Bremerton Ferry

This morning I had to wake up at the crack of dawn to go to Physical Therapy at the Army hospital near my house. The good part about the Army is the amazing health insurance, the bad part is all the waiting and crazy appointment times, like 7:30am. The more I think about it though, the more I realize that I might be more prepared for socialized healthcare than most (even if I don't want it after seeing all its "disfunctions" in Europe). I got a call yesterday about having a class on my new allergy shots, and the lady informed me the first opening was in late May. Maybe I should schedule my sicknesses more carefully to work with the Tricare system; psychic ability would be a fantastic help at this point. In all honesty some of the delays are just an overloaded system, and other delays are because I fall under soldiers in priority for treatment. And I guess if the Army is paying them to work and be healthy, then they probably should be seen first. I just am impatient and want everything super fast, like the rest of my microwave generation. One thing I did notice this morning at PT was that the more I looked around at the soldiers in there with me, the less sorry I could feel for myself and my little knee problem. This last Monday in fact I had a soldier next to me that came in on a cane and had major skin grafts on both legs. I later heard him talk about his upcoming surgeries to have remaining shrapnel removed and saw how he couldn't have some of the therapies since he has no sensation in one leg. It's hard to feel sorry for myself and my one little knee problem when I am sitting next to a guy that almost had both legs blown off in Iraq or Afghanistan. Funny how humbling perspective can be. And that's in addition to the guy I see at the gym on Tuesdays and Thursdays who is missing an entire leg but still does a weight workout and uses his other leg on the rowing machine. It's easier than some might guess to get so completely buried under the dependent/spouse/family side of the Army that you forget the real and dangerous side the soldiers go through.

That said, I have been enjoying my side of the Army life the last couple of weeks. Besides going to Physical Therapy and harassing my therapist, I have been enjoying the first bits of spring here. We still are getting the typical Seattle weather with tons of rain and overcast skies, but last week was especially beautiful and I even got to jog around the track in t-shirt and shorts one day! The biggest accomplishment of late is that we have had our first official dinner guest, and I chalk it up to a success since nothing caught on fire and to date no one has any reported food poisoning. I feel like a cheat in saying "official dinner guest" since we had our friend Aaron over, the guy that Dereck replaced in 570th Co. and had taken us to his church one weekend. I decided to make the infamous Cheese Celebration Soup since Dereck only had a little bowl the night I took it to bible study and came back empty-handed, and it's a crockpot cooking soup- can you say easy? So, Aaron came over, we ate a yummy dinner, and then ended up playing "Settlers of Qatan" or whatever the heck it is called. Again, it's a super popular boardgame with the deployed crew, and while Dereck and Aaron strategized and played the game with deep thought, I just decided to block as much of the board as I could so they could earn less points. I call it strategy, they called it mean. We rounded out the night talking about budgeting and financial planning- am I becoming an old fart or what? Overall, I am happy that our first dinner with a guest went well, and it forced me to clean the house beyond the normal standard. Thursday night we went out to dinner with our friends Rick and Scarlett. Scarlett is the friend I met way back at the Newcomer Orientation and has been my buddy at lots of events on post. The best part about having dinner with them is that they are in the same shoes as us (Dereck and Rick went to school together, they are also newlyweds) and so we have tons in common. The dinner was bittersweet in that it was the last time we would see Rick before his deployment to Iraq, again solidifying to me that there is a heavier side to this lifestyle. As we hugged him bye that night it was hard to comprehend that it will be a good while before we see him again. His wife is handling things beautifully though, and I am so impressed with her faith and maturity about the whole situation. You hear so many stories about the wives who collapse in on themselves when the husband deploys and live in dark caves of houses for the entire year he is gone. I am incredibly proud of her for not being a victim of the deployment, and for understanding that being sad is totally fine, but digging into a hole of pity is not. I can only pray I do that well whenever Dereck's time comes up (which keeps changing, so I have stopped trying to plan).

Friday night I met up with some of the women from the Wednesday morning Bible study I go to, and I had the best time. Going into it I was nervous to say the least. I barely knew the women Jenny who invited me and Heather who was hosting, as for everyone else there, complete strangers to me beforehand. Luckily, from the moment I walked in these women were nothing but inviting and friendly, and funny. I drove home that night with my cheeks aching and my sides sore from laughing, something I am so thankful for. Last week was a little slow for me, so the girl time was invaluable and much needed. I ate till I was throughly stuffed and sat there chit-chating until I decided I should go home and check on Dereck, who ended up being sound asleep on the couch. He had been a busy beaver while I was gone, and I came in to notice a beautiful arrangement of flowers and a birthday cake, funfetti of course. I have to admit that I am proud and surprised at Dereck's baking skills. The cake was delicious and not burnt- there are pictures on facebook to prove it! And to top off all his hard work, he had put my bicycle together- woohoo! It finally made the trek from Alabama and is currently sitting in my guest bedroom waiting to be fitted at Tacoma Bike. I love that bicycle and cannot wait for good weather to hit the roads here.

Saturday was my actual birthday, with me hitting the unimpressive 23. I feel like that is one in-between number in life. It shows that I am out of college and living the adult life somewhat, but still lacks that weight of older age and wisdom. I wonder if I will feel that way until I hit 40 and suddenly feel old instead of wise. When do I hit the age of confidence in the adult world? The day started off with a bang, or cinnamon rolls to be more exact. Again, facebook has photo evidence of the whole day, so check it out. The cinnamon rolls were huge, unhealthy, and delicious and made the perfect treat before driving to the ferry. Seattle can be reached by driving 50 min up the interstate, or by driving 30min to the port of Bremerton, and then taking a 45min ferry ride, and believe it or not, the ferry is 100% more worth the trip. The bay is beautiful and between the huge mountains to the east and watching the Seattle skyline come into focus, we were mesmerized on the deck. That's right, we stood on the deck in freezing weather with our Starbucks (like good Seattle folk) simply for the view. When we drove our car onto the pier we headed for the Coast Guard station. Parking in Seattle is nothing short of an expensive nightmare (think $10 or more for deck parking with street spots never open), so free parking at a guarded military base sounded like a great idea. The only catch? We had to walk 2.5 miles round trip from the heart of Seattle's Pike Place to the station, but to Dereck and me, it was a great option. The only time I regretted it was at the end of the day when I was tired and hungry and faced the walk back. We spent most of the day exploring the market and the downtown shopping area. The fresh floral arrangements are everywhere and tulips and daffodils are the "flowers du jour" right now. North of Seattle is a famous spot called Skagit Valley that holds annual tulip festivals, and I am trying to plan a trip with friends right now. We also stood looking at all the different stalls of seafood, fruits, veggies, and any other weird hippie item you can imagine. We even saw someone get proposed to in front of a street band, and that was pretty awesome. Once we finally made the trek back to the car and got home, we got ready for a nice dinner out, and topped off my birthday in great style with a fondue meal at Melting Pot. Nothing says love like hot chocolate/peanut butter and strawberries. Nothing.

Sunday I experienced a first in my life. We went to a new church in Puyallup that had been recommend to me, and to that end it shall remain unnamed. We love the Mars Hill Church, but I wanted to try this church also since it never hurts to be sure that we are going to the best church for us. There are several reasons I should have been worried from the beginning at the this church, and they go something like this: 1) The bulletin only had 4 blanks for the topic sermon of "pressure"- Dereck and I like pastors to preach on the Bible, not "4 ways to do this" or "5 steps to that," and it was Palm Sunday to boot. 2) The pastor came out and had props on the tables, and 3) he was using the props to loosely explain pressure while throwing in random scripture. It was at this point the first came into play; I thought I could sit through the bad sermon and we could runaway at the end, but the more he spoke, the more we realized this guy was a nut and it made me sad to see so many people enthralled with what he was saying. So I scribbled a note to Dereck and we left in the middle of the service. When we got to the car all we could do was laugh in disbelief at what we had just seen, and so we went home to watch a Mars Hill sermon online. At least the new church solidified our previous choice of Mars Hill. Who hammers plates inside a bag to demonstrate pressure during a sermon? I am laughing and shaking my head even as I write this.

And so the blog rolls into this week. Dereck's mom and sister are coming Thursday afternoon to visit over the weekend, and I am seriously behind in getting ready for their arrival. I haven't cleaned any, need to buy groceries, and need to plan what exactly we are doing with our days. At least I have the laundry going, or that's how I validate sitting here and writing in the blog rather than being productive. Dereck and I did get curtains up in most of rooms last night, so I will add that to the tally of tasks complete. Denial can be such a lovely state, and typing at my desk allows me to be a creeper and watch people walk by outside. Call me the crazy neighbor, it's okay- at least I have curtains now.

Posh Paws and Staff Duty

I sit in disbelief that it has been two weeks since my last blog post. Somewhere between hiking Tiger Mtn and hanging out today with Dereck at the motor pool there has been a ton of life going on! Since I last wrote, the Kennedys have been happily settling into Ft. Lewis, or Joint Base Lewis McChord as we are officially called since joining with the neighboring Air Force base. Secretly I want to rebel against JBLM since no one outside this immediate area is going to know what the heck I am talking about, and just think about writing out "Joint Base Lewis McChord" on an envelope- too much work. Therefore, I have decided to start an underground rebellion of calling my post what it is: Ft. Lewis. Feel free to join the movement and write your local congressman. I am also trying to write this while watching "Cake Boss," something I normally avoid by sitting at my desk with no distractions. I figured I would multi-task tonight though because Dereck has staff duty that began at 9am and ends at 9am tomorrow. Staff duty is one of those four letter words to Army wives that means your husband is in the immediate area, but must man a desk in case of emergencies, like some soldier lighting the battalion barracks on fire. Luckily, Dereck is there with an NCO and Private and between junk food, movies, and video games, they should make the shift end quick enough. I did however get to see Dereck while he worked at the motor pool, and I sat on a big Army box working out our budget- gotta be adult sometime. Army TA-50, or equipment, has a very distinct smell, and it is something that you never really think about, but also never seem to forget and can identify ten miles around. Even this very moment I can smell it on my jeans.

So here is a quick recap since the Tiger Mtn day. Sunday, I had another Military Wife Support Group bible study, and each time we meet we have a dinner theme. That week the theme was soup and salad, so I volunteered to bring my mom's Celebration Cheese Soup, which I love making due to it requiring the food processor. Dereck even got in on the action and chopped the carrots, celery, and green onions in the processor before they got sauteed. Once we made the soup and started the crock pot, Dereck informed me that I should bring home any leftovers for him to munch on. That night when I returned however, I came with an empty crock pot. Turns out that the soup was a hit, and people wanted the recipe from me- take that all doubters of my cooking finesse! The look on his face when he saw the empty pot was priceless, and needless to say, I am planning on making a pot just for him this upcoming week. I also had the joy of getting allergy tested, and pricked 20 million times. The most awful part of it all though was the wait in the pharmacy to get an Epi Pen. I wandered in, punched a button, and then saw that they were serving number 298, meaning my number was only a mere 110 numbers off! I didn't even know that you could have that big of a difference! So I sat there until I realized if Dereck was there with me in uniform, I could get my medicine faster and get out of the sea of retirees watching "The Price is Right." Luckily, he had a lunch break and came to my rescue- I can only imagine that after the hours of waiting for the 110 number gap to close I might have started having some gray hair of my own.

To fast forward, we hit last weekend: Draffen wedding weekend. The Draffens are family friends that have been around since I was a little toddler in Ft. Leavenworth, and our parents are even concocting crazy dreams of building a retirement compound in New Braunfels Texas. We'll have to wait and see whether that ever comes to fruition. It felt like it took 20 years to reach Lawrence, Kansas where the wedding was, and it took Dereck and I a full day of flying to get into Kansas City. All I have to say is that the trip is so much better in the air than on the ground. Kansas City to Lewis took over 3 days and miles of madness. Between the beer and basketball madness that is Kansas, we had a great time at KU, and I liked the downtown stretch a ton. The wedding of course was the best part, and I have to admit that I got a little teary-eyed watching someone I knew since I was 3 get married. I can only imagine that the upcoming weddings back home are going to be major tear-jerkers also- need to have some serious tissues. I asked Dereck after the ceremony if we could renew our vows yet, and he said to give it another 24 years or so, when we could afford it. We even managed to get my dad on the dance floor, which is no small feat. When we got to Kansas, I was curious to see if I would remember anything about Leavenworth, but when my parents took me there on Sunday, I barely remembered our old house. Mom pointed out an eagle statue at a VFW building and told me that I used to demand to pet it every single time that we drove or walked by. Dereck thought this was hilarious and told me to "pet the eagle" the rest of the weekend. Fun fact: the town outside Ft. Leavenworth has a state jail, federal jail, and the post has a military jail. That's right: three jails in one town. The creepiest thing though was that the military jail is literally next to senior officers' quarters, and anyone looking out a jail cell window would see a tricycle and hula hoop across the street. No thanks!

Getting home Sunday turned into an adventure when our flight to Salt Lake City was delayed (bad weather coming in from NY) just enough to make us potentially miss our connection to Seattle. Delta gave us the option of taking a flight to Portland and then getting a rental car (paid out of pocket, mind you) or taking stand-by for a later flight in to Seattle. The only kink to all this? Dereck had field training the entire next week that started at 2am Monday, meaning a later flight or Portland connection put him really close to being late. So, we sat on our late plane and anxiously waited to touch down. When we landed Dereck sprinted off the plane to our connecting gate, and I waited on our pink tag bags before running the sprint of my life to our connection. By the grace of God, Dereck got to the desk as they were preparing to give our seats to stand-by people, and when I finally got there I felt like my lungs might literally rip into pieces. Apparently spin class is not a good prep for sprinting through an airport with two rolling bags, a jacket, and purse. My hope is that it evened out with how much wedding cake I ate the night before. We were soooo thankful to have a happy ending to the story and panting on the next plane for 10 minutes was completely worth it. We got home just in time for Dereck to pack and kiss me bye before heading out for training for five days (think full out camping trip with other unbathed and stinky soldiers).

This last week I have been taking Army Family Team Building Level 2 classes. This is just like the AFTB class I took several weeks before, but more detailed and with more complex issues. The classes fell from 5:30-9pm, and I have to admit that I am the worst person at listening when hungry. Normally by 9pm I was either about to eat my arm or barf from pure chocolate and candy intake. Some of the people from Level 1 were there, and the new additions were fun; we jelled well as a class, and I think the conversations really benefited from it. I also had the chance this last week to hang out with my neighbor Holly and new friend Scarlett at the PWOC bible study. Scarlett and I even got invited to a girls' night next week, so hopefully I will be able to report good times on that front. The evenings while Dereck was in the field I got to watch whatever I wanted on TV and secretly ate junk food, and he'll never know! Of course I missed him, but living single for a short while was fun too. By the time he got home on Friday we were ready to have quality time over the weekend, until he got hit with staff duty, as I mentioned at the beginning. So here I am wearing my pajamas at 8pm, watching TV, and typing to my heart's content. The Army is all about sacrifices- on one side at least. My favorite part of today is that during Dereck's lunch break from staff duty we visited a store called Posh Paws to dream about puppy stuff. I told Dereck that it was my nesting instinct making me want to get ready for the puppy, but I think he liked the store just as much as me. They have some super cool dog toys out there now. The crowd pleaser for the Kennedys was a tennis ball that attaches to a plastic arm that makes it throw really far. Dereck claims that he doesn't need it. I say that we will have to wait and see. I also tried to tell him that the puppy needs a raincoat, I mean we live in Seattle, where else could a dog need a raincoat more? I can picture it now: walking in the rain while wearing matching yellow raincoats and splashing through puddles. Could happiness be any more simple? I dare say no.

Tiger Mountain

Today I realized a disturbing trend on post: we have seagulls in lieu of pigeons or grackles or any other normal bird someone might see when driving through town. Perhaps I think this is strange since I have grown up primarily removed from beach areas (should have gone Navy), but the seagulls are everywhere on Ft. Lewis. They mostly like to congregate in front of the PX and Commissary (Wal-Mart and grocery-store equivalents), and I cannot help but think that they really look like groups of hoodlums. What disturbs me most though is their size. Have you ever really gone beyond throwing bread at them on the beach (or mission trip to the MS coast) to see how big they are? They are huge birds. And now as I type and think, I have yet to see any pigeons here, which leaves the question of whether pigeons have never come here, or if the seagulls bullied them out of the area. I can only imagine that the seagulls scavenge off the random garbage soldiers leave behind, and in that case, I might attribute their size to the American epidemic of obesity from fast food. Makes you think twice about eating the stuff.

But in my exciting life beyond the seagulls, there is much to be said. Dereck celebrated his birthday last week, and per his wishes, we kept it a small affair. Apparently being the new guy and the birthday guy would have been too much, so I even had to keep his birthday a secret from the office. I did however convince him that no birthday would be complete without a cake, and so set about making a chocolate cake with chocolate icing and sprinkles (his request). The cake even turned out to be tasty, what with my oven finally being fixed and burning at an accurate temperature instead of 100 degrees hotter. At least I can feel better about burning so many things when we first came- legit excuse- broken oven. The best part of his birthday though was eating the cake before dinner. It was there, we were hungry, and no one could tell us no. I also made cookies that afternoon for our new neighbors and met another neighbor in the process. She was actually the one who pointed out that Dereck's balloon bouquet from his mom had a balloon saying "Happy Anniversary," and this alone would have been funny had the bouquet not also had a "Happy Birthday" balloon. Perhaps they just wanted to cover all the bases in case it was a birthday/anniversary celebration bonanza. Wednesday and Thursday I went to a "Welcome to the Army" class held by a group called Army Family Team Building. AFTB is something that my mom worked with in the past, and encouraged me to try here at Lewis, and at this point, I have nothing to lose! So, I went and ended up meeting the most interesting people. We had a combo of active duty, retired, and spouses young and old, so I didn't feel like the baby of the group. And, like most events, some of the topics were interesting, and some made me drool, like learning how to solve a problem. I thought I escaped those type classes after leaving college, but they seem to have escaped and followed me. The classes made me realize how much I didn't know about rank, unit structure, protocol, military pay, and acronyms to name a few. The Army loves to abbreviate, and I have to think that at some point all the acronyms stop being useful as short-hand and just become a headache. I even sat next to a sweet German girl who is a newlywed that is fresh to America, so I had at least one other person to sympathize with on all the new info. After the classes ended on Thursday afternoon I decided to take the next two levels, and then if I like those, maybe sign up to be an instructor or facilitator. One thing I like to and can do is talk, so I might as well put it to good use in the community. Just so long as I don't have to teach problem solving, like I have mostly likely jinxed myself with- but honestly, I would teach it too.

Like the AFTB class, I have been kicking around other ways to get involved on post, and am now contemplating coaching with the Children and Youth Services (CYS- see, I wasn't kidding about the acronyms!) My only hesitation is the weekend commitment to the kids, since that is when Dereck and I want to travel and go hiking. The form is filled out and sitting on my desk, but I haven't gotten the peace yet to go in and drop it off. I am hoping that over the weekend I can find some peace about the whole deal and know if it is a good way to get involved. Friday then rolled around, and Dereck came home early from work, which I can only attribute to God since he routinely gets home at late hours. So what does a young couple like ourselves do with such free Friday time? Find an outdoors store in which to buy Disc Golf Frisbees. People in Dereck's office like to play during lunch, and must have been talking the game up with Dereck because he was pretty pumped about the whole deal. The funny part of the whole ordeal was watching him debate color and graphic choices and then trying to find courses in the area. We knew certain towns have courses, but finding them is something of a challenge, the reward for searching them out. Sadly however, we had to cut our game short to attend a Hail and Farewell on post. Hail and Farewells are, like they sound, a chance for the Battalion to greet new members and say goodbye to ones leaving. Dereck was on the "hailing" side and so we got to stand in front of the entire Battalion and their family members to be introduced. Did I mention it was at a bowling alley? Dereck wasn't too big on the location, but I was secretly thrilled at getting to wear clown shoes and use neon-colored bowling balls. We had a great time meeting people and bowling with other LTs (people Dereck's rank) while sizing up the higher ranks. My favorite part though was meeting the spouses and kids of all the people Dereck works with, and seeing that they too have survived the Army life intact. There is hope for the Kennedys!

Saturday started off with grand plans and epic ideas of hiking that quickly turned into a saga of traveling in the car. We originally were supposed to be snow-shoeing Commonwealth Basin, until it got cancelled for lack of snow and participants. I guess Dereck and I were the only ones who thought it sounded cool, and snow shoeing in mud isn't all that appealing sounding. So, we decided to go hike in Mt. Rainier State Park, home of the mountain that you can see everywhere on post, and hit the road. I mapped out our destination and we got to the NW corner of the park in about 40min, ready to start the hike, when the ranger told us it would be $5 per person to hike. This is when angry Gena came out, and I was enraged that they charged you for hiking. I thought it was based on donations and people being tree lovers (no shortage of those around here), but WA stuck it to us and demanded money- cash only- guess how much cash we had in the car- $0! We then waved goodbye to the park in our rear view mirror, googled hiking around Seattle, and headed towards Tiger Mountain (about 1.5 hours away). Tiger Mountain, great name and all, was a good hike and, true to its name, a hilly mountain hike. Needless to say I was tired after the whole day of driving and hiking and was more than happy to hit the couch in the evening. Sunday Dereck and I went to church and then made my mom's delicious cheese soup for my military wife bible study. Every time we meet we have a food theme, and this week it was soup and salad. I must have been feeling adventurous when I put down cheese soup, but much to our delight after slicing, dicing, simmering, and "crockpotering" we had a great soup on our counter. Much to Dereck's great sadness it was destroyed at the study and all his hopes of leftovers for the fridge were dashed.

Finally, more craziness has gone down for the Kennedys this week, but the blog is getting a wee bit lengthy, so to that end I will put your reading to rest for the time being. And Dereck just got home. I couldn't have timed it better if I tried!

Puppy Palooza

I am happy to report that since the last blog, I have been productive in meeting people and going to new events. It luckily seems to be getting easier with each thing, and after a while I have high hopes that going by myself to new places and events won't even be something to worry about. While I was at the newcomer's orientation, I met a wife of someone that Dereck went to school with and we decided to facebook each other. But you always have to be careful when facebooking a new potential friend. There is a delicate balancing game that has to occur for everything to go smoothly from being friendly and engaging to not tipping over to the eager-beaver side of things. It's a game that I have been playing since I got here, and quite frankly, it can be exhausting. This exchange however went well, and we decided to meet up at a meeting the next morning for PWOC, or Protestant Women of the Chapel (on post church). This is a group that I knew about through my mother and my past Army life, so I decided to give it a try, and I have to say that it was a fantastic bet. The group is huge with well over 100 women, and I just happen to come on a week where they had a speaker, comedian, and free lunch, and there is still something of a college kid in me that loves free lunches. Through meeting up with my new friend, I also got to meet people that she already knew on post, which is the beauty of Army communities, the webs of networks are super extensive and oftentimes take nothing more than knowing one person to open up a whole world of other people. The best part of PWOC had to be that Scarlett's friend was named Genevieve, and she had another friend with us named Scarlett, so there we were at the table: Genevieve, Genevieve, Scarlett, Scarlett. How many times can you say that in life? It was also a great springboard for meeting other people during the lunchtime, and I really liked meeting so many other Christian women with the same lifestyle. After lunch, I went with Scarlett and Genevieve to an area called Steilacoom which is right on a beautiful bay that makes me think more of the NE than NW and we had to go have coffee like any good Washington person. I am still working on the coffee thing since it seems to be a super important event in the life of someone living here, but I have only made it to drinking sweet coffee blends, nothing straight or black like Dereck enjoys. All in all, the day was great and I look forward to getting to know Scarlett and my doppelganger better.

Thursday night marked another important first in my Army life: the Battalion coffee. This is a social gathering for all the wives of the officers in the Battalion (roughly 20), where we can get to know each other and build community within the Battalion. This too was something that I remembered my mom doing when I was little, but my memories are moreso of the food that got leftover and being banished to my room while everyone sounded like they were having the times of their lives in the living room. (I actually tried to sneak out of my room a good bit when I was little since I was convinced no party could happen in my house without me, but it got less interesting the older I got). This was one of those things that I knew I needed to go to for Dereck and establishing ourselves in the unit, much like the Battalion ball, but I also knew I was going to be the baby of the group since we are the bottom rung of the officer ladder at the moment. However, Dereck came in at the same time as two other LTs with wives, so we got to be the newbies together, and despite the age gap of almost 20 years to some, and the mix of people with and without children, I had a good time getting to know the women. Really it was the chocolate fountain that sealed the deal for me, complete with bits of strawberries, angel food cake, and peanut butter balls. If I could have one of those running in my house I would be one happy and fat girl. The funny thing about this time in our married lives is that we are the utter definition of high school freshmen in the Army. You remember the feelings of anxiety, nervousness, excitement, trying to act cool, interesting, and on top of things while you are actually sprinting just to catch up with the status quo? That is the exact moment where we are, and I am here to report that those feelings can occur more than once in life. There is lots of sitting and observing others for social cues and conversation topics, so I have a ton to practice and learn still. The older wives in the Battalion immediately reached out to Stacey, Beth, and myself and offered their contact info, should we ever need it, and I can only assume that this is a trend that has been passed down by older women to younger women. The best part of the evening is when I came home and found Dereck asleep on the couch. I used to think that I was a sound sleeper, but this kid can put me to utter shame in that department. I spent three minutes trying to shake his arm and wake him up so he could move from the couch to bed, and this is when he finally opened his eyes and asked me how the tunafish was. I got the giggles so bad that I had to walk away for a minute, and only because he said it with such sincerity- he honestly wanted to know about the tunafish. A couple minutes later I got him to walk down the hallway and he promptly fell asleep sprawled across the entire bed, always the sharing husband. When I asked him the next morning about the tunafish, he looked at me super confused and then remembered watching some fishing show on Discovery before I came home. Apparently tunafish is the new code word for Battalion coffee, word to your mother.

The real highlight of the blog has to be our adventure to see a dog breeder on Saturday. Like I mentioned in an earlier post, we are looking at getting a dog, and now I can happily report that we are going to have a puppy at the end of April in the Kennedy house. We have been looking a breed named the Vizsla or Hungarian Pointer for the simple fact that it kept coming up in conversations and on tv, and it turned out to be a great fit for us. It is a medium-sized dog that likes to hunt, a deep red coat, and has lots of energy, something this house is not short of (and in my dreams when my gimp knee is better I will be able to go running with the dog). The drive alone to see the breeder was phenomenal. We drove from the rainforest of West Washington, into the mountains and past ski resorts, and over into the heart of the apple orchards so famous in the state, and finally into the hilly eastern side of the state with brush and sand. Tucked into the mountains is a town called Leavenworth which is, no lie, a complete Bavarian (Germany) style town from the buildings and architecture, to the street signs and shops. I had heard about the town while at ITT (the place to book trips on post with military discounts) and demanded that we stop there even though it was a little off our path on the puppy palooza. And to make Leavenworth even better, it was a dog day at the park in the middle of town. Everyone had their Huskies and rugged mountain dogs out for the day. We even saw a Entlebucher (traditional Swiss mtn dog with tri-color coat) that had a little barrel around his neck, just like in the pictures, and an old man with traditional mtn wool coat and hat. I asked Dereck at this point if our dog could wear a barrel of beer on his neck and run into his office whenever he needed sustenance, and the look I got in return was priceless. I have never in my life seen such a good reproduction of Germany in the US and I was in hog heaven as we visited the local stores and bakeries (I love my bread products!). Dereck even got to visit a specialty cheese store and buy some neat spiced and flavored cheeses for us to eat with a huge loaf of fresh bread from the Baeckerei (bakery) for lunch down by a stream. I want to get back there as soon as possible and explore more of Bavaria in Washington! Eventually we made it out to the breeder's house and got to visit with her and the dogs for over an hour. Sadly the dog pregnant with our puppy had not gone into labor yet, but she sat in the kitchen demanding petting from Dereck and me the entire time we sat there. It has to be a good dog when the mom about to be in labor with puppies is wagging her tail and pawing for attention from strangers. The breeder must have liked us also since she let us hold 2 week old puppies. I melted the moment I held the little puppy and secretly wanted to stash it in my coat and run away. She would never have noticed one pup missing from the big bed of them! Leaving the breeder's made me want a dog so badly, and the good news is that we 100% feel like this breed will be a good fit now. I hope the end of April gets here in record time!

Sunday we got a TV stand and now when I look around the house, it feels like home. Dereck and I both agreed yesterday that it is so weird to be married and making a home together. I feel like I am still playing pretend with my Little Tykes kitchen and soon some adult is going to arrive and tell me how everything is really done. Pictures of the house should be posted on facebook soon, and haven't been posted yet since I want to get curtains on more of the windows first. I have to make things look nice for when all my visitors come out this summer- cough, cough- did I mention we are getting a puppy- cough, cough. The last bit of good news is that I have befriended the spin teacher (stationary bike class at the gym) and she wants me to train with her and her friends- biking, running, swimming, the whole shebang. Now I just need to have my bike shipped from Alabama, get my gimp knee on the rebound, and find my Speedo swimsuit I stuck somewhere in the madness of unpacking- no problem, right?

The Monkey Can

After a glorious weekend of sunshine and 60 degree weather, the rain has returned, and I have to say that it makes me want to crawl into my bed, turn on the lamp, and read one of the three books I somehow thought I could pile through during a short two-week time period. Instead, I have been sorting through paperwork and trying to create some type of filing system for stuff like insurance, big purchases, warranties, and service bills, and in the midst of sorting and filing I decided I would like to do nothing more than blog. Funny how relative tasks are when on the sliding ruler of preferability. Sort through paperwork? Boring. Clean the kitchen (with a Pyrex dish of crusty burnt cheese- but in my defense our oven is buring almost 45 degrees hotter than it reads) instead of paperwork? Hmmm, suddenly paperwork doesn't sound too shabby. Blog? Trump card of diversion from productivity. Being "an adult" is beginning to look like an initiation via papers and important paper scraps that would stink to lose. Only now am I realizing Dereck probably threw away the tools and directions to the new furniture pieces we have bought in Washington, and to that end, I realize the next move should be interesting without the key parts. It makes me wonder how the heck people ever stay ahead with all the things you have to do in anticipation for something else. Just today I wanted to sign-up for an e-bill for our cable/internet provider, but then it wanted to send my bills to some Comcast email I don't use, so I am now trying to get gmail to forward my comcast emails to gmail. I wouldn't have cared if the bills wouldn't be sent to an email I never check, so here I am at a stalemate and with the best intentions at heart.

The ball on Friday night was Army-licious, if I can invent such a word. We almost didn't make the occasion when, ten minutes before we were supposed to leave, Dereck couldn't find his bow-tie or belt (therefore being out of uniform- a big no-no). Apparently somewhere in the mad rush of packing and unpacking those pieces went missing into the great beyond where all the socks that go missing from the dryer are also. Luckily, military sales was open, and we arrived just in time for the receiving line into the ballroom. What I liked most about the evening was meeting Dereck's friends and coworkers who I will be seeing a good deal of in the future. Our table included Dereck and me, Aaron (the guy Dereck is replacing) and several couples who have men in Dereck's platoon (women aren't allowed in combat engineers). At first the table was a little quiet and unsure, what with the mixed ranks and officers and enlisted people, but I decided I just couldn't handle that. So, being a good Army brat I looked at the guy next to me and told him that we had to think of some fun conversation since we would being sitting together the rest of the night. And that simple decision helped to make the evening relaxed and fun as people gradually entered into the conversations on those random topics that always seem the most interesting at parties, like dog breeds. That is one fantastic topic you can use with men or women of any age. Everyone has an opinion and something to say, or some childhood memory. The food wasn't even too shabby, and I helped myself to the yummy cordon blue. There was also the grog, a odd mix of alcohol added by soldiers in a particular order and with a particular saying or reason for its addition, but to me it tasted like kool-aid, so I only had a little.

Saturday, Dereck and I were feeling extra social and went to a party that one of his friends was throwing in Seattle. But first we went to look at curtains with our bevy of gift cards. Those are some of the best wedding presents to date that I can think of. We have bought exciting and needed items like food, cleaning supplies, curtains, and tools with them (Dereck needed some "essentials"). Before the party details though, I would like to warn you all of the costs of curtains. Maybe I am the last person on the planet to have missed this memo, but those suckers are expensive, especially when you have odd-shaped windows in an older house. Even though I am unpacked at the moment, I feel like the house is still a little naked without its window dressings. We only bought curtains for the living room in the end due to confusion, too many options, and lack of time- we had a party to get to! Adam, Dereck's friend from Ft. Leonard Wood, invited us to his parents' house in Seattle, and we had the best time. His parents live in an older, but decidedly college-feeling area near Wash-U (thus the whole college vibe), where the houses are cottages, and squeezed together on narrow streets. The whole time I was at the house I ate. Adam is apparently an amazing griller who made onion-stuffed chicken with savory rubs and ribs of amazingness. The best part was that I saw Dereck's friends from the night before again, and we got to have fun sitting and relaxing away from the cold stare of commanders. Again, we talked about the silliest topics and towards midnight everyone decided Rock Band should be played. We all took turns at the different instruments, but Dereck and I sang mostly on the mic along with the Beatles soundtrack. Nothing shows you the character of a person like Rock Band. At one point I tried to share drumming responsibility with a girl named Steph, and then got demoted to pushing the foot peddle due to lack of rhythm. What can a girl do? Finally we gave into exhaustion and headed back down I-5 to catch some sleep before church.

Sunday morning we went to Aaron's church (again, the guy Dereck is replacing) since he invited us, and then offered lunch also. The church was 129% not our style, but I loved seeing the different worship movement there, and they had great live music. After church Aaron fed us and then taught us a neat board game called Knights of Qatar or something like that. This game is the mack-daddy stuff for deployed soldiers who don't have much to do in-between missions out in the desert, and this is a welcome diversion away from poker. It took me a while to get the hang of it, but soon enough I was strategizing with those conniving boys and won! The best part of Sunday for me was going to a bible-study for military wives. The whole thing was very serendipitous since I randomly found an article about them in the local newspaper and decided I had nothing to lose. The women at the support group are mixed in ages, ethnicities, backgrounds, and military branches, but we all have the bond and unique challenges of military life. I got to hear stories about deployment struggles, babies with teething problems, and news of movements around to other posts and bases. They are reading a book called God + Military Spouse, and I am really looking forward to reading it. I left the group feeling a peace that I wasn't alone, something that has been a struggle in the last two weeks as I try to feel out the Army thing and meet people on my own. Dereck and I are the equivalents of high school freshman and all those feelings you had of trying to fit in, to figure out the social setting, and do well are real and present for me.

Today we got the chance to go to a Newcomers Orientation, and I have to give the MWR props on this one. They had tables of info from tons of military and civilian vendors and services. We even won a free snow shoeing trip from the MWR Outdoors Center for answering a question. Ironically my favorite presenter was from the Military Police. This guy was an old drill Sergeant and he was hilarious in describing illegal activities on post. He liked to call jail the monkey cage or can, depending on his mood, and threatened to throw us all in the monkey can if we didn't listen. I can't remember how many recycling posts are here, but I now know that someone always goes to jail in domestic violence reports in Washington, so I should probably stop beating Dereck up. And there you have it, the glorious reportings of Ft. Lewis to read at your leisure. Enjoy!

Boxes, boxes eveywhere, and not an end in sight

I am currently sitting in a house that is full to the brim with boxes and piles of belongings. Since arriving now two weeks ago at Ft. Lewis, life has been surprisingly busy for the Kennedy family. We spent the first weekend here in a daze of trying to figure out all the roadways and wrong sides of the tracks (every town has them, and Army posts always seem to be around some seedy places). We are so lucky however to have gotten the post housing, and be able to live in the thick of the Army community. Our housing looks familiar to all the houses I grew up in that seemed to pop up after WWII and have very long lives. Even as I sit here now and look around, I have a hard time imagining how many other families have lived in this house, walked around these rooms, and touched these doors. There is never any trace of the family before since the Army likes to paint the walls and doors between each set, and I have a feeling that the secret notes I used to leave in closets for the next kid of the house always got thrown away by some cleaning crew. My favorite part of the house is that we have a great backyard with two huge trees that I could maybe close my arms around half of when hugging. Someone left a bird feeder nailed onto the trunk of the left tree, but looking at it now as I type, I come to the realization that it is going to stay there- maybe I should buy seed for the birds to eat. Then I can be like my grandma and watch birds while sipping the morning coffee.

Despite everything that we got for the wedding or inherited from our parents, we still had a need for furniture, and have spent bits of the last two weekends shopping for pieces. We are even lucky enough to have an Ikea nearby, but while we love the designs and think they look awesome, after two hours of wandering the showfloors, we began to realize that European minimal is not our style (we did snag a desk for Dereck and bed frame though- have you seen their prices?) We also started going to a church in the area that people from my church in Birmingham recommended, and feel like it might be a good fit for the duration of our Ft. Lewis stay.

The biggest blessing this week, without a doubt, has been the weather. The first full week we were here Dereck had to work on "in-processing" and filling out Army paperwork, which left me with an empty house, no internet, and constant rain, and that is one dangerous combo. Weekend 1 we bought a coffee table and used that as our everything table while sleeping on the guest bed, and by weekend 2 we bought a couch for simple desire to have something beside the bed to sit on. Of course I knew that Seattle is a rainy place, I just didn't realize it is more of a constant drizzle than falling rain like in Alabama. The gray skies and empty rooms the first week were enough to drive me batty, so the sunshine out my window at the moment is super welcome. Yesterday the good weather inspired me to walk to the hospital for my appointment, and the short 20 minutes each way was fantastic. I got a great view of Mt. Rainer my whole walk back, and lots of people looked at me like I was crazy as they sped by in the vehicles. Think what they may, they are the ones losing out! I like to look at the days and think what it would be like to have a dog for long walks and games of fetch. And on that topic, the Kennedys are looking for a dog. We have some breeds in mind, and entertained the whole pound puppy deal also, but have decided on a Vizsla, if we can get it! Vizsla are medium-sized hunting dogs with rusty red coats, and the more we learn about them the more we like them. My secret hope is that in a matter of time I will be able to blog about having my own in the house, and I even have a name picked out secretly.

The whole job deal unfortunately has nothing to report on at the moment. The waiting game doesn't feel like a fun one, but on the plus side I have more time for all the boxes. Our movers surprised us and came a week early, promptly telling us the night before. And, in true Army style, the moving day also happened to be Dereck's first work day, so I was all on my lonesome to handle it. Luckily between my mom and the understanding truck driver, the whole process went smoothly, and unloading only took two hours, making an unsuspecting new Army wife think that unpacking boxes can't possibly take too long, right? Oh gracious how wrong I was! The tough part about the whole ordeal was that I was doing more than the standard box unpacking I knew as a child, I also was unpacking new wedding gifts still in store boxes, and seeing items I didn't even know I owned. This added another layer of chaos as I tried to process what should go where and how. At this very moment we only have 6-9 boxes in the house, but the millions of items from other boxes lay strewn about in piles. The kitchen and our bedroom are done, and in those places I like to take my breaks since the small goals of unpacking by room can become daunting when combining two newlyweds' stuff. We have a ton of crap, and I never would have thought that before unpacking. I truly fail to understand how people who collect and hoard manage to move. My hope is that within the next week we can have all of the items melded together into one place that looks like a home. If that miracle is achieved, then pictures should be to follow.

At the moment I need to hope in the shower since Dereck found out on Tuesday, his first day as a Platoon Leader, that we have a Winter Ball tonight. Thank goodness household goods came a week early, otherwise I would have had to buy a dress and shoes, and no newlywed budget likes that. Being adults is one expensive undertaking!

Welcome to Ft. Lewis

It feels like it has been forever since I wrote a blog, and so I have had tons of thoughts bouncing around my head that I haven't been able to record. The worst part of it though is that I will think of something funny or see a weird sign on the road, want to blog about it, and then promptly forget it when I see the next neat thing. This trend over the last two weeks roughly has led to a massive amount of ideas coming and going as they please, and to my disappointment, will most likely be gone forever to the great depths of nowhere. That said, since my last blog, I have been a busy, busy girl, which is quite a change of pace from the Ft. Leonard Wood days (or the lost days as I like to think of them). I really should quit joking on the lovely Missouri, especially since I know I will be back there in a short 2-3 years, but when you compare that to Lewis the comments just roll off the press.

I wrapped up my last full week in Ft. Leonard Wood by continuing to look for jobs, and continually being frustrated with the Catch-22 of "experienced required." Apparently in this job market employers can be picky and have plenty of laid-off and experienced workers to choose from, making me the novice not so very appealing. To be super honest at this point, I cannot even really remember what we did our last weekend in Missouri beyond eating a Sunday brunch at Cracker Barrell. I had driven by it everyday on the way on and off post and was determined to have one yummy breakfast there before leaving. Last Monday was our official last day, Dereck graduated his bomb school, and I went to the gym one last time and packed the Civic. I am proud to say that the little car has fantastic trunk space, and after accessing all those tetris skills I accrued on gameboy, I felt satisfied that the little car might make it across the US afterall. The crazy part of Monday was that I had to be ready to leave for Kansas City at any moment, but also be ready to leave the next morning according to what the Army told Dereck. We lucked out however, and made the four hour drive across small Missouri county roads to the glowing Kansas City. Most of this drive was in the dark of the evening, so I had little to look at besides billboards about Mizzou, and when we got to the hotel we barely had the energy to get our stuff into the room.

Early Tuesday morning we woke up and ate those oddly generic hotel breafasts before heading across Kansas City and into Kansas. Dereck had warned me that this would be the boring part of the ride, and when it takes eight hours to cross one state that has praries and farms as far as the eye can see, this is no exaggeration. The first bit was interesting enough, with Kansas City and then the outskirts of Ft. Leavenworth to entertain me. I had lived there when I was little, but my three year-old memomory failed me, and I remembered nothing of the area. At this part of NE Kansas, everything looks like the rolling hills of Missouri, and I thought that maybe Dereck had been exaggerating, and then we hit....prarie land. At first the praries were mezmerizing and I spent several hours looking across them for prarie dogs, log cabins, and cattle. I also should mention at this point that I took pictures while driving the 36 hour joy trip, so go to facebook and see what all I am writing about here. In the midst of prarie land I saw Ft. Riley, and this was another post that I put on the black list. The Army has a thing about vast, cheap land, and unfortunately that never seems to correspond with cool, metropolitan areas, except for Ft. Lewis! Most of Kansas was empty space and signs telling drivers that abortion was sinful and displeasing to God. This lines up with the trial that is currently being held for the guy that shot an abortion doctor during a church service, and helped me to understand how this fervor could build so easily in the middle of nowhere. Kansas really is wide, open, and spaced out. I could drive miles without seeing signs of human existence, and without Dereck behind me on the road, I believe I could have easily felt like I was in another world. For a while we followed a string of billboards about a farm that had the world's largest prarie dog, a five-legged steer, a three foot long donkey, and rattlesnakes. Every mile promised that the fun and splendor was just ahead, and soon I found myself sucked into the tourist trap and ready to drop big bucks for entry. I mean how often can you see that many crazy animals in one spot? I only started to doubt when I saw a sign that said the prarie dog weighed 3,000 pounds and began to realize it must be a statue, and this was only confirmed by the shanty building off the interstate where all the "wonders" were housed. Crazy how the dumbest things are appealing in the middle of nowhere on a lonely Kansas highway.

Insanity began to set in around hour seven on the road, and I lived for the Colorado border that meant Denver was nearby, and sleep would soon happen. Kansas had been dusty and windy, and we even later learned that our highway would often be closed across the state because strong winds could knock cars off the roads. Colorado however meant the end to the flat lands and the first glimpses of the Rockies. And they were spectacular when peaking up over the plains in the windshield. The thing that struck me most about the Rockies, particularly in Denver is how they seem to jut out of the ground abruptly, without any gentle hills or inclines to preceed them. That night we ate dinner with our friend Eric Tonn who we knew in high school, and we all sat in awe at the idea that we were now at the age where you live as adults, us moving to Ft. Lewis, and Eric living in Denver. The next morning, Dereck and I decided to push as far as we could for the day. As I saw it, the further we got on Wednesday, the less we had to drive on the Thursday trek into Lewis.

So, I set my iTunes on random playlists and artists I forgot I owned, and we hit the road from Colorado into Wyoming. What can I say about that beautiful spot? Nothing except it was one of the most desolate and isolated states I have ever seen (and I have lived in the California desert!) We started in the SE corner and drove toward Cheyenne and then hit a huge national forest that dumped us into a dry, cold valley where the landscape was crazy and looked like the moonscape. Huge plateaus loomed on both sides of the road, and Dereck and I hit a portion of the highway where we were the only ones for a couple of hours on the road. We did manage to find a small town for lunch, and as we sat there, we both agreed Wyoming was not the place for us. The better part did follow luckily as we went from Western Wyoming into Utah and drove towards Salt Lake City. Slowly the dry valleys and rocks gave way to beautiful and scenic snow-covered mountains. Now we were in Mormon country, and the whole time I drove through the state I thought about Mormons I knew, their theology, and their book, keeping me surprisingly entertained. I was also extatic to be around mountains and signs of life- Wyoming had felt lonely, and here I felt like I was part of the road community. I also listened to an audiobook, my first to be honest, and I actually liked it. The story line was simple enough to follow while driving, and it was also a great break from music. Seven hours into the drive even the best songs start to loose their shine. We pushed on through Utah and entered southern Idaho, and the landscape change was crazy. The steep skiing mountains gave way to old, sloping mountains, which then gradually flattened out to the rustic potato farmlands. This is also the time that the land got boring again, and it didn't take too much to imagine how easily tornadoes can rip across the plains. The audiobook kept me sane until we hit Boise, and there we camped for the night at a hotel and had Mexican for dinner. The best part of driving long hours is that we were wiped out by 9pm, and ready to hit the sack for the next early morning. I will forever prefer to rise early and drive than drive into the late night.

Hitting Boise meant that Thursday we could make it all the way into Ft. Lewis in only six hours. Six hours sounded so short at this point in the journey that I was giddy with excitement. Never again can anyone tease me for not being able to make long car trips after the end of these 30 something hours. The northern portion of Idaho wasn't much to write about, but Oregon was excedingly better. We cut the NE corner of the state before entering western Washington, going north and then cutting across the mountains to Seattle and Ft. Lewis. Here is something that I never knew before: the eastern portion of Washington is desert-like since all the rain is trapped by the mountains that bisect the state. So, the first few hours of the trip I was antsy and had little to look at until the mountains and the huge descent that precedes it in Oregon. Again, photo evidence can be found on facebook of the journey. The highlight of Thursday was talking to my friend Shelly who I haven't seen since high school in Texas. It is such a comfort to know in life that people who you knew and loved years ago are still the same lovable person. We obviously had a ton to catch up on, and the best irony of it is that we Army brats had both married boys we knew in high school, didn't date until college, and now are officers in the Army also. I am continually keeping my fingers crossed that my friends turned Army wives will someday get stationed at the same post. Life is too circular for it to not happen.

Thursday afternoon we rolled into Ft. Lewis and scrambled to get housing on post before the offices closed. We were then lucky enough to get the last one available for our rank on post. Talk about coming in the nick of time! Following the office for housing, we promptly ate dinner and fell asleep, and to be honest, it was probably 7 or 8pm, but we had made it! I am a living testament to God's grace covering you for anything. There is simply no way I could have ever done the 36 hours otherwise, and now we were at Ft. Lewis, the place we have been waiting for for over a year, and what feels like the official beginning of our adult life together.