Can I get a drum roll please..........

Well the day that we have all been waiting for has finally arrived. Not as soon as we had hoped, but that is the Air Force for you! In the next 8 weeks we will be taking this family of five.....oops six (forgot the dog) and flying across the Atlantic ocean to settle at our new location the military has chosen for us......McGuire AFB, New Jersey. If you look at this map you will find Burlington County. That is the area we will be calling home. We will be roughly 15 miles from Trenton, the state capital, 90 minutes from New York City, 45 min from Philadelphia and 3 hours from Washington DC. Oh and the coast of course is just a short drive away. So if anyting there will be plenty to keep us busy!

Now we are trying to focus on the good since this is as far from what we were hoping or as possible, but just one major drawback.....the cost of living. It's not good when one key point is that car insurance is very expensive and the cost of living is about 8.95% higher than the national average. So that is a bit worrisome. Did I spell that right?

Anyway now everyone knows and now when people ask "Where are you moving?" I have an answer. Finally! On to the fun of moving...for real this time!

Sorry Lucy!

Lucy is 7 months old now and that means old enough to be "fixed". She is pretty miserable and I feel bad. The boys were mad becuase they wanted Lucy to eventually have a puppy for each of them. One dog has been enough of an adjustment! For the next two weeks she is supposed to take it easy and wear the plastic cone. Unfortunately she has already got it off twice since we have been home. She places each paw by her ears and slides it off! So we will see if it lasts two weeks.

Moving Update

So where are the Havels moving? Well your guess is as good as mine! We have waited patiently....well not always, but none the less waited for a VERY long time now just to know exactly what we knew about 2 months or so ago. Our orders to Minot, ND still show up in the computer, we even recieved our sponsorship package. Little do they know they will not be gaining the best engine mechanic the Air Force has! It does make me feel a little better knowing that not only do we not have a clue what is going on, neither does the gaining base (Minot). Zach did email them and let them know what was going on so they would not think we were extremely rude when we didn't request help from them.

Cody had an anual review today with the developmental pediatrician and as much as I would like to say it went great I can't. I left with less information than I had going in. She did however discover that Cody's medication dose is messed up. The bottle says one thing, the computer says two different doses. The peds neurologists will be back from his deployment next month sometime so we will need to get into him for sure now to figure out what the pediatrician at Ramstein did and what the correct dose is. And she would like a new EEG to see if he is having other siezures, the kind that we don't see. So I guess not a total disappointment, but was hoping for more clarification on his MRI and such.

So hope that brings everyone up to date. I will blog as soon as I know where we are going. Hopefully sooner than later.

Soccer Camp

Last minute I decided to put the older boys in soccer camp. Cody isn't quite old enough so he had to endure the week that consisted mostly of rain and cold. Well I take that back we had to warm days. Ryan didn't want to do it at first, but after the first day was fine with it. There was quite a range in sizes of kids, but being the youngest, he was not the smallest. At the end of the week everyone was tired, cranky and glad it was over. Now I am trying to decide to sign them up for fall soccer or not. It is looking more and more like we will be here past September now. I'll update about our latest moving dilemma's another time.

Hanging Out

This last week was crazy with soccer camp, rain and cranky tired kids! In the midst of it all I managed to get a few cute shots of Cody with Maddy and Valery in their happier moments. For those that don't know these girls are "my" girls! I am trying to steal them along with the older two siblings while mom and dad getaway for a bit. I can't promise cute hair, but I can promise they will be very well fed and taken care of!

I'll be home in a few hours, get on it!

Zach tends to email a lot from work especially since he has access to a computer all day which is not usually the case. Lately it's just whining about no assignment yet or that people he works with. He has some real winners! Anyway the other day I got an email that said "I'll be home in a few hours, get on it!" He thinks he soooo funny!

(Click on the image to see it larger and you should be able to read it!)

Happy 4th of July!

Happy 4th of July! This year we decided to go out in search of three more American Cemeteries in Belgium and The Netherlands. They are just a few hours away so Zach had the day planned out wtih a timeline to ensure we were able to see all three before they closed at 5pm. Unfortunately we got a late start and had to come back after getting gas to get passports. In all the traveling we have done we have never needed our passports, but you know if we didn't take them for some off the wall reason we would need them! So we stopped back and home and picked them up.


This is at The Ardennes Military Cemetery. The Superintendent there gave us a tour, then asked if we would like to stay for the playing of the National Anthem and Taps. It was very moving and something I will never forget. To hear Taps while looking at 5000 crosses of those who gave their lives for liberty was incredible! There was a family from Belgium with us in this cemetery. Their daughter was born in Boston while they lived there a short time and she had friends that had come to visit so they wanted to show them the cemeteries.

Of course at each cemetery we find the medal of honor recipients. We also found several sets of brothers. One of these cemeteries, I can't remember which, has 33 instances where brothers lay side by side. As a mother of three boys I can't believe losing two of the three to war, but it would bring me peace to know they were burried next to each other.

Slightly Obssesed!

While working at the school it became apparent to me how much OCD I have! Wednesdays when we didn't have kids we had our "To Do" list and if I completed something that needed done that was not on the list.......well I had to add it then cross it off! I know, I know it's silly, but it gives me such a boost in confidence seeing how much I can accomplish! Last fall I started running and trying to get in better shape. I really missed being able to do it while I was working. It is such a good stress relief and some quality "me" time. The boys are not to disturb me unless there is some serious blood or the house is burning down when I am on the treadmill. When I first started I just used the random clothes I had at home. Then one day I went to the BX and they had some nice shoes on clearance great matching outfits! And in blue, my favorite color, it was so meant to be! I thought well one day I will run in public so I need at least one nice thing to wear! (and just a disclaimer...I am not a girly, girl at all, but am trying to bring out more of the feminine side now that I am seriously outnumbered by males in this house!)


Last night we went to the BX and what do you know I found some more shoes on clearance and Brooks running shoes to top it off! I have always been partial to Nike becuase I like how they fit, but these oh these were a match made in heaven! And who can pass up a killer clearance deal! So Zach twisted my arm and I bought them. Not to be outdone he also found a nice pair of shoes that he has had his eye on for some time and what do you know they were on clearance! We get home and he discovers they are iPod shoes whatever that means. I guess if he buys some little iPod gadget it will track his distance and such in the shoe? Really I have no clue, but he was like a kid on Christmas when he found out!



So these are my latest purchase, but one little flaw, they aren't blue which is what I have for running clothes because they matched the first pair of shoes! So now I am debating, do I go get pink (which is really not my favorite color and I only wear because too many have made comments that I should really move on from blue)? I know just slightly OCD and yes I am slightly obssesed with running shoes now (I have 3 pairs now...ssshhhh).

St. Mihiel American Cemetery

This was actually on the way home from our trip (I am really out of order now!), but it was well worth the detour! The superintendent gave us some very good information and even emailed pictures of the Ramstein C-130's doing a flyover Memorial Weekend. We actually tried to find this cemetery, but didn't have the GPS info so ended up just driving around. Now we know we were fairly close afterall! This is a WWI cemetery and was built at almost the exact center of the battle that many lost their lives in. One mother that was notified her son had been killed was so emotionally distraught that she moved to the small town or Thaicourt so she could be near him. When she died they burried her in their town cemetery with a white cross similar to her son's. We also found out that the family members actually get to decide if their loved ones were burried overseas or sent home to the states. For two medal of honor recipients 60% of the family wanted them in the states and this happened for a good number of those killed during WWI.

Utah Beach

 

Utah Beach was interesting because we got there during low tide and discovered a company collecting clams or something. There were also tons of people digging for clams as well as some sail boat cars racing and a few horse and carriages. Lucy liked this beach since there wasn't water constantly coming after her! I thought all dogs liked water, but she just ran everytime the littlest bit would flow her way! Ryan found some clams in their shells and pried them open because he just had to see what they looked like! He aslo found a crab and really wanted to bring it home, but I convinced him it would die.

Airborne Museum St Mere Eglise France

If anyone has seen the movie The Longest Day then you will know what I am talking about. This is the town where paratroopers landed and one got stuck on the top of the church steeple. He survived and has come back for visits since then. He was stuck up there for hours watching all of his buddies get killed or injured and there was nothing he could do about it. This museum pays tribute to those that landed here and eventually freed the town from the Germans. As I looked at the cases full of things from the food rations to weapons they had at this time I was amazed! One part struck me the most and it was a glass case with a dollar bill. Three platoons leaders split this dollar bill into thirds and each took a piece promising to reunite when the war was over. Years later two of the three reunited, but the third was killed during the invasion. He had the middle piece. In place of his part of the dollar bill is his picture instead. Ryan and Tyler got a kick out of the box of Rice Crispies and of course all the guns! Tyler can name many of them, not sure if that is a good thing or not! This was the only thing we had to pay money to see during our whole trip and to me it was definately worth it!

Bayeux British Cemetery

 

the British and Canadian cemeteries were very similar, but what was really interesting was we found more than just British burried in this one. There were two areas for German soldiers and intermixed with British we found Polish forces as well as Australian. Many of the headstones have a scripture or engraving that was chosen by the family. Many had pictures so you know there must have been a recent visitor which was not as common in the other cemeteries. With the anniversary of D-Day I am sure many came over to pay respects to relatives that gave their life and it makes me wish I knew what relatives I have that might be there that I could do the same. We have this DVD called Hallowed Grounds. I really reccomend watching it! It is all about American Military Cemeteries and it is very moving. One person they talked to said they came to put flowers on the grave of a distant relative and wondered if that was the only time it had been done or if anyone else had ever visited that grave. We do know of two relatives burried in Italy and I really hope we find a way to go see it before we leave. Just to lay flowers and specifically visit that person would mean a lot to me and maybe even to them too.