Welcome to the Army...

If I had a dollar for every time someone has told me that, I wouldn't be so worried about getting quarters to do laundry. 

So when John and I got to Texas we decided to make a pact that no matter what happens we wouldn't take our crap out on each other because we were all we got. So instead of loading more crap onto him since I know he's stressed like crazy right now, I decided to vent some frustrations on facebook since I have a lot of other friends that are Army wives and have been there done that, and was trying to figure out how they handled the situations we're about to face..instead.... 

Apparently, I'm not allowed to complain about anything ever.  Because before I could get any such advice from anyone my family and people who think they know what John and I are going through jumped all over and used this as an opportunity to try and make my problems seem small.   I should be thankful for what I have because:

"A home is what you make it"
"Would you rather him not have a job?"
"You know, he could be deployed right now, you should be thankful."
or my all time favorite... "get over it."

Trust me, I'm very thankful my husband is not deployed, but what I said didn't have a whole hell of a lot to do with that.  So if that's the only thing people can say...I rather they wouldn't.

So in the spirit of welcome to the Army (which I'm not sure why I'm sharing because everyone on this planet who isn't in the army already knows what it's like to be in it, or be a spouse of a person in the military.)  I hate to alienate friends on this but just because you have a friend of a friend who served in the military and was over seas does not mean you put up with the red tape and had to watch every move you make as if you're 12 and asking if you can go hang out with your friends.  I'm 25...I don't need rules for the sake of having rules, if I'm old enough to drive, vote, and drink, live on my own, pay my bills, I do not need someone else to play mommy and daddy...I already have a mom and a dad...I don't need another one.  


So here is my welcome to the army story:

Upon coming to Fort Hood, we were instructed to not go near Rancier after dark.  One guy says he carries a gun in his glove box and still won't drive down there.  Apparently they have what some might call a little bit of a gang issue. All the apartments I could find online in Killeen were off of this street, and I was super not looking forward to being alone all day in the ghetto. So we waited a little longer for housing, in our crappy hole in the wall hotel, if you could even justify it being called that.   We had been told they usually almost always over estimate the time it takes to get a house, and most people I've talked to were put in a house in about 2, even 3 weeks at the most.  So in this shanty the ceiling fan was ready to fall off every time were turned it out, it was 85 degrees outside and there was no A/C.  For the first day we had no hot water.  For the next week we neighbors that blared their TV, the speaker phone on their cell so I could hear both sides of the convo through the wall, and 2 screaming children.  Everytime the guy burped I thought he was throwing up and it scared the hell out of the cat. 

So John begins his in processing.  2nd stop, housing.  "Oh you don't have any children?  Well it's about a 6 month wait for a house on post, here's a list of places to look off post.  You can also continue to stay in temporary housing, but we will only reimburse you for 10 days of your stay.  It can also end up taking longer because more people are scrambling for houses because people are coming back from Iraq and some units have even had to scrap plans for deployment, have a nice day."

So since John and I took precautions for the fist 5 years of our relationship and he didn't irresponsibly knock me up when I was 18, we're basically screwed out of getting a house because people who have kids need a house more than we do.  We started off at number 140 out of 240.  By the end of week one we were 146 out of 247.

I did the math and figured out with our car payment, cell phone, car insurance, our credit cards, plus our hotel bill.  We would be making -587 (yes, negative) a month if we continued to stay in the hotel.  This doesn't even include groceries, gas in our car, food for the cat, etc. 

So we did what any person with a brain would, we took in upon ourselves to go through the list of places they gave us at housing plus this nifty little apartment finder flyer that was in the laundry room of temporary housing.  So we let the googling commence.  Everytime we found a promising place we could afford, we google street mapped it...next to a creppy auto body shop, strip joint, or bar.

So then I found this place in the flyer we were given.  It was brand new with the first people just moving in back in June.  I wasn't even going to bother calling because the last apartment I had just got off the phone with wanted over 1200 a month.  (Granted it was furnished so we could stay there until a place on base opened up.)  But I called anyways.   Brand new, never lived in by anyone, almost 1100 square feet 2 bedroom 2 bath for less then our BAH and still have money left over for the utilities...the catch..John would have to commute a 30 minute drive.  None the less, knowing if we stayed another 2 weeks in temporary housing we'd be pretty close to flat broke (not to mention the army frowns upon being in debt) we went to look two days later, and then moved in the next day.  

So we spent all weekend making it at homey as possible with no furniture and an air mattress.  Almost got a kitchen table but it was too big to fit into our car, so that didn't end up happening. Thankfully we did jam some necessities into our car when we headed out from Michigan, so we have silverwear, dishes, pots and pans, cups, tv and xbox. 

We spent close to 500 dollars on groceries, cleaning stuff, toiletries and some extra bath towels so we wouldn't have to wash them every 2 days.  But seriously, when did wiping your ass become so damn expensive?  So we hung up our clothes, unpacked our undies, got the cable and internet hooked up and have been having a jolly time making the best of it...

Then comes Tuesday, where one guy in John's unit gets chewed out for living in the ghetto.  And then it's John's turn.  He gets yelled at for living too far away somewhere nice and safe so his wife isn't scared to be home alone all day.  Then after being held over late, they were instructed to bring a copy of their LES and get a haircut and get a PT belt all by tomorrow morning.  Luckily everyone has printers.....hahahahhahaha.  So after being told how much a belt cost, then going to pay for it and spending almost triple, then running to get a hair cut right as the place closed (even though he just had one 4 days ago tops) and then running to the one place there was supposedly a computer lab and finding that to be closed John did not have a great day...and did I mention he was only 3 1/2 hours late for dinner?  


/rant.  :o)
~~~

On another note the laundry room at this apartment complex totally sucks.  It's 1.50 to wash a load, then it's 1.50 to dry a load...and it only gets like half dry unless you dry like 3 things at a time.

Kitchen table vs Washer and Dryer...looks like we're going to be enjoying a few more dinners Asian style.  

Shooting a Barrel with the Cat

I know I posted this video on my FB about a week ago, but I feel like it's appropriate again.

This is how I feel about moving.  I'm totally confused all the time.  "I have the cake, then I put the cake in a barrel, then I shoot it, then I eat it?   Those are two steps additional I do not need."


 I feel like I'm pounding my head against a wall.  Mine and John's letters keep getting crossed, he says one thing, and I don't know if he's responding to something I said or if he's just blabbing because he never answers any of my question.  I was supposed to get a POA sent to me, which I never did, but it wouldn't do me any good anyways, because it's 2 weeks from graduation and he still doesn't have official orders.   The AKO website is always crapping out on me and I feel like I'm banging my head against a wall.  I would like to go drown myself in that guys barrel of fish and cake.


Also, the Tigers are doing HORRIBLE!  AWFUL. AWFUL.  The Lions are kicking ass and State vs UofM is this weekend...which is awesome if you like football, but I don't. 

My last day of work is tomorrow.  Kinda of sad, but it just means we're one more step to John's graduation and moving to Texas!  Just hope we get to go there together.  Since I'm leaving my job now, I need to get to Texas ASAP to transfer over my cosmetology license to TX, but I can't do that until I have a residence here, but I can't continue to work here, pack up a house, get everything ready, and go to graduation and come home and spend time with John, because there is no way I'm going to work when he's home since I haven't seen him, talked to him, or spent quality time with him in months besides a measly 36 hours.  Plus I used up all my vacation time for our wedding and honeymoon....so I'm stuck, and I hate being stuck....

In other news: 

I have an awesome Halloween/Welcome Home/See Ya Later party planned for John on the night he comes home!  I'm sure he'll be pleased....get off the plane, go to party!  Oh well, he's gonna love it.  I'm going this week or early next to put in an order for an Army themed cake, I even bought cheesey little Army Men and a toy helicopter to put on it.  I can't wait to have him back home!  I'm getting so excited.  I feel like he's been gone FOREVER! Only 2 more weeks, I just hope the time flies by!


But it won't...because this is what I have to deal with....

 

She only looks innocent

 Death Glare.

And now...I'm going to groom myself, all over your stuff.

Oh this is such a fun adventure.

It's Almost Graduation!

 

 Yay!  It's John's picture :o)  Got these in the mail the other day.  I will be sending out some copies to family and such ASAP, which is probably going to be this Friday since it's my first day off work in 9 days!  Wee!  Yay for keeping in busy!  I'm so excited to get to down to Georgia again, but the best part is, John gets to come home with me!!  We're currently working on getting all of this moving stuff situated.  I tried to explain it to my mom, but I just gave her a headache, so I'll spare everyone the details, and just let everyone know that it's a giant pain in the butt.  

But instead of thinking about  mountains of paperwork, stacks of boxes and tons of packing tape, and how horrible I am at using a tape gun, I've decided to compile a list of "10 Reasons I'm excited for John to Graduate" 

So here we go:

1.  When we fly out of Detroit to get to Georgia, there's a Popeye's in the Delta terminal.  I have not had Popeye's in like 3 years, they're in the scary area of Detroit...I don't go there. 

2.  I don't have to scoop the cats poop box anymore!  

3.  I won't have to have 8572827343 blankets on the bed anymore.  John is human furnace.

4.  I have an excuse to make cheesecake.  Oreo crust, with Snicker Filling and Peanut Butter and Chocolate Ganache.  Swoon.  There goes the 10 pounds I've lost since John's been gone. 

5.  I won't have to go to Post Office for stamps anymore.  

6.  The mail lady probably won't be scared to drop mail off anymore.

7.  In the last 4 months, I will have spent over 12 hours at the Atlanta Airport.  I hate airports.  Love planes. Hate Airports.  

8. I will finally have my Dancing with the Stars buddy back!  

9. I get to throw a party!

10.  I can finally have someone besides the cat to talk to! 

In all seriousness though, I'm so glad John will be home again.  It's a shame he'll miss baseball post season, especially since the Tigers are in the playoffs, and now I don't have anyone to accidentally beat up while I'm flailing and watching the games. It will be great to have him back home, and hopefully if everything goes okay, we'll be moving to Texas together at the end of his break...and if not, I'll be down there hopefully a few weeks after.  At least after October 28th, I will be able to talk to John when I want for how long I want, and not have to write anymore letters, I'm running out of pens and paper, and John's address is really long, and for the 4385743854 letters that I have sent, I still haven't memorized the address. 

16 days until Georgia!

The Army Life

October 2010

“What about the Army?”

“What about it?”

This is how our first conversation started about John joining the Army. John's best friend had just come out to visit us from California before he left for his basic training for the Army.

“Ernie likes it.”

“Ernie likes a lot of dumb stuff.”

As you could see it was going over real well.

Here's what you need to understand. John is the most un-confrontational person I have ever met in my whole life.  Yes he likes to argue stupid tiny little things to the death or at least until I want to kill myself or hurt him but imagining him in ACU's with a shaved head, wielding a gun actually made me want to laugh until I cried.

“But it sounds good.”

“That's because recruiters brain wash their new recruits into thinking it's wonderful so they can drag more souls into hell with them.”

Our situation:

24 and 22 respectively, I had been in school to get my teaching license for Cosmetology when the school suddenly closed, leaving me 2 weeks short of course completion, starting anywhere else would have cost almost $3000, for a measly 80 hours of class time. John, worked for a company constantly being overworked, underpaid, and repeatedly passed up for any promotion that he applied for because no one took him serious enough since he was only 22. We had been living at home with my parents for the last two years, trying to get our shit together, only that was virtually impossible. Any time we hit “transfer to savings” on our bank account the money fairy didn't like it. Oh look a $400 vet bill. Hmm, I think their tires should explode, “here's a bill for two front tires, a new bearing, and an alignment, have a nice day!” Here's some pneumonia, take 2 weeks off of work unpaid! It was a fun year in our house to say the least.

“There's medical insurance!”

“Is it worth dying for?”

Yea, sue me, I wasn't exactly Polly Positive about this whole idea.  John wasn't brought up in a military family and neither was I. I did have a few cousins that went into the Marine's, but I was really young at the time, so I don't really count it. Knowing for a fact that the military had never crossed his mind until someone else planted the seed, down right pissed me off.  

John can be wishy washy. Growing up, he wanted to be a cop. Then we met and started dating. Deciding one day he'd like a family, being a police officer suddenly seemed far too dangerous. (Apparently...the Army is not? Go figure.) So then for about 6 months, he wanted to be a chef. I sat though some pretty interesting dinners during that part of our relationship. Then he found out that one of his friends made a lot of money working with computers, suddenly that was the greatest idea on the planet. So when the idea of the Army came around a few months after John was done being a video game designer, in my mind I knew it was just a phase. Someone somewhere would tell him about some other amazingly awesome job in a few months and that would be what John wanted to do.

So a few weeks later when I was sitting with my him in our local recruiters office, I was slightly dumbfounded. Surprised John had actually gone this far to bring me into this place and talk to the people I started to take it a little bit more seriously.

“We could have our own place.”

“You could go to school and we can work and have an apartment.”

Maybe not that serious. Then he went and took his ASVAB test and didn't do so hot. I won't lie, I was pretty excited. I figured that would be enough to deter him from pursuing this any further. Then he stole my Borders coupon (which I fully intended to use on buying the box set of the Sookie Stackhouse series) and went and bought a huge study guide book and started taking every practice test online that he could find.

I still wasn't thrilled with this whole military idea. I felt he was doing it for the wrong reasons. Most people I know that were in the military had joined because it was their life long dream since childhood, not their life long dream since September.

And we fought, and fought, and fought about it.

“I'll make more money that I'm making now.”

“What's the point if you're not alive to spend it?”

I still wasn't sure that this was the best and brightest idea. There wasn't a whole lot of convincing me otherwise. War, violence, soldiers coming back to the real world with PTSD, IEDs, suicide bombers. I know these things, I watch the the news, I read CNN and Yahoo, and my personal opinion has always been, “lets take the gazillion dollars used on sending our troops over there, build a giant dome around the whole area and let them just blow each other up.” Sure, it might not be the most diplomatic solution, but I sure am sick of helping other countries fight their battles when we have enough going on over here. But then again, what do I really know?

So we talked a bit about it. We agonized through the holidays, “What should we do?” “Is it really worth it?” “Do we want our lives to be at the mercy of someone else for at least the next 3 years or longer if he decides to make this a permanent thing?” “How hard will it be to be away from each other for months at a time with no contact?” “Is being in the army the only way to start our future together?”

I answered, “no.”

His reply...

“We can get married.”

Ding Ding Ding! We have a winner!

~~~

So now fast forward 9 months later and John has got through the first part of his basic training, I couldn't be more happy for him or more proud of him. He's been busting his butt since he's been gone and I know it's been pretty rough on him being away for so long without any real form of contact besides letters. I don't think I could possibly be more proud of all the hard work and effort he's put into his training.  I love getting our letters and the 2 random phone calls that may equal about 7 minutes combined have felt like Christmas.  I know how tired he has to be, since I know they do more before 9am than most people do all day, so it means so much to open the mailbox and see one of his letters jammed between bills and junk mail. 

I was really worried about the Army getting to him and brainwashing him into some military drone but all in all, he's still the same old silly goofy John that I love...just balder. And when he tried to help me pack up my stuff, he started to roll it instead of fold it. All I know is if I catch him doing laundry like that...he's in for a world of hurt! Took me long enough to get him to fold stuff the 'right' way...I don't know if I can go through that one again.

Yes John and I may give each other a hard time and yes I may joke about how great it is that I don't have as much laundry to do, or how it great it is to have the whole bed to myself, I miss him a lot.  At the same time, him being gone has been a great experience for me.  I've learned to by more reliant on myself, even if that means I have to take back the stinky sticky gross bottle returns, or scoop the cat box...with a scarf wrapped around my face so I don't gag to death, or if it's driving on the freeway without freaking out (I am the worst driver in the world.)  I've learned to not complain about stuff as much.  It may be hot here, but it's nothing to being in full gear and marching 10 miles with a 50 pound pack on my back. I've come to appreciate the time I spend with John a lot more.  When I was in Georgia for family weekend, we both immediately fell back into our routine and it was the greatest feeling ever.  It happened so quickly that during the middle of the night I smacked him awake to move stuff off his night stand so the clock would project on the ceiling...totally forgot we weren't at home. 

Needless to say, I think this crazy military life just might work out great for us after all.  I'm so excited to get started on it.  I can't believe that John will be graduating in less than a month.  In a year everything has come full circle.  I'm so excited to look back and see where we started, and I'm even more excited going into our future.  I have a feeling it's going to......AWESOME :o) 

How I Feel

 

courtesy of nataliedee.com

In The Beginning

I have been wanting to start a blog since before John even left for basic training.  Well now that it's 3 months later and he's almost done, I figure now is a good time to start.  I had planned on using this to keep everyone updated on John's progress, how he was doing, post pictures, talk about my letters, etc.  As soon as John left, people at my job started leaving left and right, so I haven't had time to sit down and do anything because between work and army stuff, I'm always doing something.


On a happy note, It's now officially one month until graduation.   I will be going down to Georgia again, and getting to see John, all of his friends, and all my army friends!  I can't wait! We were counting down the days before I even left for home last weekend.  John's graduation will be followed up by a short trip home and moving our stuff across the country.  So far, still looks like Texas!

Also, here are a few pictures from last weekends trip to Georgia.  John received a  36 hour pass and my butt was on the first flight of the morning to Atlanta!  We had an awesome 36 hours together.  Didn't do anything special.  John just wanted to relax and finally eat junk food again, so we pretty much spent our time scarfing down food and watching TV in the hotel room.  I know, we're very exciting. 

  All of Charlie Company. 

John's lunch after his Drill Competition.  

John ate:  Chips and Salsa, Chicken Nachos

"Big Texan" Burrito covered in Cheese Dip

Enchilada, Tamale

and Fried Ice Cream. 

Happy Little Cue Ball Head :o)

Dropping John back off at his barracks.  Worst thing ever.
 But as of today...it's only 31 more days until he's done :o)

I'm so excited!  I can't wait to have my own kitchen!