My very own home

We had a new house we could move into. It was a 3 bedroom stand alone home with grass around the entire house. I make a point of describing this because most military housing are duplexes or quadplexes. The house had a living room and a family room a garage and 2 1/2 bathrooms. I loved it. It was the first time I had had a home. We had lived in apartments and have had to share parking, entry ways and noise with neighbors. It was exciting to have something all to ourselves. 

The master bedroom had a walk in closet… That was the best! moving dat came and as all our boxes were put in their appropriate  rooms we started to notice something, that most of the boxes were marked for the toddlersroom. Hmm seemed a little unfair to me, I definitely needed to buy myself things. After the movers were gone the house looked empty. We had tripled our square footage and all of our things fit but there was too much empty space. We went shopping. First thing we bought was a couch. My last couch had been given to me by my mother and though I was grateful I wanted things of my own. Next thing we bought was a dining room table. I was so excited. I could decorate it to my likes. the only thing he wouldn't let me do was hang pictures. He felt that since this was not our permanent home we shouldn't get too attatched. Too late, I was already attached.

I did not pee on myself

I was pacing the hallway of our mobile house. I was having cramps but not frequently enough. I was groggy and tired. then it happened. My water broke! yeah, I could go to the hospital. An acquaintance had volunteered to take the toddler while we were in the hospital. We dropped her and then made our way to the hospital. Upon check in they ask me why did I think I was in labor, "My water broke" I answered
"why do you think your water broke?"
I know it probably is a routine question but me being irritable at this time calmed myself and then said, "I felt a release of liquid and I know I didn't pee myself."

So the admitting nurse said OK and then went to get me checked in. I got situated in a observation room and had a new nurse come in and ask me why I was there, mind you my chart was in her hand. I again answered that I was in labor. She asked why I thought I was in labor…. OK at this point I start to grow my devil ears and tail and through my teeth exclaim, my water broke… she then asked why did I think my water broke… again with the did not pee myself response. Then I had the Dr come and he asked me all the same questions… At this point my husband seeing the irritation in my eyes responded for me all the same answers. The Dr checked me and said… "Oh yes your water broke." I wanted to scream  you idiot isn't that what I just told you.

So I finally got all situated with monitors and waiting for the anesthesiologist to give me my epidural… he was in surgery so I had to wait… they gave me something that they said was like an epidural and would take the edge off… ummm didn't work. Finally I got my epidural and about 3 hours later I had a new baby girl in my arms

Little mobile home

we had been put on a list for base housing. And since I was pregnant we were entitled to a 3 bedroom. But while we waited we needed to find temporary accommodations. We needed to find a furnished place since all of our things were in storage and I only wanted to unpack once. We settled on a small mobile home. The rent was very cheap and he would allow us to rent month to month so we could move out as soon as we got housing, which they told us would be approximately 30 days

It was a fairly small place, but we didn't need much room and it was much better then the hotel. We had to buy a TV and we didn't have cable so we settled on buying movies. I bought 3 movies to keep my daughter entertained. But since these were the only three movies we had access to, it is all I watched. I had Barney, Aladdin, and Elmo. I got tired of the movies quickly but fortunately she did not.

It wasn't great, but it wasn't bad either. the only slight problem we had is when we had a small category 1 hurricane come through. every time the wind blew I imagined the trailer blowing over but other than that it was fine.

Finally in Florida

Arrived in Florida on  August 16. We checked into out Hotel Room and he went to check in off leave. The room was fine but what sucked was tomorrow was my birthday. I wasn't happy with the circumstances, I was pregnant and irritable, I was at a place that where I knew no one and my husband would be gone for most of the day.The baby was tired and fell asleep on the bed almost immediately.

The next day he went off to work and left us at the hotel. We only had one car and I had no idea where anything was so I didn't want to venture out, also this was the panhandle, so it was muggy and hot and just yucky this time of the year. The baby and I sat in the room and watched TV for most of the day. Then she got cranky and so did I. I interpreted her screams, I was very fluent in cranky, "I don't want to be here, I'm bored, why did he not leave us a car, he could have walked, this room is cramped, TV is not fun anymore, I want to go home…" Yup I felt the same way, poor baby.

He finally got home and we went out to eat. We explored the city for a bit, but not really much to explore. HE told me we had appointments the next day for various things, I was excited, I would get to leave the room!!!!

On the road again

Day two of our trip was mundane. The baby had just been potty trained so we are always in need of a bathroom. During one of the stretches of seeing no city in sight, the baby said she needed to go potty. We frantically looked around for some sort of civilization. After about 10 minutes of driving we couldn't find anything so we pulled over and tried to get her to on the side of the road. It turned into a fit. She did not want to go on the side of the road , she wanted a bathroom. It was a beautiful meadow we told her she was watering the flowers. She continued to cry and yell that she wanted a bathroom. I did not want her back in the car in the state she was in.  There was no way I could handle this fit. I was already frustrated with the drive. He was getting frustrated because we were loosing driving time.

He finally got her to calm down and we continued on our drive. We hoped that she could wait until we found a place to stop. About a 1/2 hour later we saw a gas stop and diner called Diner. For me it was a little sketchy but the baby was happy. I took her to the restroom that left a lot to be desired. I would've gladly gone on the side of the road compared to this establishment that I swear I saw in one the friday the 13th movies. So now we were happy and back on the road.

The trip- day one

Our trip started out oK. we were trying to to make it as far into new mexico as we could on day one. The baby was tired and so was I.  We were driving through a small town that had a posted speed limit of 35mph. It was about 9pm and we still had about 1 more hour to go. As we were driving all of a sudden there was a siren and lights  behind us. Yuk his bad luck strikes again.

 He has horrible luck with getting pulled over for speeding. I call it bad luck because he has been pulled over right after pulling out of  a drive way, once he got pulled over twice in an hour for the same fix it issue, and he has gotten pulled over for being a carpool lane even though the kids were in the back seat and then the cop mentioned something about the tint on the back windows (which is not illegal).

So he got pulled over. The sheriff came over and to his window and immediately asked for his drivers license. He pulled out his military ID first and then his drivers license. The Sheriff looked at him and then asked "do you know how fast you were going?"
"no sir I don't", he answered.
"you were going 37 in a 35."

WHAT! he stopped us for what! somehow I did not find this fair in the slightest. This would definitely not have happened in Cali.

The sheriff continued, "are you in the service?"
"Yes, sir. We are driving to our new duty station."
"I've always liked you service boys. I'm gonna let you off with a warning, you want to arrive there safely, watch your speed sonny."

Yeah like those 2 miles per hour are the difference between life and death. anyways so that was day one.

Starting new

The car was all packed and ready to go. It was the night before we were leaving. We went to target to pick up al the last things needed like snacks and water and maps. We were planning on taking the 40 to miss as much of Texas as we could. we had a small little sentra that was perfect for a family of 3. I got some puzzle books to do on the road.

It was difficult to get to sleep. I was moving across the country. Only for a year and I didn't know what would happen after that. I loved having a new start. I always felt I could reinvent myself. Be that better person I always wanted to be. I would get to meet new people and  they could meet the perky sweet nice me. I always found it exciting to move. I could leave all those bad thoughts of me behind. I feel that moving is like a new years resolution, I get to start with a clean slate…. I will always clean my house and have it immaculate for surprise guests.

Another thing I liked about moving was creating a new color scheme. I love decorating my house and welcome any reason to buy new things for the house. this was going to be great a trip, I just couldnt wait for it to start!