I'm sitting here in the 5 minutes of peace on Christmas Day reflecting on the last 30 days. I can say that "We made it!" with few bumps along the way, and it seems that everything is falling into place and settling in nicely.
Oh... Did I forget to say that over the last 30 days we have been prepping for and actually engaging in another PCS (Permanent Change in Station). These moves always suck during the holidays! If you aren't scrambling enough trying to make cookies and buy presents or actually trying to enjoy the season; you throw in a move which entails a sea of boxes, sad good byes, and a tailspin of trying to keep up with everything. This move was a bit unconventional. You see in the past, we have had my Mom to help us. She has been our intermediate step to keep things sane until after the holidays. When we moved to Europe, she let us camp at her house through the New Year. We mailed our presents to her and she wrapped them and kept them hidden until Christmas Eve (Bless her heart). With Mom's passing in 2008, we've (mostly I) had a huge void in our lives (especially for me in the sanity department). I think she would have been proud of us though. Like I mentioned above, we made it through relatively unscathed. I am sure she has been watching over us carefully or nudging our guardian angels to really keep an eye out for us. :)
I have to admit, this move was not something I wanted to engage in and both M and I fought it tooth an nail. You see it is a short tour, so we are only here for 6 months. Six months means uprooting your family and packing 12,500 pounds of HHG (household goods) to live some place for only a minute and then do it all again. That is no fun, let me tell you! Not to mention having to go through goodbyes AGAIN which for the boys and I are hard.
Our new base has treated us very well! Our neighbors are very friendly and there must be two dozen boys ranging in ages close to C and B's ages. Since we moved in a week ago, the boys have been outside stopping through the woods playing from sun up to sun down. (I have dreamed of this day for so long!) Our house is large too. We are one of the smaller families on our street with 5 of us; most of the other families have 7 plus people in their homes. We love it though! Just for Christmas we has Santa ride through our neighborhood with the local police department, and some of our neighbors banded together to go carolling. Both fun activities and it really made me feel like the base and the community cares.
We are slowing unpacking our stuff... Who am I kidding? We had 99% of our boxes unpacked within 3 days of receiving them. (I guess M was tired of living out of a suitcase. Ha ha ha). I have to admit if I never see, "Misc." on a box again I will be one happy lady! I've also started my strategy for our next pack up... I will label where things are to go so that they arrive in the right room at our next assignment, and minus, "Misc." Ha ha ha... Hopefully anyway!
I'm still in awe that within the last 30 days we have lived in our house in Texas with furniture, our house in Texas without furniture, a cabin on base, 2 different hotels, a cottage at our current base and our new house. We lived in these places and we didn't kill each other, and we only had a few melt downs (mainly over people we miss). I think I'm going to like it here. I have some big plans for myself over the next few months and my goals have been set to attain those plans. And in 6 months... I hope our move goes as smoothly again! :)
Pictures of our fun along the way. :)
Packing up is fun! 
Cabins with swings are even more fun!
In a small town near our cabin in Texas, we made glass ornaments for Christmas. This is C's.
Lunch along the way!!! Yum!
Our new home.
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