Sunday, January 31, 2010
Monday, January 25, 2010
We're in TEXAS!!!!
We made it to Killeen, Texas around 7PM on Saturday night. The last leg of the trip from Dallas to Killeen was beautiful. The sun was shining...as it had been raining for the two days prior to this it was a nice change. The kids were in a good mood and the speed limit is 75 in places! But lets start from the beginning.
Friday morning started with none other than car trouble. For the first time ever our trusty Prius decided it didn't want to start. Luckily it was only a dead battery so since Jake's brother Jer and his wife Sarah were there we could actually jump start it. Well, after 25 minutes of reading how to jump start a hybrid. I felt so stupid. : ) So we got off to a rocky start but things went well from there. Jake and I went on post and signed me out on leave while Jer and Sarah stayed home with the kids. Then Jake and I picked up our rental truck and went to the weigh station and got both the car and truck weighed empty. Just to see how much one family's junk really weighs. Not really, the military wants that info not us.
THE packing of the truck only took a few hours thanks to our many moves we had decided it would be better to put all the boxes we had packed over the past few weeks in the garage and so the truck filled up quickly and easily. Jer and Jake loaded the furniture while I cleaned up after them and Sarah thankfully distracted the two rug rats. We were on our way to re-weigh the vehicles by 1pm. Just an hour shy of my original planned time of departure. Not bad considering the morning's car trouble. We had a wonderful lunch at the BBQ place down the road and then we were off. We made it as far as Tulsa OK the first night. There we stopped at a Motel 8 (really great place for being a cheap hotel). WHile checking in THor managed to pull the fire alarm and it went off for the next three hours. For some reason they couldn't figure out how to shut it off. Woops. We woke up to some Texas shaped waffles for breakfast before getting back on the road.
WE stopped for a late lunch just over the Texas state line. The kids were champs in the car. Never really complaining and I have to say that is pretty awesome considering when we got to the city limits of Killleen I wanted to say "are we there yet?"
Now we are living in the Townplace suites by Marriott for the next week until we get a place. The housing office told us this morning that it will be 60 - 90 days until we get a place on post. So we decided to put our things in storage and live in a furnished apartment until we get a place. Since the army is footing the bill for storage and the truck and all we decided we didnt' want to unpack and repack another time. Its not what we were hoping for but in 60-90 days life will be prerfect. Or as perfect as it can get.
THe town of Killeen is the opposite of St Robert. We have every imaginable store/restraunt and it even has a mall. Post is amazingly intimidating since it is about 10 times the size of ft lost in the woods. We are pretty happy to be here - we'll post picutures later. Sorry for any punctuation errors, etc. I am typing this on my phone. : )
Friday morning started with none other than car trouble. For the first time ever our trusty Prius decided it didn't want to start. Luckily it was only a dead battery so since Jake's brother Jer and his wife Sarah were there we could actually jump start it. Well, after 25 minutes of reading how to jump start a hybrid. I felt so stupid. : ) So we got off to a rocky start but things went well from there. Jake and I went on post and signed me out on leave while Jer and Sarah stayed home with the kids. Then Jake and I picked up our rental truck and went to the weigh station and got both the car and truck weighed empty. Just to see how much one family's junk really weighs. Not really, the military wants that info not us.
THE packing of the truck only took a few hours thanks to our many moves we had decided it would be better to put all the boxes we had packed over the past few weeks in the garage and so the truck filled up quickly and easily. Jer and Jake loaded the furniture while I cleaned up after them and Sarah thankfully distracted the two rug rats. We were on our way to re-weigh the vehicles by 1pm. Just an hour shy of my original planned time of departure. Not bad considering the morning's car trouble. We had a wonderful lunch at the BBQ place down the road and then we were off. We made it as far as Tulsa OK the first night. There we stopped at a Motel 8 (really great place for being a cheap hotel). WHile checking in THor managed to pull the fire alarm and it went off for the next three hours. For some reason they couldn't figure out how to shut it off. Woops. We woke up to some Texas shaped waffles for breakfast before getting back on the road.
WE stopped for a late lunch just over the Texas state line. The kids were champs in the car. Never really complaining and I have to say that is pretty awesome considering when we got to the city limits of Killleen I wanted to say "are we there yet?"
Now we are living in the Townplace suites by Marriott for the next week until we get a place. The housing office told us this morning that it will be 60 - 90 days until we get a place on post. So we decided to put our things in storage and live in a furnished apartment until we get a place. Since the army is footing the bill for storage and the truck and all we decided we didnt' want to unpack and repack another time. Its not what we were hoping for but in 60-90 days life will be prerfect. Or as perfect as it can get.
THe town of Killeen is the opposite of St Robert. We have every imaginable store/restraunt and it even has a mall. Post is amazingly intimidating since it is about 10 times the size of ft lost in the woods. We are pretty happy to be here - we'll post picutures later. Sorry for any punctuation errors, etc. I am typing this on my phone. : )
Friday, January 22, 2010
blogging from the rd
I'm blogging on my phone so this is going to be short.
Murphy's law was in full effect today. Moving day! Woke up at 0700 to a car with a dead battery. Packing went well tho. We got on the rd around 3pm and drove to tulsa oklahoma... There's a story abot a fire alarm that will have to wait. Duty calls.
Murphy's law was in full effect today. Moving day! Woke up at 0700 to a car with a dead battery. Packing went well tho. We got on the rd around 3pm and drove to tulsa oklahoma... There's a story abot a fire alarm that will have to wait. Duty calls.
Monday, January 18, 2010
Nielsen Gathering!
Early last week Jake and I both received text messages from Grandma Cori. She was inviting us all to a party for PeePaw's birthday that weekend. On a whim we decided to make that trek to Chicago for the celebration. I had a three day weekend and it was our last one in the mid-west for quite some time. We headed out on Friday afternoon and made great time - arriving in New Lenox around 9:30 PM that evening. WE hung out at the in-laws for a few hours before heading to the Walona Hotel that is our home away from home when we visit. The next morning we got up bright and shiny early to have a tasty french toast breakfast (I'm going to have to have grandma teach Jake how to make it like hers, because it was exactly the way I like it, and I don't usually care for french toast.)
The kids hung out with MeeMaw for a few hours while Jake and I ran to Orland Square Mall to get some gifts engraved for a few of my instructors. Then we headed over to Portillo's for a delicious italian beef sandwich and chocolate cake shake! YUM-O in the words of Rachel Ray! lol.
Jake's younger brother Adam and his wife and son Wylie got into town around 3PM and hung out unil Wylie's bedtime. Then they were off to Joliet to stay with Sarah's Grandma.
We all had plans for a late breakfast the next morning and a day of hanging out together. WE haven't all been together in a few years now - between babies and other family obligations it just hasn't been in the cards. SO it was a true celebration! who knows when it will be that we can all be together again.
We headed out for home on MOnday morning - after having a quiet breakfast with Grandpa. While getting his jacket on Thor picked up a tiny giraffe and hid it under his jaket. I asked what he was doing and then he took it out and asked Peepaw if he could take it home. He did this at Christmas and not an hour after we were home he started talking about how he had to take that particular animal back to Peepaw. He must feel that he needs an excuse to go back to Grandpa's house. Poor baby was so sad when we left. He cried for at least half an hour and begged to go to Peepaw's house and then he wanted to go home.
We stopped in to see my Grandma Zimmerman when going through Bloomington. She has been in and out of the hospital/nursing home for a few months now. She was so happy to see us and we ended up staying for about two hours. It was the first time she had been out of her room in over a week so I was glad we could come and visit.
NOw it is back to reality. Packing is going to be fast and furious over the next few days. We are packing our truck to move to Texas in just four days! Unbelievable!!!
The kids hung out with MeeMaw for a few hours while Jake and I ran to Orland Square Mall to get some gifts engraved for a few of my instructors. Then we headed over to Portillo's for a delicious italian beef sandwich and chocolate cake shake! YUM-O in the words of Rachel Ray! lol.
Jake's younger brother Adam and his wife and son Wylie got into town around 3PM and hung out unil Wylie's bedtime. Then they were off to Joliet to stay with Sarah's Grandma.
We all had plans for a late breakfast the next morning and a day of hanging out together. WE haven't all been together in a few years now - between babies and other family obligations it just hasn't been in the cards. SO it was a true celebration! who knows when it will be that we can all be together again.
We headed out for home on MOnday morning - after having a quiet breakfast with Grandpa. While getting his jacket on Thor picked up a tiny giraffe and hid it under his jaket. I asked what he was doing and then he took it out and asked Peepaw if he could take it home. He did this at Christmas and not an hour after we were home he started talking about how he had to take that particular animal back to Peepaw. He must feel that he needs an excuse to go back to Grandpa's house. Poor baby was so sad when we left. He cried for at least half an hour and begged to go to Peepaw's house and then he wanted to go home.
We stopped in to see my Grandma Zimmerman when going through Bloomington. She has been in and out of the hospital/nursing home for a few months now. She was so happy to see us and we ended up staying for about two hours. It was the first time she had been out of her room in over a week so I was glad we could come and visit.
NOw it is back to reality. Packing is going to be fast and furious over the next few days. We are packing our truck to move to Texas in just four days! Unbelievable!!!
Saturday, January 9, 2010
Back to the grindstone ...and almost done!
This was the first week back to work after Exodus (the Army term for Christmas vacation). It was also the coldest week they have had since 1985. Normally not a huge deal to have a bad cold snap unless it is that time to head to the field. We were headed out Monday morning at 3:30 AM for three days. Thankfully the post deemed it to cold to do night training so we only had to go out during the day. Not to say that is was easy but it could have been much worse. Since we are no longer in that basic training phase of our education in the Army, we were allowed to wear whatever "snivel" (cold weather clothes) we had out there. Providing it was Army issue of course. Thank goodness Jake kept all his cool Army stuff so I was well prepared for the subzero temps we experienced. Wednesday was our last day out.
Thursday was a tough day. We went to CDTF (a special chemical training site) and donned our MOPP4 (suites and masks, complete with gloves and boots that protects against chemical agents) we tested our equipment and then completed several tasks while in our MOPP4. It was exhausting and very hot. One girl got so overheated that she unfortunately threw up in her mask. However since we were still in the room with the nerve agent she had to keep her mask on until they could remove her from the toxic environment. She was so calm about it. I would have been freaking out. : ]
Friday I was lucky enough to finally hear from the housing office at Ft Hood .... not good news unfortunately. The policy for on post housing in Texas is that we can not even get on the wait list for housing until I sign out of Ft Leonard Wood. That won't be until the 20th so we are just going to find a furnished apartment and move into it until our house is ready. I know people do this every day but it seems like a flawed system somehow. Oh well.
We got off work early on Friday and I spent the rest of the afternoon hanging out with Jake and the kids. I had to go back out later that evening to my very first Dining Out. This is a big military tradition where you get dressed up in your pretty uniform ( I was so excited to get to wear earrings- since we can't with our every day uniform) and go pretend you're having a fabulous time with the people you see every day at work. lol. It was fun to a point but the junior class who was in charge of it did a poor job planning and there were lots of hitches in the actual ceremony. Thankfully it was in no way our responsibility we won't get raked over the coals for it Monday morning.
Here it is Saturday already and in just two weeks time we will be in Texas at our new temporary house. I cant' tell you how much I am looking forward to being done with all the moving. Thor is gettting prepared. We told him that we are moving to texas and he goes around all the time now telling us about it. As well as when he sees an animal on discovery or animal planet that is native to Texas he will tell us all about it. Baleigh really doesn't get the whole thing yet.
Thursday was a tough day. We went to CDTF (a special chemical training site) and donned our MOPP4 (suites and masks, complete with gloves and boots that protects against chemical agents) we tested our equipment and then completed several tasks while in our MOPP4. It was exhausting and very hot. One girl got so overheated that she unfortunately threw up in her mask. However since we were still in the room with the nerve agent she had to keep her mask on until they could remove her from the toxic environment. She was so calm about it. I would have been freaking out. : ]
Friday I was lucky enough to finally hear from the housing office at Ft Hood .... not good news unfortunately. The policy for on post housing in Texas is that we can not even get on the wait list for housing until I sign out of Ft Leonard Wood. That won't be until the 20th so we are just going to find a furnished apartment and move into it until our house is ready. I know people do this every day but it seems like a flawed system somehow. Oh well.
We got off work early on Friday and I spent the rest of the afternoon hanging out with Jake and the kids. I had to go back out later that evening to my very first Dining Out. This is a big military tradition where you get dressed up in your pretty uniform ( I was so excited to get to wear earrings- since we can't with our every day uniform) and go pretend you're having a fabulous time with the people you see every day at work. lol. It was fun to a point but the junior class who was in charge of it did a poor job planning and there were lots of hitches in the actual ceremony. Thankfully it was in no way our responsibility we won't get raked over the coals for it Monday morning.
Here it is Saturday already and in just two weeks time we will be in Texas at our new temporary house. I cant' tell you how much I am looking forward to being done with all the moving. Thor is gettting prepared. We told him that we are moving to texas and he goes around all the time now telling us about it. As well as when he sees an animal on discovery or animal planet that is native to Texas he will tell us all about it. Baleigh really doesn't get the whole thing yet.
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