A day at the beach

I've lived here a month now and only been to the beach twice, and once I only got out of the car to take a picture. I think I need to remedy that, and go to the beach again. 

Evey loved it, she loved the sand, the cool water, the sunshine. 

We went over memorial day weekend, while my parents were here. We didn't bring swim suits, we only went so we could say we had gone, and to let Evey have a little beachy experience. 

Thanks for the warm welcome California!

A couple of weeks ago San Diego county was all ablaze, like I think at one time there was 10 or 11 fires going at once. It was crazy. It was also all started the day we had our stuff moved into base housing. It was a bit scary, I won't lie, I was a tiny tad worried for a day or two. Fire scares the shit out of me. But the wonderful firefighters on Camp Pendleton and San Diego County did a wonderful job of keeping us, and thousands of others, safe.

From Evey's bedroom window

Out our bedroom window

Fire scares the shit out of me. But the wonderful firefighters on Camp Pendleton and San Diego County did a wonderful job of keeping us, and thousands of others, safe.

PCS Adventure Log Part 2

When we last posted, we had just left Virginia and we were on our way back West, working our way towards our new home in Sunny California! 

Our first stop was back in Albuquerque to rescue Aunt Andrea from all the animals! Because 3 dogs and 3 cats, makes her an animal hoarder. 

We then adventured back to Tucson, to spend a couple days with my family before we checked into California! 

Sadly here my camera stopped working correctly and don't really have any pictures until after we got to California. 

Still Moving!

I have been updating regularly on instagram - AlanaMarie26 check me out! 

I am still in the process of moving, we have done our cross country family visits, gotten our address at Camp Pendleton and we are back at my moms house for the weekend. We will be setting up at our home next week and if any of you are still here, I should be back to regular posting the week after. I have lots of posts in mind, traveling with a toddler, fun at the zoo, car friendly snacks for tots. So make sure you check back soon! 

On The Move

Moving physically, not bloggerly- Movers are coming this week and we are headed to Sunny California after we take some much needed personal time. I've tried to set things up so you don't notice my absence, and I will try to post from the road periodically. We should be back to your regularly scheduled blogging in mid May. Until then have fun and find me on facebook and instagram and maybe even YouTube for more frequent updates!

Moving My Military Family (part 1, early preparation)

I can't wait to cook at sea level again.

We are currently at about 6,200 feet, and I have to adjust cooking times, and I burn a lot of things. I can't even grill right. As I write this I am trying to make dinner and my mac and cheese is taking for-ev-er.

We have finally accepted our fate that we are moving to Cali. Well I had already accepted it, but we tried to change things, to no avail. I am excited, I have been excited for a while, but now that we are about 3 months from moving I am really getting excited. Paul will only be working about 2 of those 3 months because he has vacation time that he has to use or he will loose it.

So this is our third PCS (permanent change of duty station), but our 7th move in the 8 or 9 years we have been together. So 3 states, 2 countries, 7 houses/apartments. I am by no means a moving pro, but I kind of know what to expect. We are a few months out still, so a plan is in place. The plan? Get rid of all the shit we don't want to move.

Step One: Early Prep:

We have been planning what we want to take and what we want to sell/donate. We want to get rid of most of our big furniture, except baby stuff and some bedroom stuff (hopefully, if we can get decent prices for our stuff.) I have a running list of the things I don't want to move, things that are broken, or well past their lifespan. Like our couch. We got it our first year in Okinawa, it's been almost 6 years. Is that a long time for a couch? I don't think so, but ours is breaking. The springs are falling apart on one side and it sags. It's also covered in dog slobber because Renji licks it all the time. It's so sad. It still works, it's just a sad couch.

"it may be sad, but it's tasty"
"am i really related to this guy?"

Since we moved to Butte a few months ago we have been downsizing, we moved from a 4br house with a garage to about half that, and no garage. We have stuff everywhere, all of our garage stuff is outside, well not all of it, but with winter here storing anything outside is a bad idea. Plus the stuff we have outside is subject to the elements, like our tent, which I am pretty sure is toast. We still have stuff that has no home, boxes piled everywhere, we are using the extra shower as storage, because oddly this house doesn't have any closets besides the master bedroom, and that one is filled with clothes that don't fit.

We have already gotten rid of 2-3 loads of stuff, clothing and housewares that we don't use or need. But there is still a huge pile of stuff I need to go through this week. I have never really hung anything on the walls because I knew we were moving in 9 months so most of that is still in the boxes the movers packed in Helena, or we repacked in rubbermaid containers.

It feels like we have only made a small bit of progress in downsizing, but do you really want to sell your entertainment center, when you have nothing else to put your TV on? Part of me says do it now, part of me says wait until October. And our bed, I think we plan on keeping the mattress but we want to sell the bed frame. So do it now? or wait?  Well it looks like we are waiting, because I don't want to deal with it now. Also part of me thinks that we are more likely to get better prices in Cali. Way more families coming and going, some new military couple looking to furnish their house may really want my bed, and my coffee tables, and my entertainment center, and my sad couch (which I will steam clean), and my clothes that don't fit, someone wants it, right?

Just a friendly reminder, I was nominated for the top 50 Military Mom Blogs by VoiceBoks, you can vote for me here. Thank you for your support. 

How goes it in Montana?

We are still waiting on orders to Camp Pendleton. Hoping to get them any day now, but realistically since we are not moving until after October, we may not get orders until Augustish, or later.

We have not really done anything exciting this month.

Partly because it's still cold as shit. This week we were under 34 degrees for about 6 days straight.

So we have been staying inside, where it is warm.

Hoping that May will bring warmer weather.

I've been cross stitching again. I sort of screwed this one up but I am hoping when I frame it that it'll be okay. I didn't center it correctly and I only have about 1/4 inch on the right side, vs about 2 inches on the right.

Oh and I got new glasses, yay! 

Little miss cranky pants has been taking up much of my time, and my hands, she prefers to have my undivided attention, and I haven't been able to put her down much. When I do I try to use that time to do housework and cook, tis why I have been absent much the last few weeks.  But today she has given me time to do things with my hands, and I cleaned the kitchen yesterday, so I am blogging today. I have several days worth of blogs for you, so stay tuned this week!

What will it be like?

I spend a lot of my time thinking about the future. It's winter here, still, and for the most part I am bored. It's really too cold to play outside, we are walking on warmer days, but for the most part I stay inside. Which allows my mind to wander. One thing I have been thinking is "I wish I remembered my expectations for Montana" because I spend a lot of time thinking about what my days will be like in SoCal. I want to share them, so I can look back at them and laugh in a year when I relise how different things are from what I imagined. I am sure my expectations for Montana were high, but after the first winter, which never seemed to end, I settled into how I feel now. Montana is a beautiful place to visit, but it's just not for me, not somewhere I would ever willingly live again. 

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I imagine there will be a lot of time spend on the beach. 

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Hopefully with all that beach time I will get a nice sun kissed tan.

I know base housing won't look like this, but that looks nice too.

I think that we will spend evenings walking around our neighborhood, strolling away the day. 

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On weekends we will sit around the fire pit with our neighbors and friends, sipping cold drinks and laughing. 

I imagine we will be more outdoorsy, and fit. 

We will hike and walk all over So Cal. 

We will have a nice yard, and a clean house. 

Renji will get over his anxiety and he will be a happy doggie who loves to go on walks. 

We will shop, and eat sushi, and go to farmers markets. 

Paul will take more leave from work and we will take trips, like to Yosemite and San Francisco. 

We will still be in the states, and close to a major airport, so visiting family out of driving range will be cheeper (vs. living in Japan).

Our families will come out to us too, and together we will take Evey to the zoo, and the beach. 

Although I am sad we are not going to Okinawa, I am actually excited about Camp Pendleton. 

I have always secretly wanted to live in California. 

Ever since "Saved by the Bell" and "Beverly Hills 90210", I have had this warm, fun, exciting, picture of California in my head. 

I long to live in a big city again, with real stores and little cute markets. 

I miss variety. 

I miss mild winters, and warm summers. 

In my mind California is full of all these things.

I think I am really going to enjoy our time there.