Since the last update in April I have moved my family back to North Carolina to start my new chapter in the Army; but I had the Army move all of our crap for me! Despite this, it's been a rough couple of months. We are finally on the other side though and are taking a well deserved vacation until I sign into my new unit in October.
The months of work from April until my leave started in July was kind of a sprint. I put as many people in the Army as possible and helped out as much as I could. I did this mostly because I didn't want to be questioned or have to fight to get all of my leave days approved but partly because that's just who I am anyways and with my time coming to a close in that office I felt the need to give what I could. Despite recruiting being probably one of the worst environments to work in, especially in the military, I enjoyed the guys I worked with and felt some satisfaction knowing I may have changed the lives of others. I at least got a big plaque in memory of my time there to hang up in my house; this is a norm for when someone leaves a unit but 10 years in service and this is the first one I've ever gotten. I appreciated the sincere goodbye's from the guys at the office more though.
The move itself wasn't that bad either but the duration of it probably will contribute to new gray hairs. The week before the move I ran around the house shedding unwanted crap we had accumulated over the 3 years of living there. I brought everything down from the attic in the summer heat which made me appreciate David's job much more! The day before the mover's come to pack I took TV's off the walls, disassembled beds and other furniture and attempted to make a pile of no pack stuff that would go on the road trip with us.
Between the two days of packing and loading onto the truck I was completely wiped. Picking up stuff and walking it to the truck when it's over 100 outside is no fun. Then when the house was empty going through and cleaning it from top to bottom. The only thing left in that house after I closed the door were the keys I got when I rented it.
We spent the night a few nights at my parents house during this time up to the Sunday before we headed out on the road. The goodbyes were long and somber; as to be expected for such an event. We had a good 3 years there in College Station. We made a lot of memories and spent plenty of family time together. It just never seems like enough though.
The road trip went underway and my turn signals went out. Fuse blew because of what I found out was a combination of a bad relay, bad stop light switch and some loose wiring. 1200 miles with no cruise control (courtesy of the faulty brake switch) and no turn signals my '97 chevy made it to North Carolina with no other hiccups. I had one day of "rest" before the movers came with our stuff. My wife and I spent our day of rest cleaning our house; the old tenants seriously must have just been animals judging by what they left behind. Our stuff came intact with no losses... pheew!! The hardest part was the next 6 days of organizing, moving, throwing away, putting away, hanging up and shaking out all of our crap into place in the much bigger house. On top of getting our reptiles set up in a room of their own.
We spent the night our first week back with my in-laws which was pretty cool as they recently bought a big house in the woods for the boys to muck around in. My wife and I were pretty excited to tour their new grounds as well; mostly to search for reptiles in the wild! I didn't spend much time their as I was fixing up our house but every evening we ate and talked until I couldn't keep my eyes open around 9pm after working like a dog all day.
We have been moved into our house now for around a week and have fine tuned the placement of our stuff and I have settled my garage area and become very acquainted with my tool kit and it's shortcomings, even having to add to it quite substantially in the electrical department for some repairs. The boys are happy with the new house and haven't skipped a beat with their usual rowdy all boy attitudes. BethAnne and I have been searching for a new church and believe we may have found what God has had in store for us; We'll find out more tomorrow evening at class and on Sunday morning.
I can sit here and relax, for the most part, and drink an old favorite beer of mine only available in this part of the state. There's a lot more to do and worry about in the future, even the near future, but for the next few weeks I am on paid leave and will attempt to take it easy before letting the Army have their way with my time again. God willing, I'll find out my new job soon and mentally and spiritually begin preparing for it.