It's FINALLY over! :)

Hallelujah! 

Airman Leadership School is OVER!

I get my man back! WOOHOO!

I'm so proud of him I could just explode. He did absolutely amazing through everything

that we were trying to deal with, the car, his bike having issues, etc.

He stuck it out, and it paid off for him BIG TIME.

He received the Academic Achievement Award, the Distinguished Graduate award, a special, large coin (the one on the far right up top) for his service, and was coined by the commander, and Captain Meckes. I'm 

going to get the frame for his diploma tomorrow once we get the car back (finally!!).

He's going to do amazing things in his career, and I truly believe he's going to be an outstanding NCO. The last five weeks have been extremely long and rough, but they had some very bright spots.

Mark should be sewing on Ssgt end of November/December/January, somewhere in that time frame, and 

hopefully we'll receive our official orders to Ramstein so we can get stuff started. Unfortunately, we were informed that several other people received orders and were not supposed to due to the freeze on orders for the Herd, so ours may not stick, or they may just get pushed back. It's hard to be positive when you don't know what you thought you knew, but that's the military way of life, and all we can do is be positive. Even if we don't get to go this time like we were told, we WILL get there eventually. :)

To top EVERYTHING that's happened this week off, there's a slight cold front coming in today,

so it'll actually feel like Fall, even if it's just for a day or two.

Our life is finally done spinning for a while, I hope.

So with that, I'm going to go work on some crafts, and do some baking. I can think of a certain ALS graduate/Ssgt Selectee that would enjoy a homemade German Chocolate cake when he gets home. :)

-KJ

My bucket list..Europe Edition!

So I've obviously been doing a lot of thinking lately about

what I want to do while we're overseas, 

and I decided to compose a bucket list.

1. Visit the beaches at Normandy.
2. Visit the Holocaust Memorial.
3. Go to Berlin.
4. Go to Paris.
5. Go to Venice.
6. Go to Prague.
7. Go to Amsterdam.
8. Go to Ireland. 
9. Go to England.
10. Visit Austria, pick edelweiss for mom.
11. Go skiing in the Alps.
12. Eat authentic German chocolate.
13. Eat authentic Swiss chocolate.
14. Take a train to France.
15. Go to Barcelona.
16. Go to Madrid.
17. Swim in the Mediterranean and Atlantic in Spain.
18. Visit the Eiffel Tower.
19. Drive on the Autobahn.
20. Go to Oktoberfest in Munich.
21. Go to Rome.
22. Go to Scotland.
23. Go to Greece.
24. Hike in the Alps.
25. Visit the Black Forest and purchase a cuckoo clock.

This is just a portion that I could think of off the top of my head. I'm getting more and more excited with everything that passes. The thought of just being able to hop on a train to Paris for the weekend or just drive to Switzerland for a day or two is amazing. I'm going sometime next week after Mark gets out of ALS and he's back to work to start the process for my passports, so I'll let y'all know how it goes. There was some debate on my personal FB page about whether or not I need a 'military issue' passport, the no-fee one for traveling there on his orders, so I will let y'all know what the official word is when we go. If any of you have any questions, pleeassee keep them coming. I'm about to answer some that I had gotten since announcing our PCS.

1. Jessica I.- "How was your husband able to find out about orders on a holiday weekend?" He got an email to his personal email, informing him that he had been selected for PCS orders. He has a CAC reader that he uses at home, so he was able to log in from there and see the orders.

2. Angela W.- "How do you know that you'll actually get the orders? We've been told we're going somewhere, and never actually went, just wondering if it's cause of something we did or not." In all honesty, we don't! :) The military is unpredictable. There's always the chance that they could change their minds and send us elsewhere. However, I'm taking my chances and planning for Germany, because if I didn't start planning until we had orders in hand, I would feel very, very overwhelmed from procrastinating. My advice, DO  NOT put your life on hold for fear you may not actually get orders in hand. What's the worst that could happen? Go ahead and plan for moving. If they end up sending you somewhere else, you'll already have plans in place for movers, flights, everything!

3. Marilyn J.- "What about your dog?" We're taking him with us, of course! We have to make sure his shots are up to date, get him chipped (They're chipping him when he gets fixed in a month or so), and several other guidelines must be met regarding his crate, etc. When we start that process, I'll do a post specifically about it!

Thank you for the input, guys! Please keep it coming!

-KJ

The best has yet to come!

I'm still awake. Partly because Mark is playing a game with his friends, and yelling at them, and partly because I'm still trying to process my thoughts.

Germany is really, REALLY far away from Oklahoma.

I've never been more than two days driving away from my state. Being across the ocean in a different country is going to be a HUGE change. I can't describe how much I'm looking forward to it though. 

We'll be there for four years. 

That's a really long time.

However, there is a LOT we can do in four years. A lot we can see.

The more I think about it, the more excited I get.

But, the more I think about it, the more it sinks in that I have a LOT to do,

and a lot to learn before we leave.

I speak ZERO German, for one. I know most people there speak at least a little English,

but I would like to be able to communicate more if I need to. Which I probably will.

I don't know anything about PCSing. 

Especially not overseas.

With a large dog.

I've never gotten a passport before, so I don't know the process.

I know the military will give me one, but I need one to travel with once we get there.

Plus, have I mentioned that Germany is far away from Oklahoma?

In all seriousness, I'm very excited. I was pretty nervous at first, but the more I think about it, and the amazing adventure that Mark and I are about to go on, the more excited I get. Yes, I'll miss my family (especially my parents and grandparents) and friends desperately, but I'm already making plans for many

of them to come and visit as soon as we get settled and they can, and I'll only be a plane flight away.

I'm going to be in GERMANY, in EUROPE, for four years. I can see a lot in

four years. Mark's already talking about going skiing in the alps, and all the castles he wants to take

me to see, so as long as he's excited, I think I can manage it.
I really feel like, despite the anxiety and anticipation I feel right now, that the best really has yet to come. Germany is going to be an amazing experience, and one I can't wait to share with you all.

Like I said in my previous post, if you have any PCS stories/tips, please share them! I know 

several of you are doing your first PCS soon, so any tips would be appreciated by many!

-KJ

A new chapter

So, I have some extremely exciting news.

No, it is not a baby, like so many friends thought.

My husband is a member of the 33d combat comm here at Tinker, and they're starting the process of shutting the whole unit down. We have been waiting to see if we would get orders due to the shutdown, or just natural pcs orders for his time on station.

Well, I'm tickled pink to announce that we received orders last night for his time on station.

This spring, we will be moving to Ramstein AB, Germany.

OH MY GOOD GRAVY!

I've never been more than a couple days drive form Oklahoma, much less out of the country, and now, we'll be in beautiful Germany for the next two years! Mark has been there before, two years right after basic, so he's ecstatic to be going back! I'm very anxious, but I'm very excited as well. I've been wanting to go to Europe for a long time, and now I'll be living there.

We will be leaving in April 2013, so probably right after the holidays, I'll have to start getting things together that we want to take right away, and start preparing for TMO to come move our stuff. I've never pcsed before, and like I said, I've never left the country before either, so this will be a very new experience for me, and one that I'm eager to share with all of you! I'll share new details as we get them! If any of you have any pcsing tips, or want to share your experiences overseas, please share!

KJ

Everybody's working for the weekend...

First of all, can I just say that I've NEVER BEEN SO HAPPY FOR THE WEEKEND?!

I'm ready for this week to be well gone! We found out about our car, and we have to replace the engine. So not happy. It's going to be 6700-7800 depending on what engine we get, and we don't qualify for any type of aid since Mark only has a little over a year before his enlistment is up. He's planning on re-enlisting, but he can't re-enlist until he has 12 or fewer months in, and that's not until November. So I'm not sure what we're going to do yet. All I know is if I can't drive myself anywhere soon, I'm going to go crazy.

Anyway, on to more positive things.

This was Mark's last full week of ALS, thank goodness, so he's almost done! Yay! He's doing extremely well, and I couldn't be prouder of him. It's been stressful taking care of all the car details alone, however, so I'll be glad when he's back to work and can help. Plus, he's getting really tired of not having any free time whatsoever, especially with the weather getting nicer.

I'm not sure where a lot of you ladies are, but in Oklahoma, fall is my second favorite season. It's all about football season and pumpkins (I lovelovelove pumpkins) and getting ready for the holidays.  It's still pretty warm here, but the mornings are definitely getting cooler, and I'm seeing more fog in the mornings when I wake up, which I love. 

I'm most looking forward to the holidays, though. From October-December 31st. As you guys know, Mark deployed last year in early November, so we didn't get to celebrate any of our first holidays together, which crushed me. However, not only is he going to be here this year, but we have a beautiful house to decorate! I'M SO EXCITED. I'm crazy crazy crazy about decorating for the holidays, so it's going to be amazing. I know it's just barely September now, but I'm already planning out where I want the tree, what color lights I want outside.. Yeah. I'm THAT person. (but don't worry, I don't listen to Christmas music until I'm on the way to family at Thanksgiving. ;) )

While Mark was deployed, I was so busy taking care of his christmas care packages and decorating and baking with my parents tha tI didn't post up as many tutorials as I wanted, but this year, I will have buckets and buckets of time, so get ready! I'll be making several wreaths as well, both as gifts and to decorate around here with, my mom and I are going to make garlands together like the ones we had when I was little, and lots of baking recipes! I hope you're all getting as excited as I am! 

In the mean time, though, I suppose I have to settle for celebrating Mark's ALS graduation, his birthday, then the ball. sigh. ;) It's going to be a very exciting several months, so keep watching for more!

-KJ

Feels like I've been running a marathon

This week has been chaos.

Not all bad, but definitely chaotic.

I don't feel like going into complete detail on what all's happened, but long story short, my phone vanished, we still haven't gotten to the car to the garage (Mark keeps getting released too late to make it there), and I had to change dresses for the ball. The last one isn't a big deal, but at the same time, it is. I'm just so thankful it's the WEEKEND.

I'm ready for Mark to be out of ALS too. I realize that, as a military spouse, there are always certain things that I'm always going to have to do alone, but trying to juggle car repairs without a phone by myself is just too much, haha. I'll be glad when he's graduated. I had to find a dress for his graduation as well, but thankfully my mom brought down all my formal dresses from home last week when they visited, so I have the perfect dress. It's a little longer than knee length, black (classic LBD anyone?), with a cream band just below the bust. Super classic and it's one of my favorite dresses. The dress I'm now wearing to the ball is the same one I wore last year, which is just fine with me, since it's probably one of the most beautiful dresses I have. I'll add a picture of both dresses, I'd love to get y'alls input. :) let me know what you think, and if you have any questions about ALS or graduation attire. :)

This is the dress for ALS graduation. It's a semi-formal event, but I'm going more towards the formal side. You should always reflect positively on your husband, especially at events like this. :)

This is the dress I wore to the ball last year, and I'll be wearing it again this year! It's very, very flowy, almost  ethereal in style. Mark loves this dress, and I aim to please. :)

Let me know what y'all think about the dresses, and if you have any questions!

-KJ

So much to be thankful for

As a lot of you know, this last month has been absolute chaos. Our car threw a rod, my husband started ALS, so I've had to be taking care of everything myself, and with a few other things, it's been just crazy. We're hopefully getting the car fixed in the next week or so, and then hopefully things will start to slow down.

On to some better news. I'm very happy to say my husband made Staff Sgt! I'm so proud of him! A couple of our friends, Daniel and Jeff, made it as well, so a shout out to both of them and a congrats! We have a group of friends over at the moment to celebrate with Mark, and my parents took us out to eat earlier today, it's just been a really relaxing day, which was much needed.

Also, i got my dress for the ball today! My sweet momma brought it to me along with some other dresses for Mark's ALS graduation, Christmas party, etc, and it's gorgeous! I'm going to try and lose a little more weight before then, but I love it! I'm just so at ease for the first time in almost a month. I'm so thankful for such an amazing support system that I have, with the friends we have here at Tinker, from my hometown, and our amazing families.
I keep forgetting to, but I'm going to try and post up before pictures when I go to the gym Monday. I'm going to try and do pictures an dmeasurments weekly and what I'm doing. I tarted the thirty day shred with a friend last week, along with the blogilates workouts I'm already doing for the 90 day challenge, so we'll see if I get the results I want. I'm pretty excited to get this dress to fit perfectly, so I can't wait to share the journey with you guys!

-KJ