it's august, should i just give up?

ugh, does anyone even read this blog any more?  not that many even did to begin with.  but i have been so neglectful about postings.  i'm on the fence.....  i feel like i should get some motivation & get back into the blogging game.  even if it's just a place to document our times & important (or sometimes, not so important) things, i feel like i shouldn't give it up.
ok, so i guess this is news for the blog, even though in the real world we've known this info for at least a good 4 months or so.  :/ but we're moving to england!  looks like we'll be living outside leeds for the next 3 years.  really excited & looking forward to it!
& the pcs process begins all over again.  although, we already have our no-fee passports so i don't have to go through that again.  but let's hope our orders arrive earlier than the day before we step on the plane for england.  unfortunately we don't have awesome in-laws over here in guam that will ship our car, & be there to pack up all our stuff - for storage, unaccompanied baggage & household goods.  true story.  we are so lucky jeff's parents are awesome!  now, if they could just make it over to guam to help out with this pcs.....  wink, wink.

ok & here are some cute photos of the bean....

the artist

 the rascal

the courageous

the dramatic

the center of attention

home is a day away

so excited to share that our household goods are being delivered tomorrow!!! i am so surprised at how quickly it got here! even our car arrived on island earlier than expected. which is the biggest relief seeing as rental car rates can really add up. so the two shipments that i thought would take the longest were in fact so quick & our "quick" shipment is still MIA...... although my mother-in-law, through numerous phone calls, found out that it should be on the island today! i'm still working on getting info here on my end..... no one likes to answer the phone over at navy TMO. but i'm feeling very excited to make our house feel like our home again!!!
in other news, jeff is photography-ing away now! he's doing really well in the office, seeing as the only 2 photographers there are right out of tech school..... 2 others just deployed, leaving an already undermanned office even more so. but jeff's doing very well & even is considered the head of the photography department now.
so things are good. i can't believe how fast time goes, i've been seeing all my other blog family & friends reflective posts on their 2009 experiences & it leads me to think about how crazy our year has been. certainly hasn't been boring at all. but i'll leave the details for another post, one where i can share photos!!! and the fact that a decade has just ended, it blows my mind to think back to 2000 & all that has happened since then, personally & universally.
i have a feeling that 2010 is going to be another exciting year, already full of changes & potential.
ok, next blog post i bet will be from MY COMPUTER!!!! here's hoping!!!

dear dinfos,

i have so much i want to share, pics, a long lengthy (hopefully not boring) post about our experiences since moving to guam, BUT..... still no computer. so back to the heading of this blog.... it all began when jeff was at his tech school (which they call dinfos- defense information school) & about 1/2 of his class gradutated without orders. which for those who are not militarily (?) inclined is not really supposed to happen. jeff finally recieved his orders the day before we got on the plane for guam & that is the main reason why that after 2 months we're still waiting on our "quick" shipment. which has my computer!!!!
i can't wait until we can finally get settled. & i think i've worn out all the clothes that i could fit into my one suitcase. i've never been very good about packing for a trip, but i think through this i've learned a valuable lesson...... "you can never have enough clean underwear" is not the best advice to base packing a suitcase on. i have yet to run out of underwear, which don't get me wrong, is awesome, but i have been wearing the same 2 pairs of shorts for 2 months now. which is pretty gross.
oh besides our computer, i also really, REALLY need a vacuum. our carpet is grosser than my shorts. tomorrow is our "deliver no later than" date. fingers crossed we'll have our things by next week.
so to wrap it up, thanks dinfos for making this 1st PCS the most interesting experience it could be. in all honesty i think we've learned so much from this & my level of appreciation & gratitude has grown.
signing out now. until the next library visit, or quick shipment delivery........

we made it!

yay! we're here in guam!! it's beautiful!! still in the 1st phase of getting settled..... house hunting, jeff's in-processing, using the wonderful services offered by uso...... wink, wink.
can't decide if we want to live on base or off..... i really like 2 of the places we saw today, but i'm concerned about the distance (it's only about 10-15 mins from base, but with one car, that's alot of trips in a day) there are more pros & cons for both sides, & i think we're leaning more toward base housing, but still undecided......
love staying at the resort right now, but will really like finding our place.
i'll post some pics whenever we get our computer, which might be a while considering all of our things are still sitting in our florida apt with no ship date in sight.
overall, guam - two thumbs up! i think we're really gonna love our time here!

countdown to insanity

we are one grand jeté from a flight to guam & still no orders. i'm having issues because..... A. we have no scheduled move date for movers to come get our stuff, so we're paying rent & utilities for a vacant-ish apartment. B. we will stop receiving BAH as soon as we sign onto base housing in guam. C. we can only take 3 checked bags without paying a fee because our first flight is on a different airline taking us back to jeff's "duty station" - it is not an international flight & usairways was sucky on the phone about our "situation". welcome to the military huh. so awesome. i just hope we can get reimbursed for BAH if we have to pay rent for the rest of this month & if we have to pay to check some bags, which we will most likely have to do because i'm not sure i can live out of 1 shared suitcase until dec 30...... in case you're wondering the other 2 checked bags are jeff's uniforms. so i have to find the biggest suitcase ever (not too big because airlines will charge you for that too) in order to fit the rest of our clothes, records & papers, toiletries, shoes..... i think we can make it work, just at a place right now where i just have to vent.

i will learn to live minimally. it's ok. it'll be kinda nice to not have to worry about stuff. right now we are cluttered with stuff- stuff in storage piles, stuff in HHG piles..... so much stuff to sort through. i guess this "situation" is a blessing. in disguise.

joys (aka deliriums) of moving

ah the moving preparations..... the house is a crazy mess. still no orders. but we had an "awesome" yard sale on saturday.... only lost $13. to explain, the ad in the paper cost $26 & we made a whopping $13, so.... oh well. not entirely a bust, we had lots of laughs & allowed boredom to influence our already silly tendencies.....

waiting.......

trying to fit into the bottom of our tv hutch.....

so after moving the majority of all our sale items back inside, we hung out until it was time to party halloween style...... jen had us all over to her house & then we went to the coast to toast.

the artist & the grafitti

me and adam ant (mr. todd eric allen, my boss)

jen & amanda messin

passport success

so i didn't want to leave anyone (the 2 of you who have read my posts) in suspense regarding my passport situation....... i just got back from base & i have BOTH my civi passport & my no-fee passport! yay! now if only we had orders.

graduation

yay! jeff graduated today! we've had an awesome weekend, went to see where the wild things are, saw built to spill in concert, went to 18th street lounge, ate tapas, bought some furniture at ikea, rode the dc metro, dodged the rain...... we had fun!
his graduation ceremony was great, they showed a slideshow of all the students photos, cool stuff! jeff is done with outprocessing, BUT, HE STILL DOESN'T HAVE ORDERS!!!! i can't believe it! how are we gonna ship our car, get tmo to schedule packing..... ugh.
well, we're gonna be heading back to florida later this week to pack, visit family, etc. we have our tickets booked to get back up here in hopes that by that time, we'll have orders & can get on a plane for guam, with or without our stuff......

here are some photos of our visit..... with our sweet nephews, who will be even bigger, cuter terrors the next time we see them! love them!!

jeff after his last formation at det 2

where the wild things are (aka nephew one)

with little baby nephew & his momma

driving back from a wine tasting out in the VA country - loved the cold, wet, foggy fall weather, very different from guam

success???

ok, so i can officially check off civilian passport from the list..... received it in the mail this week. yay! BUT..... had to turn it in with another application to get my no-fee passport- so i don't have it in my possession & the no-fee could take 4-6 weeks to process, so boo....... BUT it all should be sent off to processing this week. so yay again. another big yay is that i got my dental & medical clearance paperwork filled out & am sending that back to my baby so he can turn it in! yay!

keeping fingers crossed about the passport(S) making it back on time! it will happen, it will happen.......

the struggle to get going

i'm gonna lose it. i was just transfered to every office on base, for some reason no one knew what i was talking about. i just need an application for a no-fee passport. eventually got transfered to someone who at least knew what i was talking about, but she ended up emailing me an application for a passport renewal form82, i need form1056. i found the freakin application on line, so one problem solved.

next issue is that about 3-4 weeks ago i sent off a renewal for my civilian passport- had to update my married name. it's still being processed, the woman who i spoke with today said i needed to have that passport when applying for the no-fee. i'm running out of time here. we're looking at 5 weeks right now, with process times 4-6 weeks. j has had people from his end say that i just need the form, my birth certificate & 2 photos to start processing the no-fee. this woman today said i needed different items. i've read that you absolutely cannot go overseas until you have your no-fee & then j's people say i should be ok, as long as it's being processed & i have my civilian passport.

i'm so frustrated.

W & L residency

so my hubby ran across this poster today. looking forward to working with the dancers next week. i'm gonna have to get alot done in a short amount of time. i like working under pressure. (only slight sarcasm intended)

in other news, my hubby also had a briefing today about THE MOVE...... well, apparently we have to fly out of baltimore/dc, because that's where tech school is...... which is a nice 1000 miles away from home. & of course the AF won't pay for our travel between tech school & the flight to guam. & we're trying to figure out when/ if to ship the car - our only means of transportation besides j's old bmx bike, which would make for a funny couple of weeks. should we just try to sell the car & hope to buy one there? figuring out how to get home after his graduation, then back to baltimore/dc, how many days of leave should we take, when do the movers come, blah blah blah.

it's crazy amounts of planning. i told j tonight that "this will be the mother of all moves"- our first pcs, overseas, & from tech school (orders coming a mere month - if we're lucky- ahead of time) so the remedy for this overwhelming move is lists, wine, long baths, more lists, more wine & trust that many have been through this before & no matter what, we will get over there.

Scene 1

So it begins..... been reading a bunch of other great military wives' blogs & am really fascinated by this whole blog thing. also my husband has his up & running again, so i felt inspired & wanted to get my own.

so here we are.....

i am really excited about this huge transition, also scared & frequently overwhelmed, but i feel that's to be expected. j only has about 2 months left at tech school (still waiting on orders- hard to really do anything without them) & then the chaos begins, well, speeds up..... lots to do & i'm trying to frantically finish up all my requirements for my teacher's certification before we ship out, so to speak.

for the 2 of you who've taken the time to read this, you've already figured out i'm probably going to avoid grammatical rules & have some silly misspelled words as well. that's just how i role (haha, get it?)

and now a brief intermission......