New adventure

Things have finally started slowing down! It seems like the moment R stepped off that plane from his deployment in April, our lives have been going 90 mph!
The short version of our last few months is R's parents came in the middle of May for a few weeks. We transitioned out of Fort Bragg and into our new place in Virginia at the beginning of June. We unpacked just enough to make living possible and then jumped on an airplane bound for Oregon to see the rest of our families. We just got back last Saturday.
So here I am in Charlottesville, Virginia. No longer in a sea of unpacked boxes (just moved most of them to the garage, will deal with them later!). R started his new job Monday and so far loves it. He works no more than 8 hours a day with weekends off. That is unheard of in the Military. 8 hours meant a half day!!!!
Now that things have slowed down, I am beginning to feel what a huge huge change this all is. I am of course missing my military family and that community feeling already. I know I will find it again in this community, but I am in no rush as of yet.
This area of Virginia (like most I'm sure) is extremely expensive to buy a home. We were getting so stressed trying to figure something out last April, so R suggested we find a place to rent for a year to give us some time. We found an apartment in a new nice community. I thought my apartment days were over, but unlike our old 800 sf nasty stinky apartments of college days, this one is almost 1700 sf with a two car garage downstairs. It's really nice, but I am still really looking forward to finding a home next year. Apartment living with a three year old takes a little creativity. Like trying to explain to C that he cannot leap off the couch onto the floor anymore, I'm sure our neighbors already hate us! If we have neighbors, it's the weirdest thing, we live around an enormous amount of people, but I NEVER see them!!!! We go outside several times to the playground or to get the mail and I rarely run into people other than those who work here!
R and I are trying to figure out a second car. Before he left of this last deployment, we got rid of our other car to save money on car payments and now regret the decision. We are looking at something that is fuel efficient, obviously with these gas prices!!! I remember in Germany, we received gas rations to avoid $4 a gallon gas!!! Does anyone recommend a certain kind of car? We are looking at Honda's, Toyota's and Kia's.
Now that the unpacking is done, the cleaning begins. I better get to it. Take care everyone!




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C thought is was too cold, but still managed to have a little fun.