Got the first green ware ceramic cleaned up today. I decided to soften the fur on it so that took a lot of time, a little water and a good stiff brush. I really miss doing these things.

In other news, we now have a Garmin GPS that is just all kinds of little awesome. It will help a lot when we take longer trips, especially to MFM later this year. (Still gotta send in our moneys for it, but yay for tax time.)

It's raining now, but earlier today it was nice enough we went to town, checked out a new military surplus store. It has a LOT of stuff, even stuff we couldn't get back "there". We also stopped by Petco, picked up stuff to set up a fish tank with, then went to lunch, the game exchange store, and then home since my lower back was killing me again.

With all this rain and how much the yard floods, I'm beginning to think we're gonna need a boat.

Why is it some people just love baiting my poor hubby into arguments?

Star has PTSD from being deployed and so certain war games (Call of Duty, Medal of Honor, etc) tend to give him nightmares and flashbacks. He has worked really hard to get over these things, including no longer playing those games and getting rid of any he had.

He commented on a journal of someone we watch on FA about the new Call of Duty game. He didn't go into long detail or anything, just basically told the guy, "glad you had fun, but due to what I've been through I can't play them anymore." The OP is a nice guy (and does some awesome art), said he understood and was nice about it. However, another guy who Star has had some minor disagreements with and who is typically an ass anyway commented on how hard he laughed about the fact Star can't play certain video games.

Personally I consider this not only callous and childish, but downright crude. True, Star didn't HAVE to even comment on the journal, but this artist has been nice to him and he was just trying to comment and maybe form a friendship (he could use them). On the other hand the jackass also did not HAVE to comment either when he didn't even have anything pertinent to say about the game in question.

Most of the time people are polite and considerate when they find out what he's been through, but on those occasions when we do run into idiots, we seem to run into the really really bad ones who just love to antagonize and laugh at him.

I may not agree with the war or how it's being handled, but I am not going to ridicule someone because of the hell they were put through on a deployment.

I'm going to get off my soapbox now and go do arts. I have some designs I need to get out and now some frustration I need to deal with.

My parents, as I've mentioned before, have a little Lhasa Apso named Tuffy (he has a long formal AKC name too @.@). As I've also mentioned he has some..."issues", namely being overly aggressive at inappropriate moments. Well, yesterday he had one of those "moments" at one of the two most inappropriate times. He bit me, not once, but twice.

What happened was, I needed to vacuum so I asked Star to put the dogs up while I picked up some other stuff and dragged the vacuum cleaner out. Tuffy HATES being put up, so he immediately goes on the defensive growling and snapping and running around the house. I had a bag of yarn in my hand that I was putting up, but since Tuffy usually is ok with me handling him, I stopped to see if I could get a hold of him and put him up. Unfortunately, even me offering to be the one to put him up wasn't good enough and he charged out from behind the chair he was running around (it sits against the end of a long serving bar, the space behind it opens out into the living room on one side and the dining room on the other) and bit me on the left wrist. I pushed him away and down with my right hand immediately and held him down as he tends to keep trying to bite once he gets started. Just as I got my left hand back on him, he twisted his head around and bit my right middle finger through the side of the fingernail (yes, there is a small hole/crack in the nail). I had to hold him down for several minutes or risk letting him go and him continuing to attack. It took both of us to finally get him confined in the hallway behind a gate, but he continued going ballistic for hours after that.

I of course called my mother and let her know exactly how I felt and asked her how big of a chunk and who did he have to take it out of before the two of them realized they were harboring a vicious dog. He had already bitten her just before xmas, and Star shortly after we came down. He has now bitten me, and Star (not so badly) and for me that is VERY unacceptable. She has admitted not having the time to train him and allowing dad to play with him however he wanted to. That upbringing combined with the fact that the dog is HORRIBLY inbred* on both sides doesn't help at all. They really don't want to have to get rid of him, so they have agreed to get me the supplies I will likely need to retrain him. He is getting a crate, a muzzle, and possibly and electronic collar since choke chains and prong collars have little to no effect on him. I normally would not use an e-collar at all, but I think I have found the extinuating circumstance and I plan on only using it if/when I really need it.

I am going to start on basic obedience with treats and go from there as I get into working on his aggression issues. He has roughly one month after the training begins to show a marked improvement in his aggression or they will get rid of him. I know they don't want to, but it will be for the best since I have a son that I do NOT want getting bit and considering how unpredictable the dog can be sometimes, I do fear it will happen. The other part of the deal is, if between now and his eval date, he bites anyone like he has already, then he will be taken and gotten rid of (by legal means) immediately.

For anyone who has ever said little dogs aren't dangerous, I say "fuck you, you've never been bit by one!" They might not be able to kill as easily or quickly as a large dog but they CAN, and it also hurts like hell when they bite too.

*We got a 5 gen pedigree report on him from the AKC and after going over it discovered that siblings were mated all through his background as well as mother/son, father/daughter on both sides as far back as we could go. I also have a sneaky suspicion that his pedigree might not be perfectly accurate either, but I can't be sure on that.

It does make me realize how lucky we got with Seph. We think he is inbred one generation on each side, but it is like grandfather-granddaughter or further apart considering the birthyears of the dogs.

A little over a week ago, me, Star, my little bro B, and his GF went to see "Avatar". Sure the basic storyline of the movie was predictable, but the cinematics were gorgeous and the SFX were amazing. Also, yes the Na'vi are adorable! Cute noses, long tails, smexy pointed ears. (I know, I'm silly.)

The movie is excellent and I really want to see it again...and again, and well...you get the picture. This is one of the few movies we will not be bothering to put on Netflix, but will be buying the day it comes out.

I'm also considering getting a few collectibles from the movie as well.

I honestly haven't been this excited about a movie in a while, it's just that awesome.

My laptop tends to run hot, but I try to keep the fans cleaned out. Tonight I got an alarm telling me there was a problem with the fans, so I turned it off and blew them out like usual. Now here is the fun part. Just to check it, I left the back plate off and turned the computer on (without the battery in it, just plugged). Surprise surprise, the main fan turns on for a second then goes off and stays off. Now, I'm not computer whiz, but isn't the main fan supposed to continue running as long as the system is on to keep it cool?

It seems like things know when taxmas is coming so they breakdown. We're going to send it off to Gateway and hope they can repair it and maybe put a new screen on it. Everything else is working fine so it shouldn't be any problem to replace the fan if nothing else. I'm going to be figuring out a place to put the desktop soon too so I can use it until the laptop is fixed again.

I really wanted to go back to my old doc here, but unfortunately the clinic he works at isn't accepting any new patients with my insurance and won't allow me to pay out of pocket for it. I did finally find another clinic that will take the insurance and though it isn't in the nicest looking neighborhood, everyone there was really nice and very helpful and willing to answer a few questions I had. I do have to go back to getting a year female exam, but I don't think I will mind it as much as I had been since the NP I am seeing seems to be a very sweet woman. I was pronounced healthy and only slightly overweight for my age/height and the fact I take Depo. She also didn't bitch and gripe about my weight like a lot of docs I've been to did. She just said I should start walking when it gets warmer and that it is always harder to lose weight during the winter and for women on Depo.

So, yay, I have a new doc who I really like so far, and am up to date with my Depo which is also a good thing.

In other news, Sephi and Tuffy are doing better about getting along. Tuffy really listens to me when I tell him "No" or make him get out of the kitchen when anyone is in there making food. He did try to bite me today when I was putting him in his "area" (where he stays when no one is around or he's starting too many fights), but after about an hour of being ignored, he was ready to come out and behave. He was never made to earn his place in the house and everything was just given to him and now that is all changing since his aggression has proven dangerous. I think once he is neutered and with some more time and consistent work, he will be a good little dog. He is smart, but onery...then again, so am I and I am a lot bigger. :P He really can be a little sweetie when he wants to be. It's so cute when he crawls in your lap and leans back on you for belly rubs.

Other than that we're just settling in and trying to get our stuff straightened out and eventually get our own place.

At the beginning of the month we moved to Georgia, intending to stay with some friends while we tried to get a house loan. Things didn't go as planned though and we have now moved to Arkansas. Once the holidays are over with and the weather has settled down, we will again begin trying to get a house of our own. We're at my parent's house at the moment and I can say there is never a dull moment, nor will there be for who knows how long. I've been put in charge of cooking and groceries since my mother works horribly long hours and has always liked my cooking. She has also asked me to try and train her Lhasa Apso dog who most of the time is fairly sweet, but has quite a few bad habits, one of which is aggressive biting. He has already bitten Star and regularly snaps at my mother. On the other hand he has only really growled at me with any seriousness twice when I popped him on the behind for misbehaving. Most of the time he has done a really really soft almost growl to me. I am learning his different growls and barks, his version of "talking" like Sephi who whines, barks, growls and howls at us. Mom was also worried that Tuffy would have trouble with Tsuki, my cat, being in the house since he had never been around a cat before, but there really hasn't been any problems between the two since their first interaction when Tuffy tried to chase Tsuki, but since Tsuki has no fear of dogs, he simply turned and slapped Tuffy good across the face (not enough to even scratch him). Since then Tuffy has fussed at Tsuki, but nothing else. He and Sephi are mostly getting along as well, though Sephi has proven that if Tuffy pushes him too far, he will get serious and show him what he can do. This morning for example, Tuffy tried to run Sephi off of his food and Sephi drove him out of the room holding him by the back of his neck. Sephi will of course back off immediately when told to do so and we have watched them closely when they start getting too rough. Currently though we do seem to have a problem with him going to the bathroom in the house. On the other hand, it's more than a little understandable as to why he is since their entire yard is flooded. The back yard itself in some places is about a foot deep.

I am currently working on a badge for a trade group and watching Inkheart. This is definitely going to be one of the more interesting holidays We've had in a while.

I had asked Tech earlier today if I had received a box yet. He knew what I was talking about and said that no, I had not, but he had spoken with the person sending it. A bit later, as I was about to go take a nap, the doorbell rang and there was the very box I had been asking about. Inside it was my handmade plush and loonakit from SPark.

I love my plush, it is so soft and squishable and cute. The loonakit is a pretty wolfy grey with white inside the ears and under the tail with big blue eyes, so also very cute. Getting those in today just made the day that much better.

First night didn't go so well. It was kind of expected though. Seph paced and paced and whined cause Star isn't here. He also whined cause he wasn't allowed free run on the water bowl since he ends up horking most of it back up or having to pee ALL the time. At least he and Dozer are getting along (a little too well in some ways).

I didn't think Tsuki was going to be as much of a problem, but apparently he was feeling insecure and actually wanted to sleep with me last night instead of DJ like he normally does.

Hopefully once they realize this isn't a vacation trip, they'll settle into a more normal routine and things won't be so rough on everyone. Also hopefully, Seph will settle down once Star finally gets here. I'm worried about him of course, it's a long drive and he's going it alone with a full carload of stuff after a most likely stressful day of waiting for someone do to their fucking job. (OK, not getting on that soap box)

Right now I'm just waiting for Ari to get up so I can go shower and put on some clothes and then see what's going on for today until he gets here. I think we're going to go see about signing the kid up for school.

Tomorrow the cleaners come and give this place a scrub down while we and the pets make ourselves scarce. After that, we sit around for 2 days doing little to nothing until I head out for Tech's on the 3rd. I will be so glad to get out of this place for good. Once we're settled in down there, I'll have to get my DL switched over and a retired dependent ID card. We'll also still be trying to get a house loan and a place of our own, but we will never have to come back to this hell hole. I will never understand why they sent him out here in the first place. I mean, putting someone in an airborne unit who can not be airborne is ridiculous. I'll leave that rant for some other time though and just concentrate on being happy because we're getting out of here.

From here on out, we're going to be eating pizza/take out to keep from dirtying up the kitchen after it's been scrubbed down. I want to owe the housing people as little as possible when we leave. (We already know we'll owe for the carpet, no getting around that with it being over 5 yrs old and we had pets.)

Had a great turkey day with friends yesterday, but I somehow pulled the lower muscles in my back again. Thank deity Star has a Tens unit. For those that don't know what it is, it's a deep tissue massager used by physical therapists and chiropractors. I also have Biofreeze as well, which is woooonderful stuff too. I'm hoping to be better by tomorrow so that I can get more stuff done before the cleaners come on Monday.

So our house is all packed up and most of our stuff is gone. We kept what we needed and what the movers couldn't take, but the rest of it is gone. Right now we're watching Netflix with the tv we kept out and the PS3 (NO WAY were they taking that) while I cook. Since all my regular dishes are packed up, I bought a cheap set of skillets and some spoons to cook with. I'm discovering just how talented I can be in the kitchen with very little to work with. I cooked bacon, fried eggs and toast this morning with just what I had. Right now I am doing Hamburger Helper and tonight might be a turkey breast (if it thaws). I am going to get as much of the fresh meat cooked up as I possibly can so that I have little if anything other than some spices to take with me.

I'm looking at this as practice for when/if we ever go camping. It's actually kind of fun.

Gonna put this under a cut due to the EWWWWW factor.

Forgot to mention taking Seph to the vet yesterday to grab some more HW preventative for him and pick up his records. I also asked for some sedatives and they gave me some 25mg Aceproms for the move. I doubt it will take much for him, so I should have enough to use for while the movers are here as well as on the trip down. I am going to miss this vet clinic, they were always really nice and helpful and never had problems giving me convenient appt. times.

I also looked online for a vet clinic when we move and if the reviews are honest, I think I've found one. We'll probably be taking both Tsuki and Seph in for their first visits soon after the move since Tsuki needs to be re-caught up on all his shots after Banfield fucking up his paperwork and double dosing (or trying to) him on things. (It's sad when the store their clinic is in has to apologize for how much they suck and remind people that they're not really associated with them, nor do they recommend them.)

Also heard another little interesting tidbit of news that made me happy. Apparently The Haven no-kill animal shelter is due to be shut down by the state due to the horrid conditions they keep their adoptable animals in. For those that don't know, the animals are kept out in dilapidated barns in the middle of no where in cages that are stacked on top of each other with dogs and cats in the same building and sometimes cats right on top of dogs. I have seen animals at their adoption days with shaved spots on them from sitting in a dirty cage and getting hair mats (not that they will tell you that's what it is, but anyone with any shelter experience can tell). I could just stay on my soap box for hours about how horrible they are, but I won't. I will just sit and hope they do get shut down and that some of the more worse off animals are humanely put to sleep and their suffering ended.

>.>...Heh, yay for tengent journals.

Yep, it's that weekend. The weekend before our house is packed out. Right now we're working out what we have to have packed up in the cars and away from the movers by tomorrow night. I almost feel like I've gotten nothing accomplished considering the cluttered mess in the living room, but I have 4 bags of art stuff packed up that I will be using. I did toss out in the fridge and freezers, kept up on the laundry, got the little started on sorting his clothes, arranged all of my sewing materials, made meals, found cleaning agencies, made sure all the dogs paperwork is together, spackled spots on the wall, cleaned and packed the downstairs bathroom, pulled all the swords out of our closet, and thrown away things I really do not need to keep. (Yes, I am something of a pack rat)

Not all of this was done today, but over the course of the last week. I've come to something of a standstill since we can't pack stuff in the cars due to the fact that we don't want someone breaking into them and stealing stuff. I feel rather useless at the moment since I see this stuff that needs to get done and yet, I can't do it due to extinuating circumstances. It's frustrating.

The loan application came in the mail today, this is a good thing. The bad thing is some of the documents I need, I don't have easy access too...which the truly funny thing is the documents are my bank statements which are with this bank.

Most likely we will be taking the paperwork to the gal in person since it will take that long to get everything needed together in between packing and other things we have to do. We'd planned on going there anyway, so it's not that big of a deal.

In some ways the house looks worse right now and in some ways it's better.

We tossed out our couch and loveseat last night along with one of the TV's since the back of it was jacked up. Our living room is honestly a jumbled mess of cushions and pillows (since I'm keeping the foam from the cushions), and other misc. stuff we've been taking stock of, and packing up.

This weekend we will pack Star's car full of what he will be taking as well as packing some of the stuff I will be taking into my car. I get the lighter load since I will be dealing with the kid, the dog, and the cat on my trip.

It's interesting trying to sort out what we will NEED to keep out and what it is OK for the movers to pack. We have to keep in mind that our stuff will be in storage AT LEAST 90 days. We have to ask ourselves, can I go without this for 3 months? Most of the time the answer is yes. For some of it the answer is yes, but then the question becomes, but do I trust people hired by the gov't/military to pack it and not break it? NO. I have a few items I do NOT trust them to pack even though I could easily live without them for a while.

I am so tired right now though I really can't think of anything else to say though so I will leave it at that.

Today Star got called back by his squad leader, only I was with him (as usual) and she had the gall to try and stop me from going back claiming that she wanted to discuss a military issue and that it "wasn't about the house", only...it was.

This afternoon at end of the day formation, she and the plt sgt pulled him aside and tried to say I was no longer allowed to be present for any discussions involving his military service (which what they were saying during the bitch fest earlier had NOTHING to do with military service) because she didn't want to embarrass him (read as: herself) in front of me.

Sorry,but I'm his wife and a civilian so unless they're discussing something rated top secret with him, they have no right to tell me I can't be there. They're fucking cowards that don't want anyone to witness them harassing an already stressed out soldier who only wants to get the fuck out of here.

They did everything but say verbatim to get rid of our pets in order to stay in a hotel too. We haven't told them yet that I am leaving on the 3rd of Dec. to go to a friends house and wait for him to get done clearing and we most likely won't. They'll figure it out soon enough though, when I don't show up with him to get all the clearing signatures and then I am quite certain they will begin to give him hell. I have already told him if they start shit, that he had better invoke the right to use the 1st sgts or Company Commander's open door policy. I'm sad to admit though that I have seen him getting similar "talks" too many times and he simply stands there like a compliant puppy that is getting yelled at for peeing in the floor and I HATE that.

I am so mentally drained right now it's not even funny. I haven't even really had time to eat anything today.

We have been running around like headless chickens trying to get everything sorted out and please Star's chain of command (which is pretty much impossible) for him to clear out of here. As I've said in previous posts they want him completely cleared out of (as in we do NOT live there anymore) housing before they will let him get cleared from the unit, battalion and installation. Now, normally, you clear unit, battalion, housing,installation, but of course the WTB just loves to fuck things around and fuck people over.

We do have friends in Georgia who are just awesome and are going to let us stay with them for a while (until we can get a place of our own), but even after we clear housing there will still be things that Star and I both have to stay near the base to do so we may end up in a hotel if we can find one that will allow both our pets. I also have to stay with Star until all this is done due to all the stress his chain of command is putting on him. Without me around to keep him in line and focused I worry that he will have another one of his episodes like the did on his last deployment only worse and end up in real serious trouble.

I just wish things would have worked out better. We wanted to get out of here, but we didn't want to be pretty much just kicked to the curb like this. We tried to plan things out, but with his chain of command dropping the ball on their end and not telling him everything he needed to know to get his orders cut, we ended up getting screwed over and things jammed at the last minute.

I just feel mentally dead right now, but I have to keep it pulled together for everyone else.

Star's chain of command forced their hand with transportation and now they (transport) are coming in next week to pack our house up and send almost all of our stuff to somewhere in Georgia. The big problem with this?

WE HAVE NO FUCKING HOME TO MOVE IN TO!!!

That's right. Thanks to people not calling us back, or not doing their jobs and giving us the run around, Star didn't have the paperwork he needed weeks ago to do this stuff and we haven't gotten the loan for the house yet.

Star asked and asked for three weeks while waiting on his orders when was he getting them, did he need to do anything else to get them, was he missing any forms he needed to get them. He was always told that he had everything and to just wait. I really hate to think what would have happened if we had waited even longer and he went on ETS leave without his orders.

We have both been trying and trying to get someone to keep in contact with us and get a loan (without getting scammed on it), but either we get one call and then nothing, or they want the VA percentage paperwork and Star doesn't have that yet because he needed his orders first.

This is turning into the biggest clusterfuck ever and I am doing all I can to get things worked out, but every time I iron one wrinkle another one comes up.