Life is like a box of chocolates.....

you never know what you're gonna get. Today definitely didn't turn out like I expected. The morning downright sucked. I awakened at 7 a.m., excited to get our "normal" life going again. First, I went to Ryan's school to get him registered and found out he wasn't going to be able to start today. Same thing at Josh and Cody's school and the black lady at Charlie's school wouldn't even give us a registration packet until we showed her how long we were going to be staying in this housing facility. So off to the housing office we go to see which fabulous house we were going to be living in. Well.... we were offered a 1500 square foot dump. I could not believe my eyes. I was for sure they were going to offer us one of the nice, brand new houses they have built in the last 5 years. I had my heart set on this and I could just feel it in my bones that we would be blessed to have one of these. But no.....we weren't. Instead we were offered a dilapidated dump that had the oldest of fixtures and tile that was peeling away from the floor. Now, I'm not a picky person and I can usually fix something up and make it look nice. But....I've been married for almost 14 years and I refuse to downsize at this point in my life. I can't even fit all my crap in 1500 sq ft. Not to mention my family would be all over each other in a house this size. My older boys are practically the size of some grown men.

I start bawling at the idea of having to live here. Charles was just thrilled we were even offered something so soon. Of course, his life has gotten nothing but better since he arrived home from Iraq. Remember, he was living in 250 sq ft room for year. But the kids and I had to leave a great place and a great home that we loved dearly to move here and be offered a dump. I mean, we're officers now, shouldn't we be getting the good crap by now? So I'm crying and everyone is on edge. The lady at the housing office is a complete bitch and has been since we met her 14 years ago at this base. She has worked at the housing office forever.We remember her from 1995. Only difference is she's 60 pounds heavier and looks more like a lesbian. I was pissed.

So off to the newspaper stand we go. I got a classifieds and started dialing. We found only 3 good prospects. One with a pool but didn't have things we needed. It was a decent price but still pretty small. Another one was a rental that has gone into horrendous disrepair. Then off to the boondocks to a trailer that had been advertised as a "house". You might be a redneck if you have to drive off a paved road to get to your house. That was the trailer. The gravel on the road wasn't even small and compact. It was like driving over boulders. My head almost rolled off my shoulders trying to get out of that place. Then....it happened......I had overlooked a listing that was in the classifieds. I look down and saw 4 bedroom 2 bath in my price range. I called up and the guy tells me it was 2400 sq ft. I was for sure it was going to be a dump. We had found nothing that big in our price range that was nice. To our surprise it was great! Huge yard, 4 bedrooms, huge covered patio, freshly painted, fabulous. We get to move in ASAP! I am so glad that weight is lifted. I went from feeling so trapped and unable to do anything to feeling so freakin relieved and glad we can get out of this hotel tomorrow. The taste isn't mine but it is clean and well taken care of. We're gonna get to paint and make it like ours as best as we can. God loves me! Now I'm not so irritated with Charles anymore and I like my kids a little more than I have been. Opposition in all things. It is ALWAYS like this when we move and I seem to forget every time. It always works out though and it has again. Thank you Lord.