Adventures in Hiding

Wow, it's been way too long since I updated on this thing. So much has happened in the past few months it's hard to know where to begin.

Steven is officially out of the military.....kind of. He officially left active duty in November, but he joined the National Reserves last week, and there's a good chanced that with the unit he's going to be assigned to, he will be activated, even deployed. So even though I've been running around telling all my friends and family that we're done with the military and how relived I am that my husband is out, it may not be true. That's going to be an awkward conversation.

Me: "Steven's being deployed next year."
Random family member or friend: "I thought he was out of the military?"
(thanks to the military's blatant incompetence and unreliability, I have a built in excuse)
Me: "It's the military."

But I have to be honest, as much complaining as I did about my husband's job, I seriously took for granted the steady paycheck and benefits we got regularly. I've never been in a position where I didn't know how the bills were going to be paid, and this was the month I got to know what that feels like. At that point, with a dwindling bank account and bills that would not stop showing up in our mail box, a more humbled part of me wished for his job back. And now it looks like I've got my wish. Now I won't bitch so much when he has to leave for 6 weeks or if he deploys.

We moved into a new bigger and cheaper house ( I know the words 'bigger' and 'cheaper' don't usually go together, but our real estate market is all messed up), and ended up renting our old house out. So we're officially landlords....kind of. We have a property manager, so we won't actually be doing any landlord-ing.

At the time when we moved into the new house, I had a temp job with (who else?) the military. After we moved in, something just clicked for me, and after several long talks with Hubs, we decided that I am going to be a stay-at-home mom for the foreseeable future. With this decision, and with the purse strings being pulled a little tighter, it also made the most sense for me to leave graduate school. I can't lie, I was a little disappointed with this, but it makes the most sense. Why spent thousands of dollars on a professional degree when I am not going back into the work force? I have been toying with the idea of becoming licenced to do daycare from home, and for this to work I would have to get all kinds of classes and certifications done, so it may be better for me to focus on that. 

The boys are doing very well. Orion is halfway through his first year of Preschool and not only does he love it, he is THRIVING. This is by far the best money we have ever spent on him, and I am thinking that next year he's going to be better off in a four day a week class instead of a three day a week.

All in all things are settling down, and I am very excited to see what the new year holds. I am hoping lots of cake.