Happy Thanksgiving!!!

From our family to yours...I hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving today. Enjoy all that yummy food, and most importantly, don't forget to count you blessings!

It's That Time of Year

As in the time of year to start Christmas shopping....I can't believe it....can you? The year has gone by so fast, and hear we are...two weeks until Thanksgiving and about 6 wks until Christmas!!!

This afternoon found us walking down the toy aisles at Target trying to get some ideas of what Jessica wants for Christmas....and BOY did she give us some...or shall I say A LOT!!! Littlest Pet Shop, NiHao Kai-Lan, books, movies, and so much more....not a lot of Dora stuff suprisingly. She seems a lot more interested in NiHao Kai-Lan now. At least I was able to make a decent list for her finally!

I hadn't planned on buying anything today, but we actually found a leapster game on sale for $15....$10 off of the normal price!!! I COULD NOT pass up that deal! Oh, and guess which one it was....NiHao Kai-Lan!!!

Ch-ch-changes!

Besides the temperature, the color of the leaves, and the time, there have been a lot of changes around here recently...or will be soon! Let's see....there's so much that has happened in the past couple of weeks that I'm gonna try and keep this as short as possible.

After many, many long discussions, Jeff and I finally made that all important decision....stay in or get out....re-enlist or not. We decided....for so many reasons....to stay in and continue our life as a military family, so in another month or so, Jeff should be re-enlisting for three more years. That will put him at 12 yrs of service, so we're about 99.9% sure we'll be doing the full 20. At that point it doesn't make sense not to. Although some may not understand, we truly believe this decision is what's best for our family....for the three of us.

Jeff's doctor took him off limited duty so that means he has to leave the temporary command he's been at all summer.

Combine the previous two (re-enlistment + leaving temp command) means he is up for new pcs orders. With the Navy, you have to rotate between sea and shore duty, and since he has more shore time than sea time, he is up for sea duty. Most times this would mean a ship, but with Jeff's rate (MA) more often than not it means overseas.

The first detailer (personnel who assigns orders) he talked to said that 1) Jeff has to do a 3yr tour overseas (and yes we will go with him) and that 2) Jeff is at the "needs of the Navy" since his rotation is messed up, and therefore, doesn't have any choice in where we'll be stationed. We were told this would be Guam! I WAS NOT happy about this starting out with, but then I thought...vacation island in the Pacific plus tropical climate all year round...not too horrible. I could live with that....not like I have much choice!

However, this detailer has since been replaced with a new one and the new detailer confirmed that Jeff does have to do an overseas tour, but instead of telling him we're he'll be stationed, he actually asked where Jeff would like to go. Jeff said Europe, more specifically Italy, and the detailor says he can do that...that Naples, Italy and Siganella, Sicily are both available!!!

Holy Crap!!! Can we say SUPERDUPER EXCITED!!! I would much rather spend 3yrs in Italy than in Guam....the culture, the food, the language, the history....I could go on and on, lol! I'm trying not to get my hopes up too much about this (although I think it's a little late) cause I know how quickly and how often things can change with the Navy. We won't know anything for sure until next week or the week after, and even then, I won't actually believe it until we have the orders in hand! But WOW!!! Keep your fingers crossed for us...we REALLY want Italy!

Oh, and the kicker....since Jeff is still at a temp command, they're wanting him stationed at his permanent command ASAP. This means that no matter where we end up going, we should be there within the next three months!!! AHHHH! It's definitely gonna be a whirlwind of stress, excitement, craziness, and changes!

So, of course, we met with a realtor this week to see about putting our house on the market. We found out a lot of information....some good and some not-so-good....all of which I'll write about in another post since this one is long enough already. However, the for sale sign will be going up in our front yard this weekend!

So much for keeping this short!

ttfn

Another First

Jessica had her first dentist appointment today. Even though she had been asking to go for about three weeks now, I was still wondering what would really happen and how she would act once we were there.

Well..........it went GREAT!!! Jessica hopped right up in the chair like she'd done it before, and they were able to clean and count her teeth and even do a flouride treatment. You could tell she was a bit nervous cause she got really quiet, but she didn't cry, squirm, fuss, or complain. She did AMAZING!!! Talk about one VERY happy and proud mommy! I'm left wondering, though, when the heck did she get to be such a BIG GIRL!!!