Trouble

Looks can be deceiving. This one looks sweet and innocent, but she is most definitely trouble. Here she is, cleaning out my cabinets...and hiding the TV remote at the same time.

Glowing Jars

I started working on these while at home on a crafty night with Andrea. For some reason, it's taken me three weeks to get around to finishing them. Aren't they cute? Except the purple one. Ignore the strange cat face on the purple one. I don't really like it, but I don't feel like making another one. Where did this idea come from? Sadly, I cannot claim it as my own. They're Glowing Jacks from Not So Idle Hands.

That Terrible Halloween Night

Does anybody else have a favorite Halloween story? Halloween was always a big deal at our house (my Dad's favorite holiday), so we were read Halloween stories. I loved this one. When Aidan's first Halloween neared, I tried to find my own copy, to no avail. The next year, Dad gave me his. I don't think I'm near as good at reading it as he was, but I do my best. And now, Aidan loves it, too.

"No! No! Don't go through that door!"

Pumpkin Patch

It's nearly Halloween, so you know what that means. Pumpkin time!

John and Aidan start scoping them out.

Neely would not budge from this spot. The ground was a little soggy and muddy. She wasn't sure how to handle it.

And look! The kids sat still, together, long enough for me to snap a picture. Neither of them is really looking at me, but it's the best I've gotten to date.

I'll post more pictures next week once we've carved our Jack-o-Lanterns. Who knows? Maybe I'll even share my Cajun pumpkin seed recipe. Aidan loves them! As soon as we had the pumpkins in the car, he was asking if he could eat pumpkin seeds. That's my boy.

Two Dollars

The last Saturday we were at my parents’ house, my dad returned from his morning run telling me about three garage sales he passed. He and I put our shoes on to go check them out (I in my pajamas), as my mother and husband groaned and rolled their eyes. As we exited, my mom called, “Don’t buy any junk!”

There was lots of good junk out there that day, but I had to think in terms of what I could pack in the car for the drive to Louisiana the next day without making John too mad at me. See that bad boy in the middle? That monstrosity of a jar? I picked that up for $2. When I brought it back, my mom asked the million-dollar question: “What are you going to do with it?”


I thought it would look neat full of glass ornaments at Christmas, but in the meantime, it’s storing the only thing in our house that requires a container of its size and stature – Goldfish. I’ve stuck an old china teacup in there to scoop them out. I just love getting to use pretty things for boring tasks. I think I got the idea from a Country Living magazine.

Should I stay, or should I go?

Two years ago, when housing was privatized at Barksdale, there was mass exodus. Most of our friends decided it would be more prudent to put their BAH toward a mortgage and bought houses. We considered it. We even met with a realtor and looked at a few houses. Ultimately, we decided it was better for us not to take on a loan of that size at the time. Instead, we badgered the new housing company into giving us a larger house.

This spring, we began to hear rumors that the Pinnacle, our landlord, wanted to move anyone ranked below O-4 out of single family homes, in order to collect more rent money for the bigger houses. That would mean we’d be sent back to a duplex…after we’ve expanded to fit our house. This caused a lot of uproar, especially since mine and several of my friends’ husbands were preparing for a deployment, but while some got their powers of attorney ready to buy a house in their husbands’ absence, we had faith that this couldn’t possibly come to fruition.

While we were visiting family during John’s post-deployment leave, I got an interesting message from a friend. It seems that Pinnacle has found a way to remove us from our homes – renovating. They hand-delivered letters informing everyone that by March 2010, you will be moved so that your home can be renovated. The catch? If you are ranked below O-4, you will be moved into a duplex with no possibility of ever getting back into your house or another single family home on this base. Pinnacle knows when your home is scheduled for renovation, but they’re not telling anyone until 90 days out, because they don’t want the mass exodus to begin anew.

Where does this leave us? Confused. Eventually, we will have to move. I’d rather it be sooner than later, so that if I am going to buy my own home, I can be putting equity into it and enjoy it as long as possible before our next PCS, whenever that may be. But if we choose to move on our own, we have to do it ourselves and pay for it ourselves. If we wait until Pinnacle gives us that 90-day notice, they pay for us to move wherever our little hearts desire, which will most definitely not be back to their stinking duplex. I want to kick myself for not taking the plunge two years ago.

Why do I post this? Please pray for us. Whatever decision we make will be a gamble, and my stomach is tied up in knots at the thought of having a deadline to find a new place to live, even if it is three months. What if we can’t find a house that we like in 90 days? I trust that this will work out, but in the thick of it, I can’t figure out how it should.

One from the road

It has been a whirlwind since John returned home. Two days after he landed in Louisiana, we hit the road to visit all the family he hadn't had the pleasure of seeing since we were in Tennessee last Christmas. We spent a week in Clarksville with Granny Norma, and now, we're living it up in our new log cabin-esque pumpkin room at my parents' house. (I say log cabin-esque, because the bed is a pine bunk bed and it still smells very piney.)

Neely has transformed into a toddler in the last couple of weeks. First, she's gotten to be pretty amazing at this walking business now. That still blows my mind. And within a single day last week, she picked up a few new words. In addition to Mama and Dada, she can now say "Hanky," "Uh-oh," and "Peek-a-boo!" It's adorable. And I finally have video to share. Voila!