Christmas and Lately.

Where to start? It's been a while since I've had a good chunk of time online to sit and write a blog and update.

Christmas has been and gone - another year over, a new one about to begin. I'm excited about the new year, and all the changes and adventures that will come with it.

So, recap time. Christmas. We spent Christmas with Sherry and Kris (Tommy's parents) in Florida, as you all should know. The weather in the days leading up to Christmas were bitterly cold, and very un-Florida like. We dropped below freezing a few nights in a row - and then all of a sudden, it got hot. We have been in t-shirts these past couple of days!

Wesley didn't get TOO spoilt - only a little bit :oP Tommy and I also got a little bit spoilt, so I guess there was spoiling all around! Thank you to everyone who got us gifts - it was so generous of you and we're so grateful :o)

One exciting thing DID happen on Christmas Day, though. Wesley rolled from his tummy to his back. *boop* Just like that! I guess with all the travelling, being in the car, stroller, Grandma Sherry's arm (LOL!) he hasn't had much time on the ground playing. Well, on Christmas we popped him down on his tummy on a blanket and two second later he just plopped over like it was nothing! Like he was trying to tell us "Yo! I've been able to do this, you never gave me a chance, though!" We got the second roll over on video, so once I get back to Virginia, where my camera cable is, I'll post it for you all! I'm such a proud Mama!


The Military appears to have stuffed up our pay (surprise, surprise) and it looks like we're going to have to pay our second month's rent out of pocket, too! (We already paid our first, gah!) I am just grateful we have savings, really. Hopefully, Tommy can sort it all out on Monday, though, when he calls the Personal Services Dept.

We are looking at leaving for Virginia at the end of the first week on January, as Tommy has to go back to work no later than the 15th - and we need to get ourselves settled and back into routine (and hopefully have our pay sorted out in time for the pay on the 15th.)

I really can't think of anything else to report. It's been pretty quiet and relaxing, really. Just as a vacation should be :o)

In Florida

So here we are. Back in Pace, Florida.
It's Sunday evening - we arrived on Friday night. It took us a full 24 hours to get here - a little longer than we anticipated, but we took plenty of breaks for Wesley.

Everything here is going well - trying to do our Christmas shopping for each other, and all the family that we'll be seeing. I had forgotten what Christmas crowds are like - it's been quite a few years since I had left it to the week before Chrsitmas to do my shopping! Egads!

We don't have much internet access, still. I don't think we'll be back online until we get back to Virgina (Sometime around the 11th, though we don't have a date set in stone.) I am trying to check my emails and Facebook when I can, though I rarely have time to write back to everyone individually (Thank goodness for the blog, now you can all know I am thinking of each and every one of you!)

Every one here is well, and doting on Wesley. He is a very much loved little boy (Was there any doubt?) However, unsurprisingly, due to all the changes, he is no longer sleeping through the night and is getting cranky in the evenings because his nap routine is off with all the people to see and what not. We'll tackle the night sleeping once we get back to VA - I don't see any point in challenging him right now, when things are going to change yet again for him in a few weeks!

That's it for now - I'll try and get online in a few days and upload some photos! I know I haven't put any up at all this month, and I'm sorry about that. I hope you guys are being understanding about all the chaos in our lives right now and for the next few weeks!

I love you all and I miss you very much. And another special shout out to Mamma Bear. Christmas isn't Christmas without you and I'm missing you just a little bit more.

Saturday Entry Posted on Sunday

Here we are in Virginia Beach. It's Saturday - we arrived at midnight on Thursday, 31 and a half hours after we woke up Sara's and left Okinawa for the last time for a long time. (We hope to get stationed back there some time in the future, we loved it so much!)

It was an exhausting trip, but no where near as bad as we had feared! Wesley was really quite an angel and if I could thank him in a way that he would understand, I would do it 1,000 times over!

Our flight leaving Seattle to Washington DC ran about 45 minutes late leaving me VERY stressed out and us only enough time to scuttle as quickly as we could across the terminal to our next gate and literally jump on the plane to Virginia Beach.

Somewhere along that little adventure our luggage, all SIX bags of it, got lost. We checked it at Seattle, through to VA (as we knew we only had a VERY small frame of window to change planes...) and it never made it to VA. They told us to wait 48 hours, and if it wasn't back (it's been 24+ now...) then United Airlines would compensate us with either money or airline tickets. As Tommy pointed out - why would we want to fly with an airline who loses our bags?

Luckily we all had one (or more, if you're Wesley) change of clothes in our carry on. And our sponsor here was VERY kind and lent us his pack'n'play (portable cot) for Wesley to sleep in. It's a make-do and hope they find everything situation right now!

What can I tell you about Virginia Beach? It's cold, but not as cold as I expected. However, the high today is only 4C and the low is -3C, so it's still awfully cold.

We picked up our car yesterday - another trot of misadventures. I swear, Tommy and I used up all our luck when we met each other! We've said to each other for years, and I truly believe it is true. Aye! So we get lost on the way there. Unbelievably Wesley takes a nap for an hour - the time it SHOULD have taken to get there - instead it takes over two, and he loss his cool, screaming in a way that suggests he is telling us: "The deal is if I take a nap, when I wake up we're suppose to be there, yo!"

We get there, finally, the dealer has everything ready for us and gives us directions to the DMV to get our number plates and registration sorted. Five minutes down the road. Huh, uh, yeah right. Over 45 minutes later, one VERY distraught baby (and in turn, Mamma) we find the DMV, and they tell us without proof of residency (a lease, or a bill with our address on it...) they can't do it. We try to explain we don't have a lease yet, as we arrived only last night from Japan. No deal. So we drive BACK to the dealer (which, not surprisingly only takes about 5-10 minutes now that we know the way... *shakes head*) and she suggests we get a "Travel Note" which gives us permission to drive our car without plates or registration for 3 days until we can get everything sorted.

So, we trek back to the DMV with a baby who screams at the very IDEA of a carseat by this point. (Oh, drive to Florida you will be the death of me, for sure....) and the lady gives us this $5 little piece of paper. (Why she couldn't give it to us the first time is why she works for a Government department, I'm sure. It must be part of the training...?) We drive BACK to the dealer and pick up our car. We put Wesley's carseat into our car, and drive the little over an hour home. Wes again naps for an hour, but screams pretty much as soon as he wakes up, in a similar fashion to the earlier "Why aren't we there yet? I napped!" screams.

We stop at Target on the way back home to give Wes (and ourselves) a little rest - it's been a LOT of hours (5+) in the car, and we went a grand total of, oh, no where. So we stop, and we browse new carseats for Wes. We find one we like, but decide to have a look at the NEX (the Navy version of the PX) and Babies R Us just to make sure, seeing as this one will last him until he is big enough to sit in the seat without a booster. (So 4+ years!) We also pick up some baby food (I did pack three days worth, but of course it's in my suitcase!) and a few other necessities we need that were packed into the suitcase. We pick up some Wendy's (Tommy's favourite fast food - for my Aussie's, it's not an ice cream store like at home, it's fast food - burgers, fries, etc) and head back to base and our lodge room where the internet doesn't work. Ha, for two internet junkies such as ourselves, this is almost like a fate worth than death! (I'm writing this blog in Word, and will cut and paste it as soon as we get some internet - maybe at Starbucks tomorrow, or something?)

So that's the last two fun-filled days.

Oh, and I arrive in Virginia Beach to find out that my Mum is flying to England on Saturday (She's already left now, Saturday Australia time) to see my Gran who had a fall, and is in bad shape. Not the best news - leaves me worrying about not only Gran, but my Mum as well! :o( I love you Mamma Bear and I hope you know that if I could do this for you, I would.

Been and Gone

Well, it's night time now after a looooong day.
The movers arrived at about 12:30, checked what we wanted packed (Uh, everything?) then left fr half an hour to have their lunch break. From 1:15-5:10 they were here packing, taping, wrapping, boxing everything. And now my house is virtually empty. There are FEW pieces of Government borrowed furniture, there is Wesley's pack'n'play, two fold up chairs and a borrowed air mattress. It echoes in here, now!

I survived. I ended the day with a MASSIVE headache. Aye! Stress, noise, lack of food... it all compounded. Wesley also had a rough trot with it. Because they were here for 4 hours, he missed a nap. He also got VERY over stimulated and cried. I felt so bad for the poor little guy - we ended up going for a walk, but it didn't help a lot!

Tomorrow we have to turn everything off (mobiles, phones, internet, cable, etc) and clean the house for our final inspection. No rest for the wicked!

Movers Tomorrow.

I'm sitting here at 9:38 at night, chaos surrounding me, listening to the washing machine and counting the minutes until tomorrow is over.

The movers are coming tomorrow for the rest of our house. It's daunting and over whelming. I feel like there is a lot missing from our 5 suitcases but I have "packers block" (Like writer's block, but for packing.)

I had an "Oh, stuff it" moment where I announced that if I forget it now, I'll just re-buy it in the States. I'm tired of stressing. It's exhausting and is doing nothing for me. All that is really left is sorting the washing that is washing right now, packing Wesley's white noise machine and the wireless router. Oh and our toiletries.

We have no idea what time the packers will arrive - we are hoping about 9-10am and hopefully they'll be finished by 1-2pm. It's a guessing game, though. We've seen trucks pull up at 3pm and still be packing people's houses up as night falls. (I am desperately hoping that is not the case for us!)

*sigh* I thought that writing everything down would take the weight off my shoulders but it doesn't seem to be. It seems to be getting worse... Making me think about everything that is about to happen in the next 24 hours and the thought of coping with it all!

Oh well, I guess I'll write tomorrow after it's all over and let you all know how it went! I'm going to finish everything up as soon as humanly possible and enjoy my last night in my bed for a long time. It's an air mattress for the next 3 nights, a bed at the lodge for a week in Virginia, and then a futon at Sherry's house for 3 weeks, then back to the air mattress for the month after that. *groans* I hate TMO...

Merry Christmas!

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Count Down

Welcome to December. Crunch time.

As far as what we have left to do, the list is getting shorter - thank goodness.
Tommy and I cleared out a bunch of crap today - and, a bunch of it I was thinking "Why do I even HAVE this?" One of the bonuses of moving - it's so cleansing!

Our express shipment is being packed on Friday. We're sending Wesley's crib, some kitchen items, a tv and a few other necessities. (Yes, the TV is a necessity!) Then we have everything else packed up on Monday. I kind of can't believe it is less than two weeks to go!

I'm getting very nervous about the trip with Wesley. Not just the flying (28 hours of travel! Urrrrgh!) which will be challenging, but the drive to Florida. Wesley cannot stand his car seat and SCREAMS the entire time he is in it. We are buying him a new carseat when we get to Virginia, but I don't know if that will fix the problem or not. And the drive will be 14+ hours. It's quite harrowing, just thinking about it.

Otherwise, Wesley is doing amazingly. Napping like a true champion TWICE a day. We have each other figured out so much better these days, which leaves him happier and me less over whelmed. Thank goodness. There were quite a few hairy weeks where I wondered what I'd gotten myself into.

He's also eating SO well. He has rice cereal once a day (right before his bath and bed) and seems to quite like it. Tonight, Tommy and I decided to boil some baby carrots and mash them into the cereal. He LOVED it and ate it all up. We couldn't quite believe it. I guess it was a nice change from the bland rice cereal!

That's about all the news from here. It's pretty much just clearing out and packing up for the next few days and then we go into "transition" mode after that!