The reason why our children think moving is FuN!!!!

Charlie took our kids' beds apart yesterday in preperation for the movers. This evening while I was shampooing all of our rugs, he built them this tent out of their quilts, headboards, and a toybox. They are all sleeping in it as I type. The threat of not being allowed to sleep in it if they got rowdy was enough make them go to sleep in less than 15 minutes.

Jordan was MIA because he was at basketball practice with Charlie.

The Chaos Begins

It is that time of year again... MOVING time of year. Yikes. I say this every time... but hopefully we will actually stay in Alaska for 3 years and I won't be having another one of these posts in 11 or 12 months from now.

Today an international moving company came and crated up 12 fairly large boxes of "STUFF" to head to Alaska ahead of time. We are hoping it gets there around March 24th because the rest of our stuff won't be arriving until the beginning of May. So today we sent linens, half of our kitchen, a few toys, games, my sewing machine, outdoor gear, rubber boots in case we hit break-up before our stuff arrives, and some of Charlie's gear. I think we are authorized 1500 pounds of things to go ahead of time and when we arrived in Germany I only sent 200 pounds, so I tried to bulk this shipment up and I think it was a success.

I have a list a mile long of things that need to be done and I have 2 weeks to line it all up. Some days, I think I could start a moving planner business. Instead of the wedding planner, I could be the moving planner. I joke that I don't even need check-lists... there is a permanent log of moving tasks in my head. Don't be suprised if next year I start taking down curtains at the 12 month mark in anticipation of a move that might never happen!

I am going to try to squeeze one more post before we leave Germany about the German things I am going to miss and the things that I can't wait to say "Auf weidersehen" to.

The Results are in!

Today we received our RFO (request for orders) from Human Resources Command and we are going back to Fort Wainwright, AK. What a whirlwind this is going to be. A few days ago, we got a heads-up that this was going to happen and today it became official. Back to the artic desert, we go. I am excited to be going to a place where there isn't too many unknowns, but as I put mittens, hats, and boots on all of the kids today... I thought a bit more about it. When we lived there before I had two kids to suit-up for the cold. This time, I am going to need an assembly line for the four of them to go outside. We are all excited and looking forward to a almost 9,000 mile move. Moose, mosquitos, and snow... oh my!

We will leave Germany in early February and plan to arrive in Fairbanks on March 1st. This will be our 9th PCS move in 9 years so as experienced as we are, everything should go as smooth as possible.

You know you live in Alaska when....

I thought this was funny way to post about all things Alaskan!!! Some I forgot about and some are a great reminder of what we are going back to. ENJOY!


You see a car running in the parking lot at the store with no one in it no matter what time of the year.



It takes only a 15-minute drive to "get away from it all".



The town you live in is "away from it all".



Anything above freezing is T-shirt weather.



You've ever had to put on long johns, sorrels, snow pants, T-shirt, button-up flannel, light jacket, heavy coat, scarf, face mask, thick hat, and thick gloves just to walk a few blocks to the store.



It has been -20°F for two weeks, warms up to 0°F and you call it a warm spell.



You design your kid's Halloween costume to fit over a snowsuit.



If you know all 4 seasons as: almost winter, winter, still winter and construction.



You think $4 for a loaf of bread is cheap.



Your bedroom windows are covered in aluminum foil or black blankets.



You see people wearing Carharts at social events.



Your idea of a traffic jam is 10 cars waiting to pass a motor home on the highway.



You go to school, work, or both in the dark and come out in the dark.



When you go to the lower 48 you wonder where everybody's block heater cable.



The municipality buys a zamboni before a bus.



Shoveling the driveway constitutes great upper body workout.



Everyone has hundreds of recipes for moose meat.

'TIS the SEASON

December is here and the first week has flown by. St. Nikolaus visited and brought the kids some treats. I am busy planning 2 Christmas parties (YIKES!!) for Charlie's work. One is this Friday and the other is next Saturday. I know it's a bit crazy, but he has spent the last 17 months in command of two Army detachments with two seperate sets of people, so we are having two parties. Stressful to plan? Yes. Fun to spend time with everyone? Yes. Preparing our house for them? No. Don't get me wrong, I love decorating for Christmas and such, but having to clean every corner of the house before a party that will only be left a mess when it is all over, makes me a bit crazy.



Homeschooling in December has proven to be a challenge. We are staying on schedule because I know when our move comes that life is going to be too crazy to even try. Next year, I will take a good 3 weeks off around the holidays so that I can spend more time focusing on baking and crafts with the kids. We have managed a couple of fun activities though. Before St. Nik came, we decoupaged the wooden clogs for the kids to leave out for him. The two in the picture are of Brady's and Beckett's. His is plain and unfinished because the arts and crafts center on post said that you have to be three to use their facility to decorate one. So, I bought him an unfinished one with the good intentions of doing it myself before St. Nik came and it never happened. I will have to take more pictures of Jordan and Ava's (I thought I already had some).



Santa is done shopping but hasn't even thought about wrapping. Christmas cards? I am ashamed to say that this is our 3rd year of not sending them out. The first 2 years of the 3, we were moving or had just moved and it was not at the top of my priority list. This year... still not at the top of my priority list and I would have had to mail them out my now. Maybe next year folks. This year, I am saving a tree by not sending them out to the 200 people that fill our address book. I promise to take a bazillion goofy pictures of our kids until I can get ONE where they are all looking forwards ( I can't guarantee that they will actually be looking at the camera) and post it on here before Christmas.



'TIS the SEASON!!!!





The shoes, filled with the goodies. And this picture makes me want to share a tradition with everyone... we put all of the Christmas related books we own under the tree until Christmas Eve and that way I am sure that we have read each one before Christmas and none are left out.

Brady decorating the tree.

Ava wore her Santa hat to bed every night for the first week. She cried one night at 3 am because it fell off her head and she couldn't find it. Mom to the rescue... it was under the covers.

Rudolph puppets they made yesterday.

Brady's accomplishments

I am so proud of Brady. When we returned from Normandy we made him stop wearing pull-ups to bed. When he potty trained at 2 and 1/2 we didn't force him into bedtime potty-training like we did with Jordan and Ava. So he continued to wear pull-ups to bed. Probably not the best of excuses, but I let it slide until he turned 4 because so much other stuff was going on (Beckett's salmonella, Beckett's ears, moving, etc.). When he turned 4, I said we were D-O-N-E. Partially because he is just too big for wearing them and partially because I know that the older he gets the harder it is going to be to train his sleeping brain to get out of bed and go to the bathroom. Did I mention that I am tired of buying them?

So after a few weeks of us waking him up in the middle of the night to go potty, his brain has finally realized that peeing in his pants is not a proper sensation while he is sleeping. All of the sheet changing the first few nights and lack of sleep for us has really paid off. A proud sibling moment, too... Jordan was waking him up first thing in the morning and helping him make it to the bathroom. It took us a few mornings to figure out that his big brother was helping out!

On other Brady notes... we have started to enroll Brady in speech therapy. The screening process is long, but he does qualify for free help from the school districts. Once we finish all of the paperwork he will start his therapy. He has had to meet with multiple individuals because they test for all cognitive disabilities, although they don't feel he needs anything more than speech thereapy. He can't blend consonants and some he just puts his tongue right in front of his teeth and can't get the sound out. When we slow him down, he can make out the sounds but he gets frustrated with Mom and Dad so therapy seems like the right answer.

We are very proud of him for taking all of his "tests" and when we finally move, he will probably go to preschool so that they can work on it in another setting that is outside of our home.

ARE YOU READY?

for S-A-N-T-A?????
... because I know seven little angels that are!!!!!!!!

their jammies read, "Dear Santa, I can Explain"