Off we go

After a LONG, LONG absence from writing I have decided to start up again. I know- not the first time you have heard this but this time I am going to stick with it, I think.

Life has been busy for our family over the past 14 months. TED came home from deployment, we moved to the cold Northeast, LM started preschool, and we prepared to move south again.

On Monday the packers will arrive to pack out our beautiful and luxurious home and then we will head south to the land of jet noise. We are thrilled to be moving to our new house.


We will certainly be busy with boxes, boxes and more boxes but I will keep you posted as we continue on our Marine Corps journey. Wish us luck

Jet noise

For the better part of three years the Blue Angels have been a consistent part of our lives. Several times a week they practice on their home runway which happens to be across the water from our home. At 0900 sharp the roar of the jets approaches, zooms past and back again at what seems to be lightning speed. The windows shake as we are reminded of the power behind these awesome aircraft.

I am not going to lie; when we first moved in it scared the crap out of me a few times. I couldn't decipher the tell-tale hum of the engines starting, that TED repeatedly attempted to point out, indicating that things were about to get a little noisy. Frequently I would be shushed mid-conversation because he had heard that sound that he loved so much. I made fun of his super-power hearing, chalking it up to the fact that he flew the hornet and was all too obsessed familiar with the noise. But as time went by I found myself stopping when I heard the hum; silently acknowledging- here we go; it is about to start.

These days LM doesn't seem to recognize the hum but the beginning of the roar of the engines sends him running to the backyard to see the "ahpanes". He points and laughs as they roll and zoom through the sky. I watch as their diamond formation gets closer and closer to perfection and marvel at the fact that my husband flies that same aircraft. I smile to myself and wonder if my little boy will follow in his Dad's footsteps and learn to fly those amazing jets. I ponder how long hornets will be in our lives.

The past two days have filled our home with extra booms, windows shakes, and noise. The annual homecoming show is here; marking the end of another Blue Angel season. As I attempted to distract LM from the scary and unfamiliar booms that were occurring, while reminding him of his love for the "ahpanes" I realized this would be the last time we saw the Blues fly over our home. There would be no more Blues jet noise. It was time to move on. With every pass and maneuver I felt a twinge of sadness. This part of our journey, like the Blues season, is over. It is time to begin again.

I envision this sad, yet hopeful feeling, continuing as we prepare for our PCS. I wonder what will be in store for us in the next leg of our journey with the Marine Corps. What noises will mark portions of our days or weeks, which sights will remind us that life is moving on as it should? I suppose all I can hope for is that each new noise, like this jet noise, continues to mark the sound of freedom.

Mother Nature

TED and I moved to our current duty station four months before a major hurricane made landfall. We managed to ride out that storm with little to no damage. As a result of our good fortune, we believed that we had paid our dues and would be disaster free for at least the rest of our tour here.



A year later we survived two more major storms. Again there was little to no damage. Again we were convinced that we had paid our dues and would be disaster free for at least the rest of our tour here.

The port-a-crapper did not fair as well as we did

Today our town was hit by a tornado. Our town has not been hit by a tornado in at least the last sixty years. Again this time we had no damage, as it missed our part of town. We have however received more than 14 inches of rain and plenty o' lightning.

I am starting to think that there is a distinct possibility that Mother Nature hates us.

No Go

The offer is a no go. After much discussion 3M and I have decided that we would both feel better moving after he returns; well really he would feel better and it is kind of hard to tell your husband, who is currently living in a bombed out building in Fallujah, that you don't agree.

We did make a counter offer to our buyer , who is a single man moving here from Atlanta (Hey Darrell, how are you???) in hopes of saving the deal. We asked him to wait until December and offered money towards his living expenses payable at closing. My realtor and his realtor said it was an "enticing offer" and they thought we would be able to work something out.

Darrell said no. He said he didn't want to wait that long.

Why, Darrell? Our offer is enticing!!!! Didn't you listen to your realtor (who by the way was slightly creepy and used a contract that hasn't been used in our county since 1995)?? Your realtor is a smart man; you should listen to him! You are a single man. You can live anywhere for a few months. We are going to write you a check, a real live actual check, just for waiting a few extra weeks. But no... you have to be Mr. difficult. Perhaps I really should call you Mr. WTF. Instead you are going to keep looking and see if you can find something else and if you can't then you will "re-visit" our offer.

Fine, be that way.

While you are out crushing my dreams of having a bigger house with a pool looking at other houses I would like you to remember a few things:

You can totally see the water, from the backyard. Dude, you will not find that in other neighborhoods. That and the grass is expensive as hell to maintain green, really green.

There are no stupid chick colors in this house, so as to prevent your stupid fragile male ego from having to pee in a pink bathroom. You are welcome!

I planted flowers!!! Do you have any idea how much I hate planting flowers?!?!?!

Offer part two

Also known as currently Erin is having a panic attack because she is a TERRIBLE waiter and she is trying to talk to her husband about this while he is, oh in a warzone. Umm, so yeah.. feeling quite stressed out about this whole house thing and he is not answering emails; doesn't he know this is more important that what is going on in Iraq. Tisk, tisk.

We counter offered Mr. WTF and he came back with another offer. This new offer has a really good price but he wants to close November 1st.

Closing November 1st is giving my heart burn. Not hearing from my husband is giving me heartburn. Writing about this on the internet as if I will somehow jinx it.. you guessed it, giving me heartburn. (On a sidenote, I don't know if it is exactly giving my heartburn because I don't know that I have ever had heartburn but it is giving me something that isn't so fun).

So, currently we have an offer on the table, to which they want a yes or no. They do not want a counter offer. I am feeling a bit overwhelmed at the prospect of arranging and conducting a move all by myself and my husband is currently MIA. That and LM has been sleeping for almost three hours!!!

Holy Sh*t- update below

My realtor is coming by with an offer for our house....

More to come

UPDATE:

Change that to WTF were these people thinking. Over 30k less than asking price and they want to move in by the 15th... OF THIS MONTH.

Not so much.. wish us luck as we counter-offer.