update....

So what's going on in between all the pictures I post....... hmmm......... that's a lot harder to write about, but I'll give it a try with random thoughts and I'll even try to cut the sarcasm.

Deployments stink (I said I would try). I posted about two fun days Scott has had, but I don't want anyone who doesn't know better to think that's the gist of it. Since his arrival he has worked 12+ hour shifts, with time before and after that at working getting/giving report, going to meetings, etc., he works night shift with one night off a week, he is currently working a 14 day stretch (the commander canceled all days off due to an inspection), and the master sergeant over him makes his life miserable.

15 days until Christmas is over, I'm not into it this year, just going through the motions for the kids. My calendar this month is crazy, on top of 3 kids in swim lessons twice a week, 2 kids in ballet with added dress rehearsals and recital, 4 dentist appointments, 4 doctor appointments, and 2 eye doctor appointments, and all the Christmas activities, parties, concerts, and shopping added, life is insane. I'm also working on this huge project for the girls for Christmas, my brother and I started building it in October, every night after the girls are in bed, I'm out in the garage working on it.

I'm stressed over our upcoming moves. Just to clarify, we are moving back to South Dakota in January, we will be there a few weeks before Scott gets home and then a few weeks after, as soon as he is out processed from base, we leave for California. In July, we will move again, most likely and hopefully to Colorado Springs. We plan to buy a house at the next base so most likely we will move to temporary housing until we once again and finally move into OUR house where we hope to stay many many years, 14 years until Scott retires and then maybe forever. So as for all this moving, after Christmas, I will start on the figuring out what to take with us. We brought way too much stuff here and have bought new stuff here. So after a lot of sorting and planning and cramming, the girls and I will head east, I pray for clear roads and that the place I have reserved is decent, its hard finding housing for one month. For the next move, at least Scott will be here and with him I can face anything, but this move also has its challenges. The family is not on the orders to go. The Air Force expects us to send him away again after just getting him home. So this again is not a PCS with the help of the Air Force and since we are not going to pay to drive a U-Haul 1,600 miles there and back, we will be taking what will fit in the mini van with a family of 6. Yea, that will be interesting and a little gypsy like! Since we will remain on Rapid City housing allowance and paying rent in California, we will find a two bedroom apartment to rent. I didn't think I would live in an apartment again, with no furniture, and hauling laundry (and 4 kids) to the laundromat, but we will be together and happy (in spite of sleeping on air mattresses for 5 months)! We have been looking at apartments on the internet, the problem is we have never been there, have no idea what the area is like, what neighborhoods to avoid, if the pictures really represent the place, etc. etc. and so for that we wont book anything until we get there. The problem with that though is that its scary moving (1,600 miles across bad roads) with 4 kids and not having a place lined up to live. The next move is too far ahead to worry much about now, but oh wait, I do.... In CA we plan to have our loan pre-approved and as much real estate looking as we can do over the internet done. We'll just have to get to Colorado Springs and do some serious house looking and hopefully find the perfect house in the perfect small country town, and quickly! (not too steep of an order is it?!) And then going back to Rapid to get our stuff out of storage, which I pray is safe and sound!

So with all this moving brings in another aspect to our life. Homeschooling! Yep, you read right, but before you go ugghhhh!!! Hear me out... Besides switching school districts that much (after already having gone to two different ones) it would be too much school missed just in travel days alone, getting from point A to B is 1,000 miles and B to C is 1,600 miles, etc. We very hesitantly came to this decision, but now feel it is what is best, and I am actually excited for it. But it does come with an overwhelming responsibility added. Finding the curriculum was the hardest, but now that that is chosen, I plan on spending Christmas break getting ready for that adventure. There are a lot of great internet programs out there if your familiar with them, but with our situation we need something more flexible, so it will be the traditional homeschooling. We will learn about Mt. Rushmore in SD and Alyse is planning her daddy date to go to Reptile Gardens for a field trip, that place has a whole lot of science. In California, I want to learn about the ocean and hit lots of great museums and zoos. Along the way we will learn about maps and geography, and of course we have a full curriculum to cover all subjects. But don't worry, this is temporary and plan on sending Alyse (and Lexi too!) back to public school when we get to our permanent home.

Tricare, its a great blessing and trial in life. Its the military insurance, and yes the premiums are free, no co pays, etc. and the girls now have a great female pediatrician and I a great female doc and gyno (I like female Dr.s by the way), and for this it is a great blessing. But it came with great trial. It's not exactly an easy process living away from a base, with out orders, and getting assigned to a civilian Dr. But for any of you "relocated spouses due to deployment", it is possible, don't give up, and call and call and call triwest until you finally get someone who knows what they are talking about. Scott and I were told so many different things its not even funny. But it is possible to remain on prime and be assigned to civilian PCMs.

My family. I love them and I will miss them when I am gone. I'm grateful that my kids had this opportunity to really know their Grandma and for Grandma to really know each of them. I'm grateful that the girl's love their cousins, aunts, uncles, etc. and have had so much fun being with them and its great having cousins in the same activities like swim and ballet. Its been great seeing Kristey's and Stacy's (my sister and sister-in-law) names on my caller ID so much. In SD I miss my family and here I miss Scott and the people of SD, I just can't have it all!

The weather here is perfect. Four distinct seasons, a hot summer and long growing season, a long and beautiful fall and a mild winter with a little snow (most years). Its Dec. and we wear coats, it been in the 30s and 40s most days, a few rainy and we saw some snow once, but for the most part it's a very bearable winter. I'm thankful to not be shoveling snow to unburry my car (or to get out the front door for that matter) and not having to feel the windchill of neg 50 so famous in South Dakota.

So how did I get all this time to write this. Well its been a painful process. My mom has had an awful cold and Alyse and I have had sore throats off and on. My throat was getting progessively worse. On Tues. night Alyse ran a fever and had a sore throat, neither one of us with a congestion or runny nose, so I was thinking it might be strep and planned on making Alyse an apt Wed if her strep test was pos. just calling my dr. and ask her to fax a script in for me. By Wed. I was in such severe pain I made me an apt too and it happened to be first. The strep test was neg. but the dr. took one look and said that I had a very angry throat and such swollen tonsils, adenoids, uvula and every lymph node that her first guess was mono (yea, just what I need) and her second guess an advance bacterial infection, gave me antibiodics, drew blood and will call in a week with mono results. As for Alyse, her dr. said hers was something viral. So after taking 4 kids with me to my apt, the lab, pharmacy home for lunch and ready again to go to Alyse's apt and getting home around 3, it wasn't much of a day off for either of us. I could barley handle the drive home and then got home and had a breakdown. My throat, "sore" doesn't even describe it, I wanted to double over and cry every time I swallowed (I didn't' know it possible for a throat to hurt that much or that I had to swallow so often!) staying hydrated was a joke because that involved swallowing. So for today, after 3 doses of antibiotics, pain pills, and a night sleep, I'm feeling at least human again with a normal really sore throat. Alyse is home too, she had a low grade fever last night but says she is feeling all better. We are all in our pj's and plan on going no where today or accomplishing anything. So much for Alyse's perfect attendance at school, and we missed our first swim class yesterday, and I have missed two days at the Y, but since I haven't eaten much of anything, it should come out even. The problem is, I'm in a triathlon on Sat, but as for right now, I'm not making in promises, we shall see...

So thats a glimpse of life inbetween snaphots, it could be better, it could be worse.