Thursday, October 23, 2008

Missing My House At Fort Hood

I never really liked our house at Fort Hood very much. It was okay.... just an average-sized, 3-bedroom, 1-story home. We could have actually had a much nicer home if we had rented our bought a house just outside of Fort Hood while Brian was stationed there, but we decided to live in quarters because the utilities were free and we felt like it was just a little safer (with the gates/id card checks) while Brian was deployed (which he did end up doing for 15 months in Iraq). Now, though, Brian has gotten out of the army and we don't have a home or a job yet.

I really miss our fence-enclosed backyard. I used to be able to let Heidi go out and play by herself in our backyard without having to worry about her so much. Also, it was a pretty good-sized backyard, so there was plenty of room to run around... and we had lots of toys too (swing set, playhouse, a couple of slides, a Barbie car to ride around the yard in, a sand/water table, etc).

Heidi also had friends in the area at Fort Hood. She loved getting to play with Hazel & Annika (sisters from a nearby housing area), Amy (our next-door-neighbor), and some girls from church... like Abbie and Cloey. Since we've been in Washington, we've been moving between houses every 4 - 7 days or so for the last couple of months, so we haven't really gotten to know any families with kids for her to become friends with. Heidi really loves playing with other children. Her birthday is coming up next month and she's been talked about what she wants for her birthday... She wants: strawberry shortcake plates/cups/hats, a pink doll, a blue dress, pepperoni pizza, and for all of her friends to be there. She gets really excited when she talks about her birthday that is coming up... she keeps asking me if all of her friends will be there. Unfortunately, I don't think there will be any children at her party this year. I hope she won't be too sad.

At Fort Hood, we also had several playgrounds in and around our neighborhood. We even had one that was just 3 houses down the road from us. Here, there are several parks in the city of Bellingham, but you have you drive to get to any of them... so it's just not as convenient. It's also pretty cold and wet all of the time now (since it's October). I guess there might not be as many kids going to them to play now. We went the other day to the Whatcom Falls Park, which isn't too far away from Brian's dad's house. I think it is the closest one. It was a really pretty park, with huge trees, gigantic maple leaves (the biggest I have ever seen in my life!), an old bridge... it's kind of neat looking, a walking trail, and a couple of playgrounds. We were there for a while and there were just no kids around for her to play with. We brought a towel to dry off the slides with... because I guess this time of year here is just always very wet. I guess just not as many kids go to the playgrounds in the fall/winter here. In Texas, it was still pretty warm and was usually dry (unless it just happened to rain that day). Maybe we can try to go another day... and maybe there will be more kids.

I also miss just having all of our things. Heidi had been asking me when we were going to get our beds back... and has been asking me where some of her toys are. I keep telling her that they are in storage and that we will get them back someday when we get a home. I just don't know when that will be.

I had been hoping for a home at least by Christmas, but right now... I don't even know if we will have one by the time the baby gets here in February. We will have to take our things out of storage by February too... the army will only hold it until then. We will need all of our baby things too before the baby gets here, like: clothes, blankets, car seat, pack-n-play, etc.

I am just kind of sad today... thinking about how much I miss having my own home.

1 comment:

Southern Belle said...

Moving to a new place is hard, it always takes a while to get to know people and make new friends. You will always find friends there eventually. You should just stay at one house if moving in between is too much of a pain. Everyone will understand. Hope everything turns out well and Brian finds a good job:)