I got my husband back!

If you're an Army wife... you know exactly what I mean.

My husband officially gave up his company command on Thursday. Which means, he is ALL mine for the next few weeks.

Company Command is a huge step in an Army Officer's Career and I have to brag a bit and say my Husband rocked it! I am so proud of all the accomplishment he met, all while activating a company in South Korea. Not many people can say they received the opportunity to do this. He didn't just receive this opportunity, he earned it, and then he went above and beyond all expectations.

I am such a proud wife. Not only of his accomplishments, but for what this command has done for him. He grew a lot during this time and now has this undeniable confidence in his leadership abilities. There were some rough weekends, lonely nights, and frustrating days. But there were also some amazing moments that even I witnessed firsthand. He went from a company of one to 220+ soldiers. He received awards, handed out coins, and bonded with some amazing guys.

I am so proud of you honey! Never stop believing in yourself and pursuing your groups. I'll be right here beside you always.

We are not getting ready to head back to the United States in TWO days and we couldn't be more excited! We cannot wait for the rest of our families to meet Ryder. We can't wait to eat a Chick-fil-a and Panera Bread Company again. And we can't wait to be in the same time zone as our families.

I'll see you in America!

Friday Five

Hello Again! It's Friday! We've had a great week here that has FLOWN by! So here I am with my Friday Five! Link up to these girls and enjoy!


[one] 

Steve and I had the honor to attend a Military Ball last night. We were able to get a babysitter and enjoy ourselves. We had a great time with friends, enjoyed a few glasses of wine, and even got in some dancing. It was an exciting night of celebrating.

[two] 

On that note... The de Leon's are on the move again! My husband was selected for a new command slot. I am so proud of him and the hard work he has done. I know he will continue to do great things in the Army, especially this next year and a half. We will still be staying in Korea, just switching to a different base. That means my sweet girl will have lived in 5 different houses by the time she is 3 years old! I guess that's army life?!

[three] 

Since my husband will be taking command that means there will be a nice little command ceremony. There will be a lot of people there and this girl needs a new dress. That's the first thing I think about right? Who wouldn't? I think something like this would be perfect.

[four] 

Switching gears...I totally ordered this jacket and shirt for Sadie from Old Navy. The jeans are also from Old Navy and the shoes might soon follow from Payless. I have an army green jacket and I can't wait to break it out for Spring. Finding a matching one for Sadie was hitting the jackpot. Don't judge!


[five]

I'm excited to say I am down 5 lbs and feeling great. If you saw my post last week I am starting a challenge group on Facebook to get in shape and stay active for Spring. The challenge starts on Sunday, February 15th! Leave a comment if you're interested in joining! There just might be a sweet little prize at the end of it:-)

A Play Group

So there were a few other moms and I looking around for a playgroup on post here in Daegu. Apparently, there used to be one held at the Child Development Center, but they stopped it for the summer and decided not to restart anytime soon. So we got together and created our own.

It started out with three of us and has already grown to eight moms and ten tots in three short weeks. We are always open to expanding more and I am enjoying meeting new moms. We meet in the library most Fridays, but found ourselves meeting at the playground this week.

I have fun plans for a pumpkin painting party and halloween trick-or-treating coming up. I am so thankful to have these moms and tots to share our experience with halfway across the world.

House Hunting in Korea

Today, we had the inspection for our Apartment. Before I get into this, let me back up a bit to when we first arrived. It was a bit of a confusing process, so I hope this can help anyone else coming to Korea anytime soon!

Once we arrived to Camp Carroll, one of the first things on our list was to check into housing. We were told we could have a three bedroom apartment on post, but we opted instead to live off post. Those families with school aged children benefit greatly from living on post since the school is right next to the housing. However, we decided we wanted the full experience of living in the city. We had to sit in a short "briefing" with the manager of housing and sign off on a sheet accepting the consequences of living off post.

Next, we received a packet with the approved realtors to use. The army has contracts with this realtors and they are used to working with Americans in finding places to live. In Korea, there is no website that you can check to search for homes available. The best thing is to stop by as many realtors as you can, until you find the place you want. You are welcome to call the realtors to set up appointments, but we just went straight away and walked into each one. They are pretty much all in a row on one street right outside the gate at Camp Walker. We spoke with about 5-6 different realtors and saw about 9-10 different properties.

Over the next few days, we viewed the 9-10 different homes, until we found one we loved. It is a brand new apartment complex in downtown Deagu. There is a lot to do for Sadie and me and we are a short subway ride away from post. Steve can easily hop on the expressway to get to work.

After you find your apartment, the realtor fills out paperwork for you to take back to housing. Housing then gives you a date and time for an inspection.

We rode with our realtor to the inspection. The landlords were present and a man from housing came with paperwork. We walked through the entire apartment opening all doors and turning on all lights. Very similar to in the U.S., we wrote down anything wrong with the apartment so that we won't be charged with it when it is time to move out.

The next step to take will be to sign the lease. We have another appointment set up on September 15 to sign. The housing office will be present as well as our realtor and landlord. We will move in just a few days after! We are so ready to be in our own place.

Until then... here's a sneak peak of our view!

(Sorry it's from behind the screen.)

Hello Korea!

We made it! We are in South Korea. We flew here about a week ago. After a VERY long flight with a two-year-old, we took a bus up to the Dragon Hill Lodge on post in Seoul. We stayed there for 2.5 days before taking another bus down to Camp Carroll. Camp Carroll is where Steve will be working. It is located in a small city called Waegwan. It's a little too slow paced for me, so we will be living in the larger city about 30 minutes away called Deagu(also pronounced Teagu).

We started apartment hunting right away and found one we loved. We move in toward the middler of September. Until then, we are staying in lodging on post in Camp Carroll. We have crammed a lot in this past week, but are loving every minute of it so far. I have so much I want to post about. We only have internet through an ethernet cord in the room we are staying in, so Steve's lap top remains hooked up most of the time.

 Until then, follow me on Instagram or Facebook! I've been updating with a lot of photos.

On Moving

There's no turning back now. Half of our household goods are officially packed up and placed in a storage unit somewhere. The first set of movers showed up on Monday morning and packed and loaded in one day. The biggest item I stored away is my beloved dining room table. But with a leaf and 8 chairs, we just didn't need a table this big in Korea. So this is how we've been eating dinner for the past two nights.

Next Monday, our final movers come to pack up the rest to ship to Korea. We probably won't see our items until September at the earliest, so I've got to pull out some Fall clothes to pack in my carry on for Korea's early fall weather! Hard to do when it's 90 degrees outside.

Friday is Steve's Graduation from his Career Course and we have both sets of parents coming in town. It'll be a fun weekend of eating out, because we all know there's no cooking going on in this house now that we've dwindled down that refrigerator! We are looking forward to the family time and Sadie will be in heaven with both sets of Grandparents doting on her. Until then, I'm off to enjoy the last few days in this home... well enjoy as much as I can in between all the cleaning.

Happy Birthday USA!

Happy 4th of July! Thank you to all those serving our country past and present so that we may keep living as a free and independent country!

Be safe and have a wonderful weekend!

To Do

I've had a million things running through my mind recently. Korea is creeping up on us and we have to start figuring out what we want to take, what we want to store, what we want to go in checked baggage, and what we want to sell. That's a lot of categories. We have 2 weeks until they come to pack up our items that go into Storage. Then we have another week until they come to pack up our household goods to ship overseas. Literally ship. It'll basically be driven to the west coast then loaded up on a large boat and make it's way across the Pacific Ocean to little old South Korea. Same thing with our van. We drop it off and don't see it again for a couple of months.

It's so stressful to think about all this and my mind is constantly changing after talking to others. So what do I do? Turn to lists of course! A list for everything seriously can just take the world off your shoulders. If you already read my post about my Ultimate PCS Notebook, you know how many I already have in there. Here's what our preparation To Do List looks like:

Sell Steve's Kia Optima (We can only take one car)
Sell Washer and Dryer (We will have a Korean one included in our apartment)
Declutter and Sell other Various items around the house - Garage sale maybe?
Movers pack up and load items to go into Storage on July 14
Steve graduates from his Captains Career Course on July 18
Movers pack up and load household goods to be shipped on July 21
Have checked bags packed and ready to go by July 21
Receive Concurrent Travel Orders - this tells us if we travel together or not
Receive Military Passports
Update Will and Family Care Plan
Cancel Gym Membership
Check out with on-post Housing


I have a lot more lists within these categories, but this is our timeline for the next few weeks. If I'm virtually absent from here, you know why!

The PCS Notebook

Is it Monday already? The weekend passed by WAY to fast. It didn't help that I didn't feel well on Saturday. I think my body was just physically exhausted from all that has been going on that I literally took two naps on Saturday. Steve was awesome and kept Sadie occupied and even woke me with dinner ready. After an even better nights sleep that night, I woke up Sunday feeling ready to go.

We did a lot to help prepare the house for the big move, considering we have the first set of movers coming in exactly 3 weeks to pack the items going into Storage. It makes me sad to think we have items that will be going into storage for two whole years that won't be touched, but they are also items that we're not ready to get rid of yet, such as baby clothes and Steve's expansive set of tools.

In the meantime, I am going to try to stay as organized as I possibly can while this craziness happens around me. I bring you The de Leon Notebook. It's basically a PCS notebook, full of all the important stuff we need to keep track. So military wives, take note, because this will make your life SO much easier when PCS time comes around. Heck, something similar will come in handy to anyone moving.

The front pocket carries extra Copies of Steve's orders. Different departments are constantly asking for copies, so we made multiple and I stuck a bright sticky on the last one to remind me to make more copies before handing it out. I also have a binder clip holding all the business cards we receive, with a pack of sticky notes and writing utensils. I also have a handy travel hole punch for those items we receive during travel.

The first section contains our calendar timeline. We have a lot going on in-between now and August 25, including leave time. Steve will be on leave from about July 24 until we hop on the plane to Korea, so we needed to plan out where we are staying during that month. We are getting as much family time in as possible. All unconfirmed plans are in pencil and then get changed into pen once they are confirmed.

The second section contains our To Do list. We have received guide sheets from the Army, as well as our own to do list, of course!

The third section is important information. Steve completed a mandatory security briefing and this contains his certificate of completion along with some other information we want to have on hand when we arrive.

The fourth section is for Medical. Most of the Army medical system is done electronically now, but I like to have a copy of Sadie's immunizations on hand, as well as any information Tri-care gives us while transferring overseas.

The fifth section is Personal Identification. It includes birth certificates and passports. Very important section.

The sixth section is Housing. It contains our lease agreement at Fort Lee and what needs to happen to hand over the keys as well as information about house hunting in Korea. The packets that can't be hole punched, because they usually have to be signed and turned back in, go into the pocket dividers.

The seventh section is Travel. The contains anything about our flight, dropping off our car to be shipped, and our household goods being shipped. I am also going to stick an envelope in this pocket for all our receipts during travel to submit for reimbursement.

Finally, we have a section for Misc. I've taken notes from briefings in this section as well as any other random brochures we receive.

Behind this I have a clipboard to use when writing. We recently went through the house room by room to list what we wanted to take in Checked Bags vs Household Goods vs Storage. This will come in handy on moving day.

Since most of our stuff will be packed up and this will go everywhere with me, I also have a file folder in the back containing information about our Myrtle Beach vacation while Steve is on leave. This will come in handy so that I don't have to go searching somewhere separate for it.

Well, there you have it folks. My life for the next couple of months in a notebook. It helps having it all in one place, so anytime we are asked a question or for a form, there it is. I would seriously recommend anyone PCSing or Moving in general to whip up one of these. It'll make your life so much easier. If you have any tips on enhancing it, please share!

Recent Happenings & Annoucement

So I've had a post written for some time now, but haven't been able to post it. In fact, I haven't really been able to post much of anything, because this is all that has been on my mind.

If you have been following for a while, you know that Steve and I were waiting to find out where the Army would send us next. Well, we found out a little over a month ago that Steve recieved orders for Korea. This came as a huge shock to us. It pretty much knocked me flat on my butt. During this time, we were yanked back-and-forth with emotions. We found out that Sadie and I would not be able to travel with him. We even started looking at town homes in Georgia to be near family while he was gone. We've been married 3 1/2 short years and this will be Steve's third time overseas.

I didn't want to hit "post" let alone tell anyone but family in fear that it would make it all the more true. I was even mad at God and refused to go to church, because I felt like he wasn't listening to my prayers. I was wrong, so wrong.

This week, we finally received good news and a different set of orders. We are still going to Korea, but as a family. Thank you God. We will be in Waegwan, South Korea. This would never have been my first choice for an assignment, but to know that our family gets to stay together makes me the happiest person alive. We will be living there for two years.

During this time, I almost decided to quit my blog. I wanted to spend as much time with Steve before he left. But now that we are traveling to the other side of the world, I can't wait to bring you new and exciting posts I never would have dreamed of writing.

This is one a once in a lifetime chance to experience another culture and I cannot wait to immerse myself in the Korean world.

Gone but not Forgotten

I think of the men and women often that gave the ultimate sacrifice. I thank God for those that gave their life so that I may live a free one. I pray for those families and friends that didn't get to experience the sweet homecoming after a long deployment and who are missing a small piece of their heart today and always.

Pick #2: Fort Eustis

Today's a big day. We are meeting with Steve's Human Resources Branch Manager to find out more about our next duty station. It's pretty much an interview of sorts for them to decide where to place us. If you've been following along, I've talked about our process here and revealed our #1 pick here.

Today, I'm revealing Pick #2. Fort Eustis, Virginia. Another Virginia. Only about one hour from where we currently live actually.

Source

This area is wonderful. It is surrounded by water. It's about an hour from Virginia Beach, 20 Minutes from Williamsburg, and is so close to so many other areas to explore. We know there would be plenty of family friendly things to do in the area. We've actually visited Williamsburg three times already since we've lived here.

Hopefully, we come back from the interview today with some good information!


Edit: At our meeting today, we found out this spot is no longer available. While we would have loved it, it was just not in the cards for us!

Pick # 1: Virginia Beach

I mentioned in a previous post that we finally received the list of possible duty stations for Steve's next assignment. There are 33 Quartermaster officers in his class and 33 spots on the list. Let me start out by saying that we have to rank the entire list, Steve goes in for an interview and tells them where he wants to go... and then they just send us wherever the hell they want to send us anyway. Typical right? But we rank the spots anyway and hope for the best.

There were 10 overseas spots on the list. You heard me right. 10. One third of the list. And by overseas, I'm talking Korea, Japan, and Afghanistan. Most of these are one year tours that Sadie and I wouldn't even be able to attend. It makes me want to hyperventilate just thinking about it. But we won't think about that now. Happy thoughts:-)

Back to my original point. I've decided to share our top picks with you. Over the next few weeks I will share posts of each of our top picks until we receive orders with the winner. So let's get to it!

#1 Pick: Fort Story, Virginia Beach, VA.

source

Yes, our first pick is only about 2 hours away from where we are currently staying. We actually visited this past weekend to get a feel for it. We had a great time at the beach and walking the boardwalk. The best part is that Fort Story really is in the heart of VA beach. It's right on the ocean. We would hope to live on base, because really who wouldn't want this in their back yard?

source

Okay this is actually the higher officer housing, but we would still have a pathway to the beach from our town home.

Source

There's plenty to do around the area including the beach, aquarium, Chesapeake Bay, Busch Gardens, Water Parks, Mini Golf, James Town, Williamsburg, and so much more.

So there you have it folks. This is where we hope to settle for the next 2-3 years. Cross your fingers and say your prayers. If not, stay tuned for our next pick!

As an added bonus, here are some pictures from our fun day visiting the beach!

[five] on friday

You know the drill by now... let's get to it!

[one] 

In a surprise turn of events, we found out our "choices" are for places we could be stationed next last night. I say choices, because we all know we're going to tell them where we want to go and then they are just going to send us wherever they want. Typical Army. But it's still pretty exciting! I wrote about our past timeline here. We have some pretty good choices, some okay choices, and some please God don't send us here choices. We are praying about it and I hope to share our next destination with you in the next month! 

Via

[two] 

I am currently helping plan my cousin's bachlorette party to Nashville, TN. I am so excited and as details fall into place,  I can't wait to share the ideas we come up with! Wish me luck please,!

[three] 

Who doesn't love Ray bans? I can't live without mine, except my husband tries to steal them. Zulily has them on sale today for up to 25% off and I've totally got my eye on these gold aviators for the summer. I hope they have them. Yes please!

• Ray-Ban – up to 25% off at zulily

[four]

If you are friends with me on Facebook, you saw I posted a photo of these little guys. They are some sort of dead plant floating around and are ALL over our lawn and driveway. Sadie is TERRIFIED of them. I mean stops dead in her tracks, points, and says "sass" for snake. Seriously. She thinks they are snakes. I have tried everything short of showing her a real live snake, which is my next option. She won't put her foot out the door if she see's these and starts crying screaming for me to pick her up. Any advice Mama's? 

[five] 

It's going to be a glorious weekend. 80 degrees and sunny tomorrow, I'll take it! We are hoping to take a family outing tomorrow to someone beautiful and fun! We've got to burn off this child's energy somehow!

 I need a trip to the beach stat. Who's with me?! 

Enjoy your weekend!

Life on the Move

Growing up I used to beg my parents to let us move. I craved the idea of starting fresh and new. Well boy did I get it! As a military wife, we've moved a couple times in our short three year marriage. Here's a look at our timeline.

Late August 2010: We moved from Statesboro, GA and bought a house in Savannah, Ga.
One week later, September 4, 2010: We Married in Savannah, Ga.
One week later, September 10, 2010: Steve deployed to Iraq.
December 2010: Steve returned home just in time for Christmas!
August 2012: Our first baby girl was born in Savannah, GA.
September 2012: Steve deployed to Afganistan. Sadie and I moved in with my parents in Atlanta, GA.
June 2013: Steve returned home!
December 2012: We sold our house in Savannah, GA.
February 2012: We moved on post in Fort Lee, VA.
July 2012: Destination unknown!

Whew! That's a lot! And that doesn't even include the trips we took in-between to include New York, Venice, Germany, Napa Valley, and Disney World.

I can't wait to make one of these. You can buy them here. 

The reason I'm writing about this is because we find out in the next couple of days where our next home could be. I am completely excited and a bit nervous. There's a chance we could stay near. There's a chance we could be moved across the US. And there's even a chance we could be stationed overseas. There's an exciting thrill factor to it, but there's also a scary unknown. Every military spouse knows what I'm talking about. And you just have to let it go and make it work.

I can't wait to share with you in a couple of months where it is that we chose was chosen for us. Wherever it is I know we will make it a home for the next couple of years. As long as I have my husband home and little girl by my side, I will be happy.

After all, Home is where the Army sends us!