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!

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!!

338 Leaves!!

I really don't like leaves. I think I may have mentioned that before...

Anyway, this is what we came home to. The entire neighborhood was blanketed in leaves. It is really quite a sight!

337 Goodbye Sky Harbor

(sorry LT, not the best photo)

Today we made the long haul back to Ft Benning. We will be there about a week and a half and then we are on to bigger and better things! 

I just want to fast forward through the next two weeks though... anyone know how to do that?

314 More Good Friends

I took some family pictures for our good friends today, and the girls came along. We wanted to get a photo of all of the kids since they like to play together. Also, that little blonde guys is in love with the DQ, so we had to get one of them together. We will miss this sweet family so much!!

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!!

307 False Start

The LT was tasked to take some photos of a large re-enlistment ceremony today, so he asked if I would come help out. I loaded up Bean and we headed down to his "office" at building 4. Once we got there however, the LT sent us away. Apparently, the local news had gotten wind of it and came out. There were lots of big cameras and other people covering it, so we were off the hook.

I did snap this gorgeous shot of things before they got started though!

305 Happy Halloween!!

From my scuba diver entangled in a jellyfish and some delicious cotton candy!

304 Sometimes it Feels Like...

...somebody's watching me!!

My lame attempt at decorating for tomorrow's holiday.

302 Dinner Party

We had friends over for dinner tonight. They have two boys and I was worried that our pink, princessy house would bore them. They did alright, but once the DQ turned on the Kinect, they were in heaven!

300 Everybody Dance Now!

The DQ went to the Halloween dance at school today. She is still involved with several clubs there, and has been helping organize the event. She even went early and stayed late to help out!

The kids wore costumes and she was really excited to wear hers. She reminded me several times that she was going to enter the "most creative" contest.

And guess what!?

She won!

Well, she technically tied, but the boy she tied with had a store-bought costume, so in my mind, she won.

She still got a super cool "Most Creative" sash and another sash made out of candy.

Can you guess what she is??

Hint: She is not wearing the mask or snorkel...

She's a diver entangled in a jellyfish!!

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!

297 Boo!

Inspired by some photos I'd seen floating around the internet, we decided to "Boo!" some friends in the neighborhood. The theory is to leave some Halloween surprises at someones door, and "ding-dong-ditch" them so it's a surprise. We baked cupcakes and put together little buckets. The girls were really excited to deliver them. We decided not to leave them at the door because, I don't know about you, but I'm not exactly willing to eat things that I don't know the origin of. It was fun too because we got to see the joy in the little kiddos faces when they saw their goodies. We really do love our friends here on post!!

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!!

295 Me and Nature. We Don't Really Get Along...

We had dinner tonight with some friends. As per usual with the army, just a day after seeing a family reunited early, this family got the surprise "you're deploying in 2 weeks" notice just a few days ago. Such is life...but I digress...

We were enjoying a lovely meal outside when I looked down at my phone to find this:

I had to use the LT's phone for this screen shot

Gross!!!

On the plus side... I am thankful it was my phone and not my head...or my food!!

293 Green Surprise

I was sweeping out some dead leaves from our driveway and a bright green tiny thing came flying out! Upon closer examination, I realized it was an itty bitty frog! It's hard to judge the size by this photo, and the thing was so darn fast I couldn't get a great shot, but this is in concrete, and those pebbles in the concrete are pretty tiny! 

This was the cutest critter that I could have been surprised by while sweeping leaves. (Other things found - black widows, roaches, giant brown spiders, worms...)

292 Doughboy

I was out doing a photo session with a family this evening and we ended up at Doughboy Stadium. I realized that there are some pretty gorgeous buildings here at Benning, and we only have a few more weeks here (yay!) so I thought I'd try to capture some of it's beauty. (not our house of course)

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!

286 Showered

Tonight I went to a baby shower for a good friend (the one in the middle...can you even tell she is 2 weeks away from having a baby!?). It was great because it was in the evening and I was able to catch up with some great friends with no kids around! These three ladies have been such amazing friends and I am so grateful for them. The fact that we are moving is starting to sink in. I feel like I've known these girls forever and I will be really sad to leave them! But as I've mentioned before, it's just "see you later" in the Army. I know we'll meet again some day!