busy, busy day(s)

Lately I've been feeling like I don't have enough hours in the day. Take today for example:
Woke up late (8:30 because none of us slept last night), had breakfast, took addy to the dog park, went to the JRC and filled out passport papers 3 times for 3 people (9! applications-- so frustrating!), went to the commissary, went to lunch with my friend, came home and made dinner (did 3 loads of laundry between this morning and now), K took a nap so I took an hour and worked on my bible study, the Mr came home and I finished dinner (which included a run to Vons because our carrots were bad.  Have you ever seen Hairy Carrots?  Did the words 'hairy carrots' make you think of the Cubs? because I couldn't help but think of harry carry as I was contemplating using said carrots.) after dinner I had a doctor appointment.  Got home at 8:45 and folded laundry. Now a mountain of dishes are staring at me. So, basically, I got laundry and passports done.  I think it feels like I didn't get much accomplished today because I have a monster to-do list staring at me and I feel like if I could just have just a few more hours everyday then it would shrink.  Tomorrow, I have small group, then K has a nap followed by her one year checkup with Dr. Park.  I'm hoping to get to the farmer's market afterwards if there's decent weather and she's not too crabby after her shots.  But if I do those 3 things then nothing gets done towards my Japan 'to-do'.


I need to figure out what we're taking with us.  I think we're only allowed 2,250 lbs and according to a bunch of websites they say that one room is about 1,000 lbs!  So that pretty much means one bedroom and the kitchen!  Kind of nervous.  But, at the end of the day, it's just stuff and it doesn't really matter.  I worry about making a mistake that will set us back financially, but I really need to just rely on who is really in charge.  I know God always provides and has always, always taken care of us and that is so comforting.  He hasn't just provided, but has abundantly blessed us.  So I'm going to rest in that knowledge.

Identity Crisis

I have never thought about laws and how they affect me because, largely, they never have.  The big ones growing up were obvious-- no driving til 16, become an adult at 18, drink/gamble at 21, don't speed, don't steal... basics.

But what about residency?  I am legally a California resident.  When I move to Japan, where will I claim residency?  I can't claim Okinawa.  I won't have any ties to California.  I suppose I could claim Illinois because that's where the Mr is a resident, but I legally don't have any ties there.  I wonder if I should get an Arizona ID because I could use my parent's address, but I don't have any legal rights to do that, either.  So, where do I belong?

Such a little thing to take for granted... Where are you from?  I claim Riverdale, IL because I lived there until I was 10 and it's the longest I've lived in one zip code (I even had 2 addresses there!).  I'm 28 and have lived at 17 different addresses (15 if you don't count my dorm addresses). 

I'm looking forward to getting out of the military and settling down!  This is fun now when it doesn't really matter to K where she lays her head down at night, but my dream is that K will be able to go back to her room she grew up in and show her children her childhood room.  I want that kind of stability.  I want deep, deep roots. 

4.

K and I passed medical, so now we're working on the million things to move....

Just got home from a PCS brief.  It was more frustrating/ confusing than it was helpful.  I did learn that we are allowed to bring 2,000 lbs of our stuff.  Looks like we'll be selling a lot of our stuff!

We'll be taking a flight (unclear on if it's a military or commercial flight) to Seattle which will then take us to Japan.  Here's the frustrating part:  We are not guaranteed that Addy will be able to come with us on the AMC (I asked The Mr what AMC meant, but I forgot) flight.  Once we get to Japan we will be put in temporary housing until we are given our permanent housing. We could potentially be assigned housing that does not accept pets, so Addy would need to find a home.  My parents have offered to take her if we can't bring her, but I feel like if I leave her somewhere for 3 years then she's no longer our dog.  She'll be 2 in April and if we leave her here then she will have spent half her life without us.  I don't think that's very fair to her.  They should just tell military not to get pets.  It's not fair to them and I didn't know that we wouldn't be able to bring here wherever we went.

I also found out I need to have a no-fee passport in addition to my leisure passport.  It's kind of like my green card to be there.   I went to the JRC (joint reception center-- see, military loves acronyms!) to find out what documents I need for the no-fee passport and this gal went crazy with her highlighter.  It was kind of funny.  She basically highlighted everything that was typed out in this packet.  It reminded me of when I would flip through the used textbooks in college and whole chapters were highlighted.  I always wondered who those people were.  Now I know! :)