In The Wake of Another Possible Move

In the wake of another possible move, it's probably time to blog or it won't happen again for a very, very long time.

Yes, another move. I think I have told most everyone about this possible move, but the realization of it coming right around the corner is about enough to make my hair fall out. Chris managed to snag himself a cross-country flight, meaning he will be flying with an instructor to St. Louis this weekend, which will cover 6 of the remaining flights he has in flight school. He has struggled quite a bit for the past few weeks, between deciding what it is he would really like to fly and trying to decide if he wants to keep pushing through the last couple of weeks or take it easy.

He managed to get this cross country flight scheduled so weather-willing and plane availability willing, he will do that this weekend, fly again Monday, finish Tuesday, and select his aircraft on Thursday. Selection is based mostly on the needs of the Marine Corps at that time, so no matter how good Chris' grades are or what he truly wants, it is really want the Marine Corps wants that will happen. I have been asking some more senior wives recently about their experiences following this portion of flight school, called "primary", to see what we are in store for. There have been quite a few that shared their experiences, but all of their responses highlighted on a couple of things; no matter what aircraft Chris selects, he will end up loving it, and these are some of the best years of his career. It will only get steadily more busy and stressful from here.

I feel like he and I have hashed this out so many times. Multiple pros-and-cons lists, asking what would be best for a family, listing reasons to leave, listing reasons to stay. It just goes on and on. Some days he really wants to talk about it; some days I don't. Some days he can't talk about it anymore and I am just dying to ask a question. I can understand now what our friends went through at TBS when they were waiting to find out what MOS they would be selected for. I did not show them near the empathy that I should have at that point in time; I just did not understand. Now we are in the emotional turmoil with Chris' future (and mine) weighing on what the Marine Corps decides. Once again, we are clay in the Marine Corps' hands. They shape our future.

I had to tell work that I may or may not be leaving. I could not give an exact time frame but asked them to hire someone else and let me go PRN (as needed for you non-medical folk), so that if I did leave it would not leave my co-workers in a mess. Unfortunately, that has yet to happen so if we do leave before the end of this month, I hope they can muddle through. I really enjoy my co-workers and will miss them if we leave, but be happy to spend more time with them if we stay.

It looks like if Chris got helicopters, we would stay here for some odd months, Ospreys would mean stay here for a short time before moving to Texas, C-130s will be in Texas, and jet training could be in Texas or Meridian, MS. We drove by Meridian on our way home for Christmas. I have no interest in living there. I have grown accustomed to having a Target down the street.

The hardest thing about this possible move is knowing that there is not a whole lot I can do in preparation-yet-because we don't know when and if we are going anywhere. I have taken everything out of the attic and am preparing for a garage sale. Those are small steps but I won't regret doing those things later!

Yesterday, Bart began his individual, advanced classes at Petsmart. He just wasn't ready to move onto advanced group classes because he lacks very basic social skills. Our instructor, Tiffany, brings her golden retriever to the lessons and yesterday we worked on making Bart walk by her without freaking out and being able to walk up toward each other without him freaking out. Like I said, very basic skills, but it needs to be fixed because he is not fun to take in public. The "Gentle Leader" harness has been an absolute godsend. Bart hates it when he is not the first person or dog to go out the door, so he loses it when he isn't. The other day I had him in the Gentle Leader at the front door and because Ruby and Chris had gone out first, he went berserk. I just stood there and let him freak out; he ended up doing a flip over himself. When he got up, he kind of looked around expecting to see something that caused him to fall, but then he realized he had done it to himself. Chris and I just laughed as we watched him realize that he doesn't need to act like that.

Ruby spends more and more time sleeping every day. She has a favorite bush in the backyard she will hide and sleep in all day long. Nalli and I finally started running again. I hurt my knee back in January and since then really haven't run, but last week we got up to 7 miles. :) I only have Nalli go for 5 1/2 because the road is so tough here as well as the unbearable heat, I just don't know how she would handle it. Even though she looks like she could pass out, she still watches me leave to finish the run wondering why she can't go. I ran 17 miles last week, which I feel pretty good about. This week, I've run 7 so far.

Well, I suppose I should get ready for work.