Life Day by Day

Well, it has been a long time since I last blogged. I go from having nothing to talk about to being so busy and thinking so much over options that I don't have the mental energy to spend typing. :)

It was so nice to have Mom and Dad here. What is weird about it is that I feel like I have 2 lives...When I'm with family I feel like that is reality and the rest is a dream. It takes a couple days to switch back and forth, and while I'm switching it feels surreal. What a bizarre feeling that is.

It was also really nice to have Mom and Dad meet Rain. She is such a big dope. :) Having Mom and Dad around long enough for Rain to get used to them really made a difference in how Rain treats new people now. She doesn't act like she's starving for their attention anymore and will actually mind her manners. Thanks guys for putting up with her craziness the first couple days!

Today is the last day of our prayer time to decide whether or not to re-enlist or leave the military. I think we will be making that decision tonight, and I will be relieved to have a path chosen.

Tim talked to Jason last night and Jason pretty much said that Tim could more then likely find a job in the civilian world, right now, no problem - what with his training, experience and security clearance. The positives on leaving the military and going civilian would be there wouldn't be a risk of deployment, much better pay, a settled lifestyle, we'd be in Washington State, and Tim could choose a job he enjoyed as opposed to being assigned to whatever was needed. The negatives are that we'd be on the west side of the state which would mean another big change in lifestyle to what we're used to and enjoy in eastern Washington, there would be fewer education benefits and his job may not allow him to go to school as readily as the AF does, and finally, being long distance now would make the job search a pain as well as finding a house, etc.

On the other side of the coin we have a re-enlistment: The positives are that we would have job security, full benefits, education benefits, a safe community to live in surrounded by people our age (always a perk :), tons of jobs would be available to me in our immediate area, we'd be near EWU where I would really like to get my bachelor's, our location would be fantastic and we would FINALLY know what it is like to be young adults in our element - doing the things we like to do and being with the people we like to be with (not saying our friends here aren't great, but the rest of the people here are kinda' ack). It would be nice to have at least a few years living our lives in a way we want before we have to go live "in the big city" for Tim's career. :) The negatives are: Deployment risks, less money, and no choice in jobs for Tim.

There are probably more positives and negatives to both that I can't think of right now.

Oh, and if we did re-enlist, we would be home in mid to late February! Now that would be fantastic. :)

The weather here has been great the past few weeks. This is the one time of year I really love the weather down here. Picture an Indian Summer in Washington that lasts for a month or more. It's not nearly as colorful as in Washington, but it is still so beautiful.

Well, this blog is getting way to long so off I get. :)

Thanks Becki, Kristi, and Lindy for your sweet comments on my last blog. They were encouraging and helped me feel less like a 'failure'...and made me feel less like I am looked at as some sort of failure.

I have a doctor's appointment for tomorrow at 2pm and hopefully they'll have Dr. House type skills and figure out what is wrong with me. I noticed yesterday that I am starting to get my strep rash again and I still have pretty severe stomach aches multiple times daily. As in every hour, hour and a half I have to run to the bathroom. It sucks. I've had that for over 2 weeks now and that was bad enough, but now that the strep rash is coming back after going away with the antibiotics, I am getting frustrated and annoyed.

Rain has been very sweet today. I have been feeling so bad being her caregiver during the day because any sort of exercise makes my stomach unhappy, so Rain has been missing out on all her morning walks and playtime. Poor girl. :( Today, though, I think she is realizing I'm not feeling very well because she is keeping to my side like a shadow, looks at me with big, soulful eyes, and crawls up onto my lap anytime she can. I swear she thinks she's weighs 10 lbs instead of near 80, but she is so gentle and cuddly about it that I can't resist. :)

Tim had a good day at work today. It is so nice to see him come home with a smile on his face and stories of successfully fixed tickets (tickets sent to them from the help desk regarding network problems). He's challenged, overcomes, and is content. Oh, so nice as I'm sure all the married woman out there can attest to! :P

We bough Rain a dog backpack from REI to make her walks more challenging for her and it came in the mail yesterday. She holds very still in it until we make her move, but she does well with it. She looks pretty cool in it too. :) What was weird though, is we only ordered one, REI only charged us for one, shipping for one, and they sent us 4! So now we have to untangle all that.

Well, I'm off to watch the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants. :) 'Til later!

Here is a quick update as to what has been going on here the past couple weeks. I just haven't had the energy to write. :)

• Strep got better, but caught a stomach flu that after 2 weeks I'm just getting over. It's so nice not to be in constant pain now. :)
• Tim finished his class with a good test score of 97%, and is enjoying his new job so far.
• We're now at the 12 month mark of trying to conceive. It's hard to see people who are pregnant, especially if it's easy for them to get that way. I wonder why God doesn't see fit to bless us. Also, I find I carry a fair amount of humiliation and embarrassment over it.
• The trade was denied due to an "assignment on record" for Kenneth Barnum. So we're now trying plan B of re-enlisting with base of preference...but we won't be moving back to WA 'til May. Another winter and holiday season in the South. I hate it here so much I cannot express it - Warner Robins is the complete opposite of anything that would make life worthwhile. No job, no family, no challanges, no school, no outdoor activities, etc, etc.

Hopefully I'll be up to writing more now that I'm feeling a bit better, and now you're caught up on the highlights.

Yay! We're off! :D

Well, I just got off the phone with the urgent care nurse on base and she has referred me to a "med stop" (I had never heard of that before?). I am supposed to go ASAP today. So now I just have to wait 'til Tim can get off work to take me since he has the only car. Luckily, they're letting him off early so he can bring me so we should be on the way in an hour or so. It will be a relief to at least hear what this stupid rash is! I thought last night that it was finally getting better, but I woke up this morning to it being as bad as ever and spreading. Now I'm starting to get the tiny pink bumps up my neck! NO!!! I hope they have some miracle drug they can give me and make this all go away.

I have re-washed all my clothes in borax so it shouldn't be the detergent and nothing else is new...I've been taking cold showers 3-4 times a day - no soap - and no lotion afterwards, instead I'm smothering myself in aloe. No fun, no fun.

I really hope this is gone by Sunday when we head down to Disney World. :/

Today seems like it's gonna be one of "those" days. First off, I have been dealing with a miserable, unexplained rash since Thursday that itches like you wouldn't believe and is on my arms, legs, and a bit on my tummy. It's not getting worse really, but it's not getting any better, and is like tons of tiny little clear blisters -some stacked on top of each other. If it hasn't made a marked improvement by Monday I'm going in to the doctors.

Then I woke up with cramps today, nothing terribly different there for my time of the month, but just another discomfort on top of the disgusting and itchy rash. As you can tell, I'm feeling very attractive today. :P

THEN, we brought Rain on a walk and though she does very well, she gets really excited to see new people and new dogs. Well this family shanghaied us and wanted Rain to meet their dog in the back yard. They wouldn't take no for an answer so, not to be rude and because Rain was doing okay, we brought her back there. She got excited but not out of control...then the guy wanted to pet Rain and got all "hey puppy! good girl!" on her...all high voiced and hyper himself. Well she flipped. Next thing you know she has jumped all over me and covered me with mud (my new, white running shoes are now permanently orange) and scratched 3 deep scratches in my rashy, blistery, itchy arm!

Ick. And it's only 12:30.

Well, my daily blog isn't so daily. :P A bunch has happened this past week, not to mention the weather has been a lot of fun with thunder and lightning everyday.

I have started taking Rain on a walk/run every morning and found that I really enjoy getting out and about in the morning. She does too, and now waits while I get dressed just looking at me patiently until I'm ready. It's cute. :) Speaking of Rain, yesterday she graduated her Beginner Obedience class! She has had something of a breakthrough the past couple of weeks and suddenly everything just clicked. The 'tricks' in her bag include sit, down, come, stay, leave it, settle, drop it (well, we're working on that one still lol), and she walks nicely on the leash. She is much easier to deal with now. :) We're probably going to enroll her in an intermediate class in September to keep her challenged and fine tune her a bit. After working with her almost everyday for an hour or so for the past 2 months, I'm so proud. :)

Tim got some good news from his work the other day...first, he found out that he was rewarded a CJR - Career Job Reservation. These are pretty rare and hard to come by in his field due to the fore-shaping of the Air Force, but, in my opinion, he earned it and certainly deserved one. Now, if we decide it's the best course for us, we can re-enlist.

Second, you know how I mentioned he had been passed up to get transferred out of the help desk finally because of the trade? Well, the guy who decides who is transferring talked to Tim's superiors - all the way up to his commander, and they all said Tim deserves the transfer whether this trade goes through or not so they should give it to him! So, thankfully, after all the hard work and responsibility Tim has shown, he is getting paid back for it and will FINALLY get to transfer out to a job he actually trained for! The week after we get back from Disney World, Tim will be transferring to Network and Communications Management. Woot!

As for me, I got the information package I requested from Eastern Washington University and have been looking that over. Hopefully (that word haunts me :P), if the trade goes through and we get Spokane, I can go back to college! I am looking really seriously at an art major...as in art education. It's still just an idea I'm mulling over, but I could see myself really enjoying the classes, and I could see myself really enjoying the job/career it would offer. We'll see. I wish they had some sort of degree that pertained to animals, but alas, they do not. Oh well, life is long and I can fulfill all my dreams given enough time. :)

Anyway, that is all that is going on for now. Off I go to check my emails.