The Eagle Has Landed

Well we arrived at our new duty station back at the end of June. I've been a bit all over the blogosphere and plumb forgot this one. I'm a terrible blogger as it turns out.

We survived the transAmerican PCS. It was fantastic, actually. Quickly after arriving real military life set back in to motion with the man in blue having to go to work of all places. Can you even fathom it? I was really looking forward to vacation mode all summer.

Truthfully, his going back to work gave us a bit of a schedule. Sort of. We still haven't truly adjusted to the time change or even the new home. I feel like we are on extended holiday in some foreign land. The people here have funny accents. Funny because they don't fit the area. Funny too because I know they look at us funny with our wacky accents. Well, the man in blue has a more recognizable accent. I think people are still trying to place me and figure me out. I don't really have anything that is discernible except a few slang words that might give away the farm.

Let's see what else? Hmmmm....Oh yes, I got the message from my mom this morning. It's been 2 months. I'm really missing you and the kids. I can't believe she had a going away party for us and it's been 2 months. Now, that's not really long in the grand scheme of things, but no matter where I've ever lived or been stationed over the years, she and I have seen each other usually within a 2 or 3 month period with one of us going to the other for a quick visit. And, now, it's much harder for her with the grandkids being involved. My dad, well he just goes with the flow. He doesn't say it much, but I know he misses seeing us all. He doesn't have to say it though, mom says it enough for him.

The next hitch in our schedule comes when school starts, which will be soon. Tomorrow is registration day for new students. Now, I have to spend the evening digging out immunization records and school transfer papers. Fun!

Well folks, as school time sets in and the man in blue travels, you may (or may not) find me blogging more frequently.

Until then, ciao and cheers and have a wicked good night!

PCS Chaos.

For those of you who don't know, outside of Waiting for Ships and this blog, I'm also proud to be a blogger at My Military Life, please stop by and check us out.

Here's my post for today shared today on My Military Life:
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The movers are coming, the movers are coming.

So, it’s nothing like Paul Revere’s Midnight Ride forewarning of the British troop invasion in the 18th Century, but I do feel like I need to let everyone know—family and friends that is. They know we are packing up and moving out, but they don’t realize the intensity of it all. You know what I’m talking about. The cataloging of serial numbers, the organizing, the purging, the selling, the donating….oh, the chaos!


The rollercoaster of PCS season is upon us. It’s living in my house. It’s making me anxious, this creature we excite about every few years. We yearn for it. We loathe it. BUT, when it’s here, we can’t stop talking about it. We are living in the thick of the madness; still running a household, but feeling like we are trying to beat the clock.

There are not enough hours in a day to accomplish it all. Or are there? Is there a need to stress out and go nuts? Nah. That is, not if you are organized by design. Me, am I? Not a chance. I’ve got some folks fooled, don’t ask me how that happened, they believe I actually have it all together. Nope, I’m a mess, a hot, nutty, PCS mess. I’m up. I’m down. I’m sad. I’m happy.

I cried today.

Yes ma'am and at work. I was drowning in paperwork, receiving phone calls from clients, requests from my boss and dealing with deadlines. The phone rings. It’s the moving surveyor calling to set up the survey. I hang up the cell phone.Call my husband and tell him the information. Hang up the phone. My boss gives me another pile of work. The office phone rings, a client is there to see me. Meet with client. I sit back down at my desk, which looks like a volcano of paper blew up all over it. My cell rings again, this time my children's school – turns out one of them is screaming and writhing in pain and they don’t know what’s wrong.I talk to her and calm her tears. She says her belly hurts, but she still wants to play outside. Okay, can't be an emergency then, right? I tell them I’ll see if my husband can pick her up because there is NO possible way I can leave, I’m still playing catch up from last week and from the sounds of it, the little one just has to visit the potty, at least that’s what she related to me on the phone. I call my hubby. He has a mandatory muster and can’t leave until it’s all done. I hang up the phone and bawl. I cried like a big, fussy cranky baby in a wet diaper who wanted to be fed. I couldn’t stop. I cracked.



Fast forward to this afternoon, the above-referenced matters all reconciled itself: child was okay, dad ended up picking her up after muster anyway just to be sure; my boss calmed down; and, the piles of paper slowly dwindled. I was still breathing. It all passed as always. It’s just that it all happens in one split second and BECAUSE it’s PCS season, it’s all magnified by a million. See, I’m not all together. Gosh, I wish I were.

This time next month, I should be sitting in a hotel in our new city waiting to move into our new house and waiting on HHG to arrive. I should be laughing at all of this. I know I will. It’s normal. It’s what we do; we military wives, we just deal day to day and we live through it.

It’s just PCS season right?

From: The Adventures of our Army Life

Here are the questions I am passing on:


1. Why do you blog?        Stress relief and because I like to hear myself type

2. How did you meet your significant other?     um, at a bar

3. Where is your favorite place to shop?          grocery store - seriously

4. What is your favorite childhood memory?    vacationing at the beach

5. What is your favorite movie?   pick one? I'll choose "The Notebook" today, but I have so many favorites!

6. What is your biggest fear?   Outliving my children
7. What do you do for fun?    Oh, I am the fun! I can create my own with a piece of string, some gum and an accordion.

8. Who is the one person you can tell anything to without judgement?     no one
9. Do you have any pets?  not at the moment
   
10. What is your middle name and is there any meaning behind it?   Lee (no idea, my mom just liked it)

WW

Just a Girl in a Port (c) 2009

Cross post alert...

They say you can't go home again...

Borrowing from JulieAnn who borrowed from Ellen in the spirit of Bloghop....

Military Spouse Bloghop
Riding the Roller Coaster is hosting a Military Spouse Bloghop. What a fun way to find other military spouse blogs!

I'm Mama because I have 3 kids. I'm a military veteran. I'm a military spouse. Yes, I obviously at one point wore combat boots. They were in my basement, but suddenly have disappeared. I think my husband tossed them. He likes to purge. I keep things. I actually just went through my seabag the other day longingly looking at my old uniforms. I wondered. I wondered if I could still squeeze into them. I did a few years back. Then I ate cookies again. I think I will have to stop eating cookies.
My husband is an active duty Coast Guardsman. We have a lot of service rivalry in this house. I wasn't in the Coast Guard as you may have surmised by now.

We've been married for awhile. During that time we had three little ones. They are cute. They talk back. I don't like that.

I run (when I can - i.e. not in pain or when I am in really good shape). I dance too. Again, when things are good. Age and injury have gotten the better of me over the years. I'm making it my goal for the summer of 2010 to run a 5k by September. Let's see if I stick to it. I'm horrible with goals. I set them and don't follow through. Don't tell my husband I admitted that. He says that's the truth and I argue with him that it's not. It's just what I do.

Favorite things like JulieAnn....hmmmmmmm

traveling
writing
photography
dance
military history
psychology
grammar
spelling big words
writing horribly because I can
Irish drinking songs
French bread
shiraz
dark chocolate covered raisins
back rubs
a fresh box of crayons

And....we're back.

With PCS upon us, and my job soon to be a thing of the past (for a bit anyways), I will have much more time to dedicate to blogging. I apologize to all my readers for being absent for all of these months. I've been posting over at Waiting for Ships, but haven't really made it back here. AND, I'll be back on My Crazy Military Life soon, thanks to Wendy. I just have to fix my log in over there. We had a glitch.

Nonetheless, I'm back!

We are doing a cross-country move this summer. I'm excited, but I've been having meltdowns. Yes, that's right. Me. I know, hard to believe for some of you. Usually, I am so semper gumby and all that, but not recently. I'm a hot mess.

I will try to write more tonight. I'm on a lunch break at the moment. LOL I should get back to the daily grind.

More later friends.

Squeaky Clean, Sassy, and Classy

You MUST check out my girlfriend's website. Her business is simply fabulous and all you who love handmade, quality products created with love, will adore her, as much as I do.

Click on the link below!

Scentual Escape

Morning chaos

Can it be possible that dad arranged for his little angels to be crazy on this fine Father's Day morning; knowing that I would let him sleep, snuggled in blankets, behind a closed door, away from the morning madness?

We have been up a mere moment yet it seems like an entire day. There have been demands for paint, breakfast (no surprise), a broom (my son likes to sweep) and to go outside. All of this and my eyes are barely open. Yet, I am blogging. I have run over here for refuge. They cannot grab me in cyberland. They cannot dictate what I type. Of course, I suppose they do since they are of what I write. Hmmm, it seems the troops have overtaken everything.

In any event, it is Father's Day. Blessed be the men who have fathered children all over the world. Okay, maybe not all of them.

I will say this though, despite the fact that I believe my husband and children have conspired to wreak havoc on my every single morning routine and dwindle my sanity, I adore him. I am honored to share this life with a man so loving and caring that he would take the time to educate his children on how to push mommy's buttons and drive her to blogging about the craziness so early in the morning, when I should be changing a diaper and fixing some eggs. Hey, it could be worse, couldn't it? The liquor cabinet is still closed, and I haven't quoted "it's five o'clock somewhere" yet!

Happy Father's Day!

WW

Bribery at the Grocery Store

I am well aware that bribery with children is not uncommon. I swore I would never become one of those parents. I would have such well-behaved and disciplined children that bribery would be completely unnecessary and foolish. Fast forward to me having children. I think that went out the window in the first 12-18 months when my first child was mastering walking and talking.

Today, in the checkout line, at the grocery store, as my oldest two children were pummeling each other, I didn't so much bribe as I lied. I neurotically scolded, Stop hitting your sister. See all these cameras on the ceiling. *they look up*. The policemen are going to see you and come and take you away. If they don't, I'm going to call them. Half chuckling, half embarrassed at my stupidity, I turn back to the cashier to see her smirking and say, Whatever works, and the lady behind me whose eyes seemed to say I've been there too.

Alright, so bribery would have been more like allowing them to swipe all the chocolate in the aisle to get them to listen to me. Whatever. Lies and bribery go hand-in-hand, after all.

Of course, my wise-cracking eldest will usually respond with something like Uncle Mike is a police officer, he'll take care of us. So, much for using the illusion of police authority to scare my kids. Hmmmm, maybe a different, more sensible approach would be better.