Wow am I overwhelmed! I have had sick kids since Saturday. Terry is gone to Colorado Springs on a work related trip and will be back Saturday morning.

Looking ahead our stuff gets packed in the truck by Wednesday. I have packers coming on Friday to start a prepack. I am trying to squeese in 2 birthday parties.

We still don't know where we are going to live when we get to Ft. Drum.

And yes it is the Christmas season and I still have Christmas shopping to do.

I always get a kick out of hearing the Presidental canidates debate and give interviews. They try so hard to tell the people just what they want to hear. Last night Bill Richardson (governer of NM my homestate) said he was going to get the troops out and he was going to do it in a year. WOW!!! Wonder if anyone will be upset at the numbers of troops that are killed during this quick withdraw. Is that what the American public wnats? Do they want the troops out yesterday no matter how many get killed in the process because we are not watching our backside?

Last night a mother of a marine and the marine were in the audiance and (He looked about 20 and was already out of the Marines and in the active reserve). And they were asking a question about how these candiates were going to keep us out of war with Iran. So of course as the canidates are answering, first they have to say to the marine how proud they were of him and what he was doing for his country. Bah Bah Bah, yea yea yea... Sounds really good, but they have no idea what it is like to be facing a deployment or telling their children that their parent is going to be gone for the next 15 months, they have absolutly no freakin idea what is is like to move to upstate NY during the winter right before Christmas, not knowing where you are going to live when you get there.

Shall I go on... I have no faith in polititions. I believe they are in it for the power and very few really give a crap about you and me and the millions of other people that have to work to put food on the table.

One woman asked why a private contracter could go to Iraq and do the same job as her military son and the contracter makes $100,000 and the military person makes $30,0000. Wow that's really fair....

Okay I'm done. I am going to go get my camera and put pictures of happy things on my blog so I can quit thinking about the unhappy things.

Wednesday was a tough day. The Housing people pretty well confirmed that we woun't be able to walk into a new house there on Drum. I am disappointed for many reasons. Terry and I have been married for 16 1/2 years (11 1/2 in the military) during that time I have settled many times when it comes to housing, because it was only a year, if we move into this small house a bigger one will open up. At this point in his career I think we should be living in something I like. We could possibly be at Ft. Drum for 3 or 4 years (probably at least 2 deployments) and it would be nice to live somewhere I really like. It would be nice to unpack all the way.

Our neighbor was sitting outside with us yesterday and we were trying to figure out a better solution for Military housing situation. He wondered if there should be no "military housing" and everyone have to live on the economy. That way you would have to go look for a house to buy or rent no matter what and the surrounding cities or towns would have to rise to the occasion and build more housing. I would not think twice about living off post if I didin't have to worry about my husband being deployed for 15 months at a time. I want to be surrounded by people who understand what I am going thru, what it feels like to be a single parent.

And it is amazing how we get get a potluck together in just a couple of hours notice. No one critizies you if you go to the store and pick up bakery cookies. We have no problem asking our nightbor to bring that favorite dish that she amde last time that was so delicious you couldn't stop eating it.

It is nice to know that your 1st grader can walk down the street to his friends house and not worry as much. The military has a great sense of comunity and civilans are often amzazed how easy it is for us to gather and enjoy each others company.

So yes I am stressed about where I am going to live in 4 1/2 weeks.

Did I mention that Drum got 122 inches last winter? That's alot of snow. Terry says he heard that they issue snow blowers to people living on post, I guess you and your neighbor share one.
I really am happy that we bought a 4 wheel drive Tahoe, it will certainly come in handy if I have to get out during a 2 footer.
Another close friend suggested silk long underwear. It is supposed to be the warmest, but not bulky at all. So you guessed it, I will be buying some at least for me.
We have already decided that a inner tube will be one of our first purchases for the new home. Can you see Jason flying down the hill?

Hallween started off right with a soup/chili pot luck. Kids roasted hot dogs on the fire pit which provided much needed heat for the candy hander outers. Kids went treating with the dads while the girls gave out the candy to young and old alike.

Terry had to fill out a sheet ranking 17 Army installations. Of course we put Ft. Carson first, Ft. Irwin next and then we decided to put Drum. Why I don't know other than we knew people going there. SO... When my friend that is going to Drum started asking about Homes on post they didn't get alot of positive information. So immediately they started looking to rent or last case buy. Well there are very few rentals that are worth renting and it they are worth renting they get rented in days of being listed. Homes in the area can be brand new or 150 years old. Needless to say I was glad there wasn't much chance to go there. My friend kept sending me homes telling me that there were some nice ones out there. (She wasn't hoping we would end up going there).

When Terry finally did get told we were going there, the first thing to come to mind was "oh crud, where are we going to live?" Housing at Ft. Drum has been vague to say the least about what might be available when we get there around December 19th (6 days before Christmas). We have looked for some rentals, but I won't even think about renting something I haven't seen in person. So that has us going to Ft. Drum blind, not knowing where we are going to live. Talk about a scary situation.... And on top of all that Terry will deploy less than 6 months after getting there.... Oh we did find one house for sale that said "Pre Civil War Stone House" WOW!!! Also we found a lighthouse on an Island, too bad we don't have a boat.