Zipcode

We got to spend a wonderful weekend with Russ in Arizona! We also got to spend some great time with his fabulous cousin Aaron, and his family (Anne and four of the rowdiest Navajo boys you’ll ever meet – but boy are they well behaved! And sweethearts! And freaking adorable.)

On Saturday we went to the International Wildlife Museum in Tucson. It was pretty much the most entertaining thing we did. Holy cow – so many “stuffed” animals (not sure what the proper term for that is…)

While purchasing tickets at said museum, the lady at the ticket office asked for my home zipcode.
I hesitated.
Who on earth hesitates when you ask them their zipcode?!
I’ll tell you who – displaced Army wives who don’t live with their husbands, have a home of record halfway across the country and have their household goods stored practically in the Pacific ocean.

My goodness… I think I’ve known my zipcode at every place I’ve lived before I even actually lived there!! But now… er, just a minute… let me think about that… hmm, do you want the zipcode of my household goods? The zipcode of my “home of record”? The place I’m living now? Where our “head of household” lives? For your average human being, these are all the same number. For us? Yeah… we’re pretty messed up.

Aaron also taught us some things about the saguaro cactus. A saguaro cactus won’t grow its first arm until it’s about 100 years old! Holy cow, that’s an old cactus! After that it can sprout new arms every 40-50 years. So the cactus in that picture (not mine, btw) is probably 4-5 hundred years old! Whoa. You think I could have gotten a few of my own shots of these ancient wonders, but, you know, I had something (one) else on my mind.

The aforementioned museum is located kind of in the middle of a saguaro “forest.” Spending time in Arizona has kind of changed my perspective of the desert. While I would never choose to live in the desert, it does have its own strange beauty. I used to think of the desert of a dead, brown, dirty place, but the cacti, other plants, and even the mountains and rock formations and all the dirt have their beauty. If nothing else, the desert is sure fascinating!

The only tree that is older than the saguaro cacti are the redwoods in California (which, you will be sad to note, we never visited – not our fault – we had even reserved a campsite when the Army decided to change our plans for us).

So yeah cactus = really cool.

We also took the kids to Toy Story 3 in Disney Digital 3D! Basically, for Vincente it’s just an expensive ticket to see a blurry movie, since he refuses to wear the glasses for more than 10 or 15 minutes of the show. But whatever, he enjoyed it (and Russ and I love watching the shows in 3D).

On the way home, Vincente was singing “Hay un amigo en mi.”

Seriously, see Toy Story 3.

It was awesome.

Russ and I stayed at the Westward Look Resort in Tucson on Friday night while the kiddos stayed with his cousin’s family. Joseline didn’t think that was very cool (she wouldn’t look us in the eye for about half an hour after we got home), but we had a great time, even if we never did leave our room ;)

Next time we go to Tucson (I think we just might do it again someday… just because!) we’ll stay there and experience the Sonoran Spa and the horseback riding and all the other cool stuff.

I would like to learn how to
rock climb
and then go climb
Picacho Peak
or something.

P.S. I will post pictures of our 4th of July activities in their own post in the interest of keeping this post readable length.

A Promise to a Friend

Okay, so I've promised to post updated pictures of Vincente, and with Christmas and the move and everything, I haven't been doing a very good job. So here are some recent pics:

Vincente feeding "coats" (aka goats) at the Christmas tree farm in Arkansas. He thought the animals were hilarious and called the turkies and chickens "patinhos" (little ducks, in Portuguese). I almost wanted to take one of the little goats home with us! But I don't think goats are allowed on airplanes...

Vincente playing with his Lightening McQueen coloring and sticker book from Aunt Sisty - probably his favorite Christmas present, after the shake and roll Ramone toy.

The boys taking a nap after a long day at church. I think Russ was posing for this picture... he doesn't usually sleep on the floor in his suit. Vince slept on a floor bed, that's why he's on the floor in his suit (we were at Grandma and Grandpa Werner's that weekend)

Vincente after enjoying the California dirt. He loves loves LOVES playing in the dirt out here. I've never seen him so excited about dirt. I guess since we live close to the beach, there is a lot of really moist soil everywhere, and it's very enticing to the little ones. 

Vincente sitting at the kitchen bar in our completely empty house (notice the lack of dinning room table behind him). He has had such an appetite since we moved. Probably a combination of growing, getting outside more often (the weather is almost ALWAYS perfect for playing outside) and settling down into a nice routine with Mama always around.

A New, Empty House

We're here! But our stuff is still in Salt Lake City. Actually, now it's probably on its way down here (the driver finally picked up the stuff from SLC this morning...) We moved into our house on Wednesday morning, but to our chagrin, we found out that our household goods (HHGs) were never shipped on Monday (when we left) because apparently, in order to be shipped on Monday, they had to be in the warehouse by 5pm, and the packers didn't get our stuff up there fast enough.

So here we are in our lovely little home, with nothing but some borrowed bedding, two air mattresses (making up our bed) and a sleeping bag (making up Vincente's bed). Luckily, we were doing laundry while the packers were moving out our stuff, so they didn't have a chance to pack a lot of our clothes. So we just packed them in our car with us. The greatest part about that is the laundry included a Sunday dress for me, Vincente's Sunday pants, and his Sunday shirt. He'll have to wear his sneakers, and we'll have to find some cheap shoes for me tomorrow, but at least we'll have something to wear. 

We've been living off cereal, frozen stuff (like pizza, lasagna, etc) that can be cooked in an oven, and PB&J and turkey sandwiches. We can't really cook anything, since we don't have our kitchen utensils... 

Hopefully our things get here by Monday. Living in a nearly empty house is getting kind of depressing...

Getting Better

I have been horribly sick all weekend - bleh. I think I got sick because of all the stress I was feeling this weekend. But I woke up this morning feeling much MUCH better. And I spent all day on campus in the fishbowl making up assignments for my complex analysis class. It wasn't the most fun I've had in my life, but it sure felt productive and it definitely felt good to get a lot done.

Classes are almost finished (HOORAY!) so I'm kind of just holding out until the end. I'm going to show up for textbook buyback on Saturday morning and see how many of my text books they will buy back from me. I don't want to sell my complex analysis textbook back until after I've made my "cheat sheet" for the exam (the one page of notes we're allowed to have), so I'll have to make sure to get that done Friday. I don't really care much about my modern physics final... I mean, of course I care, but it's just to the point where all I want to do is pass that class (which is a D-), and I think I can easily pull that off just by walking into the test and doing the best I can... 

Russ arranged everything for us to be PCSed to California! Hooray! We will do a "partial-DITY" which means we will weigh all the stuff we move in our car, and the military might pay us for it. Other than that, they will move all the rest of our things, and we won't have to lift a finger or pay a penny. And hopefully we'll get a little bit of money, since we're doing a partial-DITY. You'll definitely hear about how all this goes after it is all said and done. But having Russ arrange for everything has definitely been nice for me. I haven't had to do a thing! Which is GREAT!

So ... with a little cash from textbook sell back, and classes nearly finished, and passing grades nearly guarenteed in all my classes, I am a very very happy person. And Vince and I have been playing today - it is SO great. I love that kid... I can't wait for it to be just me and him every day! 

Uplifting Updates

I am working on posting pictures and descriptions of our Thanksgiving weekend antics in Monterey! I'm almost done - two more posts, and then I think I'll have everything. Until then, I decided that my blog needs an update on our current situation.

The Plan:

We now have a semi-official holiday plan - and for those of you who wanted to see Russ one more time, if you're going to be in town after Christmas, you're in luck! We are still going to spend Christmas in Arkansas, but we fly back to Utah the day after Christmas (it was the only available flight). Then we will either PCS our stuff, or do a DITY move the next week (Monday). So, we will be in Utah for a few nights, and we are planning on going out to dinner on Saturday with anyone who happens to be in town. We'll just go some place cheap, but nice, like Chili's or something. Maybe we'll even just go out for Pizza. We just want to give everyone a chance to see Russ again. We will be officially moved to California the week after Christmas! We'll be in California before the new year! We will officially be a California residing family by 2009. 

This also means that in two weeks, Russ and Vincente and I will be together again permenantly! As soon as Russ gets to Memphis on Friday night (the night before my brother's wedding), we will be together forever! Okay, with Russ in the military it's basically guarenteed that we will spend some more time away from him before long, but this is like the beginning again! We can't wait. To be in the same place all the time is just a relief. Just the thought of it is getting me all giddy! 

I need to be PCSing

This is me moving... Luckily, I will not be the one lifting boxes. In fact, I won't even be packing things into boxes. On top of that, all the things I packed into boxes in my storage unit will be unpacked (and repacked) by movers (so we can blame them if anything gets damaged or lost :) ). I'm just glad I don't have to do it. Plus, they're experts, so they'll be able to do it really quickly. 

Now, I ran into some problems trying to reserve accomodations at the Presidio... because I'm just a family member on "unofficial" business. So hopefully Russ will be able to go over to the lodging office and find me a place to stay, since he is there, and we will be looking for a place to live - which makes this more like a PCS in, even though we're not really PCSing right this instance. I'm hoping this PCS thing isn't going to be harder than it should be, since we won't technically be moving until January, but we COULD move next week, if we were available. It actually doesn't sound half bad... except that I have to finish classes.

I'm sure our future moves won't be as bad, since we will all be living together, and there will be no school to postpone my moving to be with Russ. 

I can't wait to see him this week, but I am nervous about finding a place to stay. If this on post lodging thing doesn't work out, we may be spending over $300 for lodging while we're there! 8-o And I would really rather be on the post, since that's where Russ will be. Unless he gets to come stay with us... which actually, he probably can. Anyway, we'll see how things go.

The Pros and Cons of Changing Plans

I was just getting comfortable with moving to Arizona. I had convinced myself that I would enjoy living in the desert for a few more months, that it would be okay to have a baby all by myself, and I had found a place to live, a place to have my baby - everything was in order! Just then, the Army throws us for a loop, and now I have to do it all over again. All those hours of trying to find a house, figuring out the logistics of moving, etc etc etc

The good thing about this change is that suddenly I don't really have to have a plan. The Army is PCSing us, which means they pay for the move, they send movers to pack us up, and I'm pretty sure they will also let us stay in temporary housing for a while (actually IN California) until we find a place to live.

So instead of having to do all the searching for a house, planning for a move, etc all over again, I don't have to do much of anything but sit back and wait for January! :)

Oh yes, and on another note, apparently the DLI likes to give people the maximum amount of Christmas vacation possible. See, TRADOC (the Govt people who are responsible for all military training) make up these "exodus" dates for Christmas vacation for the military. Each individual installment is allowed to extend or shorten their exodus up to two days on either side. DLI likes to give the extra two days on each end, making their exodus one of the longest, starting around Dec. 19 and stretching until two days after the first working day of the new year. Which means we may get Russ almost the ENTIRE time we're in Arkansas for Christmas!! Makes me a very happy person.

So this whole moving to CA first thing actually has way more pros than cons, and I am very excited for the move. I just don't know what to do with myself, since I feel like I should be making all sorts of plans, but there are really no plans to make. I'm not even going to worry about finding a place to deliver the baby, because I'm going to wait until I can meet with a Tricare person (in person) to find out about providers, etc.

California - definitely a better first move than the Arizona one.