I have the most diligent husband ever! He has been combing the internet for MONTHS looking for houses and yesterday his searching paid off! On Thursday he turned in a security deposit on a 1200 sq. ft. apartment, with the idea that we would live there until he deployed, move out and then move on post when a house opened up. That apartment was the only place that he saw that was even an reasonable option for our family. One thing that I thought was totally crazy about places we considered was no built in microwaves! I know it is a small thing, but for units built in the last year, I can't understand why no microwave was provided! Before signing the lease Friday morning, Chad went to look at one more house that had just been posted to AHRN. It is 3 bedroom/2 bath with a full basement, attached 2 car garage, fenced in backyard and a huge attic! The rent was more than we wanted to spend, but the owner agreed to lower the price! The only down side is that it is not available unt...

For as long as I can remember my brother and I have been celebrating our birthdays together. Since they are only a week apart (April 15 & 22) it just always been easier to celebrate together. This year was a big one for my brother - the big 3-0! For birthday dinners my grandmother always lets us choose the meal. It might sound plain, but I chose grilled chicken, baked potatoes and salad. Yum! The birthday celebration included noise makers, birthday hats and glittery pins...all thanks to the request of my little girl! Chris' daughter Lilly couldn't quite get the concept of blowing on the noise maker! Love him! One thing my brother and I cannot share is dessert. He LOVES chocolate and I hate it. I chose for my dessert a peanut butter strawberry cake. It looked good in the magazine but it ended up tasting like a peanut butter and jelly sandwich! Good...but very rich. For Chris, I made a 3 layer chocolate & coffee cake. Thanks Courtenay for the recipe! I was tol...

I've always said that I enjoy being an Army wife and moving around is not too bad. Well, today is not one of those days. Chad has been in New York less than 24 hours and has already ruled out several of the potential places we had looked at to live. Upstate New York apparently decided to stay out of the housing boom and bust cycle by simply not building any houses! Being from the South where there are new developments on literally every corner, it is so hard for me to grasp how there just aren't any houses available in an area. I feel like every option is more bad than good right now... go to New York and live in a house that doesn't meet our needs and/or is in a bad area of town or really far away from post... the girls and I stay in GA and essentially turn a 12 month deployment into a 16 month deployment... go to New York temporarily with the girls and then move back to GA, only to have to start the process all over again when Chad gets back... find somewhere for 9 months...

This morning Chad left for New York. It felt a little like a deployment, which gave both of us an ick feeling for the real thing that is coming up too soon. I hate watching my girls say good-bye to Daddy!! We are praying that Chad finds a house quickly so that the girls and I can go to New York soon to be with him. We realized last night (once again) how difficult the housing situation is at Ft. Drum. I understand that the mission is the top priority with the Army (as it should be), but its hard to believe that they can send us somewhere that the housing situation is so tough! Chad called last night to make hotel reservations for this week and one hotel didn't have any rooms at the government rate until July (none of the hotels had govt rate rooms this week)! The temporary lodging on post thankfully had a room available at the end of the week, so he will only be in a regular hotel room for a few days. I hate to see Chad go, but after all of the trouble of finding somewhere ...

So being a new blogger, I think I need to decide whether to upload the majority of pictures to facebook or the blog...right?? It seems silly to upload them to both places, but I know there are people that would never check this blog that would enjoy seeing pictures on facebook (my mom...). On that note, here is a picture not on facebook. Some people think it is cute when she sucks her thumb, but I am trying not to let her! I know that's probably crazy, I just think that would be a hard habit to break and I don't want it to mess up her teeth one day! She does take a pacifier too, so hopefully the thumb will only be an occasional thing. and to keep all things equal - here's a picture of Addison. ha! She's a trip. I think she was eating a pretzel.

I really thought that I would be a pretty good blogger and keep things up to date...however, the past few weeks I have failed! We have been SO busy! Anytime we are in Georgia, we are busy visiting family and friends. This past week we were able to go to Colorado to visit our good friends Courtenay and Jason Atwell. What a great trip!! Today Chad and I (and Mya) drove back to Alabama for his last appointment with his surgeon tomorrow morning. Hopefully he will say that all is well and that Chad can start Physical Therapy in New York next week. wow.. next week!! Speaking of moving... We decided today that Chad is going to go up to New York and the girls and I will follow as soon as some kind of housing situation is worked out. We just agreed that keeping the girls in a stable environment for a little while longer is the best thing. Hopefully Chad can find us a place to live quickly so we can start getting settled in New York before he leaves for Colorado (high altitude training) ...

Apparently after 9 hours of sleep, my body doesn't know how to rest anymore so I'm up again at 6:30. The hotel stay last night was much less stressful than the night before. Addison wasn't exhausted enough not to be bouncing off the walls and she was still the last one asleep I think, but at least she was just bouncing around in her bed and not all over the room...as she was at our last hotel. That little girl (and all of her energy) will do amazing things in life, if simply pointed in the right direction. She is a child of extremes and very dramatic, which can be bad on one end, but so rewarding and hilarious on the other. Last night at Chick-fil-a she was SO excited when we said she could get ice cream and even though she had been looking forward to going to Nana's, her little eyes lit up when we said we were going to another hotel and she could go...swimming! What is it with kids and swimming? I know I was the same way as a kid. Why spend money on a big vacat...