347 Stuff

Our "stuff" was delivered today. 

It was a hectic day of dodging boxes and determining how to fit our things into a smaller place.

These green tags are the ones I pulled off the furniture as it came in. I am sure I missed a bunch, but I learned my lesson from the last move.

If you don't take them off right away, you forget about them. And then the glue gets gross and they never come off!

Now for the hard part...

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!

344 Thanks Georgia,

but it's time for us to "leave".

Today was our last Sunday in the Flat Rock Ward. It has been a lot of hard work, but we have loved our time here. The girls and I all had new dresses on so I wanted to take a family photo. I was looking for a place and the LT suggested lots of leaves in the background because we are so ready to "leave" Georgia.

I sure wish he would've thought of that two weeks ago when I was trying to come up with a cute Christmas card theme!!

340 So Glad This Wasn't Me

This is where the LT spent pretty much all of his day. As part of is his out-processing, he had to take a class online to learn basic communication in Pashto, a language spoken in Afghanistan.

He can now say things like, "This is a grenade," "That is not potable water," and "Do you speak English?" if he is ever sent to "The 'Stan" as he calls it.

339 Honored

Today the LT was given the Army Achievement Award for his efforts as an aide to Major General Commander H.R. McMaster and as Congressional Liaison of Fort Benning. General McMaster himself presented the award along with his coin. 

It was a really neat experience and the LT was honored to know that he had made good use of his time while awaiting his next assignment in the Army.

I am so proud of him and his hard work!!

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!!

299 Tailgating

Since the LT works closely with the Commanding General here, we were invited to a tailgate party at his home before the Fort Benning Doughboy's football game. I was not thrilled about going because there were not many LTs invited, but it turned out to be really nice. The LT about fell down dead when I whipped out my camera and asked a woman to take our picture. I know he gets annoyed with my constant snapping, especially at work functions, but I waited until most people had cleared out. And hey, it's not like I said "Let me get a picture of you and the general!" 

Anyway, since I had someone take it, I set it to manual so the poor woman wouldn't have to take six pictures while I made sure the lighting was right. And I am posed pretty awkwardly, but there aren't many photos of the LT and I on here, so here we are in front of Riverside, all gussied up for the tailgate party!

296 Such is Life...In the Army...

Another friend is moving on...

We grabbed lunch today before she and her boyfriend head off to Texas. The great thing is, we have been good friends for a year and a half, but have only lived in the same area for two months. I love that no matter where the army takes us, we will always be connected and remain friends!

Love you girl!!

PS, we didn't plan the outfits. Great minds think alike!!

294 This is What It's All About

I did a photo sesh a few months ago with a friend who had a baby while her husband was in Afghanistan. He was able to "attend" the birth via Skype, but obviously, that is not the same as actually meeting your baby.

She texted me two days ago and said she just found out he would be coming home early and asked if I would come along to take pictures.

Um. Of course!!!

What a beautiful experience it was!!

It wasn't like you see on TV where there are 400 soldiers looking for their loved ones, there were only a handful of soldiers who came back and so they had this intimate moment in the parking lot.

I suppose I don't really need to say anything more. I'll just let the picture speak for itself.

272 Lovely

I am counting down the days until we can move out of this "house". Reason #477, this little guy who got stuck in the kitchen window for a while.

Fortunately, the crappy screen that is not properly attached that let him through had a gap large enough for him to find to exit as well. 

I'm fine with the nature. Just stay out of my kitchen.

268 Everything is Booah!!!

Yesterday was the first official day of fall! Of course, it was about 90° today, but the mornings are quite brisk.

Most of the people in the neighborhood have brought out their fall decorations. I'm not quite ready to accept that yet, but I'm loving the cooler weather.

Our next door neighbor hung this up the other day. I've been meaning to get a picture of it, but they were always home and I felt creepy about it.

Today I finally noticed when they weren't home and got a picture (not creepy at all right?)

I love how everyone in the army can make every day things into an army version!

265 Busy Day

Today was awesome.

I did two photo shoots.

The first one made me SO happy though because it was for a dear friend who's husband was graduating from Ranger School!!!!

(seriously, check out that link)

He's been gone since May. The course is 61 days, but there are three phases, and if you mess up, you have to repeat the phase. He was recycled once each for the second and third phases.

It seriously made me so happy to see their family be reunited and also to see the cool Ranger demonstrations.

This wasn't him, but it was during a demonstration of rappelling skills. This wasn't even that cool of a skill, but I really love the geese flying by.

If you have a little time on your hands, PLEASE watch this about Ranger school. Craziness!!

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!

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!

235 Another Miracle

So, I may have mentioned, that things here at Ft B have been a little anxiety filled. (This is the part where I put links to all of the posts where I talk about how we've been waiting forever and we have no idea what we are doing here and I get depressed every time someone moves because it just reminds me that we have no idea what we are doing here or when we will get to leave or if we'll even be able to stay in the army...but there were too many and I don't want to take all morning trying to do that, so trust me. It's been a long year.)

But I digress...

Long story short, the LT joined the army to become a finance officer, in the hopes that that would lead him to the JAG Corps. He soon learned that becoming a finance officer was a near impossibility because the branch is small, and they really only take Captains (which he will be in about 3 years). But a miracle happened when a slot opened up at the time he was to choose his branch at OCS. That slot came with the caveat that he serve approx. 3 years in the infantry first (thus, making him a Captain by the time he gets to finance). Fine. Then he discovered his hip was broken a week after we moved here last August. That put his plans for infantry school on hold until it was healed. Once it was healed he would hopefully start that 16 week course that November. The bone healed, but there was other damage that would prevent him from rucking if he wanted to be able to walk past age 35. He had a difficult decision to make: Should he just suck it up and go to infantry school and pray his hip held up until he could make the switch to finance? Should he try to get transferred to finance now? Or just take medical retirement?

I told you this would be the short story (trust me, I could write a book about this) so keeping that in mind, he did what he could to get a branch transfer. That was MUCH more easier said than done. 

We remained faithful and positive that the Lord would send us where we needed to be as long as we remained faithful and positive. And believe me, it wasn't easy. We were grateful that the DQ could have her spine corrected at no cost to us, and if that was what we joined the army for, and it was time to get out, then we would be grateful and move on.

But we persisted and the LT dutifully served in the jobs he was given. He continued to work out and keep himself physically ready. He did all of the menial tasks assigned with a smile and never a complaint and continued to prove how proud he was to serve the United States in any way he could.

And then.

Yesterday. 

Prayers were answered with a simple email.

"You have been moved to finance branch."

I think we are still in shock. 

The news we have been waiting nearly a year for came, unexpectedly at lunch time.

I think we are still hesitant to tell anyone in case something happens and we wake up from this sweet dream.

But he checked his _____ (whatever acronym it is for his records and whatnot...I can't keep them straight anymore) and sure enough, it says "Control branch: Finance".

So today, (I waited a day, in case it really wasn't true) I picked up a new set of branch insignia for his ASUs.

His finance diamonds.

Tiny gold miracles.

(p.s. If you're really in the know, you may have noticed I put them on sideways. The LT pointed that out when he saw his surprise. They are suppose to go "short axis vertical". So I've since fixed that. Such problems to worry about!)

226 Fun Freebie!

I have mentioned before how living on post can help you score some awesome free things. 

On the way to take Bean to school today I saw this gem with the sign "Free to take" on it. It was wet from dew and covered in grass, but I knew it would be gone if I waited until on the way home, so I jumped out and grabbed it. It barely fit in the back of my car, but Bean and I were really excited.

I got it home and cleaned it up. I think it will need a new battery because I charged the one that was in it and it didn't work. Not too bad for the price of a battery though!!

222 My Job is So Rough

Today I had another practice photo shoot. I was so honored to take some pictures of this precious little one. Her daddy is deployed in Kuwait until next year.

I was so excited to not only practice, but to give this family a gift; capturing those brand new moments and documenting her in her very first week.

I will have more on the blog later, once he has seen them all.

I am so thankful for those men and women who volunteer and sacrifice so much for the freedoms we enjoy.

209 Baby Shower

My dear friend Ada is having a baby very soon! Some ladies from church got together for a baby shower and some good girl time. The lady who organized it was brilliant because she planned it at a pool. It was wonderful because the women had a lot of time to visit while the kids swam. Usually they are bored or getting into trouble. We actually had to drag them away! 

Ada moved here in May and I have had such a great time getting to know her. She was born in Mexico, then moved to Canada when she was four. She speaks Spanish, French and English fluently. She is bubbly and outgoing and so much fun to be around. I can't wait to meet her sweet daughter!

201 Fun with Daddy

The girls don't get to see much of daddy on the weekdays. He is not usually home until 5, and sometimes much later. Then he needs time to unwind, then it's dinner and bedtime routine and bed! Tonight he was home a little earlier, and he grabbed pizza on the way home. We ate it quickly, and then took the girls to the pool.

They had so much fun swimming with daddy!