357 Oh the Irony

This evening, we cuddled up and drank hot chocolate by the fire.

Sort of.

Thanks to Netflix, we got to watch the crackling yule log for the fire ambiance.

The funny thing is, we actually have a fireplace.

But unfortunately, the only place we could put our tv was right in front of it.

350 Wrong Christmas Party Altogether...

There is a family here that we knew in our last ward and they invited us to their ward's Christmas party. We looked online to find out which ward we would be attending and were excited to see it was the same one!

Tonight we enjoyed a lovely program and met some really nice people.

Towards the end, a man asked us where exactly we live. When we told him, he said that we are actually in a different ward. Apparently, we live on the border of the two wards. Google maps thinks our apartment is on the other side of the road, so that is why we thought we were in the other ward.

So tomorrow we will attend church with the other ward and have to meet people all over again!

At least we had a fun night!!

348 Exploring

We drove down to post today to check things out.

One of the first things we saw after going through the gate was the Finance museum.

We were all pretty shocked that it existed!!

I made the LT turn around so we could check it out.

It was pretty much what we expected... tiny, and a little boring.

It was still cool for the LT to see that his branch has some recognition!

346 Heading out!

This morning, the girls and I quickly loaded up my car and set off for Columbia, SC. The LT stayed back to finish with the movers. 

We had planned on living on post, and have been on a waiting list for a few months. We were told last week that we would have a house. The next day we called and were told that there wouldn't be anything for a while.

Nice.

So over the weekend, we found an apartment.

Not ideal, but it'll do for the short time we are here.

Life in the Army means being flexible, and we are certainly doing that!

345 Packed Up

The moving company came today and boy were they fast packers!!!

They had told us over the phone that they would need Monday and Tuesday to pack, then they would load the truck Wednesday. We planned on leaving for SC Thursday.

They were so fast, they will load the truck tomorrow and deliver on Wednesday. 

The girls and I will head out tomorrow for our new home!

313 Girls' Night!

As much as I have complained about living in Columbus, I can't complain about the great friends I have met here. I know all of these dolls from church, and they are all army wives as well. I feel like I've known them forever!! Two of us are moving on soon, so we had one last get together. We had a lot of fun chatting and being silly. I will certainly miss them, but I know I will see them all again!!

287 Dog Park

Today the weather is PERFECTION. Seriously.

I feel badly for anyone not living here today. 

(but only today...)

We took advantage of the day and walked to the park. We brought Lola along and she was really more interested in sniffing little kids. We've never taken advantage of the dog parks on post, and there weren't any dogs in the little dog park, so we let her loose. I swear the running wore her out in about 5 minutes, and she was ready to go home. 

The rest of us certainly enjoyed it though!

285 Six Months

The day she has been counting down to has finally arrived.

Today marks 6 months since the DQ's surgery.

She is now free to run and jump and return to normal activities.

I know that for that first month she thought she'd never feel well again.

Thankfully, as the great doctor promised, she is feeling nearly back to her old self. Her back does ache if she's up and walking a lot. He said that at the one year mark she will have made as much progress as she ever will. Meaning, if there is something that is kind of bothering her, it will forever if it hasn't cleared up by then.

What a miracle science is.

We are eternally grateful for the care she received, for our health insurance that covered the procedure, and most importantly, to our Father in Heaven for keeping her safe, comforting us all during the scary times, and helping her to heal so well!

270 Bubbles!

Bean and I took advantage of some cooler weather and blew bubbles. Love how easy and fun that is!

263 Dang

The moon is SO difficult for me to shoot. I don't have a lot of patience with it, and I'm sure my lenses are not super adequate for that kind of photography.

STILL, I try. I love how you can see the moon part that is not reflecting the light of the sun. 

Marvelous.

261 Uuhhhhh....

Don't you love it when you get a message like this?

Luckily, I was able to go through the fixes and things are working great now.

Scared the crap out of me though!

248 Big Change

After much thought and deliberation, we have decided to homeschool the girls.

Something I swore I was never capable of.

The main reason behind it is that there is a strong possibility that with all the moving this year, the girls would be in three different schools.

We wanted to have some sort of consistency. 

We weren't going to start right away, but they were really excited, and didn't want to go to school today, so we started today!

245 Ch, Ch, Cha Changes...

I've been doing a lot of sorting lately... preparing for some changes about to happen in our house...

243 ALMOST Like Riding a Bicycle

I had sweet baby CC for a few hours again today. Man how quickly I forgot what it is to have a newborn! I was trying to cook dinner and of course she woke up, and then the girls were asking questions about homework. Busy! I tried to read a little while she took a short nap, but I was ready for one when mom came to get her!

240 Standardized Healthcare

Don't get me wrong: I am grateful for our military healthcare. 

I won't complain.

But I was a little taken aback when today, I went in for a check-up and had some tests that needed to be taken to the lab, the nurse handed me a bag and pointed me to the lab to deliver them myself! 

I suppose any way they can save they will!

236 Baby Watching

I greedily volunteered to take a good friend's newborn for a few hours so she could catch up on some much needed sleep and take a shower. 

It was so much fun!

The girls were fascinated with her and Bean insisted on doing her homework on the floor near the baby so she could watch her and make sure she was ok.

206 Squirrels!

Short story long:

Our neighbors left a few weeks ago. One of the things they left behind was a tomato plant in their front yard.

The mailman noticed this and, worried about it, suggested I move it to my yard and start caring for it.

(He clearly doesn't know my track record for inexplicably killing any plant that comes near me, as well as my complete lack of ability to process the art of growing my own food)

I had not intended to take it (Sorry Dawn!) because, really, what would I do with it? I doubted that I could actually grow them to red, and then I would have to use them if they did survive, and of course, the odds that I would want to make something tomato based within the window that they were ripe and ready are not good, and I don't think I could get enough ripened tomatoes to actually make something tomato based with, so I would have to buy more tomatoes anyways, and then, why not just buy them in the first place!?

But I digress.

Solely based on the fact that the mailman is now holding me accountable for the care of this plant, I moved it into our front yard. I noticed that there was one orangeish red tomato, and several green ones on it. 

Today I went out to water it and thought, "Hmm, wonder where that red one went? Did it un-ripen?" (seriously, I know nothing of gardening) But I didn't think too much of it. 

The LT came home at lunch and said, "Huh! Look at what that crafty squirrel did!" and sure enough, a squirrel is trying to thwart my attempt at gardening.

204 Tooth Two!

Bean lost her second tooth this morning before church. She was certain it was never going to fall out.

You can see her big tooth poking up back there, it finally pushed that baby tooth out of the way!

200 And Then There Were Two

Boxes, that is.

Two boxes left.

These two are full of things that have not been unpacked since we first packed them when we moved out of our first house 7(!really?!) years ago.

We have been lugging them around all this time.

They are filled with a random assortment of things that I don't know what to do with.

My wedding veil is in there...

These are the last two boxes I have to unpack and sort through and I just can't bring myself to do it because I just don't know what to do with the stuff inside!

(BTdubs, if you're looking at the box next to these two and saying, "uh, there's one more there..." you are right. And there are actually several others, but they are full of school things and old CD cases that I don't know what to do with, but have been sorted and accounted for. These two are ones that need to be emptied so I can either store for memory's sake, donate, or just pitch!)

199 Ugh

Look what I have done to the living room!

In order to really organize, you have to make a mess first, and I have done a great job of that. 

I have determined that I do not need to buy any fabric or ribbon for a very long time. 

(The pile in the back is all fabric, and the ribbon spools in the front... well that is a tiny fraction of the total ribbon I have.)

Yikes!!