Early 1st birthday

Before we moved to California we had a little party for Jack. It was an early 1st birthday party. Actually it was more of a 4th of July party with a cake for Jack to get messy with. My parent's live in a prime location for local firework viewing and every year people stop by to see the show. This was the Friday before we flew to Ca which was perfect timing to say our goodbyes to family. I have such a big family on my mom's side that it would have taken a whole weekend to make our rounds otherwise.
My Aunts have been on my about Jack not being in Pottsville for his first birthday. (Insert pouty face here) So I thought the highlight of those 1st birthdays is the demolition of the cake and how messy the child can possibly get in a controlled environment. Hahahah. Right? So my mom got Jack an Elmo cake. (His obsession has begun with that weird, red, furry, squeaky voiced, whatever he is.) Anyway, the digging in of his cake was a little uneventful. Tom questioned if Jack is really his child since he wasn't overindulging in chocolate cake. Hahahah. He had more fun letting me lick the icing off of his fingers. He got a big kick out of that. But none the less Jack had a candle, made a wish (through my mind anyway) and had his early first birthday. (Notice the shiner on his right eye...after only 12 hours of walking we managed to find the corner of a table. OUCH!)

Steady Feet

Jack is walking. He's been walking since the 26th of June. He was taking a few steps here and there while we were at the beach and still in Pa. I honestly think he was waiting for his dad to see him take off. He took his first little stroll when we were in Va the night before Tom's graduation. He took 8 whole steps. YEAH!!!! I don't have any good videos of his first steps....go figure, but I have a little clip of him tooling around the new house this morning. Here he is sporting the latest fashions in Dino footie pajamas while on the go....




He's also showing a love for his new favorite thing....that's right....TOILET PAPER! Oh BOY WHAT FUN!!!



We also had a chance to break away from the chaos that is our house right now and give up on unpacking and head to the beach. We were at Seaside State beach and it was awesome. All along the coast, the towns have their own little state beaches where they cut out a part of the dunes and cliffs and form a beach. The coast is amazing out here. It's hard to explain but it's totally different from the East Coast. The sand's even bigger grains out here. Anyway, Jack had a blast walking around in the sand and splashing in the water. We're going to have a lot of fun weekends at the beach!!!

Sandy toes

Jack and I were beach bums for a week! My family (minus Tom), my brother and his girlfriend, Addie, and my Aunt Lisa's family all spent a week in an amazing house at the Outer Banks, NC. We had amazing weather! Our house had it's own pool and hot tub and we were only 400 yards from the beach. Jack absolutely LOVED the ocean! He couldn't get enough of the water. The sand wasn't his favorite thing, but who likes the sand? I wasn't sure how he would react to the crashing waves but he got a kick out of them. When he was on the towel he'd point down towards the water, it was so cute!
We really had a great time hanging out with my family. They were all sorts of entertaining. Hahahahah! I even got the chance to jet ski. My mom was kind enough to treat me to this and watched Jack on the dock while I tried my hardest to steer that thing. Hahahah. Lisa and I shared one and it was hilarious. Lots of fun!!!
We really had a great time and can't wait for the next family beach gathering! :-)

Where to begin....

Well, it's been a while since I've been able to write about our happenings and my thoughts. I have a very good excuse though! We moved!! YEAH! We are now west coasters! The past 3 weeks have been crazy for us. Jack and I tagged along on a family beach vacation to the Outer Banks in N.C. for a week. We had a great time! Tom wasn't able to join us due to his class schedule at Ft. Lee, that was a bummer! After 7 awesome days in North Cackalacky we headed back to Pottsville and packed up all of our belongings for the move to CA. We were lucky enough to have the Army cover movers for us from PA to CA. Thank goodness because I accumulated a lot of stuff and I have no idea how it was going to get across the country. Plus now all the random things of our pasts that were left at our parent's houses are now back in our possession and off of their garage shelves. So we got back from the beach Sat night (the 21st) then the movers came that Monday. Then on Thursday I made my last trip to Ft. Lee. YEAH!!! Can't say that I'll miss that drive! Tom graduated from his ORSA ALMC training course on Friday morning, the 27th. We packed him up and left from there to spend some time with the families before the big move! Saturday we spent most of our time doing laundry and getting all of our ducks in a row. Sunday morning we flew out of Newark airport on our way to Monterey. This was not our best airline experience...I'll have to save that for later... We came right to our new house last Sunday. Tom's brother Bruce flew with us to help with Jack and Sadie. We're very grateful! He was a HUGE help! Tom started at NPS right away last Monday. Our movers came Wednesday and we've been unpacking and organizing and boosting the economy ever since. I should be unpacking now but I needed a blogger break. I have a ton of pictures and highlights from the last few weeks. I'll break them down into their own blogs. That's my plan anyway....here I go....

What we've been up to...

Here are some pictures of what Jack's been up to lately....
We've been hanging out at my Aunt Lisa's pool.... They were kind enough to donate a little something to Jack's toy collection. Check out his new ride....he loved it!

Jack discovered a love for pizza thank's to Tom's mom and here's my grandfather sharing some with him...

This is my grandmother reading Jack his Elmo book. It's a flap book and Jack knows that there's something hiding behind each flap he also gives kisses to Elmo on every page. It's too funny.

We spent last weekend in Va with Tom. We spent some time with friends from the past. The Goodfriend's and their 2 little girls were gracious enough to host us for a few days. My favorite highlight of that trip... Their 3 yo daughter strolling into our room one morning and in THE CUTEST voice and arm motion saying..."THE SUN IS UP" What a way to start a day. Hahahaha. We had a great time with them and can't wait to host them on the West Coast in the future.
Jack's really trying to walk. He does great holding on to us and only needs 1 hand. He's taken a few steps on his own but as soon as he realizes he's not holding on to something he sits down. Hahhahaha. I think he'll be walking before we leave for CA.

This is a picture of Jack being cuddly while we were watching his favorite movie...Old MacDonald...

And how could I post a blog and not add pictures of the family garage sale. My aunts Maria and Lisa had fun dressing Jack up in girl clothes. Like I said before...no one is safe at these family events. Poor kid. I know these pictures will come back to haunt him. Hahaha My dad wasn't even much help.



I know....my family is evil! hahahah

West Coast Drama

Even though we are renting a house on the economy in Monterey I'm still dealing with that loser from the housing office. If you've read my previous blogs about this frustration you'll get a kick out of this.
I e-mailed my dear friend at the housing office letting him know that his services are no longer needed. My e-mail may have been a little harsh, but I think that it was needed because the process of pre-leasing a house from them was a total disappointment after another huge delay in hearing from this guy. Here's my "Thanks but No thanks" e-mail.....

Mr. Gordon,
I just wanted to let you know that we no longer need your services. I have found housing for my family on the economy. In the time that it took you to e-mail me pictures of an available house I had spoken to a landlord, had him e-mail pictures, fax me a lease which I signed and returned. It took you two full weeks to respond to me only after I spoke to your manager. You then promised to call me back in 1 hour. You NEVER called and I got an e-mail from you 32 hours later. I just wanted to let you know that our frustration with trying to get a pre-leased home from you is the reason we are renting on the economy. I would say thank you for your time but I don't believe you actually spent any time in helping us.

Nicole McMurtrie

And then miraculously I received an e-mail back from this guy only 3 hours after I sent it. Amazing HUH??? He's so very busy that giving us a house is too hard to manage, but he made sure that he responded to my nasty gram. How kind of him.... Here's his response.....I enjoyed him insulting military families. What a jackass!!!

Good Evening Mr. McMurtrie

Sorry you feel this way. I did indeed attempt to assist you in finding
housing for you and your family, unfortunately you are not the only
person requiring housing here at La Mesa. The landlord who was able to
assist you in such quick fashion I'm pretty sure that he/she is not
dealing with another 75+ personnel and their families both via email,
telephone, in-office and at the same time dealing with present residents and
their families. We ask and tell everyone that calls and/or visits
our office to please be patient and understanding because we are very
busy at this time of year.

I am retired with 24-years service under my belt, I do understand about
PCSing, time lines, etc... Since working here, I now understand and
appreciate civilians who have to deal with military, the different
personalities and expectations levied upon them by military personnel who
assume that they know nothing about military life. I tried to assist
you, sorry it wasn't in your time line...

Last, but not lease, we are all human beings with room for error.

Good luck to you and yours...

Don't these people have any experience in customer service?? It's a shame. I know that there are some military families out there who really think everything should be done for them with no gratitude given. This is NOT my family! I was trying to take advantage of a service this place said they could provide. They failed and he's trying to make me feel bad about it. Oh NO my friend.....that's not how it works. Don't these people know not to egg me on???? Here's my final response. I just couldn't resist. I was going to let it go and not respond and be the bigger person, but it just wasn't sitting well with me. So the way I'm being nice about all of this is not CC-ing his manager to these e-mails. Anyway.....the last bit of West Coast drama from the housing office, (unless this guy is crazy enough to write me back again....) Here's my final response....

Mr. Gordon,
First let me say that I completely understand a busy office. Your office offered this service of pre-leasing. To me this meant taking care of the housing situation before you arrive so it's one less thing to worry about and also having an address where I could send things. My family will be traveling and then moving to Ca next week. The problem I had is that this process would not have been complete by the time we moved to Monterey. What would be the point in pre-leasing if I would arrive there before the process was done? I started this process with you the second week of May. It took you 2 weeks to respond to my e-mails and phone calls. I understand that you are in a busy moving season right now but don't you think that 2 weeks is unacceptable? Then after I did get a hold of you you said you were going to call me back in 1 hour with homes to view. Stupid me sat in my house by my computer waiting for that phone call and e-mail with pictures. My hopes were that I would be able to pick a house and send you a check that day. With that this would have been done. Instead you wasted my time. That I don't appreciate since I am busy as well.
You are correct in that we are all human beings with room for error. My error was in assuming that the process of pre-leasing a home would be simple. I am sorry that your office is busy and that you are dealing with 75+ families and current residents. I don't understand how that is supposed to justify my experience. I also don't understand how you can return my e-mail so quickly when you are defending yourself but not so quickly with information on finding my family a home.
I hope we are now done wasting each others time and entertaining each other with these e-mails.

Good luck to you as well.
Nicole McMurtrie

Thank goodness for Craigslist...right??? :-)

We have a home!!!

Well after MUCH frustration with military housing in Ca and my obsession with craigslist.org.....we found a house!!! YEAH FOR US! I am very much relieved and excited and can't wait to see it in person.
On Monday, I called the housing people and spoke to a manager about the loser agent we got stuck with. She told me she would have it resolved and get back to me in 1 hour. Unfortunately she had our slacker call us. He did call us in less than an hour, but that was all he could do. He then went PROMISED to call me back with 3 houses that are available for us to choose from and e-mail me pictures in another hour. That was yesterday at 1pm Eastern time. I just received an e-mail from him with only 1 house as an option and only 34 hours past his "promise". ARGH!!! Well, in that time we found a house on craigslist. Had 15 pictures sent to us by the landlord, had a lease faxed to us which I then signed and faxed back. So chew on that military housing office!
Our landlord is great!! His dad is a professor at NPS and he tries to rent to military families. He's a dog lover so Sadie is no issue and because we're military he waived the pet deposit and the application fee and process. Our rent is the same as if we were living on the military housing area. Here are a few pictures.

I was about to give up hope. All the houses we were finding on craigslist were either WAY too expensive, didn't take pets, or were too far away. This place is 3br/2 full bath, fenced yard, 2 car garage, fireplace, vaulted ceilings and my favorite thing....it comes with a dish washer! YEAH!!! hahahah It's the little things in life people! It has a pretty open floor plan for the dining room and living room area so lots of room for Jack to play. We're only 8 minutes from the beach and 10 minutes to NPS.
We actually e-mailed the owner last week and never heard back so I assumed it was no longer available. He was actually just out of town for a week and called us back yesterday. He said that we were the 2nd military family that was interested in the house and then there were a few civilian families also interested but he prefers to rent to military. So after a brief conversation and some info about the house and a promise of more pics via e-mail, I called Tom. We really liked it and didn't want to wait too long so I called the guy back about 5 minutes later and told him we'd take it! About 3 hours later he had our signed lease. YEAH!!! The landlord e-mailed and said that every thing went through and the house is ours and that not 5 minutes after he got off the phone with me the other military family called to say they'd take the house. Thank goodness for snap decisions!!
So now we have a house that's all our own (kind of) waiting for us to move in. We fly in to CA on the 29th and the house will be ready for us. I don't even think we'll need a hotel, we can move right in. YEAH!!! I'm so glad we don't have to worry about this anymore. I'm so tempted to call the housing office and talk to that manager again. She was really nice but should I tell her that this guy dropped the ball?? Not sure what to do. Anyway, we're the new residents of Del Rey Oaks, Ca!!!