thee house.

I have had many requests for this blog, or rather these pictures, so here it is (they are). We house hunted for only two days, which was not long enough but we had to return our truck and wanted to get settled before John had to check in. It was hectic. And I do think where ever we go next we will go pick out a house before we show up in the city with a huge moving truck. I go back and forth with loving the house and hating it. Main reason I hate it is because it was so rushed. I think it's still sinking in ... so hopefully in the end I will have nothing but love for it. :) Painting a few walls/rooms may help (hopefully that'll get done this month).

The neighborhood is great! Most of our neighbors have come over and introduced themselves already ... all super sweet (mostly older, which we enjoy). We are actually having a neighborhood garage sale this Saturday! Ha. John and I got rid of quite a bit of stuff before we moved, but we are planning to participate (maybe do away with all of our winter clothes?). We are about a 20-30 minute drive to both bases (there are two that John will be training at over the course of two years). The area around our little neighborhood (it's literally little ... only about 12 houses total ... very new development so still several open lots) is not too bad at all. We are minutes away from any fast food joint one could want. And super close to this amazing Thai place we tried the other night. Have a couple grocery stores close by, Lowes, Target, Starbucks ... ya know, the essentials. And anything beyond the essentials is just a quick drive down the road (10 minutes ish). The BEACH is about a twenty minute drive depending on what beach you go to ... don't get me started on the beaches here ... BEAUTIFUL. Love the white sand and the water that is so clear. And the fact that the nice white sand goes on forever into the water so you don't even need water shoes.

Okay, okay ... I am getting carried away ... pictures of the house, that's why you are reading, right?

the outside. wonderful not to need a key for our mailbox.

as you walk in (excuse the boxes).

 

 

office, and John. (this is in the front of the house)

guest bathroom, in between office and spare room.

spare room. soon to be guest room, or sewing room, or both.

living room.

living room view from dining room.

dining room. one of these days we'll hang everything on the walls.

 

 

 

kitchen. door leads to garage. there is also a pantry door on right.

 

 

 

bedroom. still needs decor.

master bath with huge walk in closet back there. and shower.

his and her.

ah. still haven't used it. maybe today.

garage. how did we ever live without one?

backyard

backyard. don't those trees need a hammock?

And that's all. I just now realized I could've just made a little movie to put on here of me walking through the house. Oh well, if you want to see more you'll just have to come visit. :)

Lynch family = 3.

There have been many changes in the last twenty days for us (apartment to house, eastern time to central time, history to beach, etc.) But I will dedicate this post to the most exciting of all of our changes ... Belleau. John and I have been waiting nearly a year for the chance to adopt ... a puppy. And Belleau (pronounced Bella) is quite the puppy. We picked her out when she was just a tiny thing. 

And she flew to Virginia with us at just 6 weeks old! She did GREAT on the plane ... slept almost the entire way (only 2.5 hours). 

Then she sat in our Virginia apartment while we packed, and loaded into a moving truck for the drive to Florida.

Belleau seems to be enjoying the Florida life so far. She views our backyard as her playground (which the Dog Whisperer may be upset about, ops). She runs and runs, then lays flat on her belly in the cool sand. Then runs and runs again. She has made us laugh quite a bit, and that's what is making these "puppy days" doable. The other night John and I were in the kitchen and he picked me up to twirl me and I squealed, and she came bolting into the kitchen and stood right in front of me staring John down. Quite my little protector already. She is not anti-John though, her little butt shakes up a storm when he gets home everyday. It's pretty darn cute. 

It would be wrong of me to complete this post and not mention the hours in which I wanted to pull my hair out because of this precious little girl. Over the last two weeks, there have been many of those hours. She is a great napper, in fact, she is asleep in her bed now. The problems have been from her going to bed for the night as soon as it gets dark (around 8:30) which results in her waking up at 1am, 3am, and finally 5am and is up for the day. Just this weekend (since Thursday) things have gotten better (not close to perfect, just better). She is slowly adjusting to our schedule. But those first ten days, oh my! She has had a rough start to adjusting to her new "pack" (as the Dog Whisperer would call us). Who can blame her though? She lived in Omaha with her mom for 6 weeks, then lived in Bellevue for two days, then in Virginia for three days, then in a moving truck for two days, then a hotel for two nights, and finally a week ago has a place to call "hers". Puppies are a lot of work and that is an understatement. It will get better, it will get better. 

Still at mommy's here

First bath

Tired from house hunting

ORDERS! We're moving, folks.

Well after much delay (thank you, budget crisis) we have orders! We officially received them Tuesday (almost a week ago now). We are to arrive in Pensacola, Florida NLT (No Later Than ... the Marine Corps puts acronyms on everything ... notice how I did not abbreviate Florida? ha). Our game plan is to rent a moving truck on 18 May and start our drive on 19 May. Should take about two days tops. Now many of you may be asking what our new "home" is going to look like. The truth is, we have no home. We are planning on driving down there and finding a place to live for the next 2+ years in five days. Should be quite exciting and I may wake up with several new pimples.

Consider this a "quick update" post. I will share more once we are unpacking in our soon to be found home.
Oh! and also, there will be photos of John's graduation on here sometime next week. In the midst of moving, I will upload a few and tell you all about graduation! Goodbye, TBS!

What John's been up to.

A Lt. from John's company made a video that does an excellent job of summarizing all that John has been up to these last six months. Thought I would share it with all of you. It can be found on youtube, "Alpha Company TBS 2011" or by using the link below. Enjoy!
 It is about 15 minutes long. Loads of training.
video of TBS

Mom, make sure TB and Tyler see this. They'll enjoy it.

subbing and "other news"

My subbing days in the Stafford county have come to an end. It is Spring break here this week and then we hope to have some sort of orders that take us somewhere new (more on orders this weekend). I am a little sad that I am done subbing (for now) ... it was a great run. And provided me with great stories.


Here are just a couple.

1. When teaching Kindergarten, I had an adorable little boy come up to me and ask, "how come you look like a boy?" I handled it well and said, oh it's probably because of my short hair. He thought for a loooooooooong minute then a light bulb went off and he excitedly said, "OH YEAH! You look like Justin Bieber." I guess it could be a compliment?

2. Now on to Freshman, oh aren't they a funny group. A girl was talking to me about how tall she was (she was my height) and how tall I was, and what size of shoe I wore. She really just wanted to see what all we had in common, I think. She went on to how much I weigh, and things of that sort. Then out of no where she looks at my wedding ring and in a sigh of relief says, "oh good! At least you are married!!" I was a bit confused, and gave her a look and asked, "Why is that such a good thing?" She calmly and with absolute confidence said, "well not many short people get married." Thank you, John, for marrying a short girl.

In other news, our reverse has been working! No problems, so maybe the cleaning did help after all.

We had a great Easter. Went to church, then took a nap while John prepared steaks for dinner, THEN grilled pizza (John's idea and turned out oh so tasty), then exchanged Easter baskets, then had an amazing dinner (John's doing again).

Grilled chicken and mushroom pizza

steak, sweet mashed potatoes, grilled corn (complete with two different butters John created)

Tonight is the General's dinner. Should be a grand fancy time (I'll try to get a few pictures). Only two more wife events before our time here is done. At my high school graduation, I remember being unexpectedly emotional after saying goodbye to high school and all the fun it entailed. That is sorta how I am feeling now, and I am sure over the next week it will only get worse. At least this time I have been anticipating the feeling. Sad to say goodbye to such a great group of wives and such a wonderful first six months in the military life.

Wine bottles I decorated at our last "wife night"

whoopsie.

It's story time. A non-fiction, though I wish it were all a dream. About two-three months ago our wonderful Volvo started having a major issue … it wouldn’t reverse. The block (it’s a manual) would come up and stay up. I cannot describe in words how frustrating it was when the reverse decided not to work. Once, after teaching at the high school, I came out to my car on a beautiful sunny day and my car was stuck. I waited and waited for other teachers to walk out and give me a push. So embarrassing. Two weeks ago, I once again didn’t have reverse and had to use all my little might to push MYSELF out of a spot, in heels. Finding a spot I can “roll out of” or pull through has become my expertise over the last few months, but sometimes there is just no such spot in the lot. Just last week, I went to watch John grapple and pulled into a parking lot on base that I had never been into before and once in, was stuck. There were no spots open and nowhere to turn around. So I didn’t watch John grapple, but instead waited for him to come push me the 100 feet out of the parking lot. That was the last straw. I was done, so John called the local Volvo dealership and made us an appointment.  

I took the car in Friday, waited two hours, and then my jaw dropped. The manager came into the waiting room and asked me to follow him out to the garage. My thoughts: “ah crap, this is going to be expensive. Why do they want to show me? I know nothing about cars. I need John here.” But I followed regardless, and walked out to meet the mechanic who was working on the car. He had a huge grin on his face and asked me to come in on the driver’s side and take a look. I obeyed and he said, “I believe this is the cause behind your problem” and GUESS WHAT he showed me…

 A HERSHEY’S BAR! (Special Dark, of course).

So … the chocolate had fallen down (was opened) and had melted all over the electrically pieces that make up the gear shifter. It was my chocolate, no doubt there. They say it needs replaced because it has been ruined but the piece is expensive AND on back order (could be 10 days to 3 months). So I said I’d have my husband call, and they pulled my car around for me and guess what was sitting so nicely on the seat? Oh, the Hershey’s bar wrapper.

the culprit

We spent our rainy Saturday attempting to clean up the chocolate in hopes that it just needs cleaned and not replaced. (Cleaning supplies = vacuum, tape, screw driver to scrap it, blow dryer). I can tell you that the reverse did go out yesterday. Ugh. But now is working again? It seems to be working more than not … but it’s only been two days. Just say a prayer that the chocolate disappears, or that the piece comes in and we can replace it before we move. I love dark chocolate, but I may give it up permanently if we do have to replace the piece.

Let's end on a better note ... we had a wonderful Sunday. Spent at Busch Gardens in Williamsburg (for free!) with great friends. I sure do love roller coasters. Only had to wait about 25 minutes for each ride and the weather was perfect. 

it's been too long.

Sorry, folks, I am a little behind on the blogging. There is no good excuse for it. I would like to blame subbing and our wonderful visits from family and friends, but I don't feel right blaming. Instead, I will play catch up. Let's go back to after Brett left...my Vandament grandparents came in on Friday, and we had so much fun with them! Not every granddaughter has the privilege of hosting her grandparents. We showed off our DC sites and ate lots of terrific food.

They left Monday, the same Monday that John had to pull an all-nighter for “duty.” I dropped him off at work Monday around 0630, and then brought him food at 2000 (Brook, you should know military time by now). Then the poor guy had to stay up all night (after a long day of work) and then had a full day of work the next day. He is so amazing. AND on that Tuesday, on my way to pick him up I received a wonderful surprise call from my sisinlaw. Ash and Wes were in DC! They needed a place to stay and we were THRILLED beyond words to have them as house guests (even if it was just for dinner and a place to sleep for a few hours). John took a two-hour nap before they arrived, we went out to dinner and caught up. Nothing like it and sad there is not a picture to document it.

The rest of last week was not too bad as far as John getting home at a decent hour. He had one “late night” and even that wasn’t too bad.

Now, last weekend FLEW by. Just glad we were together…before this last FEX. This last FEX has been one of the best thanks to Brook (she got in LATE Monday and left this morning)! Some highlights from the week (after sending John off with a hundred kisses for the week):

The wives had a successful grill out! At first we were in need of those husbands, but we pushed through and had some wonderful hotdogs.

Sorry, girls. This one is a favorite ;)

Brook and I walked about eight miles exploring DC. I think I gave her quite the complete tour, ending it with matching blisters on our feet and the best pizza in Alexandria (cannot wait to take John).

Thursday (today!) we had a second book club meeting with the wonderful author of The Homefront Club. And now I am home, alone, watching Stomp the Yard hoping that my FEX enemy sleep will show up soon. I really thought having Brook here would make sleeping easier. And although she made the days and evenings fly by, I still could not sleep. I need that snoring John next to me. One more night, one more night, one more night, one more night …