Goodbye House,

Hello billeting! I'm almost caught up now! Yay!

This was our first night in billeting. The girls were so excited. And again they think of staying in a hotel in San Antonio with Memaw and Papop! They compare everything to that trip, still :) And sorry for the crappy photo, by the time it I remembered to take a photo, it was late and the only camera I had handy was the one on my tablet.


We took Lilly back to the doctor yesterday because her ear was still hurting. We wanted to make sure that she would be able to fly soon. The first doctor we saw never told us that this type of infection lasts for a couple of weeks. Sadie also picked up a stuffed animal for Lilly since we forgot to pack something in our suitcases for Lilly snuggle with at night. All 3 of them need at least one thing to snuggle with at night or they get upset. How I overlooked this I'll never know, but she sure does love her new river otter :)



And now I'm caught up! Phew. I'll post an update of our PCSing adventure soon, there is just so much going on :)

-K

The Last Few Days in Our House Here

I am in desperate need of catching up on my P366 so I'm breaking it up into 2 posts. The first one is of our last days in our house here in Turkey and the second one is after we moved into billeting(hotel).

Lilly sold more Girl Scout cookies! Since we had already shipped our car, we have been walking everywhere. And if you know Sadie, you know she's an old lady stuck in a 4 year old's body. She kept complaining her hip hurt, then her other hip hurt, and then they both hurt at the same time. For some reason, of her's, she was able to run in the grass so she and Lilly played tag all the way home!




The sunsets here are absolutely gorgeous. I will really miss seeing all the different and amazing colors the sky turns when the sun sets. I'm hoping that Nebraska will have some equally gorgeous sun sets :)



Sunday night, Monday morning, Lilly woke up every couple of hours screaming that her ear hurt. Poor thing was in so much pain that she couldn't sleep. We made a doctor's appointment and she has an outer ear infection, meaning her ear canal is infected and not the usual ear infection. She's on antibiotic ear drops and tylenol/motrin for the pain. This is a sure sign that Lilly is sick, she never wants to take a nap or go to sleep for that fact.


I had to add this photo too. Ruby is one of the most clumsy and accident-prone person I have ever met. She has a bad habit of falling and bumping her head or mouth and has grown so accustomed to checking for concussion symptoms that she decided to check herself after she received her most recent bruise. She's too much!


We're almost done! Steven is marking off completed tasks on his out processing checklist!


Another beautiful sunset while walking home for the last time.


-K

The Great Pack Out of 2012

The movers have come and gone. It took 2 days but they did a great job and now we our lovely FMO- loaner- furniture. The mattresses are killer but we'll get by.

The first day they were here they packed everything into boxes, took apart furniture, and wrapped the furniture in cardboard and paper. I definitely think they did a better job than the moving company in England. All the boxes were labeled and they even put hardware to furniture into zipoc bags for me. The hardware in random boxes was really disappointing last time. When we finally got our things here in Turkey we were unbelievably excited to sleep in our own comfy beds, but we couldn't find all the pieces. We had to search every box and we'd find a piece in the girls' room, a piece in our room, a piece in the kitchen, and a piece in the living room things. To say we were mad is a complete under statement. 

They even made sure that if they came across something military related that they came to us and asked if we needed it. The first thing they asked when they arrived was if we had all our passports and orders somewhere safe so that they didn't get packed up.

Ruby loved watching them, especially when they were putting everything in to the crates. She just sat on our swing or in her wagon and watched. 

The first night we were able to sleep on our own mattresses on floor. Bed time was a nightmare. The girls were all exhausted but they were sleeping on a mattress on the floor of the living room together. Sadie does not like to be touched so she hates sleeping with people.  After an hour and a half they were finally all asleep and I could exhale. Poor Steven was awake for 27 hours straight before he was finally able to close his eyes. He's such a trooper. 

Lilly was a little disappointed that she was able to stay at home and watch them pack. She was luckily able to see the truck with all the crates just before it left.

The girls did have a couple moments of anxiety but they quickly faded. Once they realized that their things were gone until they get to Nebraska and not a moment sooner, they were fine. Sadie got a little nervous when they movers first showed up because Daddy wasn't home and they were packing all of our things. She was fine once Daddy got back home. 

Steven and I've been celebrating this move with some good wine in cheap plastic cups :)

We have a couple more nights in our house and then we move into billeting- aka hotel. The house is just about all clean and it'll be finished when FMO comes back to pick up the furniture. I'm thanking God that this hasn't been too stressful for us. It seems like we're just taking everything in stride and taking it little by little. I do have to say this is so much easier without being pregnant, or just given birth and have a newborn. But we just hope we stay at Offutt AFB for a good while and enjoy it. We especially hope Steven likes his job. The last 2 years here have been really tough for him because he hated his job, but we have less than 2 weeks left here! We're so excited! Now back to cleaning and packing....

-K

The Days Before Our Pack Out

'Hell Week' was just about here so I had to make sure we had photos to document everything, even as stressed as we all were. We had some more cleaning to do and I had a lot of lists to make and jobs to check off. Nothing too exciting but pictures were necessity!

This one was because Lilly's outfit was so cute :) She even added a necklace, she's too cute!

Steven had to clean all of our outdoor things, including his golf clubs. We had to make sure there was no bugs or vegetation on anything so that we wouldn't spread them to the states. The agricultural inspector told him that a moth had been mistakenly brought to the US and it had no natural predators there. Because of that, the moth reeked havoc on the side of a mountain. I didn't want to stress out having to clean all that. I wanted to try and sell it here and replace it when we got to Nebraska. Steven vetoed that pretty quickly. Our patio table has a fire pit built in and Steven loves it, so he took the time to clean it all. Even in the murky, cold, windy, and rainy weather we had all last week. I'm so glad he did because I forgot how much I like the furniture too, and he did an awesome job!

And then this is of the girls helping me make lists and checking them twice!

And thank goodness we are almost done on this side of the world. We are so excited to get on that jet plane!

-K

Hell Week

This week is what I call 'Hell Week'. At the end of this week our household goods will be packed up and start their long journey to Nebraska and our car will be shipped. ANd I am pretty positive that after this week I won't be so stressed. Speaking of stress, I am doing pretty well. Usually when I'm stressed I end up with body aches and an upset stomach, but I feel in control. I think it has a lot to do with the fact that I'm not pregnant and I didn't just give birth. I've been sorting and cleaning every day for the past 3 weeks so I think everything is going pretty smooth. We finally have orders and soon we will be done with our pack out, shipping our vehicle, and done with our housing inspection. So after this week it'll be like a whole load off our shoulders, so say a little prayer that everything goes smoothly :) PCSing and I have a love hate relationship. On one hand I am over the moon excited to get out of this country and on the other I hate that we have to pack up our things and we won't see any of it until about the end of April. I'll be happy as soon as we are all settled in our new house. And, God willing, we'll stay at Offutt AFB for a good long while. I'm not looking forward to the deployments but I am happy that at least we'll be living in the states when they do happen.
With all that said, I've been organizing and cleaning fool. I've made it my mission to not only clean everything in a timely manner, but also get everything organized. When we moved here the movers in England packed everything haphazardly. And when I say haphazardly I mean one spoon wrapped in 4 large sheets of paper and furniture hardware in several boxes labeled with different rooms. We had to tear apart every box to find all the pieces to our bed, it was insane. It also made unpacking difficult especially when things for the living room were packed in boxes with the kids bedroom things. This time I got a LOT of ziploc bags. So many bags that I'm thinking I should buy stock in the ziploc company. I filled them with like things so it wouldn't be mayhem to unpack. Most of the cleaning with take place once the house is empty, but I've been doing the appliances and bathrooms so I'll have a good head start before our final inspection.
And speaking of inspections, Steven's squadron in having right now so he was put back onto night shift. So during the day he runs around to do his outprocessing and clean the outdoor stuff, then he sleeps for a handful of hours, and then goes to work for 12 more hours. Poor thing is exhausted. He does so much for us. We are truly blessed to have him as such a great husband and daddy.
Throughout everything I've made sure to take photos and keep up with my P366 project. In a few years it will be nice to look back on everything and have it all documented. It'll be good for the girls too. They love looking at photos and reminiscing about all the amazing things they've done in their short little lives.
Now here are my P366 photos.
23. Reading books at the library while Daddy checks his work email.

28.Getting in trouble yet again! She's is the #1 trouble maker in our house, hands down.

25. The beginning of my great, big organizational project!

26. Sweet, sleepy Milo Kitty.

27. Lilly's first year of selling Girl Scout cookies. She's an awesome sales girl :)

28. Daddy's her best friend she says.

29. Organizing and cleaning has completely taken over the house.

30. She found my favorite pen, drew all over herself, and then lost the pen. Hours later I discovered she drew all over her belly and sides too. See what I mean, she's a trouble maker!


And this is how I spend my nights. Get the girls ready for bed and everything ready for Lilly to go to school the next morning and then I get a glass of wine and watch so tv. Pretty soon this move will be all over and I'll wonder where the time went. Seriously folks, January is just about gone. Until then I'll try and savor every moment, good or bad. Cheers!


-K

P366 Catch Up

I haven't flaked out on this project, even though I have posted anything in a week. Moving is crazy folks. We have less than a handful of weeks left here so we are in full PCS mode. We do have a setback though, no orders. Yes folks, we don't we any orders yet. No orders means, no pack out, no shipping the car, and no plane tickets. I'm going nuts not having any sort of official dates. So if you see lots of boxes, laudry, or clutter in these photos, it's because of the move.

This photo I like to call, "Can you find the toddler?"


The BX has been having a big clearance sale. All of the fall/winter clothes are up to 75% off. So with our upcoming move to much colder weather, we stocked up. We got about $344 worth of clothing for $104. Lots of sweaters, long sleeves, and thick leggings were purchased. This is how Ruby and Sadie choose to shop :)


Thursday was my 26th birthday so the hubby and kiddos took me out for dinner at the club here. We had a lot of fun and a pretty good meal too.


I took a break from the moving madness and played one of my b-day presents, Lego Pirates of the Caribbean. I ♥ Lego games!


Ruby goofing around with the stickers that were on our tough boxes.


The girls being their normal silly selves! They're such stinkers :)


Okay, now I'm all caught up for now. I may be do all of the P366 posts like this from now on. It's so much easier than trying to post them everyday!

-K

They're Here!

We got our new furniture yesterday and we are thrilled! Lilly is in love with her bed. It was everything she wanted and asked for. She kept saying, "I just can't stop smiling!".

Since we're in Turkey, finding a twin sized mattress at decent price is nearly impossible. Turkish mattresses are firm, very uncomfortably firm. Our mattress is Turkish and at $300 for a king size was very affordable, but I hate it. I got a memory foam mattress topper for Christmas and it makes it loads more comfy, but still not as comfy as I want it to be. Knowing that, we didn't want a Turkish one for her. We could have found a used one, but that really just creeps the germophobe in me out so that was out of the question. Then we moved onto the base exchange, BX- whick is like a horrible version of Walmart for the base. They have very few mattresses there, but there are a few different twin sized ones. When I saw how much they were, I nearly had a heart attack. The two they had were priced at $600 and $700. That my friends, is way too much for me to spend on a twin sized mattress. So until we're back in the states, Sadie-Mae so graciously offered her mattress up. She said she would just sleep with Ruby for now. As soon as we get to Nebraska we'll get Lilly a new mattress.

And we also have plans to spruce up Sadie and Ruby's beds. We are going to paint them, but the color is still unknown. For now Sadie keeps saying dark pink and Ruby keeps saying blue. I think they'll change their minds  at least a few times, but I think we all will have a better idea once we see some paint samples.
And now onto the bar. They have some pretty elaborate bars here. They would be really cool to have, but really they aren't very practical for us. After looking around at a few different furniture stores, Steven found what he was looking for while Lilly and I were looking at beds. It can hold wine bottles, liquor bottles, glasses and a drawer for cork screws and any other miscellaneous drink needs. On the top of it is a slab of marble so you can use it to cut limes and what not. Unfortunately it won't be really be used until it arrives at Offutt. It can hold 16 bottles of wine so I'll start sampling and collecting wines until it gets there :) I'm also toked that it will be able to hold my wine glasses so it will free up some cabinet space. I will really miss being able to bring a photo of a piece of furniture I want and have it made for me.

Another place I will really miss is Pops Leather. It's a leather shop that makes coats, hats, bags, purses, wallets, belts, holsters, and more. Steven goes for the holsters. I go for all the designer purses they make. They may be knock offs, but they are good knock offs made with leather. They are great bags and I'll miss going there. Luckily I have a husband who spoils me. He told he wanted me to 'stock up' on these bags before we leave, so he bought me two and told me we'll make one more trip there before we leave. They have Louis Vuitton, Burberry, Chanel, Prada, Gucci, and Coach. They also make custom things. I think this place has spoiled on bags too. I don't know if I will want to buy a bag in the states again.

Anyways I got an Louis Vuitton and a Gucci person this time and I love them. I'm using the Gucci one right now and am loving it.

Who would of thought that I would actually miss some things here? I'm so excited about getting out that I overlooked the fact that there were some things I really liked. I would take living in the States over Turkey any day, but I'm grateful that we got to experience this.

-K