New home

We arrived safely in GA, and are getting settled in. It's been interesting in some ways, mostly because it was way harder to find a place to live than it has ever been for us. Before, when we moved, we were military, and at Thak's rank, at least 75% of the listings in any city we went to were in our price range. Now, out of hundreds of listings, we could count on one hand how many we could afford. Most of them were disgusting. Nothing was over 1000 square feet. Some were in the ghetto. A lot were in trailer parks. Trying to find a place to live like this was interesting to begin with. Now consider that a lot of people didn't want to lease to us because we are civilian. That we both served doesn't matter. They want a chain of command to rat you out to if they don't get their money, and we don't have one.

After a while, we came to a few realizations:

1) We weren't going to be able to live in a convenient location. We pretty much had to choose between the middle of nowhere and the ghetto. The middle of nowhere is safer, of course, so that's the obvious choice.

2) We would not have three bedrooms and two bathrooms. It simply doesn't exist in our price range. We could have a tiny 3 BR with only one bathroom, or we could have a 2 BR with similar square footage, that has two bathrooms.

3) If something decent came along, and the people were willing to lease to us, and not charge us a ridiculously high deposit for being civilian, then we needed to jump on it. (Yes, some places charge civilians really high deposits. This one totally hideous house we almost leased was going to charge is a $1500 security deposit on a place that leases for $575 a month. The deposit would have been $500 if we were military.)

After a week of searching, we found a very decent apartment complex in a small town across the swamp from Thak's airfield. The downstairs units have privacy fenced yards almost the size of our yard in TX. They were 2 BR/2 BA apartments, but they have separate living rooms and dining rooms, and again, nice big yards. It's a small complex, and kind of on the edge of town with nothing but woods out back. It was well within our price range, so we submitted an application and hoped for the best.

Thankfully, they didn't discriminate against civilians, and we moved in two days later after paying a very standard deposit. Yes, five people, 2 BR apartment. I know. We got Erin and Orren some bunkbeds, which we go pick up today, actually, and then their room will be all set. Chai is in with us, and our room barely fits everything, but we are doing our best with it.

Not having a garage, after years of having a really big one, is proving most interesting. There is really not much storage in this place, and we have a whole patio full of stuff (like floor to ceiling) to figure out what we do with. We just got our stuff in day before yesterday, so we haven't had a lot of time to sort through it all yet (and by we, I mean Thak, because it's pretty much all his) but it'll happen soon, because I'm not about having my backyard looking like an episode of Hoarders.

So otherwise, this whole small town thing is interesting. With both of us being from small towns, it didn't seem like it would be a stretch for us to live that way again. I didn't know how city we had become, though! I walk down the street with my double Valco stroller, and people stare. We pretty much live by our iPhones, and few people here even have them. Erin has a slight Spanish accent compared to the other kids at her school. But in general, this place is good. Erin's school seems great so far. She loves it because there are no uniforms, and she's getting all the help she needs for her issues. The kids are really nice, too. There's only one kid her age in our complex, but he's really

nice, and they get along great. Erin is also really enjoying riding the bus. All in all, we are liking our new home in Pembroke, GA.

I'll post some pics when I figure out how to do it from mobile. We still don't have actual Internet here, so it's all iPhone for now. I think Thak is going to try to get us Internet on payday (tomorrow).

An update, and a thought

Movers come tomorrow. We're super busy. We'll be out of El Paso by the weekend. On Saturday, we'll be on the road before the sun is up, have lunch in San Antonio and dinner in Dallas. Then the following morning, we'll be on the road east, driving as far as we can go each day until we reach the coast of GA once again. With luck, we can make it in 4 days this time instead of the 5 it took us last time. Chai hates riding in the car now, so it's going to be interesting. That's all there is to update, really. We're just making progress on getting out of here. It's the usual.


And a thought. Fellow Americans, stop being so weird about shit. Who cares of brothers and sisters share rooms or take baths together? If nobody's uncomfortable with it, it's not that big a deal. Who cares if they know they have different parts? It's not a big deal unless you make it one. No, Child Protective Services is not going to take my kids away because I don't fight them on it every time they ask to sleep in the same room or get in the bathtub together. I refuse to live in fear of the law stepping in concerning my parenting, ok? Refuse to. Living in fear is not my thing. I understand, lots of alternative families have found themselves on the wrong side of the authorities for things like bedsharing, non-vaxing, and even homeschooling, but when you live in fear of this, you criminalize your actions. I don't believe there's anything to criminalize about my parenting, and the day I start to believe there is, is the day I lose the battle. I believe in liberty. I believe in child-led, instinctive, attachment parenting. I believe in the body's ability to heal and protect itself, sometimes with the help of a good naturopath or chiropractor, and rarely, an allopathic physician. I do not believe that what mainstream society is dishing out these days really has much application to my life, or that of anyone else who's paying much attention to the reality of things as of late. The day I start to live in fear of mainstream society's opinion of my ways, is the day I am living in a manner lacking in liberty, and that's no way to live. I'll leave the fear to the fear mongers, if it's all the same to you.

We are lovely!

This is a preview from yesterday's shoot with J Whalen Photography.

Bellydance!!

This is a video from today's bellydance show. It was at this event put on by the West El Paso YMCA. It was really fun, and I'm so glad I was able to dance with everyone one last time. Thak was there. That was probably the best part of the whole thing. He took this video. I'm in the black and blue skirt with the red fringe scarf.



After we got done with this show, we went to this awesome desert park and took pictures. One of our girls, her husband does photography (his day job is the Army, but he's a great photographer, and does that on the side) so he took our pictures, as a troupe and as individuals, at this park. It was so much fun! A few people even asked to have their pictures taken with us as we were dancing on the rocks.

After that, we went out to eat, in costume, at one of our favorite Mediterranean restaurants. It's kind of a tradition. It was so much fun. The food was great, the people were even better.

My last Saturday in El Paso was a good day. I will miss this.

Onto the next step

And with that, the boys and I took off to the one and only El Paso International Airport to pick Thak up. This was at about 11 am this morning. We were actually running late, but his flight was delayed by 20 minutes, so we ended up standing around for about five minutes before he arrived. I have never been so happy about a delayed flight! Getting these boys both out the door was not easy today. Erin was at school, of course. I say that because someone will wonder why I'm only talking about two out of my three kids. So yeah, 11 am, me, Orren, and the Bebe Chai went to the airport to pick up our favorite civilian contractor in the entire world.

Now the work begins. We haven't really had a break in the past year, and we won't get one now. Tomorrow, the movers come to check out how much stuff we have, so they know how many boxes to bring when they come. We also have to talk to them about shipping my car. The firm won't reimburse us for transporting it ourselves, but they will pay to ship it, so it's kind of an obvious choice.

Then next Tuesday and Wednesday, they come to pack our stuff out, and on the Wednesday, we'll clean up the house. Then Thursday, bright and early, we'll get on the road. We'll stop and see a friend (and her new bebe!!) in San Antonio, and then go see more friends in Ft. Worth. We'll stay the night in Ft. Worth. Then we'll continue the following day, and just go as long as we can each day until we're back where we came from, in GA. We'll arrive back there 3 years to the day after we left, and just in time for St. Paddy's Day in Savannah.

When we arrive back in GA, we have to find a place. We've found a few that are worthwhile. Basically, we found a couple that were really far away, but really cheap. We also found a few that were pretty close (maybe 15 miles from the airfield) but about 150 a month more expensive, but still in our price range. Now, when you factor in the way gas prices are going, we would probably do better to spend a little more in rent, and live a little closer, especially considering what Thak drives (don't even get me going on that...) so right now, we're looking at a couple places in Midway, GA. It's pretty rural, but close enough to stuff to not be ridiculously expensive in gas to get to anywhere, and the schools are decent. They're really good places, definitely big enough for us (4 BR!!). We're really hoping that the fact that they are trailers will keep the soldiers from snapping them up before we get there. We're going to call tomorrow, and see if we can figure something out about one or the other of them. The leasing company they're through is a very reputable one, so I know the photos on the listing are not deceptive. It occurs to me now that it sure is good to know the area that we're moving to.

That's about all for now. We're just looking forward to getting this over with, and starting our new life in GA. We will miss some things about El Paso, no question, but mostly, we are happy to be moving forward with the next step now.