Some Answers
Bryan finally got his orders. We are definitely moving to Fort Hood. And we definitely have to report no later than June 4.
Since Texas schools finish up prior to Memorial Day weekend, I think we're going to try to be in place just prior to that. Our tentative timeline and driving route is to leave either May 15 or 16 and drive to Nashville. Spend one night. Drive to Dallas. Spend one night. Contact post housing and see if an on-post residence is available for us yet (we've been quoted a 0-30 day wait time from the time Bryan clears his current post). If yes, we'll drive to Fort Hood and see the house. If no, we'll either drive to Hood anyway and tour the model homes or drive straight down to Houston for the weekend. Either way, I think we'll end up spending that weekend in Houston and enjoy such luxuries as home cooked meals and furniture and, if the weather allows, swimming in an outdoor pool.
Hopefully there won't be too much of a lag for us to actually get housing. And, hopefully, there won't be too much of a lag with the delivery of our household goods.
I really, really, really want to trade-in my car for a new Honda Odyssey. As vans go, it's pretty awesome. We're still running the numbers to see if we can make that work - no exchange would take place until beginning of May anyway.
While the financial benefits are great, I'm still leary about living on post. I've grown accustomed to having a house my style and being able to do what I want with it. A large part of my hesitation comes with leaving our first house behind; there are a lot of memories associated with this little blue house! And, I'm not gonna lie, I'm not entirely sure I want to be surrounded by the military lifestyle. I'm willing to give it a try once. Who knows, we may love the conveniences living on post offers.
I'm so ready for another baby. Of course, in my head, that means another two, since mentally I've convinced myself that babies come in twos. ;-) Each of my three female neighbor friends had a baby boy last year. Two of my three friends who gave birth around the same time as me in 2010 are now in the final trimester with their second child.
It's weird, I wasn't sure I'd yearn for babies again after having some of my own. I was one of those lucky women who loved being pregnant (well, about 90% of the time); perhaps that makes me yearn more? I don't feel the same way I did in the "time before children" - that wanting/waiting was excruciating.
We hope to start the next adoption process late summer/early fall - sometime after our rental income starts coming in. We've decided that it would be scandalous for us to do an embryo transfer if Bryan were deployed (nothing like a good little Catholic girl getting knocked up while her husband's deployed), so the specific type of adoption we'll pursue depends on Bryan's upcoming deployment schedule. He's hoping to look into that in the next few weeks. If Bryan will be gone soon, then we'll pursue domestic infant adoption. If he'll be around for a while, we'll do another embryo adoption.
So that's that. A not so brief update on some of the many trains of thought coursing through my head.
Since Texas schools finish up prior to Memorial Day weekend, I think we're going to try to be in place just prior to that. Our tentative timeline and driving route is to leave either May 15 or 16 and drive to Nashville. Spend one night. Drive to Dallas. Spend one night. Contact post housing and see if an on-post residence is available for us yet (we've been quoted a 0-30 day wait time from the time Bryan clears his current post). If yes, we'll drive to Fort Hood and see the house. If no, we'll either drive to Hood anyway and tour the model homes or drive straight down to Houston for the weekend. Either way, I think we'll end up spending that weekend in Houston and enjoy such luxuries as home cooked meals and furniture and, if the weather allows, swimming in an outdoor pool.
Hopefully there won't be too much of a lag for us to actually get housing. And, hopefully, there won't be too much of a lag with the delivery of our household goods.
I really, really, really want to trade-in my car for a new Honda Odyssey. As vans go, it's pretty awesome. We're still running the numbers to see if we can make that work - no exchange would take place until beginning of May anyway.
While the financial benefits are great, I'm still leary about living on post. I've grown accustomed to having a house my style and being able to do what I want with it. A large part of my hesitation comes with leaving our first house behind; there are a lot of memories associated with this little blue house! And, I'm not gonna lie, I'm not entirely sure I want to be surrounded by the military lifestyle. I'm willing to give it a try once. Who knows, we may love the conveniences living on post offers.
I'm so ready for another baby. Of course, in my head, that means another two, since mentally I've convinced myself that babies come in twos. ;-) Each of my three female neighbor friends had a baby boy last year. Two of my three friends who gave birth around the same time as me in 2010 are now in the final trimester with their second child.
It's weird, I wasn't sure I'd yearn for babies again after having some of my own. I was one of those lucky women who loved being pregnant (well, about 90% of the time); perhaps that makes me yearn more? I don't feel the same way I did in the "time before children" - that wanting/waiting was excruciating.
We hope to start the next adoption process late summer/early fall - sometime after our rental income starts coming in. We've decided that it would be scandalous for us to do an embryo transfer if Bryan were deployed (nothing like a good little Catholic girl getting knocked up while her husband's deployed), so the specific type of adoption we'll pursue depends on Bryan's upcoming deployment schedule. He's hoping to look into that in the next few weeks. If Bryan will be gone soon, then we'll pursue domestic infant adoption. If he'll be around for a while, we'll do another embryo adoption.
So that's that. A not so brief update on some of the many trains of thought coursing through my head.