29 Jun 08-This has been a great weekend! I went to Leah's wedding last night and she was such a beautiful bride as I knew she would be. I am so happy for her and Nate and wish them the best of luck for a wonderful lifetime together. I was so honored to finally be able to meet her mom. I felt like I knew her already from all the things that Leah had told me about her and she felt like she knew me as well from keeping up with my blog while Leah and I were deployed together. It was definitely an emotional moment and one to be cherished! Today all of the long nights finally caught up with me. The pup, who now finally has a name is officially ours now and stayed with us for the first time last night. Of course she didn't sleep well in her new surroundings so I didn't sleep well last night either. I was up about 9 this morning and then back in bed after breakfast. Bella came to bed with me and I didn't get up until 3 this afternoon. I'm sure I'll be headed back to bed before too long. It will be nice to finally feel caught up on sleep and feel back to normal this week at work. Thankfully it is a short week as well due to the 4th of July! (Mom, if you don't hear from me today, it means I did in fact go back to sleep and I will call you this week.)
27 Jun 08-I am beyond exhausted today. I think finally everything is catching up with me. I'm definitely going to be sleeping in tomorrow! I got to catch up with more old friends over e-mail as good news spreads like wildfire! I sang for a retirement ceremony for one of our own today and the emcee, BK (if you remember me posting about him while I was deployed) announced me as Technical Sergeant Select Naylor before I sang. Ha ha! It was too funny. I got some good face time with the new commander. It was the first time he's heard me sing and my seat was actually right next to him for the ceremony and his comment to me was that my singing was awesome! He even commented again on how great it was after the ceremony so I was pretty excited about that! This has definitely been a fantastic week!
26 Jun 08-SAY HELLO TO THE AF'S NEWEST TSGT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I'll post more later. Just wanted to get in out there for when my mommy checked my blog!!! :) Chris did not make it though :(. **Okay, now that the day is over I can post a little bit more of it. By the time I had gotten into work, I had 26 congratulations e-mails so thank you to all of those who were thinking of me and e-mailed me to say congrats! I was so thrilled. As it turns out, something really cool happened with my line number. For those who don't know what that is, it tells you where your place is to sew on the rank. So, there were 7115 promotees and so the line numbers go from 1-7115. Each month, the publish what line numbers actually get to start wearing their ranks. Well, my line number is 714-my birthdate!! How cool is that? We had a promotion party this afternoon to which I had to pay $40 to help offset the cost of food and alcohol. It has been a fantastic day!!
25 Jun 08-Today would have been the day we were closing on the house but they are drawing up all the new paperwork and we're supposed to sign on Friday. I'm kind of glad it's not today because the only thing on my mind right now is TSgt results!! 11 more hours until we find out and I don't think I've never been this nervous!! We really need this right now and I need to be getting paid for the work I do! I had my second day off today and it was nice to be able to relax. I went and bought my shoes for my brothers wedding. I get to "give them a test drive" at Leah's wedding this Saturday. They're not really my favorite shoes but it was all I could find that matched my dress. Hopefully I don't fall on my face! LOL The monsoon season started last week but today is the first day that we've seen more than the threatening clouds. We actually got a little bit of rain and it looks like there's more to come so that's nice. It was so humid today I could barely stand it. I don't know if I could survive somewhere that actually gets true humidity. The wildfires burning here are crazy and I saw the most wicked sight last night where the mountain looked like what I could think a volcano would look like. Pretty creepy stuff and it made me think of my parents and hope that they are finally taking care of their fires. Anyway, in closing for today, I will try my best to remember to post a short update in the morning as soon as I find out results otherwise I'll post when I get home. However, Mom you will be hearing from me as soon as I think it's not too early to call!!
24 Jun 08-Everything is still on track today but we got some bad news about the taxes being included in our monthly payment. It's quite a bit more than we were expecting to have to pay and it's going to be tight. Hopefully once we get our credit report, I can get it cleared up and we can refinance after a year and get a payment more like we were expecting. It's going to hurt for a while! Ouch! They still think we'll close by the end of the week. Let's just pray that we both make TSgt so we can get that raise. I would probably sew it on the first of August so that would be really nice. Thursday morning at 6 a.m. can't get here soon enough!!
23 Jun 08-Thank God we got some great news today! It's going to put us in a little bind financially but it will all pay off. We are going to close on the house this week. I just hope there is nothing else unforeseen that comes up. The property manager met with the sellers today and everyone decided there was just too much time and effort put into the whole deal already to let something like the appraisal stand in the way of us buying this house. So, that being said, we're having to contribute our security and pet deposits as well as our earnest money toward the closing costs. The sellers are also contributing $3K out of their pockets (which I feel is only fair since we have paid their mortgage and then some for the last 3 years and they haven't taken that into consideration) and the property manager is also donating a portion of his commission! I was absolutely in awe of that man. They have just been so wonderful to us over the years. I expressed to him our gratitude for continuing to find ways around all the snags so far and I told him I would definitely make sure to continue to refer people in the market to sell, buy or rent a house to him. Him and his wife have just been amazing and I'm so thankful that we've established the relationship we have over the last 3 years. He is hopeful that we will be able to close this week (maybe not by Wednesday as originally scheduled but this week)! I will definitely continue to update as all of this finally comes to a close. It still doesn't feel like our home but shortly, I hope I can change that feeling! It was so nice to get a good phone call instead of the usual bad one from the mortgage consultant who has been less than helpful. I don't want to have to buy another house for a LONG time!
22 Jun 08-Today was just a nice relaxing day. It was still another scorcher and we thought we might get some rain but no such luck. It kind of felt groundhog day a bit. The kids played, I visited with the puppy, it was hot, etc. Ha ha! Chris cooked the best steak that I've ever had and I had to get far, far away from it! I almost can't wait for lunch tomorrow! I have been feeling sick to my stomach today in anticipation of this huge week. We'll know for sure whether we can still buy this house or if we're going to have to move. That is a huge thing. We really just want to stay. Once Thursday is over and results are out, I can finally relax. For now, I just have major anxiety. It's a good thing I'm off work Tuesday-Thursday because I know I will not be sleeping well.
21 Jun 08-Wow! What a hot one today! It was just too hot to do anything outside, that's for sure. I just dropped the puppy back off. She climbed up on my shoulder and took a nap across my chest. It was just the sweetest thing. Of course, I had to take one with her. I hope to be able to bring her here every day until she's officially ours so the dogs can get used to her. Well, so the boy dogs can get used to her. Jade has taken to her just fine although she seems a little annoyed with how hyper she is but she still stays right next to her. Chris is getting ready to make burgers for dinner and then I'm just going to hang out and relax. I didn't sleep well last night so I'm ready for bed already. This heat just takes it out of you some days!
20 Jun 08-It was so nice to have a day off today. However, I had to start it off by getting up early and going to the dentist. I made an appointment for sick call because not only do I grind my teeth in my sleep, but I also have what's called a tongue thrust. Go ahead and laugh and get it out of the way now! It really is painful though. Basically, due to stress is what they say, when I sleep and throughout the day, I press my tongue against my teeth and hold it there. This obviously causes a shift in my teeth and also makes for a very sore mouth in the morning. I had finally had enough after dealing with this for quite some time now. After my appointment, they were going to schedule me to have impressions done so they could fit me for a mouth guard to sleep well. Well, as it turns out, they had a free appointment 20 minutes later so I took that one. Thankfully impressions are a lot quicker and less icky since the last time I had them done. Hopefully the mouth guard does the trick. I know that Chris will be happy not to have to deal with me grinding my teeth in my sleep. Of course, if it were my choice, I'd just rather not have all the stress in my life...
Anyway, we had some bad news on the house today. As it turns out, what I was originally told about the appraisal being just a formality in the home buying process was incorrect. Due to the appraisal, we can only get approved for a VA loan for the price of what they appraised the house out. We do not have the money for closing costs so they were all going in the amount of the loan. So now, we have to wait on the owners to see if they're just going to suck it up and take a $6K hit on the house so we can buy it. If not, we're back to square one and out about $1K because of the appraisal and earnest money. This just sucks. We are supposed to close on the house on Wednesday! As if I needed something else to stress about. The owners are on their way back from England so I just pray that they contact the property manager on Monday so we can find out if we're moving or not.
Sadly, I've committed to this dog already. We brought her home today for a little bit so the other dogs could meet her as well. Jade surprised me when her mommy instincts kicked in to a dog that's not even hers. She became very protective of the puppy and would not let her out of her site. When the boys (dogs) would come near her, she would growl. It was rather amusing. Jade is 30 times her size and yet she followed her around and batted at her and even tried to nurse from her at one point. It was all just so fun to watch. She really is a cute dog!
19 Jun 08-I had a fantastic day today! It was slow AGAIN but I got to go visit with a new family member last night. Mom, if you're reading this, sorry you're finding out here but I said we were probably going to do it. We're getting a new dog. The timing was right and a great opportunity presented itself. Our friend Steve, who is also a neighbor, one of his dog just had puppies. I went to see them the other night and fell in love with the "runt". She is just the cutest thing! We haven't picked out a name yet but I get to bring her home for "visitation" tomorrow. They're still feeding from mom so we can't keep her yet but it will be so great to see how she acts in what will be her own environment. She's a half Sheltie/half Chow Chow and she is just beautiful! She is already so spoiled by me as we have been visiting her the last 3 days since we met her and picked her out. Best of all, she's free! Of course she's only free to take home. Anyone that's owned an animal knows they're not free but that's okay. She will be well worth it and a nice addition to even out our dog family. Now we'll have 2 boys and 2 girls. Here she is!!
18 Jun 08-I had one of the silliest days today. I don't know what the deal with today was but I just could not stop laughing. I love days like this although my make-up is definitely a mess from crying because I was laughing so hard! Another day spent trying to forget that TSgt results are around the corner, however, that didn't happen again. I just hope they post the cut off scores soon so I'll have a little bit better of an idea or feeling. I missed it by 20 points last year which is horrible but I almost made that up in EPRs, time in service, time in grade, and a commendation medal. Let's just hope I tested well enough. Thankfully next Thursday when results come out is the last day of my 3 day pass. So, at 6 a.m. when I look online to see if I made it, if I didn't, I can just stay home! LOL I'd rather HAVE to go in though!! This will consume me for the next week for sure!
17 Jun 08-Today was just kind of a blah day. Work was pretty slow but I did manage to find a project for myself which always keeps me content. However, my back is hurting me really bad today. :( I just wish they'd fix me because I hate days like this where it just makes the entire day feel like a waste. I'm back to taking my meds which obviously are not helping. All they do is make me feel groggy the next day. They announced promotion rates today and I was quite alarmed to find out that only 18.55% of all eligible Staff Sergeants were going to be promoted to Technical Sergeant. That was not very promising for me. Nine more days to stress over it!
16 Jun 08-I am exhausted today! Miles decided to start getting up at 1 a.m. and kept that up for a couple of hours. I have no idea why his internal clock decided to go off so early but hopefully that thing is broken tonight! I need a good night of sleep. Work was very boring today. I found a project to work on but when that was done, I was bored again! The appraiser came to the house today so that's good and hopefully we can actually close in 9 days like we're supposed to so we can start doing stuff that we want to the house. Of course, I had to shell out even more money but we're supposed to be getting that back too. I can't wait until we get all of the money back. I still need to buy Chris his plane ticket home with me next month.
15 Jun 08-Today was a HOT one! The humidity was up and everything and we've got storms in the area. Bring on the monsoon!! (I love the monsoon season when I'm at home watching it, not when it's time for me to drive home from work and it's pouring. LOL) We were out planting seeds in our new garden this morning about 1030 and I wasn't even there but a minute and had sweat pouring off my face already. Yuck! The rest of the day was good. I had to go get my hair trimmed and the stylist taught me some tricks to keep my hair a little softer so I will be trying those out. I don't think I could ever grow my hair long again. I just love it so much short and I think I'll even keep it short enough during the winter to leave down when I'm in uniform. Boy will that be different for me. I talked to my dad for quite a while tonight and that's always a treat. Happy Father's Day to all the daddies out there!
14 Jun 08-We had a great day/night yesterday. I got out of work a little early which is always a bonus. I got to eat lunch with Michelle and Holly and that was a nice break from being at work as well. There was a process that was changed at work that has caused some major issues. Used to be, our flightline drivers would call in movements to Control and then Control would process the moves. Now, the flightline folks call them in and Control processes them. Somewhere between the line, Control and our Maintenance shop, we were off on a few different kinds of munitions. It was said that we would have to come in today to fix it while the aircraft were not flying. I volunteered to be one of the two that came in because I hadn't been in on a weekend (at least not in this shop) yet. We had already made plans for last night to go to military appreciation night at Tuscon Electric Park to watch the Sidewinders play. So, we still went even though I had to work today and we had a good time for the most part. I got a little annoyed by some unruly kids but I think that's every time I go somewhere. I guess I expect that other kids are well behaved in public like mine but I guess that's not the case. Anyway, the game went into extra innings and I was exhausted. We were waiting for the fireworks and Chris finally just decided to get me home and they could go watch the fireworks from somewhere closer to the house. It worked out just fine. I got home and go ready for bed and he took Cody and a sleeping Miles back out on the road to watch them. Miles woke up of course and was really excited when he got home so I'm glad that worked out. So, after a late night last night and a long day today, I am off to bed. I hope everyone is having a great weekend.
12 Jun 08-Today was a decent day. I had a lunch date with Michelle since it's her last day in the shop. She got hired on as the assistant first sergeant (or as we call it, the undershirt AKA wife beater!). However, we had to cancel it because the new commander was coming out to meet and greet so no one was allowed to go to lunch during his slotted time. Anyone who knows the military knows that schedules are tentative and he didn't come out until almost 1. My darling husband was nice enough to, at my request, pick up lunch and bring it out to me and the girls. It was so nice of him and he even went grocery shopping on top of driving down to pick up Cody. What a day for him. He's been working hard in the garden too. We're loving all the stuff that we will now be able to do to OUR house even though it's not officially ours yet.
11 Jun 08-So today was pretty much just a ho hum day. I didn't do much of anything at work. I got to joke with a couple of my favorite custodians but that's about it. I find that the more I delegate, the less work I have! Amazing how that works! LOL I need to find stuff to do to keep me entertained at work. Other than that, nothing to report today. Just hot as hell here!
10 Jun 08-So I realized today (after Lora commented on my blog) that I had not updated this one or the main one on my site. Oops! For those that read this and may not know, they canceled Chris' deployment so he is home now!! Wow! What a shocker! They called me while he was on his way to Baltimore, his last flight before he headed to Kuwait for more training, to ask me to have him call ASAP because he was to turn around and come home! Boy were we surprised. He spent the night in Baltimore and came home the next day. Talk about crazy but we are so glad to have him home! It's been nice to have some help around the house but there's something about that man that just sucks all the energy out of me. I seem to be much more productive when he's not around. I think that is mostly due to the adrenaline rush when it's just me doing everything so I'm working on that. Work has still been great but very, very slow! I briefed my first commander on his responsibilities of overseeing a munitions account. I was very nervous and made it known to the person he had set the meeting up with that I was nervous. Michelle as well as this guy told me that I would do just fine and that there was nothing to worry about. They were right! I kicked butt and was told that I really impressed the commander and I was so happy that I did well. Next time I have to brief a commander, maybe I won't be so worried about it. I often underestimate myself. I don't know why I do that. It's one of my many flaws but I guess the first step in correcting it is realizing that it's a flaw!
