Why, Hello There!

It has been almost 5 months since I last posted. So much has happened that the outside world just does not know about...

For instance, did you know that my husband did NOT deploy in December like I previously reported?! Nope! He is still here with us. Prior to moving here to Washington we were under the impression he would be deploying this spring. Then we got here and they changed it to December. We were bummed that he would be gone before our Christmas vacation plans but then that changed too. The rest of his unit was deploying but he was staying back with a handful or so of others. Then they announced the remainder of the unit would be following this spring (yup, back to the spring again)... most likely the end of April. So yeah, he will be deploying soon. When? Well, I can't say exactly... and not because of operational security reasons but because WE STILL DON'T KNOW! Frustrating is an understatement. Yesterday I thought I knew when he was leaving and now today that changed. I know, I know, take everything the Army says with a grain of salt and don't believe it until it's actually happening. Trust me, I know all this. We still have not had this short of notice, or this many changes happen within a single unit in the entire 8yrs we have been an Army family. I imagine I will survive though. It would just be nice to know how much longer my husband will be home with us :)

On another note, that Christmas vacation I mentioned earlier... I posted about that previously as well. I mentioned that we wouldn't get to go because of the Army wanting us to pay back $6100 that they advanced us that we had no way of proving that we were entitled to because of the moving company's mistake. Well, we went on our Christmas vacation! My sister surprised the kids in California, we stayed at an amazing resort and had a great time at Disney and Universal. I got to meet a wonderful photographer (and great internet friend) and we had our family pictures done in Downtown Disney. They turned out GREAT! I was so excited to see them and I knew she would not disappoint. Our trip was expensive but well worth it. The kids really enjoyed it but man did I miss the traditional Christmas stuff with our family back in Ohio.

As for the issue with needing to pay back the Army for our DITY move, that is coming to an end this next month. We finally got a "bill" from the Army asking (HA!) for their money back. Thankfully we had it put into savings just for this reason. ABF paid us back in full for our entire move and even went above and beyond (after much deliberation) and sent us a check for an extra $2000. Of course that was not a negotiable amount... it was either take it, or leave it. We took it just so we could end the back and forth and get on with life. I am highly disappointed that all that money will have to go right back to the Army and that we got NOTHING out of moving ourselves (the only reason we even did a DITY move was for that extra money) but at least we got the moving company to cover our butts so that we can pay the Army back and not meet any financial burden. That is a big weight off our shoulders.

That is about all that has happened in regards to things I had previously posted about. Life around here is hectic as usual and with hubby deploying soon I imagine I will get back to a regular blogging routine. I am even thinking about starting up a new blog. So, I hope there are still some of you out there that like reading this drivel that I post.