Updates

            It has been too long since I have posted on here last. And alot has happened recently. Stuff that I feel should be remembered before forgotten.
          We have been in the States for about a month now and Drew has been in North Dakota for 3 weeks. Andrew and I are in Georgia with my family. Things have not been easy for us, pretty much since the day we landed... My heart was broke that day and this past week my heart has broke even more. But before I get to that let me explain about the housing situation. Drew got to ND and got on the housing list as soon as he could and we started off at number 106. One week later we got to number 84 then this past week Drew told me we are now number 73. So all in all it is going well. And we dropped 11 spots over Christmas week.
           Christmas was good. The weather this year has been very mild so it hasn't really felt like it was Christmas in that sort of way, if you know what I mean. Like today is December 31st and we went for a walk and I had a short sleeve shirt on. But for Christmas Santa brought Andrew a Toy Story Tent, an Auqa Doodle Mat, a Zippy Car thing (double sided wood cars). Pretty much small stuff, but something for him to play with while we are here.
           December 27, 2011 was one of the saddest days. I learned that night that Spanky got hit by a car and was dead. My parents' next door nieghbor, Gill, found him dead on the side of the road. Gill came and told my Dad, I was back in Caroline's room so didn't really know what was going on. Well Daddy and Gill went outside and burried him and I found out later that night. I do not show emotion with this in front of people, it bothers me the most at night when it is time for bed. And calling Drew and telling him what happened was one of the hardest things that I have had to do. Drew is hurt so bad and I worry about him, with being there alone in ND. We tried giving Spanky the best that we could and we were so grateful to have him as part of our family. He will truly be missed but always remember by us.
         

LAST NIGHT IN GERMANY

           Here I am at the Spangdahlem Base in Germany sitting in the temperary housing. It is our last night here in Germany. Tomorrow morning at 4:45 AM we have to catch a shuttle bus to the Ramstein Air Base. Our flight should leave around 10. We are flying in a 747, a really big plane! It does not seem like we are leaving, it does not seem real. Today at church while saying goodbye to everyone it seemed like a movie, like it wasn't us... It was really wierd. I did not cry or anything, until it was time for us to leave. I got to give my friend Tracey Oliver a hug one last time and I just bawled my eyes out! We also had dinner this evening with the Brimhalls. They live in a condo just a building down from us. Dinner was great and it was really nice to sit back and talk and have a good time.
           It is a few minutes past midnight right now and I still have to finish packing everything up for tomorrow. But I have everything in the front room here and it should be pretty easy to get done. A part of me just cannot believe that we are leaving tomorrow... I have several little toys picked out along with a few little books for Andrew and I am grouping them up in quart size zip lock bags. So I can just grab it out of the bag to let him play with it. And then put it back in the bag and get a different one, so he doesn't get too bored with the SAME TOYS the whole 10 hours or so. And another thing that might be a life savor is the Magni-Doodle Board that we got for him at the BX a few weeks ago. He just loves to draw/write so this way he can while we are on the flight and I won't have to worry about him drawing/writing all over everything.
           A hard thing about moving every couple of years is that you make good friends and then just have to move and start all over again. One person that I really am going to miss is Jessica Lymann. We have not really gotten the chance to hang out and think that we really have alot in common. We both really wish that we had more time here and could live alot closer to each other.
           One day Drew and I would like to try and come back here sometime. It will of corse be many years from now. But I am going to go right now while Andrew is still asleep and try and get all of this packing done. :D

Our Final Days In Germany

           (Just a little note) This entry is probably not going to be typed in one sitting, I barely can think things thru right now. So I will post little by little.

            Today is the 7th of November, 2011... And that means that we will be in the States in 14 days. It is a bitter-sweet moment. I mean it will be exciting to go and see our parents again and all, but we are going to miss the simplicity of life here. Ahhh, I am going to miss the friends that we have made here! It is so sad because I have made the closest friends during the end of our time here.              

So The Count Down Begins

           So we MOVE OUT of the apartment on the Bitburg Base on the 18th and move into TLF on the Spangdahlem Base. On the 21st at 10 AM we leave for the States. Tomorrow, November 2nd, some people are coming over to tell me what all NEEDS to be done for when we leave the apartment. I have been trying to get things organized so it won't look so hectic around here when they come. :D
          I found out that the church over in Minot is pretty big, like two wards split between the base!
          There has been alot weighing down on my heart and mind lately. I just do not understand how people can act in such ways. And there is nothing you can say to them because they are just going to blow up at you and turn it on you. I am just so worried about how things are going to go.

Reaching The End

          With only seven weeks left to live here in Europe, we have planned to go on one more trip. Drew was just able to find a really good deal on tickets that he just couldn't refuse. So we will be able to spend two nights and three days in Dublin, Ireland! I am so excited that we will be able to go. It is like one of those places that I've wanted to go since being here but didn't really know how possible it'd be.

          We still have no idea on where we are going next. Drew feels that they are leaning towards (again) giving him Minot, ND for the next base. Now it has changed on how we will go thru with it, if Minot is the base. They don't even have room to house singles hardly and the group he will work with says that they don't even need him there. So if Minot is for him then this is how we will go about it. Of corse when we get to the States we are going to visit family for a few weeks.. Then Drew will head out to ND and Andrew and I will be staying with his mom. Just because there will be no where for Andrew and I to stay. Then maybe 6 months from then, or when it gets warmer there, Andrew and I will be able to go and join him there. But only if the housing situation is any better. Right now they just do not have to room for anyone.

            We've talked and we have made this decission as a family. But after our 6 yrs in the Air Force is up we are getting out. And it is a scarey thing to even think about with how bad jobs are out there right now. But when we joined we were originally only going to do a few years anyway, just for the experience I guess. But this road that we have traveled down has been an amazing one and I would not change one single thing about it! We have met some of the best people and we have seen some of the places that people only dream of being able to see in their lifetime. I mean when you think about it, some people save up their whole life just to go to one of these places that we have been so blessed to go and see.

             So with leaving the military in mind, I have been thinking about different things I could do to help out on saving and making money. After alot of thought and searching I have come up with a pretty good list of different things that I could look into doing while still being a stay at home mom.

Bad Editing... :D

            Andrew has fallen asleep on his own like 3 days in a row for nap time! Now if I could just get him to do this for bed. haha. I will start on that when we move. But so far he sleeps in his own room now. And he will go to his room when he is ready for bed. This is a BIG change from where he was a month ago.
            Yesterday during the evening prayer that we had, I could hear Andrew getting into something... Well when the prayer was over I had noticed the "beautiful" master piece in which he drew all over my living room, hallway, and kitchen walls in a broken red crayon. Obviously he had been working on this throughout the evening without me knowing. Well today I googled how to clean crayon drawings off of the walls and found it under a yahoo answers page. There was stuff listed like, "Mr. Clean Magic Eraser" (but I didn't want to have to go out and spend money that we don't have..) "baking soda and vinager".... But I saw one that said "babywipes" Seriously, could something that simple work?? Well, I gave it a try. And it came off soo easily! I could not believe it!! So I got busy and had all of the walls and cabinets cleaned in like 30 minutes. It was such a blessing! :)
             I have just been having a hard time the past couple of days. Like today I feel like if I could have just a good cry that it'd help out, but I can't cry.. Oh well. I'm just really stressed with the move which is in November. They will come and pack our stuff up sometime in October I think. We have had the weirdest stuff happen to us since the first told us where we were going. First we were told that we were going to Minot, ND. Then a couple of weeks later they told us we got devirted. (Meaning not going there anymore) So we wait three weeks and Drew going into the office to check on it. They told him we are getting Minot. And he explained that we just got devirted from there. And they said we understand but thats what they gave you. So the people said they would call the people in Texas who make these arrangements for everyone. So we got devirted twice from Minot, ND! Now we are just waiting to find out where in the heck we will be going. I mean, we'd be fine with Minot and all but Drew will have to live in a dorm until we are able to get into housing, which has a 12 month waiting list. And it'd be fine and all but there is no where for Andrew and I, oh and our dog, to stay until we are able to join him in Minot. Both of our parents are already housing family and there is no room for us there, we can't rent a place not knowing how long we will need it for.... BLAH! Thats just how I feel. But like everything else, Drew and I will make it through this together as a family.

Update On Next Station Area

            Well as I posted before we were supposed to be going to Minot in November, but we have been diverted. Apparently they do not want anymore families due to the housing situation. So now we are just waiting, like in the beginning. It has started all over again. And we heard that we could be going anywhere overseas or in the States, just waiting on an answer. That was about a week ago when we got diverted and they told us we should know where we will be going within a couple of days... well it has been a couple of days and still no answer. Any guesses? haha. I will just go out there and pick a random place... How about Moody AFB. We'll see.
            This evening we are going to the movies as a family and seeing Cars 2. And then Saturday morning we will be leaving and heading out to Switzerland. This a chance that we may not get again. We are going to see another area in my husband's mission that he served before we met. And it will be Andrew's first time in Switzerland. Then on the way home we are stopping by his sister's base and seeing them. And from there we will go to Wharton Barracks in Heilbronn Germany. We will go there to take pictures for my Dad. He served in the army there from 67-70. And from there we will be returning home.
            Yesterday we went to a kids' program that they had on the Spangdahlem Base. It was Sesame Street Live the show was brought to us by the USO. It was pretty awesome! Andrew really enjoyed it alot.