Rainy (day) in Georgia

Fall has finally hit us here in the sub-tropics. Highs have only been in the low to mid 70s. Yesterday it was overcast, and actually pretty nippy. I was fairly productive. Reassembled Nathan's desk and dealt with the washer exploding on me twice.

Eric brought home most of his real army equipment. Times sure have changed since the last time he was in a division. Heavier and more of it.

Today it rains. I did manage to get the trashcan and most of the recyclables to the curb. It's really nice that they have curbside recycling here. And they take a heckuva lot more stuff than Ft. Sill. The down side is that they only come once a week. And they come EARLY! I barely got it all to the curb. We were overflowing with bags.

Anyway. I'm in my favorite long-sleeve shirt of Eric's, flannel pants, and a fresh pot of coffee. My only goal until Nathan comes home is to short through our boxes of books. (Tough, isn't it?) We were just going to leave them in boxes until we bought some bookshelves, but now we can't find what we need. (I had them quasi-organized at the old place. At the the books were stacked into generic categories - my fiction, Eric's war books, music textbooks, etc. The packers obviously did not appreciate my system. Hmpt!)

Maybe I'll just sit on the couch and surf the web for true and bizarre stories. For instance, msnbc is reporting that stinky farts in mice might help regulate high blood pressure. foxnews is reporting that a college student in Taiwan died after participating in a competitive eating contest. See what you're missing while working at your job? HGTV is 2nd on my agenda.

The picture is my great-great-grandparents on my dad's side. They got married on Oct. 23, 1895 in Indiana. So yesterday would have been their 113th wedding anniversary. I believe this picture was taken on their 50th. Certainly hope she was friendlier than she appears in photos. No real reason to post it, just felt like highlighting some family tree stuff.

What day is it?

Now that I'm not punching a clock, I have a hard time keeping track of days. Today was the first day that both Eric and Nathan were out. Spent most of the day trying to make since of the junk that had just been thrown into the closets as we unpacked boxes.

So now that Nathan is walking to school, he and Eric both decided he was perfectly capable of walking to and from school without parental assistance. I'm more worried about him getting distracted along the way, and therefore being late, but so far he has done what he was supposed to. On Monday, Eric went to the school right before they got out. He stood off to the side and watched Nathan look for us and then start walking home. Nathan was so proud of himself when he got home. I almost went today to find him. He's never in the first wave that gets out of the school. But I managed to restrain myself. But one of the things I was looking forward to was walking him to and from school. But I guess he doesn't need me (sniff! sniff!)

He had his first bad behavior mark yesterday. He says that 3 other kids in the class were misbehaving, but they got him in trouble. So instead of a blue star on he calendar, he got a yellow one (not good!) Today he managed to redeem himself. He's already complaining about homework. I didn't figure we'd have these kind of struggles until he was older. He's still impressionable enough to threaten with loss of toys to coerce him into doing his work. He mentioned today that he has 2 best friends. I'm thinking, "great! we can arrange for a playdate this weekend! What are their names?" "I don't know." Hmmmmmm.

I had to go to a spouse workshop yesterday, to learn about different programs on post. It lasted 3 hours. Probably everything I needed to know could have been condensed into 45 minutes. I was tickled to learn that if Eric had a girlfriend and designated her as a payee on his life insurance, the army is legally bound to send me a letter. The army can't tell me who the other beneficiaries are, or how much they will get, but they do have to tell me. I haven't received a letter yet, so I'm guessing it's all good.

Still haven't received any real mail since Sept. 25. Good thing most of my bills are paid on-line.

We will be getting new local cell phone numbers. For family and friends, email me if you need the new numbers. I'll probably have my going by the end of the day tomorrow. Eric, on the other hand, is resisting. He's got so many numbers in his phone from army buddies around the country. I must make an apology to my mother-in-law. I think she would crater into a fetal position without her cell phone or a land line. I don't really talk that much on the phone. I just don't have to be that connected. I must apologize, however, because I never realized that Eric was just as bad as his mother! His phone usage is 3 times what mine is! So my apologies, Rebecca Alice - I must be the odd duck in the fam.

Vista bites! I just lost half my post!

Any-hoo. According to my inbox - this is myeloma awareness week. Spend a moment on wikipedia and educate yourselves.

You'll all be pleased to know that I did find the legs to the couch. They were in a box on the front carport marked "tools". Yeah, can't believe I didn't find that earlier. The rollers for the bed frame are still MIA.

Couch legs?

I'd say we're about 75% through emptying boxes. Have not, however, been able to find the 4-inch screw-on legs for the couch. Nor can we find 2 of the rollers for the bed frame on our bed. I cannot intuitively guess based on the packer's hieroglyphics which of the remaining boxes might contain them. So both the couch and our bed are sitting lower than usual. Might have to feng sui the whole house and go for that asian feel.

Anyway, the house is starting to take shape. It may be 20 years older than the house we just left, but for the most part, it's square footage is more balanced in the rooms. For all intents and purposes, it's the same layout. But the living room is wider, plus it has carpet. Eric actually thinks our mismatch furniture looks better. Wall to wall carpet does wonders. We have a laundry room on the first floor, not a laundry closet, nor is it part of the kitchen. Rather than a large closet/pantry on the first floor, it's actually a walk-in closet on the 2nd floor. I lost the double skin master bathroom with the walk in closet, but actually I have more closet space than I did in the other house. None of the bathrooms have windows, so they're pretty stark. Nathan's bathroom is now sporting a tropical fish shower curtain that he picked out himself (slight improvement over the Spiderman motif).

Drawbacks - there's almost no airflow upstairs. That's not gonna fly. The stairwell and upstairs doorways are kinda narrow (glad it wasn't me moving my dresser up the stairs). And the kitchen! It's what you would expect in a NYC efficient apartment. Tiny little galley style. I can touch the counters on both sides, and walk through it lengthwise in less than 6 steps. But small square footage is manageable. The real problem is the cabinets. The only cabinets wide enough to allow for dinner plates are the 2 cabinets above the sink. All the other cabinets are so narrow that I can't get plates, or mixing bowls, or pots and pans in them. Most of the cabinets are 8-10 inches wide. My dinner plates are 10-1/2 inches. And the cabinets are particle board from the 70s. The counter tops are the exact same as we had at Campbell and our first place at Sill. The army most have gotten a heckuva deal on these.

But those are just minor inconveniences. Location trumps tiny kitchen. We live on a cul-de-sac, and there are kids EVERYWHERE! If we could just pry Nathan the hermit out of the house, he'd probably have the time of his life meeting kids. I've noticed that after moms drop off their kids for school in the morning, a lot of them go for walks in the neighborhood, either by themselves or in groups. Hopefully I'll be able to plug into the neighborhood vibe now that we're actually here.

texas is beating mizzou 35-3 at the half. Blech.

Shout out to my mother-in-law. I had my first cup of coffee in our new place with one of my new red coffee cups. Thanks!

There was some anxiety this morning, trying to get the OU game and figure out the wireless network. A little extra money to Comcast, a 15 minute call to Belkin tech support, and we were good to go. Yeah Sooners!

Eric just rocked a brisket. Best one he's ever made. Good thing, too, since we have a LOT left! ;). He tried sea bass for the first time last night. I thought the flavor was good, but watch out for the bones.

Nathan and Eric will go look for gaters in the neighborhood tomorrow while I tackle the laundry. What fun...

Boxes of books everywhere! I did try to purge before we moved, but dang! Neither of us can through away books or music. We have a box of vinyl records, which we have not listen to EVER! In fact, they have some water damage. IMO, we could have thrown them out, but Eric couldn't do it. I'd get all my books in e-book pdf form, but you just can't take a bubble bath with your laptop. Wouldn't be prudent!

Don't think I can stay up until 11:30 to watch SNL tonight for Sarah Palin. I still haven't gotten used to the time change. I don't think I've seen the evening news yet, because I just can't stay up that late.

I'm still weirded out by spanish moss. Technically I don't think it's a parasite, but sheesh! It's everywhere.

How we felt the last week of motel livin'

I'll probably be served with a cease and disist order for using Bloom County pictures.

We're in the house, we're online, but I'm too tuckered out to blog more. Maybe tomorrow.

Ah! Sweet Solitude!

It's Tuesday morning and I finally have the 'house' to myself. Eric started inprocessing today and Nathan went back to school after the Columbus day holiday. We tried to make it easy in ourselves as this gypsy life continues to drag out. We rented the room next to ours for the 3-day and we rented a car for the rest of the week. But this has been no joke. I think the next time we look into getting a motel room with 2 cats I may have some PTSD issues. I should probably look into therapy for Roxy.

Let's see, what have we done since the last time I posted? Well, I don't think the OU game needs to be addressed. Eric keeps saying that it's no shame in loosing to the #5 team in the nation. My thinking is that that's okay for anyone ranked #6 or lower. If you're ranked #1-4? Not so much.

After that debacle, Nathan and I explored one of the on-post play areas for kids. Indoor playground the thousands of nerf balls and the cannons to blast them with. Nathan worked up quite a sweat in the 3 hours we stayed there, but afterwards called it boreing. Since when did he become a teenager?

Sunday rained all freakin' day. That put the kibosh on going to the beach like we had planned. I finally went stir crazy and went into Savannah to find a bookstore. Found Books a Million. Somewhere there's a Barnes & Noble and a Waldenbooks, but that seems to be it. Did find Michaels and Hancock Fabrics while I was out, so future shopping sprees should be fruitful. Did get the book I've been waiting for all week (post living is nice, but the PX isn't going to have that big of a selection). Also picked up a couple of quilting magazines. I'm itching to get my sewing stuff out and have fabric exploding all over the dining area in the new house, but I'll try to control myself until after the boxes are unpacked.

Monday was just more of the same - Nathan watching tv/playing ps2 in one room, Eric watching tv/surfing the web in the other. I usually buried my nose in a book. I did have to find a laundrymat in Richmond Hill. The only one I found was pretty darn rough. I didn't stay any longer than necessary, so those clothes that were still damp got festooned in both rooms to air dry. I did also have find a copier for Eric plus shower flip-flops.

So today was the start of 'normal'. Again Nathan complained about going to school. He started to come around once we got in the rental car. But once we got to the school, Mr. Sensitive came out again. Apparently the kids line up class outside. I didn't know which line was his, and he said he didn't recognize any of the kids. He's only 7 and he's only been with that group for 3 days, so I can believe it. I asked one of the monitors which class was his, then she came over and tried to get some of other kids in the line to be his buddy. That just embarrassed him more and started more tears. I felt so bad for him. My momma instinct was to find his teacher and explain that he was a little sensitive this morning. But I managed to refrain. I figured he's get over it soon enough, and I knew we'd probably have the same story tomorrow. Sigh...

I did get the whole cable/phone/internet taken care of this morning. Heaven forbid we not have tv or internet by Saturday at 3:30! After scheduling the service tech for anytime between 8-12 on Friday, I remembered that the movers are supposed to come on Friday, so it could be very hectic that day. Both Nathan and Eric will be off work/school. Them, plus the cats? Cozy!

2 weeks down, 1 to go

We left Lawton 2 weeks ago today. Since then we've lived in motels. Ugggg. Here I sit in our Days Inn Room, watching the dow jones futures tank, listening to one politician after another saying, I'm right, he's wrong, yet either not qualified to remake the economy into a vibrant, healthy, forward-looking one. (I've obviously spent too much time watching TV lately). Who needs Iceland anyway? I did register to vote in Georgia last week. I think I'm just going to vote anti-incumbent. Doesn't matter what side of the aisle - just throw the bums out and start over.

Any-hoo. Nathan started school on Wednesday. Eric and I both took him. We were a few minutes late because we hadn't anticipated both school traffic and PT traffic intersecting in our new neighborhood. Went to his new classroom. His teacher asked him if he was excited to join the class. He looked up at her and said, "Well, I am a little nervous, actually." She reassured him a little, then said to the class, "I need a buddy. Who wants to be a buddy?" Every little boy arm started waving wildly. AJ showed him where to hang his backpack and they all settled down for storytime. So we left and looked at each other and thought - what do we do now? We've been a trio for 10 days straight. It seemed strange not to have him with us.

But we managed to survive the empty nest syndrome. Eric took a nap and I applied for unemployment and found the local public library (TINY!). I went solo to pick up Nathan. He seemed happy with the school. He only complained about the succotash at lunch and no recess.

Now, getting the kid out of bed yesterday and today has been a challenge. School doesn't start until 8:00, but with the travel time and going through the gate, he's gotta hit the road shortly after 7:00. Unfortunately, the poor kid takes after his momma. Neither of us are morning people. I can make myself get up early, but that's because I'm an adult. Nathan, on the other hand, doesn't get the idea of consequences. We had a crying episode this morning with Nathan yelling that Eric is so bossy and it's just not fair. Poor little guy. This should be the last morning he has to get up quite this early. Next week we'll move to a hotel in Hinesville to be closer to the post.

We've got a long 3 day weekend. Not sure what we'll do. Of course, the game is on at 12:00 on Saturday. I may take Nathan to explore some of the parks on post after the game is over. Then on Sunday and/or Monday we may explore Savannah more or try to find more beach. Tybee Island is having a Piratefest this weekend. Arg!

Tuesday, October 7, 2008

Okay. So we've moved from Savannah to the Days Inn in Richmond Hill. Got Nathan enrolled in school and he starts tomorrow. Kept to ourselves most of the day. The boys had a protracted 20 minute pillow fight. (The post where I detail just how much Eric acts like a 7 year old will come at another time).

Now, the Days Inn is low-budget, but so far we hadn't had any complaints. However...right in the middle of Nathan's shower this evening, we lose water. Call the front desk, and a water pipe is busted somewhere on the property. "But the city is out working on it, and you should get water back in about 30 mintes." So, males that they are, Nathan and Eric must investigate, and, if necessary, supervise. (Nathan is just in a pair of Spiderman pajamas. But just why is it that you have to go to the bathroom the most, just when there's no water? The cats and I are enjoying the quiet while the boys are roaming the property.