Fun with Uncle Tim

My brother, Tim, lives in NJ. He gets home every once in a while on the weekends and gets to hang out with us. He's great with Jack and Jack gets a kick out of him. They had a bonding moment the other day....
Jack does this thing where he kicks his feet in the air, like he's running, when you hold him up and say "GO GO GO GO". It's soooo funny. So my brother started running up and down the hallway with him while Jack's feet were going a mile a minute. This is why kids are so great! The goofiest thing that you would never think of doing now becomes a daily event. So much fun!!!

Catching up

Tom was home for Memorial Day weekend. We had a really great time! You can tell Jack misses his Dad!! We all miss him, Sadie too! We hung out with his parents on Saturday for a clam cookout. His dad has this great set up for cooking clams and we missed those living in Germany. The weather was amazing so we even brought Sadie along so she could play with her doggie aunt and uncle. We played outside, had fun blowing bubbles and battled an attack of aggressive caterpillars. Our county refuses to spray and they're every where. Anyway on Sunday we ventured to my Aunt Lisa's house. They have a really nice pool so we got to swim a little (it was freezing, but we got in!!) and enjoyed another day of great weather and Jack got to ride around in style (Thanks Katie!!). The weekend of course went way too fast and Tom had to go back to Va.
We're trying to get organized for the move to Ca. We only have 1 month left in Pa before we become West-coasters. It's been so great spending time with all of our family, but we're anxious to get to Ca and see what's next for us. I'm trying to set up our housing. What a headache!!! I guess the Navy isn't any better than the Army when it comes to being efficient with helping new families. We're still looking on the economy for a rental house but you know how that goes. The housing at NPS is in the process of being renovated so out of all the houses only 25% are brand new. So what the housing office is doing is allowing people to pre-lease the older town homes before we get there. We decided to go ahead and pre-lease a town house just to have something set up once we get out there. They sent us pictures and the homes really aren't that bad. We just send in a small deposit and some paperwork and whaaa-llaaaa, the house is ours. I've been dealing with this one guy for a month now and for some reason he's dropped off the planet. He set up our profile and sent us pictures of different places, we picked a floor plan that we want and I haven't been able to contact this bozo for 2 weeks now. How does this even happen? I e-mailed this guy on the 19th with the house we chose and still haven't heard back from him. The next step would be for him to go out and take pictures of the exact house that we'll be leasing, send us pictures, then we send him our deposit and agreement stuff. I've called the office a bunch of times and no one will help me because I've already been dealing with someone who is obviously the biggest slacker. so they keep taking my info and message and promise to pass it on. So I'm giving him until today until I call out there and try to start this frustrating process over again with another agent. Seriously....How hard can it be just to shoot back an e-mail?? I'm getting stressed and not enjoying it at all!! If this office can't keep up, why even offer pre-leasing? I just want to have everything taken care of, as best we can so this move is a smooth one. I'm beginning to think it's not possible. There always seems to be something stupid! So wish me luck! Or even better, wish this loser luck because he's about to catch an earful from one pissed off Army wife! :-)
I get to hang out with my family for another fun-filled event this weekend....a garage sale! Oh yeah! My mom usually hosts one a year and my aunts and Gram bring all their stuff to sell as well. These things are hilarious to me. My mom is willing to sell anything and everything. Who is going to buy a half burned candle? A broken angle figurine? Or some of the ugliest clothes from the 70s? Sadly....some one. Hahhaah. All of my little cousins go around and pick out our old toys and tacky jewelery. It basically just turns into us swapping junk with each other at the end of it all. Preparing for this has let me go through all of the crap that my mom's been storing for me at her house all these years. Tom and I will be married 5 years in July and I still have wedding presents here. Things that never made the trip to Germany. Hopefully I'll be able to make some coin because there is A LOT of stuff to get rid of. Whatever doesn't sell is getting donated to the Salvation Army. I have a huge stereo system with speakers that barely fit through the door. Remember when people used these? I'm hoping that there's someone out there that doesn't have an iPod that's in serious need of a stereo. I guess we'll see! It should be fun though!
Well, wish me luck on my adventures for this week! Hope every one's doing great!

My Craigslist obsession

I hope everyone had a wonderful Mother's Day! I had a great 1st Mom Day. The only thing that would have made it better is if Tom got to spend it with us. Stupid Virginia!!! I know Mother's Day isn't about the presents but I got some GREAT ones! Hahahah. Jack, with the help of his Oma and Boobie, got me the new Shel Silverstein book "Don't Bump a Glump", and a Vera Bradley bag which has become my new diaper bag. Shel Silverstein is my favorite author, I love all of his stuff, and my new bag is way more stylish then the old diaper bag. Hahahaha. And the mother of all mother's day gifts....Tom got me a Wii. Hahahahah. I absolutely love that thing! All of my family are Miis and my thumbs hurt from playing Mario Kart for way too many hours when I should have been doing laundry. :-) It was a great day though, I got to spend my afternoon with Jack's grandmothers and great-grandmothers and hang out with the family.

So lately my days have been filled with planning our move to Ca. I know we still have a month and a half but it's time to work out the details. We bought our tickets the other day. We're flying out on June 29th, Sadie Mae included. Tom graduates ORSA training on June 27th and has to be in Monterey to sign in to NPS on June 30th. So I'll be driving down to see him graduate then we're coming back to Pa, hanging around with family for a day then off we go on Sunday. We've been looking for housing options for a few weeks now. I check craigslist about 12 times a day. And when I say 12 times a day....I'm really not exaggerating. The off post house rentals are few and far between for 3 bedroom houses that take dogs and are in our price range. We have the option of on post housing, which is actually pretty nice, but we're still looking for a house in the city and closer to the beach. Tom and his sponsor, every new person gets a sponsor, have been e-mailing each other back and forth. He's been really great about giving us info on NPS. We are really excited to live there. Well, it's been about 15 minutes so I'm due for another looksie at craigslist. My biggest frustration is that people are never quick enough with responding back. At least let me know if the place is rented. Poor Monterey realtors....I'm on a mission!!! hahahaha Wish me luck!!!

Jack's week in review

We had a pretty eventful week last week. We spent one night with the extended family on my side for a little birthday get together. Family events are always crazy, my mom's family is huge and they're all nuts. It's so much fun hanging out with all of our Aunts and Uncles, grandparents (great grandparents to Jack), and cousins. Jack loves all them because they have soooo much energy and keep him very entertained! Hahaha!!
Jack also had his first play date with my friend Paula's little girl, Emma. They had such a great time together. Emma is such a cutie and Jack just loved hanging out with her. They played and Jack watched her every move and followed her around. We found out they both have a strange love for their blow up rubber ducky bath tubs. It's not just a bath tub, it's a toy too. :-) It was a great time. It counted as a play date for me as well. Paula and I were great friends in school and we both moved back home around the same time. It was great to catch up, compare stories (her husband also went to West Point and just got out of the Army) and just have adult interaction. Good times!!! :-)

On Saturday we went to our local Harley Davidson dealer for their annual Muscular Dystrophy fundraising event. It was a lot of fun. Jack got to check out all the motorcycles which he LOVED!! Tom is so proud. :-) My dad walked him around the sea of parked motorcycles and Jack couldn't take his eyes off of them.
There's also nothing like the sound a motorcycle starting up. They had a mechanical bull there which cracked him up when the people got tossed. Hahah It was hilarious. They raised a ton of money for a great cause and we had a great time with Oma and Pop Pop. Of course the main entertainment for us was watching each other trying to hold Jack. He's a total wiggle worm and no longer likes staying still. Go figure! He's all over the place climbing up who ever's holding him like they're a tree. It's pretty funny watching people juggle him. Hahhah

There were a few things Jack learned this week. I walked into his room the other day and he was STANDING holding on to the crib bars laughing hysterically at the fact that he was on his feet bouncing and screeching like a little girl. Hahahah. He is also pulling himself up on everything! We kind of shimmy along the couch, not really walking but definitely moving. 3 days ago I was watching him play in the living room with this musical toy chair thing positioned up against the couch. He managed to climb up on this chair toy, using it like a step stool and sat himself up on the couch. I seriously couldn't believe he got his little tushie up there. He climbed up, turned himself around and sat like a big kid, unreal! And my FAVORITE new thing that he's doing......giving kisses!! It's the sweetest and nastiest kiss I've ever had in my life but it's a kiss none the less. He's been giving kisses to his grandparent's and last night Tom finally got a few of his own. He's the sweetest kid, I swear!!
Well, we're hanging out in Va trying to figure out where to venture to this weekend....Williamsburg?? Richmond?? D.C??? Who knows...where ever we end up it's going to be fun!