I feel like I’m thinking and speaking in one line sentences. There are too many thoughts going through my head and I spit something out just to move on to something new. Yesterday we hung out with friends and had a wide range of conversations and it was so nice to keep going until we were done talking about it.You can get that with two little kids, but it isn’t nearly as satisfying.

I’m reading Indian Killer right now. I’ve had the book for years and had to have read it before, but in reading it I’m not recognizing, so it’s new to me. Which is just sad, Sherman Alexie is such a fantastic author. I read The Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian recently too.

I’m trying to save my books for when we are on the road but it’s not working. I devoured the Sookie Stackhouse series (True Blood is based on these books) in a matter of days, while we were still in base housing even! If you are interested in … *thinking what Chris’ BFF called them*… erotic vampire writing (haha, but it’s true) then they are good books. I like her writing actually – I appreciate an author who doesn’t repeat a bunch from the previous book to remind me the characters or setting or whatever like so many others do *cough* P.C. Cast *cough*. I’ve had my fill of books meant for teenager – though in the PC Cast ones it is a girl/young woman as the main character and I do like her.

Sidenote: I wonder why so many of the vampire stories also have Native American ties? In the Twilight books Natives are prominant, in the PC Cast books the girl’s Grandma is Native (thus she is too), in the Sookie books I don’t remember anything like it but her characters are a whole mess of craziness. Maybe I should write a book about Native Americans and see what I could tie in that you wouldn’t think of. Haha

Chris and I get along so great now I am worried about what being apart for who knows how long will be. Sure it isn’t like when we were on submarines and had zero communication for two months, or one month, or however long it went til we could get a piece of mail (no email or phone calls). Now they’ll have the internet and email and the phone and more then likely even will have video chat capabilities. And I’ll be able to maybe visit during a port call. But I’m still worried.

I wonder how the kids will react this time. He hasn’t been on deployment in so long. Jake was going through a thing when we were still in South Carolina where he would be upset about Chris being on the night shift, and when we got here he was upset when Chris had duty. I’m hoping being with my Mom will help. I’m looking into schools for them now and like what I’m finding, we just need to decide if private school now is the way to go. We are going to end up moving so often…

Jon Stewart can make just about anything better, so enjoy!

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• I finally finished the binding on one side of Chris’ quilt. I finished sewing it ages ago so it’s about time I get this done. I love using a sheet for the backing – it’s cheaper then fabric and you just fold the edge over for binding. I figure I’ll do one side a day and it’ll be done in plenty of time for him to get it on the ship before we go on vacation.

• Speaking of vacation – I think we are going to have an awesome time! I’d like to stop in Albuqurque and Las Vegas before going to San Diego. I think a day in each area would be so fun. I love the southwest and haven’t been to New Mexico in about seven years. And we have the chance to meet an online friend there and an old friend in Vegas. It’s always fun when you can hang out with someone you know along the way.

• We’ll probably have a really busy schedule in San Diego. I’ve never been to SD before so I’d like to do a few things and we have family there who we’d like to (and need to!) visit.

• We hung out at Barnes & Noble for a few hours the other day and it was fantastic. I browsed and found some great books, found an instant wedding planner for my niece, grabbed a new magazine and had a snack at the Starbucks they have smack in the middle of it. I actually thought “hhmm, I wouldn’t mind working at Barnes & Noble” – course, my second thought was “I wonder what the discount would be?”

• No Easter plans for us! I’m sure restaurants are open but we don’t have that many around here. It’s sad not to have an easter egg hunt or a big meal with family or friends. I don’t even have the kids Easter baskets as those are now in storage!

• Speaking of storage – phase one of moving is finished! Our stuff is now in a storage unit and waiting. I’m both nervous and excited about moving in with my Mom.

• I really want the kids to go to a Montessori school. Which is basically a private school. Which means cha-ching. Or more like CHA-ching. Yeah, it’s that rough. Getting a good education is really important to Chris so I know he will find a way for it to work, but I don’t know. I actually don’t feel bad about it and am sure it’ll work out. I need to do more research.

• I also need to finish planning our vacation so I better end here or my random thoughts may seriously never end.

As of right now I have the entire upstairs packed! That is three bedrooms (kids room, toy room and craft room), laundry room and bathroom. I finished the other day with that section and need to get to work on the downstairs! Course by the end of today I should have the kitchen started as well as the homeschool area of the dining room finished.

I have a lot of magazines to go through. I want to take the time to read them so I’m debating taking them with me or packing them to be dropped off at the house (vs being in storage). Actually, dropping them at the house sounds like a fantastic idea.

The rental truck is reserved, we have movers hired to help us load it up, still need to find a hotel to stay at but that won’t take but a few minutes. I have plenty of boxes to pack the house and if I need more, they are but a short car ride away at Barnes and Noble.

I’m so ready to be out of housing. Our experience here has not been the best by far. What started off good quickly went downhill with just a few choice words. After not letting one person ruin my time here, things have been better, but I’m still ready to be gone.

I managed to talk housing into letting me leave early! Okay it’s only a day, but that makes a difference when you are making plans.

I have learned my lesson a long time ago – whatever is being planned, that’s the plan as of today. Sure tomorrow it could change, this afternoon it could change, but as of right now – that’s the plan. I am of the opinion that life needs to be thought of this way when you are in the nay vee. My own plans regarding the bigger plans will probably never change though.

Here’s how our plans went – the most recent ones anyway. We were to move in month A to place A. But no, we’d move in month B to place A. Then it was moving to place B but we don’t know when. Then it went back to place A and we weren’t sure when. That one lasted for a bit longer then the rest. Next it was moving to place A in month D, for sure. For sure!

Then within the past few weeks it’s been place A, for real this time, in month E. Last minute changes due to noones fault – well someones fault but noone immediately close to us – changed it to month F, which is before month E. Confusing? Just a little.

But our plans in the bigger pictures – unchanged. Our move dates were not affected, it actually worked out a little better. Oh and wives and families are all moving to places somewhere else on the alphabet. Kids and I, back to living with Mom – which I seriously love. I’m very close with my Mom, we have a wonderful relationship and I don’t have any issues of living with her. We lived with my Dad last spring and it went really well too.

Maybe in month K or L we’ll be able to move to place A, hopefully we can! I’m interested in moving there and I always say I didn’t sign up to raise my kids alone.

So as of today, we leave in about a month – with the last week or even two spent in one of those hotels where you can stay for a week and it has a kitchenette, what are those called? – and Chris gets to take leave which means we get a family vacation! I’m so excited about that! We’ve never done a family vacation – and growing up we went somewhere for two weeks every summer so you can imagine how hard it’s been to think of moving as your vacation. Nevermind fighting to get to take leave. This time, we do it right. We are going to plan where we want to go and luckily for us, we’ll have family at almost every stop of the way to stay with!

Today though, we have a soccer game to get to. Jake’s was called off cause the littlest kids don’t like to play outside when it’s cold and rainy. I’m not sure if Alice’s will get canceled and if it does we’ll just be able to get that much more done around the house. Oh, while not touching DH and washing clothes because he got a vaccine. Fun.

What are your weekend plans?

Whew. Glad that’s over!

The week started off fairly slow with friends coming over and soccer practice – then each day got more and more busy. I got a haircut (love it, mostly), did a preinspection with housing so we can move out in a month, had dinner out with friends, went to a family readiness group (FRG) meeting, more soccer practice, quilt class (so fun!), hail/farewell (when an officer leaves or comes to the ship this is done), then more friends visiting.

It’s not like when friends come over we are sitting around doing nothing – we’ve all been working on secret projects! One friend just started hers today and got everything done to move on to the next step, another  friend is almost done with the entire thing, I am on the final lap for mine. We are movng right along! The project was supposed to be bigger but it didn’t end up that way so it’s okay.

Soccer practice is still fun – Alice’s coach has been challenging them more each week and I love when he does that. The kids seem scared to kick the ball really hard during a game, and actually during practice too. Alice isn’t afraid to get in there and get the ball moving, which I love about her. Jake’s team is all so tiny – I think he’s the only five year old on the team, the rest are four and tiny four year olds at that! Their games are really cute to watch. Once Jake kicked the ball at the start – he kicked it from the center of the field all the way into the goal.

We have the second to last soccer games in the morning – it’s fairly cold here right now, in the 40s/50s and raining so I’m not sure if we’ll actually have the games. Next week is spring break for the local schools and though we homeschool I have a free week too. It’s definitely welcome – I plan on working on the quilt I started in class yesterday and packing more!

How was your week?