Colorado to Mississippi

It's been quite a while since I last blogged, but I will try to sum it all up. I find myself spending more time on Facebook than I do putting things down in a better place where they will be kept and remembered better. I remember my mom taking time out and writing a little at the end of each day so that there will be a record of things, she spends her time now going through pictures that we had on slides (some are damaged) trying to put them in digital form so that we will have them. So many changes make it difficult to keep and have the things you once used everyday, and now they are all but obsolete, it's sad to me when there are things we have on VHS that I fear we won't ever be able to see again because we don't have a VHS player. There is a lot that has happened since I was on here and I don't think that I will be able to get it all in. Colorado was wonderful, it was one of the BEST duty stations we were able to spend time at. We should still be there now, except the command that RJ was attached to there was decommissioned and so we were forced to move on...it was California....or to Gulfport, Mississippi. We swore we would never move to Mississippi, but when the opportunity arose for it against going back to California...we jumped on it! California is beautiful and a lovely place to live when you're not trying to be sure that your child is well educated...I just could not go back there. It has been interesting, there are things that happened in the move that we have never had happen before like stuff getting damaged and broken so we had to deal with that after getting here, but it all got worked out. Since moving here I have re connected with a dear friend Jessica Nash whom we spent a lot of time with when we were stationed in Missouri several years ago. It has been really wonderful to have a close friend so nearby, it's harder and harder for me to make friends because I know the inevitable time will come where we have to move on to another place and leave them or vise versa and it is heart breaking every time. Some of our friends from NMCB 5 in California are here, and it has been nice to spend a little time with them, and the people we knew in Colorado, a few of them came here as well. RJ was responsible for finding people orders and he really worked hard and did his best to get the people to the places that they wanted to go....it wasn't all on his shoulders to do this, but he really wanted to be sure that he helped out the younger troops. He was 1 of 2 chiefs that were there in CO and it is good that he was stationed there for all of the work that needed to be done.

Since moving here (it's been about a year now) The kids have done a school year and a summer, and Marcus actually started kindergarten this year (BLOW MY MIND) I now spend my days trying to think of something to do outside of house work. I have an interview at a dentist office tomorrow, I only dropped my resume off on Monday and that very same time she asked me to come for an interview on Wednesday. I feel all crazy about it, I want a job, but I also want it to be the hours that I want and to be able to get the time off that I want because of doctors appointments and the fact that I have kids and that they are in school with homework....GAH...it just is a bit overwhelming to me. I can't believe that Marcus is in Kindergarten, it is hard for me to process I think that this is not a temporary thing...my baby is in school and I can't turn back the clock and make it start over....those years flew by and I can never get them back...I feel like I am just watching my kids grow up and soon before I know it they won't live with me anymore...that just brings tears. RJ asked me the other day what I'm going to do with myself when we are retired and he has to work all the time and the kids are all grown...and it made me really think about that...Marcus starting school has made me think about it....and I'm just trying to figure it out. The thought did cross my mind that I don't know who I am without my kids and my husband, I have made them my life and the problem with life is it always changes and it won't stop or wait for you to decide what you're going to do, time is going to pass no matter what you do. Since moving here we have gone on a couple of pretty fun kayaking trips with Jessica and Brice and their girls, and also we have been able to go with Jen and Steve! They were sent to Georgia after out time there in California and we went to CO, but since the command decommissioned we were close enough to them that when the time came for them to get orders we hoped they would be here...but no...all they had for Steve was back to California, so on their way back, they came this way and we got to spend a week with them. It was amazing to see them and it isn't always that you find friends you get along with so well as we do with them. We adore the Maldonado's they are in a very small circle of that we call friends. Rebecca and Phil are a couple that were stationed with us in CO and they went with us on the trip we did with Steve and Jen.

While the Maldonado's were here Jen and I decided to get matching tattoos, we had the hardest time trying to figure out what we were going to do, after all, it is permanently on your body. We thought about it for days, and then I mentioned maybe something about Iceland since that is where we met, and then Jen looked up some things and she found the Icelandic compass and we decided that since we will always find our way back to one another and that we will always be friends, that the compass was the perfect choice....it's a tie we will always have with one another!

We got to see Lee and Audra at new years, we had not seen them since Missouri and it was so good to see them and have the spend some time! They live in South Carolina where Lee's family is and he found a really awesome job after he retired!

It was great to see them! We also got to see our friends Mario and Linda and their boys because they are stationed in Fort Leonard Wood and are discussing possibly coming here after they are done there.

Well....here we are RJ is working so hard trying to prepare for retirement that is coming up on us so fast. Kyle is a freshman in high school, Bryen is in 5th grade chugging along, and Marcus is in Kindergarten. RJ started to volunteer as a reserve police officer for Gulfport PD and he seems to really enjoy it...I don't really enjoy it, but this is what he wants to do when we retires from the military and it would seem that this is the way to go to get his foot in the door for one of departments in Montana. Looks like that is the place we will be retiring, it will be nice to be back in the mountains after spending all of this time here away from our home in the Rockies. RJ starts the academy for the police department in about 2 weeks and after that he will continue to go out and patrol with the guys, he seems to fit right in with those guys, he is made for this kind of thing.

Okay, so the main reason I got on today was because I told Jessica a funny story about my mom losing her phone and so I will share that in another post now that I have mostly caught you up with what has happened since my last one. Mississippi isn't so bad, it's not my favorite but it really is a lot better than what we ever received for schooling for the kids...so for that, I am grateful. I think about another reason I loved Colorado so much was because it was so close to my hometown PLUS it was in the mountains which we have never had since we got married so it was amazing to get those 11 months we got.