The Smoothest PCS There Ever Was

We've been settled here in SoCal for an entire month and a half. Apologies for the lack of updates. Although if you follow us on Instagram or Snapchat you know we made it here safe and sound. I gotta say, for all my hemming and hawing over the move the weeks leading up to our PCS a month ago, it was THE SMOOTHEST PCS THERE EVER WAS. Everything fell into place at the very last minute such that we couldn't have planned it any better ourselves. 

The two biggest sources of stress were: (a) the movers weren't scheduled until the very last minute and (b) we didn't have a place to live at our destination. We expected that our things would be in temporary storage for at least six weeks, and maybe even up to six months if we decided to play the waiting game for a house on base (our original plan). The rental market during PCS season in the tiny town nearest to the base moves so very fast and our attempts at securing a rental off base before the move were very, very frustrating/unsuccessful. Postpartum hormones + moving uncertainty made me a real fun lady to be around, let me tell ya.

The movers told us, oh a week and a half ahead of time, that they'd be coming the day after our scheduled departure (no bueno). But like I said, it ended up working out perfectly. The kids and I flew out on a Monday, so I scheduled us to view a house first thing in the morning on a Tuesday. The first and only house I saw was sufficient (and way under BAH to boot), so I took it and put down a deposit right then and there, so that I could tell the movers where the destination was. The lease was signed by Friday.

AND THEN GET THIS. …

The movers came on Saturday.

Here were are overjoyed to greet them.

So we only did a week in TLF (temporary lodging on base) with the kids and our stuff didn't have to go into temporary storage at all.

BUT WAIT THERE'S MORE. …

Not a-one thing was missing or damaged in the move. (I've heard too many horror stories to even recount.)

Will and his dad made the four-day drive and arrived the following Monday evening with the rest of our things. So the moving truck actually arrived before Will did, who was pulling a trailer full of designated "important" things - like the vacuum cleaner, washer/dryer, and kids' cribs. Waiting on that stuff was the only real hiccup of the move, but my mother-in-law and I were able to do a ton of unpacking over the weekend.

So Edwards Air Force Base.

It is really remote.

They like to say, "It's in the middle of nowhere, in the middle of everything."

Lots of sonic booms.

Everyone has an RV.

My lips are forever chapped.

BUT, drive a couple hours in any direction and you are somewhere amazing. Like here:

(Santa Monica Pier.)

We've made it to the coast a couple of times so far.

During the week, the kids and I have settled into an easy little routine. Our life is basically gym-Costco-library or GCL for all you old Jersey Shore fans. (Admit you know the reference.) Pretty much every morning, we hit the YMCA about 20 minutes away toward civilization. Some days we hit up Costco next door afterwards. Zelie gets her morning nap in the car on the way home. I nurse her, we eat lunch, and then both kids go down for naps around 1-1:30. Then afternoons are either for hanging out at home (currently throwing puffs at Z while LW watches Netflix to finish up this post!!) or hitting up the library.

It's kind of nice to slow things down after ending up with so many commitments the past few weeks at Scott. The kids are thriving. Since getting settled, Little Will turned 2.5 and has suddenly potty trained and started being able to identify letters and colors (after SO MUCH STRUGGLE, seriously). And Zelie is 8 months old today! (Don't worry - photos have been taken and her eat sleep poop deets are forthcoming.) 

On Earthly Detachment (We Know Our Next Base)

So it's official as it's gonna get until we actually arrive on base and the powers that be tell us we're in the right place (as far as I'm concerned). 

We are moving tooooo . . .

. . . 

. . . 

Edwards AFB

(That's the little red blob IN THE MIDDLE OF THE MOJAVE DESERT.) 

Edwards is very isolated, about 30 minutes from the closest city. BUT! Year-round sunshine. Los Angeles is a 2 hour drive away, Las Vegas and San Diego are 3 hour drives away. And other cities like San Francisco and Phoenix are within reasonable driving distance. There will definitely be a lot to explore on the weekends. Not to mention we get to talk like The Californians. "Take the 40 down to the 405 and hit up Santa Monica, bruhhhhh!"

And if you are like me and have no idea where the Los Angeles really is on a US map, here you go:

Seems like a doable walk with the Duallie. 

It's definitely farther from family than we were hoping for. You know. We were hoping to move to the right on that map, but instead we're going wayyyyyy left. But we do have some west coast friends and family that can hopefully give us a warm welcome. And I'm hopeful that our desert locale means the kids will be less prone to contract runny noses and I'll be sucking out less boogers. 

Will also got the position he was hoping for, Area Defense Counsel (ADC), so it's an exciting career move for him. He'll be the boss of his very own little unit and get tons of really great trial experience. But back to the boogers. No one gets runny noses in the desert, right???? 

Some other good news is that we have actually been getting to know our new neighbors for a while now:

I've got lots of desert jokes. 

The move will take place sometime in July, which gives me approximately four months to KonMari the crap out of this house. We will definitely be downsizing in square footage and there's also a pretty good chance that we'll be spending a few months in temporary housing while we wait for a house to become available on base. So just when I'm ready to say all my stuff "sparks joy" - I'll get to say goodbye to it for an undetermined amount of time. 

My initial reaction is one of "EHHHH" (high-pitched, nasally whine), because who wants to be without their precious stuff for months, but then Colleen shared this quote in her post today: 

Oh, Christian poverty. How very poignant. 

I've always thought I'm pretty detached from all my stuff, bragging that I am basically a minimalist,  the one in our relationship that throws everything away. I barely shop and I'd be pretty darn happy wearing the same three outfits on rotation, I am soooo laid back, ermahgerd. And then you are faced with the proposition of actually doing without your precious King-sized bed, KitchenAid mixer, and random assortment of baby gear/furniture for a couple of months and you discover you are a big fat phony. I am a big fat phony. I am weak and I need a heck of a lot of grace to help me detach from earthly cares, St. Therese. Help me out, please?

So the thought of getting organized for a cross-country move is a little daunting. (Heaven help me if we ever go overseas! I'm exhausted just thinking about it.) And the clock is ticking to check off remaining items on our Scott AFB bucket list. (We still haven't been up to Chicago, etc.) We will miss St. Louis so much, but lots of pretty darn exciting times ahead. 

And we can't wait to meet our new neighbors! 

;) 

Latest & Greatest

My baby boy is TWO! We did it big with a mailman-themed Happy Birthday extravaganza. (AKA we invited three people over for cake.) Will's parents sent this HILARIOUS mailman get-up for his birthday, just in time for the little party. That mail carrier bag has seen all manner of vehicles . . . planes, trains, automobiles, you name it. It's not quite as beloved as his cowboy boots, but it has a special place in his heart, for sure.

He was pretty pumped for his b-day this year. He practiced blowing out candles leading up to the big day thanks to Advent. And we taught him the Happy Birthday Song through the whole month of January. He still bolts out a "Happy Bahhday, YAH YAHHH!" x 4 … blows air, "YAYYY" + claps every so often. 

All of his hard work definitely paid off. 

Those candles didn't stand a chance.

Hashtag fun fam!

Indulge me for a sec, because I really can't believe how old and big and smart he's getting. Every few days he'll really surprise me with something new he says or does. For example, he just started shouting "PANCAKES!!!!" every time we pass The Egg & I on 64. We love brunch. It's just odd because you really can't even see the building from the highway. In the same vein, he shouts "JESUS!!!!" every time he passes our church. (We have a Ordinary Time routine, okay?) 

He just started recognizing where we are when we drive around. He cries tears of agony every time we turn in the direction opposite of the base. Because he knows when we go on base we get to see airplanes, the occasional freight train, and, of course his favorite, his daddy. 

He's getting more serious with his toys and it kills me. 

When he wants to do something specific with his toys, he'll usually whine "HELP PEEEZ!!" and then just do it himself because he can. I really think he underestimates his own abilities sometimes and defaults to asking for help.

Toddlers, man. Keep you on your toes.

Hi Z.

Zelie's all, I'm bald!

Zelie turned two months old today. I'll have a full post that includes all your intricate poop deets, but I want to wait until after her checkup on Friday so I have her stats. She is still tall. (Pic above was from a couple weeks ago. And how cute is the bandit bib from Whole Parenting Goods? Obsessed.) 

You may have noticed I chopped all my hair off. I just finally had to take the plunge and get the mom lob. It was time. 

I had no idea that my cut and style would be free as a perk for donating. I was super pumped! And of course I haven't been able to get my hair to look as good as it does in the pic above, but c'est la vie, no? I could straighten my hair ALL DAY and nope.

Postpartum running is going well! I have been taking it slow. My longest run so far has been 3.66 miles on the treadmill. The weather is supposed to get really nice over the next few days, so hopefully I can hit the pavement with the duallie. I've managed to lose a couple more pounds, but I still have about 11 pounds to go to hit my pre-pregnancy weight. But I finally bought a pair of jeans that actually sort of fit, so I am in less of a hurry. 

Can't hang.

Lent is here! You may or may not have noticed I haven't been on social media much. Here's what I've been up to: 

• Deleted social media apps from my phone (Bloglovin', Facebook, Instagram, and Snapchat). I can fire up the old MacBook to check Facebook or read blogs, but I generally don't because it. is. so. slow. I've been trying to especially limit time spent on my phone during the day when I am supposed to be parenting. So far, so good. So, so good. 
• I am working on the Blessed is She Lenten Workbook. I've been loving the journaling. (Big surprise right? I mean I do have this crazy blog.)
• I've been limiting processed sugar. I say limiting because I am breastfeeding and stopping my nightly chocolate milkshake is a big freaking deal for me. 
• Less screen time for Little Will. It got out of hand there for a while. I'm feeling like I have much more energy lately to get out of the house and/or figure out things to do with Will at home, so it's been a lot easier to implement this. 
• We are donating a portion of our tax refund.

I did a bad thing and tried to bring both children to Ash Wednesday mass by myself on base. It made this bad morning look like child's play. My first mistake was going to a different parish than our usual so that we could attend a full mass that didn't interfere with meal times or naps. We arrived early because it was snowing and I wanted to make sure I got a parking spot close to the building. Little Will was unusually hyper waiving and yelling "HIII" to everyone who walked in as the unofficial greeter. Once mass started, he didn't want to stay in the pew, which is normal, but when I took him out to the vestibule, he screamed his head off. Nothing would console him. I had Zelie in the Moby wrap because I knew I'd be in and out of the pew with Little Will. ANYWAY, once the meltdown of all meltdowns occurred a whopping five minutes into mass, I decided that we just needed to leave. WELL, I had to go back into the church get my bag. We slowly and quietly creep back in as not to be any more of a disturbance. At which point Little Will ran up the center aisle and bum rushed the priest as he gave the homily, yelling "HIIIII!" and waiving. I grabbed my bag and power walked toward the front. A parishioner grabbed Little Will and pointed him back toward me. At which point I made awkward eye contact with a gentleman who I'm sure was at least an O-6, probably a four-star general because that's what happens. Zelie's head was bouncing around in the Moby, pretty unsecured, while I make the looooong walk of shame down the aisle out of the church. More melting down while I buckle poor little sis into her car seat and we slowly make our way outside into the snowy white abyss.

So I guess what I'm saying is Lent started off with a bang. Just trying to make things extra penitential around here.

I promise the transition from 1 to 2 has still been pretty smooth! We've just had a few … moments.

Last, but not least, you may remember back in October when I blogged about how we would soon be getting our next base assignment. Well, that notification got pushed back to February. We waited and waited and waited as Will's colleagues got the news. And finally, today, we got the "unofficial" news of where we'll be living come July. Hint: it's NOT in the direction we were trying to go (East).  I won't jinx it by disclosing it here, but as soon as we get official orders (in a couple more months), you'll be the first to know. ;) 

Our First PCS Move

What. a. whirlwind. I can't believe that just a week ago, I was in North Carolina celebrating Thanksgiving with these cuties:

(Happy Belated 2nd Birthday, Noa!!!!)

Nan took this beaut' of the two of us:

I guess time flies when you are PCSing.

The day after Thanksgiving, we drove 9 hours back to Florida from NC. Upon arrival in Florida (around 5:30PM), we got a call from Budget Rentals telling us that our reservation we'd had for a moving truck for weeks could not be honored. Cue well-founded rage and mad crazy scramble to find a new moving truck on one of the busiest moving weekends of the year. Luckily, we found the last 17' moving truck in the greater Daytona Beach area that night around 9:00PM. 

On Saturday morning, at 7:00AM, Will picked up our Uhaul and got to loading it (along with his dad) with our belongings that had been in storage for the past 7 weeks . . . 

It's like a very large, very expensive 3D puzzle.

and off we went on the 1,000 mile drive.

Little Billy take the wheeeeel. (That's my little brother.) 

We made a couple pit stops, one night in Macon, GA and one night in Nashville. On Sunday morning (1st Sunday of Advent!!!), we attended Mass at St. Joseph's Catholic Church in Macon. It was a gorgeous church and Mass, and was a much needed calm period during the storm of the move.

Right?!

We then promptly hit up Starbucks for some PSLs (naturally), when we discovered that Ace was sitting on our Advent calendar in the back seat of our car.

Those poor dogs were pretty cramped the whole trip, but they were great! And yes, we're eating the chocolates from the Advent calendar anyway.

From Macon, things got wild. As in, we stopped at Ikea in the heart of Atlanta to purchase a new couch cover and coffee table. The former was destroyed by our dogs, while the latter was destroyed by the infamous Neddy-bear (Will's dad, Ned) during the move. We managed to make it out of Ikea in under two hours, which I attribute to the grace of God received at Mass earlier that day, but I digress . . . .

We spent our second night on the road in Nashville. Will met up with a law school friend for a couple of drinks while I refused to put on pants (sorry, Courtney!!) and watched another disappointing Redskins loss with a Wendy's frosty in hand. (I was a vision of beauty, I'm sure.) At this point, we were thoroughly pooped, and still had 5 more hours of driving ahead of us.

Daisy also refused pants.

We left the hotel the first thing the next morning (not too too hard thanks to the time change!) and headed to Scott. We came in from the east, so it was a boring drive, which we didn't mind after driving through the heart of Atlanta and the winding Tennessee mountain roads in the dead of night!

Lots of flat farmland.

We figured we made it to the right place when we approached the base entrance flanked with four massive Air Force planes.

You think we made it to the right place? 

We arrived on base at about 1:00PM, got visitors passes so that I could drive our car on, and went straight to the JAG office to meet Will's sponsor (i.e., a poor coworker who was assigned to answer all of our many many questions!), commanding officer, and coworkers. Everyone was really friendly, and I got to see Will's very own office, complete with a large window, to the outside world! (Anyone working in government straight out of law school will understand this is a rare and amazing privilege.)

His work building.

We left to go to the housing office to go check out our new house (more on that later . . . but suffice it to say I'm about to get all Young House Love up in here).

It is a far cry from our apartment days.

It wasn't the floor plan we were initially told we would get, and was two stories instead of one. The dogs ran up and down the steps 27 times within 15 minutes. I think we'll all get used to it! ;)

We then checked in to the Scott Inn for that night's lodging arrangements (kind of icky - glad it was only for one night). We signed our lease first thing the next morning and started moving into our house, which was just on Tuesday, in addition to doing all those other fun military things (i.e., registering with DEERS, getting ID cards, enrolling in health insurance, registering the dogs on base, etc. etc. etc.).

Things are NOWHERE NEAR settled down, but we obviously did manage to have our Internet installed, which is why I get to over share our experience with you all.

Joy for you and me!