Goodness it's friday already!!!

It's been a pretty fast week for us, I was hoping time would slow down and let me enjoy the last few days we have on this base, but I guess not. As the move gets closer I'm filled with such sadness, I can't believe that in a week or so we will be out of here forever, my home......it's sad!!!

So this weekend we have tons of things to do, here's our to-do list just to give you an idea:

1. Dismantle trampoline and get it ready for the move
2. Clean out Grill/Smoker for move
3. Mow front and back yards
4. Empty shed
5. Take swing set and other trash to the dump
6. Take down all shelves, pictures etc
7. Take apart kitchen table
8. Take apart bunkbeds and Nicholas car bed
9. Get rid of anything we don't want the movers packing
10. Weigh Truck and SUV
11. Replace tires on SUV
12. Finish packing whatever we're taking with us for the Partial Move.
13. Clean house for inspection

And that is just what I can remember off the top of my head, I have everything written down on a list and let me tell you, one look at it is enough to make me want to cry and run for the hills. Wish I could enlist the help of a whole team of people but I think I have the most important one on my side, God.
Yep, I hope He's ready for me, because I plan on whining my way through this LOL

I have to keep reminding myself that I can do all of this and that it's nothing so trivial or mundane that He won't be interested in. I'm sure He will help and I plan on being aware of what is going on so that I can relay to you exactly the instances where I noticed Him at work.

The kids are starting to ask questions, lots of questions, "but can we come back here when we're done moving?"......."I don't want to go, I'm gonna miss my house"....."but what if the movers loose my toys?"......."but I don't want to leave lola and bella behind".

It's tough on them they don't understand why we have to leave our home behind and explaining to them that we're going to a new home doesn't seem to make it any easier. Such is the life of a military family though, moving from place to place, you don't really have a HOME until the day you retire and buy yourself a house.

Moving on, I'm going to try to update my food blog today, it's been a few days since I've posted anything in there, guess due to the fact that I really haven't spent much time in the kitchen and the meals I prepare in the middle of this confusion are simple, quick and not blog worthy....BELIEVE YOU ME!!!
Unless you're interested in frozen pizza, grilled cheese sandwiches and spaghetti....which by the way, my family loves but I've got it coming out the wazoo right now. !!!!

I'm going to try and come by to say hi, if not this morning then later tonight after the kids are in bed.

Hope you're all having a great friday, enjoy the warm weather!!!

Is it almost over????

School I mean....I swear every year it gets down to the last two weeks and I'm practically counting the minutes until it's done, I don't know why I do it because after 3 days of having both kids home fighting, yelling, bickering and complaining I'm ready to send Jasmine back to school LOL

Curt just laughs at me, what he doesn't understand is that I will gladly sacrifice my sanity for extra sleep in the mornings and not rushing to get anyone ready while walking around like a zombie with a coffee cup clutched in my hands.

Isn't it amazing the craziness every morning??? I'm telling you if they would put moms and kids on the Amazing Race we would win it hands down, you'd be surprised at the obstacles we go through and what we accomplish in those last 30 minutes before we head out the door.

You all know that Jasmine is 8 years old and she's at that stage where she is independent and downright snotty at times....it takes all the patience I can muster not to pull my hair out and run for the hills. The back talking, the deliberate not listening topped with the NOT WANTING to do anything around the house is enough to make me question my ability as a mom, did I mess up somewhere or is this just the norm with all 8 year olds?

This morning we were doing great and pretty much ready to go with time to waste.....then it begins.

Jasmine - "Mommy where's my shoes?"
Me - "Ummm where did you leave them?"
Jasmine - "I don't know"
Me - "well look for them please, standing there is not going to make them magically appear"
Jasmine - "but I can't find them"

Yes she can't find them because she's laying on her bed staring at the ceiling like maybe they decided to hide up there just for fun....or maybe the ceiling has become a special storage area for lost shoes, could it be that we're all walking around with a cloud of shoes above our heads holding the ones we misplaced and can't find????

I think these are the things that we're not told when we decide to have kids, I think some wouldn't be that quick to do it LOL

But you know what, I don't mind, it's frustrating and it's nerve wracking and let's not even mention the constant worry we have from the minute they are born and through the rest of their lives......but it's so rewarding!

The move is coming along well right now, there's actually a site online that I use which is very helpful for the military. It's called Military Homefront and there's tons and I mean TONS of great info, tools etc to help you make your move.
They even have a calendar for you with the dates of your PCS move from one base to the other, and each day details what you should be doing, which is great because you get so overwhelmed and don't want to end up forgetting important details......like maybe forgetting to empty the trash before the great movers come, unless getting your trash nicely wrapped and brought over to the next destination is something you would enjoy. LOL

I'm going to be super busy today, I have a house begging to be cleaned good, not that I don't clean it, but it needs a real good scrubbing top to bottom, not to mention with the move we have stuff that needs to be shining before the dreaded House inspection.

I'm by NO means a Martha Stewart, actually I would bet that if she ever came by my house she would pass out at the door. I DO keep things clean and organized...well, after following the wonderful Laura's blog, I realize I'm not that organized compared to her....something I'll work on when we get settled in the new house. LOL

I'm going to leave you with my to do's, I'm telling you I'm holding on to the Lord's hand so tightly today I'm sure I'm cutting off circulation but He's great as always and loves being included in everything I do. He'll put up with me through toilet scrubbing, laundry, mopping and sweeping and I'll be babbling away as usual.

Have a wonderful day everyone, please don't forget the Slow Cooking Thursday tomorrow and thank you to the ladies who faithfully participate every week and also don't forget the book contest, seems that only 4 people entered LOL

Image credit: GettyImages

For dinner tonight I'm making Chicken Florentine with Mashed Potatoes, yes I changed my menu around AFTER I posted it on monday. (the recipe will be up later on my food blog)

Image credit: GettyImages

Thank God You're Here - *New* - NBC - 7pm

Jerry Springer makes an appearance in the first-season finale. The comic actors performing scriptless comedy are Wendie Malick, Bill Bellamy, Eddie Kaye Thomas and Wayne Knight.

American Idol - *New* - FOX - 7pm

One of the three remaining finalists is voted off.

Medium - *New* - NBC - 9pm

Neve Campbell and Jason Priestley guest star in the third-season finale, in which the murder case involving Walter Paxton (Priestley) continues. Meanwhile, Allison's life turns topsy-turvy when her psychic abilities are revealed to the public.

Image credit: GettyImages

Laundry
Changing Bed Linens
Vacuum living room and bedrooms
Clean upstairs and downstairs bathrooms
Mop kitchen and hallways floors
Dust
Clean up computer area
Clean couches......dogs are shedding and it's messing up my allergies

God is SO good!

Isn't it amazing when you see a miracle happen or when you have been asking for something or completely feeling overwhelmed and BAM He does something that knocks you off your feet???

Be prepared, this may be a long post, you might want to grab a cup of coffee or top off the one you already have, hey maybe a pillow and blanket too in case you fall asleep. LOL

It's always been like this for me, maybe I'm one of the lucky ones who need only ask and I receive, you would think that would be enough to keep me in line and stop me from straying at times, but I am only human so I find myself thinking that everything is fine and I can handle it on my own. "Thank you Father but I'll take it from here, things are good now", pathetic I know because I'm only setting myself up for my disappointment.

You know yesterday Susanne reminded me that God is interested in every little detail of our lives, and that is SO true, nothing is too trivial and too uninteresting for Him, and if we would only believe that we would be so much happier.

So yesterday Curt and I were stressing and worrying (surprise surprise lol) about the whole house thing. See not always can you get a house readily available when you go to your next base, some bases have a waiting list of 4 or 5 months, sometimes 18 months, which means you have to find somewhere else to live until there is an opening for you on base.

It makes it even worse when you get your orders late and pretty much only have a month or so to contact the Housing office and find a house.....so we were preparing for that, thinking that we might have to live in an apartment or something for a while.
Curt contacted the Housing Office at this base and was told they couldn't put in for a new house for us at the follow up base UNTIL the day we left here.........OH MY GOODNESS.

We would be walking blindly into this situation and not having anywhere to stay. When Curt told me this I went into pray mode, I put it in the Lord's hands and asked for his guidance, if there was anything we could be doing to fix this let Him show us the right way.


Boy were we in for a surprise......it turns out that 2 of Curt's new co-workers JUST came from the base we're heading to and told him exactly what to do. Curt called up the new Housing Office and requested a house and was told "we can give you a 3 bedroom house RIGHT NOW, you don't have to wait at all, when you get here your house will be waiting for you". PRAISE THE LORD INDEED!!!!

But He didn't stop there, remember the school issue? I was actually considering Home Schooling because of not knowing where we would live and therefore not knowing which school she would be attending, we would have missed registration etc.....well now there's 2 schools that Jasmine would fall into, depending on which base neighborhood we live in and one of them we are extremely excited about, it sounds wonderful, the teachers sound amazing and the curriculum outstanding too. Everything just falls into place when you put it in the Lord's hands and quit trying to do it yourself....the minute you start trying to control and manipulate things around you you're sure to fall flat on your face.

I've got to get groceries this morning so I need to finish my menus and grocery list, I like going right as the store opens so I don't have to feel rushed or wait for that lady in the aisle just staring at the food, willing them to magically jump into her cart.....or the lady with the Borg Ear (cell phone attachment) asking very loudly if her husband would prefer the steaks or the pork chops, like I REALLY care to know what they're eating for dinner.

Anyway I have errands to run and things to do, my mother in law is supposed to visiting us on thursday so I'm trying to get the house in order while packing stuff to move. When it rains it POURS!

Have a blessed day everyone and don't forget the book contest, guess only 2 people are interested in winning it.

And so the stress begins......

It's starting people, time is starting to zip by and I'm realizing that there is a lot to do and not enough hours in the day.

We finally got our official orders on friday of last week which really doesn't leave much time for us to get new housing at the new base and arrange for the movers, coordinate TLF (Temporary Living Facility) at both bases, find a school for Jasmine, pick up medical and dental and school records etc etc etc.

It's exciting to be going to a new place but it's just the actual GETTING there that's frustrating.

Have I told you before how I hate driving long distance??? I'm not looking forward to being in the car with the two kids for days LOL

I don't know how long I'll be out of internet once we leave here and get there etc, so I'll probably be asking for some of you to be guest bloggers and I really do hope you will take me up on this offer, I'm sure whatever you blog about will be ten times more interesting than my usual long rambles about everything and nothing at all.

This coming weekend we're having a yard sale, it's time to start getting rid of things because quite frankly there's stuff that does NOT need to be going to a new house, it shouldn't even have been at THIS house but since we weren't planning on moving anywhere soon we weren't too worried about getting rid of it.
Nothing like a move to make a huge purge of your stuff.

So while I'm plowing through all the zillion of things to get done, I'm going to tell you about my next book contest.

The post is just below and it will run through this week so check out the details.

I wish I could chat for longer but I really need to get cracking on a lot of things, have a blessed day :)

The Things Kids Say........

I swear kids say the funniest things and at times leave you wondering where they come up with these.

Jasmine and Nicholas were both playing on the computer, some game on cartoonnetwork.com, so they're all into it and it was Jasmine's turn, she takes over and she's getting all upset with the game because she's loosing.....(apparently they're supposed to be bumping into some cars or something).....Nicholas calmy says "Jasmine my grandma hits harder than that" LOL
I literally spit my water all over my computer when I heard it, I mean COME ON......where does he hear this??? Jasmine burst into laughter and he just sat there looking at us with this expression of "what did I say?".

There's days that I'm so upset or sad or worried about something and all it takes is one of my kids opening their mouth to make me laugh hysterically....isn't that just the best medicine???

If you haven't been here since yesterday morning you've noticed that my template has changed, I know I know AGAIN, can you tell I get bored easily? LOL
I'm enjoying this new one, it's calm and relaxing for me, I need that right now with this huge move impending.

I don't have much news on that yet though, we're still waiting to get housing at the new base and I'm hoping and praying it's soon......just one thing, it's PRIVATIZED. If you're military you know what that means and I'm not too sure I'm up to dealing with it, but what can you do, it's either stick with it or buy a house off base.....I'm thinking here in a year or two that is exactly what we'll be doing.

So yesterday around 12:30pm our cable went out, instantly the kids ask "did you pay it?"...What the heck??? YES I paid it, I always pay it what kind of question is that...I swear if my children ever talk to strangers they will give the impression that all I do is blog all day, I only clean the house when someone is coming over, I only pay my bills if they get cut and asking them to share means I'm a mean mean mommy who is out to ruin their fun.

Anyway, I called the cable company and was told there was an outtage in our area and the technicians were working on it, so I'm sitting there thinking "well this shouldn't take too long, I can still watch General Hospital in 30 minutes" LOL Ummmm......it must have been a major earth shattering and life changing outtage because we didn't get the cable restored until this morning. Here is where I'm supposed to tell you that it was actually a great feeling to sit and read or play with the kids while sipping hot cocoa BUT the kids were asleep at 8pm and I was literally going NUTS.

I guess I had no idea just how addictive TV is because I couldn't for the life of me figure out what to do with myself LOL Pretty sad.


Now here is something funny, while waiting for the TV to come on, I worked on my template and while I was online I went to google and typed "She built" and honest to God, it came back with "did you mean: HE built", ummmm, I figured it was a fluke or something so I typed "she invented" and same thing "did you mean: HE invented" LOL What the heck is up with google, does it have something against women????
Don't even bother trying "she created" cause same thing happens.

Alright I wish I could stay and chat more but you know how I like to babble and right now I have a husband with a uniform in his hands waiting for me to sew on some stripes, I guess I should get that done right?

Have a great day everyone. God Bless,

Stress Stress Stress

Before I start, I want you all to go to my sidebar there on the right, and please sign into my new Visitor Map, I would LOVE to see where you're all at. Will you do that for me??? Please???

I'm stressed and feeling overwhelmed with this PCS(Permanent Change of Station).

See it's not just moving from a house to another, being in the military means tons of paperwork and all this long process you have to go through.

You have to schedule the AF movers to come and sometimes during the summer months they take a little longer to get your stuff to you, I really don't want to get to Luke AFB and then have to wait another month or two for my stuff to get there. There's planning, there's house inspections, briefings, house cleanings, TLF (temporary living facilities) to book, pets have to have their shots up to date etc etc etc. It's not even the whole list but I'm sure I don't have to tell other military wives, they know EXACTLY what a pain in the behind this is.

We'll be making a 14 hour drive and let me tell you, I'm NOT a giddy driver, if I could get away with not driving ever, I would be happy. I just get bored in the car and in the summer months I tend to get car sick, so I'll be praying, and please throw a prayer my way too, that I can make this drive with 2 kids in the car and we can all get there safe and not completely depressed, OH and that I don't get car sick.

Curt will be driving his truck with the 2 pugs and I'll be driving my Durango with the kids.....who gets the better end of this deal I ask??? LOL

Actually I was the one who told him to take the dogs because I don't want their hair all over my car LOL
We've already decided though, if the kids start fighting we'll send one to him and switch back and forth etc...if it was up to me, hubby would be driving us all LOL

In the next month or two you'll see me using my blog almost as a central point for my move, a family BRAIN, you know how some people have a Family Brain Book where they write down appointments and important things to remember? Well this will become my brain, so be prepared because I'll be flooding this place with moving tips and all sorts of things that may not interest you at all, I will still be chatting about the usual stuff but you may see me going from happy and chirpy to frustrated and bitchy real quick....just be patient LOL

I will also be asking for some Guest Bloggers for the week or two that I'm moving, so I'm hoping I can count on you all to keep this blog alive.


There's this great site called PCSing....it's a Spouse thing! It's hilarious, it's a cartoon site for military spouses and I know that so many of us can totally relate to the cartoons.

Another great site to check out is PCSing Tips, great tips and info as well.

I've come across a lot of spouses who absolutely dread PCSing and going to a new place, ME??? I've come to think of it as a constant vacation. Where else could you move from place to place, get to learn new things, see new places, eat new foods and have all of those moves paid for??? I can see it already, we're moving to Arizona, and I'm ALL for new experiences....Glendale which is the town Luke AFB is at, has an Historic Downtown and TONS of Antique stores........come ON.........am I being tempted or what???

We have the great Phoenix Zoo nearby, the Grand Canyon, Tombstone, Renaissance Faire, Ghost Towns, Petrified Wood Park......and food galore. I can just see myself donning a cowboy hat and wearing sparklies, or as the Texans say "Rhinestones Ma'm", running through the Ghost Town and playing pretend gun fights with hubby and the kids.....(well not really, I can dream can't I?). The great thing about this is that we LOVE Ghost Towns and there are 300 in Arizona....20 of them are in Maricopa County where the base is at. I'm SUPER excited!!!

I'm not just moving there, I'm taking you all with me, everytime I discover something new or visit a new place, I'll be posting about it and sharing pictures, before you know it, you'll ALL be familiar with Arizona too LOL

Well I have tons of things to do around here, again I didn't get a chance to go by everyone's blogs, guess that's why I only had 2 comments yesterday LOL You are all paying me back for not visiting you, I see how you work....well now I'm coming by and there better be some comments here when I get back....I'm just kidding, but I AM coming by now to say hi.

Have a great day everyone,