Catching up--part 1

Well we still don't have internet at the house so it's going to take me a bit to get caught up. Luckily we can connect through Clay's phone but it's slow and I can only get on when Clay's home.

Clay reported the night we got here, Thursday night, and started bright and early the next morning for PT. He leaves usually about 5:15 am. He was in training/processing all day. We found out that day that the unit he is assigned to is scheduled to deploy next summer to Iraq for a 12 month deployment.

We also got his MCAT scores back that day. He did really well (29), especially considering the limited time and resources to study while he was at AIT (Advanced Individual Training). I'm really proud of him! I know he would have totally blown the socks off of it had he had more time to study. So we're playing the waiting game, waiting for the schools to contact us to fill out secondary applications. I'm still learning to be patient.

About a week after we got here, we got a call that housing had an opening for us. We went and checked out the house and saw 2 cock roaches while we were there. We went back to the main office and reported the cock roaches so they didn't want us to move in there until the next Monday. We found out that Clay should get reimbursed for up to 10 days of temporary housing and we really didn't want to exceed that. They gave us another house to go look out. We liked the location much better (right behind the elementary school and near the bus stop for Christina) and the floor plan was a little better too for us but it was filthy! We told them we would take it though so we could get moved in.

I've been busy trying to clean it ever since. It's going to be a job that's going to take a bit--I'll spare you the details. We were able to get our stuff moved in from the truck last weekend, finishing on Tuesday of this week. We're trying to still get things out of the boxes. It's been difficult doing this with 5 little helpers, and Clay's limited time. Clay was told he should get permissive TDY of 10 days to help get us settled but his Platoon Sargent doesn't want to give it to him. He was told he would get off by 1500 (3 pm) every day last week but didn't leave until 5:30 pm on Friday.

We've had to spend a large amount of time looking at another car since our little car died right before Clay left and it's a little difficult to get us all around where we need to be with only 1 car. We found a 2003 Saturn Ion Quad Coupe that has only 38,000 miles on it that seems right for us but we're still working out the details with it. That should be finalized hopefully this week but they are letting Clay drive it now thank goodness.

One of the biggest changes that we're still adjusting to is that the elementary school begins at 7:30 am. Yes, BEGINS at 7:30 am. Clay doesn't get back from PT until about 7:45 am so I refused to put the kids in school until we had another car. Yes, I plan on walking them to school but when it's bad whether or when the younger kids are sick, I need a back up. It's going to be interesting to get us all up and going and EVERYONE out of the house by about 7:20 am. Luckily, Christina's bus comes about 7:25 am so she can head over to her bus stop when we leave to take Daniel and Amanda to school. She's only on the bus for about 20 minutes which isn't bad. Daniel and Amanda also get to wear uniforms to school (and solid colored shoes (in your choice of 4 colors) with no characters, flashing lights, etc.--Daniel's will work but I'm having a hard time finding for Amanda) which I still need to get so they are wearing "civilian clothes" to school. Welcome to army life!

Well, I need to start getting everyone ready for church so I'll have to catch up more later. We should get our home line connected tomorrow night so I can get caught up easier after that.