life. As my boys now say each night as they say their prayers, "Keep Daddy safe and happy and make us Army Strong, HOOAH! Amen."

Please pray for Gods will to be done in our lives, leaps of faith are never easy, but the peace I feel lets me know that everything will be okay.

Broken Glass

How many times have you woken up late and that just set the stage for a bad serious of events? Well that was me on Friday. I had forgot to set my alarm the night before until after midnight, so I had to change the set time before I could turn the alarm clock on. Once I did that I quickly fell asleep, forgetting to set the set time back ahead... needless to say I woke up on my own 30 minutes later than I wanted. I was rushing around the house, nursed Cayleigh-Grace, got the boys breakfast ready, stuck CG in her room and finally got into the shower. I honestly think that was the fastest shower I have had in quite a while. After I got out I had to pack Cayleigh-Grace's bag because she was staying with a friend while I took the boys on a field trip. The boys got dressed and we finally headed out the door, I had got everyone ready and out the door, including myself, in 45 minutes. I was thrilled, we were actually going to make it out on time, until I got to the truck. I quickly realized that I had locked my keys (all of them) in the house with my purse. I had grabbed Cayleigh-Grace's bag which is the same style as my purse and walked out of the house without a second thought. Normally this would not have been a problem, I have a hide-a key, but I had used the key on Wednesday after church b/c I couldn't find my house keys when I left. I had forgot to return the hide-a key to its designated spot... which meant that I was 100% locked out of my house, no one else has a key. So I put Kiale over the fence to the backyard hoping that the boys had left the backdoor unlocked, but of course it was locked. Even the doggy door was locked. So I go around to all the windows trying to get them to open to avail. Finally I am pushing on our dining room window that KS replaced before he left just hoping that it would give and open. Well it did give, but it wasn't the window that gave and opened. The glass ended up shattering all over my forearm and hand. (Granted I was angry and was pushing with way more force than I needed to be...) So I rinsed the blood of in the spicket, grabbed a brick and finished busting out my dining room window. Then I was able to climb into my house, FaceB@@k my friend and tell here it has been a bad morning and we were on our way, rinsed my cuts off again, and headed to her house. As soon as I got to her house, I was hiding my arm behind my back, I asked her if she was okay with blood. She gave me the oddest look and said she was so I showed her my arm and explained my "fun" morning. Thankfully she was able to get me all cleaned up and we were able to get Cayleigh-Grace settled and the boys and I headed off to our field trip. We ended up leaving only 15 minutes later than I had wanted too. I just wasn't able to check the boys into school, granted I don't think I would have been a good idea to show up to school with a bloody and cut up arm to begin with. They would have freaked out...Thankfully we made it to the theater with 10 minutes to spare. The movie, Under the Sea was wonderful and I had never been to an Im@x movie before so I was surprised by how nice it was. All I knew going into it was that it would have a very large screen. The only thing I was disappointed in was how short the movie was. It was exactly an hour long. After the movie I had the pleasure of panicking again due to the fact that I had forgotten to get gas before I left town and I could not find a gas station close anywhere. So my gas light was on and all I kept saying was please don't let me run out of gas, please please please... Thankfully we made it to the gas station right as the needle was on E. After getting gas the boys and I headed over to Sonny's for some lunch...  (the pic is from my phone)

After lunch we headed back to the house to clean up my mess... and boy was it a big one...

After about an hour and a half of breaking all of the remaining glass out of the window and cleaning the floors we finally went and picked Cayleigh-Grace up from my friends house. This happens to be the same friend that took our family pictures as well as the pictures with KS in his ACUs. Thankfully Cayleigh-Grace did wonderfully her first time away from me. Yes, it has taken me 17 months to leave her with anyone... On Saturday my Dad came over and replaced the glass in my window, and I now have 2 hide-a keys instead of one.

Scroll down to see a pic of my hand and arm, it isn't that bad I promise. It didn't even hurt when it happened thankfully. I do realize that I got very lucky, if the glass had cut me any lower and any deeper it could have been really bad.

Words of Wisdom Wednesday

Head on over to Me and my SoldierMan, and add your favorite words of wisdom. 

"After all, Ginger Rogers did everything that Fred Astaire did. She just did it backwards and in high heels."
— Ann Richards

Countdown!

The countdown has begun!! We are just a few short weeks away from watching KS graduate from the first part of his training. I must say I am BEYOND excited to see him graduate. This road for him has not been without its hurdles. Before he was able to come home on leave for Christmas he managed to hurt his ankle, and once he was home it looked like a tennis ball was attached to the side of his foot. Thankfully that was able to heal completely during leave, but a few short weeks after being back into training his knees messed up on him. He had to accept a no running profile for 5 days, he has been fighting back feelings of disappointment and regret within himself. He is so dissapointed in his body for failing him, and he has been very homesick and wondering if this was the right decision. Thankfully with lots of prayer and support most of this is behind him now. I have no idea how he is doing post profile. I have not talked to him in over a week now, and tomorrow will be a full week without letters as well. Hopefully he will have time to write me just long enough to say whether he was able to pass his final PT test or not, it was Monday. I am so nervous for him, I know he can do it and I believe that he was able to pass. I would just like to know for sure whether he did pass or not. Before his knees started messing up he was running the two mile in 16:43 and was hoping to have it down to 16 minutes or less by this final PT test, but like I said that was before the knee issues. The kids and I are so excited with graduation and family day right around the corner, the end is in sight!!