We Went to Alabama

After spending 18 long months in Missouri (without visiting our family), we finally returned to our home town. Birmingham was calling our name, and we went'a'runnin ... Afterall, our youngest little man, Lennon (now 10 months old *gasp*) had never ever been to Alabama, much less out of the awful state of Missouri.

We decided it would be best to break up our trip and make a vacation out of it. Our very first stop was the St Louis Arch. Chance (our 4 yr old miniature schnauzer) made the trip with us, and so, of course, we had to alter things a bit. Our original plan was to visit the museum at the Arch, and then spend the day at the St Louis Zoo (which if I remember correctly was named #3 on the Parent's Magazine Best Zoos)... However, as most families know ... things change at the last minute when you have kids ... and spoiled rotten animals ... We had to skip the Arch museum, gift shop, and even the zoo... because of Chance. I don't regret a second of it.

Because we were trying to break up the trip, we replaced the trip to the zoo with a trip to Metropolis, Illinois... Home of Superman. Here, this tiny, tiny town has a giant statue of superman, which Benjamin just absolutely drooled over. We enjoyed the giftshop, and the nearby park, and continued on our long treck to the 'Ham. (For those who don't know... it generally takes us about 14 hours start to finish). Superman was a great stop, and after a Papa John's Rest Stop Picnic, we were on our way to the finish line.

We finally reached Alabama, at which point Nathan flipped through his Ipod to find "Sweet Home Alabama" as we crossed the state line. You'll never have an appreciation for the state (or the song, for that matter) until you've been gone for way too long.

It feels good to be home. Even when home isn't home anymore.

In Alabama, we spent as much time as possible eating our favorite Southern foods, and spending time with our favorite people. We spent a lot of time with my parents, and Savannah LIVES FOR her PawPaw, so that was definitely NOT time wasted. We visited Nathan's family a lot too. His sister is Savannah's ultimate hero, so they both ate each other up. We even ventured down to Montgomery (which, by the way we could NOT find a Montgomery shot glass ANYWHERE) ... where we spent an amazing time with some fabulous Zarembas.

The time in Alabama was a blast. But toward the end. I wanted my comfort back. I wanted my routine. I wanted my bed.

All this brought me to realize that very very very very soon (less than 100 days), we'll be leaving for The Netherlands. How long will it take to find my comfort? When will I feel "at home"?

There's no way to know ... but I know as long as God is leading our way, and I have Nathan beside me, I'll be ok.

So.

If you're looking for a European adventure in a few months, please stop by (what is sure to be our teeny tiny) house, and say hello. I'm sure I'll be craving a little bit of America.

And. If you could bring some South along with you ... that would be just fantastic

Hand to Heart.

Three times a day (on our tiny Air Force Base), the "Giant Voice" reminds us what time it is. At 0730, reveille plays, reminding us how friggin early it is ... Then, many acceptable hours later, at 1700 (5pm, people), they play the retreat and the national anthem. At 9am (2100), they play Taps, which happens to be my favorite part of the day (not just cause I get a few seconds to think of our fallen men, but also, becuase all three of my children are finally in bed) ...

Regardless ... I've been working to teach my children everyday Southern manners. I was taught them, and so shall they be. HOWVEVER ... I was NOT raised military ... ish (my dad did some good time in the Army, and very often I feel like a military brat, just becuase of my background .... regardless ...) ...

On our military base, at five o'clock on the DOT you must STOP everything you're doing and salute the American flag. Recognize the National Anthem. If you're driving, you pull to the side of the road. If you're walking, you stop and put your hand straight to your chest. Well, I've been teaching my children since we've lived here how to respesct the anthem (although, everytime I hear the speaker turn on , I run toward the nearnest door and hide, waiting for it to all be over!)

Regardless of my dissappearance during the five o'clock salute, my children have sufficiently learned to respect the flag and it's anthem.

Each evening (generally while I'm preparing dinner and whatnot), my kids throw the door open to report to me that it's time for "Hand to Heart" ..)

(Winter is easier in this aspect, because we don't play in Missouri snow very often ... )

So. We "enjoy" the National Anthem every weekday. Savannah has her response down pat. "Hand to heart," she says. Every time. Then when Benjamin is near her, he does his best to " hand to heart ... Although ... he's only proving to me that a man can only be found through his tummy .... I suppose we'll see ...

Sweeten my day ... with Kolonopin.

Despite the plethora of pills that I take on a daily basis, I still have THOSE days. And. This was one of those days ...

Because I'm a military wife (and slightly, ok- insanely- anxiety ridden), my family gets a certificate for something called Give Parents a Break. Therefore, twice a month, Nathan and I get to drop our three wee-ones off at the base day care for FOUR hours FREEEEEE. That's right, eight free hours of sitting a month. Well. This past Saturday was GPAB, and I was so looking forward to a few hours with my husband after an absolutely insane week of planning for our move to Europe (including filing for our family's passports, which is a story ALL on its on). 

Having three children, you can pretty much guarantee that ONE of THREE will be sick at some point at all times. Saturday was no exception. My poor, sweet eight month old baby slept till noon. When he woke up, he was so hot it was uncomfortable to touch him. His fever was unbelievable. We quickly realized that our "date" would not be completely child free. (Can I say (for the record) ? Lennon is the most absolute most perfect baby on the planet. He was sent from Heaven and delivered straight to an undeserving mother. In fact, no one deserves an angel quite like him).

So at 1300 (that's 1 pm, people) ... we dropped off our oldest two hellions and at daycare, and planned the next four hours. Originally, we had planned to get lunch and then go bowling. Well, because my sweet baby boy was sick, I was reluctant to take him to the bowling alley. We decided to do Little Caesars and rent a movie. ALERT. We live in the suckiest suck town in Missouri (Knob Noster). It takes us at least 20 minutes to get anywhere ... even Walmart. (It's ok. I feel bad for me too.)

Another random point (that really starts the entire point of this blog) ... Little Caesars (which is 30 minutes away) has THE WORST fountain drinks EVER. So, when we decide to go there, we fret over the awful pepsi we're about to experience. WELLLLLL .... This time, I had the genius idea (because my baybay was so sick) to get tea from McDonalds, rent a redbox, get pizza, and just hang out at home watching a movie until time to pick the other two up. (If you don't know what a redbox is ... you're totally missing out, and I'm so genuinely sorry for your loss) .

And so we begin.

Nathan, Lennon, and I drive up to the McDonalds in Knob, get in the drive through, and realize how looooong getting two sweet teas is about to take. We discuss which movie we want to see (We chose "Marley and Me" ... amazing choice, btw). Then, my impatient self decides it would be SO much quicker for me just to run in, get the sweet teas, and grab the redbox movie on the way out. Nathan (reluctantly) agrees to my new plan. 

As I'm getting out of our van,  a school bus pulls into the McDonald's parking lot. At this point, my slow pace turns into something just short of a sprint (everyone knows what school busses at McDonalds means, right?!) Nathan pulls around, and I enter the McDonalds ...

Dun Dun Dun ...

I walk in and there are two men in line ahead of me. They are standing so far apart that I am, literally, right inside the door. As if the two old, pokey men weren't enough, I notice the cashiers. There was an insanely slow woman TRAINING  a woman who seemed to be MUCH slower than the already slow cashier. Great. The slow leading the slow. I looked around, somewhat in a hurry (I mean, I only have SO much free time). I glance at the second register and a woman is slowly sanitizing trays. I start getting frustrated at the pokey-ness of it all, and decide to calm down and let it go. The first man moves along ... just as the bus full of giggly soccer girls arrive. I push my way into my place in line behind the even still pokey man. The stupid giggly girls were standing, literally, two inches behind me. They spoke as loud as they possibly could ( I'm sure of that. I mean, come on!). I have a serious issue with my personal "bubble", so I turned and glaaaared at the girls on my heels. No progress. After several minutes, I made it to the special-ed cashiers to place my order. (Sidenote: When you order a large sweet tea, you're promised a free red box rental). I ordered my two large sweet teas, and was handed two enormous styrofoam cups WITHOUT  redbox codes. sigh. So I had to ask my dumb cashier if I was wrong in thinking that I deserved redbox codes. So, she finds a random cup and digs out two codes that have obviously come off of old french fry boxes. She says to me " I promise they'll work. They're still good." Um... Ok.

So, I take my two gigantic cups to the soda dispensers, desperate to leave this place. I had to push myself through approximately ten to twelve nasty muddy soccer chicks to get to the ice dispenser. The ice was running out. I got about half the ice I normally would in each of our cups. No big deal. Less ice equals more tea. Then. I went to the tea dispenser. The friggin tea ran out about a quarter through one of my cups. Ugh.

I treck back through the nasty giggly girls and find my way to an open place on the counter. A crazy fat Hillbilly Woman (somehow affiliated with the soccer girls) looks at me.  "What're they outta of?", she says. "Tea". "Well, sweet or unsweet?", she asks. "Sweet. They're out of sweet tea".

Finally, I go against my natural southern instincts and rudely interrupt a McDonalds employee. I ask (with  my two empty-ish cups), "Can I please get some sweet tea?" ... She says "Are we out?!" Ugh. "Yes" I say. The lady gets me some tea from the drive through barrel of tea, and is nice enough to add in the lids. She brings them back and I'm still freaking out from the overwhelming crowd of giggly, muddy girls. I look down at my two cups. No. Straws.

Instead of trying to push myself back through the icky girls, I decide to walk around the entire "restaurant".  I hurrily grab two straws and balance them on my giant cups where there are already Redbox codes balancing. The end is near, I think. 

Psh. 

As I walk back around McDonalds, I'm feeling relief at knowing that this experience is coming to a close. Then. I saw a girl dressed in full prom gear. Sitting casually at the table next to her mom ... eating whatever the hell she was eating. At this point, I was confident ... Totally, completely confident ... that this was a nightmare. As I walked toward the door, a man (who happened to be holding at least four bags full of sandwiches and several drinks) held the door open for me. I think I laughed at him. Then I got outside of McDonald's hell, and rounded the corner to the Redbox. (For those who, sadly, don't know ... A Redbox is a "vending" machine where you can rent a movie for only a dollar a night ... Amazing, really)......

My hands were full of giant teas, straws, redbox codes, and I had a heavy purse on my shoulder. I looked at the redbox, and then at my hands. (If you're wondering, Nathan and Lennon were sitting comfortably in a parking spot, oblivious of the chaos that I was experiencing). I rearranged the teas to free up my right hand; I entered in the code that was carefully balanced on one of the cups; I then chose "Marley and Me"  and began the check out process. Oh. Shit. "Please Swipe Your Debit or Credit Card Now" ....

I stood there for several seconds trying to decide if I could telepathically retrieve my USAA card from my wallet. Sigh. So, in the end, I had to put EVERYTHING on the ground, and pull out my card. I swiped the card and put it back in my wallet. Picked up the tea. The straws. The Redbox codes. And soon realized I would need a place to put the movie. I moved everything around AGAIN. When the DVD finally appeared, I placed it between my arm and my purse, repositioned the cups of tea, straws, and codes, and headed for the car. 

Nathan met me at the curb. Relieved, I stretched out both of my hands to hand him our (hard-worked-for) teas. As I did, The movie I had just rented SLAMMED to the ground, opened, and the actual DVD hit the pavement. Sigh. All I could hope was ... That the tea would be good and The movie would work. 

I got in the car..... A FULL on anxiety attack hit. I was shaking so hard from my ridiculous experience that I couldn't even get a straw in the giant lid... I took a pill ... And there we were.

We drove thirty minutes to our Little Caesars in a semi-neraby town, where THAT McDonalds told me to "Sweeten my day".  Pft.     

The pill worked. The date was great, and the movie was amazing. 

But McDonald's did NOT sweeten my day with it's $1 Sweet Tea.

Full Disclosure:

We had Mcdonald's for dinner tonight. Nathan went. It was good. 

I rum like the wind .

So.

Apparently.

Rum is helping me cope with the fact that I'm moving to Europe in the VERY near future. Well, I've always been a rum lover, but recently ... maybe, just maybe ... it's gotten out of hand.

My very best friend, Courtney, has been helping me deal.  :)   ...

Recently, we've been having some very exciting escapades... You should know that Court LOVES to go on walks when we have any sort of alcohol in our system. Recently, when she was over on a random weekday night, we decided to take a walk around the neighborhood (I'm very impressionable, so I agreed). 

Before getting too far into the  story, you should know ... each house on an air force military base has the rank, first inital, and last name posted on the front of the house. 

So, one night,  Court and I decided it was a GENIOUS idea to assign a first name to every airman on my block. Everyone, inculding my unknown neighbor, (Msgt Jack Johnson, we decided), got a name. Then, suddenly, we came upon Ssgt R Paddilla. WTF? At the time... there were absolutely no "R" men names in our vocabulary. So ... (very brilliantily, I thought of Romeo). Romeo! Romeo Padilla. What else could it be?!  At that point, Nathan walks out of the front door and discovers Court and I are naming everyone on the block. Shit. 

Well. Next day....

Nathan and I wake up, and I'm trying to find my cellular so I can text Court and make sure she's survived her hangover. 

No. Cell. Phone.

Obviouvly, Romeo Padillia stole it ... who else?! 

Nathan and I search and search. No luck. So, he starts calling it. After the second time of two full rounds of calls, a random (unknown) man answers. A man at the base Bomb Wing Building has found my cell phone! WTF?!?!  We couldn't figure out how it got there. I didn't care. I thought it was friggin hilarious.... Nathan went to the 509 building, got my phone, and all was good (as I was rolling on the kitchen floor, laughing my ass off!).... And all was good, good. And a drunken story was in the making ... I didn't even care about all of the dirty looks he gave me !!! It was funny.

THEN. Several days later... Courtney came over so we could "unwind" from a random weekday night. We played Skip-bo (greatest card game on the planet) ... when we were done (who cares who won ... it was probably me, i'm a winner, ya know ...) ... We decided we wanted to swing, so we found the nearest playground with real swings (something other than toddler swings - they're EVERYWHERE!)  ... So,  Court and I drunken "swang" ... THEN, for the first time in my 24 years, she taught me how to jump off of a moving swing. I was terrified. But i DID it. Rumly, I jumped off of a moving swing for the very first time. Whoop. I was so so so excited. So we went home. She stayed with the kids while I took Nathan to the park to show him my new "skill". He was semi-impressed. OK, he didn't care, but I was still exctied.  However, after jumping off of the fast moving swing, and not getting hurt.... I was on cloud nine.... 

Then we began our track home. AND. I twisted my friggin ankle on the damn side walk. Walking home, i slid off of the side walk. Apparently, I can jump off of a swing, but now can't walk on a side walk. Boo. We'll see how next weekend goes...

We're working on packing closests for Europe now...  

Need anything?!

I'm gonna lose my mind ... As if there were something to lose

Because of my good friend, Amanda, I've decided to start blogging. Apparently, my life has recently become interesting.

The basics.

I'm a mother of three. (Only one of those were a planned pregnancy. Unfortunately, I might be the most fertile person on the planet)

I have an amazing husband. He's in the Untited States Air Force. We were married loooooong before he decided to join. We got married after knowing each other for only six months. We are a perfect example of love at first sight.

 We got pregnant soon (using TWO birth controls) with Savannah Claire, who ... in less than one month ... will be four.  We were thrilled. I am an only child (my husband is the oldest of three) and have always intended to have an enormous family. We planned our second and our third was a semi-surprise. I am 24 years old ... and I have three children under the age of four. My. Life.Is. BUSY!

I've never considered blogging, but one of my very best friends, Amanda (www.themomjob.net) has convinced me that I need to ... because ... two days ago, we found out.... we'll be moving our five person family to The Netherlands... in less than six months.

This blog's purpose is to keep you updated on every single aspect of our lives. About what it's like to be an American living in Europe. What it's like to move. How much we have to do before. And what happens when we get there. 

I hope you'll keep up.

Things are about to get craaaaaaaaaaaaaaaazy.

(Oh, and I'm planning to spend my birthday in Paris; can you believe it ?!)

Love it.

Keep up with me.

This blog is about to get WILD. 

Love all of your faces !