I am so ready to be out of this hotel :0) It's pretty sad when the only faces you recognize are your neighbors (who have been here a few days longer than you) and the cleaning ladies! Connor now struggles to fall asleep with his eyes open, watching TV...I just can't figure out why he can't fall asleep (end sarcastic font ;0) Gwynn has decided that I have too much privacy, and now joins me for every shower I take. This only days after she told me that she wished she didn't have a mother and she could be on her own and do whatever she wanted. Someone in the building is getting lazy and smoking into their bathroom vent, which blows the smoke right into ours. I've always gotten a headache from that nasty stuff! So Aleve has been my best friend between smokie headaches and an achy arthritic body! The good...no the GREAT news is that our house is vacant now and we're supposed to get a call on Monday to let us know when exactly we can move in :0) I spent a good portion of yesterday morning driving around my new neighborhood figuring out all the roads and best ways to get from here to there. I'm starting to get excited!!
The real fun has happened the last few days. My car, (we call her Rosie) has decided she is going on strike. She is old and just doesn't want to go any more...so she put herself in park and refuses to get out of it. However, I have figured out just where to touch her to get what I want. So, every time I want to go somewhere, I shove a pencil in this little hole, push down a tiny lever while using my other hand to shift...yes, then she reluctantly shifts! I think she is sick of my poking her because she got back at me yesterday. She was running low on gas so I went to fill her up. Every time I squeezed the pump she clicked it off. I took the nozzle out and tried again and she spit the gas out all over me! She is stubborn, but so am I!! I managed to get enough gas in her that I could drive around :0)
So today, I am doing laundry and Gwynn begged me to stay in the room. The laundry room is 5 doors away so I didn't really care. I was putting our soaking wet clothes into the dryer when I see a little blondie come running to me, "I was scared!" Well normally I wouldn't care, but I didn't bring the room key with me because she was in the room. Mistake one. Mistake two...I was barefoot. Here, you have to go all the way to the office, which is across 2 parking lots from my room, have them call housekeeping to let me in...never mind the fact that the maid is right here, but I digress. So, I drop off the laundry basket of clean clothes at our door, pick up Gwynn (because she is of course barefooted too) and carry her to the office. Then I lost my debit card, which was found after asking the grocery store if they had it, behind another card. So, I went to two of my best friends (Ben and Jerry's) to let it all out :0)
It's hard when your life seems so chaotic to find peace and love. This year it has been really hard for me to find things to be Thankful for. Part of that, I think, is that God is working on me. Being in this hotel has really opened my eyes. When I start to think of the things I miss and what I am thankful for, I realize that they are all so materialistic and I feel so selfish. I think of the people living in tents here and have to be thankful for the hotel room because at least it's a roof. I think of missing my stuff and wish my kids had their stuff to keep them busy and think of the children in our country and most other countries that have a sliver of what mine have here right now. Then just as I am getting close to a house after 43 days in a hotel (but who is counting) Dustin comes home and tells me the Warrant Officers are recruiting him! Chaos.
However, the message of love has been surrounding me everywhere I go. "We are ALL one of God's favorite people." "But I love her." "Living at peace with everyone." "How to love the unlovable." From church, to Bible study, to random blogs and overhearing other people's conversations...that message has been everywhere. So I have really been trying to focus on that. Remembering that no matter how frustrated I am every time I see someone else move out of here, they are just as entitled to a house as I am...because they are loved by God too. Remembering every time I get annoyed with someone, that I need to be nice because they are loved by God too. Remembering that everyone, no matter where they live, who they are, or how they act, they are loved by God, and they should be loved by me too. Challenging...especially when I feel so unsettled and chaotic and all I want to do is scream...but a challenge worth accepting!
Friday, November 18, 2011
Friday, November 11, 2011
Weeks 3, 4, 5: We’re all still alive!
We’ve gotten into a pretty good routine the past few weeks. This hotel is starting to feel like “home.” What has been amazing to me is that after adjusting to it, I realized how little we can actually live with. Would it be nice if we had a bigger fridge and a freezer so we didn’t have to go to the store every day and eat everything we make or throw it away? Yes, but it’s not necessary. Would it be nice to have more space so that we’re not constantly on top of each other? Yes, but we’re learning to live with it. Would it be nice to not have someone knock on my door every day to clean my room? Yes, but at least I am not spending more money on washing towels! So yes, it is still challenging, but doable! It didn’t come without a breaking point though.
All of our stuff has arrived! It feels so great to know that all of our stuff is here, but it’s so frustrating that it’s sitting in storage until our house opens up. It’s frustrating that we have a house in CO that hasn’t sold and we’re about to start paying rent and mortgage. It’s frustrating to watch people move out of the hotel that we KNOW moved in after us. I did have the chance to go to my friend’s house and see what ours will look like…and I got excited. I started planning where to put everything and the things I want to get so we have a “grown up” house now. The one thing that I really want is a rug. All the floors downstairs are hard wood. I have never been able to find a rug that I really liked and that Dustin liked as well. Well, after hours of searching on painfully slow internet (thankfully free though), I finally found one we both agreed on…only to find out they won’t ship to me!! Grrr. The internet is another huge challenge. Connor has a lot of homework he actually has to do online, and the pages won’t load here…unless we get on at 6 in the morning! I am not exaggerating either…but we’re up that early anyway, so we might as well be productive!
One thing that a parent doesn’t want to admit, because of pride, is that her child still wets the bed. Well, mine does, and it’s hard. It’s hard to have both of your children in one bed not knowing if it’s going to happen tonight or not. It’s expensive washing bedding every time it happens. It’s heart wrenching to watch your child cry because they feel so bad and helpless every time it happens. Well it’s really picked up since we moved here, so we decided to see a doctor. I have to say I was AMAZED at the service here. Our appointment was at 11:40, we were seen at 11:20 and by 1:20 we had blood work, urine test, xray and results back to us!!! What we found out is that we have a very healthy 7 year old boy, except for the fact that he was a little constipated…which could cause the increase because of pressing on the bladder in his sleep. So, he was put on a laxative. Boy is he a pooping machine! When I talked to him about the medicine, he complained saying, “But mom, I don’t like to poop!!” So I told him it was healthy and necessary to go every day. Then he admitted that he holds it in because it takes too long and it stinks! Oh my, did we have a good laugh about that. So, anyway, the doc told us there is nothing wrong with him (thank goodness because he was looking at diabetes and kidney failure!) we just need to wait it out until his body is ready.
I’ll tell you another thing that is out of this world challenging in a hotel room…PMS! Oh my!!! There is NO WHERE to go to let off steam! Man, those were a rough few days!
It’s winter here too, so instead of cold and snow, it rains a lot…so much for the park outings or walks…but we’ve discovered the Library for new books, movies and even Wii games! We finally set it up today. We survived the hotel for 5 weeks without setting it up, but on this long rainy weekend, we decided to bust it out :0)
One day, I did yoga in the morning and then unexpectedly had to walk to get Connor from school. I couldn’t find my knee brace but had to go. We had to stop at the Commissary to get dinner on the way home. The kiddos were in no mood to be there and were insanely wild. We walked back, got all the way up to our room only for me to realize I had locked myself out of our room. Our maid was right outside our room but because of policy, couldn’t let me in. So, I had to walk back down the stairs (which are really hard on a bad knee!) to the office, stand in line for about 10 minutes, again with crazy kids, only to be told to go back to our room and someone would meet us there to let us in. So we walked back, up the stairs and waited by the door. Tired, sore, and frustrated, I barely made it in the room and to the bathroom before I lost it. This was my breaking point. I cried like a baby, told God how hard this was and then gathered myself back together. Ever since, I’ve been good to go. I think sometimes we as women feel that we have to be strong and do it all to hold everyone else together. Sometimes, we have to allow ourselves to fall apart and cry so that we can pull ourselves together again…and that’s just what I did.
Since then, Dustin got me a car :0) With my knee, Dustin having to go to random places on post that are too far for him to walk, and getting wet suits, sand, and red mud all over our brand new car…it was evident that a second car was on the horizon. We had been looking but hadn’t found anything we were too excited about. On the way home from the beach, we stopped at the “lemon lot” and found a 2002 Accent with 130K miles on it, but in great condition! Perfect!! All we wanted was something to take us from home to school and back and to the beach! So, now we have that car! It’s been nice to have that freedom and to know that when my knees are sucking, I don’t have to walk! It’s been really humid and my arthritis has really flared up, adding yet another challenge to getting around on my feet. So, I am very grateful for this car.
When we got the orders to come here, I was pretty upset. I wasn’t ready to go yet. However, I knew that it was God’s plan for us. I knew he had to have something in the works for us. In the short 5 weeks we’ve been here, I can already feel the blessings that we are going to have here. I am so excited for the next 3 years!
All of our stuff has arrived! It feels so great to know that all of our stuff is here, but it’s so frustrating that it’s sitting in storage until our house opens up. It’s frustrating that we have a house in CO that hasn’t sold and we’re about to start paying rent and mortgage. It’s frustrating to watch people move out of the hotel that we KNOW moved in after us. I did have the chance to go to my friend’s house and see what ours will look like…and I got excited. I started planning where to put everything and the things I want to get so we have a “grown up” house now. The one thing that I really want is a rug. All the floors downstairs are hard wood. I have never been able to find a rug that I really liked and that Dustin liked as well. Well, after hours of searching on painfully slow internet (thankfully free though), I finally found one we both agreed on…only to find out they won’t ship to me!! Grrr. The internet is another huge challenge. Connor has a lot of homework he actually has to do online, and the pages won’t load here…unless we get on at 6 in the morning! I am not exaggerating either…but we’re up that early anyway, so we might as well be productive!
One thing that a parent doesn’t want to admit, because of pride, is that her child still wets the bed. Well, mine does, and it’s hard. It’s hard to have both of your children in one bed not knowing if it’s going to happen tonight or not. It’s expensive washing bedding every time it happens. It’s heart wrenching to watch your child cry because they feel so bad and helpless every time it happens. Well it’s really picked up since we moved here, so we decided to see a doctor. I have to say I was AMAZED at the service here. Our appointment was at 11:40, we were seen at 11:20 and by 1:20 we had blood work, urine test, xray and results back to us!!! What we found out is that we have a very healthy 7 year old boy, except for the fact that he was a little constipated…which could cause the increase because of pressing on the bladder in his sleep. So, he was put on a laxative. Boy is he a pooping machine! When I talked to him about the medicine, he complained saying, “But mom, I don’t like to poop!!” So I told him it was healthy and necessary to go every day. Then he admitted that he holds it in because it takes too long and it stinks! Oh my, did we have a good laugh about that. So, anyway, the doc told us there is nothing wrong with him (thank goodness because he was looking at diabetes and kidney failure!) we just need to wait it out until his body is ready.
I’ll tell you another thing that is out of this world challenging in a hotel room…PMS! Oh my!!! There is NO WHERE to go to let off steam! Man, those were a rough few days!
It’s winter here too, so instead of cold and snow, it rains a lot…so much for the park outings or walks…but we’ve discovered the Library for new books, movies and even Wii games! We finally set it up today. We survived the hotel for 5 weeks without setting it up, but on this long rainy weekend, we decided to bust it out :0)
One day, I did yoga in the morning and then unexpectedly had to walk to get Connor from school. I couldn’t find my knee brace but had to go. We had to stop at the Commissary to get dinner on the way home. The kiddos were in no mood to be there and were insanely wild. We walked back, got all the way up to our room only for me to realize I had locked myself out of our room. Our maid was right outside our room but because of policy, couldn’t let me in. So, I had to walk back down the stairs (which are really hard on a bad knee!) to the office, stand in line for about 10 minutes, again with crazy kids, only to be told to go back to our room and someone would meet us there to let us in. So we walked back, up the stairs and waited by the door. Tired, sore, and frustrated, I barely made it in the room and to the bathroom before I lost it. This was my breaking point. I cried like a baby, told God how hard this was and then gathered myself back together. Ever since, I’ve been good to go. I think sometimes we as women feel that we have to be strong and do it all to hold everyone else together. Sometimes, we have to allow ourselves to fall apart and cry so that we can pull ourselves together again…and that’s just what I did.
Since then, Dustin got me a car :0) With my knee, Dustin having to go to random places on post that are too far for him to walk, and getting wet suits, sand, and red mud all over our brand new car…it was evident that a second car was on the horizon. We had been looking but hadn’t found anything we were too excited about. On the way home from the beach, we stopped at the “lemon lot” and found a 2002 Accent with 130K miles on it, but in great condition! Perfect!! All we wanted was something to take us from home to school and back and to the beach! So, now we have that car! It’s been nice to have that freedom and to know that when my knees are sucking, I don’t have to walk! It’s been really humid and my arthritis has really flared up, adding yet another challenge to getting around on my feet. So, I am very grateful for this car.
When we got the orders to come here, I was pretty upset. I wasn’t ready to go yet. However, I knew that it was God’s plan for us. I knew he had to have something in the works for us. In the short 5 weeks we’ve been here, I can already feel the blessings that we are going to have here. I am so excited for the next 3 years!
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