Our trip to Fort Bragg!

I couldn't sleep last night (more on that later) and in all my thinking, I thought it would be fun to blog about each day of our trip to the east coast!

Day 1:
Our final day in our house.  I was actually really happy to be leaving 1837 Cassell.  The house wasn't at all what I had expected it to be and our landlords were horrible....our nice big backyard with a huge sandbox and neat swingset was always fun to play on, until we came inside and were covered in bug bites.  It didn't matter if we used a whole can of off....they still bit through.  They particularly liked Mason!  He must be sweet...ok, he IS sweet!!

On our way from our hotel room, Mason's headrest DVD player stopped working.  Very frustrating meaning we bought it just a few months ago.  I went to the store and since I didn't have a box and a receipt (they were packed) I couldn't do anything...AND since they were discontinued (didn't make me happy to hear this!) they would have only been able to give me my money back.  Exceptional.  Onto Radio shack where they fixed my problem for 9.99.

Onto my big news:  Both my cameras and 5 SD cards plus my camera bag were stolen/"lost" from my hotel room in Manhattan.  I have never been so sick about something before!  THANKFULLY, we have great insurance and USAA replaced everything for me.  I had to wait all evening and the next morning for a answer. It was a nightmare!

I'm breathing a sigh of relief right now!

Injury report:  Mason was hit on the head with a small paint can (thank you Maddy) no stitches, but I was wondering for a minute!

Funny report:  Maddy has started yelling for "chris....(K-riiisssssssss)"  Chris does not find it funny AT ALL, but I find it very humorous.  She apparently hears me say it all the time.  Chris always says "My name is daddy"  so now she says, "Daddy Chris"  seriously, it's hilarious.  She always picks the perfect time to yell it.



Day 2
We stayed in Kansas City for this first leg of the trip.  I had no idea that hotels charged so much for dogs.  This will be fun!  We always stay in Marriott hotels-but not this trip.  They wanted $100  non refundable pet deposit per stay.  Uh, NO WAY!  and they say they are "pet friendly"

Injury report:  Maddy stuck her hand in the door hinges and Mason shut it....once again, I thought we were headed to the hospital for lost fingers....she is good, though-just has little tiny marks on her fingers.

Funny report:  Maddy was helping Sasha eat her dog food (i give up!) asked for a drink.  I told her that daddy was out getting us one so she got up, headed to the bathroom and stuck her head down in the toilet and drank the water.  Seriously, I about threw up......


Day 3
We made it to springfield....Nothing really exciting happened.  We went to bass pro and the kids loved all of the fish!

Injury report:  Maddy was messing around during supper at T.G.I Fridays and smacked her forehead on the table.  She screamed for the whole street to hear.  After a kiss from mommy and daddy...she was much better.
Funny report:  Mason is into kissing me a million times a day.  (that's hardly an exaggeration) He grabs my face, stares into my eyes and smooches away. It's really funny. The best part?  He says "I love you" unprompted.  Man I love that sweet little boy!

Day 4
We found out today that our household goods will be there Monday!  Our date was set for August 5th (friday) so I was pleasantly surprised.  Bad news is that our house isn't ready because they had to lay all new carpet.  (I am NOT complaining..it actually makes me REALLY happy!!!)  But, that means that our goods will have to go into storage for hopefully just a day.  Crossing our fingers!!!  I'm so ready to have a house and be able to cook again!  This means that we need to start booking it to North Carolina, we left later and were taking our own sweet time....not tomorrow!  Wish us luck!  ;)

Injury report:  Nadda......yet!
Funny report:  Not funny, but today we were just getting into Memphis, and Maddy was done being "stuck" in her carseat....she was screaming and honestly driving me completely crazy.  I was getting after her, and being very frustrated and thinking that we were never going to make it to our hotel when I looked up and staring right back at me was St. Jude's hospital.  After seeing that National hospital right in front of me, I was no longer frustrated and I could handle her screaming for the rest of the way.  Then my mind wandered to how many dying children there were in that hospital who's momma's would give anything for their precious baby girls to be screaming in the backseat.  Hopefully that feeling that washed over me will remain for the rest of the 12 hours.  ;)

We ate supper at Beale street and it was really cool except for the fact that I thought everyone was out to mug me.  Good thing there were 20 cops around...it must get wild on Friday night!  ;)  and yes, I AM the one who had the 2 small kids with us and was trying to get down the street in a stroller.  That had to have been all the crazy looks I was getting!  I also had ulterior motives for stopping in Memphis...Pottery Barn outlet!!  It was awesome and cheap.  Oh how I really wanted to redo Madelines room AGAIN!  I contained myself and instead bought both kids little sling chairs which are A-DORABLE!

Last day!
We made it!  Tomorrow our household good come and we decided that we would just wait with our stuff on our driveway until we could get into our house (they were finishing laying the carpet) Our stuff was going to have to go into storage if we didn't wait with it and they told us that it would take 7-10 days to get out of storage because we hit the month where everyone in the military pcs's!  Heck no!  I would rather be miserable for a whole afternoon than wait that long.  Should be an interesting update tomorrow!  ;)

Monday!
I'm not sure how this all happened so perfectly, but our house was ready and the truck was on time!  We had a nice little (hott!) picnic at the park with McDonalds waiting for the truck/keys.  Chris left to get the keys and the truck showed up.  This timing could not have been more perfect!  So far, I'm HIGHLY impressed with on-post housing, and the neighborhood center is completely awesome.  Not to mention that the PX (walmart like store) and the commissary (grocery store) are just down the street.  There is a big jungle gym 2 houses down and a bigger one down the street.  I couldn't be happier with the location!  Mason's school is also right around the corner.  I can't wait to be settled!

Funny story:  I take Maddy into the shoppette (gas station) to go potty, and on our way out she spots the candy aisle, she starts throwing a fit, so I pick her up and I'm walking out with her and she starts screaming "Help me!, Help me!, She akin (taking) me!"   I'm not sure which is worse, all the stares I got or the fact that no one stopped me to see if I was really her mother!"

Also big news!  August 11.
Chris was assigned to 5-63 CAV (82nd airborne)
It was between 5-63 and another unit.  The other unit was deployed to Afghanistan, so Chris would have been packing his bags to leave.  BIG relief!  I actually didn't know all of this until he was already assigned and its a good thing, because I would have been going CRAZY...as you can imagine!  As of this moment 5-63 isn't supposed to deploy for at least another year.   Also, Chris is really excited because in the CAV unit, you get to wear Stetson cowboy hats for dress uniform.  Men.......

I hope you enjoyed "our trip" and I know some of you wanted to see our house,  so I'll blog about that next!!