In the life of me.

Right now we are sitting at 28 days left. The realization that we are indeed moving has hit full on. Thursday the movers came at 11 and finished by close to 7pm. Friday the temporary furnature got here. It was rather interesting bringing John home each of those days and seeing his reaction. He did quite well and I was impressed. Hunter actually took it the hardest. For two days, all he wanted to do was hide.

Despite the chaos of last week, we took time to have fun this weekend. We went to Tobolino’s to celebrate the neighbor boy’s first birthday and we enjoyed our annual Parish Picnic. It was Father Victor’s last Sunday with our Parish, he is going to Kuwait for a year. September is full of temporary priests coming in on only the weekends for us. We will not get to meet the new priest. We also found out that a dear friend of ours in the choir has cancer and we will not see her again before we leave since she is already back at Walter Reed getting Chemo and radiation treatments for the next 8 months. Tonight marks our going away dinner with the choir as well. It will be our last time at our favorite restaurant, Casa Europa. Our director wanted as many choir members to be able to attend as possible for our farewell, so that is why we are doing it just a few weeks early. Plus, we won’t need a ride this time either. I look forward to good food and great company.

This week we ship out our car in hopes of it getting to our new base before Zachary arrives. Let me tell you, moving while pregnant, makes the days to delivery tick by even faster. Right now I am at 27 weeks and it feels like the end is very, very near. It’s kind of scary in a way. I just hope we are close enough on the wait list to have a home when we get there. I don’t want to have a baby and live in a hotel!

Alright, the rest of the family is awake, time for me to get breakfast ready and start getting things ready for today. It’s going to be a busy one with shipping the car, WIC, getting gas, maybe going to the store one last time with the car, checking mail, choir practice, and a wonderful dinner!

*hugs*
~Jen

Ok, now that the checklist is all done, (proud to say it) I am ready for our stuff to be gone so I can go nuts cleaning every little thing. Is it possible to nest this early? I have stuff organized and ready to go. I have the urge to buy more cleaning supplies. Stuff gets packed up tomorrow and I want to start putting my kitchen stuff on my dining table so there is no need for the packers to go in my kitchen. I want to hide our luggage and other things not getting packed yet in there.

The neighbors are coming over tonight for my chili. It stinks that people we’ve lived next to for so long are such great people and we didn’t realise it until more recently. The wife wants to combine her son’s first b-day with John’s second b-day next weekend so John will have something before we leave. I guess we will talk about it more over dinner tonight, but I’m kinda hesitant to do so. I do not want the first b-day kid to have to share his day with someone. We were just going to wait until we moved to do anything for John’s b-day. I did set aside a gift a good friend sent for him so he can actually open something on his b-day and take it with him since his b-day is 3 days after our unaccompanied baggage gets picked up. We still have not really decided what we want to get him. I was thinking either a swing set or a lil’ toddler table and chairs so he can sit in a chair his size and color, read, whatever. Eventually, both boys would end up using either thing we get John. I just want it to be something that will last for years to come. I guess it will all come down to how finances are since we have to buy new cell phones, new washer/dryer, and a van.

*hugs*
~Jen

1. Measure and weigh cat carriers
2. Book kitty tickets
3. Get health certificate appointment booked for kitties
4. Bring luggage up and pack clothes, paperwork, and stuff I do not trust the movers with
5. Clean out the car
6. Donate stuff that didn’t sell at the yard sale to Thrift Shop
7. Get DVDs all in the travel cases and toss the plastic cases away
8. Put files, passports, moving paperwork, orders, etc in travel file cases
9. Comb through the house to find out what is getting packed next week, unaccompanied baggage, and hand carried.
10. Sort #9 so things not getting packed next week are hidden away.
11. Laundry
12. Dishes
13. Spot clean
14. Have neighbors over for chili while I still have my Crock Pot(s).

*hugs*
~Jen

Never again do I want to prepare for a move towards the end of a fiscal year. After several phone calls to our new base (mind ya, 8 hour time difference), I discover that we cannot reserve our room for the Army Lodge for the day we get there yet. We have to wait until the third week of September! We fly out the following week!! It is because they are changing their prices. They can’t charge us the current rate for two days and then charge us the other 8 days at the new price. Sounds rather silly to me.

We had our yardsale last weekend and it went fairly well. There are a ton of books that need to just be donated to the Thrift shop. The PS2 stuff flew off the shelves as well as our clunky camcorder. I was happy to get rid of those and our pre-lit Christmas tree.

I had my glucose test the other day and it was an adventure. A friend of mine from Spangdalem came down with her kids to make sure I didn’t conk out after fasting for 15/16 hours (I last ate at 8:50pm the night before and didn’t get to eat again until 12:30pm). We nearly witnessed a lady give birth right there in the waiting room. The delivery rooms were full and only my doc was working back there. He was quite the busy fellow. Once one room cleared up, they finally let this poor woman through. About 15 minutes later she had the baby. I was able to help her get comfortable in the waiting room when her friend returned though. I thank God I took Prenatal Yoga with John and learned some things for all that.

We decided to sell our van that we just bought two months ago. It is not worth it to ship the second vehicle and drive across TX twice to get the cars at different times. It would cost as much as we paid for the van itself. Bry was against it until I did the math. Then his eyes goggled and he agreed to set it up for sale. It was a hasty buy. We had a guy the other day come and look at it and he got pissed when we said he could not buy it right then. The add said “or best offer” and I told him on the phone that there were at least 7 others waiting to look at the van and we wanted to hear their offers too. I might have been a hasty buyer, but I will not be a hasty seller. Already we have an offer $500 more than our asking price.

Sorry this is all out of order, but I am writing as it comes to mind. I also called housing for our new area to see where we are on the wait list for a 2 bedroom home. The lady who answered said that she was not quite sure because 2 bedrooms were getting mighty scarce there. Then she asked how far along I’d be by the time we get there and since I am in the third trimester and they want to free up the 2 bed room wait list, we got put on the 3 bedroom wait list! How awesome is that?! All I had to do was fax her my proof of pregnancy. My neighbors pulled through on that, I was on my way to the PX and said I had to fax something, she offered to let me use their fax machine. Made my day.

Today we have O Day at Brigade level. Mind you, it is supposed to rain all day. It has already started at 6am and they are all doing a 3 mile run in it. Since my hubby can’t run, he’s standing in it. Yay. I hope they have tents or something set up or a back up plan in case of rain. Also, we are being charged $4.25 to even go and eat at it. Strange, right?

Anyway, I need to get goin’, lil’ man is up and I need to get us ready to go.

*hugs*
~Jen