I'm not dead!

We're on our last night of our little whirlwind vacation, and I thought I'd just take a short break from packing to post a small update. I haven't exactly been around, and I wanted to let you all know that I'm not dead (though I feel real close to it).

We had a wonderful time hanging with the in-laws, and trust me...there's PLENTY of them to hang with. That's what happens when your hubby's parents get divorced and then remarried. Just to give you an idea, we had THREE Christmas-s. Yes, count them...THREE. Three separate occasions where we gathered around a Christmas tree and opened presents. And the little princess now has more toys than some daycares. And forget libraries - she's got more DVDs and books than most city libraries.

I can't wait to get home - leaving Chiploe is harder than it looks. Poor things must have thought we abandoned them by now. And the little princess can't wait to get home too. She's tired of playing "hot potato"...and she's the potato. Her schedule is all thrown off, and I'm not even going to try to get her back on a schedule because it'll just be thrown off again in the next few weeks.

As of right now, in partnership with my parents, we have an offer on a lovely house in San Diego...that I haven't seen yet. It's a long story, but we actually did spend a day house hunting, but this is a "back-up" offer house that became the front runner due to some technical issues (i.e. a house being on the market when it's not supposed to be). My parents have seen the house and can't stop raving about it, but we haven't seen anything other than pictures. From what I hear though, it's an AWESOME house, and we'll be really blessed to have it.

Well, actually, even if it's a broken down leaky shack we'll be really blessed to have it. Because without it, we'd be homeless. The wait-list for base housing is 6 months long, not that we even want to consider it since we're so done with the utter crap housing has handed us the last 2 bases we've been on. Trying to find a place to rent that's somewhat close by, allows pets, will fit all of us, and affordable is frankly impossible. And especially on so short of a notice, considering we have to be there by the end of the month...meaning we'll need to be on the road in 20 days at the latest.

So, I'll be gone for a while longer, while I try to plan and pull off a move cross-country in 20 days. The last time I did this she was 3 months old. This will be my 8 month old's THIRD state (that she's lived in...we're not even counting states that we've driven through). We were a fool to believe that the Navy would take care of a sailor's family, or even the sailor...because the amount of help we've had in trying to go through with their orders on an impossibly short amount of time can be compared to the amount of help you can expect from your dog in trying to prepare Christmas dinner.

Thank you so much Ginger and Tricia for holding down the fort, and eventually I'll be back...if I'm not committed to an insane asylum by then. Pray and cross your fingers that we'll be able to buy that house, and we'll be able to get through this with our minds intact. Thanks for your patience, and I will be checking in when I can. Hope everyone had a wonderful (and stress-free) holiday season!