We are staying in Alabama (for now)

So remember how my last post was all about how we are getting ready to move, and how I was thinking we'd be moving away from Alabama by the end of September?  Well, that's not happening. This little meme sums up the situation perfectly.   

Back when Brandon first decided to leave the Army we were told that it would take 6 months to a year to process his paperwork.  That would have us leaving anywhere between November of 2016 and May of 2017.  I was happy about this because it would give us plenty of time to save up money and for Brandon to look for a civilian job.  

Well two months ago we got word that the powers that be decided that Brandon's paperwork didn't need to go through the HRC (Human Resources Command) department.  That meant that all that had to happen was that his paperwork had to go through his Chain of Command and get four signatures.  We were told to expect it to take about 1 to 2 months for that to happen.  

That's when we went into panic mode and started trying to prep for the move.  Since we had hardly any savings and no jobs lined up we knew that we'd have to move into his parents house in Utah while we tried to ease into civilian life again. 

Over the past two months Brandon's paperwork has slowly crawled up the chain of command.  There was a brief delay when he had to sign the paperwork in the presence of a lawyer, and the only lawyer who does that job was on leave for a week.  And then the lawyer had some question that the Legal Department had to straighten out.  So that extended our stay by about three weeks. 

After that everything seemed to be smooth sailing and we expected the last signature from the General to happen any day.  But first Legal had to check everything over one last time.  

And Legal decided that the paperwork does have to go to HRC after all. 

Sending something to Human Resources Command is akin to burying it in soft peat for 3 months. This is the department that can't get orders put together in a timely manner for people who NEED to leave Fort Rucker to report to their next duty station after flight school.  I can't tell you how many friends I've had who are finishing flight school in just a few weeks but have to wait for their official orders before they can plan their move.  Half the trouble we had last year when Brandon was trying to get his orders to Fort Rucker were caused by HRC.

So when Brandon came back from PT (Physical Fitness Training) and told me that he'd just been informed that his paperwork had to go through HRC we knew that meant we'd be here at Fort Rucker for another 3 to 6 months.   And I was over joyed at the news.

I wish I had a nickel for every time I've thought, "if only we weren't leaving so soon" during the past two months.  Here are just a few so the things that have made me want to stay.  I've been sad about taking the kids away from their school.  Charlotte and Lydia love their teachers and are doing wonderful in all day Kindergarten.  The school has the highest reading scores in the whole DODEA.  Derrick's Pre-K teachers are so great with him and he's so comfortable in the program.  He's making leaps and bounds in his progress and even started potty training at school!  I didn't want to pull him away from all of that yet.  To say nothing of how anxious I've been about our financial situation, and the plans for moving in with Brandon's parents. 

In short I'm very happy that Army inefficiently is working for us. 

I should, however, add a little caveat to this.  It's possible that HRC will somehow get their act together and go over Brandon's paperwork very quickly.  If that happens they will sent it back and all it needs is a signature from the General.  As soon as he signs it Brandon will have 10 days to out process.  After those 10 days he's no longer an active duty soldier. And that means we will have to move out of our house and away from Fort Rucker.  

So we still have to be ready for a whirlwind move on very little notice.  But in the meantime I'm very happy that we get to stay a little bit longer.

Okay so now that that update is out of the way, let's talk about all the little things that have been going on around here.  

Starting with the week after Labor Day. 

This week will probably go down in my memory as "That week we went to the doctor every day."    

It started off with taking Lydia to instacare on Labor Day.  I'd taken her to the Lyster Army clinic on Friday because I thought she had strep.  They gave her a penicillin shot which I hoped would get her back on her feet in no time.  But by Monday she was still really swollen so we went to Instacare to get some steroids and to avoid going to the ER like what had happened with Derrick during Memorial Day weekend. So anyway we got the prescription, but the only pharmacy that was open was out of the medicine until the next day.  GRRRR. 

So on Tuesday Lydia was still sick and couldn't go to school.  Brandon stayed home from work to take care of her because I had to take Derrick to Dothan to meet with the Child Psychologist.  We've had this Autism re-evaluation scheduled for a year.  For a while there I was worried that we would have moved before this appointment.  But we were still here.  I'm sure Derrick is still on the autism spectrum, but I'm also sure the Doctor could see all the improvement that Derrick has made in the last year.    

We picked up Lydia's medicine on the way back from Dothan.  I was hoping that the medicine would help Lydia start to feel better.  But it didn't work fast enough because she was still not feeling well on Wednesday.  I'd made plans to give my friend and her kids a ride to Lyster for some things since she doesn't have a car.  So Lydia came along with me and Veronica while we did that.  My friends' daughter needed to get her 4 year old shots and Lydia was under strict orders not to tell her anything about how much her shots had hurt. 

On our way out of Lyster we passed a solder who gave me a pat on the arm.  I looked over and realized it was Brandon heading into the clinic for his own doctor's appointment. Between his sleep issues and his separation physicals he has a lot of appointments at Lyster and I've given up keeping track of them all. It was fun to see him, and even more fun to give him a quick kiss in the entry way.  

I figured that surely Lydia would be feeling better by Thursday, but she woke up in the morning with a terrible hacking cough.  I figured the school wouldn't consider that as doing better so I kept her home again and made an appointment at Lyster.  Brandon took her to that and the doctor prescribed some cough medicine and recommended keeping her home on Friday as well.  

By this point I was feeling very grateful for our wonderful medical insurance and wondering if we really could make it in the civilian word.  So that was just one more thing that added to my relief when Brandon told me on Friday that we were staying at Fort Rucker for a few more months.  

I can't remember if anyone had a doctors appointment on Friday, but I'm willing to bet the Brandon did.  (Seriously, I think he spends more time at Lyster than he does at work.)

By the time Saturday rolled around I was feeling like we had to get out of the house.  Thanks to prepping for the move we've been spending all our Saturdays at home.  We didn't go anywhere during the entire month of August.  We figured that we were going to take 10 days to drive back to Utah so we didn't want to get sick of driving anywhere in the mean time.  But once we found out that we weren't leaving so soon we decided it was time for a mini day trip. 

Our first stop was in Enterprise for an emergency preparedness fair for Coffee County.  Brandon was hoping to get some info on how to get CERT Certified, but we probably would have gone to this anyway because we like this kind of stuff.    

They had firetrucks, police cars, SWAT vehicles and other cool stuff outside.  But the kids had the most fun looking at a search and rescue horse.  

 And then we went inside to see the booths in there.  The kids just wanted to stay at a table and color pictures for Firefighter, so they did that while Brandon went around and grapped all the info and free stuff.

 The kids each had a pretend safety hat and Veronica's kept slipping over her eyes.

 Here's Lydia showing off her drawing - and sporting her bag of free stuff, her free sucker, and her CPR necklace.  Emergency Prep fairs have the best swag.

 And Charlotte with her picture.

After we left the fair we drove south to a tiny town just over the Florida border called Ponce De Leon.  The town is home to Ponce De Leon Springs State Park.  We'd been planning to visit this spring on Labor Day, but Lydia had been sick. It turned out better that we waited because they were having some sort of special event at the park and everyone got in for free.  So we didn't have to pay the $4 entrance fee.  If we'd been there earlier we would have been able to have free hamburgers and hot dogs.  But we'd brought out own picnic stuff so we didn't need that anyway.

We had a quick picnic and then everyone changed into swimming suits and we went down to the springs.  I was expecting to just see a natural hole in the ground with water coming out of it.  But instead the area had a swimming pool built around it.

The day was hot and humid so we were all excited to get into the water.  But as soon as we put our feet in the water we changed out minds about that plan.  The waster was COLD.  It stays at 68 degrees all year long, but for how hot the day was the water felt like it was freezing.  Just putting our feet in took a lot of courage.

Everyone around us was diving in so Brandon got brave and got into the water.

 But I was content to stay on the side. Derrick kept splashing me with his feet and that was cold enough.

 Brandon coaxed Charlotte into the water.  I'm not sure how she felt about this.

 For a while I was wondering if we'd driven all that way just to sit on the side of a pool, but then I saw that the water from the springs ran off into a shallow stream.  I figured we'd probably be able to stand that water.  So we went over there and went down the stair case into the run off water.

 This was slightly warmer and a lot more shallow so the kids didn't mind getting in the water.

Here's Lydia.

 And Veronica.

 The area was really pretty.

 We decided to go for a walk down the stream.

All day long Charlotte had been asking to go for a hike in the woods.  I told her this was one of the most unique hikes we'd ever go on.

We didn't go very far down stream, but it was quite an adventure.  The bottom of the stream was smooth sand so it didn't hurt our feet at all to walk on it.  We'd pass submerged logs that were starting to get covered with sand.

 We came back to the start of the stream and Charlotte played in the water for a long time.

 Lydia wasn't feeling well (again) so I sat with her.  Brandon took the other three kids on a little hike on the trail that ran along side the water.

 After he came back we decided it was time to get going.  So we changed back into dry clothes and headed home.

The next day was Sunday and Charlotte and Veronica decided to wear their matching dresses.

 Charlotte made this snowman out of balls.

The next week was what I'd unofficially planned on being our last week here in Alabama.  So naturally I'd planned as much stuff as possible during this week.  

On Monday I had a volunteered to teach a class on Financial Emergency Preparedness.  At the beginning of the year my friends Mary and Melissa started a little emergency preparedness class called "Nacho Mamma's Emergency Preparedness Class."  They held monthly classes and talked about 72 hour kits, storing and using wheat, storing and using beans, gardening, and other topics.  My personal theme for this year was Preparedness so I loved the classes and learned a ton from them.  (Bean bread - it's a think and it's amazing.) We took a break with the classes over the summer, but I was hoping they'd get started again in the fall.  

I decided that I wanted to teach a class before I moved away so I volunteered to get things going with the class on preparing for financial emergencies.  

I talked about keeping cash in your 72 hour kits and your car, paying down debt and saving, making sure you have all your important documents in one place, and insurance.  The class went well. I might even turn it into a blog post, but I'm not making any promises because I'm already backlogged enough over on the travel blog. 

Monday was also important because it was the first day that Lydia had gone to school in over a week.  She wanted to stay home again, but she wasn't acting as sick as she had the previous week.  I couldn't see any reason to keep her home so we made sure she got on the school bus. (She wasn't so happy about that.)  In the afternoon Brandon picked her up early and took her to Lyster for a follow up appointment.  The doctor gave her the all clear and she has been happily going to school ever since.

On Tuesday our string of Doctor's appointments continued with the second half of Derrick's autism evaluation. A lady did lots of tests and observations with him and documented how he reacted to different things.  The biggest change was that he willingly left me in the waiting room and went back to her room.  Last year he'd cried and refused to cooperate when she'd taken him away.  This time he was just fine. I was involved in some other parts of the observation and the lady told me that Derrick was talking much more than she remembered from the year before.  He really has made a ton of progress.

I can't remember what day this picture was taken, but here are Derrick and Charlotte playing with play dough.  Derrick still doesn't spend a lot of time doing things like this, but he certainly participates more than he used to.

On Wednesday I went to Enterprise for a Quickbooks class that I'd signed up for almost at the last minute.  When I go back to work I want to work in an office setting and most jobs I'm looking at require knowledge of Quickbooks. So I've wanted to take a class on quickbooks forever, but I've always put it off.  Well I decided that I needed to take one this year.  And when Brandon decided to get out of the Army I knew I HAD to take one soon.  But the only place that I could find that offered them was the Troy University Extension in Dothan. And the class wouldn't happen until October.

Brandon and I have both been working with the Employment Readiness program here to get our resumes updated.  When I was meeting with the Resume Guru (AKA Mike Kozlowski) he suggested I get in contact with the Small Business Development Department with Troy University.  I did and discovered that they were having a Quickbooks class on Wednesday morning.  The cost was only $25, but I signed up late so it was $40 for me.  That was still a great deal.

So on Wednesday morning I went to the class.  I was a little worried because most of the people there had small businesses.  I was just there to learn all I could about the software.  I was worried that I wouldn't get that much out of the class. I was so wrong.  I learned a ton. And I loved that everyone had real world experience that they could bring to the table.  This class wasn't about Quickbooks in theory.  It was about how to use Quickbooks today.  Not only that we talked a little about income taxes, and FICA taxes, and Sales Tax. We talked about the difference in contractors and employees, we talked about the pros and cons of setting up your clients with credit.  It was like a small business crash course.  I learned more in that 4 hour class than I learned in some of my college classes.  In short, it was great, I loved it, I definitely want to work with Quickbooks in the future.  (I also never want to depend on income from a small business.)

For the past few days Brandon and I had been noticing that our internet was painfully slow.  We like to watch Parks and Recreation on Netflix every night and lately it hadn't been playing right.  So Brandon finally called our provider and they discovered that the router wasn't working.  So Brandon ordered a new router and then discovered that our internet was completely turned off.  He could have called back to get it back on, but we decided to see if we could survive without the internet.

This turned out better than we expected.  For one, I needed a serious detox.  I kind of thought that I'd suddenly turn into a more attentive mom without my phone to distract me.  But instead I just discovered my love of books again.  I read all of Rilla of Ingleside (It's an Anne of Green Gables sequel) in two days.  That book takes place during the First World War so today I went to the library to get a history book on that.  I also read two short books on management that I "borrowed" from my dad last year.

Another good thing about not having the internet is that Derrick needed a detox too. I usually let him watch Youtube videos of trains on my phone.  He likes them, and I like that he would leave me alone for a while.  They didn't seem to be causing any trouble and it was a good way to keep him occupied. I thought he'd been pretty grumpy without his "train woovies."  Instead he was super happy.  He'd contently play with his wooden trains and never even asked for my phone (because he never saw me holding it.)  And he suddenly was talking a lot more.  I think he's had at least three new phrases in the past few days.  And I've been hearing a lot more words come out of his mouth.  Yesterday he said, "Follow me" to the other kids when we were walking to the park.

So the verdict is that when we do get our new router I don't think I'm going to be spending any time on the internet during the day.  I don't want it distracting me and I definitely don't want Derrick to know that his movies are back.  We'll see how this goes.

Thursday was a slower day comparatively.  Veronica and I went to institute.  She loves playing in the nursery at Wings Chapel and I like learning about the scriptures.

After school got out I took Lydia to the Commissary.  Since we thought we were moving we'd been eating up all our food storage and only going to the store for fresh food.  Now that we knew we were staying it was time to restock our shelves.  We had a lot of fun filling up our cart with lots of food. At the end of our trip Lydia pretended the long receipt was her hair.

Friday was the only free day I had all week.  I spent the morning cooking and my friend Becca came over and we had fun gabbing.

On Saturday I went to the church and helped sew bag for a service project.  My job was to sew the lining to the outside and make sure the straps were on there too. I finished 9 bags in three hours. (Pinning takes a long time.)

Brandon and the kids met me at the church and we were able to see a new member of the church get baptized..  As soon as that was over we changed into play clothes and got in the car to go for a drive.

Our plan was to go for a drive in the area Northwest of Enterprise and to find somewhere we could build a fire and roast marshmallows and make smores.  We ended up finding a place in the Conecuh National Forest which is to the southwest.  But the drive was on some of the pretties back county roads in Alabama so it wasn't a waste.

On reason our drive was so long was because we wanted to let the kids sleep.  Veronica pretty much only naps in the car so we take that when we can get it.

Charlotte wanted to take my picture.

When we finally arrived at the Blue Lake area the kids helped Brandon make a fire.

Derrick had been asking for a fire all day.

We had hot dogs and then made smores.

Then we went down to look at the Blue Lake.

I love this picture of Derrick and Brandon sharing rocks.

Then they would both throw them in.

Here's me looking all content in the outdoors.

Veronica throwing sand.

Lydia making a sand angel.

Charlotte made this stick dirty. 

And then clean.

More sand angels.  I totally forgot to mention that I am so happy we don't have to move back to Utah and deal with the snow.  Fall and Winter are AMAZING in the south and so I am perfectly happy to spent them here.

Derrick had fun spotting fish in the water.

It started raining so we headed back to the car.  The kids got silly on the ride home.

More pants on heads.

Veronica wanted me to take a picture of her foot.

On the way home we went through some pretty torrential rain.  We were considering pulling over right when we passed a small truck that had slid off the road.  So we pulled over and Brandon jumped out to help until the emergency responders arrived.  What a good guy.

We made it safely home and went to bed.

On Sunday Brandon and Charlotte made cinnamon rolls.  Charlotte proudly rolled out the dough.

The girls were looking at their art books so I made sure to take a picture of those since I forgot to last time.  They love looking at their work.

Derrick with his train.  He loves to make "circle track."

Veronica has rediscovered her love for this Teddy bear.  She's been carrying it around everywhere and playing with it a lot.  This is good because that girl had some really weird toys - like a stack of puzzle pieces.  It's nice to see her actually playing with something.

She insisted on wearing TWO red dresses to church on Sunday.

Charlotte and Lydia took a bunch of pictures of their stuffed animals.  Here's one of Hundley who isn't quite as loved as she used to be, but still gets played with.

And of course one of Antler.  When they took this I heard them say, "Lindsey is going to love this!"

Well that's the end of the pictures, which is good because I'm at the library.  I've been here for four hours because we still don't have internet and I'm starting to get hungry.  

I'm glad I came here though because I really wanted to get all caught up on this blog so I can start getting caught up on the travel blog.  That really got pushed the the back burner this past few weeks. 

Veronica's birthday is this weekend so I'll have a lot to write about that as well.  It's funny because I fully expected to be moving during her birthday.  Plan A seriously involved putting birthday candles into doughnuts and celebrating at a campsite.  I wasn't even going to buy her a present until we got to Utah.  Now I'm scrambling to figure out what we are really doing for her birthday.  It's coming together and it's going to be awesome.  

Actually the same thing could be said about my plans for the rest of our time here: It's coming together and it's going to be awesome.  I'm so glad we get to stay here a little bit longer!