I can move on to more interesting things.
So... We moved! We still haven't gotten everything unpacked, but we are slowly getting everything together.
Right now it looks more like we are taping an audition for 'Hoarders' than like we actually live here.
But, regardless, we are in base housing, so that's a good thing. We would have been making a good chunk of money if we had bought a cheap house in town, but with my Mammaw passing and our car dying, it just wasn't an option at the time. We are still looking because our lease is up in a year, but we can't even get ready to buy anything for a while.
There are some really nice houses in this town though.
I've started making friends with the squadron wives, so it isn't quite as lonely here as it was in Las Vegas. In the time it took me to drive to work, I can drive to a different town and explore all of the stores that we don't have here in BFE. There's even some really great spas an hour and a half away.
And, unlike Las Vegas, their prices are very reasonable.
We are already so much happier here than we were in Las Vegas and with any luck, things will just keep getting better.
On a side note: My in-laws are coming to visit in June. Pray for us.
Thursday, April 8, 2010
Tuesday, April 6, 2010
Helena: The long awaited final chapter
Sorry I've been so sparse with my updates. We are still trying to unpack and I'm a mother of a 9 month old, Oh... and an Avon Lady. It can all become quite time consuming.
So, my parents agreed to watch Ally while we went out with some friends to get dinner. Being the awesome kids we are, we got my parents some ice cream (before dinner... yeah, deserts first!) from Marble Slab as a reward and then we went to Burger King to get food. Well, my husband and I wanted Rally's, since we haven't lived near one in a long time, but no one else did so we went to Burger King first (It's a good thing I didn't want Burger King because after this, I wouldn't have eaten anything in that bag and I have not gone to any location since.)
We pulled up to the order thing and waited to place our order. Two of the three people ordering wanted a chicken sandwich with a different kind of sauce. You know, THEIR way? Well, we were told that they couldn't do that. I was notified that the very same location had done it for them before so I relayed that to the order taker. He was silent for a minute and then told us that it may have been another manager but that he couldn't do it. No big deal, whatever. From the back, my husband yelled "I thought it was 'Have it Your Way!' to which there was no response. A different guy came over the speaker and asked if we wanted to order anything. All three orderers got chicken sandwiches but they each wanted them differently.
Everything was fine and dandy and we were laughing and joking and had moved on to another topic while waiting to pay.
The 'manager' comes to the window to take our payment and the first thing out of his mouth (Note: I greeted him with a smile and a 'hi') is "Do you want to pay for your fucking food or keep calling us a bunch of assholes?"
Say what?
"Um, excuse me?"
"You heard me. We can hear you as soon as you pull up" he started waving his headset at me. "And the whole restaurant heard what you said.
I was stunned. "Sir, we didn't call you that. I'm very sorry if you misunderstood something that we said, but we aren't mad about anything."
"Whatever, we all heard it" he slammed the window and went to run my card.
Amongst ourselves, we discussed what the hell just happened. We ran over the entire thing again and couldn't even come up with anything that sounded like what he accused us of saying.
He came back to the window and threw my card at me.
Again, we tried to resolve the situation but he just slammed the window in my face. At this point, I was pissed.
He came back and threw the food at us "Have a great night, assholes". I calmly asked for his manager, he responded "I am the manager! 'Mike -somethingorother-"
"Okay, cool. Can I have your corporate phone number so I can file a formal complaint?"
"It's on the receipt. Goodnight."
Well that would be great except he didn't give us a receipt.
My Mammaw had just died, I had put up with a lot of bullshit from American Airlines and my in-laws, and I was not about to feel bad because some jerk thought we called him something that we didn't.
Eff that.
We went and my husband and I got food somewhere else. The whole time I was ranting and raging about Burger King. I made sure the guy at the window knew that I was not talking about him or anyone in his wonderful establishment.
After we got our food, we went to my parent's house to eat our dinner. I was mad the whole time and ended up calling the only Burger King phone number that we could find, which was to take a satisfaction survey.... It was a 25 minute survey and we waited through the whooooole thing. Finally, at the end, you were able to leave open comments about the store. After we were done, I just couldn't let it go. I needed to have some kind of closure.
I was going to make a blog dedicated to our story and write complaint after complaint until justice was served. I had also planned to contact a lawyer and sue for harassment and damages.
Well, I talked to a lawyer and he was very eager to take the case. Fortunately, my mom talked some sense into me and I decided to just let it go. The lawyer was sure that Burger King would settle out of court but my mom mentioned what it could potentially do to my husbands career if it went to court and we lost.
I still think they should have refunded our money.
Anyway... we were supposed to go have lunch with my in-laws the next day and we were going to meet halfway. Well, last minute they decided that didn't work for them and wanted us to drive all the way out. I pointed out that if we did that, we couldn't stay as long since we would have to figure in the extra time driving there and back.
We made a counter suggestion that if we were going to drive all the way out there, why didn't they go pick up or make lunch so that we could all eat together and spend a little more quality time. We already had plans that night and they couldn't be moved around since we were leaving the next day.
My mother-in-law started screaming "NO!" at my husband and eventually hung up on him. She started throwing everything in our faces: the fact that we stayed with them for two days, that they let us borrow a car and that they even drove to the airport to meet us.
Since it was obviously such a big deal, we offered to pay rent on the car and for the time we stayed at their house.
That just fueled the fire.
She hung up again and told everyone that we weren't coming.
That started world war 3, with both his family and mine. My parents can't stand the way they act and treat us, and they can't stand the fact that we have to share our time.
Considering we were there for my Mammaw's FUNERAL, I think it was really gracious of my family to not throw a fit. You know, we didn't have to go see them at all. We were not there for a social call. At my Mammaw's visitation, they told everyone how they are coming out here for Ally's birthday and then when we started arguing, my mother-in-law said that they didn't know if they could afford it.
While with his family, everyone seemed to forget that my grandmother had just died. We lived with the woman for 12 years or so and she had just died. Yet I had to put on a happy face and deal with everyone saying how glad they were that we were there. Really? I would rather of stayed in New Mexico and finished unpacking and have my Mammaw still be alive.
Anyway, we finally show up at my husband's grandma's house so we can figure out what the hell is going on, and I got out of the car to take Ally in and change her. Before I could even get Alyssa's pants off, my mother in law had jumped in the car with my husband and my father in law, and told him to drive forty minutes away to pick up food. Then they stopped at walmart on the way back. By the time they actually got back, we had to eat and leave.
Fortunately, I got to talk to the rest of the family while they were gone.
First thing, his Nana hugged me with tears in her eyes and said "Please don't be mad at me. I called your mom to see what was going on. We can't believe -mother-in-law- is acting like this."
I assured her that I wasn't mad at her and that I knew she had nothing to do with it.
While my in-laws were gone with my husband, we all sat there and talked about what was going on. Evidently, that is the only time the situation was addressed.
I have not had a chance to talk to them about their behavior, but when they come down for Alyssa's birthday, you can bet your ass the fur will fly. I am not going to have our family torn up emotionally all the time. I had to live through it when I was growing up (my mom had a bad mother-in-law too), I've had to put up with it since before we got married, I am NOT doing that to Alyssa.
I'm a grown up, I can deal with it.... she's just a baby.
So, after a very tense dinner, we got back to my parents house and I had to be all perky because we had company over.
Once everything settled down, my mom and I got to sit down and talk.... Instead of consoling each other and grieving our loss, my mom had to help me come up with a plan to deal with my in-laws.
She had to go to bed early because she worked in the morning. She requested that we not take Ally by her office since she knew it would be too emotional for her to deal with. That night, my in-laws called and demanded that we bring Alyssa by my mother-in-laws clinic so that she could say goodbye.
It is only because I love my husband that we went. I had already told him that if Alyssa was asleep, we weren't going to wake her up... but wouldn't you know, she was wide awake.
I kept my mouth shut the whole time.
My mother-in-law tried to hug me, but I stopped her. Any physical contact would have just resulted in a lawsuit and I didn't need to deal with that right then.
Anyway, we left and went to pick up my husbands dad since he was going to drive us to the airport and get his car back. The only thing I said was "The behavior displayed yesterday is unacceptable and will not be tolerated. When would be a good time for us to discuss a resolution?"
I didn't say another word to him the entire way there or while we were waiting to check in for our flight.
It was all I could do to keep from screaming my frustration at him.
I offered no hugs or pleasantries when we departed and we had a fairly uneventful flight to our new home.
The next morning, however, our car decided to die.
It was well over $1,000 to get it fixed. For the first time in two years, we have a balance on a credit card. I'm paying it off next month.
We had a string of bad luck for a while, but things are finally starting to turn around.
Let's just hope it holds out.
So, my parents agreed to watch Ally while we went out with some friends to get dinner. Being the awesome kids we are, we got my parents some ice cream (before dinner... yeah, deserts first!) from Marble Slab as a reward and then we went to Burger King to get food. Well, my husband and I wanted Rally's, since we haven't lived near one in a long time, but no one else did so we went to Burger King first (It's a good thing I didn't want Burger King because after this, I wouldn't have eaten anything in that bag and I have not gone to any location since.)
We pulled up to the order thing and waited to place our order. Two of the three people ordering wanted a chicken sandwich with a different kind of sauce. You know, THEIR way? Well, we were told that they couldn't do that. I was notified that the very same location had done it for them before so I relayed that to the order taker. He was silent for a minute and then told us that it may have been another manager but that he couldn't do it. No big deal, whatever. From the back, my husband yelled "I thought it was 'Have it Your Way!' to which there was no response. A different guy came over the speaker and asked if we wanted to order anything. All three orderers got chicken sandwiches but they each wanted them differently.
Everything was fine and dandy and we were laughing and joking and had moved on to another topic while waiting to pay.
The 'manager' comes to the window to take our payment and the first thing out of his mouth (Note: I greeted him with a smile and a 'hi') is "Do you want to pay for your fucking food or keep calling us a bunch of assholes?"
Say what?
"Um, excuse me?"
"You heard me. We can hear you as soon as you pull up" he started waving his headset at me. "And the whole restaurant heard what you said.
I was stunned. "Sir, we didn't call you that. I'm very sorry if you misunderstood something that we said, but we aren't mad about anything."
"Whatever, we all heard it" he slammed the window and went to run my card.
Amongst ourselves, we discussed what the hell just happened. We ran over the entire thing again and couldn't even come up with anything that sounded like what he accused us of saying.
He came back to the window and threw my card at me.
Again, we tried to resolve the situation but he just slammed the window in my face. At this point, I was pissed.
He came back and threw the food at us "Have a great night, assholes". I calmly asked for his manager, he responded "I am the manager! 'Mike -somethingorother-"
"Okay, cool. Can I have your corporate phone number so I can file a formal complaint?"
"It's on the receipt. Goodnight."
Well that would be great except he didn't give us a receipt.
My Mammaw had just died, I had put up with a lot of bullshit from American Airlines and my in-laws, and I was not about to feel bad because some jerk thought we called him something that we didn't.
Eff that.
We went and my husband and I got food somewhere else. The whole time I was ranting and raging about Burger King. I made sure the guy at the window knew that I was not talking about him or anyone in his wonderful establishment.
After we got our food, we went to my parent's house to eat our dinner. I was mad the whole time and ended up calling the only Burger King phone number that we could find, which was to take a satisfaction survey.... It was a 25 minute survey and we waited through the whooooole thing. Finally, at the end, you were able to leave open comments about the store. After we were done, I just couldn't let it go. I needed to have some kind of closure.
I was going to make a blog dedicated to our story and write complaint after complaint until justice was served. I had also planned to contact a lawyer and sue for harassment and damages.
Well, I talked to a lawyer and he was very eager to take the case. Fortunately, my mom talked some sense into me and I decided to just let it go. The lawyer was sure that Burger King would settle out of court but my mom mentioned what it could potentially do to my husbands career if it went to court and we lost.
I still think they should have refunded our money.
Anyway... we were supposed to go have lunch with my in-laws the next day and we were going to meet halfway. Well, last minute they decided that didn't work for them and wanted us to drive all the way out. I pointed out that if we did that, we couldn't stay as long since we would have to figure in the extra time driving there and back.
We made a counter suggestion that if we were going to drive all the way out there, why didn't they go pick up or make lunch so that we could all eat together and spend a little more quality time. We already had plans that night and they couldn't be moved around since we were leaving the next day.
My mother-in-law started screaming "NO!" at my husband and eventually hung up on him. She started throwing everything in our faces: the fact that we stayed with them for two days, that they let us borrow a car and that they even drove to the airport to meet us.
Since it was obviously such a big deal, we offered to pay rent on the car and for the time we stayed at their house.
That just fueled the fire.
She hung up again and told everyone that we weren't coming.
That started world war 3, with both his family and mine. My parents can't stand the way they act and treat us, and they can't stand the fact that we have to share our time.
Considering we were there for my Mammaw's FUNERAL, I think it was really gracious of my family to not throw a fit. You know, we didn't have to go see them at all. We were not there for a social call. At my Mammaw's visitation, they told everyone how they are coming out here for Ally's birthday and then when we started arguing, my mother-in-law said that they didn't know if they could afford it.
While with his family, everyone seemed to forget that my grandmother had just died. We lived with the woman for 12 years or so and she had just died. Yet I had to put on a happy face and deal with everyone saying how glad they were that we were there. Really? I would rather of stayed in New Mexico and finished unpacking and have my Mammaw still be alive.
Anyway, we finally show up at my husband's grandma's house so we can figure out what the hell is going on, and I got out of the car to take Ally in and change her. Before I could even get Alyssa's pants off, my mother in law had jumped in the car with my husband and my father in law, and told him to drive forty minutes away to pick up food. Then they stopped at walmart on the way back. By the time they actually got back, we had to eat and leave.
Fortunately, I got to talk to the rest of the family while they were gone.
First thing, his Nana hugged me with tears in her eyes and said "Please don't be mad at me. I called your mom to see what was going on. We can't believe -mother-in-law- is acting like this."
I assured her that I wasn't mad at her and that I knew she had nothing to do with it.
While my in-laws were gone with my husband, we all sat there and talked about what was going on. Evidently, that is the only time the situation was addressed.
I have not had a chance to talk to them about their behavior, but when they come down for Alyssa's birthday, you can bet your ass the fur will fly. I am not going to have our family torn up emotionally all the time. I had to live through it when I was growing up (my mom had a bad mother-in-law too), I've had to put up with it since before we got married, I am NOT doing that to Alyssa.
I'm a grown up, I can deal with it.... she's just a baby.
So, after a very tense dinner, we got back to my parents house and I had to be all perky because we had company over.
Once everything settled down, my mom and I got to sit down and talk.... Instead of consoling each other and grieving our loss, my mom had to help me come up with a plan to deal with my in-laws.
She had to go to bed early because she worked in the morning. She requested that we not take Ally by her office since she knew it would be too emotional for her to deal with. That night, my in-laws called and demanded that we bring Alyssa by my mother-in-laws clinic so that she could say goodbye.
It is only because I love my husband that we went. I had already told him that if Alyssa was asleep, we weren't going to wake her up... but wouldn't you know, she was wide awake.
I kept my mouth shut the whole time.
My mother-in-law tried to hug me, but I stopped her. Any physical contact would have just resulted in a lawsuit and I didn't need to deal with that right then.
Anyway, we left and went to pick up my husbands dad since he was going to drive us to the airport and get his car back. The only thing I said was "The behavior displayed yesterday is unacceptable and will not be tolerated. When would be a good time for us to discuss a resolution?"
I didn't say another word to him the entire way there or while we were waiting to check in for our flight.
It was all I could do to keep from screaming my frustration at him.
I offered no hugs or pleasantries when we departed and we had a fairly uneventful flight to our new home.
The next morning, however, our car decided to die.
It was well over $1,000 to get it fixed. For the first time in two years, we have a balance on a credit card. I'm paying it off next month.
We had a string of bad luck for a while, but things are finally starting to turn around.
Let's just hope it holds out.
Saturday, March 13, 2010
Helena: The continuing story
Shortly after we got the call, we were in El Paso waiting for our flight to board.
We waited.. and waited... and discovered that the plane was delayed. They kept pushing the flight back so much that we were going to miss our connection, so we called the airline to see what they could do (Seriously. the lady we talked to in person was no help. At all.)
After a few calls, we started to get angry and some other people got involved. We made it very clear that if we were going on vacation it would be one thing, but that if we didn't get home that day, we would miss my Mammaw's funeral. That was not an option for me. I had already decided that I was going to rent a car and drive it if I had to.
Through all of the crap, the airline was zero help and one rep told me to "Suck it."
Yeah, that's a direct quote. Markeesha, if we ever meet, you will regret saying that.
We finally boarded our flight and were told that we would be able to make it to our connection. We ran.
I was holding Ally, running as fast as I could while my husband grabbed the stroller and chased after us. He caught up with me (Hey, I'm fat. Give me a break) and we traded off since he can run faster. Like I said... worst case scenario, I was going to drive.
Anyway, barreling through the airport, I straight up knocked one kid down (I really did ask him to move first... I swear! He just looked at me like 'What are you going to do about it?' and I didn't have time to swerve because there were babies... He was at least 10. I knew he could handle it.) and hit another one with the stroller (Unless he was deaf, he had plenty of time to move. If he was.... I'm very sorry and I did scream an apology as I kept running.)
We got to the gate.
They closed the door as we walked up.
"I know you're ready to leave but that's our flight!"
"Sorry, the plane has already pulled away."
"Umm... no it hasn't. It's right there. There are still people waiting to board!"
"Sorry. We can't open the door. You should have been on time."
"OUR FLIGHT WAS LATE AND WE NOTIFIED YOU 5 HOURS IN ADVANCE!" (yeah, we had quite a layover..)
"The plane has already pulled away from the gate."
"I can see it. right there. *points* There are at least 7 people that are still waiting to board!"
"I'm sorry. Goodnight."
So I went to another agent. We had previously been told that there were no more flights to our desired city. I asked her if they could send us to another airport that might have a flight that could get us there in time.
She said no.
I collapsed on her podium, out of breath and bawling my eyes out.
She rolled her eyes "There's no need to cry. It isn't that serious."
"I know you deal with this every day, but this is very new to me. I'm trying to make it to my Grandmother's funeral in the morning."
"There's a flight that will get there around midnight. Do you want it?"
"Of course I do. Does it have 2 seats available?"
"... *sigh* yeah."
"Wait. What? I was told over 5 hours ago that this was the last flight to -town-. And that there were no other options. And that I was going to miss my Grandmother's funeral and to "Suck it"."
"You're on the flight, have a great day." *turns around to talk to her co-worker*
*turns around with tickets, crazy eyes aglow, muttering* "I will burn this mother down."
At that point I was tired, sweaty, headachey, hungry and mad.
We finally got on a plane and landed. Even our luggage made it.
Helena would have handled that situation very differently. When she first learned that there was going to be a problem, she would have gotten a refund for her tickets and just driven. Thus, eliminating 90% of her frustration that day.
Helena also would never say "I will burn this mother down" in an airport.
Just for safety.
Oh... and my husband and I made repeated jokes about how I was probably going to end up in jail before it was all over. You got the 'lite, condensed, somewhat readable' version...
Anyway.. We are finally home and we do the funeral, then we go to my in-laws house for 2 and a half days. Why? Because they wanted to see us. We figured "Hell, we're going to be here for a week, what does it matter?" It went great and then we went back to my parent's house.
I was able to help mom a little, hang out with some of my friends, and have a pretty good time considering the circumstances.
Then, we went to Burger King.
To be continued....
We waited.. and waited... and discovered that the plane was delayed. They kept pushing the flight back so much that we were going to miss our connection, so we called the airline to see what they could do (Seriously. the lady we talked to in person was no help. At all.)
After a few calls, we started to get angry and some other people got involved. We made it very clear that if we were going on vacation it would be one thing, but that if we didn't get home that day, we would miss my Mammaw's funeral. That was not an option for me. I had already decided that I was going to rent a car and drive it if I had to.
Through all of the crap, the airline was zero help and one rep told me to "Suck it."
Yeah, that's a direct quote. Markeesha, if we ever meet, you will regret saying that.
We finally boarded our flight and were told that we would be able to make it to our connection. We ran.
I was holding Ally, running as fast as I could while my husband grabbed the stroller and chased after us. He caught up with me (Hey, I'm fat. Give me a break) and we traded off since he can run faster. Like I said... worst case scenario, I was going to drive.
Anyway, barreling through the airport, I straight up knocked one kid down (I really did ask him to move first... I swear! He just looked at me like 'What are you going to do about it?' and I didn't have time to swerve because there were babies... He was at least 10. I knew he could handle it.) and hit another one with the stroller (Unless he was deaf, he had plenty of time to move. If he was.... I'm very sorry and I did scream an apology as I kept running.)
We got to the gate.
They closed the door as we walked up.
"I know you're ready to leave but that's our flight!"
"Sorry, the plane has already pulled away."
"Umm... no it hasn't. It's right there. There are still people waiting to board!"
"Sorry. We can't open the door. You should have been on time."
"OUR FLIGHT WAS LATE AND WE NOTIFIED YOU 5 HOURS IN ADVANCE!" (yeah, we had quite a layover..)
"The plane has already pulled away from the gate."
"I can see it. right there. *points* There are at least 7 people that are still waiting to board!"
"I'm sorry. Goodnight."
So I went to another agent. We had previously been told that there were no more flights to our desired city. I asked her if they could send us to another airport that might have a flight that could get us there in time.
She said no.
I collapsed on her podium, out of breath and bawling my eyes out.
She rolled her eyes "There's no need to cry. It isn't that serious."
"I know you deal with this every day, but this is very new to me. I'm trying to make it to my Grandmother's funeral in the morning."
"There's a flight that will get there around midnight. Do you want it?"
"Of course I do. Does it have 2 seats available?"
"... *sigh* yeah."
"Wait. What? I was told over 5 hours ago that this was the last flight to -town-. And that there were no other options. And that I was going to miss my Grandmother's funeral and to "Suck it"."
"You're on the flight, have a great day." *turns around to talk to her co-worker*
*turns around with tickets, crazy eyes aglow, muttering* "I will burn this mother down."
At that point I was tired, sweaty, headachey, hungry and mad.
We finally got on a plane and landed. Even our luggage made it.
Helena would have handled that situation very differently. When she first learned that there was going to be a problem, she would have gotten a refund for her tickets and just driven. Thus, eliminating 90% of her frustration that day.
Helena also would never say "I will burn this mother down" in an airport.
Just for safety.
Oh... and my husband and I made repeated jokes about how I was probably going to end up in jail before it was all over. You got the 'lite, condensed, somewhat readable' version...
Anyway.. We are finally home and we do the funeral, then we go to my in-laws house for 2 and a half days. Why? Because they wanted to see us. We figured "Hell, we're going to be here for a week, what does it matter?" It went great and then we went back to my parent's house.
I was able to help mom a little, hang out with some of my friends, and have a pretty good time considering the circumstances.
Then, we went to Burger King.
To be continued....
Thursday, February 25, 2010
Helena Handbasket (Part 1 of 3)
If I were to create an alter ego for myself, one that would go back to February first and relive this month for me, I would call her Helena Handbasket. Horribly cliche, a tad overused, full of spunk and way more prepared, I'm willing to bet she would have handled everything much better than I have.
I'm assuming that you remember 'The Move from Hell'. Oh? You didn't read that part? Okay, I'll recap. It would not have been so bad if Alyssa weren't going through separation anxiety. She wouldn't let us out of her sight without screaming loud enough to wake up the entire apartment complex. Most of our furniture required two people to load into the POD moving container, so we had to get some help. Well... that was an adventure in and of itself. Fast forward to the moment we figured out that all of our stuff was not going to fit into the POD. Go a little further to the point where we were madly shoving things into our cars, trying to get the last few piles taken care of. When we realized that no amount of cramming (I earned my Gypsy stripes there... no one thought I'd get as much to fit as I did.) was going to get everything in... we started to give things away and throw the rest into the garbage.
If we had been smart about this, we would have put all of the important stuff into the POD first, knowing that with our luck we would run out of space... Yeah, well, eff you too. We put the heaviest things in first since we knew that we would need to hit as close to 8 thousand pounds as possible. Turns out, we were going to get rid of a lot of our heavy stuff. In fact, when we unload the POD, I think we'll just take most of it straight to the dumpster.
I gave away things that were mostly sentimental in nature, and things that I wanted to keep... somehow, when it came down to the end, we were left with most of my stuff.
Anyway, after all of that drama, we finally made it out of Las Vegas five days behind schedule. With the baby in my car and the cat in My Husband's, we set off on our whirlwind adventure.
We drove as long as we could and made it to Luke AFB to stay the night. It was about 3 in the morning when we finally got checked in, and they only had one option for us.... fortunately, it was temporary housing for officers and we got to stay in this pretty awesome 3 bedroom house. There was one minor setback, however.... they didn't allow pets. We actually had to sign a form stating that we wouldn't take our pet inside.
Sorry, Professor Chaos... He spent the night in his crate in the heated utility room. We didn't leave him out in the cold, but I felt so bad that he had to stay all cramped up at night. He did get a nice bath, though.
The next morning, we checked out of the room and went across the street to eat breakfast. While we were there, we called ahead to our new base to see if their temporary housing allowed pets. They said that they did not and that there was no room in the pet boarding, so they gave us some local numbers. We weren't able to find anything suitable and realized that it was going to be cruel to keep our kitty cooped up for who knows how long while we found housing.
We made a very hard choice and took Professor Chaos Alastor Moody: Eater of Crepes to a no kill shelter in Phoenix. We paid $51 dollars for them to take our cat and promise not to kill him unless he became too aggressive. I bawled like a friggin baby.
I was so messed up after that... like... seriously. I'm tearing up now.
Anyway, that night we got to our new base and checked in to the temporary housing. It turns out that they do have pet friendly accommodations but none were open at the time. ... I felt like an ass.
While trying to fall asleep, I considered asking My Husband if we could go back to Phoenix and pick him up if he had not been adopted yet. I decided that I would ask him when I woke up.
Well, when I woke up, I was going to go to the bathroom and get freshened up a little before addressing the cat situation and I heard my cell phone ring. It was my mom. She was crying. My Mammaw had passed away that morning.
A few weeks earlier, I had tossed around the idea of running home after we got checked in here so that Mammaw could see Alyssa again. If we had gotten out of Las Vegas on time, we would have made it before she passed.... She was in the hospital because her lungs filled with fluid and when they had an indication that she was going to pass, even my relatives that were in the area could not get to the hospital fast enough.
We quickly made plans to go home.
To be continued.
I'm assuming that you remember 'The Move from Hell'. Oh? You didn't read that part? Okay, I'll recap. It would not have been so bad if Alyssa weren't going through separation anxiety. She wouldn't let us out of her sight without screaming loud enough to wake up the entire apartment complex. Most of our furniture required two people to load into the POD moving container, so we had to get some help. Well... that was an adventure in and of itself. Fast forward to the moment we figured out that all of our stuff was not going to fit into the POD. Go a little further to the point where we were madly shoving things into our cars, trying to get the last few piles taken care of. When we realized that no amount of cramming (I earned my Gypsy stripes there... no one thought I'd get as much to fit as I did.) was going to get everything in... we started to give things away and throw the rest into the garbage.
If we had been smart about this, we would have put all of the important stuff into the POD first, knowing that with our luck we would run out of space... Yeah, well, eff you too. We put the heaviest things in first since we knew that we would need to hit as close to 8 thousand pounds as possible. Turns out, we were going to get rid of a lot of our heavy stuff. In fact, when we unload the POD, I think we'll just take most of it straight to the dumpster.
I gave away things that were mostly sentimental in nature, and things that I wanted to keep... somehow, when it came down to the end, we were left with most of my stuff.
Anyway, after all of that drama, we finally made it out of Las Vegas five days behind schedule. With the baby in my car and the cat in My Husband's, we set off on our whirlwind adventure.
We drove as long as we could and made it to Luke AFB to stay the night. It was about 3 in the morning when we finally got checked in, and they only had one option for us.... fortunately, it was temporary housing for officers and we got to stay in this pretty awesome 3 bedroom house. There was one minor setback, however.... they didn't allow pets. We actually had to sign a form stating that we wouldn't take our pet inside.
Sorry, Professor Chaos... He spent the night in his crate in the heated utility room. We didn't leave him out in the cold, but I felt so bad that he had to stay all cramped up at night. He did get a nice bath, though.
The next morning, we checked out of the room and went across the street to eat breakfast. While we were there, we called ahead to our new base to see if their temporary housing allowed pets. They said that they did not and that there was no room in the pet boarding, so they gave us some local numbers. We weren't able to find anything suitable and realized that it was going to be cruel to keep our kitty cooped up for who knows how long while we found housing.
We made a very hard choice and took Professor Chaos Alastor Moody: Eater of Crepes to a no kill shelter in Phoenix. We paid $51 dollars for them to take our cat and promise not to kill him unless he became too aggressive. I bawled like a friggin baby.
I was so messed up after that... like... seriously. I'm tearing up now.
Anyway, that night we got to our new base and checked in to the temporary housing. It turns out that they do have pet friendly accommodations but none were open at the time. ... I felt like an ass.
While trying to fall asleep, I considered asking My Husband if we could go back to Phoenix and pick him up if he had not been adopted yet. I decided that I would ask him when I woke up.
Well, when I woke up, I was going to go to the bathroom and get freshened up a little before addressing the cat situation and I heard my cell phone ring. It was my mom. She was crying. My Mammaw had passed away that morning.
A few weeks earlier, I had tossed around the idea of running home after we got checked in here so that Mammaw could see Alyssa again. If we had gotten out of Las Vegas on time, we would have made it before she passed.... She was in the hospital because her lungs filled with fluid and when they had an indication that she was going to pass, even my relatives that were in the area could not get to the hospital fast enough.
We quickly made plans to go home.
To be continued.
Saturday, February 6, 2010
game called on account of rain
So... some unusual weather has thrown a wrench in our moving plans. We were going to be out of here by Sunday, but now it will be at least Monday, possibly Tuesday. The POD will not hold all of our stuff, and patience is running quite thin.
I hope to never live in a place with stairs again. It makes moving heavy things even more difficult.
Also, my daughter seems to have become a wee bit suicidal. Or maybe she's just an adrenaline junkie. Between eating styrofoam, getting herself in the most awkward places, and pulling things over onto herself, she has racked up quite a tally as far as most injuries in a day go.
I have had to save her from certain doom more times that I would care to admit. And before you get mad and say that I was leaving my baby alone while I went off to do stuff... I wasn't. I was right there with her, except once and then I was a room away for about 3 minutes.
After this last bump, I've found myself doing impersonations of Professor Moody from Harry Potter-- "CONSTANT VIGILANCE!"
Now that there are even fewer things to try and use to block her path, someone has to be holding her at all times. She crawls really fast, so she could get stepped on or kicked and we don't have a playpen/have room for a playpen that would be large enough to keep her happy.
Tonight we will be sleeping on an air mattress so we have to make sure everything else is out of that room, just in case she wakes up and goes exploring. Like all babies, she is incredibly curious so everything, no matter how silly, is a toy and goes straight in her mouth.
I hope that we will know where we are going to live soon so that we can go back to our closer-to-normal life.
I hope to never live in a place with stairs again. It makes moving heavy things even more difficult.
Also, my daughter seems to have become a wee bit suicidal. Or maybe she's just an adrenaline junkie. Between eating styrofoam, getting herself in the most awkward places, and pulling things over onto herself, she has racked up quite a tally as far as most injuries in a day go.
I have had to save her from certain doom more times that I would care to admit. And before you get mad and say that I was leaving my baby alone while I went off to do stuff... I wasn't. I was right there with her, except once and then I was a room away for about 3 minutes.
After this last bump, I've found myself doing impersonations of Professor Moody from Harry Potter-- "CONSTANT VIGILANCE!"
Now that there are even fewer things to try and use to block her path, someone has to be holding her at all times. She crawls really fast, so she could get stepped on or kicked and we don't have a playpen/have room for a playpen that would be large enough to keep her happy.
Tonight we will be sleeping on an air mattress so we have to make sure everything else is out of that room, just in case she wakes up and goes exploring. Like all babies, she is incredibly curious so everything, no matter how silly, is a toy and goes straight in her mouth.
I hope that we will know where we are going to live soon so that we can go back to our closer-to-normal life.
Thursday, February 4, 2010
the final countdown
A few days ago, my husband got his official orders and we are set to go. We decided to do the move ourselves to try and get some extra money. Since we don't know where we will be living or how long it will take to find a place (we are still trying to get on base housing but who knows how long the list is) we decided to use the POD system.
I know you've seen the commercials. It's pretty awesome. They drop it off, you fill it, they pick it up and store it until you are able to officially move in to your new place.
Awesome!
The day it was dropped off, it was just me and the baby. I tried to move things into it, but Alyssa has horrible separation anxiety (gee, I wonder why... ) and starts screaming if you leave her alone. Even if you are still in the room.
I tried to get some help from some of my local friends, but nothing panned out. I was frustrated, but I understand that people have their own lives and no one wants to help anyone move.
My husband found out that one of his really good friends was on leave and had gotten back in town a few days ago, so we called him to see if he could help. He said "Sure, I'll be there in 30 minutes".. I swear he was there in 10. And he brought help.
OMG. He is awesome. We got most of the furniture loaded and about half of the boxes. We're going to finish up tonight and then we celebrate with pizza and beer. Alyssa will be having carrots and a bottle.
This guy is a great guy. But if you want to hang out with him, you have to be prepared to hear some things that might offend even the least offensive person. You see, this guy is a slightly alcoholic, racist, possibly sexist, libertarian and he is highly offensive. It's a good thing we aren't easily offended!
I made a Facebook post about how I thought it was odd that he is the most reliable person we know. Whoa, I opened myself up for a shitstorm there.
I got a lot of angry calls/messages/emails over that one. I'm not sure if one incident was related, but I really hope she knows I wasn't trying to bash her. Ashlee, if you are reading this, I'm sorry if that hurt your feelings. It was never meant to. You know I understand that you have a life and if we had been able to bring her to you, it would have worked out perfectly.
Just so that we are all clear for the future, I will never post a passive aggressive, vague message bashing you in a public forum. Even with our old sitter, O, I spoke to her directly about the problems we had and then I used my blog to vent. 'Oh, she doesn't read it so you can say whatever you want'. No... she does read it. In fact, if you click on the link that says "a handy guide to recognizing the people I'm talking about" her picture is listed. She is a good friend.
Just know that I will never say anything behind your back that I won't say directly to your face. If I'm talking about a situation, we've already discussed it and found a resolution. Even if that resolution is to find a resolution...
I wouldn't want anyone to do that to me, so I refuse to do that to other people.
I'm very sorry if I've hurt anyone's feelings or offended anyone. That was never my intention.
I know you've seen the commercials. It's pretty awesome. They drop it off, you fill it, they pick it up and store it until you are able to officially move in to your new place.
Awesome!
The day it was dropped off, it was just me and the baby. I tried to move things into it, but Alyssa has horrible separation anxiety (gee, I wonder why... ) and starts screaming if you leave her alone. Even if you are still in the room.
I tried to get some help from some of my local friends, but nothing panned out. I was frustrated, but I understand that people have their own lives and no one wants to help anyone move.
My husband found out that one of his really good friends was on leave and had gotten back in town a few days ago, so we called him to see if he could help. He said "Sure, I'll be there in 30 minutes".. I swear he was there in 10. And he brought help.
OMG. He is awesome. We got most of the furniture loaded and about half of the boxes. We're going to finish up tonight and then we celebrate with pizza and beer. Alyssa will be having carrots and a bottle.
This guy is a great guy. But if you want to hang out with him, you have to be prepared to hear some things that might offend even the least offensive person. You see, this guy is a slightly alcoholic, racist, possibly sexist, libertarian and he is highly offensive. It's a good thing we aren't easily offended!
I made a Facebook post about how I thought it was odd that he is the most reliable person we know. Whoa, I opened myself up for a shitstorm there.
I got a lot of angry calls/messages/emails over that one. I'm not sure if one incident was related, but I really hope she knows I wasn't trying to bash her. Ashlee, if you are reading this, I'm sorry if that hurt your feelings. It was never meant to. You know I understand that you have a life and if we had been able to bring her to you, it would have worked out perfectly.
Just so that we are all clear for the future, I will never post a passive aggressive, vague message bashing you in a public forum. Even with our old sitter, O, I spoke to her directly about the problems we had and then I used my blog to vent. 'Oh, she doesn't read it so you can say whatever you want'. No... she does read it. In fact, if you click on the link that says "a handy guide to recognizing the people I'm talking about" her picture is listed. She is a good friend.
Just know that I will never say anything behind your back that I won't say directly to your face. If I'm talking about a situation, we've already discussed it and found a resolution. Even if that resolution is to find a resolution...
I wouldn't want anyone to do that to me, so I refuse to do that to other people.
I'm very sorry if I've hurt anyone's feelings or offended anyone. That was never my intention.
Tuesday, January 26, 2010
ramblings of a housebound mom
We have decided to say no to fast food.
For the last four years, we have relied heavily on fast food since we didn't have the time or energy to cook. Now that I'm a 'housewoman' otherwise known as a stay at home mom, I have time to do a lot of things that I couldn't do before.
Even though I can't guarantee when something will get done, I am able to make sure that I get a few things done. My favorite part of cooking? Leftovers. That is definitely something we don't get through the drive thru and for, like, 4 bucks I can have spaghetti one night, spaghetti sandwiches the next day, and then some left over pasta during the week. It's day two and I think we've already saved twenty dollars.
The biggest perk is, i can plan out our meals so that we don't have to throw away a lot of food when we move.
My husband just got his official orders, so we will be out of here by the 15th of February.
WOO!!!
We're finally going to move and will eventually be in a real home again, rather than a two bed, two bath 950sqft storage room. We don't have a whole lot of packing left to do since we have been slowly getting non essential items packed since August. Why August? Well, we were first told that we would move in June, then July, Then September, then December.
In other news, I'm trying to transition Ally to her crib. Up until now, we've been co-sleeping. I want my be back. I want to be able to roll over and not worry that I'm going to crush someone too small to push me off. Okay, there's another reason. Ally fell off the bed. We were sleeping, then she woke up and crawled right off the edge. Fortunately, she landed on pillows and was fine, but still... it was terrifying.
It took about forty minutes of crying and me checking on her, but it sounds like she may have finally gone to sleep.
They say that tomorrow will be worse.
Fun, fun, fun!
For the last four years, we have relied heavily on fast food since we didn't have the time or energy to cook. Now that I'm a 'housewoman' otherwise known as a stay at home mom, I have time to do a lot of things that I couldn't do before.
Even though I can't guarantee when something will get done, I am able to make sure that I get a few things done. My favorite part of cooking? Leftovers. That is definitely something we don't get through the drive thru and for, like, 4 bucks I can have spaghetti one night, spaghetti sandwiches the next day, and then some left over pasta during the week. It's day two and I think we've already saved twenty dollars.
The biggest perk is, i can plan out our meals so that we don't have to throw away a lot of food when we move.
My husband just got his official orders, so we will be out of here by the 15th of February.
WOO!!!
We're finally going to move and will eventually be in a real home again, rather than a two bed, two bath 950sqft storage room. We don't have a whole lot of packing left to do since we have been slowly getting non essential items packed since August. Why August? Well, we were first told that we would move in June, then July, Then September, then December.
In other news, I'm trying to transition Ally to her crib. Up until now, we've been co-sleeping. I want my be back. I want to be able to roll over and not worry that I'm going to crush someone too small to push me off. Okay, there's another reason. Ally fell off the bed. We were sleeping, then she woke up and crawled right off the edge. Fortunately, she landed on pillows and was fine, but still... it was terrifying.
It took about forty minutes of crying and me checking on her, but it sounds like she may have finally gone to sleep.
They say that tomorrow will be worse.
Fun, fun, fun!
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