In which it all gets rather real

I forgot my blogger password for awhile. After a few weeks (urm.....months) of periodic frustration, it churned up from some recess in my brain. I've jotted that information on a post-it note for future reference.

So the move is happening. Unfortunately, it's happening a lot quicker than I really wanted. ZD and I have been spending quite a bit of time together on base as we visit the housing office, the finance people, and my new buddies at the transportation office. The moving company has contacted us and they will coming over in 2 weeks for a pre-move evaluation. Then they will be back to pack all of our belongings during the last week of March.

That's like....2 months away. Wow! Only 2 months.

Once the house is all packed up, we'll load the stuff we want to move ourselves into a big U-haul, put the other van on a tow bar, and load up the four kids and Mango kitty for the 26 hour drive to Bliss.
That's 1587 miles people. 4 days of driving.
I can't wait to see how we'll pull this one off. The vet has suggested that we sedate the cat. I'm wondering if my doctor would suggest the same thing for me.
It's sounds like fun.

Speaking of fun, tomorrow, I get to go to a Swallowing study.
I'll have various people, including a speech pathologist, watching me drink radioactive liquids of various viscosity's. All while we watch it go down my esophagus on an x-ray in real time. I get to culminate with a barium "cookie." You know, just to cover all the bases.
I'm not sure how I'm going to handle it because I have a gag reflex that could win Olympic gold and I know exactly where my Asperger's kids got their oral over-sensitive issues.
My ENT has great faith in me and it is quite sweet of him.
I, however, doubt I'll even be able to get down one mouthful of the first drink, much less three others and bonus "cookie" at the end.
Although, he did manage to get that little scope down my nose to my throat without me freaking out entirely....so ENT doc might have better odds than I think.

ZD is back at work. He had his foot surgery and 30 days of convalescent leave to learn how to walk again. The surgery was way more than we expected. He's left with a 6 inch scar down his foot and an implant in his foot. I'm sure glad it wasn't my foot. The results have been good. ZD is still stiff but there's no pain and he might be able to run again soon.
I'm glad he's back at work. 30 days home with nothing to do for work and unable to do much around the house.....it's not fun for anyone. He's bust wrapping up loose ends with his job and getting ready for his class for his new job.

In the homeschool area, math has become hectic for all the boys. Today, I'm covering coplanar lines, solving for unknown variables, 2 digit division with remainders, and "borrowing" in subtraction. Great fun for the math teacher. Not much fun for the math students.

If the people really wanted hope change....they should have joined the Army

There is one thing that all Army families can count on.....change. Plans are temporary and flexibility survival skills. It helps if you are also a planner or if you're not a planning person you need to be oblivious.

It also helps to be slightly optimistic. You hope for the best, plan for the worst, and just accept what happens.

It's not a bad life at all, really.

So my last post is out the window. After convincing his new assignment that he could not possibly get to Texas in late March/early April, ZD worked it out to get to his new digs in early May. That means we have to pack up the zoo at the end of April so we can get settled in.

For ZD, it's good news. He'll transition out of his old job when he takes leave for his surgery. (his foot, not a real big deal) Then he'll do special projects for a couple of weeks and check on his replacement. Before out processing, he'll take a four week class to prep him for the new job and then we'll have about 50 days of leave to prep to pack and get moved.

For me and the boys, the transition is not so clean. We have co-op classes and scouts. Plus we have the interruption to our school year.

It's inconvenient but it's not the end of the world.

We can homeschool in Texas. They have scouts there. There are large support groups and new things to do. And we will get to spend more time with ZD since he won't be working the long hours he did here. (We'll see how long that lasts.) We're looking forward to it even though the timing is not the best.

Change and hope.

West Texas Bound

It is official. We are going to Fort Bliss in El Paso, Texas. The when is a bit sketchy. Late May at the earliest and 15 July at the absolute latest.

I'm thrilled to have official paperwork and an actual date. ZD is looking forward to a new job and new challenges. The boys are looking forward to going some place new and seeing new things.
Me....I'm just glad to not be waiting anymore. I've never cared where or when I just have always wanted to know where and when.

There's lots to do and a very slow economy to do them in. The house has to be prepped for sale or rented out. We have 12 years of junk to pare down. And added to the fun is ZooDad's planned surgery which will have him home but not helpful for 30 days.

Oh well, at least I can plan. I guess I'd better start my Spanish lessons.

Excuse me while I freak out a bit

We're moving. Not the blog but the family. ZD is going to PSC (Permanent Change of Station) to Fort Bliss.
I'm trying to be ok with the whole move-to-the-desert-away-from-all-my-beloved-green-plants thing. Every time I get sort of ok, the man moves the date.

In August, we thought we would move in August, 2011. No problem. That's a year to get ready. Cool.
At the first of September, the date changed to mid July. Hmmm...ok, 10 months. I can get a lot done in 10 months.
A week later, the date moved to mid June. Whoa....mid June is only 9 months. While that's plenty time to grow a baby....it's getting short on time to move a household of 6 and 12 years worth of stuff, 22 hours away from our whole family. Plus that interferes with Scout Summer camp and bridging and co-op and pretty much everything else that we do.

Last night, ZD did it too me again. he spoke with his commanders and worked the actual dates.
May 15 is when he will report.

MAY!!!

I don't even know how to respond to May.

If he comes home today and says "April," my head will explode.

Sunday nights as an Army Wife

Every Sunday I wash ZD's ACU's. If you've spent any time around Army soldiers, then you know what I'm talking about.
ACU stands for Army Combat Uniform and they are the newish digital camo uniforms that soldiers wear. They are very different from the old BDU's (Battle dress uniform) that he wore last time he was in the Army.
These are particular and they have Velcro. A lot of Velcro.

Every Sunday, I round up his uniforms and pull all the Velcro patches off them. Then I zip the jackets closed and press down all the Velcro on all the pockets. There are a lot of pockets but there's more Velcro than pockets.
When I finish those tasks, I turn the jackets and pants inside out and wash them on the permanent press setting. Then they dry.
When that's done, it's time to "snap" them to get the wrinkles out and do a little ironing to touch up some of the more stubborn areas.

Then I have to put all the patches back into the right places. ZD teases me because I mumble to myself as I stick everything back where they are supposed to be.
On the left arm, the patch for his current unit... the one he hasn't "left."
On the right arm goes the flag so it's facing forward. Under it goes a combat patch so he's not "light on the right."
Rank on the square in the middle right were it can be seen.
US Army goes over his heart because that's where it belongs. Above that go the Airborne wings.
And then his name is last on the right. Then I hang the completed sets to be worn.

I repeat this several ties until all the uniforms are ready. Unit he hasn't left, flag goes forward, not light on the right, rank in the middle, Army and wings on his heart, last name.
I really don't look forward to all the work involved each week, but I like to think that there are lot of other military wives that are repeating this same ritual all around the world.
And it makes me proud to be part of that.

The Army Giveth and the Army Taketh Away ... plus some knitting

ZD was all excited about his upcoming change of duty station, even though I was a little reluctant to move to a place where all the "trees" were better classified as tall bushes.

Well the General is not as big a fan of change as ZD is. So the change of duty station is not going to happen for quite some time.
Nope.

So I'm back to wondering if we'll ever end up somewhere that I can wear all those neat hand knit things. I'd love to make some mittens and sweaters that actually have sleeves.
Because I live in the sweltering South, I'm limited in what I can knit and actually wear for more than a two week period in February.

Here's my one and only sweater.

The color is off in this picture. It's really more of a lilac.

The Details: This sweater, which is more like a glorified vest, was knit in the round from the bottom up. (I love that.) It made out of KnitPicks shine which is a cotton. This puppy weighs a ton, but it doesn't stretch out of shape through the day like most cotton knitwear is prone to do.

All in all, I love it. It was fun to knit and looks great on me. I may pick out that that bind off edge at the neckline and do a few more rows of decreases and make the seed stitch trim a little larger. The boat neck is my only beef with the entire pattern. Oh, the pattern is from the Fall '09 issue of Interweave Knits and was simple enough for me to understand.

Here's a little closeup of the heart-shaped cables up the front. These were so much fun after I learned how to cable without a cable needle.

This little seed stitch section in tactically delicious. My niece has requested a sweater made entirely of seed stitch so she can pet it all day.
And since the weather has finally gotten a little cooler, I might be able to wear it for a couple of hours.

Army Induced Whiplash

ZD's branch manager is quickly becoming one of my least favorite people.
I don't care if I move or even where....I would just like a general idea of when.
One year...two years...one year...two years... 10 months!
I'm getting whiplash from the whole thing.

Day 9 without my laptop

My laptop bricked. It's just a glorified paperweight at this very moment. Thankfully, it died in a dramatic fashion and while it was in it's throes, ZD managed to save all of my pictures, files, music, and my beloved Outlook pst file.
However, I can't access any of those things. They exist on an external hard drive upstairs in some little dusty corner of ZD's study. I really hope it's not on that noisy humming one. That's one is going to give up the ghost any minute.

So I do have everything. That's good. I also have access to a computer and can check my email online. Which is also good.
But that's it.

Don't ask me for a file or to look up an email address or what time I'm supposed to be at the boys' doctor appointment. (I really hope I get a reminder call about that one.)

ZD has been too busy to actually see if my little Dell is worth reviving. Something about working on that last class he needs for his Master's degree and while working 14 hour days.
He probably could have looked at it Saturday if I hadn't made him haul the boys around to football games even though he's in a walking cast, but you know, we've got priorities here.

But since I'm online less, I've gotten a fair bit of knitting done and undone and almost redone.

I also got to dance a little victory jog and sneer at ZD when something work related happened that he expected not to but I knew would. The "something" may change the amount of time we have left here and is also a pretty good thing for ZD. It's not a good thing for me because it may mean 16 hour work days and even less time at home with us.

In other news, Anders and a neighbor boy have found a Luna moth caterpillar. I was hoping that once the thing spun a cocoon, that I would have less frequent updates on the caterpillar's activities.
Nope....we've slowed down to hourly but the conversation has taken a turn from boring to downright repetitive.
There's just only so many times that you can hear, "He's still in the cocoon. That's a cocoon made of silk and not a chrysalis."
Add to that the speculation of what the moth is doing in the cocoon. at. this. very. moment.

I'm kind of wishing that I had my own cocoon with wifi of course.

Perils of marrying an Army guy

I called ZD at work and apparently he was in full out Army mode.

"Major ZD speaking," said over the speaker phone.
"Hey!" Speaker phone clicks over to handset.
"Wife?"
"Yeah....."
"I'm working fires here. Is it hot?"
"No."
"Can I call you after 1500?"
"Sure."
click

And that was that. In all honesty, I didn't really process the conversation until after he hung up. Then I had to convert 1500 to regular time.

I love the Army

As soon as you start planning, they change the plan. And it's not like you can just sit back and wait for stuff to happen without making plans.
Well, you can do that...but you'll be miserable. The question is .... will you be more miserable than you would be with plans that constantly changed all the time?

In a strange groove

We've settled into a strange groove here at the Zoo.

School is back in the swing of things. So I spend my days teaching the boys, going to speech therapy, and dealing with Cub Scout stuff.
That's sort of normal stuff. Well, as normal as it can be while dealing with my 13-year-old who thinks that there must be some relationship between height and intelligence. Since he's taller than me, he must also be smarter than me and every other short person in the house.
He's already lost computer access this week due to his back talking. We'll see what else he loses before he finally accepts that the proper answer to any request made by his mother is "Yes, ma'am."

My evenings consist of a little knitting and sorting through a chosen area while ZD pours over the "job" list.
It makes for an interesting conversation.

We've discoverd that we've held on to more junk than we should of and that we also know each other better than we thought.

The list is being whittled down. When you get down to rank and date available, there aren't a lot of choices especially when you add my need for sunlight, greenery, and some space to wander about in.

Overseas is out for now (this very moment, we might change our minds tonight) due to the fact that both of our mothers are in their mid 70's. Plus I don't think I could handle that much of change in my first move in 10 years.

Right now we're looking at DC/Virginia, Florida, or Nebraska. And I'm not that sure of the Nebraska part. I like to be near the ocean.

Hawaii made my list for sun, greenery, and ocean but ZD giggled about the idea of me being stuck on an island that I could circumnavigate in 3 hours.

Of course, I find the idea of him dealing with DC traffic to be equally hilarious.

Arizona missed the list due to lack of greenery and the fact that I was a dry husk of a woman after spending a week in Utah. I can't imagine Arizona being much better. But ZD did remind me that living there gave me the ability to vote or not vote for John McCain.

So we continue talking, looking up stuff, and digging through stuff to get rid off. Pretty soon we'll have to turn in our dream sheet and just wait and see what happens.

The purge begins

Things are stepping up around here regarding our next duty station. Before March, I was aware that someday I would have to move if we continued to be an Army family. In March, I found out that the job that ZD is currently working would be the only job he'd have at this base. That meant that instead of 3 years, we'd only be stationed here about 18 months.
Ok.
That changes things.
So we'd be moving in the fall of 2010.

Last night, ZD got an email from his branch manager. Yep, 18 months maximum. In fact a summer move would be preferable. At the very least, we'd move by August 2010.
Now, that really changes things.
Especially, since we've lived in this house for more than 10 years.
We've accumulated 10 years worth of clothes, toys, books, knick-knacks, and garage junk. I dread going through it all....but it must be done.
And while I'm doing that I have to finish all the house projects that still haven't been completed.
I have to get the house ready to go on the market.
Then I have to find people to take over all my "jobs:" Cub scouts and home school support group
And most importantly, I have to prepare my boys to leave the only home that they have ever known and all of their family and friends.

All while doing all the stuff I normally do.

12 months may not be enough.

Trying very hard to not be bitter and failing.....total fail

When I married ZD, he was in the Army. My Dad was worried that when I got married, ZD would take me far, far away and my poor Dad would never see me again.

ZD took me four hours away to the armpit of NC. Yes, I know. NC is a beautiful state. It has mountains and beaches. It has major cities and small towns with fabulous personalities and charm. But I didn't live anywhere near any of those. I lived in Fayetteville, which the locals called "Fayette-nam" and is the birthplace of Putt-Putt Golf and games.

Then after a couple of years in exile there, we came back home and I've been here ever since.

Yep, that's my Army life. I have been nowhere and seen nothing.

ZD, however, does get to travel. He's TDY all over the place. He's been to Arizona and got to visit Tombstone. He's climbed up Mt Rainier in Washington. He's taken trips to Germany where he's already served a tour and got to see the sights.
But I haven't been able to go any of those places.

To be transparent, he's also see the battlefields in Iraq and Kuwait. He's flown over decimated towns in Bosnia. And he's lived in "less than ideal" conditions in the sand, in the heat, and in the bitter cold.
So it hasn't all been scenery and good food.

But this current TDY has me thoroughly annoyed. He's going to Hawaii for a week. Poor thing.
He actually complained about it also.
"I'm going to be flying all around the islands to visit different sites. You know how I hate helicopters."

After I exploded on him, he stopped complaining.

I can't go with him. I never can go to the interesting places. I have 5 activities that week (so far) that just can't be re-scheduled.
(sigh)

He can't even appreciate the opportunity.

Poor thing. He'll be staying at a posh hotel in Hawaii, eating great food, and flying around the gorgeous islands in a helicopter..... someone alert the UN and let them know that my dear husband is being tortured.

sigh....time to start prepping

ZD got word yesterday that his job here won't be for as long as we thought it would be.
So that means that I need to start house prep this fall so I don't go crazy next summer.

Yep, next summer. I thought we'd be here a couple of years but apparently not.

Traveling papers.

ZD got orders yesterday.
Official orders for our first duty station since he returned to the Army.
We were all looking forward to a little excitement.

Would it be the two year tour to Korea?
Would it be time in the DC area with all the great history and museums?
What about Colorado? Now that would be something brand new for all of us.

Where are we going?
Nowhere. That's right. No. where.

ZD's orders are for the very post that I've lived around for 31 years.
My life as an Army wife has been sooooooo exciting. I've been here and Ft Bragg.

It is good news though. ZD has numerous contacts at the post. He has a reputation amongst military and contractors alike.
All of our family is here or nearby. We are entrenched in the community and we love our life. And our very old dogs will live out the rest of their lives in the yard they know so well.

But........

Some excitement wouldn't be a bad thing.

Orders could change. His report date isn't until March.
ZD has had reoccurring dreams about us being in Germany. He said that in his dream that I loved it there.

Maybe next tour.

Summer update

We're still playing baseball. Matthew's team is 4-1. Jacob's team is 3-1. Andrew's team is 2-2. And Sam's team has just discovered where 1st base is. We're having a great time though. All the families on the boys' teams are just wonderful. That makes the practices and games a lot of fun for me.

We're swimming almost everyday and the boys and I are getting brown as Indians. Um.....Native Americans. Um.....we're getting fairly tan. My favorite life guard is back for one last summer before he graduates college and enters the real world. He gets tickled at Sam's new found love of water and just shakes his head as Sam cannon balls into the big pool.

On Friday, my oldest managed to get on the front page of the local newspaper. Even underwater he's a complete ham. We didn't even know that the lady was a reporter. We thought she was just a nice lady who has a new underwater camera and wanted to try it out. (No that's not me in the background. We were out of shot laughing at the whole thing.) ZD and I were rather surprised when we saw that shot right on the fold.

We've had a run on car trouble here. ZD's car busted a manifold and my van developed an oil leak. Our stimulus checks went to the local Goodyear place. It was nice that we had the money....i just wish it could have gone towards something more fun.

Oh....and ZD has a request for orders. For the non-military people, that means that he has a new job lined up and planned for. I don't want to get too excited about it just yet. A lot of things could happen between now and the end of February. Another unit could need someone. Jobs could get shuffled. Plus the unit doesn't even exist yet.

I don't want to say too much yet but it's the ideal place for us. And we won't be going to Korea. We're quite happy.

The email that cuased bad words to fly out of my mouth...

ZD messages: "There is a one in four chance that I will get this."

The attached message about a position that must be filled by one of the 4 people in his course (counting himself)......24 months command sponsored.......in Seoul.

Wonderful.

Holey Moley.
Our mothers will kill us if we try to take the grandsons with us. They will.

Any good yarn stores in Korea?

We've been very busy

The last few days have been....welll...a little crazy here at the zoo.

I'll see if I can catch you to speed in a series of posts.

Let's start with Friday.


On Friday, I went to my special "old eyes" opthalmologist. She needed to check the little holes that she burnt into my irises, were still open. (I have narrow angle glaucoma and Fuch's endothelia dystrophy. I'm 37 years old and I have the eyeballs of a 60 year old.)

One of the holes was not doing it fair share of the pressure reducing work. So it will need further prodding along. Actually, I have to have some other laser procedure that will flatten my iris a little to help the hole stay open.
(The procedure was supposed to be today....but I had to rescedule. More on why later.)

When I came home from the doctor, I explained all this to ZD, who reacted by deciding that he needed to go ahead and sign in for duty.
(That's means he went and joined up with the Army again.)

He really did. He threw on his uniform, we packed up the kids, and we headed on post with a crate full of paperwork. By noon, we were an Army family again. Offical and everything.

We had lunch at the PX and then went to get ID cards. (For the experienced, it was not bad at all other than a DEERS issue. And the ID people were helpful and courteous. I was as surprised as you are.)

By 3 o'clock we had done all the work we could and then headed home. The kids played outside with friends while ZD and I kind of took in what we had just done.

I'm not posting

but I am knitting. So if you want to see what my needles have been up to, head over the the zoo full of knitting over in the side bar.

We've been busy hanging out with ZD. He'll be home from all work for the rest of the month! You wouldn't believe all the stuff he's finished. (And the messes he's made.)
He even cleaned out my fridge and freezer. Unprompted.

And he's been doing laundry.

My darling has been replaced by a pod person.

Just letting you know

I have a husband again.
We picked him up from the airport at 1:30 today.

He is currently upstairs playing with the boys. From the sounds of it, they’ll come through the ceiling onto my head, any minute now.

By the way….he was gone one year, one month, and 29 days.

And I keep thinking that I’ve imagined that he's home and he’ll disappear on me.