Anchorage Trip

What a blast was had! About 15 of us from our league went down to help the Rage City Rollergirls with a bout they had this past weekend. OMG I have not had that much fun in a long time! It was also my first "in the flesh" bout to be at. Those chicks are big and can hit hard! It is a little scary that we'll be bouting against them in May! Between seeing that and the drinking and hotel shenanigans it was just wonderful. I can not wait to go down again. It should be neat because the boys and the hubby will be going also.

6 of us also got tattoos while we were there. We got FBXRG on the inside of our lips. The guy kind of sucked though because I think everyone of us except for 1 had the tattoo fade. The guy so did not go deep enough! Well, I'm going to go clean some. We still haven't gotten all of the boxes unpacked!

Derby Pics Part Deax

Look at my head...see how nasty sweaty you get!

I love this picture!

And if your birthday is an odd number you are off around the track!

Skating in the pack

And more pack skating.

Derby

So, any of you that read my blog know that I started doing derby since coming up here to Alaska. It is awesome and don't know what I'd do if I didn't have it! I thought I'd let you guys some pictures from it!


Giving Mug Shot a whip.

Me getting whipped

Taking off

Going through everyone during a snake exercise

Leading the front of the snake

I'll put some more in the next post!

Pics Part 2!

When you look at the picture you would think this was a far away picture of the mountain. Actually it is pretty close! The top of the picture that is white is actually frozen fog that blocks the rest of the view of the mountain!

Papa in NY told Sebastion that there was Big Foot in the woods up here. This is his face to scare them off!

More mountains.

These are mountains in Kodiak.

Salmon in the water. They were close enough we could've pulled them out bare handed!

Close up of a Bald Eagle.

Further away of the above eagle. If you look at the bottom of the tree you'll see another one. There were 20-30 Bald Eagles in this clearing. It was because of all the salmon!

Jobi and I on the ferry

Finally...Pics From The Trip

We made it!

This is a Glacier.

Oliver on the ferry. Sebastion pretty much never went outside so no cool pics of him like this.

Whale fin and blow.

Oliver in the Capts chair. They saw 2 humpbacks breech the water while they were there!

The boys in the submarine at the children's museum in Bellingham.

Stuart Mountain Range

Roller Derby

Hello all! It is a cold and snowy day today! We're supposed to get 3-6 inches. Yippeee!

On a good note...I went to the Fairbanks Rollergirls practice last night. I am so all over being a derby girl! They seemed like an awesome bunch of chicks for sure! Now, I'm working on ordering my rookie package so that I can start skating. (The rookie package is your helmet, skates, pads and mouth guard.) So my dream has come true! I am becoming a Roller Girl!

Now I need to figure out a name! Any suggestions? Here's what I have so far:

Mich-hell
Mitchy McBitchy
Screwie Stewie

What do you think?

We Got A House!

Well, we signed for our house yesterday! The base housing here is the best base housing that we've ever seen! Let me tell you about it...

First it has got to be at least 2000 sf! We were only authorized 2 bedrooms but got 3. Plus we got it exactly where we wanted it on base which means we are only about a block from the elementary school. It is 3 stories. When you first walk into it there is an entry way and then off to the right is a large arctic room. So no snow is going to be tracked all through the house! Then you go through another door and you have the livingroom which takes up half of this floor. There is also a bathroom by the front door. The other half is the kitchen and dining room. For the first time we'll have a trash compactor. I have always wanted one! Plus the kitchen is open to the dining room with a counter so we're going to have to get stools for it. (I believe it is called a breakfast nook or something.) The ceiling of the living room is open up to the 2nd floor. On the 2nd floor is all 3 bedrooms. The master bedroom also has a full connected bathroom and a huge walk in closet. When I say huge I mean big enough for all of both of our stuff in it plus all our shoes AND it was one of the big ones that we can change into! It is literally like 8ft long by 5ft wide or more! The boys also have a bathroom in the hall for them. That then brings us to the basement. The basement is fully finished! There is also a laundry room and storage room down there. Unlike our laundry room that we had in Texas, there is room in here! We could probably have 2-3 washers and dryers each in here and still be able to fit a huge table (like the size of one of the cafeteria tables from school!) in it. The storage room is pretty big too. The only bummer for the house is that it is a one car garage but it does have a plug on the outside for my van. (For those of you that didn't know, it gets so cold here that you have to plug your car in at night so that all the liquids in it doesn't freeze and kill it!) There is also a large storage room off of the garage. Oh, and the backyard is tiny. We really can't complain about that though as there are 2 playgrounds right outside our front and backdoor and one of them has a hill that the boys can sleigh ride on!

So, that is our good news of the day. We did have someone look at the house in Texas last week so we're keeping our fingers crossed on that. Once we move into the house we won't get a housing allowance anymore so we need to sell it asap! Hopefully my next post will be that they put in a contract!

We're Here!

We've finally made it here to Alaska! This has got to be the most beautiful place in the whole world! If you thought a postcard was awesome you need to see it in the here and now! The ferry ride was pretty awesome. Only Basti got sick once...after that both him and I took the motion sickness meds! It was wild, we saw humpback whales, killer whales, dolphins and sea lions. Oliver and Jobi even saw 2 humpbacks jump out of the water in front of the ship.
About 30 minutes after we got off the ship we had to stop the car to see about 20-30 Bald eagles on the side of the road by some streams. They were there because of the salmon. The salmon were close enough and in shallow enough water that we could have pulled them out by our hands if we wanted to!

We pulled into Eielson AFB Tuesday evening to a nice warm 25 degrees and snow. I don't think that it has stopped snowing since we got here! First thing this morning the boys were outside in their jeans and sneakers playing in the snow. Didn't faze them at all! I hope there snow pants our at the post office when we check later! I'm sure they will get full use!

For those that asked about the dogs...Simon is loving it! He is such and outdoor dog. The boys can't wait to throw snowballs for him to catch. Now Tinkerbell is another story entirely! She doesn't want to be outside at all! I'm sure she'll get a lot of use out of her tiny parka and paw protectors! (For those of you that didn't know, we got a chihuahua before we left!)

I'm sure I'll update more once we get settled in! We're off to go get the kids to school!

Hectic Is My Middle Name!

Well folks, we have less than 2 weeks until we are on the road to Alaska! Who'd of thought the time would go by so fast?!? Things have changed since my last blog to say the least! We finally have the Texas house on the market so cross your fingers that someone buys it soon! Especially since we have to fix up the house in SC. Long story please don't ask! LOL. That house we have decided to get a property manager and rent it out. With the price of houses in Alaska it is better for us to move into base housing. We always said that we would never live in base housing but considering it is $215+ for a "trailer" with a basement it is for the best we guess. Plus the house in SC has all the equity in it so why not rent it out and have more! That will be the money that we use when we get our retirement home. I figured too that we would put the money from the TX house selling into it to add even more. Of course though we'll need to save some of that money to fly back to the "lower 48" next year when my sister-in-law gets married. I'm sure that is going to be a pretty penny for the 4 of us!

The hubby is currently in Dallas dropping off his car to be shipped to AK. Fun stuff. Plus he gets to fly back on September 11th. Nice right. Well, my little sis is flying back to CA from NY tomorrow too. Oh, it has been awhile since I posted! We all flew up to NY to see my side of the family before we PCS. It was awesome. I haven't been back in years so it was nice to see everyone and to see how much the cousins and other folks have grown up. The boys seemed to love playing with their bigger and smaller cuz's! Plus I got to meet my newest nephew for the first time. Boy is he a cute little shit! Besides the best baby I have ever seen! That boy hardly cries at all and when he does it's for a reason and it doesn't last long. Nothing like how my boys were or still are depending on the day! LOL

Well, I'll try to post more. Especially since the boys are back to school. Even if it is only for a little under 2 more weeks! Viva La Travel soon!

Blood...ER...Emergency Dentist

Boy did we have fun last night! I was doing a Passion Party at a friends house. The kids and hubby were there too. All the men folk and kids were outside while I did my presentation. It was my biggest party to date and I thought I was so going to hit the $1000 mark for the first time.

Well...I had just finished my presentation when I heard crying. Like every mother I know my child's cry. So I got up and ran in the other room. It appears that my son and another little boy collided with each other. Well, the other little boy had 2 marks on his head from Sebastions 2 front teeth. Basti was covered in blood on his mouth and hands. At first I didn't think that it was too bad. It appeared that he cut his lip on his teeth. We were lucky with the fact that the pediatric med-tech happened to be at this party. When we lifted up his top lip you could see that his 2 front teeth were way towards the back of his mouth.

Off to the ER we went. Luckily at the ER (on a Friday night at 9:30 at night!) it was dead in there. We practically went right in. The doctor told us that there was nothing that he could do that we really needed to get him to a dentist. Talking about dentists...he had just been to his on Thursday and got a clean bill. No cavities perfect teeth! LOL. They did give him Tylenol with codeine for the pain. That was pretty funny when it kicked in! He kept talking about how he had bunny teeth and how he wanted to keep them forever!

So this morning I called every dentist in the phone book for our area. Not a single one of them had emergency care on Saturdays. Hubby called the doc on call for the base and he said that if it was his child that he'd take him to the base hospital in San Antonio. So, that's where the went. A nice 3 hour drive. Yes, we live out in the middle of no where! Well, they just called me to tell me what the storey is. It appears that Sebastion got his wish...he will be keeping his bunny teeth until the fall out. The dentist up there said that he didn't break the bone there. Thank god since the doc at the ER said there was a chance of that. Since a dentist didn't get the teeth set in with the first hour of it happened he said to let them go. The 2 teeth are basically just hanging on by a few threads of soft tissue. They also said that they could see the adult teeth in the gums on the x-rays so he won't be toothless for a long time once they fall out. Basti is a little disappointed since he was hoping the dentist would pull them so that he could get money from the tooth fairy.

So that was our fun and exciting time last night. Till next time...brush your teeth and keep your mouth away from other peoples heads!

Why Me?!?

So, our house isn't "officially" under contract. It seems that the folks that were going to buy our home never brought the earnest check to the realtor. So that means that the contract was never brought to the title company which means...no fucking contract! My stress level went from really good to OMG I want to cry. I was just so happy to have one of the houses "sold." They've asked for a couple of more days to think about it. Do we do that or put it back on the market? I know that the hubby had one more person to look at it and so did I. Why would you go to the realtor's office with us and do all the paperwork if you weren't totally set on buying it? Fuck this sucks!

We're Under Contract!

So now this house in Texas is under contract! Boy is that a load off my shoulders now! We should close on or before 15 September! I am so happy! I will be super less stressed after the closing but doing well now. Now if we can only get the house in South Carolina fixed up and sold! I know I said it before but I can always get a part time job to pay for it but would rather have that money towards the down payment for a house in Alaska. It is a buyers market now so I'm hoping we get a super deal on a house up there. Hopefully something that is appraised for more so we have SUPER equity in it already! LOL, one can always hope right...

We Have A Buyer!

So one of the families that came to see the house want it! How awesome is that! I am trying not to jinx us! I will be so happy once we do the contract and stuff this coming week! Then most of my stress will be gone. That will just leave the house in SC to sell. It will be so nice not to have to pay 2 mortgages. One is enough for me. I don't think that we'll rent a house out again. Plus Alaska should be our last base that we're at while hubby is in the military. Well, at least stateside. We may try for one more overseas base before he retires but we'll see. We plan on putting all the money we make on these sells right back into a house in Alaska. This will be the equity in the house so that we have a nice down payment on our final house that we will live in for the rest of our lives!

I just keep hoping that everything goes through with the purchase. Life will be good then!

I'm Less Stressed And Very Happy!

So much has happened since my last post! I took down the old fence (by myself I might add!) The new fence is almost all the way up thanks to really good friends of ours that are super awesome! Granted the husband wasn't here and I managed to have them put it up the wrong way but oh well it's up right!

We've had two families come see the house so far. I have another family coming tonight and we have two more families that are interested too. And the plus is that all of these folks are coming before we've actually signed anything with our realtor so that means we can ask for a lower commission rate since they'd only have to deal with the paperwork side! Yippee!

I would be so happy if we got this house sold before we left! That would only leave the house in SC to sell. Talking about that home...I've bought all the supplies for the house to be painted so hopefully in the next week or so it will be done and we'll just be waiting for the contractor to fix the other things to get it sold. I am so hoping that folks get as excited to buy that home as they are with the one we're in.

Back Home

We are back home again! I wish we could have stayed in Oklahoma longer but we do have to get ready to move! Good news with that! The husband has finally got our orders and set up our TMO appointment. We should have our stuff picked up on the 11th or 12th of August. Hopefully our house sells soon after that! The hubby still needs to get a contractor to fix up our other house. Hopefully he will do that this week so we can get that house on the market. I don't want to have to pay out the nose to keep it!

In good news I am getting unemployment again. The bad news is nobody wants to hire me to work only until the beginning of September. And to make matters worse, I don't speak Spanish. To get a job just about anywhere here you have to be bi-lingual. So I'll keep trucking along. I have a Passion Party to do next weekend so hopefully that goes well.

Yesterday/Today

Well, yesterday was an eventful day to say the least! I woke up super early to go over to my Mariya's house for a yard sale. I've had stuff in there garage that hasn't sold for the last 2 yard sales. Well, normally I am a cheapskate that tries to get every penny I can. Boy are things different when you are moving and just want to get rid of all the crap that accumulates in your home! Folks were getting things for a steal! We even put our old stove out on the curb with a free sign. It was gone in less than 24 hours! Thank you!

So, from 6:45 to noon I was over there selling all of our stuff. After that we all got in the car and drove the 7 hours to Oklahoma to see family. You know how it is when you move...have to visit everyone that you can because it could be another 4 years until we see them again! Thankfully the trip seemed to go fast. This only took 1 day...I am so not looking forward to a 12 day drive up to Alaska!

So, we're up here for the next week. I may or may not post more. It depends on if I have anything to write about.

Yard Sale Time!

So it's that time of the move...time for a yard sale! Boy what fun it is going around the house and finding things to sell. You would think it would be the boys not wanting to sell things but no it is the husband. Tell me blog readers, don't you think that if it has set in the garage for the last 3 years that it is time to get rid of it! When we moved here we got a wireless surround system, do you really think that we need to keep the old wire system? I think not!

So, today I am getting as much stuff as I can and bringing it over to my friends house where we are going to have the sale. I figure if I can get it out of the house before he sees it then I am in the clear. The only thing that sucks about that is now I have to clean out the van so that I can fit all this stuff in it! I hope all this crap sells. If not it's time for the dumpster.

I don't know about the rest of you but every time we move be rent a dumpster and trash half the crap in our house. It seems that we keep a lot of stuff that we don't need too. Not this time! I am on a clean up crusade! Especially since we're down to only one of us being in the military. That means that we have a much much much smaller amount of weight that we are authorized. And you so don't want to go over when it comes to the military. They charge and arm and a leg for the overage costs!

Well folks, hate to cut this short but I need to go clean out the van and put my garage in there!

Happy 4th of July!

Happy Birthday to the good ol' US of A! I don't know about the rest of you but we are going to see the fireworks tonight! Well, I don't know...if the kids keep acting up we just might not. So wish me luck that they straighten their acts out! We went last year and it was a lot of fun. They had lasted awhile too.

On another note, I dyed my hair today or I should correct myself, I dyed my bangs. I was going to go see my hairdresser but she wasn't it. I might still go see her tomorrow. Well, for the first time in like 12 years I have funky colored hair! The bangs are BLUE! I had to do them 2 times! I followed the directions the first time and they looked like crap. It said to shampoo the color out. Well that left me with a faded light light light blue. So, the second time I did it I just rinsed my bangs out until the water ran clear. They are so much brighter now. I don't know if I'm going to keep them this way though. I was thinking about going all black including the bangs and then putting some chunky red streaks in it. We'll see. I'll have to ask Terry tomorrow when I see her. I'm going on almost a year with the black hair and blonde bangs so I think it's about time for a change.

I can't wait for next weekend! Saturday we're going to bring all our yard sale stuff over to a friends to sell. We usually finish up around 11/12ish so I'm hoping it will be the same. That is early enough to then jump in the car and drive to Oklahoma for a week! We're trying to get all our family visits in before departing for Alaska. Should be a blast...I always love going up there. Plus, Jobi is going to have Tom, his step-dad, do his re-enlistment. Tom is a retired officer so it is really awesome that he'll do this! I'm sure that Jobi's mom is going to cry but it is a fun all in family thing to do. I can't wait to go since this may be the last time we see some of these friends until we're done with our tour up north!

Cross your fingers for my boys (and me!) I really want to see the fireworks tonight!

And We Have Take-Off!

So yesterday I found out that all of things that needed to be done to get orders are done! That means hopefully by the end of this month all of our stuff will be out of our house! On to selling this bad boy. I am super hoping that it goes fast! I figured we have enough money to cover us for the SC house for almost 14 months. Now if we have to pay both house payments out that account we'll have enough to pay for both house payment for just under 6 months. I am more than willing to put of school for a couple of months until we get the houses sold but would rather hope that I was working to cover only the one mortgage than both of them. Plus with the whole moving thing it would still be hard!

When we left SC we didn't sell the house because we didn't think we'd have time. Well guess what...we have the same amount of time this time around too! The one really good thing is the folks that are renting the place are really good friends of ours. They've already said that they would help us with the painting and stuff since we're in Texas. That means less money coming out of "the account" to fly the hubby there to do that. Plus we still have a bunch of friends there. I said if worse comes to worse I'll pay for a painting party B-B-Q to get all our friends there to do it for us.

We have some folks that Jobi and I know coming to look at the house we're living in next weekend. I am so hoping that they fall in love with it like we did and want to buy it. We haven't signed any paperwork with the realtor yet so *cross your fingers* if they like it she lowers the commission rate a bunch since she'd only really be working with the paperwork side of selling the house. We aren't like some of these dumb asses that try and sell their house for 20K more than it's worth. I figure if we price it right hopefully they'll just fly off the market.

Once can always have wishful thinking...right??????

What Men Are Told VS What They Hear

So the husband and I were talking about the trip to Alaska. Being that we've already been overseas we know what the military stance is on shipping a vehicle. One vehicle per family can get shipped at Government Expense. Doesn't really make sense since when you have a spouse they usually drive too but oh well. Not a big deal since we planned on driving there anyway.

Well, he told me that he has already spoken to TMO (Transportation Management Office) about us shipping a vehicle. He just tried to convince me that we have to do a partial dity move on my van...the vehicle we're driving to Alaska in. Now a dity move is an optional thing to do. This is basically when you get your vehicle weighed with nothing in it and then weighed again once you fill it up with household good. (Which I might add you have to pay to have it weighed!) Now before you even get to this step you have to fill out a crap load of paperwork to even get it approved. We only plan on bringing our luggage and any food/snacks/videos etc that we'll need on the trip. All of our household goods and other stuff will be picked up and shipped.

Now let me add that I am a prior Finance troop. That means that I have dealt with hundreds of other peoples vouchers plus I am a regulation queen that looks up everything! So I know that I'm not crazy. The husband said he's going to go talk to TMO again about it, like I don't know what I'm talking about. All I know is that we are only authorized 11,000 pounds of house stuff to send. I really don't think that we need to worry about trying to get more money with the little bit of stuff that we are driving up. I'm sure we'll probably be close to over our weight anyway! So it really cracks me up when they tell you what "they were told" vs what you know they heard!

My Last Day As A Tiger Den Leader

So today was our last Pack meeting. As you can see below my boys started out with their orange kerchiefs. In the picture you will see that we all have our faces painted. The different colors and stripes stand for different things in Cub Scouting. (Notice that my youngest has his face painted too even though he isn't in Scouts yet!)


Below is all of the boys, Tigers and Wolves, sitting at the "ceremonial" fire. (Don't you love how I made it! I'm such a dork, I know!) This is right before they transition to Wolves and Bears.


Finally, this is a picture of Oliver. Notice his kerchief?!? My boy has moved up in rank. He is now a Wolf Cub!

If you don't know who I am, you do now! This mom is also a Cub Scout Leader! And, because of lack of folks planning the ceremony I did. Leave this mom to work on it and see... your kids will end up with paint on their face and have to jump through the "ceremonial" water to get to a brave. LOL, I'm a big dork but my Cub Scouts love me and that's all that matters! I am really going to miss these kids when we go! I'm sure that I'll be a Leader/Co-Leader/Committee member when we get to Alaska but it will stink not to see these kids grow in Scouting. For those of you that didn't know, I was a Girl Scout growing up. I went all the way up till high school and even got my Silver Award. After graduating I became and Assistant Leader to one of my prior Leaders. How cool is that! After I joined the military and moved to England I was a Committee member and then a Leader over there. You just might say I have a bit of scouting in my blood!

If you've ever thought of having your child in scouts go for it! If you don't like the activities or what the kids are learning about then become a Leader and do your own thing! Like my mom always said...you won't find many kids that stayed in scouting NOT go to college or in the military and make something of themselves!

Oh, and the reason I say it is my last day as a Tiger Den Leader is because I'm sure I'll move up with Oliver to Wolves. And, I'm sure I'll be a Tiger Leader again...only 2 more years until Sebastion becomes a Scout!

Selling Your House

Did you ever notice that you never see the imperfections in your home until you have just closed on it or you are going to be selling it? Since we are moving we plan on selling our home that we live in and our rental house (was our home at our last base). Houses are just too expensive in Alaska not to! We'll really need the nice down payment.

Well, that means that you need to do any home improvements, painting etc. before folks start to come looking at the house. What stinks for us here in the home we're in is that we have 2 little boys that don't know how to open a door slowly! That means I have a bunch of door handle holes that I need to fix. I was a little freaked out that we were going to have to have someone do it and it would cost a lot of money. Well my friends let me tell you, http://www.google.com/ is your friend! The first search I did brought me to this awesome website http://www.ehow.com/. With a video and everything it showed me how to fix the holes easily and cheaply but not as a crappy fix either! I think this is my new favorite site! It has so many different posts on how to do just about anything! I'm really excited because I think that I'm just going to go get the stuff and do it myself and surprise the husband with my new expertise! LOL We also have a couple of chipped tiles in the house. Which again is not surprising with 2 boys that love to drop things. Again another easy fix! I am so loving it!

The only thing that sucks with the selling of our homes is our other house. It wouldn't be that bad if we lived close by (or went with a management company!) but the distance between Texas and South Carolina is quite a bit. Plus, for some reason (and I'll try not to blame the husband or kids) the signed lease I had has gone missing! I'm hoping we're not going to have problems with the tenants when I tell them that they need to repaint the rooms they painted back to white. I take full responsibility for the master bedroom color (what was I thinking when I painted it burgundy!) We'll see. I'm hoping that the realtor says that they are good colors and that we can just leave them as they are!

Really, as long as we can sell the house that we're in now I'll be happy. That is our big mortgage payment and I can always get a part-time job to pay the other one if need be. The husband has someone that is interested in coming to check it out already. I just have to get things cleaned up and fixed first! We haven't signed anything with the realtor yet so I'm hoping if they are interested that the realtor will give us a deal on the commission since it would only be the paperwork part that they'd be helping with.

This whole selling of house thing makes me super nervous! We've only ever bought houses. Now, both my realtor's are telling me that even in this downward spiral of people buying houses that both should sell relatively fast so I have my fingers crossed. I really don't want to be in a hotel forever to save money so we can pay mortgages for homes we're not living in! Oh well, I guess we'll just have to wait and see.

Now if the husband would only get off his butt and do more out processing so we can get our orders and have the house packed and shipped I'll be a happy camper.

The Joys of Outprocessing

Anyone that has PCS'd (Permanent Change of Station) knows that it can be a pain doing all the stuff the military wants you to do to get orders. I know know what it is like as a military member and dependent. I don't know which is easier but I know it's nice that as a dependent if I'm getting dicked around I can get loud and not get in trouble! Today the boys and I go to finish up our medical out-processing. Let me give you a little background on what we've gone through so far.

A couple of days after Jobi found out we were going to Alaska he went up to mental health to get the ball rolling on getting our medical out-processing done. All medical stuff goes through them when you're leaving. They gave him tons of forms that had highlighted stuff on there to fill out. They told him that we needed to bring it in when we were finished to get our "appointment" set up. Well, turns out that they are trying to save money so they don't even give us a form for each dependent, we have to make copies ourselves. Fine, whatever, I find the form numbers online and print out 2 extras. I fill everything out and bring it back. Oh, they say, you didn't take this to this office and this office and the school etc... Well, maybe people if you had told hubby that in the first place I may have done that. That's the first time I got semi-loud. So, they decided to keep 80% of the paperwork and send me on my way to go to all of these different places. Like the school. Now, it is school vacation and they want me to get paperwork signed. I asked what if there isn't anyone at the school...they said I'd have to go to the School Board! I don't know about you but I sure as hell wouldn't know how to find the school board! So, I do and go to all the places they told me I had to go. So try #2 to get our appointment. So the boys and I go in again. They then told me oh, you must not have been told that you have to take these 2 forms to primary care. Don't worry ma'am, we'll do it and then call you with an appointment day. (I knew that they were already full with appointments for the next 3 weeks.) So I told them that I wasn't leaving without an appointment. I was not going to cross my fingers that these people were going to do what they said. We waited for probably another 20 minutes and they finally gave us a date. Well that date is today.

So as I sit here typing this up I wonder what hell these folks are going to put us through. Again, thankfully I am a "dependant" and don't have to be quiet. And people wonder why all your medical out-processing is through Mental Health. Maybe because you have to go on anti-psychotic medication when you're done!

Wish me luck, I'm sure it's going to be a rollercoaster day!

I Be A Collage Graduat

Oh, and here is a picture of the original fearsome threesome!

Crap, I typed out this whole thing and then realized that I screwed up when I tried to add the picture. Anyways, today I got my degree. Yippeeee! The only thing that sucked was that only those that got their Bachelors got to wear the cap and gown. Well, he's a picture of me getting my first of many degrees to come!

I figured that me getting a degree says we're going to go out for dinner tonight. We're going to go to Rudy's. For those of you that don't know what that is...it is an awesome Bar-B-Q place. I can't wait! Since I got out of the military we don't go out to eat nearly as often as we did before so this will be a treat. Plus, since I'm walking a lot now I can splurge! Yum!

Graduation Practice

Boy do you ever type or write a word and think it looks weird? Off topic but that's what the word practice above did to me! Didn't help that when I went to http://www.dictionary.com/ that it showed both practice and practise. Then they both looked wrong. Anyways...on to my original post.

Today I had my college graduation practice. Who'd of thought it would take me 10 freakin' years to get my Associates in Financial Management. Any who, tomorrow I walk in my cap and gown and get my degree. I did Finance in the military for 10 years. Do you really think that I ever plan on using this at all?!? Heck no! I've had my fair share of numbers and don't want to deal with anymore unless it is my own finances. But I won't turn it away. It will look good on a resume!

In other good news The House of Representatives just approved a bill that will allow those of us veterans awesome benefits of the MGI Bill! They will pay for a 4 year degree at a public college in the state that we reside. Plus a whole bunch of other things like housing allowance, $1000 towards books a year and even a one time up to $2000 towards certificate testing. For those of you that know me you know that I want to become a nurse. How awesome is this! This will totally help me get my degree. It is awesome because it brings the education benefits online to what veterans after WWII got. Plus military members will have the option of passing their benefits onto their dependents if they aren't going to use it.

Now for me I just have to find out what courses are offered at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. Hopefully they have a nursing course otherwise I'll have to find something that will end up helping me towards a nursing degree. Wish me luck and all you vets out there better be going to school. I'm sure if folks don't use it they'll lose it! Up to $80K for school people!

Here we go again!

I have been so lucky with my military life...to a point (I'll get to that soon!) I have traveled all over the world and country! I have been lucky enough to live in England for 4 years and I was deployed to Qatar for 4ish months. Stateside we were stationed in South Carolina (Shaw AFB for those that were wondering) and Texas (Laughlin AFB).

They always say that your best base is your last base and your next one. I never believed that before! Being stationed in England for your first base is awesome! I didn't want to leave but low and behold my husband after being there for 6 years was ready to come back to the land of Walmart. (I had only been there 4 and could have stayed forever!) Well, that is when we got stationed at Shaw. We had a beautiful house close to base but far away from everyone there. (It's for sale if anyone is interested!) We were so ready to leave there after 4 years! The excitement was overwhelming until we hit Del Rio, Texas. Anyone that knows me knows that I am a small town girl. As a matter of fact Del Rio is huge compared to my hometown. Well, here is where the you don't know what you had until you're gone comes in! This place stinks! The nearest "real" town in 3 hours away people. Yes, 3 hours and there isn't anything between here and there really. We would have gone back to South Carolina in a heartbeat! (It's one of the reasons that I got out of the military after 10 years. We hoped that we would get orders faster! It's easier for the military to place 1 person than it is 2.)

Well, we have all the luck in the world. On my birthday (best present my husband could have got me!) we found out that we have orders to Alaska! Who'd of thought that me, the small town girl from upstate NY would see Alaska! We are so excited. And the good news is that for military reasons Alaska is considered an overseas tour. That means we are there for a 3 year tour. If we hate it we know that is all the time we have to do BUT if we love it we can try to extend. Especially since that will be towards the end of hubbys career!

So, this is the beginning (or beginning of the end since it's me blogging! LOL) of my ramblings of a Military Mom On The Move!