Moving.

No, we're not moving ...yet. No idea of when or where, but being a military family, it's an eventuality that happens for us every few years. We have been here in Louisiana the longest thus far. By the time we hit the road in the summer next year, we will have been here for 4 years. Amazing how fast the time has gone.

I've been thinking about it a lot lately--the whole moving process. Most of my non-mil friends think we're crazy for doing what we do. I always get the question of "How do you do it?" or "How can you just pick up and move?" The answer is simple...we do it because this is the life we chose. I can't imagine settling down in one place yet. We haven't found that one elusive place yet. I think we've narrowed it down to someplace with a temperate (read: warm) climate and by the ocean or near the coast someplace. I would love to go to San Diego or the Gulf Coast, but each has their negative drawbacks (money and hurricanes).

This move is probably going to be one of the hardest that we've made. I've been very careful in the past about not letting too much of myself out. I know that we aren't permanent, so I always thought that if I kept myself guarded, that it wouldn't hurt so much to have to leave a few years down the road. After our assignment in Okinawa, I decided that something needed to change. I had a couple of good friends there, but I realized that maybe the assignment could have been even more enhanced had I let my wall down and just thrown caution to the wind. When we found out that we were coming to Barksdale, that's exactly what I did.

The internet has been a fabulous thing for people in the military. It allows us to connect to the past and to the future in one fail swoop. I joined a Yahoo! group for Barksdale Spouses, which is where I met another one of my sisters...Lynley. She is the first person that I met here and I am so grateful for that. I have a couple of them here and had I not stepped out of my comfort zone, I would have missed out on so many awesome friendships and experiences.

However, the inevitable will happen and I know that it will happen sooner than I want. I think about all that is to come and how fast the ball will roll once it starts. Mark will find out if he's on the Vulnerable Mover's List (VML), submit his preferences, the Air Force Personnel Center will match available positions with his preferences and then notify us in the springtime where we go. Then, we pack up and start everything all over again. Some days it's overwhelming thinking about having to start all over again. Packing the entire house, trying to find a place to live, unpacking, enrolling both kids in new schools, meeting new people, Mark getting acquainted with a new job and hopefully, I'll be able to keep the job that I've had for the past few years. It's enough to make your head spin.

But it's all a part of the life we chose. I always look for the good in each location. If you focus on the negative, then it really sucks. I know this from experience. As long as we're all together as a family, and as long as we have the means to keep in contact with everyone, then this is one adventure that I wouldn't trade.