Dusting off the rose colored glasses

I’m in the honeymoon phase of living here. The phase before the pain of really preparing for the move, but I can see the end of our time here rapidly approaching. I can’t believe tomorrow’s Friday, and we’re already halfway into March. I didn’t get anything constructive done, like take some stuff to the thrift store to be consigned, or go through the boxes in my basement from the last move. Maybe I’ll just leave the junk in them and sort it all out when we get there. Or better yet, just get rid of it, except I just know I’ll need something as soon as I throw them away. Plus, you know, we’re moving back to colder climes, so we might actually need some stuff we haven’t in a good long while.

The weather here is beautiful, warm enough to enjoy being outdoors without breaking a sweat by virtue of breathing. I catch myself counting the things I’m going to miss about living here. We have found a rhythm and I’ll be sorry to see it go. I am looking forward to the new place, and I’m hoping that our upcoming trip out there will really get me excited… but I didn’t think I would get so attached to here. Weird. Soon enough I will be anxious to get about the business of getting moved, but for now I am content with where I’m at. This is new and uncharted territory for me. Normally the military makes my roots shallow and I’m all about how good life will be whenever we get to where we’re going.

But what if my expectations are too high? What if (I can’t believe I’m actually typing this) I actually miss it here while I am living in Colorado? That’s just wrong. The overwhelming pollen here must be addling my brain.

Some philosophical green (day 4)

A little indoor green for today.

Although I was tempted to photograph the green porta-potties I saw today, I restrained myself.

Dh and I both are realizing that our time left here is short and we have been spending a lot of time lately talking about what is to come…choosing a house, school and church. He is so weary of the endless school this year has brought, but heading back into the regular Army world means other things to him: the stress of moving, long hours in a new job, and of course deployment. As the resident optimist (a position I am not entirely sure I’m qualified for) I am more philosophical these days. If nothing else this year, I have learned that I need to just focus on the good things right now. Because we move so often, I often fall victim to “the grass is greener” axiom: how much life will be better wherever we are going. The reverse can be true, too, we’ve had moves where I was worried about how much worse it was going to be. The truth of the matter is, it’s not really better or worse, just different.

And different is sometimes good! That’s why I love this nomadic life. Sometimes it’s not quite as good as I’d hoped, but I’m getting just a little better at making my own “good”. It only took me 10 years to figure that out.

So…

would you like to know where we’re going?

It’s not Germany, or Korea. Expect the unexpected, right? That’s my new motto. Maybe I need to have a total meltdown more often. That and if you need something, you need to ask my mother because the good Lord totally answers her prayers. While I was praying just that God would send us wherever we were supposed to be, she was more direct: “keep them in the States!”

They ended up giving my dh his second choice. We’re moving back out west, to the mountains. I think I’m still in shock, but the RFO came today as well. I really need to quit talking smack about the branch managers.

Serenity now!

I feel better this morning, it’s amazing how sleeping on something makes it more manageable. My subconsious must have been hard at work last night.

I just couldn’t leave that last post on the top of the blog, although I don’t have much else to say about it.  I will wait as gracefully as I know how.

So for this morning, I will give you my favorite quote:

Yesterday is history. Tomorrow is a mystery. But today is a gift!  That’s why they call it the present.

And it came from Kung Fu Panda, of all places.  I am now reduced to finding my inspiration from cartoons.  But it’s a good one, no?  Someone famous probably said it first, although I don’t know who.  So if you know, please enlighten me.  

Pick your poison

I am throwing my personally imposed OPSEC out the window today, because I need to process this. My dh called up to branch today to see what they had to say… and the guy said that things were still being finalized, but basically getting one of our top three was highly unlikely. However, if my dh chose Korea or Germany (both choices on our list, but nowhere near the top) that he could give him either of those. Or we could wait and take our chances to see how it all shakes out by next week (meaning we could get lucky, or totally get stuck with something not on the list).

My dh quite wisely told them that he had to discuss it with the Household 6 (sorry, that would be ME for my non military readers) and that he would let them know tomorrow. He is really leaning towards Germany, because now accompanied tours to Korea are 3 years instead of 2.

Seriously? Germany wasn’t even on my radar. It was dead last on our list. I am feeling like my reality just shifted, it really blindsided me. And I feel like an idiot because after 10 years (almost 11) of experience with the big green machine, I should know better than to trust them to do something according to what I had planned.

Germany sounds fantastic, right up until we get to the part about him deploying for a year (or more) whilst I am in a foreign country. It’s not that I can’t handle that, it’s more about choosing that… especially when I know in Korea he would be somewhere on the peninsula where the dutchkid and I could reach him by train. Plus Korea is familiar to me, we got married there and I’ve been there twice. Then again, three years is a long time to be a 15+ hour plane ride from home.

Or after all this we could get something else. I HATE THIS PROCESS.

List schmist

Today the list of the top 8 places we would like to go was sent into dh’s branch manager. I seriously need a drumroll, or maybe just a drink. I feel like dh and I have been discussing options and what-ifs and rearranging the order for eons. We’re hoping to hear something back by the beginning of February. Dh has repeatedly been told that he should get something in his top 3, but I’ll believe that when it happens.

I’m just dying to type it out, but you know, my dh would never forgive me. His own self imposed OPSEC and all. How about a few hints? We could stay here in the South (several options there). We could move to Korea. We could move to a beautiful mountainous state where my friend Army Blogger Wife is moving. We could go to Spain (don’t I wish). That really narrows it down, doesn’t it?

I feel much better now having shared my angst.

Merry Christmas to you, too.

The list is out.

THE list. Available assignments for the coming summer PCS cycle. It was sent out on Friday evening, after duty hours. Isn’t that nice? So everyone can agonize over what’s on the list, without being able to get any answers over the week of Christmas.

Maybe they thought they were doing everybody a favor, but personally I would have been happy to spend Christmas in blissful ignorance.

And so it begins.

My dh contacted branch a few days ago to find out the timeline for when they’ll be determining his next assignment.  We figured it would be late December/early January before we would know, and that will definitely be the case (dh’s school ends in May, so we’ll be moving by early June).

I feel like I’ve blogged this subject to death over that past year or so from our last move, so I’ll try to spare you until I have actual news.   As always, the waiting drives my inner control freak crazy.  We are not particularly hopeful for a great assignment.  We are planning worst case that he will deploy within 6 months or less of our move because his dwell time will be over a year.    We had hoped the school he is attending now would have led to some interesting opportunities, but because his branch is so short he has been told that he will most likely get a regular old assignment where all the benefit of this school (the honing of his Spanish language skills and experience working with Central/South American counterparts) will not be used at all.

It’s discouraging because as his time in the Army draws to a close, we are starting to think of all the places we would have liked to have been, jobs he would have liked to have done.   In the past, he let other things go because it didn’t seem like a good career move, in retrospect now it doesn’t seem that important.  After this upcoming move we will likely only have one more before he drops his retirement paperwork and this Army chapter of our life is finished (that’s scary for me to even type).  This is the time we would like to have one of those cool overseas assignments.  Honestly, it makes me wish we had gone to Korea after all.

Such is life, I guess.  You do the best you can with what you know at the time.  Now we wait.  I’m trying to not let my cynicism get the best of me.

The damages

We are now mostly unpacked, I think this is a my new record for SLOW. I am to the point where I am getting to the things I enjoy about having a new house. We planted the flower beds yesterday and I finally got around to measuring our windows and starting to hang curtains. I have quite a bit of sewing to do, since the windows here are bigger than in my previous modern houses not very many of my curtains will work as is.

So far I have been amazed by the lack of damage to our stuff. Our previous move was our worst ever (where they broke among many other things, my beloved kitchen table). We don’t even have enough to file a claim on for this move:

1) my favorite hat was crushed (an elegant wide brimmed number that I love to wear to outdoor ceremonies, just because)

2) the dutchkid’s 99¢ pail and shovel broken into pieces

Seriously. That’s all I’ve got. Not a single dish, picture or knick knack. Most importantly the table and my piano came through unscathed. I should be grateful, but they didn’t even give me anything good to write about, dangit!

I am here…

…but trying to dig my way out of all the moving paper and boxes. We were in denial all weekend. So instead of starting to unpack after the moving truck was divested of its contents, we chose instead to stay at the hotel and pretend we were just visiting. The fence for the dogs went up today and I have legal internet instead of piggybacking on my new neighbors’ wireless. I will try to come up with some funny stories about the move to regale you with… soon.