Boomer on watch

After a week or so of playing with the new camera, here is my first upload.

Life with a one year old chihuahua is like having a baby in the house. He is very quick, very sweet, and also very mischievous. We have a baby gate at the bottom of the stairs to prevent him from roaming unsupervised upstairs to find socks and shoes to snack on endlessly. He however has recently taught himself to jump 3 steps up, in between the stair spindles. Tonight I was surprised to discover him halfway up the steps, a far cry from when we first brought him home and he would just sit at the bottom step not sure what to do, or when he would get to the top of the stairs and bark for someone to pick him up and carry him down. Moments before this photo he had just come in from outside and is clearly waiting to be put to bed. He sleeps in Christian’s room (in his kennel).

Ahhh, Boomer you are too cute!

Phone blogging….testing 1 – 2 – 3

We have officially PCS’d. Here’s our new backyard, complete with sunflowers. What an incredible surprise!

With the advent of Twitter and Facebook, I don’t really blog anymore. I’m going to test this mobile blogging feature and see how I like it. I plan to share some details of our adventures in New England!

More to follow…

We’re PCSing

We recently found out we are PCSing. Which in terms of living the military lifestyle wouldn’t be so unusual, except up until about 2 months ago thought we would be retiring.  I began to notice as the time ticked closer to “the date”, the detailer periodically would tempt DH with a few different jobs.  Something that I imagine went like this: (since of course I only got one side of the story)

Detailer:  So, are you SURE you want to retire. I have a hot fill set of orders.  They are to Iraq, but think of the extra money you’ll make.

DH:  No thanks

Detailer:  You know, the (SSGN XYZ) has a spot open….they do cool stuff.  Sure you want to retire?  Port calls….new platform….etc…

DH:  Yes, um well tell me more…

Detailer:  Um, well as much as I’d love to send you there….what I really need is someone to go the (SSN ABC) as soon as possible, it’s a great boat, (insert all the AMAZING things that might tempt any red blooded Sailor who has been on shore duty way to long….)

DH:  Let me talk to my wife…

Wife:  What?!

DH:  Well, they really need someone, it’s a hard to fill billet…. (at this point all I hear is 6 month deployments vs the sweet life of 3 month deployments on a Boomer)….blah blah blah

Wife:  Seriously?!

I think I am still saying that….

…even after much prayer and thought.

At present our lives have shifted 180 degrees.  As of about two weeks ago we officially have orders.  Instead of planning a retirement ceremony, I’m now planning house hunting leave.

I’m not sure how all this is going to workout, but what I do know it is going to be a crazy summer.  It’s hard to believe we moved here four years ago. That’s a long time in military time, just ask any milspouse. I was beginning to get very comfortable here, but now our worlds are about to get shaken upside down.

A few Good, Bad and Ugly parts of PCSing

The Good:
The chance of course to get rid of all things I haven’t used in the past 2 years….lets not get crazy, I still might need college text books.
House shopping
The adventure of a discovering a new place

The Bad:
Having to design my house to sell vs designed to live (that means no stationary bike in the living room)
Selling a house in a not so great housing market
Figuring out my job situation
Garage sale(s)
Having to find my new favorite places (i.e. hairstylists, Chinese food / take out place)
No more Corky’s
The actual “moving day”
Unpacking

The Ugly:
Saying good bye to friends and neighbors, this part is never ever easy.
Organizing and getting ready for the move.

Oh, and I forgot to mention 3 job offers have come through since our orders have arrived and one was A-MAZ-ING, leaving us both to wonder if this was the best decision.  We are stepping out in faith.  *Deep Breath*

I’m trying to wrap my brain around our change of course.  I’m concentrating / trying to take comfort in the fact there will be thousands of military families like mine PCSing this summer.  Let the adventure begin….for all of us!

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cross posted over on mymilitarylife

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Milestone

Gosh, let me dust off the cob webs.

Hello old blogging buddies.  Life, work, kids, dogs, soccer games, cooking….all that crazy stuff that gets in the way of writing.  I’m happy to be back to a familiar place.

I have lots to report on, especially where I have been spending most of my time these past months.  http://www.mymillife.com

You can always check there for interesting things and updates, however I’ll still post here too with my more random thoughts of life and such.

I’m also on Twitter now!  Yep, and I’m addicted.  The show page is @mymilitarylife and I just started a personal page @wendy_poling.

Big show tomorrow night.  We celebrate our 100th episode!  Hard to believe we have done 100 shows!  It’s been great speaking to so many spouses, guests, and military leaders.  The goal has always been to inspire and motivate spouses to do what they love and to give back in their circle of influence.

Hope to be able to connect with other spouses and learn what topics we can cover in our 3rd season!

New Look, New Year

I’ve been playing around with the blog design and so far this one seems to be working for me.  I’m  going to test drive it for awhile and see if I still like it in a few days.

Happy 2009!  It’s hard to believe it is JANUARY already.

Change is coming

Hello blog world, can you believe we are days away from 2009!  Im planning on changing the look of my blog, so the next time you visit it will look a bit different around here.  I have tons of photos of Christmas to add to my flicr page, I’ve been off for a few days so it’s been great to just be home.  I’m off again tomorrow, yeah!  Hope you had a wonderful Christmas!

Arlington Wreath Project

Remember those who have given the ultimate sacrifice.

Decorating Inspiration

I’m in the process of trying to get inspiration for decorating my bathroom. I figured I need to start somewhere, so literally I have picked the smallest room in the house. I discovered the Rate my Space section on HGTV and have found lots of amazing, talented people who are really creative. Here a couple of photos that I liked.

Love the shelves in this bath

Love the chair rail / paneling effect in this example

This is Joey’s Bathroom, the “most viewed” bathroom on Rate My Space. This is a great photo, if you follow the link you will see the before picture. Great use of color and unique tile with an amazing sink.

So many choices and ideas swirling around in my head. *sigh*

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Bathroom decorating Part 2 coming soon.

(cross posted at mymilitarylife.wordpress.com

Still here

NYC Empire State Building

I’m still here….after a couple of months hiatus.

Lots of photos to load that include my recent trip to NYC. It’s hard to believe summer is gone and fall is here. The leaves on the tree in front of my house are already starting to fall. Before long we will be in peak season. We are planning on going back to the Smokey Mountains to see the fall colors and I can’t wait.

Tomorrow is Friday….yeah….the weekend is fast approaching. We have soccer and soccer pictures, plus church and hopefully I’ll be picking out some paint colors. 🙂