PCS stress

It's that time again! The time where I look through my house and wonder things like, "where did all of this stuff come from?", "how much is all of this going to weigh?", "Oh, look at you, you beautiful, delicate antique... will you make it through this move?", and "ugh - what meals can I make with five cans of black beans, two giant cans of green beans, and a small jar of tomato paste?".

My little camp style pour over coffee maker has been pulled out so that I will still be able to make fresh coffee after my coffee pot is packed up and gone. We have all gone through our closets and pulled out the clothes that we no longer wear or no longer fit and they have been donated to the Thrift Shop. I have started isolating our 220 volt appliances to be redistributed to friends or donated away. The last to go will be my blow dryer - and it's so awesome that it may not go at all, but just stay stashed away until my dreams of returning for future vacations come to pass.

The movers come in thirteen days. Between now and then I will have my last day of work and a last trip to Italy to see our best-good friends and visit the last of our Bucket List cities for this tour. We didn't make it all the way through the list, but we sure had fun trying! I also have appointments for the pets to get their travel certificate, appointments at the doctor for me and the Boy to get sports physicals and medication refills because it is always a pain in the butt trying to get in at the new duty station and communication with my established provider is usually easier than with a new one. We have to get treats for out realtors, friends, and my future co-workers from the local area to take with us. Plus, make those last minute purchases from the local area for ourselves, too. Top of that list for us is a few more pillow covers and duvet covers for the German bedding that we purchased. The sizes are different so we won't be able to get them in the States.

Some lessons that I have learned over the past seven PCS (permanent change of station) moves is that it is better to get rid of big items at the place your going than the place you are because you never know what you may need, and PSCing is expensive, and you might not have money to buy that new couch or dining room table when you first arrive. Or you could be rushed into making a purchase and end up with expensive furniture that you don't love just because you were in dire need. So, I take what I have, even if it is half broken and falling apart, and get rid of it at the new place if it doesn't fit or isn't needed or after I find just the right piece to replace it. Also, baggies. Big baggies, small baggies, baggies, baggies, baggies. I invested in some giant Ziplock baggies when we left North Carolina and I use them for our bedding - to both protect and organize it all. I use them for our junk drawer items, kitchen utensils big and small, for the hardware on items that come apart (beds, standing mirror, lamps, etc) and they get taped to the item in question, for the nails and hangers that come out of the wall - they get taped to the art, too. I use them for clothes, and spices, and just about everything. I bag it up and that way I don't have to individually unwrap twenty forks and twenty knives, and my bedding doesn't come out of the box smelling like cardboard and exhaust, but like the dryer sheet that I put in the bag before sealing it up.

I would love to read the tips and tricks of other military families for a smooth PCS!

Maybe this year I will finally make one of these for our Christmas tree!

I have a blog???

I totally forgot that I had a blog!

It's been about six years. A lot has happened. I did get off orientation, and Super Husband (lol) did get selected. We moved to Fort Bragg, North Carolina. I moved into the Emergency Department, and then into a Family Practice. We bought a beautiful house. SH got deployed again nine months after we arrived. He was promoted once he returned. We were settled and mostly happy - at least more happy than unhappy and for once I did not want to move, so of course we came down on orders. Off to Germany we went. Finding work here was insanely difficult, but I was (so thankfully!) employed by the six month mark in a specialty clinic.

Since being overseas we have traveled to London (and saw U2 perform - checking off a bucket list item I've had since the 8th grade), all over Scotland, Dublin and Ireland coast-to-coast, Paris and various other parts of Northern & Eastern France, Luxembourg, Belgium, the all over the Netherlands (I took SH to see Disturbed and A7 in Amsterdam for Valentine's Day this year), Berlin, Mainz, Frankfurt, Stuttgart, Garmisch, Austria (New Years 2016/2017 with the Besties!), Italy from the Northern parts of the Prosecco region to Venice to Rome and back again), Poland, and then there have been places that SH has gone that I've missed.

My daughter is now 18 and my son 17. She starts college in a few months and he will be a junior in high school. Time. Flies. Reading those posts from 2011 made me laugh a little. I had forgotten about some of those things. I will say this - I freakin' love having older/adult children. They are awesome! I am so lucky!

Annnd... next month we move back to North Carolina! We have a contract on an amazing house that I am totally in love with and cannot wait to move into, and I will be starting a job at the end of the month at a local hospital in the Interventional Radiology Department and I am SUPER excited (and a little nervous) about that! The manager just seemed to really have the employees best interest at heart when she talked about her team and it sounds like she really advocates for her nurses. It's a specialty, but it still has a high emphasis on nursing skills and I hope that I am really able to dive in and get good at my job.

That's a super quick, super brief catch-up on the last seven years.

Let's see how long it takes for me to write the next post.

A photo or two or four from our travels:

Omaha Beach in the morning. Memorial Day weekend 2017

The Cliffs of Moher, Ireland. September 2016

Burg Eltz, Germany. April 2017

Paris. July 2017

Notice

Yesterday Super Husband and I went over our plans for the next few months and picked out my last day of work. Today I went to work and told my supervisor that my last day of work will be January 10th. 

I am a little stressed about the move already, and it's still six months away. I need to find a job, a place to live, figure out the schools down there for our little Monster, etc, etc, etc. 

There are still things I want to do in this area before we leave. Time is a tickin!

Home

We got home from our vacation to see family last night. The trip home was nice and easy - no traffic jams, no car trouble. Thank goodness!
We spend four days in Wisconsin - a long four day weekend. The first night was nice - we arrived with pico ingredients and tequlia. The second day we bummbed around, took Mom's old dining room table to a resale shop, bought some stuff, went to eat at Cousins (yummmm), and then had frozen custard at Kopp's (triple yum!), went to Mayfaire, shopped around.... at this point Super Husband needed a break. Before left the mall we bought the two brats... I mean kids... new iPods for their spoiled rotten little ears. Then it was discovered that my mother locked her keys in her car Yes, I know, how spoiled they are is my fault, but I don't know how to go back and fix the situation.
The next day we worked on the farm and my mother's past life as a plantation foreman presented itself. We finished that day with a dinner at Crawdaddy's, no one  wanted to go, but everyone enjoyed it once we were there.
Monday was all about doing last minute things, pick-ups, etc and getting ready to leave bright and early Tuesday morning. Which is exactly what we did.
We all were ready to come home. The Boy slept for thirteen hours this morning. The Girl flies home to her Mommy tomorrow. In essence my life will be completely back to "normal" by the weekend. *happy sighs* <3

Iowa

We've been in Iowa for the past four days visiting Super Hubby's family. I love his sister and she is always good for a place to stay. Every time I am here I think to myself, "When I grow up I want to be just like Sister-in-Law...."

SH has had a good time visiting with the neice and nephew, friends and family. Our kids have been insanely dramatic attention-seeking drama queens, and are always ready to pop in with a tearful complaint along the way.

Tomorrow we head to Wisconsin to see my family. I am not sure how that will go - only time will tell.
The weather here has been wet and cool, but I would take wet and cool 8 days a week over hot and muggy. It is so amazingly green here. I love all of the leafy green trees and emerald green grass. This little city is about as All American as you can get. I love it. I would live here. SH still isn't interested in returning here, and I am still not sure why. I guess we will continue to look for our perfect place.

I will post some photos here soon!

Favver's Day

Today is Father's Day, or Favver's Day as my delightfully sweet baby used to say before he became a saucy and know-it-all pre-teen. I bought Super Husband his presents last weekend with both kids. This is the first time ever in recorded history that we have had both kids on Favver's Day. That alone should make it special. I bought some of SH's favorite things. I hope he likes them. I hope he doesn't mind waiting to open them until after I get home for work. I hope he doesn't mind driving 5 hours towards our midwest destination after he opens his presents.
It's Westward HO! at approximately 4 pm EST today.

Today

It is just another day. Yesterday I worked 16 hours. Today I work 8 and have to clean the house because we are going on vacation tomorrow (after another 8 hour shift) and I hate coming home to a messy house. In an effort to "help" me clean the house Super Husband did the best thing possible and made a pot of coffee, put my Harry Potter book in the CD player, took both kids and left the house. lol - he really knows how to help! This is the fastest route to a clean house.

Living a good life

New flash. January is cold.
Thank you.

Oh, and as of yesterday, I am one year older.

New Years - 2011!!

Here are some of my goals and hopes for the new year - this year - 2011. 
I plan on changing what and how we eat. DH and I watched Food Inc. last night and were shocked to say the least. By the end of the year I would really love to be a vegetarian, not because I don't like the taste of meat, because I love it, but for many other reasons. 
I want to do my first 5k by spring. 
I start school again in a few weeks. My goal there is not to quit. 
My goal is to get off of orientation or find a job that moves me closer my desired specialty in women's health. 
And, this isn't a resolution, but a prayer - that my husband gets selected and we get to move out of here this summer.


Amen.

"I hate it here"

I have said these words more times than I care to count. I have said them at every single location that we have ever been stationed. Usually I say it around month three. At this point I have settled in and the newness has worn off. By this point I am really missing my friends from previous duty stations and all of the differences between me and the locals have stopped being "cute" or "quaint" and just started pissing me off. Then, usually within a matter of weeks, I make friends, learn the backroads, find the best places to shop and the really good restaurants and bakeries - in short, I settle in.
That being said - I hate it here! We have been here since July 2009, and I have lived here full-time since May 2010. I still cannot wait to leave. I know that this is a short term duty station with no possibility of settling in. Therefore, I haven't been allowing myself to get too friendly with the locals, and the military population here is so small the the number of potential female friends is very small, and I am done forcing myself to make friendships work. I am not saying that there aren't some nice ladies here, but no one who is BFF potential. It's a little sad and a lot frustrating. I cannot wait to leave here. I want to go back to Tennessee, or Washington, or Germany, or even try out Colorado.  Shhhhhhhh.... don't tell the Army, but I would even be willing to go to North Carolina, something I had been adamantly against in the past.
I miss being a part of a big military community. I miss having a group of people with whom I can laugh and roll my eyes with when we talk about the dumb stuff locals do, or commiserates with me about the deployments, TDYs, etc. People I can compare notes with. People with the same nomadic lifestyle. People who have kids going through the same stuff mine is - our third culture kids.
And to cap off this whine/rant let me sign off with these parting thoughts: *eh-hem* I hate the cold! I hate the way people drive here! I am sick and tired of living in this shitty house! I hate it here!!

Coffee

There are so many reasons why I love coffee... lets review the basics:
1) It's delicious.
2) It wakes me up when I am tired.
3) It smells good.
4) It has almost no calories (before I add all of my favorite coffee things to it).
5) I can drink it all year long
6) It is just as good cold as it is hot.
7) It is a reassuring part of my daily routine.
8) I can get it just about anywhere.

Ummm... coffee.

Philly

We went to Philadelphia today. We walked around the city. A lot.

It is a GREAT place for a family vacation! Lots of free stuff to do, and these amazing actors that tell history  in a very entertaining way. We will be going back.
But, I am tired now.

Oh - in other news, two days ago I took my NCLEX. After I finished I cried because I was sure I failed. Yesterday, I found out I passed. I was dumfounded, and elated, and relieved, and overjoyed, and so, so, so happy.

Now I just need to find a J.O.B!

A million and one reasons why I love my dog:

1. He always love my cooking. In fact, he drools over it.
2. He gets so excited to go on walks with me that he can hardly contain himself.
3. He scares the crap out of strangers.
4. He is always ready to snuggle.
5. He is super easy to shop for.
6. He would rather spend time with me than do anything else.
7. He is completely honest (he's never lied to me once). 
8. He is a great personal trainer, really motivating and clearly loves what he does. 

Ok - so that is only 8, but they were all off of the top of my head. He is totally awesome. I just thought you should know.