Random thoughts

If I ever get a baby girl- her name came to me-- Lilly Wren.

I have two parties this weekend and I am wondering WHY and HOW

A real lemon tastes so much better than the concentrate fake lemon juice. Always buy real lemons!

If Ro-tel dip does anything close to the inside of your body comparable to what it does to my crockpot- we probably shouldn't eat it anymore. It takes on an Elmer's glue quality when it cools down.

I have come to terms that Pepsi the cat just uses us to feed and pet her and that is it.

Does anyone know where the post office is at?

Just as I promised!

Here are the pictures of our ugly house! Just remember, we only have to put up with torture for 6 month! ha!

This is the front of our house and it is a duplex, but this is our side. Notice the nice air conditioner and utility panels right by the front door- the placement of that couldn't get any better because that is exactly what I like to look at when I come to my front door. And the mint green color just really makes my day!





From this picture you can also see the carport and our one lone bush in the front flower bed. Right now the carport is filled with boxes.




This picture was taken from our back patio- it shows how our house is backed right up to the golf course. Now, typically a home right on the golf course is a big deal! But believe me, we got jipped in this deal! It is a nice view though.




To enjoy this view- we have an entire wall of window that go from floor to ceiling. If you walk into this door you are stepping into our living and dining room. I will show you that shortly.

So, lets say you walk into my front door and then turn around and take a picture of it- well I did that for you. The first door on the right is a very small half bath. Then their are two closets- one on each side of this lovely hall. I use the one on the left for homeschooling items and book and the one on the right is a coat closet. Then you will notice a little bit of the stair rail on the left and on the right you walk into the kitchen which is a room all unto itself.




Ok- so lets walk into the kitchen




This is a pretty basic kitchen, but take notice of the floors. They are hysterical and the sad thing is they look fairly new! Now this next picture is the other side of the kitchen and you can see where my washer and dryer are now hooked up. And there is a side door out to the carport next to my 'psuedo-laundry room'. Behind me is a total blank wall and then there is a door to this room from the hallway that you can close. So this is a real room and completely separate from the rest of the house. But it is still too small to put a real dining table in it.




More later...

Viriginia Woes

I know I really need to post some pictures soon. I will get that on my To Do list this week. Anyhow, we ended up leaving NC last Friday evening and arriving here to Fort Lee early Saturday morning. I was eager to come check out the place Keith had secured for us for the next 6 months.

Well, upon walking in and being assulted by the smell of mildew and a quick look around the house, I promptly sat down on the couch and cried! Yes, I cried my eyes out because I hated this house that is really small. This house is no where near the amount of what our housing money would buy in the real world and I think we should be rebated some of it back for having to put up with substandard living conditions. But I am living in a dream world. The attitude of the Ft Lee housing people is that we can afford to live off post and that is what we should have done to begin with. The big problem with that is that most places are not willing to rent to you for only 6 months.

So, five days later and I am feeling a little bit better about our situation. We are almost moved in but at least a third of our stuff is going into storage so we are not overcrowded. I also have Glade Air fresheners all over the place to help get rid of that 'old' smell. I think I will survive the next 6 months!

Keith now has ill feelings about our movers! We tried to get the computer unpacked and that was not a easy thing to do. It seems that the movers put the computer in 10 different boxes packed with other things. We still can't find all the cords to get it together so it might not happen. I think we are just going to be happy with laptop and not worry about the desktop. But he was ready to strangle someone trying to find the all components for the Verizon people to come get it hooked up. Well, the Verizon people didn't up- and neither did the satellite people! Nice huh. It is a good thing that the prior tenants have not turned off their cable yet so we can deal with it a little longer. But I am missing my TiVo intensely.

The movers also dropped our living room TV. They cracked the outside of it so badly that you can't even pick it up without it completely falling apart. So Keith didn't waste this opportunity to go and quickly buy his dream TV- a 42 inch plasma that now sits proudly in our living room. That sure brightened this place up! And I think I did enough crying that I will be getting my new front loading washer and dryer next week! Don't think I won't post pictures of it either!!! I will be a proud owner!

Seriously considering becoming a vegetarian!

More on that title a little later...

We are still in NC- a little longer than we expected. Keith picked out our new house in VA- he had a choice between 2 of them and chose the newer model. Which only means it was remodeled in the the 90's instead of the 70's. He said it is pretty small, little closets, a blue and grey kitchen floor (sounds delicious), and 2 stories. That is all I know, but I am assuming a carport instead of a garage, 3 bedrooms, 2 bath and fairly close to a golf course!

But, here is the good news. Since the washer and dryer hookups are in the kitchen (I guess that means more counter space) I will be getting a new matching set. I am shopping right now trying to pick out the perfect pair and they will be pretty! Believe me!

We have decided to stay here in NC until this weekend. Our house will not be available to us until Friday and I still don't know when our household goods will be dropped off. But Friday is also Bridger's 10th Birthday, so we will celebrate here because at least we are staying with one of his friends who he can celebrate with. And then we will most likely leave Saturday and check out what we are going to stay in for the next 6 months. So, we have an address that I won't post here, but I will email it out soon to everyone.

Ok, so this vegetarian thing. I am almost done reading this book called Fast Food Nation and if anyone is thinking they need to start a diet, well this book is a good starting place! It is so disgusting it will make you think twice before you put anything past your lips! What is comes down to though, it how dangerous it really is to eat meat because of the meatpacking industry practices. When you bring home ground beef, it is literally an E coli time bomb. The stuff served to kids at school is even worse. People die everyday from it, but the general public knows nothing of it generally.

And whenever you hear of a meat recall, which we all have, it is always after the contaminated meat has been gone from the meatpacking plant at least 6 weeks previous. So, all the meat has most likely been consumed and no one is losing money and the consumers have already been sickened or died!

You think I am kidding! Read the book!! And hope the Democrats whom are so good at regulating everything will do something about it!

Hanging out in North Carolina

So, here is one thing we didn't account for when we left Campbell. The fact that it is a holiday weekend and if we went straight to Fort Lee there would be no one there to get us checked in. Therefore, we decided to take a detour and head to NC to hang out with friends of ours for the weekend before me make the trip back to Virginia. It has been enjoyable to say the least! Much better than hanging out in a hotel room.

OK, so I have a warning for all my military friends that live in the fabulous housing on post and overcharge you for it. CALL MAINTENANCE for EVERY LITTLE thing that goes wrong in your quarters, even if it is your fault something is broken!! Seriously!!! All the little things that had gone wrong in our quarters added up very quickly. Dumb thing like the refridgerator bar (the thing in the door that holds all your condiments in)was lose and kept falling off. I just put up with it but I shouldn't have! They charged me for it when I moved into that house with cracks in the fridge and that bar could never be secured very tight. If some plaster falls off the wall anywhere-- CALL MAINTENANCE and have them fix it for you. If you break a window trying to kill a fly- CALL MAINTENANCE and get it fixed for free!

Anyhow, it took us until 5pm on Thursday to finally leave the Clarksville area. Jadyn's dentist appt took 2.5 hours which was not fun but we had to get that torture device out of her mouth. Then we had to go weigh the cars with all of our luggage because the Army will pay a little bit of money for moving some things yourself. Then we stopped by the Cracker Barrel to grab a bite to eat and to pick up some Books on Tape. That is the coolest thing ever!! Listening to a story on the radio made the time fly in the car and now that will be what I always do.

So, on Thursday night we got within 140 miles of Ft Bragg and I had to stop. I was very tired and knew it would be dangerous for me to try and go any further (we are driving both vehicles) so we got a hotel. Then Friday morning we got up and continued our adventure. Pepsi, the cat has been traveling with Keith and Bridger in the truck and it has been entertaining to say the least! I will drive by them and the cat is sitting in Bridger's lap looking out of the window or sitting on the dashboard just wagging her tail. I think Pepsi is really enjoying this ride.

Talking about Pepsi-- she gave the neighbors a farewell like no other. I was walking to the 'D,s' garage and noticed there was little paw prints all over the black BMW. I just kinda laughed and thought they are going to open their wine I gave them tonight and celebrate that the 'stray' cat is gone and their cars won't be in danger anymore!! Sorry Mr. Carl!!!! I know you are going to love that 3-car garage coming in the near future!

We will be leaving here sometime tomorrow. It is about 3 hours drive from here and hopefully we can get into some quarters pretty quickly. I will keep you all posted!

Why is moving so hard?

OK, so I grossly underestimated what it would take to get out of here! I really thought we would be on the road today but we are still here. In fact, we are at the motel located here on the base, and may I add it is NOT a very nice one. Why would any motel only have double size beds? I thought it was industry standard to have at least queen size!? So I have a bed, Keith has the other one and the kids are on the floor! Isn't that funny?

Monday, the movers showed up and had us packed and loaded within 8 hours which was amazing. If there was anything we needed to get out of the house last second, it didn't happen because 4 of them descended upon us and it was over with. They are hoping they can have our stuff back to us around the 16th.

Then Keith and I have been cleaning, priming, and painting a house like no one's business. We thought we would have it ready by today, but we didn't because we felt like we needed to have everything super perfect. Besides it rained all day yesterday so the yard and gutters did not get done and we would have never passed inspection. So it got done today and I mopped like crazy to get all the wet dirt and leaves out of my house! I also painted all my baseboards and window seals, just because! I am nervous about this darn inspection and just trying to find ways to make the house better than it was when I moved in! Or maybe just to make up for the fact that we did a terrible job on some plastering they asked us to do! Why would they want unprofessionals like ourselves to do it anyhow?

Anyhow- we owe a big thanks to all of our 'assitants' who helped us get this move halfway over with. The 4 people who showed up and moved 12,000 pounds in record time (it went up a little bit) and Melissa who fed the sick girl homemade chicken soup and entertained me in my downtime---thanks lady! And Leigh who watched Jadyn, fed me more soup and some picky males!!! Thanks a Million!!! You guys are the best and will be missed!

So tomorrow after inspection and after we take Jadyn to the dentist to have a mouth appliance removed we are on our way! And because it is a holiday weekend we are not going to go to Fort Lee afterall! We are going to spend a few days in Fort Bragg hanging out with our best friends and then backtrack to Virginia. It should be entertaining and tiring- but fun all the same!

To Do List

This is our last 24 hours living in this house and I am feeling a little bit sentimental. Last night I made up my To Do List so I don't forget anything. Here it is in a nutshell.

Pack Pepsi's food, kennel, leash and litter box
buy baby gift and wine
make tags and deliver to neighbors
give melissa her book
get Leigh's CD's together and return
make pile for Passion Stuff to deliver
Pack everyone for 10 days
go thru fridge/freezer
find someone to 'gift' food too
clean blinds
clean oven
deliver Jadyn's fundraiser stuff
take books back to library
call Darrin about yardwork
make hotel reservations
buy mom's b-day present
buy primer and supplies

And that is just my list- Keith has his own list to accomplish in order to be released from this post.

So, this weekend the kids got to spend the night with some of their neighborhood friends; Jadyn stayed next door with her best buddy Bella for her birthday and Bridger went to his friend's Nick. That kept the house quiet this weekend but I was hardly here to notice. I did my last party in TN last night and I certainly wouldn't call it my finest party-- but with 3 parties overall I added $400+ to the family bankroll. Not too bad for 12 hours of work.

The movers will show up by 8am tomorrow morning and I am down to 22 1/2 hours so I must go accomplish something!

The Countdown Begins

So, we are now down to less than a week here at Fort Campbell and I am beginning to feel a little bit sad. Last night was my last Wednesday night to hang out with my girls. For over a year now, I have been going out every Wednesday night for good food and conversation and it has kept me sane. It was my one bright, shiny part of my week that I always looked forward too and gave the me strength to get through the week of homeschooling and being a single parent. Hopefully I will be able to find those kind of relationships with other women where ever I land. A girl has got to have her friends!

The moving company showed up this morning to evaluate our household goods. They approximated our accumulation of the last 10 years of being a family at 10,500 pounds. It makes me smile because when Keith and I got married, we had NOTHING but clothes when we started our first household. We had a quick wedding and requested that the guests not give us presents- but we got 2! A video camera and a griddle pan. So to think that we have aquired this much stuff in 10 years is kinda entertaining to me. And at least 1,000 pounds of it is books!

Talking about the accumulation of 'stuff', now that Jadyn is out of school and we don't have to worry about the uniform codes, I took her shopping for real clothes and spent way too much money. But the girl looks good and she loves dressing up. Perhaps when I get a chance I will post some pics of her striking a pose or two.