The next American Idol.....

.....if screaming and shrieking were a type of music. Hahaha. This is Jack's new thing. There is no more cute cooing or adorable babbling. Nope....just shrieking. The funniest part is when he was watching this video he starting hitting even higher notes, like he was competing with himself. It's just so stinkin' cute because he's screaming into the toy microphone on his exersaucer. Does he know?? Hhhmmmmm??? :-) If he's anything like Tom and I he's going to need some serious vocal and dance coaching. Of course one of the fun things about being a mom is being a goof and getting Jack to laugh. Today what seems to be shaking him with laughter is when I hum (Because I don't know the words...)the theme song for Green Acres. Nick at Night anyone?? Hahaha I have NO idea how this song popped into my head since it's been years since I've seen the show, but sure enough *BAM* The Green Acres theme song. Hey....whatever works right??




Well, our house is a little emptier today. Sadie Mae is now in Pa making herself at home at my parents house. She did great on the flight and landed in one piece. The pet shipping company was really great. Everyone was super nice and they all gave Sadie some love before we had to lock her up in her prison. There's a little warehouse at the cargo area of the airport that this company uses to store their crates and keep the animals before getting them on the plane. That's where we took Sadie and her crate. There was a guy there who set Sadie's crate up and there was a MUCH smaller crate waiting to be assembled next to Sadie's. So after a quick little walk and some mother/daughter-dog time we took Sadie in to get in her crate. All I have to do is say the word and she goes right in. She was of course a little nervous, scared and shaking, so when I said "crate" she went for the closet thing....the little tiny one. She curled up in that thing pretty quick and was ready to go. Poor baby! So we got her in her crate and said our good byes and off we went. The "WE" in this story is myself, Jack and Meagan. Meagan made this trip with us, and I'm sooo grateful! Even though we both cried like Sallies when we were walking away, it was great having her and her Vet Tech mind there with us. THANKS MEAGAN!

So Sadie is now back in Pottsville trying to be a tough dog, which she is not even close to resembling. My parents have a 3 year old German Shepard named Taja. Taja is a true German Shepard, very protective and loyal to her family. She's a whole lotta bark! We were all a little worried about how Sadie and her would get along. Sadie is the biggest puss of a dog EVER. She rolls over at any ones feet and shows her belly right away. When my parents introduce the dogs to each other there were 2 growls, and both came from Sadie. I can't even believe it!! My dog getting lippy to the German Shepard!! Who would have thought? So far they seem to be getting along pretty well. There's couch sharing and sharing of tennis balls. These are big steps in their doggy world! I hope they get to be the best of buddies.

So now that Sadie's in the states, all taken care of, all we have to worry about now is getting ourselves out of here. We only have 10 days left. Nine if you don't count the day we fly, and 8 if you don't count tomorrow, so basically like a week! :-) We're ready to go!!! We clear out of our apartment early next week and then get to spend three luxurious (hint of sarcasm)nights in the army hotel on post. Then off to Philly we fly. YEAH!!!

Going Green

As you can see Jack had his first taste of yummy peas yesterday. If you can call them yummy? I don't do peas but Jack didn't seem to mind them. He didn't LOVE them but he didn't hate them either. The first few bites were followed with a little head shake and a yucky face but that was followed by him leaning in for more. Today he ate the whole little container like a champ. He's a great eater! For some reason though he is now protesting Tom feeding him a bottle. We have no idea why this is starting but he's becoming a mama's boy at night. (this is not good for mama!) Tom can feed him rice and peas, no problem but he will not take the bottle without throwing a fit. So that's something fun we get to work on this week. He's such a little goof ball. He now loves to hear us clap. He gets really excited and laughs at us when we yawn too. His laugh is contagious, it's the greatest sound!

About 2 weeks left...

As of today we have 16 days left in Germany. I think I may have said this a time or two but I can't wait to get back to the states! :-) Tom got his clearing papers today so it is all the more real. See, over here you just can't up and leave without a ton of paperwork. So Tom has to go around to all the agencies (the bank, the PX, the Ed. Center) and get a check mark saying he doesn't owe anyone anything and then we can leave. It's like going to Wal-Mart and asking them if you can move to a different city. So that's how he's spending his day off tomorrow. Collecting check marks. :-)





Today was the 1-77 Memorial Dedication Ceremony. The memorial is a bronze statue of a pair of boots and a gun with a helmet placed on top. This is a military thing representing a fallen soldier. The ceremony was really nice and I love the memorial. It's simple and sooo powerful with its meaning. There were a few family members of the fallen soldiers there today along with a few wounded warriors. It was very emotional. It was an intense reminder of what is going on in Iraq and Afghanistan. Please keep all of our troops in your thoughts and prayers.

And of course I can't post something on here without mentioning Jackeroo! He's been battling a cold for a few days now. That of course has not hindered his appetite. It has however made feeding him VERY entertaining with the sneezing. Hahahaha. So here's a picture of what happens when there's a spoon full of rice at his lips and a sneeze sneaks up on him out of no where. Sneezing while eating = rice on the forehead. :-) hahahahah And what's better than rice on our forehead and all over our face???? Why it's putting our hands in it, silly!

Empty House

The movers were here today. I have to say that we had the best movers EVER!!! There were 5 guys, they arrived at 8am and had the trucks loaded and were out of here by 2:30pm. Tom and I couldn't believe how fast they were!! Tom asked if he could help in anyway, and the head guy just told him, "No, but please stay out of the way". SO that's what we did. We huddled in Jack's room with Sadie while they packed everything including the motorcycle. We scheduled them to be here for 2 days....we were wrong! We treated them to breakfast and Burger King (their request). They were really nice, didn't mind Sadie and had everything in boxes by 1pm. It was crazy. So now we get to sit in our unfurnished house (except for the the government furniture)listening to the echos for the next three weeks. It's just such a good feeling having today over with and our stuff on its way to California. Our BMW is on it's way to the states, should be in Jersey in 4 weeks. Sadie hops on a plane to the states on the 29th then we'll ship my car and before we know it we'll be on our way to Philly!. We're getting closer and closer! YEAH!! We cannot wait to be stateside!!

Everything's been going so fast, it's been hard to wrap our minds around it. There are going to be a lot of people we're going to miss from here. We've seen so many people come and go over the years. I hope those certain people know how much I've appreciated their friedships! The Army throws a lot of things at us and I don't think we'd be able to handle it all without the company of good friends! ;-)

Happy Birthday Pop Pop!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY POP POP!!! We're sorry we can't be there to help you celebrate in person. Soon enough though. Hope you're ready for us to move in. :-)



Jack is 5 months old today. He's having a blast growing up. He rolls around everywhere, loves eating his rice and playing in the bath tub. He also loves this little blanket my grandmother gave him. It's a piece of my old baby blanket. It's the perfect size and he loves chewing on the satin border. (Thanks Grammy Spotts)He's very excited to move to the states and meet everyone! I'll be happy when the plane ride's over!
Our house is a little crazy right now. We're trying to organize everything for the movers with the hope of them getting done in one day! Our house will be pretty empty come Thursday. No household goods just means we're that much closer to flying.
Time to get back to packing....Just wanted to say Happy Birthday to my Dad and THANK YOU for everything that you're doing for us with this crazy move! You have NO idea how much we appreciate it and how lost we'd be without your help! We love you! Happy Birthday!

Oh Happy Day!!!!

It's 100% official now....WE GOT OUR ORDERS!!! Woohhhoooooo!! Picture me doing a happy jig. :-) We are officially getting out of here. It's almost hard to believe. Tom has been in Germany for over 6 years now. We just kept getting stuck here with the timing of deployments and a stop-loss. We always planned on getting out of the Army but now we're staying in. I guess if those things didn't keep us here all those years we'd be going down a very different path right now. I have to honestly say, I'm really happy how things worked out. Tom's transitioning into the ORSA branch of the Army and will have many great opportunities ahead of him. The first one being grad school. We'll be spending 2 years in Monterey, Ca. at the Naval Post Graduate School. Then we'll be off to our first ORSA assignment. I'm really excited and I'm excited for Tom.

The next few weeks are going to be insane for us. Now that we have our orders we can lock in all of our dates for the move. Our stuff will be getting packed up next week, along with one of our cars. Sadie will be the first McMurtrie to fly home. We're going to ship her a week or so ahead of us so we're not that family freaking out at the check-in counter at the airport. Hahahah (Can you see Me, Tom, Jack, Sadie, an XL kennel, stroller, car seat plus all of our luggage???...No? Me either!)So Sadie will be in Pa and we just have to focus on getting out of here with Jackson. We already have our flight booked. YEAH!!! It's all becoming real!

Tom is finally going to get some much deserved time off. We'll be hanging around Pottsville for a while then he goes to Ft. Lee for a few months. I'll still be in Pa mooching off my parents until we move to California in July. (Meagan, I promise not to go "west coast") :-) hahahhaha. I really hope that we get the chance to meet up with all our friends from home at some point!



Yesterday was Tom's very last day of Rear-D command.(YIPPEEE!!!) There was ceremony to case the colors. This is where they put a case around the Rear-D Guidon (flag) until the next Rear-D unit is set up. Of course during this ceremony Jack decides it's time to fake cough while it's all quiet and the COL is speaking. This is his new thing for the week. He does it about 10 times in a row but if you distract him he stops. He's such a ham! He's getting so big. I am having the best time being his mom. It's so much fun! I really can't wait until he gets to meet the rest of our family. I hope he's ready for it. hahahaha.

Well....I'm off to start organizing our stuff. YEAHHHHH for orders!!! :-)

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year!! We want to wish everyone all the best in 2008. 2007 was very good to us, we can't wait to see what's in store for us this coming year. We'll be moving to the west coast, Tom will be leaving Armor and transferring into ORSA branch. After a few months in Ft. Lee, Va we'll be heading to Monterey, Ca where Tom will be getting his Master's in Systems Engineering at the Naval Postgraduate School. I will hopefully be employed at some point this year. Yeah! :-) And we're looking forward to being MUCH closer to family! The best highlight of 2007 was having Jackson. Everything else is pretty much a blur. This year went by so fast. Tom has 1 more week left of Rear-D command and then he'll be in a new position until we leave for Va. (We're still waiting on our orders, but we should know something in the next 2 weeks.)
We hope everyone had a safe and happy new year's eve! We celebrated with our new neighbors and our arsenal of fireworks. Tom and our neighbor, Jim, put on a very impressive show. Everyone walked away with all their fingers so it was considered a success. HAPPY 2008!!!