in kansas

Meteor getting some love...





















This is Alanah's Gum-Gum that she loves so much!





















Oh what a trip! Where do I begin...?

• On Sunday the 20th we went to the city for the last time before our departure the following day. We were not done with the final inspection preparations we were in the middle of-- but we said why not? We spent the day at the American Museum & Natural History, a walk through Central Park, and dinner with one of Frank's cycling buddies. We had a fabulous day even though we didn't pull up to the house until after midnight!



• The following morning we got up at 5am to weigh-in the vehicles at the scales, finish cleaning the house, mop, mow and clean the patio-- all before 10am when our inspection was scheduled for. Jeesh... We passed the inspection and we said farewell to our friends and off we went to our first stop in Virginia to visit good friends of ours and Frank's old boss from Ft. Hood during OIF#1's deployment. To make a long story short, all I will say is that 2 hours into the 7 hour trip the Land Rover got a flat!


• We had a wonderful 5 days in Virginia! But on Saturday we were off again to start the 1200 mile drive to Kansas. We decided to stop midpoint to get a room and sleep. The midpoint was Indianapolis, Indiana. OMG! What a mistake to choose this city-- this state! (on this particular weekend, at least). We got into Indianapolis around the midnight hour-- we could not find a room anywhere from Indianapolis and about 200 miles past this city! Apparently there was a huge Nascar event going on this weekend~! So we finally found a room in some random city somewhere in Illinois-- we arrived at 3:30am and left at 9am. Yuk.


• Sunday, we drove the last 500 miles and we finally arrived into Ft. Leavenworth. Tired, hungry and dirty we get a place in the post's lodging.


• Monday we were at the housing office at 7:30-- second in line! We got some keys to look over some homes and we finally agreed upon a home that is not currently available but it is vacant. We put a hold on it with the hopes that it will become available sometime this week. We already scheduled Transportation to deliver our household goods next Monday so let's hope for the best. I also attended all of the school orientations for the girls' schools.


• Tuesday we got a verbal confirmation that most likely the house will be cleared by Wednesday or Thursday-- I hope so because I have been putting down that address as our own, we own it dude! Alexys got enrolled into the 9Th grade. She got all her classes-- Geometry, Biology, the regular core, and her electives she hopes will be Journalism and Choir. She signed up for Volleyball and Track try-outs. That evening while she went to the pool to workout, the swim team coach was there and she got picked up for the team. Good! She doesn't have to go through the tryout next month! The season starts in September so she has 6 weeks to get into tip-top shape!


• Wednesday, today was consumed with the little girls' enrollment. Wow, talk about paperwork! Did I mention how impressive these schools are? At least the actual buildings are very nice-- I can't say much of anything about anything else since school hasn't started, but the actual buildings are very impressive.

empty house

So the house is empty of furniture and boxes. All that remains is our air mattresses and suitcases.

Yesterday was spent on painting the walls back to their original egg shell white-- yuk. We did a whole lot, but we still have the master bedroom and some touch-ups throughout the house. I am so glad we changed our minds about painting the basement as well 3 years ago!

I think that the girls and I may be coming down with a bug. It could simply be our allergies acting up with all the dust we have been around to or it could be exhaustion from the move this week.

Sorry, no time to take pictures and no time to load them here.

BTW, I think I am starting to dislike Subway... ;)

day 1 of move

Really, it is day 1 of packing. The packers arrived right before noon today. They worked very hard up until 6 this evening. They packed-up the basement stuff and some of the dining room items like stemware and such. Tomorrow morning will be an earlier day and hopefully they will get most of the other stuff into boxes. I doubt that they will be able to finish 100% with the packing tomorrow, but we will wait and see.

I realized today that I never photo journal the USMA Class of 2008 Graduation at all! So, I will be including some shots of the big day. It rained a little but it held off until the ceremony ended! Frank swore in several second lieutenants but I don't think I can find any shots of them without the name-- and I can't blur them at the moment since I am short on time. So I will only include random shots for now and maybe later on I can include some other more personal ones.

So now you know why we will miss this place! It is gorgeous, breathtaking-- and this even on a rainy day!

p.s.

I may not be posting much in the next week-- depending at how readily available my stuff is. In any case, just wanted to throw that out. Also, felt I should share this picture as well. This is also from Alexys' stash.

prepping for the move...

Alexys and Chelsie went to Bailey's old house and the new family was moving in already. As you can tell by the boxes...

I can't believe that tomorrow at this time the packers will be putting all of our belonging into boxes! The house is beginning to show the signs of a military family getting ready for the big day when huge moving trucks and people in matching T's come knockin' at our door...

This morning I starting taking down all of our curtains and started bringing all of the over-flow of kitchen items upstairs. I need to make sure that it all gets packed together.

The house is echoing a bit now with the windows being exposed... Tomorrow morning unfortunately the actual formal portion of the move begins. Along with that, one of the girls has a sport's physical tomorrow morning. I am expecting tomorrow to be a very long and draining day.

my new bike

So my darling husband finally put together my road bike--yes, I had told myself years ago that I would never again get on a road bike again. Jeez, have you seen the wheels on those puppies? Itty-bitty wheels. Mountain Bike baby-- Well, he did put the bike together, so my pretty, shiny, and supra-light bike sits proudly amongst the in-crowd of bikes in our household. You see, Frank's bikes have a room to themselves in the basement, I think he has around 5 or 6 bikes in total there. They are the babies, the VIPs of bikes. The poor, sad, and dusty Gary Fishers sit in a make-shift little shed-like room he built for the girls' bikes. Yes, they sit amongst the little one's bikes, scooters, beach toys, and i think even the dog's crate is in there!

Will I be riding the bike? Well, I guess it would be the right thing to do being that I totally enjoy spinning and well, spinning is suppose to mirror a road bike ride. More on the road bike to follow in the near future--

army wives

Has anyone else watched this show on the Lifetime network? I have been following it along since last season. I actually look forward to watching it every Sunday-- I love the way Lifetime will replay it the following week just in case anyone misses it! Anyway, I really can't put my finger on why exactly I like it. It isn't actual true army wife story lines, or maybe they are but they are sure stretched out! Some of the stuff drives me nuts though! It is sort of like when Frank and I are watching a movie that involves the military-- he goes bonkers if (which is always) a General (or anyone for that matter) wears their insignia or awards incorrectly. He quickly makes verbal observations about how the guy or gal is so out of uniform. So for me, this Army Wives show is the same thing. I can't help but to think out loud about the inaccuracies of the plot. But I will keep watching.

notice the new banner?

Created by Alexys.

Just wanted to give her credit for it!

Thanks, Love. :)

last day

How many hard-core cyclists does it take to load up bikes onto a car? Take a guess...

just for fun

First two shots are from West Point, my back yard. The others are from our friends' home this past weekend.

bronx bridge

These images are of the Bronx Bridge which we took on our way to the Hampton's this weekend. I am rather impressed that my camera managed to take the shots while driving over the bridge and they came out pretty good free of most blurr. The shot I took of the city didn't come out great due to the horrible haze in the air. It seems that we haven't had a true clear day in weeks!

The girls and Maggie-- such cute group! They played so well together and they all shared! lol

Dad and his little girl... awe... Here they are watching a movie while dad absorbs every second of his little girl.

more 4th pictures

During our stay, Alexys was able to get a lot of reading done.

Maggie is a great swimmer! She loved the girls and playing with them. She is a very hands-on pup-- she is just too cute!

4th of july

We spent the 4th weekend with friends at their Summer home. It was us and another family. The 3 days were spent relaxing and getting to know each other better. Thursday we arrived in the evening so we pretty much talked and hung-out. On Friday the girls went with my friend to the beach to walk Maggie the dog. Oh and my friend had a relaxing massage waiting for me! I had never had one by a male so it was a little different, but it was very nice. The rest of the day was spent by the pool, hanging-out, and eating. On Friday morning we went to her exercise studio where we signed-up to do a Brazilian Booty class. We perspired buckets! I have been so sore form this class, I can barely move!

The weekend was great and we took many pictures so bare with me please!

Here is Alexys with Brody-- my friend's friend's pup.