Meet Jenny...

Jenny is not new to our family.  In fact I cannot remember WHEN exactly she joined us.  We aren't big on stuffed animals around here.  And when I say "WE",  I mean "I"...they just kind of get in the way, get left on the floor and well...they get kind of grody and dumpy looking...and well, I will stop there, because this is NOT about that...It is about JENNY.

Jenny is amazing.  She is a little puppy of unknown age or origin whom my daughter Olivia loves.  And not love like some kids like ice cream...but LUUURVES her, adores her, and takes her with her (except when her parents make Jenny stay at home for naps because the beach is JUST NOT GOOD for a stuffed dog no matter what Olivia thinks...)

  Jenny is  BIG DEAL.  She has had her tail sewn on multiple times, and one ear is a little floppier than the other...don't know which one, but I bet Olivia does.  The last time we visited my Mom and Dad's place, my Mother took compassion on the poor dog.  She was getting scrawny (all her stuffing was falling out) and her tail was tearing off of her body (thus a gaping hole that the fluff was falling out of).  Grandma Ball fixed it, and all is well in the world with Jenny.                                             

 Olivia loves her as much as always.

 Did I mention Olivia loves her?

Just don't feed her peanuts carrotts (woops wrong pet, Piggie is allergic to peanuts, Jenny is allergic to carrotts, but only a little bit, it just makes her cough, where if Piggie has peanuts, she cannot breathe.  Get it right Mom!)  She is allergic.  Really.  And apparently she has a hard time keeping her nose clean...

Keepin it real...

I have a couple of blogs I luuurve.  Why?  I love their creativity, I would love to emulate some of the things they do (honestly), and it's fun.  I have noticed a trend though.  Haters.  People who are commenting on posts of some bloggers (who some are pretty well known on through home town mommies talking about dirty diapers and mac n cheese), and the negativity is astounding!

The accusation is that they are not "keeping it real" (i.e. being negative and looking at life through a blistered dirty window).

How true it is (roughly paraphrasing) that if we look for the good in things, we will find it.  If we search for the negative, that we too will find.  In almost any situation this applies.  KEEP IT POSITIVE!

http://camilleroskelley.typepad.com/simplify/2011/03/positive.html 

www.thepioneerwoman.com (not that's NOT my floor...mine is much much worse, and doesn't have great rustic tile)

Hmmmmm...... Blogging via my cell phone eh? Could be good.

Trouble in paradise

Earthquake in Japan today.

Largest in recorded history.

Followed by a tsunami that killed many and caused a TON of damage.

What was going through my mind...

• another one?  this earthquake tsunami thing isn't something i grew up with.  is it me or is getting more frequent?  or is it that we have amazing communication tech and are watching events happen in real time instead of reading about the aftermath in the newspapers?
• crap!  tsunami?  where is it going?  crap! Marie's friend Echo and her tiny baby (and dh) are in Honolulu.  are they ok? (which by the way they ARE ok, but wasn't exactly a GREAT experience for them to be woken in the middle of the night by tsunami alarms..would i even know what they were?)
• wow. i wonder how this is going to impact the humanitarian need at church and what we will be able to do?...
• figures. (and i admit this is a really superficial and selfish thought)...we rent a house on the coast, and just a few days after we have the stay paid for it is in danger of flooding  being wiped off the coast by a stinkin TSUNAMI!?  we chose a house on the bay and as close to sea level as possible to have a true "beach" experience.  ummmmm....not THAT much beach experience thank you very much.

 i don't need bragging rights there.  not so much.

THE END

pick a number...any number...

Dear Army,

We go way back, and I would appreciate a little communication on your part to keep this relationship on civil grounds.  I understand you have a  ton of stuff going on, but if you could just drop an email saying where I am going to be living for the next FOUR YEARS OF MY LIFE, it would be absolutely wonderful.

Best Regards,
jbm

If I had it my way, all my posts right now would include the *bliss* and ~excitement~ of preparing for our family vacation in just over two weeks, but as things do in our house, one thing is at the forefront one moment to get pushed aside, by another, even if just for a moment.

The moment?

ORDERS

When orders "come down" I can finally try to figure out what the heck to do next.

What we DO know is that the dh is going to be at LDAC all summer (insert a bunch of acronyms and descriptions that I cannot and don't care to remember) ending Aug 1.    We DO know he is to report to BOLC in November 9.  There is a significant amount of "fill in the blanks" with guesses here and there and it makes for a VERY uncertain year for the kids and I.  We also DO know that once on orders, and the Army is paying us that they tend to like to get something for their money so it's not like the dh will just come home for a nice bit of RnR between LDAC and BOLC.  (sigh....I wish)

So we have scenarios...

1. DH goes to BOLC, we stay here in our nice (although slightly expensive) rental and plan on starting the school year here.  We would move when the DH gets sent to his actual duty station.
2. DH goes to BOLC, we move to SE ID, (although we would have to pay for the move ourselves) and live in a slightly more economical home, near family, and start the school year there. PCS to duty station when he is done.
3. DH goes to BOLC, we go WITH him, start a school year in GA and all the chaos involved, but remain as a family unit as much as possible. 
4. DH goes to BOLC in GA and we move ahead of him to our new duty station so the kids can get started in the school that they would be attending for the next 3-4 years (Braden and Savannah could both possibly graduate from the duty station we are in).  Family unit would be fragmented, but kids would be placed in a stable school environ quicker.

~* tomorrow is Friday, and there is kind of a pattern of orders "hitting" on Friday's *~

pray for me?

Priorities

In no specific order this is what we have to consider when we decide the howwhenwhere's of this transition...

Military CRUD

With each one of my babies, during the FUN of pregnancy I remember when the "WHAT DID I GET INTO?!" and "CRUD THERE IS NO GOING BACK!"  would hit.  No way to get out of things, I was having a baby one way or another.  Terrifying.  Exciting, yet so so utterly terrifying.

Yup.  That is how I feel about the dh going full time Army.  Been there, done most of that, and THERE IS NO GOING BACK NOW!  Did I mention terrifying?!

So the dh found out he has been chosen to teach at LDAC this summer.  Bye hubs nice knowin' ya! He reports like three weeks after he commissions, and then is scheduled to do that until the first of August.  Silly me, thought he would come home for a bit.  Nope.  The darn Army wants to use him if they have to pay him apparently, so he will either be in schools, or "snow birding" in either Washington state, or Georgia where his training this fall will start.

Where does that leave us?  Wish I knew...

• Option 1, stay here in Kuna, do what we do, travel to see family, travel to see the dh. 
• Option 2, move back to Menan, do what we do, travel to summer activities (I already paid for) travel even further to see the dh.
• Option 3, stay here in Kuna for the summer , then move with the dh to Georgia this fall (if the Army will let us)
• Option 4, blow the whole thing out of the water, and move as a preemptive strike straight for our first duty station without the dh so that the kids can start school in the fall where they will be living for the next 3-4 years.

CRUD.....I AM TERRIFIED!
HOOAH?
or as Lorelai would say "Oi! Enough with the poodles already!" ( Gilmore girls, really, you should know this)