Life in the Stix

Moving to Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri was inevitable because it's the home of the Engineer Regiment and it's where the Engineer Captain's Career Course is. Despite knowing that ALL engineers HAVE to pay there dues there, I still had to whine about it. Heller, we were living the life in Hawaii for three years after all.

Anyhoo, aside from moving to the middle of the country during the hottest summer on record (the temps were as high as 106 for several weeks) we have made Missouri our new temporary home.

We only spent a few days shacked up in the Days Inn and eating out of a window or ordering in, (we have a pupppy and i was not about to leave him alone in a hotel!) we would have been out sooner if the realtors showed houses on the weekend, and found a nice little house in a nice neighborhood. Funny enough it's next door to where our friends just moved out of!

Taking full advantage of the fact that Chris would be busy with school, me being carless and our house being empty, I visited family and friends in Connecticut and celebrated my 27th birthday there as well. I was hoping and wishing that we would get the phone call that our house hold goods arrived while I was in CT and that we could schedule delivery as soon as I got home.... fail! In true fashion, we shipped my car (June 12) after our hhgs (June 8) and my car showed up first!

I'll address how to live in an empty house for 2 months in my next post.

Lucky for us, we have two sets of familiar faces from Hawaii here, which made our adjustment much easier and we actually have neighborly neighbors on this side of the world as well. One of our new neighbors even brought us over home made cookies!

We have taken full advantage of being able to drive since we have been here. We visited Springfield, Saint Louis and Osage Beach. Springfield is the closest big city with more shopping and it's about and hour and change away. Saint Louis has everything and sadly it takes almost three hours to get there, but it's worth the shlep! We spent the Fourth of July down there with some friends. We saw a parade, the ARCH, an air show and pretty sweet fireworks. Osage Beach reminds me of Cape Code and this part of the state there is a decent outlet mall and a very nice lake.

Believe it or not there are wineries out here! About 400 to boot in the "Show me State." Chris and I did some wine tasting (free!) at the Saint James Winery and had a nice little lunch nearby at a place called Sybils. A few weekends later we met up with our Hawaii friends for a date night at the Meramac Winery where I may or may not have consumed an entire bottle of wine by myself....

When we first got here, I had all intentions of working. As a matter of fact, as soon as we had boots on the ground here I started the application process to sub teach. Naturally they hired me, and by that I mean put me on the call list. However, I was hella burnout from working my rear off for a newspaper in Hawaii and Chris agreed that I needed some time to relax, destress and decompress, I married a real winner didn't I :) AND we were getting a puppy, aka his promotion gift, and this would be the perfect time for me to stay home and potty train him.

Since there isn't a whole lot to spend money on, we have been able to save some green and we can afford for me to stay home while we are here (about 5 and a half months). With that said, Chris has informed me that as soon as we get to our next duty station in January my vacation is over and my toosh will be back to the grind. I think by then I will be ready to get back into the work force, but for the time being I am enjoying being House Hold 6, catching up on my blogging, scrapbooking, recipe testing and just plain old vegging out!

Life is good here in the stix! Did I mention we are smack dab in the middle of Fall? Fall is my favorite time of the year, hands down (The trees, the weather, the FOOD) and we haven't had seasons in three years so I am soaking it all in.