Random Fancies: Starting at the Beginning

Welcome to Kansas! I'm excited to have you join us for this adventure. Let me begin by saying, much to my surprise (and the opinion of many of my Georgia family) Kansas is NOT flat. It has some incredible foot hills and an amazing beauty. The photograph you see above was taken from the top of a hill. Here was our climb to the top:

I'm thinking many of you don't move as often as military families move. Our family had been blessed to be in the same area for about nine years. That is unheard of in the military. However, when you move your household goods are packed up and sent away before you leave and they don't arrive for a little while after you find a place to live. So, basically everything you have to live on for a month or so (and the things too precious to allow the movers to destroy, I mean pack) is packed into the vehicle, along with your family (unless one decides to stay behind, sniff) and you drive to your new life. Driving, hmm. Allow me to pause for a second and say it is NOT always relaxing if your seventeen year old is driving and she has not spent a lot of time on interstates or driving a large vehicle that is loaded inside and out so that there is not great visibility. Add to that the fact that she has never driven in a major city before AND ~~likes~~ loves to change lanes and you will find that your nerves don't always do well. Don't get me wrong. She is an excellent driver and she reacted well when idiot drivers did what they do. However, the mountains of Tennessee brought me more than one heart attack when she was cut off by another driver and had nowhere to go. Then there was the random sock that flew up and hit the windshield in front of her face. I freaked as I didn't see it approaching but she remained calm (she saw it coming).

After you finish your relaxing drive, you arrive and pray your GPS will help you find the correct place on Post. This is difficult as most GPS systems will try to route you around a military base instead of a location on post. We arrived, managed to find where we were supposed to be, settle in the guest house and watch about thirty minutes of the Olympics. SUCCESS! We had a place to live the very next day (by the Grace of God) so there we were, brand new quarters and a new life to create. Step one, eldest child living with you picks her bedroom. Step two convince the youngest child he has to pick a bedroom other than the master or the one his sister picked. Step two can take a LONG time. Just sayin'. Step three, buy groceries so no one starves to death especially if you are bringing a teenage boy along on the journey.

Now you are experiencing TRUE basic living. You have shelter, electricity (and AC to beat the current heat wave of 100+ weather), food/drink, sleeping bags, a few kitchen supplies and each other. Hear the crickets? No one in our family has had five minutes to themselves over the past two or three years and now there is suddenly nothing to do. "But you have each other", yeah, that lasts about five minutes or less especially with a HUGE playground in your backyard that won't open for about a month. Phones aren't much of a help as our cellular provider is upgrading from 3g to 4g and therefore service is unreliable to say the least. You are dying to communicate with the loved ones left behind but this is a struggle as phones are unreliable and there is no internet.

So, you do what any sane individual would do. Call and order your household goods to be delivered (oh wait, the company doesn't answer the phone or return you call for four days and then schedules your delivery for another week and a half out). Household good delivery ordered ... check. Next you order internet after all there is only one cable company through which you can receive service. Translation? That will be another week before installation. Yippee only a week of teenagers complaining about no interenet! Internet installation ordered ... check. And now you wait and try not to get frustrated that your phone doesn't work well. I have to admit that although yelling at my phone did not help the phone work any better, it was satisfying for a few minutes. I know, we'll clean the house and put everything we brought with us away. YES! Only an hour later it is back to listening to crickets. Actually, it wasn't that bad. We are blessed with children who we like to hang out with and we met some neighbors and people along the way.

So, I will sum up today's blog about our new approach to a simpler life. If you can survive the insanity of life with your family, it usually means you have found a way to survive your family first.