Move from Texas to Mississippi

We are HERE!

Well technically we have been here for a 2 weeks now.

Now that the dust is settled I finally get to return to my blog.





Here is a little of how the Move from Texas to Mississippi took place.

We packed the Penske truck up Monday Dec 13th with the help of a few men from Eric's work. Cleaned the entire house top to bottom on Tuesday. I had Eric take Emme to eat at McDonald's and play in the playhouse while I cleaned so I could get it done in half the time. After a ton of pictures and a very emotional goodbye from all of us AND getting Eric's car loaded on the trailer, we finally hit the road (ahead of schedule :D) around 1 pm. Eric drove the big massive beast of a truck and Emme, Ace and I drove behind him in the VW. We decided the night before- last minute- that we would buy a portable DVD player that sits nicely on the back of a headrest for Emme to keep entertained on the trip. It was worth it's weight in gold. I had some time to think on the trip and I was trying to figure out exactly how much I would have spent on it knowing what I knew now about it's wonderful power it had with an almost 2 year old... It was a very high number lol. Unfortunately, I didn't buy or bring along only but one DVD "Dora and the fairytale adventures". Oh but wait- Emme ended up watching that DVD over and over and over again the entire 17 hours on the road. It was amazing to say the absolute least. She slept, she ate, she watched Dora. I ended up getting the easiest part of the deal as all I had to complain about was listening to Dora for 17 hours as poor Eric had to worry about keeping his speed at 55 MPH, staying in ONE lane, PARKING the damn thing, making turns, watching out for crazy drivers that cut him off, all while learning how to DRIVE a massive truck. Yeah, I'll take the toddler and the dog ;D.
We made in to a town just outside of Houston by 7 pm. Yup it took us that long to get only a couple hundred miles. We unpacked what we needed, let the dog do it's business, then went to bed. Woke up early the next day, ate breakfast then hit the road again at 9am and made up a lot of time as we drove straight through to our final destination Keesler AFB around 7 pm. We checked in and received a key to a hotel room and was told we could be in that room for up to a week. Sigh. I knew this going in so before we put Emme down for the night I unloaded the entire car and unpacked everything into our hotel as I was just following the advice given. Put Emme down for the night then Eric and I hit the hay. The next morning (Thursday) Eric went into the base housing office to get put on the list for a house. He told the guy we had a rental truck and we got in yesterday. I got a call from Eric saying to pack up the hotel and get Emme ready because we get to pick out our house and start moving in TODAY! I didn't even care that hours before that I had just unpacked everything. I was moving so fast, by the time Eric got back from the office with the keys I had the bags, Emme outside, and Ace on a leash. We got to look at 2 different styles of homes. We fell in love with the second model and chose that one. Eric signed the paperwork and we owned the keys by 10am. It was a miracle how fast everything moved. We put Emme down for a nap, then Eric and I unloaded the entire truck into the garage in 2 hours. We hustled and found strength and energy we didn't know we had! Other than a few nicks in some furniture, everything in the move made it. It has been a real treat to decorate this new canvas. I couldn't be more happy with everything about this house. Above all, it fits US. We are not claustrophobic anymore. We are thrilled. Emme is a pro at climbing and coming down the stairs (although I still supervise her doing it) Ace and our new kitty Tilly are getting along great, and I can officially say although I did like decorating and unpacking, I am so happy it's over. Eric and I came to the realization that this would be the only time we could have packed and moved ourselves. SO it was fun to see that we could do it and made some good money in the process, but never again. The biggest truck barley fit what we had at the old house and we only had one child to travel with. If we're lucky, by the next move it wont be just us 3 anymore. All in all, we are glad we did it and we are glad it's over. haha.

AND

We found renters!!!

Who moved in yesterday actually.

Thank the Lord.



Lastly,

A BIG thank you to everyone who helped us and made this move as best as it could be.

Emme- for being a happy content 2 year old in a car seat for 17 hours.

Eric- for getting us to our destination as timely as we would make it and driving that panic attack of a truck.

Neel, Joel, Josh and Dustin for loading the truck in a manner I wouldn't have been able to figure out.

And thank you Lord, for getting us there safely and in one piece.

Loading the truck in Texas

All the boys helping

Almost done

Last breakfast in the old house

Hotel room on Keesler AFB


Ace wondering if we're there yet

Moving Day- right around the corner

Yep! That's right!!



TUESDAY afternoon we are outta here!!



Still no renters though (yikes and a half!)

Saying lots of prayers over in this household.



STILL we are SO excited for this new chapter!!


Can't wait to see the new house

( we still have no idea what it looks like =/ )

Let the cold weather begin!

Making a kid happy with smores

Pretty cool picture although it's pretty creepy

Goodbye beautiful fireplace we've used about 7 times in 4 1/2 years =)

Can we keep her??

Happy Thanksgiving

Wordless Wednesday

Halloween

Grandma Visits!

Parties!!

Trick Or Treating!!!

Boxes, Babies, and Breakables

Only two of them are cute together...





*(the house is 2/3 packed...)

YAY!

Thank You Ed Moore...

For your thoughtfulness...
We were able to go above and beyond with fixing up the outside by you sending us the gift card.
We are very grateful you thought of us during an important time in our lives.
We won't forget this very kind gesture.

God Bless
Eric, Liz and Emmelyn Jaeger

Pathological Picture Taker

Canon EOS Rebel XS


I'd like to welcome this little number to the family!

Eric and I found it was time to invest a little in something so wonderful.

I'm a little in over my head right now with what does what but I am loving the pictures nonetheless.

This is definitely my new hobby and can't wait to try it out on the most beautiful model, Emme.





RIP old Kodak camera who pooped out on us.

You won't be missed =)

Reserved Emmelyn

Hard to believe this precious Girl doesn't say much, huh?

Well she doesn't... not too much anyway.

It all started at Emme's 18 month check-up.
Eric took her instead of the usual me because I wasn't feeling well.
He mentioned to the Doctor our concerns about her not mimicking words and can only say about 5-10 at that.
She said the military offers Speech Therapy but the places that are covered under our Insurance have a 6 month waiting list.
We figured get her on the list and if it doesn't improve by her second birthday we'd get her seen.
We got a call almost 4 months into the waiting (she is 22 months now) to have Emme come in for an Evaluation to see if she would need Sp Th.
Eric and I took her in on Tuesday and met with the Therapist.

As we we're sitting in the waiting area I should mention this place is a resource for all therapy needed by children.
There were children in the waiting area with disorders like Cerebral Palsy and Autism and Kids who needed walkers.
Needless to say just waiting there for 1/2 hour was breaking our hearts.
I always get choked up thinking of Children with such disorders so to see it first hand one after another was about to break me. Eric bless his heart had to take his phone out and watch youtube videos to keep his mind distracted. I quickly followed but still would sneak a peek to these Mothers faces. It was safe to say the energy in the area was just plain sad. A couple Mothers of Autistic children were sitting across from each other and started a conversation about financial problems and about a minute into it they both started to cry. It filled me with so many emotions.
Some Mothers had zero patience with the siblings of the disabled kids and were not concerned on who was around to see.
This, especially, was not the place to judge ANYTHING that was happening. The thought of even doing so sickens me.
I dislike close-minded people and constantly have to remind myself to never jump to the easy conclusion of things. You never know the full story and have no idea what people have been through.
Us being Children of God it has been told to us that it is not our place.
All that being said you bet your sweet tooshie we thanked God for our healthy Girl extra that day.

Back to the eval session.
Emme was seen by a sweet lady and Eric and I just sat back in the office while she got down on the floor with Emme to do her thing.
We were absolutely taken aback with how smart our baby was. We always knew she was but I was so focused on " oh no...she's not talking" thoughts. It was frustrating to know that I knew she knew these things but she just doesn't feel like expressing them verbally yet.
Eric and I got very emotional to see her point to ALL the right things and pass all the tests with flying colors... Except for the speech part, of course.. which we already knew.
We agreed that this is the proudest we've been of her. EVER.
Our little sponge =)

The Therapist told us that she should be in the range of saying 50 + words instead of the 10-15 she does know.
We start therapy in two weeks 2 x's a week!
We are very excited for our girl to get this opportunity.

After leaving the appointment we couldn't stop giving her kisses and telling her how proud we were of her.
She usually pulls away from kisses like a toddler does, but she welcomed them like she knew she just did something amazing.

We got some amazing tips and can't wait to try them out!

Mommy loves you
xoxoxo

Austin adventures!

Why does it seem we have to learn everything the hard way?

Like when we branch out and try new things..

And we drive 2 hours to get there

And it ends up being a total dump?

*
Add it to the live and learn list I guess.

*

Eric and I were looking forward to a nice weekend and decided to take Emme to the Zoo.

In the past we have always gone to the Waco Zoo, but we always thought it was a little small so we decided to look up the Zoo in Austin thinking " Austin is a really nice City... they have to have a nice Zoo". Logical, right?

Nope.

We packed up our little trooper and decided to drive down to Austin during her nap because in the past she always falls asleep in the car on longer than 30 min car drives.

Well, times are changing with our growing Girl and she ended up staying awake a good 90% of the trip.

We knew we were in trouble when we got closer to the Zoo and the road turned into gravel that turned into dirt that turned into a one-way-hope-you-don't-hit-someone-coming-around-the-corner.

The Zoo turned out to be a rescue habitat/"Zoo".
With Monkeys in Dog kennels.
And 3 legged Wolfs.

There was a plus-
We got to let Emme run free instead of keeping her in the stroller.

AND

There was a pretty good Tiger fight!
They got going and I couldn't look away.
They got the whole Lion/Tiger habitat growling and roaring.
If I were a child I would have been terrified, it was so cool to see.

The Jaeger family decided to leave after 45 min of circling the place about 4 times.

We didn't want the trip to be a waste.

We've heard of Austin having great Museums and Parks but Emme is still a little to young for the Museums.

We were hungry ( didn't pack a lunch thinking we'll just pick something up at the Zoo)..
They had a vending machine.

haha.

Eric had the brilliant idea of Joe's Crab Shack!

We've both never been.

Perfect.

We ate, we were merry, we were full of delicious Crab.

I've never had crab before so it was such a treat.

We sat outside next to a beautiful lake and took in the wonderful weather.

We also got forgotten about and never greeted by a waiter so the manager took us on and gave us a free appetizer and showed us how to open our crabs.

We understand things happen and restaurants are busy so there is absolutely no need to be upset or rude in that situation.

I cannot STAND people who act like you just shit on their Baby because you didn't bring the appetizer fast enough.

Ugh. People suck sometimes.

All in all it saved the whole trip and made it completely worth it.
We both agreed that we would have driven the whole way just for Joe's.

num num.

Emme slept the whole way home.

Eric and I played 20 questions.

I found out I suck at 20 questions.

It was a good day.

*

Eric and Emmers at the Zoo.
"Can we leave yet?"

Emmers at Joe's

House and Womb for Rent

And STILL no takers on either....


Huh-roumff.





Pretty boring update, I know.

Happy 26th Babe!

Someone celebrated another Birthday.....

And He is soooooooo happy about it! ;D

I don't care how old you feel your getting, I think it looks good on ya.



Your girls love you.

xoxoxoxoxxxxxx

Sweet Berry Farm

Last year I discovered this cute little farm in Marble falls.
After trial and error we finally came across one that I liked.
Last year was a little different though.
Eric was deployed and Holly was staying with Emme and I at the time.
It was cool showing Eric how much fun that farm is!
We went this last Friday and since it was a weekday not a lot of people were there which was a nice change of pace. Last year there were lines for everything.
Little one had so much fun "rescuing" all the baby pumpkins and it was awesome just to let her run around and be free.
Of course the best part was when Mom pushed her in the wheel barrel! She was having a ball!
We ended up getting a couple Pumpkins and I got my Cinderella pumpkin that will now always be a tradition for me..starting last year.
I'm glad I got to revisit a place that had so many great memories but also happened during a difficult time and remember how Holly made the deployment so much better for Emmelyn and I.
I love her for that.
I love Sweet Berry Farm.

House for rent!

"We neeeed yoooou're moneyyyyyy!"


House went up for rent on October 1st. Wish us luck on a speedy sell!

To sell or not to sell?

That is the question.

Whether tis' noble in the mind to suffer... (and spend money to sell)

... Or just suck it up and risk to rent it out.

That is exactly what we plan to do.


Here's why:


Last night we had a meeting with our Realtor, Beverly, who sold us the house when we moved in 4 1/2 years ago. We love this lady for so many reasons. I worked for her at one point, actually. It was pretty cool; about a year after living here she called me up one day asking if I would like to work for her new office. She said I made an impression on her when we went through the process of buying our house and it stuck with her. I was very flattered and excited for the opportunity. Since I wanted to continue my job at Chilis, I agreed to work 8am-3pm at her office then from there I would go work the night shift at Chilis at 4pm-10 or 11pm. That went on for about 4 months before I got pregnant with Emme and went back to having just the Chilis job. (Looking back I wish I chose the Realty job over Chilis- live and learn, right?).

Beverly is the most down to Earth old school person you could ever want to sell your house. In our meeting we discussed originally how we wanted to sell. After weighing the options and finding out that Cove dropped 10% in home value we were devastated to learn that after closing costs, Realtor fees, and any repairs buyers might ask for, we would be in the hole between 5k- 9k.

Ouch.

We have a savings for these exact reasons. But in the end, you want to KEEP your savings.

The meeting started off rough.

Options #2:

Wait for the market to raise back in value where it should be and rent it out/pay off more principal while doing so.

Sounds amazing right?

Except for the whole renting our first house- my love and pride and joy- to strangers, it is.

In the end, we could rent our house out and possibly make money off Renters, and that would go straight to paying more principal off so when we do sell we wont be upside down.

We trust our Realtor and her company to rent it to good people due to their process of finding renters. It includes extensive background checks and payment history's. Also, since we continued our Realty service with her, we get an amazing discount so the property management fees are perfect.

Eric and I decided in one years time we would reassess our situation and see if we should sell then.

One things for sure though, we are not prepared to spend a good chunk of our savings just to get rid of it and be burden-free. For most people, there is a cost to having that burden taken away. In our opinion, the cost was too great.

We both feel good about this decision. Although this is not the outcome we expected, we understand that this is the economy today, and soon it will turn around. Us, along with the rest of America, have been in a similar situation.

If our plan works and we are able to rent it to good people for a year or two, then we won't take a hit and actually depending if the market is ANY better we could be a success story.

The next step is pretty simple, actually. We fix up the outside and do some things here and there in the house and come October 1st - our house in up for rent! =)

My wonderful in-laws, Dennis and Debbie, are coming out soon to help with making our baby shine again. We are so grateful for their visits and help throughout the years.

I am still so proud of our story. Buying our first home when I was 19 and Eric was 21, was rewarding. We want to tell our kids one day our story and be an example... Ya know, how the American dream is still reachable. Knowing what we know now, we still wouldn't change our decision with buying the house. Our Realtor said if the 10% drop didn't happen, we would have sold our house within the month and had a couple grand in our pockets. Even though it's not in our favor now, we still hope to be an example and not only survive, but gain in the end. If not money, experience will be a nice trade off. We want to look back on this one day and think to ourselves "We made the best possible outcome out of a non-favorable situation".

Wish us luck during this trial and , of course, I will keep you updated on the new developments.

Just when you thought you were stuck forever

Oh boy, oh boy, oh boy!

The Jaeger's have some awesome news...


WE'RE MOVING!

Just as I stated above... It seems like anytime we told family/ friends our "plans" with the Military, we would soon find out that wasn't going to happen.

Anytime we went home we would end up telling them something different, from " We're getting out of the military" to "Eric's not only re-enlisting.. he wants to go Special Forces."

=D

Our family has been on a roller coaster right along with us.

We agreed after the SF interest came and went that it was better for all involved to just hear news when it actually is in writing or they are at the house with the moving van.


Then-

Then, the unthinkable happened!

We finally got orders!



For those who don't know what a big deal that is... well, it is.

Fort Hood is the largest Military facility in the world.
This large base is located in Central Texas and is home to the Army.

Well- mostly Army.

There are a handful of us Air Force stationed here due to the fact that my Husband is a Meteorologist and Army has the Air Force do that side for them. So here we are, 4 1/2 years later, literally stuck at this Army base with no end in site. Because, funny enough, it turns out Airmen don't really want to be stationed here. Ha! told you it was funny. That being said, it seems like Ft Hood was ALWAYS short-manned so no one was getting out of here. Unless of course you decide to get an over-seas assignment like Korea or even the occasionally lucky Germany.

So the question is.. How did we get orders?... to a non-overseas assignment??

I'm glad you asked. =)

I feel it's kinda a secret...


We outsmarted them.

(well I think so anyway)

Ha Ha!

And here is how I think so.

Long story short-
We knew we had to chose a place that needs people. Also, this place that we applied for is a non-deploy-able spot. Pretty cool, huh?

There is one little thing.

Hurricane Katrina did a pretty good number on it.

Biloxi, Mississippi.

Yikes, I know.

BUT

We are totally stoked for SO many reasons about this wonderful assignment.

First and foremost, we will be out of the never ending Ft Hood.

Second, this controlled assigment is an Instructor job at Keesler AFB.
Eric and I lived there for a summer while he went through some training, so we do know what to expect.

Third, if we didn't get out of Hood before May- Eric was due to deploy again for the third time since stationed here. Not a big deal because, frankly, I don't really like it when families complain horribly when their spouses are due to deploy. I feel it shouldn't come as a shock and yeah, it sucks, but it's what our men signed up for and it is part of the job. Not to get too much off topic but I also feel so incredibly proud of my Husband that he is involved in something so big that people say "they could never do". In the end though, someone does. For that, I will always be supportive and raise my Children to appreciate what Daddy does.

Anyway, back to the reason we wanted out of here when we did.
Right around that time is when we (hopefully) expect to have our second child.
We knew it was risky to try for our second one right around the time he would leave again, but we were looking in the long run and the grand scheme of things and we wanted our children to be close in age. Although this decision was hard, it was what we wanted.

Thank the Lord that this is something we don't have to stress about anymore as we are due to report to Keesler AFB in January 2011.

I prayed about this assignment and spent many nights crying over the possibility to have it.

We wanted it that bad.

Our prayers were answered.

We have been blessed in the past with Military things coming to our favor..

Example:

Even though we saved most of our bonus from the re-enlistment, if that didn't come back (Air Force took it away from that career field for a while and actually I just heard it was taken back once again)
If it didn't come back, I would have had no choice but to go back to work part time. I would have, of course, if that is what was needed to have my family thrive and it almost came down to that BUT the bonus came and helped us enormously through that tough decision.

With that said, I know how blessed we are with the career we have chosen.

All in all we are very excited about this new change and looking forward to our future.

I will update with any new information. Wish us luck!! =)





Now to sell our house....

Made me smile

(Click to enlarge)

Something pretty big in the works!

Some know, some don't.


Here it is.

Eric and I made the decision a few months back that we thought it's about time we add another (most likely last, for reasons I'll explain later) baby to our family!

We always knew we wanted at least one more and wished for the age gap to be close together so they will grow up with a great bond. Not saying that an older age gap isn't bonding.. Eric and I just know from experience the difference a 2 1/2 year age gap had on us as kids and we want that for ours.

Some family/friends already know that we are actively trying for #2. So far our first attempt came back a no. Which was a definite surprise to be bc when we tried for Emme, we knew we were blessed when we got her on the first try. So after wasted money on pregnancy tests and high hopes, I got a good wake up call that has humbled me. I wasn't mad or upset that the first go round didn't work but I def was a little to cocky in KNOWING I was pregnant. I even had the date August 11th memorized so I could tell the doctors the question you get about 100 times while your pregnant "When was the first day of your last period".

We are understanding that things happen for a reason and whenever it is our turn to be blessed with another baby, is when God knows it's best for us. We are leaving it in His hands and stay looking positive towards the future.

I'll keep ya updated with the process.

Wish us luck!

Potheads

Hi, my name is Emmeyln...and i'm a binki-holic.