Today is 2 days before Ben's final ETS date. He will be out of the Army, officially, on Sunday at midnight. Soon, we will be regular civillians! Can we make it?? That is the QUESTION!
Actually--- we figured out his current income (with the sewer-cam job) will be exactly equal to what he made in the Army. So, when he joins the Reserves, we will be making more than we were before. WOW. God is good!
So many changes these days.....I shall try to be quick.
Violet is growing up. She has lost her first tooth......and has had several visits from the tooth fairy. The first time, the tooth fairy couldn't find her tooth. She had to write her back saying that the tooth had been lost in the front yard. Upon receiving a correspondence from such a delightful child, the tooth fairy left her a bon-bon on her dresser the next morning, and a note saying not to worry, just to save her next tooth for her.
(Ben.....is the tooth fairy.)
Grace is entering the Terrible Twos. Violet had Terrible Threes, not Twos, so I am thrown off a bit by how much attitude she has in such a tiny body. I hope she is over it soon. Parenting is hard: it takes a lot of effort to do a good job with a 5 year old and a 2 year old, and still have enough energy by the day's end to have a good marriage. My readers know how this goes, though. I won't elaborate. God's Grace is sufficient, and these intense days of parenting won't last forever.
Ben is working part-time with Hydro Physics while taking a day here and there to go to final briefings, clear Company, etc. He's mostly wrapped up with the paperwork. We just have recruiter meetings to go to, and change out our I.D. cards. Coming up this summer is also some schooling for Ben. He will be switching over to the Air Force Reserves in order to find something non-combat related to do......that might be interesting as an AFR-ist. We have lots of friends in the AFR, anyhow, so it would be easy to do whatever he wanted. We are excited about this making our health-care options easy. Outside of Tri-Care, the insurance world is a scary place. :( It was worth it to take that extra job *just* for the health care. It means he will be (as I said) schooling this summer or fall sometime, in order to re-class, and then working 1 weekend a month, and 2 weeks per year for drill. The re-schooling can take place pretty much at his convenience. He will be getting paid regular active-duty wages during the class time.
In other news: we're going through the masses of paperwork required to refinance into a mortgage. Our construction loan is finished out in July, but we want to start working on our lawn, so we've closed it out already and are about to be making our first mortgage payments on our new home! Our lawn....yes......it is NOT a lawn yet. It's just a gravel site. We have all sorts of dreams for it, of course. Swingset, sandbox, garden, patio, firepit..... it's hard to not start buying cool yard stuff when the weather gets warmer.
It's still pretty cold here, too. I know the entire rest of the U.S. is well into delightful spring weather, while here we still wear flannel and rubber boots. I have tried to ignore it, taking the kids for a run/bike ride in the rain, donning rain coats to do it in. :P They don't mind. I am desperate to start running again, anyhow. This home-building and moving has been INCREDIBLY hard, and stress always makes me want to eat and not exercise...just work, work, work.
I'm pretty much settled down. I say me, because the rest of them don't take as long as the Momma. Mommas are emotionally involved in their homes, and it takes quite a bit longer to settle down. I sat in my kitchen yesterday and sipped tea during the newly-reinstated Quiet Time, and for the first time it felt like Home, rather than a Giant Project. Decoration always takes it out of me.....living in the home while decorating it is hard, yet in the end, deeply satisfying. I see the end in sight.
I am excited about having house guests here this summer! I have 3 friends coming out at different times this summer....and hopefully more to come! It's great having a guest room to offer. I'm loving that! And while we're talking about guests, let me shoot out an invitation to the general public: You are welcome to come visit us this summer or fall--we are open for visitors ANY time! Just send an email, we'll pencil in your name! Here is the room you can stay in; hopefully it entices you to come visit:
Actually--- we figured out his current income (with the sewer-cam job) will be exactly equal to what he made in the Army. So, when he joins the Reserves, we will be making more than we were before. WOW. God is good!
So many changes these days.....I shall try to be quick.
Violet is growing up. She has lost her first tooth......and has had several visits from the tooth fairy. The first time, the tooth fairy couldn't find her tooth. She had to write her back saying that the tooth had been lost in the front yard. Upon receiving a correspondence from such a delightful child, the tooth fairy left her a bon-bon on her dresser the next morning, and a note saying not to worry, just to save her next tooth for her.
(Ben.....is the tooth fairy.)
Grace is entering the Terrible Twos. Violet had Terrible Threes, not Twos, so I am thrown off a bit by how much attitude she has in such a tiny body. I hope she is over it soon. Parenting is hard: it takes a lot of effort to do a good job with a 5 year old and a 2 year old, and still have enough energy by the day's end to have a good marriage. My readers know how this goes, though. I won't elaborate. God's Grace is sufficient, and these intense days of parenting won't last forever.
Ben is working part-time with Hydro Physics while taking a day here and there to go to final briefings, clear Company, etc. He's mostly wrapped up with the paperwork. We just have recruiter meetings to go to, and change out our I.D. cards. Coming up this summer is also some schooling for Ben. He will be switching over to the Air Force Reserves in order to find something non-combat related to do......that might be interesting as an AFR-ist. We have lots of friends in the AFR, anyhow, so it would be easy to do whatever he wanted. We are excited about this making our health-care options easy. Outside of Tri-Care, the insurance world is a scary place. :( It was worth it to take that extra job *just* for the health care. It means he will be (as I said) schooling this summer or fall sometime, in order to re-class, and then working 1 weekend a month, and 2 weeks per year for drill. The re-schooling can take place pretty much at his convenience. He will be getting paid regular active-duty wages during the class time.
In other news: we're going through the masses of paperwork required to refinance into a mortgage. Our construction loan is finished out in July, but we want to start working on our lawn, so we've closed it out already and are about to be making our first mortgage payments on our new home! Our lawn....yes......it is NOT a lawn yet. It's just a gravel site. We have all sorts of dreams for it, of course. Swingset, sandbox, garden, patio, firepit..... it's hard to not start buying cool yard stuff when the weather gets warmer.
It's still pretty cold here, too. I know the entire rest of the U.S. is well into delightful spring weather, while here we still wear flannel and rubber boots. I have tried to ignore it, taking the kids for a run/bike ride in the rain, donning rain coats to do it in. :P They don't mind. I am desperate to start running again, anyhow. This home-building and moving has been INCREDIBLY hard, and stress always makes me want to eat and not exercise...just work, work, work.
I'm pretty much settled down. I say me, because the rest of them don't take as long as the Momma. Mommas are emotionally involved in their homes, and it takes quite a bit longer to settle down. I sat in my kitchen yesterday and sipped tea during the newly-reinstated Quiet Time, and for the first time it felt like Home, rather than a Giant Project. Decoration always takes it out of me.....living in the home while decorating it is hard, yet in the end, deeply satisfying. I see the end in sight.
I am excited about having house guests here this summer! I have 3 friends coming out at different times this summer....and hopefully more to come! It's great having a guest room to offer. I'm loving that! And while we're talking about guests, let me shoot out an invitation to the general public: You are welcome to come visit us this summer or fall--we are open for visitors ANY time! Just send an email, we'll pencil in your name! Here is the room you can stay in; hopefully it entices you to come visit:
Please, please tell me that the comment about flannel was illustrative and not literal...
ReplyDeleteThe room is quite enticing. :)
Good to catch up with your doings. I would love to be spending time with your girls, of course, even the terrible two-year-old.
ReplyDeleteAlso, working on Gracie's quilt again. I hope it will be finished by her birthday.
I am very enticed! That room is soooooo gorgeous!!!!!!!! In a week and a day I'll be there!
ReplyDelete