Saying Good-Bye

Saying good-bye has to be the hardest part about being a military family. I haven't really been a military wife for too terribly long, but we've already had our fair share of good-byes. Unfortunately, I think this will be our hardest yet (at least in terms of moving to a different place). We've had movers at our house all week, and this morning as I look around the living room it doesn't look like my home any longer. It's full of boxes, there are no paintings on the wall, no welcome home feeling, just a cold, empty room. It's eerie how a house full of boxes can easily change from our house to just some random place we are staying in until the movers come and pick-up everything on Tuesday.

So we're having to say good-bye to our house, our beautiful neighborhood, our sweet neighbors, and worst of all, our cat. Tim and I took Tiger to the airport this morning at 5am. We left the house at 4am, and no one was in a good mood, especially Tiger. We attempted to give him some children's benadryl to calm his nerves, and I'm pretty certain it only made it worse. Not only did he act as if he were dying after we dropped a few dots on his tongue, but he actually started foaming at the mouth for about an hour after the medication was given. It was a nightmare, and I'm pretty sure we made it a thousand times worse; instead of calming his nerves, we just added to the terrible situation.

Having to say good-bye to an animal really shouldn't be that hard. It's just an animal, not a person, not a child, not some long lost friend you'll never get to see again, it's just an animal. But surprisingly enough, it's extremely hard. We brought him to the airplane cargo warehouse, and the guy at the front desk, although attempting to look sympathetic, after checking Tiger in, brought him to the outside portion of the warehouse where it was like 40 degrees and left him outside to wait an hour before someone would be by to pick him up. And when I asked if Tiger could stay inside until that time, he looked at me, laughed, and said "No". It was a rough morning.

We're saying good-bye to our house, our cat (at least for the next two & 1/2 months), our church, our family, and of course all of our PT friends. And as surprising as it is to me, i'm actually sad, I mean really sad. San Antonio has been great, the Army-Baylor PT program has been incredible, my Seminary and church have been unbelievable; every place we've encountered here we've made life-long friends and it's going to be very hard, and very sad, to say good-bye.

ON A BRIGHTER NOTE!!!

Tim graduated with his Doctorate of Physical Therapy on Thursday March 26th from the US Army-Baylor Program at Ft. Sam Houston. We are all so proud of Tim and all of his accomplishments! It's amazing to me to look back on this man's life, his very short life at that (only 28 yrs old), and see all of his amazing accomplishments. West Point, Electrical Engineer degree, graduated with top honors, Ranger School, Airborne School, lead an infantry in Iraq, and helped build an orphanage in Afghanistan, and then applied to a program that he was completely not qualified to attend, no biology classes, no anatomy and physiology, no idea about the human body or any type of medical information, and yet was still accepted. I'm talking about amazing stuff here, things I never imagined one human being could accomplish, especially not in the span of 28 years, and yet Tim has accomplished them, and least to say, I am very proud of him. But the thing that is most impressive about Tim, is that you would never know he had accomplished any of these things, because he is so extremely humble. And not just one of those, oh, i'm so humble, everyone look at me, no he is genuinely humble, and gives all the glory to God for every accomplishment he has ever achieved, which is truly a great accomplishment.

So cheers to you Tim!! I know God has great plans for you, and I know He will continue to use you to touch the lives of many soldiers and families who desperately need God's love and saving grace. We are all so proud of you!

Our family at the Wed. night celebration dinner:


Tim, Joe, and Cyrus


Our first friends in the program...I would have been lost without being able to rant to Alyssa about OBC!


Our good friend from church, Charles and Tim:


Us at breakfast:


The whole family at graduation:


Uncle Bill and Aunt Terry, they have always been here for us, and we'll miss them a ton! Thanks for coming to every important event in my, and now Tim's, life!
We love you!!


Dave and Amy, our good friends that we'll miss a ton, but hopefully see in Feb 2010!!

That Good Ole' Baylor Line:


All the girlfriends i'm going to miss:

A Little Cry for HELP!!

Moving always has its difficulties, a military family definitely understands this, BUT this move has a set of difficulties that we have yet to figure out a good solution for. Our problem...well, we can't really say he's a problem, because in all honesty he makes us laugh a lot, he's super cute, adorable and fun to have around!! Yet, we are still completely stuck and have no idea what we are going to do with our precious hairball when we move to Hawaii. Don't get me wrong, we ARE NOT giving him away, we just have to find a babysitter for 10 weeks!!

Ok, Ok, let me attempt to make this a bit clearer! We found out a few months ago that Hawaii has strict pet policies, and all animals have to go through a 4-month waiting period before they are allowed to enter the islands. Unfortunately, we found this out too late, and Tiger (our cat) still has 10 weeks left before he is cleared to enter the islands. Their quarantine policy states that if animals do not meet their 120 days at home, they will be quarantined in Hawaii for 120 days. 120 DAYS, seriously, who does that?!?! For all of you animal owners and lovers, you can imagine our shock and concern about placing any animal in a small crate for that extended amount of time. All of these poor little critters who have to be quarantined in Hawaii live in small crates stacked up on top of one another, all in the same room, no matter what type of animal and are ONLY allowed out of the crate when someone comes to visit them, and then only for 30mins!

Anyone who has a pet, knows they grow on you. They aren't just seen as some crazy animal that roams around your house, they are viewed as family, especially the ones that you've had since they were little. Tiger is just that type of animal to us, he's like our little kid, and we can't imagine having to place him in quarantine for 120 days. But unfortunately, that's our situation right now, UNLESS we can find someone who would be willing to help us out.

So this is our little cry for help. We hope to find a loving home to ‘baby-sit’ our sweet cat for 10 weeks while we are away, and then put him on a plane and fly him to us in Hawaii. We realize this is a big favor to ask of anyone, and we only ask because we are desperate, and fearful of what 120 days of quarantine might do to him. Tiger is a 3 year old black Tabby Cat. He is an inside, de-clawed cat that wishes he were outside most of the day! He is like normal cats and sleeps quite a bit, but he also enjoys playing with his toys. He is a very well behaved cat; he doesn’t bite or chew on things and definitely does not tear up household items. I think he would do better with a small dog or no pets, than with other cats. But we are willing to try anything at this point! Of course, Tim and I would provide you with everything you need to care for him, plus extra money to say THANK-YOU! If you think you might be willing to take on this task, or know someone who might be willing, please let us know!

Here are a few pics of Tiger, to tug at your emotions and your heart!

This is Tiger when he was just a little baby!


Tiger when he was a little older:


Tiger playing in his clown outfit (doc. made him wear it!):


Tiger asleep on Tim:


Tim telling Tiger to go back to sleep!


Tiger asleep in his new Christmas present:


Tiger's favorite place to sleep, clean clothes!

From one Insomniac to Another

It’s 5am and I’ve been awake for the last two hours, which means since I fell asleep around midnight, I’ve had about three hrs of sleep. I’ve been lying in bed for the past two hours thinking of the normal things I think about when I can’t sleep. Wondering if astronauts are in space right at this very moment, wondering why the fire alarm above me keeps turning from green to red back to green again, wondering if my legs might really fall off if they stay in one place for too long, wondering if the house caught on fire which window I would jump out of and which one I would throw Tiger (our cat) out of, wondering if lack of sleep really equates to less years of life. If this is true, then I calculate that I’ve already lost about 10 years of my life, and at the rate I’m going I might be dead by the age of 50. These are the thoughts of an insomniac. Sleeplessness has become a hobby for me. In fact, I could probably win a gold medal for sleepless nights. Not that I don’t love to sleep, in fact it is one of my most treasured things in the world. If I had to choose sleeping over anything, food, water, shelter, friends, family, heck, even sex, sleeping would always come in first place. But that’s the irony of an insomniac, they love to sleep, they just can’t actually make themselves do it. Normally, after all these thoughts have gone through my head I begin to rehash the conversations of the day, the things I should of said or would have said had I been quick enough on my toes. The interviews I bombed, the words of encouragement I didn’t share, the grace I could have given more of… this can go on for hours. Eventually, I realize my tossing and turning is keeping Tim awake and so I attempt to gracefully exit the bed without him noticing. Sometimes he catches me and forces me to “try harder”, luckily tonight he didn’t =). I don’t think I could have handle another minute starring up at the ceiling wondering if it might snow today. Hopefully, one day I will learn the art of sleeping, or maybe just find the magic key that will turn my brain off, OR just find a really good doctor that will prescribe me blissful sleeping pills!
Well, I hear Tim’s alarm, which means he’ll be looking for me very soon. I better rap up this session before he finds me “not trying” again. From one insomniac to another, peaceful dreams, or thoughts of dreams.

Cooking, Cleaning, and Leasing!

Yay! Our house is finally on the market! Now all we need is for someone to lease it!! Unfortunately, the day it goes on the market is the day Texas decides to unleash a monster cold front! Seriously, where did this come from? I was wearing shorts yesterday, and today i'm afraid to go outside for fear of frostbite or pneumonia. So i'm guessing there won't be many brave souls wanting to view our house today, but maybe tomorrow.


I do have to say, it took us FOREVER to find the right property manager. We searched high and low, and all we found were terrible rates and crappy management systems, BUT low and behold good 'ole Royce was found! Amy and Dave, our good friends here, gave us this guys name... he's prior military (36yrs), caters to military families, and has unbeatable prices, great recommendations, and it's a family business. Seriously, what more could you ask for?? Quick shout-out for Royce, but no kidding, if you are a military family and you're looking to buy, lease, sell, or rent this is the place for you! So if you're looking, look no further, check out the Royce Simmonds group!


On another happy note, I think in a previous life I might have been a chef. Ok, maybe not a great chef, and I probably stole other peoples recipes, BUT a chef none the less. Last week I cooked FIVE new amazing meals!! I only took pictures of a few, which is probably fortunate for you, and none of them were actually MY recipes, but they still tasted pretty doggone good! I wish you could have been here to enjoy these meals, especially since we had a TON of left-overs, which we always SAY we'll eat and a few weeks later they walk themselves to the trashcan. So here are a few pics that made the book...and yes, i have a photo book filled with pictures of meals i've cooked (i'm that pathetic!)
This might not look very appetizing, but it was fabulous! Everything made from scratch...roasted garlic pork, spanish rice, and fried whole okra, with homemade dipping sauce! YUMMY. The second pic was some italian dish that Tim loves, I can't pronounce the name, so you can be certain I have no idea how to spell it! But i made it with homemade italian meatballs that were baked in the oven, which really baffled my mind!


Finally, we went out with some of our good friends this weekend to my FAVORITE mexican restaurant CHUY'S, oh how I will miss good mexican food in Hawaii! After the wonderful meal, we headed to Amy's for some games and DESSERT. So this is my final pic, promise, but it's a picture of the chocolate cheesecake (Barefoot Contessa Recipe). First time to make it, and amazingly it was incredible, to die for, if i can say so myself =).


Last but not least, thought i might leave you with a pic of my WONDERFUL (can't say that enough, seriously he's amazing!) husband's attempt at cleaning this week. Here's a pic of him and Tiger cleaning, or supposedly cleaning (they are putting away clean clothes together...yes, those clothes might look dirty, but in fact they are actually clean!) In all seriousness though, he has put a lot of time and energy getting our house ready to be put on the market, thanks babe!

Well, that's it for today, i'm off to bake some cookies in hopes that they'll warm me up and maybe i'll put in the Sound of Music, cold days deserve a good background movie. Hope wherever you are, you're bundled up and happy!

.....................Something Heavenly

I feel like my house is a perpetual mess. The more we clean, the worse it gets, and unfortunately, we really don’t have time for it to get worse. As of today, we have three weeks left, let me say that a little louder, THREE WEEKS LEFT!! Three weeks to clean, well really, more like scrub, scrub every baseboard, wall, counter top, floor, scrub inside and out of every cabinet, door, garage… everything. Three weeks to finish painting, to pull the dead things growing in the backyard and attempt to make the grass look alive again…three weeks to put the house on the market, to pray that someone comes along and rents it before we leave, and three weeks to say good-bye. Good-bye to a place that we’ve actually fallen in love with. I love San Antonio and I love New Braunfels and I love San Marcos! Everything about this place is perfect: the food, our church, our dear church friends, the weather, the time Tim spends at work and the time he spends at home (which is a GREAT ratio!), my work (or at least the place I use to work!), our friends from the PT program, our family close by, everything about this place is perfect. Good-byes are never easy, but it’s always nice when they are accompanied with something good…you know, like moving to a tropical paradise =), or a place where you already have good friends, or a place that you know will make you a little more stronger and adventurous. That’s kind of what the military life is all about, you never know exactly where you are going, but you always have the potential of making it into something good, a place where you can walk away and say, we’ve fallen in love and it will be hard to say good-bye! But I guess that’s kind of life in general, we always have the potential for making it into something good. So here's to a clean house, happy good-byes, and the potential for good!