My monthly posting

I never post on here, mostly because I am a hardcore facebook addict and my life is pretty much all on there.  There's not a whole lot of anything else to do around here.  As you can see from the view of our apartment balcony.  

We pretty much live in cow land.  Surprisingly enough it doesn't smell, but that could all change come the summer heat and humidity.  Then again it doesn't really matter because I plan on staying inside with the AC cranked up unless I waddle myself down to the pool to play 'beached whale.'   

Let's see...in the last month

We went to the Alamo.  

My parents came out to visit over St. Patrick's Day Weekend. 

And  we got our first sneak peak of Bean.  

In this picture, bean is all of 9 weeks and is about 2cm long.  

You can already see little arms and legs..and a giant head. 

So we've have a pretty busy and eventful last month.  Had a good time with my parents.  Went to San Antonio, saw the Alamo (wasn't at all what I expected.)  Very touristy area, across the street from the Alamo are a bunch of cheesy Ripley's Believe It Or Not museums and attractions.   We walked down to the San Antonio River a few blocks away.  The River was dyed green for St. Patrick's Day and we took a boat tour of the downtown area.  Did some shopping, John, the bean, and I all got very spoiled.  Bean received some very cute gender neutral duckies and giraffe outfits, some baby bath time stuff,  and mommy got a new diaper bag.  My parents also got us a house warming gift, so we are now the proud owners of patio furniture! My next appointment is April 5th, which can't get here soon enough.  My doctor is pretty awesome, John and I really like him.  We already have our 18 week ultrasound scheduled for May 9th, so we're looking forward to finding out Bean's gender.  I want a girl because they have way cuter clothes and John wants a boy because 'they're easier than girls.'  (He would know because he has so many children haha.)  Bean has been kind, I've had about zero morning sickness, and have only paid homage to the toilet once when I decided that eating 3457485743 lettuce wraps at the Chinese place we frequent was a good idea.  Bean is not a fan.  I'm hoping that changes because I do love me some Chinese food.

I kind of forgot about this thing....

I haven't really wrote anything since we've gotten here.  Everything has been pretty hetic with getting everything we need for our place and getting used to John's crazy schedule...so here's a recap of everything that's been going on since we got here.  

We arrived in Texas on November 3rd.

We moved into our apartment on November 19th.

We got our household goods....December 22nd.


For 34 days we slept on an air mattress.  An air mattress due to sharp little kitty claws wound up with 7 holes.  Super itty bitty tiny holes that had us waking up tacoed in the middle of our bed only two hours after falling asleep.  I have no idea how the neighbors downstairs didn't try to come up here and kill us at 2, 4, and 6 am when we would reinflate our mattress on the nights we couldn't find a hole.  We should have bought stock in super glue and tape because we went through a lot.  John became a patch master, and Kojo would continue to delight in poking holes and then batting the air as it would jet out in her face.


About an hour after opening boxes marked Master Bedroom, we found the smelly unwashed sheets from our bed, threw them back on and had the most relaxing sleep since November 3rd. (I'm pretty sure the place we stayed at previous to finding our apartment was haunted.)  Now the boxes have been non stop, our place is a disaster, but I could not be happier.  I never knew how much I could miss a toaster or a vacuum cleaner, but 34 days of no bagels and dirty carpet was 32 days too many. 

We bought a couch on December 18th, it finally got delivered January 15th.  I really think things move slower in Texas, except bills in the mail, those little bastards show up ultra quick.  

To add to my incredible sex appeal...I now have an inhaler.

John and I adopted another cat.  His name is Gatsby.  He's a goat/dog trapped in a cats body.  He loves feathers, paper, and bubble baths.


It's pretty boring being trapped at home during the day.  I cannot wait to have a second car and hit the open road again.  Starting to get some cabin fever going on.  Our first car is going to be paid off this month and hoping soon after to add a new vehicle to the family.  Yay Ford!  

Being stuck at home has made my sleep schedule all sorts of whacked out.  Half the time I'm getting to sleep right before John's alarm starts going off.   Then I take a short nap, wake up, do some things around our place, make dinner, start relaxing with John, and as soon as he falls asleep, I'm suddenly wide awake. 


Anways, I'm finishing this up at 5:30am.  Fell asleep last night at a decent time, John's alarm woke me up and I've been going since.  The sleepiness is starting to creep back in so I'm going to take advantage of it while it's here. 

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!