Thankfulness 2013: Day Eleven and Twelve

Though the military irritates me more often than it doesn't, I am still very thankful for the opportunities and family it has provided us.  The military background helped my husband find his great civilian job.  I don't love the way it is run but I absolutely love the men and women in service.

On those days where the incessant whining, cries, demands, and questions all pile upon my near-to-bleeding ears, I remember my great appreciation for today's luxuries.  I won't lie, I am very thankful for 24/7 kid television programming!!  Disney Junior, Sprout, The Hub, etc.  There isn't a minute that I can't find something appropriate for my toddler to gain five minutes of distraction if needed.  Pair that with DVD's, educational tablet apps, crayons, chalk, books, toys, puzzles, and food, one would think that this would all add up to a full and busy day without draining a parent.  It is never the case, but it certainly maintains parental sanity until bedtime...most nights anyways!

Honestly, any distraction of little to no risk to the health of my kids is appreciated.  I'm always looking for suggestions too!  *hint hint*

30 Days of Thankfulness: Day Thirty!

The final day in November and we are still in our month by month apartment.  With a close date finally settled and contracted we have an end in sight to the expensive apartment contract!  We will be done and out of the apartment by the end of January (actually we are aiming for mid January so we are settled into the house before Baby Brother joins us but we have to pay through January).  I am so thankful for all the things that have allowed us to do this monthly apartment and be together.  Chris' job, pet sitters (!!), (sadly) our savings, friends who let Chris couch-surf for months, the sale of our other house, family that gave Alyssa and I a space for a little more than a week to live, and so many other things that eventually fell into place.  Of course we didn't escape completely unscathed (see savings....) but we were able to live together for the last 3 months (and the next month and half that we wouldn't have if we didn't have the apartment).  It has been a blessing for our family albeit an expensive one.  I guess it isn't officially over but the light is visible and we are excited!

(On a completely side note:  I never thought I'd actually make it through the month without missing at least one Thankfulness post!  Yay me!!)

30 Days of Thankfulness: Day Fifteen

I am thankful for family-friendly companies!  I could be thankful for such companies as a consumer but specifically I am thinking of my husband's workplace.  Over the last six months they have repeatedly given him time off for house hunting during our relocation.  Since Alyssa and I have made it down here and I have found an OB for this pregnancy, they have welcomed Alyssa into the workplace during one appointment and allowed time off for Papa to join us for others.  They let dogs come to work with their employees frequently and children when the needs arise.  They have an amazing paternity leave program (though we won't technically qualify because it will be less than a year of working there at the time this baby comes along) but they still are giving Papa time off to help during my recovery and for him to bond with our little boy and help transition Alyssa from 'only child' to 'big sister'.  So many different things that set them apart from other employers and each one warrants a new reason to be thankful that we found them and that they loved Chris enough to grab him up as their IT person.

They even welcomed Alyssa in costume on Halloween while I had an OB appointment (and the office manager gave a bunch of the employees candy for her to Trick or Treat for...not that she did.)

Consider this a fresh start and a recap!

Wow...Obviously I've been neglecting my blogging.  We are going through some crazy changes around here and it has been a bit of a whirlwind since I last posted.

Hubby got a new job after having been deployed (which you rode along with us here).

Our family is growing in January.  (A baby brother!)

Previously mentioned new job caused a long distance family situation for about 3 months.  Papa/Hubby lived on a friend's couch during this time about 270miles away from us and came home most weekends while we tried to sell our house and relocate...Oh yeah--heavy lifting such as packing boxes and moving them is frowned upon during pregnancy I'm told so that slowed this process down even more being the only adult in our household on a day-to-day basis again.

The sale of the house was delayed by city regulation stipulations being disputed BY A NEIGHBOR...We won't go into details because I don't want to get riled up right now ;)

Sale went through and an offer was placed on a short sale in the new location which took over two months to hear nothing.  Yay....

We are back to living in an apartment but together finally and looking again at houses in the area in hopes we can find the house we need for our growing family!

All this done with our two year old daughter who has discovered that being two is very tough.  I hope to keep up with this blog now (minus whenever we finally do move into a new house--that transition time) that life is settling in again.  Enjoy our adventures in toddlerhood and down the road adventures of dual children houses!

Mission Changes and Guru-ness

My husband over the last 24 hours has been moved.  His mission has changed (though his job has not).  Overall, this isn't the worst thing out there.  He is now (temporarily) up in Iraq in support of a draw down.  While some would freak out over this, I think I had only about 30 seconds or so of apprehension over this.  At this point, Iraq is generally a safe place to be again for our troops (as the bases they are restricted to are quite secure).  As I sit here thinking about it, really, the biggest inconvenience as I see it is that the mail is suspended due to the draw down of this base.  All letters and packages will be held at his original post until his return.  What a shitty thing to not be able to get physical letters and packages!  We just sent his first box off last week and he didn't get it before the move so he likely won't get it for over a month now--those poor lonely Oreo's!

There goes our wonderful thoughts of a cake walk deployment.  Well, my mind is a little complex because I have a hierarchical mind and without snail-mail it only really goes from cake walk downgraded to easy...  As a techy army man, this deployment his job requires internet...which means he should almost always HAVE internet.  We will have Facebook; we will have e-mail; likely during at least some of the time, we will have Skype.  This is so much more than many families get over a deployment that I am blessed with the expectations of it even.

On the plus side (if one wants to look at it this way...) he was specifically chosen for this mission because he is 'well-rounded' in the equipment of not only his job, but the sister jobs as well.  His newest designation (posted at his new place) is the S6 Guru.  So Congrats Hon!  Your over-achieving, productiveness has been noticed...next time aim for a promotion instead of a deployment.  ;-)

Job Hunting Joys

The joys of job hunting...
1. A minimum of DOZENS of applications submitted resulting in a maximum of TWO phone calls back.
2. Those two phone calls resulting in interviews in which one will tell you they will call you and never does, and the other not even wasting their breath on the lie.
3. A few more dozen applications submitted with less discretion as to the job this time sent off with endless amounts of hoping that you don't have to return to the job you left over a year ago.
4. Days upon days of waiting for the application process to complete itself, followed by a few dozen phone calls checking on the application processes with no results again.
5. Filling out NACCRRA paperwork to afford daycare on deployment orders while dealing with military issues of all sorts, bills piling up, and job hunting.  (Trust me if you have never dealt with NACCRRA before, this is my first time and I'm still on page one of the application... O_O)
6. Endless trolling of every conceivable job listing site online, in the newspapers, randomly looking up businesses you know are in your area and hunting for their "Careers" tab, etc.

And lucky #7 which will be happening next week....
...Gracefully apply to the company which you left over a year ago and had hoped to never pass through their doors as anything but a customer ever again (okay, as gracefully as a tear-stained, red-from-screaming, bruised knuckled woman can).
It's a good thing their application is online!