Brad left about 10 days ago and life has been a little up-and-down since then. He left on a Sunday, super early in the morning for his 10ish hour drive to Alabama. We had decided that I would go to Church after he left that morning by myself... partly because then I would not be spending the whole day by myself in our apartment and partly because I really do want to find a home church and get involved pretty quickly. The church we had picked out (from their website.. haha) I actually really liked. I found the welcome desk and was invited for Brad and I to join a Sunday School for military couples. When I saw that they have a large deaf ministry I just knew that I had to bring my mom back the next week. The rest of the day and all the next day were quite lonely... I didn't know what to do, I didn't know where to go, we had no stuff in our house except an air mattress and two outdoor chairs... I was definitely feeling a little down. Luckily, Tuesday I got to go pick my mom up from the airport and on Wednesday the movers delivered our stuff. I don't think I would have survived on Wednesday without my mom being here. There were two guys carrying everything in and the one from Missouri was really nice, didn't talk too much but he worked hard and listened to us when we said which room the boxes and furniture went in. The other guy was one of the rudest people I have ever met. He made fun of our bicycles, complained every time i said something went upstairs, put boxes marked "kitchen" or "baby" in the garage so my mom and I would have to carry them in after that. He also told me that once he set a box or piece of furniture down, he would not move it, so we better be 100% sure we know exactly where everything is going or else we would be the ones rearranging everything to make room for other things. He tried to refuse to take the boxes we had emptied and broken down unless we paid him per box, luckily the other guy heard him doing this and told us that their companies get paid by the army to offer this service to us. Oh gosh was i mad at this guy! He even started making fun of me for unpacking clothes boxes while my mom did kitchen boxes, saying I was letting her do all the hard work and I was a slacker... I don't really know who he thinks he is but my "interactive customer evaluation" that the army asks us to do about our moves is going to reflect very poorly on him!!!

anyway... i need to stop ranting about this guy, he just gets me so angry! so my mom and I spent the next couple days unpacking and organizing the house. it was a very long process this time, probably because Brad wasn't here so it took longer than when we moved in January. We didn't finish, there are still boxes in the garage but most of those are marked "army" and there are boxes in the bonus room but most of those are marked "craft stuff" or "books"... and I don't know what to do with my craft stuff or all of our books... so I am keeping things for Brad to do, he doesn't get off easy with this move!

One day that my mom was here we decided that we'd had enough unpacking and needed to have some fun, so we found a beach that was supposedly less than 2 hours away and headed off for an afternoon in the sun. It probably really would have been only an hour and 45 minutes, except the GPS took us the weirdest possible way, and there was crazy traffic once we got closer to it. But, we found Wrightsville Beach, found a parking on a side street at a meter, and walked to the beach. I would have thought it wouldn't be too busy since school is in session already and it was a weekday, but there were still tons of people there! I guess that's what happens when you go to a public access beach, though. Either way it was beautiful, and so fun to know that i can drive from my house to the beach to spend an afternoon there, and then drive back home right after! Living in the midwest my whole life, I have never had that ability before.

Well my mom left two days ago and now I am here by myself once again. It's not as bad as last time since I have stuff here, we have TV and internet, there are still things that need done around here, but I am quite lonely. I didn't leave my house once yesterday (how sad huh?) but mostly that is because I had three people come to fix different things (the internet, the exterminator, and the work order guy). Today though I will venture out of the house! Probably just to WalMart to get milk though.. and maybe to the newcomers class at the church i have gone to the last couple weeks. Part of me wants to wait until Brad gets back to go to this one-time newcomers class, but the other part of me wants to go just because it will give me something to do this evening. Does my life sound sad right now? Because it is.

On a bright note... I think I get a new dish washer installed, hopefully today! Ours is broken so I have been having to hand wash everything. My mom hand washed everything while she was here but now it's all me. The work order guy (i don't know what his name or title is?) said it is not fixable so he will try to get a new one installed for me today or the next day. I can't wait!

PS... my mother-in-law comes in 6 days. I can't wait!!!!!!!!