Today has been a rough week. I don't really know why. Nothing major, just a lot of those little frustrating things that add up. It has also been a very long week! Today is the first day this week that hasn't started out like a Monday. Thank goodness for that. However, I have yet to really get anything good accomplished either. It's also the first day this week that I don't have anywhere that I NEED to go. Having too many days on the go is not something I enjoy. I kinda need to go to Target...but it's not absolutely necessary to do it today. So maybe I won't. We'll see...
I had high hopes for this week too. So far it is letting me down. I really hope that it finishes out the way that I want it to though!
Last Friday we finally got our assignment from the Air Force. We are going to Langley AFB in Virginia next. I was disappointed when I found out. It was very last on our list. Our last assignment was the one that was very last on our list too. (Hawaii was not our original assignment) I'm thinking that next time we make our list we should put where we really want to go at the bottom! We weren't really surprised that we got it though. The work that he will be doing there is going to be a lot of the same stuff he is doing here. We knew that the AF tries to match that first, when it comes to moving people. So no surprise that he was selected to go there. Langley is definitely better than some of the other places that we could have been sent to, so I continue to focus on that and be grateful. There are really a lot of positives about there. It's a great area. Rich in history. Three hours from D.C, super close to Colonial Williamsburg, and really just a TON to do in the area. Not that we will have the money to do many of these cool things...but it's there anyway. Ha Ha. We will be only about 2 hours from Tony's parents. I am excited about that. They are already talking about getting a bigger car so that all the girls will fit in it, and getting a swing set. ;o) The rest of his family is along the East coast, so he will be semi close to them also. In the last 9 years, he's seen most of them only a couple of times or so. I know he is looking forward to seeing them more. Knowing that we will be 1600 miles from my family still makes my heart hurt. I was really hoping to be within a 10-12 hour drive from there. I have to remind myself that 1600 is still a lot better than the 3700 miles away that we are now. Even though a 3 day drive will be NEXT to impossible with 4 young children, at least it IS possible, since there isn't an ocean in between. And hopefully flying will be a lot cheaper too. Not to mention shorter. An eight hour plane ride is not very much fun! Seeing my family at least once a year will be better than only once in a 3 year period. Trying to stay positive!
I'm really looking forward to seasons, and Chick-Fil-A, and craft stores, and just being back on the mainland again. Being close to Tony's family will be awesome. Especially around the holidays. Three years in a row we haven't been able to see family for the holidays and it is really hard. We have some great friends here, so I'm grateful for that, but it's still not the same. Hopefully we will get to see my family at the holidays soon too! And I am pretty excited that we will still be near the beach. Every time I leave my house I see the ocean or Pearl Harbor. I've gotten used to seeing the water, and I think I would miss it if I couldn't see it. My girls will also get to say that they have been in both the Pacific and Atlantic ocean. (well, the first 3 of my children) How cool is that?? My first time to ever see the ocean was when I was 20...So I think it's pretty awesome.
I continue to be worried about the cost of living there, and how it will affect us. We will be taking a $850 a month pay cut when we leave here, and I'll be honest and say I don't know where in our budget it will come from!! We already live very frugally, with very little extra expenses. If we can get in military housing that will help a LOT. However, since it is a high cost area, housing usually has quite a bit of a wait list. Because the baby is due soon after we move, we don't have a lot of time to wait. I figure the latest that I want to wait on a house is April first. Hopefully that will give me time to get unpacked and settled by my May 3rd due date. Fortunately we are able to get on the wait list now, so hopefully in the next 4-5 months something will come open for us. Please pray with us on that, will you? It is a really big deal to me. When we moved here we lived in a hotel for 2 full months. It was unpleasant, but totally worth it. However, stateside bases don't pay for you to live in lodging for that long. They will pay for you to stay there for 10 days. I figure that we will be able to pay for the rest of the month with the money that would normally go toward our rent. After that...We don't know. Hopefully we won't have to find out!
We are still waiting to find out if the date change for our move has been approved. Tony submitted the paperwork 2-3 weeks ago. They told him that it would take about 2 weeks to know. And about a week ago they told him the part that would take the longest was already done. Hmmm....We're still waiting. lol. We know that it has been approved by his commander, but it has to go to 2 more commanders that are above him. Tony has asked for a DEROS (Date of Estimated Return from Overseas) date of Feb 15th. Which would mean that we would be leaving here by then, or possibly earlier in February. We hope to spend a few weeks in Texas and get to VA the first or second week of March. There are a lot of details to learn and figure out, so I hope we get our date approval soon!!! The possibility that we have just started our last full 3 months here is crazy!! It's very exciting, but like I said, LOTS to figure out in that short time and we are looking at the holidays coming up too. That always slows things down a bit. I'm already dreading the move. It's such an ordeal. Any move is a hassle, but with an overseas move it takes 6-8 weeks to get your car and all of you stuff to where you are going. Since we are going all the way to the east coast I'm thinking it will take the full 8 weeks or more. So you are homeless and living out of a suitcase for at least 2 months. That is NOT easy with young children. No address, so mail is on hold and everything. And that flight is long. 8-9 hours in the airplane just to get to Texas. Then you add the time zone difference, and you get a bit of jet lag on top of going close to 24 hours with no sleep. I'm just ready to get it over with! :o) But first...we need that date! Come on Air Force!
Hopefully this week ending will bring the news that we are waiting for. Also, Saturday we have an appointment for a sonogram to hopefully find out if we are having girl #4, or if everything in our house will be tipped upside down with a boy! It's about the earliest that they can try to see gender, so I'm really trying not to get my hopes up in case the baby is still too small or uncooperative. If we can't tell, we will go back the following week. With the way my week has been going, I would not be surprised if we are disappointed this week. Ha Ha! Trying to stay positive though, because surely something good has to happen this week!
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