Our New Rental Home

Mom's fun day at the park

Today I dropped the big kids off to school.  Then I took the twins for a little walk through the park behind our new rental house.  They love the area because it is very "desert" and has lots of wildlife (maybe too much--snakes).  So, this morning was all about the twins having fun walking and running around the park and skatepark.  

When we were leaving I said I needed to run to Trader Joe's for some groceries.  On the way we passed a McDonalds.  Nathan asked to stop for ice cream.  I said no, we aren't getting any sweets for awhile.  His reply was "We did what you wanted to do this morning, now it is our turn to do something."  

I guess he thought we stopped at the park for my enjoyment.  If I would have known we were there solely for me, I would have left much sooner!    I really should think of my kids more often!!

Homeless No More

We finally found a home on Friday.  I have been looking for months for the perfect house.  While this house isn't Mario and the kids "perfect house," it is pretty darn close.   The only thing it is missing is a pool.  But the house backs up to a community park that has a pool.  The big kids can even go without me.  So for me, the house is perfect (except for some stained carpets-but we can throw some big rugs down.)  I don't have to maintain a pool which I was nervous about from the beginning since Mario will be deploying.

We thought we had found a house earlier and were really excited about it until we went to view it.  The landlord is an attorney that apparently doesn't take off his "attorney hat" very often.  He scared us off because we were afraid of all his legal mumble jumble.   He also thought that we should share the expense if things broke in his house, like the AC.   We ran from that house as fast as we could.  I am not paying a dime of an AC unit that is 10 years old.  What happens when the electrical work or plumbing needs repaired?!  No thank you.

I was about to give up on houses and take the kids back to the hotel when I drove up to a busy intersection.   There on the corner was a box with a homemade sign advertising a 5 bedroom/3 bath home for rent.  I immediately pulled over and called the number.  Within a half hour we were in viewing the house.  I knew as soon as I walked through the front door that I wanted the house.  I saw the kitchen and it was huge and enough said.  The kitchen was the selling point for me, but it didn't hurt that the house is more than twice the size of our home in CA (and less than half the rent of CA.)  Plus I have an extra bedroom for food storage.  I had been praying that we would find a home big enough for our food storage.  Mario has been hassling me for at least a year to get our food storage in order but we never had the room.  Now I have no excuse.  The house also has a 3 car garage which is Mario's dream.   The kids are excited about the grapefruit/lemon tree (yes 1 tree, 2 different fruits.)  They love the grapefruits.

Our new landlord is a minister.  He has been praying for the right family to move into his house.  He feels his prayers have been answered and we feel our prayers have been answered as well.  We feel that he will be a fair landlord and we can't wait to move in April 20th.   We have plenty of room for guests so please come visit.

We are in Tucson

We made it to Tucson around 8:30 last night.  The kids and I were so happy to be back in warm weather.  It was shocking to get out of the car and not have to wear a jacket.  Wish us luck as we go look for a house today.  

Good thing we love you Buzz!

We got up bright and early to start our trek to Tucson. We planned to pick up the dog at the kennel by 7:30. The owner convinced me that I should pay extra to have the dog bathed, teeth brushed, and nails clipped before the long drive. I pictured my nice, clean dog keeping me company in the passenger seat of the van all the way to Tucson.

We had to pick him up promptly at 7:30 if we wanted to make it to LA by 1 pm so Erin could have an hour at American Girl Place before driving to San Diego to spend the night. A friend warned me that if we didn't get out of LA around 2, we would get stuck in traffic forever.

So, our morning started out as planned. We pulled up to the kennel at 7:30 am. The owner was a few minutes late opening up. When he finally did open, he informed us that Buzz has had diarrhea for the past 3 days! He just had his latest episode in his truck on the way to the shop (he took him home to his house so he wouldn't be stuck in a small kennel.) Now, Buzz was a mess and needed another bath. If you know me well, you know I am a very scheduled person. I have a lot of anxiety if I get behind schedule. We had to wait for the owner to give the dog a quick bath. We spent that few minutes lining our van with plastic bags in case Buzz got sick again. Then we set off for our trip. Not even a half hour into our trip, the dog starts whining. Oh no, does that mean he needs to go potty? I was just imagining a huge mess in the back of my van. Even before Buzz started whining, Nathan started asking if we were almost there yet? Someone forgot to tell him we would be in the car until dinnertime.

Fortunately he was fine the entire trip and he got another bath at the hotel just in case the first one was not good enough. It is a good thing we love him like one of our kids. Poor Erin had only about 1/2 hour in the American Girl store. But she still managed to get the stuff she wanted. We made it out of LA just in time.

Hopefully Buzz will be completely better by tomorrow and will survive his kennel while we are at Legoland and SeaWorld.

Saying Goodbye

I have never liked saying goodbye.  I think Eric may take after me.  He recently commented that he wishes he didn't have to tell people that he was leaving.  They could just figure it out after he left.  I thought at first he was being a little mean, but the more I thought about it, he is probably just like me, he just doesn't like saying goodbye.

Monterey has been my least favorite military assignment so far.  But that doesn't mean it has been bad, the others were just so good.  Cocoa Beach (Patrick AFB) was our first assignment and it was close to family and I had so much fun hanging out with Eric and Erin in the beautiful sun everyday while talking to the neighbors.  

Guam (Andersen AFB) was our second assignment and we loved our time there.  Again, it was warm and since it was overseas, the base had fun activities for the kids to do almost everyday.  We loved exploring the island and all the beaches.  

Next came Hawaii (Hickam AFB).  Does that even need an explanation of why it was so great?!  That was like a 3 year vacation, except for the part of being pregnant with twins and gaining a zillion pounds.  We loved Hawaii, but who wouldn't!

O'Fallon, Illinois (Scott AFB) was our last assignment before Monterey.   Here we bought our first home and we loved it.  The house were big.  The kids loved the snow.  I didn't love the weather, but I loved the ward there and all my good friends.  I started a girls' night out there and we had so much fun.  It was hard to leave O'Fallon.  But what made it easier was that I knew Mario had the opportunity to go to school and hopefully do something he loves.

Now it is time to say goodbye to Monterey (Navel Post Graduate School).  There are some definite  good memories from here.  This is the first place all my kids were in school and Eric became old enough to babysit.  What life changing events these two things were!  I learned about the Barton tutoring system and tutored kids at home and then at the local elementary school.  I will miss all the wonderful kids I became very attached to.  But, I didn't like the weather, way too cold for me.  I didn't have many friends, probably due to my lack of trying to make some since I knew we would only be here 18 months. Also, I never had allergies until I moved here.  So for once, saying goodbye won't be too hard for me.  In fact, I think I may have only teared up once so far and that was saying goodbye to the twins kindergarten teacher.  I mean, I am going to really miss her, because now I am going to have the boys home with me full time until school starts again in mid July!   She will definitely be the one I miss most!  (the real reason I teared up while talking to her is because she was telling me about the boys last day of school and how they were so excited for the attention the class was giving them-I know that is not a reason to tear up, but I tear up at almost everything!)  Tonight I say goodbye to the family I was most attached to here-the Trawick family.  That will be the saddest part for me.  I have tutored their 12 year old twin daughters for almost a year now.  There little sister Jessie is the twins best friend and the mom and I have become good friends this past year.  I will miss their family.  But they are looking into new jobs and even some in Tucson, so maybe I won't have to say goodbye for long.

I love the military and the adventure of moving to new places.  I am excited to be going somewhere warm again.  After visiting Tucson last month, I can honestly say, I think I am going to love it there, desert and all.

Poison Oak

It is a crazy week. It started Friday night when Eric went on his overnight wilderness survival campout. Eric came home with poison oak all over his face. I think his teacher said it best, "I hope you got a merit badge out of it." I am not sure it was worth it even for a merit badge. This is Eric's last week of school at La Mesa before we move, and he has been in school about 1 1/2 hours the last 3 days. He had to get a steroid shot in his bottom. I think maybe he purposely rolled in the poison oak so he could have this one on one time with me before our big move.

Mario defends the boy scout leaders' decisions to campout in a field of poison oak. He says that's what the whole wilderness survival merit badge is all about. I think that no one should have to endure what Eric has been through for the last several days. What do you think? Am I just being an overprotective mother?

The rest of the crazy week has been packing out our home. Fortunately for me, I have gotten out of a lot of the work because I need to take care of my sick Eric. The movers are so supposed to finish loading tomorrow by 4:30. We are scheduled for our final inspection for our house at 4:30. I think that is cutting it a little close!

Next week we are going to American Girl Store, Legoland, and Sea World on our way to Tucson. We still don't have a house, but maybe something will come available before next week.