Same Page

We are still very new and getting to know people. So far we really like our ward here. It seems to be mostly military, but there are a lot of families with the Border Patrol and the Forestry Service too. There are certainly many young families, but there is also a nice variety of families in other stages too, particularly retired military families. There is a high turn-over rate with people moving in and out all the time. But everyone seems friendly and easy to get to know.

One of the things that has struck me the most among the members of our ward (and here you'll probably say 'DUH!') is how well traveled so many of them are. I know the Army moves you once every three years, but you should hear the countries these people are naming off. A few weeks back, our teacher asked what sort of interesting places people had been . I wasn't really surprised at the number of hands that went up until they started giving their answers with all sorts places in countries all over the world.

In Sacrament meeting yesterday, the speakers started off by telling a little about themselves and their history. As a family they had lived in Norway, Germany, Italy, England, South Korea and six different states. (and I think I even missed a country) Brent and I were stunned and simultaneously whispered "Wow" to each other. Then Brent added "I am so jealous". I nodded with a smile and whispered "And I so married the right man."

Later that night, the speakers of the day came up again and Brent said "I want to live out of the country again so badly I can hardly stand it." Hearing him say that was like music to my ears. I think somehow it makes me feel better knowing that he shares the exact same sentiment on the subject that I do and that it is not just me somehow dragging him along. Not that I ever thought it was, but it's just good to know that we are on the same page. Exactly the same page.

My family moved a great deal when I was younger and I remember being envious of people who had lived in the same house their whole life, grown-up with the same people. They never had to worry about saying goodbye and leaving people behind. They never had to worry about being the new kid and making new friends. They could walk around their home and be in the same place where so many, many memories were made. What a wonderful thing that would be. I think about my life and in some ways I envy those who have now what I envied then. It would be nice to be settled. To not have to worry about what's happening next. To have a yard! There are many reasons why that would be so nice. And I am certain that if that was the path our lives had taken I would be happy about all of those things and we would be content as a family because we were together.

At the same time however, when I really think about it, I can also see living life on that road as extremely challenging for me. I think at times I would be downright miserable because of it. At this point in my life I find that I thrive on adventure and change. Three years sounds like the perfect amount of time to live in one place. I love meeting new people and I think exploring a place I've never been might just be my favorite thing in the whole wide world. I too want to live outside the country again so badly I can hardly stand it. I'm sure a time will come when I am fed up and just want to settle down, but I hope that until that time comes we can stay on a path in life that leads us to many different places and many different people.

Camera Magically Working Again

We got our camera working. I got some pictures of the blossoms before they all fell off.

This is our new truck.
This is our amazingly adorable, extremely enthusiastic little trick-or-treater.
This is the first time I have ever gotten Brent to "Dress Up". He was E-Male and I was his Attachment.
I know the shadows are bad, but this is our apartment.
Our Balcony.
Coming in the front door.
Looking back on the living room.
The Kitchen.
Bathroom.
Other side of the bathroom and laundry closet.
Z's room.

That's all I've got for now. The only room that isn't really in there is our room because it is still not entirely unpacked and not much to see anyway. I've had a lot of requests for pictures, so I hope you've enjoyed them.

Blossoms in October?

I am so bummed that we don't have a camera right now. When we arrived at the beginning of the month, the bushes that line our apartments were green. In the past week or so they have transformed. Not in the typical autumn way; losing their leaves or changing colors, but they are now covered in lovely purple blossoms! Don't things normally bloom in spring? Maybe this particular bush blossoms multiple times throughout the year. I'm not sure, and I don't care, I LOVE seeing blossoms in October!

There are so many things I would take pictures of if I had a camera, but I don't so here are some pictures of what we've been up to over the last while.

These two were taken on Z's special day/swim day at her pre-school.

Brenda came to town just a few days before Brent left. We hung out a lot, it took the edge off of the initial sting of having Brent gone.Allie came down to visit and Mish came out too.

Z and I got to meet Milo for the first time. If you can't tell, Z loved him.
Seriously? You did this with a tootsie roll?I used to go camping and backpacking all the time, but Z put a little kink in the works when she constantly tried to drown herself in lakes and rivers or give me regular heart attacks by getting lost in the slightest mili-second. She was finally old enough to take camping, so we had fun with that this summer.

We drove out to Georgia for a month to see Brent, spend time with family out there, and be there for Brent's graduation. We stayed with my Aunt Cynthia. She pulled out some old Playmobil's and completely sold me on them. Playmobil's are so awesome, even I had fun playing with them and Z loved them too of course.
Cynthia has one dog, two cats and was babysitting her son's kitten. Z fell in love with all the animals. I think the best part for her was no longer being at the bottom of the totem pole. She had so much fun taking responsibility for feeding, walking, or letting them outside to go to the bathroom. It really made me want to get some sort of a pet for her, but not enough to actually do it...yet.

She wanted to go to sleep in her make-shift "Cat house".

Playing "Bears" with Aunt Cynthia in their cave.

Brent in his ACU's (Army Combat Uniform).
We had just pinned Brent's officer bars on his uniform following his graduation.

Aunt Cynthia is on the left, I don't know what I would have done without her. I couldn't even begin to name the things she has done for me, and how much I love and appreciate her for it.

Arizona

Have you ever had a song that you just LOVED? You loved it so much that you could just not stop listening to it. Sometimes 3, 4, 5 times in a row. You listen to it often, in fact, so often that suddenly you find yourself sick of it and you don't want to listen to it anymore.

I think that is what happened to me and blogging. I think. I don't know, I just suddenly didn't want to write anymore. Maybe it was that. It might have been some other things too. I have wondered if it was the emotional difficulty of Brent being gone. It also might have been (I think I mentioned something like this before) the feeling of stagnation that I unfortunately allowed to penetrate other area's of my life. I don't know what it was, but I'm not over it yet. Although, I did want to write a little catch up.

Brent left for Basic Training in April. In June I had a wonderful, yet entirely too short weekend with him where I was able to see his Basic graduation and then drive him from Ft. Jackson, S.C. to Ft. Benning, Georgia.

In August, I packed up my daughter and spent 6 days on the road with her out to Georgia to stay with my Wonderful Aunt Cynthia who lives near Ft. Benning for the last three weeks of Brent's Officer Candidate School (OCS). I was able to go to a few social events with Brent and attend his graduation which was very nice. Much more like an actual graduation than his Basic graduation. Then we drove back to Utah just in the nick of time (we left one day before all the flooding and closed freeways).

We have been spending time with family and friends around Utah and taking care of business and preparing for our move to Arizona.

The news of Arizona was somewhat anti-climatic. We were pretty sure that we would be in Arizona for Brent's training, but we were anxiously awaiting Brent's Orders to see where we would be after his training. Most of the other soldiers in Brent's class had their permanent station on their orders, but we got zilch. All we know is that we will be in Arizona for Brent's training until August of next year. 10 months ahead of time is pretty good, and it normally wouldn't bother me, it's just that we were expecting to discover where our permanent station will be and were severly disappointed.

Part of the problem is that although I have desperately tried not to get my hopes up, it has been in vain, because I cannot stop thinking that we will go somewhere overseas. I keep trying to get myself pumped up for some miserable Fort in Middle of Nowhere, USA, but it's just not working. I was hoping that getting Brent's orders would put me out of my misery as I wait to see if it's going to happen, but they didn't.

Oh well, I am focusing on contenting myself with the present and I really am looking forward to our time in Arizona.

"Hope of Intellectual Transformation in Africa"

This post is a request to everyone who reads it for ideas. Does anyone know of a charity or other organization or resource that could help a South African student finish his education? Please help me network and re-post this on your blog or ask those around you for ideas. Any help in this endeavor would be greatly appreciated.

Some of you may remember a post I wrote a while ago called "Sheltered". It was about a man named Michael who has become a dear friend. My last post about him was my expression of shock over his relation of life as a Black Man in South Africa, and the extraordinary ways in which he has overcome his circumstances. He has an amazing disposition and outlook on life. He has worked so hard and sacrificed so much to get where he is. He funded his first College diploma using all the money he earned while working at a vegetable market and surviving on rotten or damaged vegetables given to him by his employer. He and his wife had to leave their two children 6 and 2 with family in order to come out for his studies in England. At times they were surviving on one slice of bread per day. Yet they never complained, and I didn't even know about the extreme difficulties they endured until months afterward when they had finally come out of them.

In 2007, he was recognized by the Nelson Mandela Foundation as a promising teacher and scholar. As the Headmaster of the school where he works, this extraordinary man is an example both to the students of his school as well as many others around him. He is trying to show his children, his students and his community that education is a priority and the catalyst for change. He is now and will continue to make significant contributions to the African educational system. He is in his second year of a Post Graduate Degree in Education and has run into trouble with funding. He has had to put his degree on hold. He wrote me an email requesting help in researching potential resources in the U.S. that could assist him in finishing his degree. I've been looking, but everything I seem to find is designed for students studying here in the States.

So again, if you know of any avenues that I can look into that might be able to help him, please let me know.

I recommend following the link at the top, to my other post and reading more about Michael.

**Note: He does not qualify for the Perpetual Education Fund.

In Case You Were Wondering

I was grateful that this five month separation timed out to be over the summer, because there is a lot to do here in the summer. I also decided to help things along and signed Z up for a new community class every month. This month she is in tumbling, next month she has a martial arts class, in July it's swimming and for August, I bought passes to a place called Jumping Jacks, so we can just go whenever.

I have also been keeping a very close eye on community events. Yesterday there was free admission and half price passes to Jumping Jacks with free food and stuff. Today at the library, they had a book festival with puppet shows, readings, face painting, crafts, workshops, book signings and a free book for every child there.

The Farmer's Market is 4 blocks from my parents house. Last week they had a May Pole with live fiddling to dance around it as we untied the ribbons. (I've always wondered exactly what a May Pole entailed) It was so festive.

I've decided that I really love Provo. There are loads of things to do around here if you're looking for them. It's a college town, but it is a unique college town because a higher percentage of the students have started families, so it is also extremely family friendly. There are lots of trees, majestic mountains, old neighborhoods filled with homes full of character. I love Center Street. Academy Square, The Tabernacle and City Hall are all beautiful buildings. I could go on, but in short, I am glad I am here for now.

I set out to be extremely busy and that is exactly what I am. Almost too much sometimes, there doesn't seem to be enough time in the day. It's gets a little annoying sometimes, but that is what I wanted and I am grateful. I would much rather be too busy than not busy enough. Whenever things slow down my thoughts turn to Brent.

Being busy helps, but my Faith has helps even more. I had a very interesting experience the day Brent left. Up until that point, whenever I thought about Brent leaving, I was overwhelmed with tears. Early in the morning of the day he left, we went to the Temple. As we were driving home from the Temple I felt so incredibly peaceful and happy. It was strange for me because I knew in a matter of hours that he would be leaving me. I knew this event would be the beginning of a very difficult period of my life. I knew I would miss him to the point of physical pain. But despite all that, I was happy.

That is probably the best description of what it has been like since he has left. It has been EXTREMELY challenging, but I am happy. As I have focused on my dedication to the lord, my burdens have been made light. Not that they are taken away, or made any less difficult, but I have received strength and peace so that I may bear them well.

Brent has also been doing well. I am envious of all the new skills and information he is acquiring. It sounds fascinating to me and I can't wait until we have time to really talk so I can hear more about it. I get to talk to him once a week for about 2 to 5 minutes. As you can imagine, I don't get much information out of him in that amount of time. But he said that Basic Training is pretty much what he expected. He got into shape before he went and the physical demands have not been much of a challenge for him. He said he got into trouble a few weeks ago for showering early. He was afraid he had made the drill sergeant's trouble list, but the very next week he was given the privilege of being Platoon Leader. He also said he was amazed that they could be so busy and yet still spend so much time waiting around for things. I definitely don't envy that.

I bought a ticket to South Carolina for his Basic Graduation at the end of June. I will fly in on Wednesday night. Thursday is Family Day where I go to a bunch of Army programs designed to show families what their soldier has experienced. Then I get to spend the rest of the day with Brent on post. The next day, his graduation is at 9am and we should have the rest of the day together on or off post. He will probably ship out Saturday morning, but I purchased a ticket that won't bring me home until late Saturday night just in case I can see him on Saturday too. If not, I'll spend the day exploring Columbia or Greensville. I CAN'T WAIT. It is nice that we can break up his time away with a visit. It gives me a short-term goal to look forward to.

5 favorites

Rachel over at Life In Pictures tagged me for this ages ago, and I completely forgot, but I'm bored and waiting for something so here we go.

5 favorite TV Shows

1. The Office
2. Chuck
3. My Name is Earl
4. 30 Rock
5. George Lopez (cheezy, but funny and reminds me of growing up in Southern California)


5 things I did yesterday

1. Went to the Gym
2. Did Babysitting/Temple trade off with my sister-in-law
3. Bought a recommended Allergy remedy from the health food store
4. Came home to a fantastic dinner courtesy of my father
5. Wrote Brent an extremely long letter


5 favorite restaurants

(I don't really have a favorite, I really prefer to go to a new restaurant every time we go out. Below is a list of places with food I find myself craving.)

1. The Bombay House
2. Thai Chili Pepper
3. Zupas
4. Wingers (I can't get enough of their sauce)
5. Bajios


5 things on my wish list (at the moment)

1. Brent
2. Corrective Laser Eye Surgery
3. A New Wardrobe
4. New Cameras (Video and Still)
5. A new perfume that I LOVE. (I have a hard time finding scents that I like. Any suggestions?)

If you feel like doing this, then you're tagged.