Medical stuff done!

I feel like I reached a huge milestone in preparing for our move. After a doc appt for all of us, an extra one for me, 2 dentist appointments each for my older two and myself, a form for oldest kid through school, tons of medical records, and some additional phone calls, forms, letters, and faxes, I have mailed all of our documents off to the closest AF base (3 hours away!) I have an appointment set for 2 weeks away. THEN we can get our official orders. THEN we can do everything else. But for a few short days, I sighed some relief and over the Memorial Day weekend, thought very little about our upcoming move.

Instead, we enjoyed our annual family reunion at the beach. We had a lot of fun and I was amazed how much all three of my kids, even the 9 month old, loved the beach.

Last week was sad and emotional for me. My older two had been attending a preschool two mornings a week at a local church. They were too young for Pre-K, but they had a 1 and 2yo class. I put both of them in the same class. My thought was they needed an opportunity to have friends, since I wasnt involved in a MOPS or anything like that. Also, I needed a small break to run errands, etc with only 1 child around while my husband was gone. I LOVED their preschool and so did they. Unfortunately, last week was the end. Now begins the real challenge of getting ready for a move and running all errands with three little ones under foot. This too, I can do. It's just a slight challenge. ;-)

My husband and I spent the day emailing back and forth. There's SOOO much to do to move overseas. It's overwhelming when you are stationed at an AF base, have a squadron and a husband around, but if you take all of that away, well, overwhelming becomes an understatement. There's so much information out there, and sometimes you get the wrong info. For example, I thought we had 2,000 lbs of unaccompanied baggage we could send (Stuff that we'll be shipping from here) No, today I found out it was 1,375. No idea where the 2000 lbs came from, so now I must figure out what I'm going to ship, and what we're going to carry in the van and/or ship to Colorado. We also found out a few things we thought we could do now, indeed, cannot be done until we have official orders. So now, we just sit and wait for my medical appointment in the next two weeks, then we wait after that for orders. Until then, we continue to do research and make tons of lists. It will all happen, right? I mean, it has to.

Crafting

I have begun to learn that if I am doing some kind of craft, it really helps alleviate my stress and helps me to not feel so overwhelmed. I had decided a while ago to make the girls matching red, white, and blue dresses, for Memorial Day, 4th of July, and daddy's homecoming. I finished Hannah's last week. Here's a preview of it.
Here is a picture of the detail on the front, a flower.
And here is the back detailing, a cute star button.
And finally, my newest project I just started. Anyone want to take a guess at what I'm making? :)

Germany better be worth it

I recently sent an email to my best friend, and realized why I feel so stressed. Since this pretty much all pertains to being an Air Force wife, I thought it'd be appropriate to share here. As I told her, I'm so stressed i could curse til the cows come home and drink til my liver failed, but I know neither would help!

Jon's job has become much busier all of a sudden, because they've given him a second job. This is bringing on longer hours, and him not able to communicate while at work on email. This comes at the same time that his roommate is gone, so while we thought we'd get to talk more and do more video chat, we aren't able to.

He originally thought he'd get to come home any time in July, now it's not so. (He left July 28) Now he could stay even in to Aug maybe. We have absolutely NO CLUE when he will come home. July/August-ish. His sister is getting married in Aug, so hopefully he'll be home by then. This also means that until I get those dates, I can't set up anything for meeting movers in CO and in FL, hotel plans, plans in general for traveling.

Then move on to the fact that there's tons of paperwork i have to get filled out for our military medical clearance. I got a lot of it done, felt good. Then there was a dental form for me and a medical one for my diabetes. The diabetes one I faxed 4/19 and spent all last week back and forth with the office, resulting in me faxing it again this week. The dental one, I went in this week to get done, got my cleaning, but my dentist refused to sign it until I get 2 fillings I need, which wont be until the 26th because that was the earliest available. Then the military person told me that the form I have to get filled out for my diabetes, I also have to get done for all of us since we're going over seas. So, I dropped them off at our primary doc this week, but they refused to even take them, and I had to make an appointment for all of us, and now have to drag all 3 kids to the doc next week right during nap time. I think I have been to the doctor more in the past year just to get forms filled out than I have for a real medical reason!

THe problem is, AFTER I get all these forms, I have to make an appointment, which is only done on Mondays, at a base 2.5 hrs away and take all 3 kids and myself up there. I MAY be able to have this all done by the first Mon in June (My husband was hoping I'd get it all done by the end of Apr/beg of May), but that Monday our son has a followup on his removed tonsils, so we can't even get our medical appt until June 13! Until that is done, husband cannot get his official orders, and until he gets his official orders, we can't get anything else done, set up movers, set up shipping our van, get on the housing waiting list, etc.

Plus throw in little things like the Post office cant seem to deliver mail I've been waiting for and seems to have lost TWO things Jon's sent me...like I went to take Z to swim lessons Monday night only to get there and find out they cancelled them without calling me, or that they had the wrong number typed in and didnt make any other efforts to call me, as they do have my number right in other places...or like the fact that I got chewed out for not flossing this week, that I have gingivitis, and two cavities (my 2nd and 3rd ever)...or like trying to plan the little bit that we do for Rome, trying to communicate with BIL (the future priest) and the travel agency that is not so great at getting back to us in a timely manner, or cashing our check we sent 3 weeks ago. Or that they did email me last night with a rude email, or that our warranty on our van expired 2,000 miles ago and we needed a wheel bearing replaced.

I feel like I've just become an absolute b!tch and any stranger just makes me mad. I have no patience for anyone, nothing nice to say to anyone. I'm grumpy, moody, mad, frustrated, stressed, etc and if anyone passes me, it's soooo evident. And I'm not even PMSing! (actually, fertility returned for one cycle, and nothing since then!) And I'm sometimes unintentionally taking it out on my kids. Yes, I need a 'girls night out' or a mom's day out or a massage or whatever, but I know that wont make it any better. I still have all of this behind me to take care of.

Wow, seeing this all in writing puts it all together and makes me realize why I feel like I do! AHHHHHHHH! No wonder I feel like crying every time something else goes even slightly 'wrong'. (Not looking for anythign, just ranting, venting/whining.)

Two Separate Prayers

Tonight I realized that I'm at a tough spot in my life. A spot where one thought is consuming me, and I am getting hung up on this thought way too often. And the thought is "When exactly will my husband be home?"

Granted, any normal person would say "That's to be expected. I would be bogged down by that thought too." So, maybe I am normal. But tonight, God reminded me to be anxious for nothing and to cast my cares on Him. It hit me that I haven't been reminded of these truths in a long time. And it's clear that Satan has begun to use that to his advantage.

I feel like it's been a while since I was close to God. My kids have been my focus for the past year, and I haven't really had the strength and energy to focus on God. Even getting to mass has been extremely hard, but I've been going for the most part, feeling that I'm barely hanging on, and that's the string keeping me hanging on.

But tonight a thought crossed my mind. Whenever I start worrying about the date, I'm going to turn it over to God. I'm going to say "Lord, you know this is bothering me, please ease my worries, and give Jon a date soon." Those are two separate prayers. (1) Ease my worries and then, aside from that (2) give us a date soon. But first, I want him to ease my worries. I know that maybe this is a test in patience (WHY? I didnt pray for any!) and that we will know eventually. This is just a huge struggle for my personality. However, I do want him to get the date, and God tells us to ask, so I will. I'm interested to see the results in a month or so. Until then, I'm falling asleep typing. Goodnight.