Go time!

We officially have orders.  In less than 2 months I will be living in San Diego settling into civilian (my husband will stay in the Reserves) life.  It's been crazy up to this point and now that we have that magic piece of paper in our hands it's only going to get crazier!

While we were living in Japan, we stored our POV car at my in-law's and now we're getting some run around on whether the Army will pay to ship it to Cali or not (one place says yes, the other says no because we didn't store it in a commercial facility).

We wanted to buy a condo in SD but now we're being told that Jason's post 9/11 G.I. Bill BAH doesn't count as income so we won't be approved for a loan since that will be about half of our income for the next three years.

I'm working on applying for jobs, something I haven't done in 8 years!  Luckily we have a wonderful volunteer here in our transition office that has helped me make my resume top notch so I'm feeling more confident in selling myself.

We've started to say our goodbyes.  Tonight we're having friends over for dinner.  One of them is a teacher and he will be going back to the States for the summer and won't return until after we leave.  Tomorrow my friend, Preston, who I went to college with and is stationed at a near by Navy base is coming over for dinner and some Settlers because he leaves for a deployment shortly and also will not return until after we've left for SD.

So many chapters here are starting to come to a close.

I received an award the other day for the 18+ months I served as the FRG leader.  I was surprised and beyond grateful.  I, for the most part, enjoyed my time in the position.  I wish I had been able to encourage more participation in and enthusiasm for some of the events but overall I think it was a very successful run.

Today we attended a ceremony for this adorable little pre-k grad.  It's hard to believe the first time we met him he was still in diapers and didn't speak a single word.  We've known him over half of his life and we absolutely adore his sweet little heart and have loved watching him grow and develop into a charming kindergartner! (his parents and his brother are pretty awesome too!)

This transition period is always the hardest for me.  As much as I want to stay in Japan, I'm ready to have my stuff packed and be on our way to what lies ahead.  I hate the limbo phase.  Here's praying it passes quickly (and smoothly)!