a new project

yes just what i need another project to do. in my defense these are super cute and i just don't want to pay what she is asking for these adorable bags. rather than try to describe them i'll just post the link to her website:

www.campfollowerbags.com

the work on these bags is amazing! i especially like the fun funky fabrics on the inside. i think i can figure out how to make these puppies and i know i have plenty of raw material --- did i mention neilsons 3+ boxes of old uniforms in storage?

yeah, in neilsons six years in the army he has gone through 3 differen combat/battle uniforms.
first it was the bdus. those were the green/brown/black numbers. then came dcus aka desert combat uniforms. the pattern on these frocks looked very much like the pattern on the bdus but these are in pallate more compatible with the desert - think tan/beige/brown. and now my hero hubby wears acus. they are pixilated (sp) and in a sage/gray/tan color combo.

3 different uniforms means 2 huge piles of outdated uniforms and well no real need for them. but how do you get rid of them? they have name tapes on them, patches and some have even seen combat. so i was thrilled to see these bags as possibilites. i'm also imagining rugged quilts for the park, beach or car. hmmm.... so many possibilites. look for exciting projects under your christmas tree soon!

Counting Down

We are counting down our days in Kansas. As mom can atest to, my house is filling up with boxes and I'm almost embarassed by the mound of trash for the garbage men tomorrow.

I've buried St. Joseph in the front yard and have my fingers crossed and many prayers said that my house will sell. My neighbor is interested and has talked to the banker but as you all know selling a house is an emotional roller coaster. It's my home, and I hope that someone finds it appealing and wants to buy it. SOON!!

We also took Ramona out to Manhattan to live with mom and dad. That was not easy. Gracie is attached to the old cat and was very sad to see her go. I'll spare you all the details but rest assured she is doing better today.

Neilson is back on days so I'm back to staying up late to chat with him. However now I can sleep in the next morning instead of getting up for work!

And speaking of work I may have a job at Grace's new school. That is something I need to go in and talk to them about when we get moved.

And I'm feeling a little unorganized as this scattered post proves. Just now I'm thinking I need to go to Walmart to get the business cards you print yourself with my new info on them so I can pass them out to friends, family whoever. I also need to get some sort of planner/organizer for all these cards I've been given with important info on them. YIKES.

And that is where we are now -- living in a fortress of cardboard, two emotional women (hee hee) and trying to pull of this move!!

We're Not In Kansas Anymore

Ok really, we still are in Kansas but it has been a whirlwind week.

Today is Tuesday. A week ago today I was done with my career as a preschool teacher. Graduation was done and I was frantically packing for my quick trip to Texas. I feel I should fill you in.

Fort Hood is unique. Well maybe not, but it is odd at any rate. If you wish to live on post you must apply for it. And if you must apply in person, well not just anybody, the military member must apply in person. Since I am not the military member I got my handy dandy Power of Attorney and Neilson's Big Black Book of the Army and my Sacred Baggie of Paperwork and headed off to Texas.

Diane and I headed off to Manhattan to drop Gracie off with Mama and Papa and then drove straight down to Killeen. The drive was night and really quite uneventful. We did Dallas/Ft. Worth at rush hour -- OUCH! And I made a minor wrong turn that left us at a Little Caesars Pizza asking a young interesting woman for directions that included, "Go down to that street you know and go this was and this way and stay left." Ummmm yeah.

We stayed with a girl I met on my military wives website. Wendi graciously let us invade her house for two nights. We rolled into Killeen late and promptly crashed. The next morning we were up and at them early to get to Housing. The housing ladies were very kind. Of course it might have had something to do with the fact that I looked like a lost puppy that could burst into tears at any minute and I started each introduciton with, "I am a new Army wife. I have never done this before. Please help me."

With minor running around to get two more pieces of paperwork -- the Army loves their paperwork, we were given a house that day. Yes despite what you hear about military housing and the horrendous wait lists I walked into housing in the morning and was given a house that afternoon. This is of course because we only qualify for a 2 bedroom. They give you exactly one master bedroom and one bedroom per kid. Since we are the only wackados who have one kid there are an abundance of 2 bedroom houses and we could move right in.

I'm not going to post our address here because of safety reasons but if you email me I would be happy to pass it along. I'm not actually real sure of the house number. I'll have to check my paperwork. I'm also going to attempt to post two links. One will show you the floor plan of our humble abode, the second will show you a view of the exterior or something very similar.

floor plan
https://onestop.army.mil/_hqd/BaseHousing_show.asp?base=67&planid=16&rid=1&k=0

picture of exterior
https://onestop.army.mil/_hqd/BaseHousing_show.asp?base=67&planid=16&rid=1&k=0

map of our "village"
https://onestop.army.mil/_hqd/BaseHousing_show.asp?base=67&planid=16&rid=1&k=0
If you email me for our address I can tell you which house is ours on the map!

Our house has been remodeled and we are the first occupants! :) As you can see from the floor plan we have ginormous bedrooms and more storage than even we can fill! It will be good. And probably the best thing are the two mature trees in our yard, one in front and one in back. Mature trees = shade = cooler parts of the yard = happy Heather in Texas heat.

Thursday night we were witness to the great flood. Seriously! I have never seen a whole city shut down due to rain. I think we got 5 inches or more in the course of 5 hours. I cannot express to you how hard and how long it rained. Here is a link to a picture taken in front of Wendi's house that night! Notice how high the water is up on that car.
http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y5/Sft2tch69/The%20Great%20Killeen%20Flood/Flood001.jpg

Since there was so much flooding and rain we decided to get up at 5:00 in the morning and get out of town to avoid the second round of flash floods. And it's a good thing we did. Killeen got hammered again and they even had a tornado touch down! Yikes.

Our drive back was uneventful and we were back in Kansas City by Friday night. So in the course of 72 hours I spent about 30 hours of them in the car driving. I lazed around Saturday and Sunday to recover. And then it hit me....

YIKES I HAVE TO PACK MY CRAP!! I'M MOVING IN 2 WEEKS!!!

ONE MORE DAY

one more day
24 more hours
two more programs
two pinatas

and i will be done.
done teaching.
retired.

and it can't come soon enough :P

seriously i'm getting very excited for my new career as stay at home mom and wife. i'm going to jump in with two feet as soon as school gets out tomorrow evening. wednesday morning i am heading down to texas to apply for housing and hopefully within the month i will be a resident of the lone star state!! i just have to make it through the next 24 hours.... tick tock tick tock tick tock

A Few of Gracie

I took a few pics of the princess at dinner and the bookstore the other night. Enjoy!

A New Do

Yep, that's me. A new curlier me. Alissa convinced me that a body wave was the way to go this summer. And she has never steered me wrong and once again, she rocks.

I love the new do and it is soooooo easy. I just dampen it, add some mousse and scrunch. I've gotten lots of compliments so I'm feeling rather hot with my new look.

The Lord Said to Noah

"How long can you tread water?"

I feel like I better get practicing my freestyle because we may have to swim to school tomorrow. I'm sure you've seen on the news that poor ol' Kansas has been getting hammered by storms. Out west is where the tornados are popping up and back east in KC we are getting round after round of rain.

Anybody wanna help build an ark? I got the plans right here in the book of Genesis. Oh, and while we're at it, what's a cubit? Is that metric or standard? hmm....

Grace and I ran up to Ft. Leavenworth this weekend. We had to get the rank sewn on Neilson's new patrol cap. Since we were up there we decided to peruse the PX and Commisary. This is leading to two Gracie stories so here we go.

#1 We were looking at a rack of little girls' clothes and a woman soldier in acu's walked up and started looking at the same rack. Grace just stared and stared at her. You could see the little gears spinning trying to figure out how a mommy could be a soldier. Finally in her very subtle 3 year old voice - haha - she pipes up and announces, "Mommy look!! A soldier girl!!!" Of course I wanted to melt into a puddle of embarassment but the lady was very nice about it and we continued on our way.

#2 We were again at the PX. This time at the checkout. A pack of soldiers walked by - again in acu's and Gracie announces again that she's seen a lot of soldiers. Then she turns to me and asks when her daddy is in Iraq. I told her he was there right now to which she replied," Well I really miss him. I love my daddy." It was cute and pathetic all at the same time.

But embarassment and patheticness aside we had a successful trip and found many interesting foods to send to Neilson. Did you know you could buy pot roast in a can?

The other exciting news this week is that Mandi and Wade are baptizing baby Gabe on Mother's day and they asked if I would be one of the Godmothers. Mandi's sister Tobina will be the other Godmother and there won't be a Godfather. I guess that makes Tobina and I God"life partners". HA Seriously, I am very excited and honored to be asked and can't wait for Sunday.

That's about all I know for today. Keep watching the news to see if you see Gracie and I floating by on our ark.

I'm Famous!

well sort of....

my dear hubby told me tonight that there is a very small road, practically a cow trail and undoubtedly full of potholes in iraq that bears my name. yes, i have a road named after me. like i said it is a small road that leads to a "bury patch".

someday if he is ever on the road he's going to take a picture of it for me. so for now i have to be content with the knowledge that some iraqi is walking down heather road. kinda cool huh?

neilson tells me that i've officially joined the ranks of many other army wives with the road naming. i just think it's neat-- but hey, i'm a nerd what can i say.

just call me her royal highness heather

Update on Neilson and Other Tidbits

I had a few random thoughts and bits that I had better pass along. Excuse the engineer in my while I make a list.

1. Neilson is working in headquarters for 6-9 Cav. He is scheduled to take company command this summer sometime.

2. As far as we know he is extended to 15 months which will mean homecoming in January.

3. He has a microwave and fridge in his room so that opens up a whole world of snack possibilites. BTW he misses dinner on occasion as well so soups, micro meals are good.

4. Evidently he is at the end of the earth and communications over internet or phone are not ideal. We were spoiled while he was at warhorse and all his good internet and phones.

5. The November 3 wedding has been canceled and tentetivly rescheduled for March 5, 2008. This will be the 2nd anniversary of our first date so we thought it was a good day. Can't tell you WHERE it will happen but we're working on it.

6. Only 14 more school days!!

So I think that's about all I know right now. Hopefully I'll be more interesting tomorrow!

I'm Gonna Mail This One In

I belong to a website for military wives. They have a column that I decided to just copy and paste. Enjoy:

15 Months
By Jacey Eckhart
I’m sure they thought it was just three more measly months. Another 90-odd days. A stretch into the following spring. Big deal.
When Defense Secretary Robert Gates announced that the Army’s standard one year deployment to Iraq and Afghanistan would be increased to 15 months, I’m sure they were thinking it was the best possible way to solve their manning issues. After all, what’s 15 months to people who have been apart already for a year?
I’m sure they were thinking that our really dedicated career soldiers wouldn’t leave the service over a lousy three months. They wouldn’t give up their retirement over that. Couples wouldn’t get divorced over 90 more days apart if the previous 365 didn’t faze them. What’s the difference between 12 months and 15 months anyway?
I’m thinking it could be your Imus step, fellas. It could be the push after many pushes that is the push too far.
A year was already a long time to be apart. Fifteen months is longer, so much longer. It isn’t three months longer, it is exponentially longer.
Fifteen months is two Christmases apart, two Passovers alone, two Ramadans away from the family. It’s two complete NFL seasons. It’s two summers watching the kids at the beach reminding them how much Soldier Mommy loves the ocean and for them to get that I-don’t-quite-remember-her look.
For our families, 15 months is another band banquet unwitnessed, because the other kids had to be picked up from a tournament an hour and a half away. It’s another three months of a boss who rolls his eyes because there is a sick kid at home and no one else to take care of him. Fifteen months is long enough to feel like you’ve already been widowed.
Fifteen months is being 37-years old and trying to get pregnant and realizing there are 15 more times that you’ll have proof that you won’t be having a baby.
Fifteen months is just long enough to make a family think that the Army might as well increase the tour to 24 months, build housing and schools and commissaries in Afghanistan and make it an accompanied tour. How much danger is too much danger if it means we could be together?
For our unmarried soldiers, 15 months gives you 12 more Saturday nights that some other guy asks your girl to dance. It’s realizing how hard it is to find someone in the world who even likes you, much less who will make out with you, much less who will wait 60-plus consecutive weekends to be kissed again.
Fifteen months may be enough for military families to notice that this isn’t a global war after all. The Navy doesn’t have 5,000 ships like they did in World War II. They don’t have 500. There aren’t 5 million sailors on the ocean. The neighbors aren’t on rationing. No one is planting a victory garden. Fifteen months is enough to make you scrawl on your refrigerator, “America is not at war. The American military is at war. America is at the mall.”
But most of all, you Department of Defense fellas have got to remember what we families already know. Your own statistics say that the military spouse is the No. 1 retention tool — that our opinion counts more with the service member than the pay or benefits or quality of the assignment that you offer. Fifteen months may be the exact amount of time for us to decide that we aren’t getting divorced over this and that we won’t leave our service member. But we plan to take him with us when we go.

Oh Happy Day

Today ended up being a happy day which proves again that good things come to those who wait. Before I tell you the happiness and explain the pictures in the posts below let me back up to yesterday.

You know how I blogged about how wonderful communication is with Neilson. Well Murphy's law reared it's big ol' ugly head and the internet connection has been down since Sunday morning. This happens to coincide with a horrific bout of violence in the very same province that my favorite soldier is stationed is. By this morning I had all but convinced myself that the army was trying to locate me. Don't worry, while I still haven't managed to connect with Neil, the news released the soldiers affected in the suicide bomb were from the 82nd Airborne Division from Ft. Bragg, NC. That means he is still safe and sound in the First Cavalry Division.

Needless to say when I got that news at school today I was very relieved as were Karen and mom. All three of us got ourselves pretty worked up and I at least am going to avoid national news at all costs. And now I hope and pray that the internet comes back up and I hear from Neilson soon.

So back to the happy day part. As you can guess I was delerious with relief when I made it home from school today. As I staggered to the front porch I was met by a box left by the friendly UPS man. *yay UPS* I checked the return address label and was thrilled to find that the fabric I ordered for my kitchen arrived at my house!! Below are swatches of the fabric I ordered. They are the Garden Market Florals by Laurie Bird. Let me tell you they weren't easy to track down. I ended up ordering them direct from the textile mill!

23 Yards of kitchen bliss. Someday they will become napkins, placemats, towel trim, table cloth trim or whatever else my heard desires. They will be bright and cheerful and complement the Fiestaware dishes in our many kitchens across the US which will undoubtedly by boring contracter white. (sorry Dad!!)

I know many of you have seen the inspiration piece for my kitchen. It is a wooden cross I picked up at the Foxy Flamingo in Belhaven. It is painted green, yellow, peacock blue and red. It has a house with a sun and the words, "God bless this house," painted whimsically across it.

Bold? Yes
Loud? Oh yes
Fun? Yes
Gaudy? Maybe *hee hee*

You will never be able to say I have a boring kitchen.

And that is why I am happy today!

Things I Like

1. email
2. instant messaging
3. telecommunications

i have much respect for those men and women who endured the many years of deployment during ww2. letters would come in clumps and the receipiant knew that the writer was well on the day the letter was written.

during vietnam, letters were the main communications. if you got fancy you may get a cassette.

desert storm and bosnia brought phone calls but those were short, few and far between.

now we have email. i can write to neilson everyday -- even many times and he gets it right away. and i loooove instant messaging. we have "dates" everynight at the computer to "talk" in real time. it reminds me of our predeployment days when we had dates to talk on the phone everynight at 9pm. (yeah, we're cheap! that's when our free nights and weekends started) and of course i get phone calls almost once a week. gotta love those phone calls.

and speaking of phone calls, at&t phone cards will no longer work for our favorite soldier. he has informed me that they have some sort of phone where you buy minutes online. ok, tangent over, now back to your regularly scheduled blogging.

the topic of communication came up on my military wives website. a fellow wife mentioned that it was unfair that those wives who were "weak" and needed the communication most were the ones who got the least. conversely those who were "strongest" had the most communications with their hubbies.

as one of the lucky ones who gets daily communication i wrote that the daily communication is what keeps me sane and i am in awe of the very strong women who have infrequent word from their hubbies. it's all a matter of perspective isn't it?

i am just glad that i hear from neilson often. i know how he's doing and what he's up to. he also keeps involved with what's going on in our lives. in fact just tonight he helped console gracie after a bad dream. we were im-ing and she woke up crying. as i held her on my lap he was typing sweet messages to her which i crooned in her ear. it wasn't long before she was calmed and settled back into bed.

so now i'm kind of stuck on a wrap up for this post. it's getting late and i have to get to bed so i can get up for school. i'll just call this done and good for now.

blessings

heather

and a few more because....

heck! we're good looking people!

One more school story

allow me to bore you with one more school story. but before i can tell you the story i need to give you some background. i teach preschool. by all means and purposes my kids should only sort of recognize their letters. sounding out words while writing them down shouldn't really be happening until this time next year.

so now i can tell you the story. at afterschool care today my 5 1/2 year old wee one was sitting at the table with me. grace and i were writing out our walmart shopping list. i was listing what we needed: milk, tape, light bulbs, batteries, and juice. i was listing them and grace and wee one were writing them down. i happened to look up at wee one's paper and i saw: mlk (milk), tep (tape), l v (light bulbs), bdts (batteries), gu (juice). i didn't sound them out for her either!
needless to say her dad was thrilled to see her paper and took a copy so i can brag on her tomorrow.

it was a great end to the day.

blessings

heather

pictures!

I Love My Hubby

awwww...

yep i said it. i love my hubby. as you all know he came home on r&r last month. during that time my computer died. really it did. it wouldn't even turn on. it's pathetic really. so he lovingly hooked up his laptop for my use. and low and behold it is powerful enough to run the new blogger beta so i can get back to updating my demanding public!

so what's new in the house of wahab? well let's see.

this week neilson moved to his new unit 6-9 cav. his address has changed. email me if you want his new address as i won't post it due to security. and i have a new email address as well. all my old accounts are active but when we move i will stick to the new one. email me at one of my old accounts for my new one. how's that for confusing??

anyway, his move was successful and uneventful thank God! he had to convoy from FOB to FOB but he was good and emailed me the second he could. i'm excited to report that his new roommate has internet access in the room so he can email me from the almost privacy of his room. he has also set me up with an official army email address so now we can use instant messager to "talk" in the evenings. it's almost like a phone call everynight so that is awesome!

and DUH!! i totally didn't mention neilson's huge news--- as i'm sure you all heard the department of defense has extended all active duty army deployments to 15 months. that will put neil stateside in january of 08. *pout* i found out this wonderful news online and thinking neilson allready knew, emailed him about my displeasure -- but guess what?? i was the lucky person who told our favorite soldier!! the news was not well received here as you can imagine but we are getting used to the idea.

we have some wonderful news from kansas. gabriel evan mckinley was born april 11, 2007. 8 pounds 4 ounces and 21 inches long. mandi and wade are doing well. little gabriel is partial to his auntie heather and can you blame him?? (ok so maybe i made that up but who's going to argue with me??)

we got gracie's enrollment packet mailed to killeen this week. we chose st. christopher's episcopalian preschool in killeen. it is right next to neilson's old apartments which is a good thing because that means i can find where it is! she will go tuesday, wednesday and thursdays from 900 to 230. and i'm talking to them about possibly working for them in some capacity. prayers are welcome in that area!

and that's about all i know this week.

oh i forgot i wanted to make my political plug for the day:

please!! if you don't like this extension news or the war in the middle east, write your congressmen/women! the burden of the many cannot continue to be carried by the few!!

blessings

heather

What I've Learned...

about the Army in my few short months as a spouse is that if you don't like what the Army is doing, wait 15 minutes.

I got an email from my darling hubby this morning filling me in on all the gossip that he missed while on leave. He is still moving to 6-9 Cav however, he will be on staff either as a planner or as an S-4. His new boss will get to decide when he will take his company command which will either be later during his vacation in Mesopotamia or after they get back. He is okay with this decision as something didn't feel quite right and of course I am tickled as it keeps my love tied to a desk.

So to recap, Neilson will still be doing office work. It will be in a new office. His address will change and I will send it out on email when I get it.

:)

Happy Easter

My oh MY!!

Has it been 2 months??? Yep, I have been a bad blogger. But in my defense, my school hi-speed internet will not let me on blogger and my sloooooooowwww dial up at home does not support the new blogger in beta. I'm hoping that Jamie can explain what "beta" means. Yikes!

So what has happened in the last few months....... hmmmm...

For starters the princess has turned 3. The lucky duck had 3 birthday celebrations too! The first was in Belhaven when we were visiting while Neilson was on leave. A few people came over for pizza on Hello Kitty plates and then followed up with a pink and white birthday cake. The second celebration was on her actual birthday which consisted of the presentation of her new kitchen set built by her daddy and dinner at Panaras (Po-nara) with our friend Diane. The final celebration was a pizza buffet with Mama, Papa, Mommy, Uncle Wade and Aunt Mandi. The girl really knows how to party. My only hope is that she does not expect such extravagance next year!!

As I alluded to before, Neilson came home on leave for a little over 2 weeks! Hurray!!! We had a wonderful if not busy time. We headed out to the Eisenhower presidental library in Abiline, Kansas, a wedding that Grace was in, a wedding celebration for us, a court date, and a trip to Belhaven. We had a wonderful time and I think poor Neilson had to go back to the sandbox to get some rest. We wore him out. Gracie was thrilled to see her daddy and was very mad to see him go. We told her to be mad at Dick Cheney for making her daddy go away again.

While in Belhaven we took a day trip out to Nags Head. I know, I know, I'm a bad mommy for not posting pictures but they are on my computer at home and I'm blogging from Manhappiness. We also took Gracie out in the canoe. She enjoyed her short little jaunt and managed not to tip us over. Neilson was suprised by the bookshelves that Karen had built in the library or red room and we were busy sanding and staining away. Neilson of course was thrilled to be able do some home improvements.

We had a great time visiting Louisburg and living it up with my family. Neilson and I recieved some beautiful gifts for our kitchen. I can't wait to get to Texas to unpack everything! We also got an edger for my handy hubby and a "rocket" hammer. Neilson enjoyed meeting everyone and he liked getting to fish in the Rand pond.

Probably the biggest news over leave was the "wedding" of Neilson and Grace. The adoption was finalized March 26 in Leavenworth, Kansas. Neil and I both had to take the stand. Yikes!! I didn't know I was going to have to say anything!! We were sworn in and everything. But it is official. Gracie is now Grace Jana McKinley Wahab. In her little mind everyone she loves is now a Wahab so we have Mama Wahab, Papa Wahab, Uncle Wade Wahab etc. I think you see where I'm going with this. Ha ha ha ha.

April 4 had us taking our favorite soldier back to the Kansas City International airport. We said goodbye at the car and headed on to school. Neil's travel was safe and uneventful. I heard from him this morning and he is in-theater safe and sound.

Neil's big news is that towards the end of this month he will be taking a company command. We are excited for him since he gets to play with tanks again and work with soldiers instead of being chained to the desk. That said he will be moving so his address will only be valid for a little while longer. Look for an email with his new address as I won't post it due to OPSEC (operational security). Of course we are very grateful for all your prayers for his safety. We couldn't do it without you.

So that is all I know right now. I promise I will get this whole blogger thing fixed soon. Hello Jamie!! can you help a poor girl out??? And hopefully when that happens I can get back to regular installments of the wackiest Wahabs on the block.

Blessings,
Heather