Blending into small town USA

This is our first base where we chose to buy a house. We always hear how wonderful it is to own your own home and how once you live off base you never go back. Well, we took a leap and purchased a home here since the housing was cheap. I say its cheap but only because I come from CA where houses 1500 sq ft cost over $300K. Of course all that was before the economic crisis.

Now we own our home and live in a small town (less than 10K people) 15minutes from base.

I remember my mom being with us when we were looking for houses and as we drove through this town she thought it was so cute and lovely. We both were excited thinking that everyone would be so nice and friendly. How all the people are probably the nicest people in the world and we will live happily like they do on TV. LOL  Not even close!!!

Maybe I am too much of a big city girl but I don't agree with small town politics. I also didn't know that nearly everyone will somehow be related and they all seem to have gone to school together. Everyone knows everyone and they ALL know your business or at least they try really hard to know all your business. 

I am used to military communities where people welcome you and are eager to be your friend. 

Where people are glad you want to get involved and listen to your ideas.

They care about your family and want to learn more about you.

This small town has been nothing like that at all. In fact I will NEVER live in a small town again.

I learned very quickly that when applying for a job you need to either know the hiring person or be related. Of course I don't fit any of that criteria here. So when I applied for 3 jobs in the school district I did not get hired. They didn't even call me to get an interview!!  I remember calling and asking about the job in question and they told me that they had already done some interviews and they filled the position.  How in the heck can you just do some interviews! Isn't that illegal. I didn't even get a fair chance and I had experience with the job that I applied.

That was just the beginning of my small town woes.  I truly miss living on base and feeling welcomed. I know that we will not live off base unless we are truly living in a military community. The people here seem to be stuck inside there little bubble and have blinders on. I am fortunate that I have found 3 good friends that I can trust and aren't gossip whores. That is sad that only 3 people here have opened there hearts to our family and we have lived here now for almost 3 years. Oh well- no love lost. It shall be the easiest base move we will ever go through. I envision myself on our moving day looking at the rear view mirror with the greatest smile on my face. I SO look forward to that day.

Our first box

I have been working on shipping our first box over. Hubby called and needed a few essentials- blanket, sheets, hangars, pillows, bug spray, lysol and a new wallet. Well that will be easy. Oh the fun of shopping and getting everything packed and ready to go. I knew I would need a BIG box since he needs pillows and blankets but once you add everything else it became a REALLY big box. I stuffed everything in there (lovingly) and prepared to send it.

I thought this would be an easy task but soon found out I didn't know where to send it from. People kept telling me different ways to send it: use the base post office, call mobility and have them send it over on a plane, us UPS or the post office. I was hoping that someone would have an inexpensive way that I could send this huge box without costing me a weeks worth of groceries. After calling lots of places and talking to lots of people- I'm sending it through the post office.

Luckily, I found out that after this big box the cost won't always be so high. They now have priority flat rate international boxes that you can use to ship to the soldiers. I called the USPS and ordered my free military kit that they have. It is supposed to come with tape, boxes, labels and customs forms. I need to find a spot in the house to be our new postal area.

Of course I love shopping so when he said he needed all these things I was excited. Sure- I will go and buy all these essentials for you and have it shipped out lickity split. The hardest part came when I was putting his new wallet in the box. Something so simple as a wallet yet it was so much more than that. As it be, I was told that if you are captured and they see in your wallet lots of family pictures they see you more as a human and not just a soldier. Well, I decided to buy 2 picture holders for his wallet because that was one piece of information that I wasn't going to slack on. 

I printed out lots of different pictures. I made sure there was a variety for him to look at and none of them were him in uniform. I wanted him to be able to look at those pictures and be reminded of our everyday lives outside of the military. Pictures of Christmas and his teams he coached were my favorites.

As I put the wallet in the box I think about how weird it is that something so simple as a wallet can make me cry. Because even though its just a simple wallet it really is so much more than that. The thought that those pictures could possibly help him if he is captured is a thought that I didn't ever think I would have. I know that the chances of him being captured are remote but that doesn't stop the emotion that is brought on. 

So with that-- I sealed up the box and am shipping it out today. My first of many boxes that will travel through the miles to send a smile and love to my wonderful husband.

It's fixed

My friend Erin stopped by and tried to help me and she said it might just fix itself. Magically this morning when I tried to change my background it finally worked. Didn't do anything new that I hadn't done yesterday but today it worked.

UGH Blog trouble!!!

I am trying to change my background and it wont change. I am the type of person that just can't let it go. I keep trying to figure out what step am I missing???   I have changed the template, deleted the HTML of the other graphics and STILL can't seem to get rid of this background.  It really is driving me insane.  A friend even came over to see if she could fix it. But no luck.  I guess I need to be patient and it will fix itself. Yeah right- I am going to hit the world wide web and hopefully find a solution. Maybe someone at the Mom Bloggers Club can help.

Fingers crossed

Blogs are great but they also can be a lot of work   :-)