And He's Off.........................................

Wow! Times does fly. Tomorrow is our last full day as a family until we all get to Germany. Very surreal! Today has been wonderfully busy as usual but now that I do have down time I'm almost emotional. We are selling things literally right out from underneath us and we finally got everything all taken care of to have our huge moving sale this Saturday. Yuck, Yuck, Yuck is about all I can say. :) We're off to Dallas bright and early tomorrow to ship our car and to ship Ronnie off on Thursday. Feels like we'll never see him again. So glad it's only temporary. This is happening so quickly! We said goodbye to our dentist and our orthodontist both this week. Feels like we're moving off to another world and never coming back. I guess this really has been the most complicated, difficult, mixed-up move we've ever made. But so goes the Army life. Neeley and I will be back literally just in time to have our moving sale. Exhausted? Oh, I'm sure we will be but we wouldn't have it any other way. We've promised a fun day of the Dallas Zoo and the American Girl Store. Oh, and that's only because of all of the sitting around and waiting we will be doing at the place we have to leave the car to ship and the airport. We have to make up for it somehow. What have I gotten myself in to? LOL Y'all have a great rest of your week! ~Ash

Priorities, Priorities

We're still alive here, we're just buried under piles of stuff-household stuff, Army stuff, stuff to get rid of, stuff to move, stuff we've sold that needs to be picked up, and OMG the laundry! 'Nuff said...

But we've had some fun too. Thursday, Neeley had an orthodontist appointment in Little Rock and that was always fun. We found out we have to do nothing for 2 more years. Wow! That 8 am appointment was really enlightening. NOT!

Then we had to go to the air base to pick up our official government travel passports. Ok, let me tell you the difference between a regular tourist passport and the official government travel passport. Almost absolutely nothing! There is one page in the government book that says you are traveling on official orders. Gosh, what a trip just for something so small. But we do already have our Germany visa stamped in our books. Weird even still! Aren't we cute holding our passports. I was so hoping to be able to see the sign we were next to but hubby thinks we're about the silliest two girls he's ever known. So much for later scrapbook opportunities. And excuse my fat rolls under my cute tee. :)


And because we had time to kill that afternoon and I was off of work and Neeley was out of school and because we only have daddy here for a few more days, we figured we had our priorities straight and spent the afternoon at Playtime Pizza. And if y'all haven't yet discovered this place, you are definitely missing out. We've been 4 times in the past few weeks and I would go back every single day. Well, if it was free that is... :) Enjoy these pics from our fun day out.


We're leaving in a bit for a crazy busy weekend but we wouldn't have it any other way.

Talk to y'all next week!

Dilemma #4,297

So my house now looks like it threw up enough uniforms for the entire U.S. Army. And now guess what!?!?!?!?!?!?!? Our realtor called.............. AND ..................... has requested that we participate in an Open House on Sunday. What??? Rewind.....Yes, THIS SUNDAY! I have just almost shed a tear or two today already.

And I can't even list here what all we have accomplished this week so far. I was just feeling so good about it all and then we got the **bomb** call. Yes, it is a good thing but really. My house is hideous!

So I'm off to pout a bit... :(

Thank You!

I really do have to take the time and thank my WONDERFUL hubby for all of his hard work this week. My garage is now in a (semi)organized less-than-chaotic (sort of) mess, I now realize that I must go ahead and pack up whatever is going on the plane to Germany with us in the next week or it will be on the slow boat to ...well...Germany. And our household goods will be shipped in just a couple of weeks. And we ship one car next week and if we sell the other soon like it looks like we will, we will be homeless and without a vehicle for at least a month. Can't you hear the joy in my tone? :) Oh, and throw in the fact that said WONDERFUL hubby will probably be gone from us 6 months of every year while we are in Germany.

Stress? What's that? Oh, tiny bottle of Ativan, WHERE ARE YOU WHEN I NEED YOU MOST?????? :)

We have gotten a ton done just in the past couple of days of having him here and I am so thankful. I do feel relieved that we have some questions answered but every thing we figure out just creates more issues. So I'm stopping for now...

Enjoy your day!

Another Boring Monday

We are so glad to have Ronnie home safe and sound. :) And now we can get started on that to-do list. He has already been up early this morning working on getting our household goods scheduled to ship, and getting things ready for us to ship our car next week. Oh my! Yes, I said next week. And he leaves next week too. Wait! Can I pause this part of our lives for a couple of weeks. I need WEEKS to get ready. Ok, unpause... :)

Today is my last recruiting trip EVER. Weird. Kind of bittersweet but I will be oh so glad to be in town for the most part from now on.

Better end here for now. Today is just another one of those crazy days as part of the craziest next two weeks of my life I do believe.

I've got some more pics to post sometime in the near future, whenever that is. Enjoy this sunshine!

Ok, One More Time

Sorry! I just couldn't hold it in any longer.........................

MY HUBBY IS ON HIS WAY HOME! :) He's in Oklahoma and will be back in the car here in a bit and making the rest of the trek home. They all graduated and are headed to their crazy overseas places too - Japan, Korea, Italy, Germany. Wow!

Can't wait to have him home!

Yes!

Guess who's on his way home? Yay! But he is having to take the southern route home because of the lovely weather they are having there in Colorado. We don't care what route he takes, as long as he comes home soon. :)

Y'all have a great rest of your weekend. I may not get a chance to update for a few days. The rest of today will consist of some retail therapy, lunch and a movie. And tomorrow morning we are visiting a friend's church for an AWESOME service they are having. Then it's lunch and finishing up some things for this next week and then my hubby will be home! Yay!

Will share more soon - -

Wanna See Something Funny?

Today is Ronnie's last day in Colorado. :) He can sign out tonight. I get to see my sweet hubby in a couple of days and that makes me smile! :)

Last week they had their "fun day" and decided to go play paintball. Ok, well here's the kicker....... go ask him who came up with this idea. They decided to go to Goodwill and find suits to wear so they would be "Paintball Mobsters." Yes, you did read that correctly. And here is a picture for your viewing entertainment. I had to protect the identities of the rest of the not-so-innocent since I don't know them and didn't get their permission to use their picture. But you can clearly see Our Army Man and all the fun they had. This is the after shot. What will they think of next? I think maybe it's the altitude and the snow getting to them.



Y'all have a great Friday and weekend. I will be updating as I can. We have a crazy busy few days coming up with him being here for only a short time and I hope to get tons accomplished in that time.

Bye now!

I Need Your Help

Anyone have any good ideas of German themed birthday traditions? So far, what I've found on the internet is a little...uh...interesting to say the least. Chocolate milk, Fruit Cocktail Punch, Spaghetti Nests, and Salami Pizza just don't sound too appetizing. And I'm not so sure Chinese Jump Rope will keep their attention very long...and for that matter, do they really play a lot of Chinese Jump Rope in Germany like I've read a million times? Hhmmmmm......

Happy Mittwoch, Y'all!

Oh, is it Wednesday already? Yay! One day closer to seeing my hubby! :)
Y'all continue to pray for us so hopefully I don't grow more gray hairs over this house situation. The showing yesterday looks VERY promising but we have someone else coming in today who is all about it. Is it appropriate to leave some sort of bribery out for them-cookies, money, what? We're getting desperate here.
Have a great Wednesday! I'm off on another recruiting trip...this will be my last time ever visit this school so I'm sure it will be rather emotional since this is by far my most fave of them all.

In Exactly Two Months...

Neeley and I arrive in Germany! Yikes! Oh dear...the anxiety!

Happy Easter!

We have had a very low-key Easter thankfully. But I have failed miserably at this motherhood thing yet again. Did I get any pictures of our Easter dresses? NO! Did I get any pictures of what our wonderful Easter bunny left for us? NO! Did I get any Easter cookies made? NO! Did I plan any Easter crafts? NO! Did I get any pics with the Easter bunny? NO! (Can you see where my priorities are? haha!) Can this move be my excuse? :)

Last weekend Neeley and I took advantage of the beautiful weather and got some pictures made around town. Here they are. Enjoy!
























My cutie patootie hubby will be here with us this time next week. What? Yep, that's right. It has gone by so quickly. Oh and go to this site, scroll down a bit on the page, and look at his pic. I submitted it for inclusion on the page since we LOVE seeing him in his "get-up" and they have included it on their site for now. He is standing next to some kind of military vehicle (ok, he will have to give the name of it!) and the caption mentions both of us.

I may not be able to update much this week. We have some new developments in our house that will have us in extra prayer this week. Nothing bad, actually something REALLY awesome but will share more later. So have a great week!

Oops!

Sometimes I really do question my parenting skills. :) With the hustle and bustle of our daily grind around here, I have just almost all but forgotten about Easter. No I haven't forgotten what it means to us, nor have I missed a moment to share it with lil miss but this year the only decorating I've done is put out a sad looking Easter basket and one stuffed animal. You may or may not know that I have 47,298 plastic bins of holiday stuff and we LOVE getting it all out each holiday and talking about the significance of each. But yeah this year...well...I have an excuse. Or many to be exact... :)

On another note, Neeley has been so intrigued after seeing the Passion Play Sunday night that now we are back to our daily devotions that sometimes last 3 hours. Oh yes...that lil girl has LOTS of questions. So we are praying more and more around our house for answers to her questions and to (hopefully) give me the knowledge to know exactly how much information to share with her. This is a HUGE step and we couldn't be more proud of her!

Change Of Plans

Whoa...another change of plans. And you know how I have no patience for change right now. But it's inevitably going to happen because things like this just happen to us.

We found out not too long ago that the flights to Germany that were previously made for us have us going in to Frankfurt and that we are supposed to be flying directly into Stuttgart instead. Ok, no biggie...it will get changed...wasn't stressed about it at all. And this change isn't so terrible...but still...it's another change in plans and that's driving me nuts.

Ronnie now flies into Stuttgart on APRIL 30TH. What!?!?!?!? He was supposed to fly on May 3rd. So now we have even fewer days with him. He should be back here in Arkansas on the 19th, and then we will drive to Dallas on the 29th to ship our car and to spend a little bit of family time together with him. And then he will fly out on the 30th and arrive in Stuttgart in the wee morning hours on May 1st. Geez... That means there will be even more days apart from him, yet once again. Aaaahhhhh....... we just can't seem to get this right. Now our flight will have to be changed too and who knows what will happen to that. Some other things have happened in our family this week that kind of mean we need to fly no earlier than the 12th. Yes, no earlier. My lil brother just got his first "grown up" job. :) And we're all smiles for him. But we may have to help in that move. Which, btw, just so happens to probably be scheduled for our last week here in Arkansas. It's all good. No sweat... :) Or at least that's what I keep telling myself.

I sense some serious therapy coming soon...and no I don't mean that last little bit of Neeley's chocolate shake I just slurped down either.

The No-Good Awful Terrible Day

In the words of Neeley, today has been a no-good awful terrible day for both of us. Not going to elaborate but we have both had yucky days that have left us pouting. :) Suffice it to say mine is just chalked up to this crazy busy schedule and hers is all because of 7 year old girl drama! Yuck!

Don't You Need A New Car?

We need to get rid of one of our babies... (no, not Neeley!)

Black 2009 Ford Fusion SE 4CY for sale Appearance package Deck lid spoiler 18 inch tires Sunroof Microsoft Sync system (integrated bluetooth phone and mps player controls) Leather Seats with fabric inlays 6 Disk in-dash CD player that plays mp3s.
Asking $17,500. Available April 21st or thereabout...

Don't you need this beautiful car? We think you do! :) Please help spread the word to all friends and family...we can only ship one vehicle to Germany and will have this PRACTICALLY BRAND NEW car available April 21st.

Thank you!

April 3rd Already?

So I got to work this morning and flipped to today in my perpetual calendar and realized that Ronnie gets on that plane to Germany exactly one month from today. Yikes! And that means that Neeley and I are only about two months out from flying. Double yikes! Tell me this gets better...so excited but so ready to just get there. This waiting around business is for the birds!

Have a great weekend! I know I am! :) I plan to sleep in, and take lil miss to get us a mani/pedi, and hopefully do some other small things for myself for once. (I've got to get back to exercising and stay off the crack in a cup/can-Diet Coke and Diet Dr. Pepper are now my enemies!) I think we also have a bday party to squeeze in there somewhere. If it's warm enough, I promised lil miss diva we would go to the lake. She LOVES it there and it gives me an excuse to buy another book to read! Ah, relaxation for once........

Oh speaking of books, did I tell y'all I finished New Moon and Breaking Dawn..................and no I still don't get it! I'm sorry...don't hate me because of it. My heart never even skipped a beat. So now I have to find a new read.

Ending here and will catch back up with you all later - -

I get my news from the Internet and here's why...

Here's some more Plinky goodness for you because I'm taking a bloggy break on this rainy day. The Good Lord sure is being humorous today with this weather. Blah!

I spend a good part of my day on the internet no matter where I am-work, home, on the road, so I get most of my news from MSNBC and ABC and my junk news from lots of other sites. :)

Wonderful Wednesday To Ya

It's been business as usual around our house. Nothing new and exciting to report unfortunately. :)

So I will answer questions/comments I have received lately first...these are comments and questions/comments I have received in emails from several of you so bear with me and this randomness...

1) Yes, we are excited about the upcoming move to Germany. Ronnie will be here in 18 days. He can correct me on that but I do believe it will be April 19th. He is in Colorado Springs right now for this class. (He is loving his class but no we cannot share much information on his class or his job because of the nature of the business. :) I don't even know very much nor am I educated enough to even ask the right questions. Terrible of me, huh?) And then he flies out to Germany May 3rd. We will leave Arkadelphia on May 1st to spend the weekend in Dallas with him since that's where he flies from. And then Neeley and I fly to Germany June 12th. We are uncertain of our time overseas. Anywhere from 2 or 3 to 6 years...maybe more, maybe less. Very bittersweet but very excited...

2) My sugar scrub was unscented because our lil miss diva has eczema. But you can use scented oils instead of olive oil or I've known others to use scented liquid bath soaps instead of the oils. You can make it any way you choose. And you can get some great ideas from the internet.

3) I will post pics of my hair as soon as I feel like I look ok. :) Most of the time when I am available for a pic, I look like one hot mess. So that may be a while. It's not a new look for me, it has just been since December since I had done anything with my mop.

4) Neeley is telling her teachers TODAY about our upcoming move. YIKES! Please say an extra lil prayer for us today. We have been keeping it on the D.L. because she has been going through all her of academic testing and such and we desperately need those scores. Now that we have those---and she scored on the 4th/5th grade level on all of her IQ, academic and psychological tests BTW...another YIKES since she's only in the 2nd grade! --- we can move forward and let the cat out of the bag to everyone. Such a stressful time! She is very excited about this and will be doing a report on the move and the country soon. Yes, she is also bittersweet about the move but she will be fine.

5) No, we have not sold our house yet. Any takers? :) Another thorn in my side...

6) If my house does not sell, I will have to work over in Germany. Anyone know of any good opportunities over there? I have some ideas up my sleeve...

7) We do not know if we will live on or off post yet and are just waiting for Ronnie to get there to get more info...

8) Yes, I am having a HUGE garage sale sometime later this month. No, I do not know what I am getting rid of but it will be quite a bit.

9) Yes, I do plan to (hopefully) finish my Master's over there...somewhere...

10) Our families are having an okay time adjusting to the idea of this move...some better than others. It will be difficult but it's not our first move away, it's just the farthest so far. Yes, we will miss our families and friends but I'm not too sure I will miss Arkadelphia per se. And no we will (probably) not ever live in Arkadelphia or even Arkansas again. Wow! Did I just say that? That's a tough pill to swallow.

11) We will be in Stuttgart, (pronounced Schtootgart) Germany and Ronnie will be working on Kelley Barracks. That's all we know for now...

Ok, what else have you asked about? ... gosh, I don't remember...but I will.

I have some more pics to share with all of you and I have found some more information on "Schtootgart" that I will be sharing with you also. Please keep Ronnie in your prayers this week too so that he may pass this week's test and keep working along to graduate April 17th. Coming up so quickly! Yay!

Have yourselves a WONDERFUL WEDNESDAY! I'm off on a recruiting trip to Texarkana today...