TLF

TLF is awesome! Okay, so you know it had to be something Air Force since it's an acronym. How would we survive without them?! TLF is Temporary Lodging Facility. It's where they put people when they first get to a new base or right before they leave their old base. The movers came yesterday and packed up the house. They're coming today to load all the boxes into crates. But since everything was in boxes, we obviously can't stay there. No sheets on the beds, no dishes, etc. So about 12:30 yesterday Jackson and I went to TLF while Mike stayed at the house with the movers so ChipMonkey could take a nap. I was SHOCKED when I walked in! I was expecting a hotel-suite-like space. Nope. It's like a small apartment. Only 1 bedroom, which kind of stinks. Jackson gets the bedroom. If we put him in the living room to sleep we'd be holed up in the bedroom after 7. By putting him in the bedroom we are free to roam the living room and kitchen in the evenings. The kitchen is full-sized with a dining room table with room for six. Stocked with nececity items like plates and cups. Fridge, microwave, dishwasher, toaster, etc. I'm just really pleasantly surprised. Hopefully it's just as nice in Japan, since it's where we'll be living until housing is available (could be anywhere from 1 week-2 months). The only major downside is that since Jackson's in the bedroom, we're sleeping on the pullout sofa. Which is NOT comfortable! And the blankets for it don't have any extra on the sides, meaning I end up with just sheet when Mike rolls over and takes blankets with him. We'll definitely be doing some things different tonight. We're brining the mattress from the bed to put on top of the sofa. We're also going to crank the heat (Hey! we''re not paying the electric bill, right?!), and Mike is getting his own set of blankets so I don't have to punch him in the face for some covers. =)

Jackson's not feeling well. A few days ago he had a sty on his right eyelid. It was really bothering him, but finally popped on Wednesday and it's looking much better now. Starting yesterday he had a runny nose. Today it's still very runny and thicker. Both days we could just tell he's not feeling good at all. Last night we came home from dinner, had a SHORT bath (easy to keep it short when all his bath toys are packed in a box in our house!) and straight to bed. That was about 7. Then at about 8:30 the fire alarms went off. Yay. I went in to get him thinking he'd be freaking out. Nope. Still asleep. Strobe lights in the bedroom flashing, alarm BLARING, and he's still sleeping. This from the baby who wakes up if I so much as open his door to check on him. Luckily Mike had the presence of mind to get the car keys. It was pretty chilly out so we sat in the heated car till it was all over. We never found out what happened. I always assume burnt popcorn. =) Luckily Jackson pretty much went right back to sleep.

The major stress for now is done. Getting the house ready for movers was the hard part. I would've rather just packed it ourselves. Who knows what we'll find when we open the boxes in Japan. The guys that came to pack our stuff were really nice, and seemed to know what they were doing. But I'm sure they packed some stuff that I would've just tossed. We tried to go through the house a bunch of times to make sure we only had what we wanted to keep. We had a bathroom shut that had our luggage in it and anything else that was not supposed to go (cleaning supplies, liquids, etc.) But as the day went on and we kept finding stuff that we wanted to have with us, we'd just throw it in the bathroom. When it was all said and done you could barely open the door! I got it all packed into our suitcases, though and brought it over when we came for Jackson's nap yesterday. Now we can just relax in TLF for the next week. Next Friday is Mike's "final out" meaning his last day where he checks out of the base. Then we'll be on the road to North Carolina with all our luggage, 2 dogs, and a U-haul trailer on the van. The trip to Ohio will be more cramped since we won't have the extra space of the U-haul.

Well, that's a super-long post about pretty much nothing. What a friend of mind calls mind-vomit. I'm off to get Jackson up and maybe at some point today I'll get to take a shower!