Flying solo

The husband has been away at training for the last week and a half. It feels a lot longer than a week and a half. This is the first time I have been on my own with both girls for more than 12 hours. Sure he had flights or duty that kept him out of the house most of the day so I managed most of the day on my own. However this is the first time I have been alone day and night. It is draining. I don't remember it being this hard when he went to OCS and I was on my own with Hannah. I still have a few days until he comes home and it feels like an eternity. If this is how I feel after two weeks I don't even want to know what a deployment will feel like. I am so tempted to throw the kids at him and run away for a few hours just to have some me time. I am a person that needs me time. I have not had that at all. Even when I try to go to bed, I have a 3 year old or two dogs (or both) in bed with me. I love my kids, but I need some time where it is just me. Although I am tempted to ask him for a day where he has the kids and I disappear, I feel it wouldn't be fair to him. He has been away at SERE. It stands for survival, evasion, resistance, and escape. Basically he learns how to survive if his plane is shot down or crashes in enemy territory. It is required for all pilots and air crew. It is pretty serious training. They are even captured so they know how to handle the situation. I would feel like a complete bitch for leaving the kids with him after enduring all that. When I am exhausted at the end of the night, I tell myself that even though I have gone several rounds with Hannah, it has to be better than what he is going through and at least I am sleeping in a bed. A 3 year old can't be as bad as guys who torture me for information.  Right?

Oops!

I have neglected this little corner of the internet. Moving sucks and it has sucked all my energy. The husband left for training and won't be home for a while so I have been on parenting, unpacking, and moving detail duty. Hannah has been obnoxious and that is putting it nicely. I am trying my hardest to be patient since I know she is trying to settle in this new place. She has told me she doesn't like her room and she hates her bed. She starts off in her bed, but she has been crawling into mine since the husband left. I have no clue what I will do when he comes home. I guess she can sleep on the floor until she moves out of this phase. Meeghan is teething, but luckily it seems to be pretty smooth. I am so tired of unpacking. I have no clue where to put stuff. We must have thrown away our cheap bookshelves so I have boxes of books in the garage. I have boxes of picture frames lined up against a wall because I don't have the energy to decide where to put them. I know I have to do it because even when the husband comes home he will only have a week before he starts ground school. Ground school means very little time with him.  It has been raining every day since we moved in. It makes it hard for me to get rid of Hannah's energy. Plus I haven't found a good park yet. I also can't find our art supplies so I had to buy new ones today. The bright spot is the gym on base has a family fitness area so the girls and I have gone there to get out of the house. I can start my training while the girls play. Although part of me cringes when I see Meeghan pick up a toy and shove it in her mouth.

We did find time a few weeks ago to make the quick trip to Orlando.

Meeghan loved Special Agent Oso

Hannah on Dumbo

All of us with Mickey. Meeghan was asleep.

We are in

We are in our house. I am not exactly thrilled with our house, but it will do until next year. It was filthy when we toured it. We were told it would be cleaned, but it wasn't cleaned...at least not to my standard. The good news they shouldn't be expecting perfection when we move out. We took pictures and sent an email about our displeasure. Our stuff arrived Tuesday and only a few things were broken. The biggest thing that pissed me off was our mattresses.  When they packed, they did not bring mattresses boxes or tv boxes. We protested about the mattresses. They wanted to wrap them in furniture pads and then shrink wrap them. We said no. We wanted them in boxes for protection from dirt and bed bugs. Finally we agreed to shrink wrapping them for the trip to San Antonio and once at the warehouse they would put them in boxes. It was not done. I was pissed. We told the movers here to leave the mattresses in the garage until we could buy those vinyl covers. Our mattresses are now covered so if we did pick up bed bugs they should be dead. Also we are finding things in the wrong boxes. Luckily we have everything except our dog pen. It was surrounded by another family's belongings so they will deliver it later (hopefully).

All in all we are starting to get settled. It is taking longer since we had to do a deep cleaning first instead of just surface cleaning. The house is starting to come together and I am hoping we can start to explore our new city soon. Pp

Moved...

Well we made it to Jacksonville!  We are currently staying at the Lodge on base until we can move into a home. Our trip was pretty uneventful which is great. We spent the night in New Orleans. Apparently that weekend there was a dog show. The hotel we stayed in was full of dogs. Rowdy and Pepper were in heaven. Thankfully they settled down so we all slept. Things weren't so great when we arrived here. It turns out the reservation for the hotel was made for the incorrect date and my husband never noticed when he printed the confirmation. Unfortunately this is not new for him. This is the third or forth time he has done something like this. I am starting to think I need to reserve rooms from now on. Anyway, they didn't have any pet rooms left, but they gave us a non-pet room. We had to pay up front for the room which I was not prepared for. We also have not received our travel advance yet so everything has been out of pocket. They made my husband check out earlier than stated on his orders which meant the money wasn't ready in time. I woke up this morning to see our bank account at zero. It was not a great feeling. We had enough in savings to put a security deposit down on a house and they are letting us wait until the money comes in to pay rent. However that means we are stuck in the prepaid hotel room until Friday when hopefully the money is in. We were hoping to be out of here by tomorrow so we could get some money back, but at least we do have a place to stay while waiting. The house we are renting is in a pretty nice area. It isn't the exact house I was hoping for, but it will do. I can tell that a dog and kids have been living in it. It is pretty beat up, but they lowered the rent and they will let us paint. Hannah has been begging for a pink room. We are trying to get used to living in a big city again. Traffic here is crazy! That will definitely take some getting used to. The other good news is we will receive most of our rent back from our last house. We lived in base housing so our rent was paid by allotment. They had already received our money for August before we moved. They held onto it until their inspection so they can take the money they need for repairs and then refund the rest to us. When we moved in they didn't require a security deposit if you pay by allotment. It will be nice to have that money back again. I will say this, if you are ever stationed in Corpus Christi avoid the housing there. Their pest control is horrible! I know that bugs are bad in the south, but we had ants living in our walls and from what I hear it is a common problem. We had them coming out of our baseboard in the master bedroom, they came out of the door jam in the back door (the day before our movers arrived), the electrical outlet in the master bedroom, and a light switch in the living room. This is after they sprayed. It was disgusting.  I know I will have to deal with ants here because it is the south still, but I really hope I don't have that level of infestation again.

And one last kick to the head is I am sick. Of course. It happened when we moved from Florida to Texas and now from Texas to Florida. Also, if you are pulling a trailer you better stop at the agriculture inspection station when entering the state. I didn't thinking it was only for commercial trucks. Turns out I was wrong. I was quickly pulled over, and given a warning. Thank goodness he didn't give me a ticket.

Moving

The movers are scheduled to arrive Wednesday which means we are scrambling to grab all the stuff we want to take with us. We have narrowed down our house search. Hopefully our favorite is still available next week. We are ready to head to Jacksonville. I can't wait to see what the city has to offer.

Bringing home the bacon

A disagreement has started between my husband that is probably a pretty common one. My husband wants me to get a job after we move. We will be paying on his student loans soon so the extra income would be nice. I am not ready to put both kids in day care all day. I like having the freedom to schedule appointments whenever, take spontaneous trips to an aquarium or a zoo, or even head out of town if the situation allows. My husband doesn't work normal hours. Some days he is gone all day. Some he is finished by 8am, and others he doesn't even go into work until 4pm.  It is harder to get time off.  I like that if he does get a day off we can do something as a family and we don't have to wait for the weekend. Heck, weekends are still working days for the Navy. Plus there is the deployment factor.  He will deploy within the next year. I will be on my own. I am afraid if I am working plus taking care of the kids and house that I will be burnt out. I know many spouses do it, but I am not sure I want to be one of them. I guess I am afraid of missing out or cheating my kids of fun. My mom worked part time during school hours so she was available when I was home. I loved that. However, my parents were more financially stable than we are. It is such a tough decision. I have looked at jobs that are available in Jacksonville. The ones that I like either require travel or are second shift. I will admit there are days where it seems easier to work so someone else can deal with Hannah's attitude all day, but I am pretty sure I would miss her.  I am pretty sure I know what I need to do, but I am not ready to admit it to myself. Chances are good I will get a job to help with the bills, but my heart doesn't like it.  I will miss these faces.

Winging

6 days ago my husband received his wings of gold and became a Naval Aviator.  It was a chaotic and crazy day, but it was worth it. Hannah did not behave through most of the day's activities. Luckily the CO was very pro-family and didn't mind if kids ran around during the ceremony. He actually told me to let her do it since he didn't expect a 3 year old to sit still. She didn't sit still, but at least she was quiet. She decided to crawl under the chairs. Meeghan though stole the show. She would cry every time I stopped holding her. I was supposed to be the one to pin on the wings. I decided to take her with me so she would stay quiet. My husband held her while I attempted to pin on the wings. She dropped her toy and gave the CO quite a look when he handed the toy back to her. I guess everyone thought it was pretty cute.  I do give my kids credit for behaving as well as they did. The ceremony started at 3 which is right in the middle of nap time. They were tired, but they pulled through.

Trying to pin the wings. Meeghan dropping her toy.

The wings! Did you know they go 1/4 of an inch above the ribbons? I tried my hardest to get it right.

The family with the bay behind us

As for me, I was exhausted and cranky.  And terrified. I had no idea just how scary it can be to have a room full of people watching you pin a set of wings onto a uniform. I also didn't know just how thick the uniform is. I was struggling to get the darn thing on. I was shaking pretty bad which did not help. I hate having people stare at me while I do something like that. It's over though. He has his wings. He finally has his orders. Packers will be here in 6 days, and we leave Texas in 8 days. We are in moving mode. We are organizing, cleaning, throwing stuff out, and making unusual meals from whatever we can find in the freezer and fridge.