Move #1 of 2

In case you haven't read my previous posts, the MR and I are going through a lot of life changes. One of the major ones is that we're moving across the country in December. A lot has happened in our life the past couple months.

Since we want to have a place to live when we move east in December, we decided to take a trip there last month to search for a home. Our first home together!!! We were there for 5 days. The first day we saw and drove by at least 30 homes. What a day that was! The rest of the days we saw more homes and wrote offers on a few others. The home shopping was fun and exciting which over powered the stress of it all. We were able to spend a little quality time with family. We love seeing them and now we're going to live by them very soon! After all the home shopping and enjoying the moments with family we headed back to the west coast.

We arranged to move out of our current home 9 weeks early and move into a friends home to save some money. That move was going to happen a week after we returned home from the east coast. It seemed like the moment we hit the ground we started packing. We had 4 days to pack before the movers arrived to take our things. We wanted to pack ourselves to save $1,500. We thought, how hard can packing be? So, we began packing on Monday. He decided that I would only pack the kitchen and he would do the rest of the house when he got off work early the next day. I'm pretty sure he decided he had to take control because I was packing as if I were playing a game of Tetris. I'm waaaay too thorough for him. By Tuesday the MR looked at me with beer in hand and said "how much was it again for them to pack this for us?" We laughed about it knowing that we realized just how much work it was. We finished up odds and ends on Thursday night and the packers arrived bright and early Friday morning. Friday evening we were going to sleep on a blow up mattress in our empty home, however, when we peeled it apart, it was covered in colorful, gushy mold. Lets just say, whatever was in my stomach before we opened the mattress was no longer going to be there after we opened it if I continued to look at it longer than .02 seconds. It was horrific and beyond disgusting. The most disgusting part was that it looked like that because one of our friends who ate TONS of garlic shrimp and had too much to drink one night, decided to puke all over the blow up mattress, another mattress in the room, floor, wall and ceiling fan (I know, baffling). It was scrubbed that night, rolled up and put away. I don't know whose idea that was! So, guess what Mr. Frugal Steel Stomach said? "Oh, fshhhh, I can spray this down with bleach and we'll be good to go!" You should have seen the mushed up, disgusted look on my face. I couldn't believe what I was hearing. There was NO way I would sleep on that thing. I repeat myself, NO WAY! I would rather sleep on rocks than sleep on that thing. I put my foot down and decided we should go to Target to buy a new one. The MR didn't like this idea but I wasn't budging!


The next day we moved into our friends home 15 minutes from our old one. We love their home, dogs and neighborhood. During that week the MR was out to sea and I was handling a never ending to-do list that mostly had to do with real estate transaction documents, loan documents and leaving our old home. Once the MR returned home he was able to help and the storm started to calm. We are really enjoying our new neighborhood, it's quaint and quiet. We walk everywhere with the dogs. We will be in our friends home for another 6 weeks then we start a whole new adventure...the move to the east coast! We're really going to miss everyone here on the west coast but we can always visit :)


Stay tuned...

Are We Crazy?!

The MR and I are at a crossroad in our life. He is getting out of the Navy, we're planning a move across the country, looking to buy a house, starting school, starting new jobs and leaving behind everything we have here. Are we crazy?! Could we possibly put anymore of a strain on ourselves and our marriage? The MR is going from having everything planned out by the Navy for the past six years to having to create a life outside of the military. This transition is going to be very difficult for the both of us. We'll have to think about paying rent/mortgage, utilities, health insurance and all the other things we haven't had to consider in the Military.

At this point, all we can do is be grateful we're going through this together, communicate to the point where we have nothing left to say, drink wine until we're delirious, make up random songs (sometimes crass), run around the house like two teenagers and laugh until our bellies ache. We are the prime example of the saying "you never know where life will take you." The truth is, this is nerveracking and scary but it's NOT life or death. We have options. We have our love, people that we love, people who love us, and people who believe in us. We're prepared to work extremely hard and know that nothing comes easy. Among all the decision making and stress, this is really an exciting time in our lives! No matter the outcome, we have each other and our happiness and that's what's important!

What do you think? Can you relate? Have any advice?

CW

Military Lifestyle

Living the military life can be very unsettling and very rewarding at the same time. I've been married to my husband going on 3 years now and the whole time we've been together he's been in the Navy. You would think that I would be accustomed to the separation by now but I'm not, even for a night. The separation is something that comes with life in the military whether you like it or not! We're coming up on another duty day tomorrow, which means he's on the ship for 36hrs straight. I think if this were to happen every once in a while, it wouldn't be such a big deal but the fact that it happens every 6 days can get old. But as old as it gets, I always think how lucky I am to have him home and not on deployment fighting the war in Iraq. As a military wife I feel like I'm clinging to him every minute I can because I KNOW he's going to have to leave again soon. I hate the fact that I just called myself "clingy!" Poor guy! I know a lot of military spouses would agree with me that this lifestyle never gets easier and we DREAD duty days and deployments. With that being said, I'm very proud of my husband for helping to protect our country. I have to say, I've become a lot more patriotic since meeting him. There are so many great things that come with being apart of the military community. With all the great things come some obstacles but isn't that what life is all about?

We have some very exciting and new changes coming our way in the next few months. Oh yeah, did I mention that CHANGE is a big part of the military life as well??? Well it is and I don't mind it at all. We love to travel, move and meet new people. I'm a little sad to say that our military lifestyle will be coming to an end in January and the next new life adventure lies ahead. SO many mixed emotions. Sad to leave the people and places I've grown to love here but excited and nervous to see what's in store.

I will have plenty to talk about in the near future...Can't wait to let you in on what our next big adventure entails. Are you ready???

Stick around all my IR's (Imaginary Readers)

Peace,
CW-