Homeless

Well, we are still homeless. We moved in with Kay (my Mother In Law) on the 20th of November. The movers took our stuff at that point and headed to Texas with it. You see, the plan was that our belongings would arrive in Texas a day or so before us, we would sign for our house and move in immediately. That WAS the plan...

This is what really happened...

The 3 children, 3 cats, 2 adults, and all of our luggage got to the Tucson airport to find out our flight was delayed an hour. Our layover in Dallas (the mecca of airports) was only an hour and 5 minutes to begin with. After the craziness of checking the cats and the package with dry ice (don't ask) we ate in the airport while we waited even longer than expected to board.

We arrived in Dallas and decided to temp our luck and sprint across the airport (with the help of the monorail). We MADE IT just it time!! We walked out onto the runway (yes OUTside) to our puddle jumper of a plane. We sat in the tiny stuffy plane for over 30 minutes with no air before it finally started to move.

Both flights were uneventful and the children were angels! Logan and Abby slept during most of the first flight. The second flight was very short and they fussed a little but nothing to get cranky about.

We arrived at good ol' Killeen airport. I couldn't remember who our rental car reservations were with and we figured out that the paper work was in Kay's suitcase. I went from counter to counter and asked if they had a reservation for Hanna. Finally the LAST one I checked said "yes". They had to get us a suburban because of there being 5 of us, 3 cats and luggage.

With the help of my good friend Lisa we found a kennel that excepted animals after hours (thanks doll!!) and we dropped the kitties off to spend the next 3 nights in a kennel that also housed a whole mess of English bull dogs. I felt bad for them.

The next morning I woke up very excited to go and sign for my 2133 sq ft./4 bed/3 bath home!!! That excitement crashed and burned when I walked into the most rundown, crappy sexplex (is that what you call them when there are 6 homes attached?) that was 1200 sq ft/4 tiny bedrooms and 2 1/2 baths!!! Yeah, NOOOO!!!!

I just about broke into tears. The lady showing me the place saw my face and said "this isn't going to work for you is it?". I asked her "are they all this bad?" and she told me "No, I'm not going to lie, this is as bad as it gets.". I was mortified! The stairs in this place were about as steep as a ladder, wooden, and let straight down to a hard linoleum floor!!! Can anyone say children and broken bones?!

The lady said "let's go back and talk to my manager about this and see if there are any other houses available." I showed her what I saw online; the nice pictures of a clean home with carpet and 3 bathroom and the clear as day spot that said "2133 square feet"!! She printed it out to take it to a higher up person to show them why I was so upset.

To make a long story short, a couple of days later I was told that there are 3 newer homes that are a different (better and updated) model coming available. I am getting the first one that comes back. She said it should be about a week. It will not be as big as I had thought when I came out here, but at least it will be much nicer and the stairs are split level and carpeted (hopefully no ER visits due to stair accidents now).

To say the least, it's been a long, exhausting and disappointing journey so far.

To add to all the housing drama, we had a few other little exciting moments along the way.

The other night we were to exhausted to cook or go out to dinner so we decided to eat at the hotel restaurant. It had been very cold and rainy all day long. We walked back into our room and a big chunk of our ceiling was on the floor!! We were on the 4th floor and apparently the roof has a leak. We got the pleasure of moving all of our things things down the hall to a new room late in the evening.

Shortly after getting into the new room we had a minor emergency. The boys had been told at least a million and ten times to not run in the room. Well, like everything I say, I might as well have been talking to a brick wall. Zack was running and tripped over a pile of clothes. He fell and smacked his head on a wooden bar stool. Down poured the blood and out came the screams and panic!! We got the bleeding to stop and averted the ER visit. He opened it back up a little in his sleep and got blood all over his pillow. Whoops, sorry Shilo Inn...that's what you get for springing a leak and only giving us 15% off a single night stay!!

We have since been kicked out of that hotel. Well, actually since we had only reserved the room for 3 nights we had to leave. They were booked solid starting today so we had to find a new hotel. We moved from the Shilo to Towneplace Inn and Suites today. That was fun! An entire back of a suburban packed full! Actually, it works out well though. We really liked the Shilo, but this place is even better. We are allowed to have the cats here with us now. We picked them up today. We are all unpacked (again) and settled in, cats and all.

We went to enroll Zack in school today on the opposite side of the post from where our house will be. Apparently the school near us is too full so they moved the 4th and 5th graders to a school on the other end. I guess it's almost an hour bus ride for Zack both ways every day. Poor guy. He didn't get to start today because we aren't living "on post" yet. They need corporate approval to enroll him. Silliness!! I will say that I love the school and the staff so far though. It reminds me of a mid west grade school. It was a two story brick school with no trailers for additional classrooms!! I was so happy!

As of right now everything with Stephen's coming home is the same. He is due to arrive on December 9th or 10th. He hasn't heard anything new and neither have I. I will keep you all updated on that. I sent an email out with the web address to the live webcast of his homecoming ceremony, except I guess I didn't actually give you the address. I will resend it when I send the exact day and time. Sorry about that.