A year goes by.....

It is coming up on one year since we have moved from Boston. So I began to reflect on what has transpired for the Cherrey Family this year.

~ 2 moves, equaling around 5,000 miles on the road.

~ 2 new schools for Dominick

~ Another separation from my husband, this one lasting 3 months

~ Downsizing in living quarters (AGAIN)

~ New places, new faces, new friendships

~ Survival on the bare necessities (yes our lives are still in storage)!

~ The end of Nursing school

~ The end of a Navy career

~ The beginning of "civilian" life

~ The beginning of "retirement"

I know there is a whole lot more! This is just a little of the basics. But the past year just seems a little hazy to me. It has been a whole whirlwind of activity, our lives seem to have been in a constant commotion but at the same time it seems like we were at a stand still. Holding our breath and waiting to see what would happen.

Now it's happening and it feels like everything has been put on fast-forward! We are being forced to make and do everything that we have talked about doing for years! My kids dream of actually having real beds and "real" toys to play with (you know, the ones that they really like and had to put away). They dream of having a home that is theirs, not someone else's that we will have to leave.

I dream of having my own dishes, having my food processor, baking dishes, cookbooks. I dream of a real couch and enough chairs in the house that we can actually have company over. I dream of pictures on the walls and actually feeling like I am coming "home" when we walk through the door.

We are still in waiting mode, but it's waiting in fast-forward. Life is coming at us full speed ahead and we are scrambling to meet it head on. I'm not sure how that collision will affect our family but we look forward to the challenge.

How to spend a rainy day.....

So when it is pouring outside and flooding the streets, what should you do?

LAUNDRY!

So this is everything that I had to haul to the laundry mat (minus all the laundry detergent and stuff)! The backpack is full of stuff to keep ms. P-goat entertained.

Now for those of you who know me, laundry is not my favorite chore. I detest laundry! Now I also hate laundry mats. It is one of those weird phobia type things. I just imagine all the nasty dirty laundry that has gone before me, eewwwwww! My husband tells me that it is silly because, well its a washing machine, I still can't get over it. There are other reasons I don't like laundry mats, but I am keeping them to myself, this way you all wont think I am completely BONKERS!

Thanks to the 4 beauties above, I managed to cram ALL of my laundry into 4 loads. Don't worry they are clean, those are the super sized ones! Plus I found out that they are fairly new, a bonus in my mind!

Then the power went out! YIKES! I have 4 HUGE loads of laundry to dry. I discovered that for some odd reason there was power to one set of dryers. They weren't the new ones, but at this point I just wanted to get out of there!

Now I just have to fold and hang ALL of that laundry! Half of which is not really dry!

The total bill for my little rainy day adventure..........$30.00 bucks! ARE YOU KIDDING ME! $30 precious dollars and 3/4 of the clothes weren't even dry. On top of that it is still raining and very damp, so it will take FOREVER for everything to dry!

I thought San Diego was supposed to be sunny and warm year round!

New Mexico, our last leg....

After Oklahoma we made the 11 hour trek to New Mexico. First let me say, that was the most boring part of the drive! I never want to drive that stretch again! We got to visit with Jays family and some of mine as well. My Grandmother made the drive with us from Texas to Arizona, I had the chance to learn things I had never bothered with before. It was a wonderful opportunity and a great memory to hold onto. We talked about her experiences as a military wife, how she met my grandfather, how they got married, and genealogy. As I get older I have found that I am more and more interested in these stories and knowing how we all came to be.

Once again, I didn't take many pictures, but I do have some from the park with Jays Dad. So here they are:

Domino showin off his monkey skills!

Papa Mike indulging P-goat on the swing (once she is on, good luck getting her off)

3 generations of Cherrey's

Oklahoma

On our cross country travels we were lucky enough to stop by and see some really wonderful friends. Jason "Dell" Delonais is one of Jay's buddies from the Navy. At first these two couldn't stand one another, now he is our sons Godfather and a great friend to have. Tara (his wife and best thing to ever happen to him) and Dell now live in Oklahoma. They made sure we had a wonderful visit with them, it was too short but better than nothing!

Look at those fools, whats with all the facial hair!

This was on the family "houseboat", the kids LOVED it!

Dell, Tara, and the kids. They treated us to a fun game filled evening at

a place called LOL (I think). Dell helped the kids win a TON of tickets

and buy ridiculous prizes! What a Godfather..... and he shaved!

At the top of the only mountain for 100's of miles!

Is that Dell before he shaved? NO its a real live buffalo!

We drove through this park and had some close ups with these beasts!

An old church and "village". They do an Easter pageant here. They have the whole town, crosses, and tomb. It was very interesting and humbling, yet strange at the same time.

The trip was amazing and we can't wait to do it again!

Our First Day in Oklahoma 7/6/2009

One of Jays best friends from the navy has moved to Oklahoma. This man has been with us from the beginning and is Dominick's Godfather. So our cross country trip was the perfect time to pay Dell and Tara a visit. On a stroke of luck our visit coincided with the end of another old navy buddy's visit. It was really nice seeing Tim again after all these years, it really brought back some old memories!

Like the rest of this trip, I left my camera behind! I can't believe how many good moments I have missed out on because of my forgetfulness. Dell took us all to a local water park for the first day. It was small, Really CHEAP, and a LOT of FUN! There was a kids play area in a shallow pool, a lazy river, some kid water slides, a wave pool, Several big water slides, and the toilet bowl. Dominick was able to get everything in, except the toilet bowl (he wasn't big enough).

Our visit with Dell and Tara was a lot of fun and I have a TON of pictures. So there will be a few more posts! I know I am behind, but I will try really hard to get caught up by this weekend, so keep your eyes peeled!

This is a really poor picture of the water park. It was taken from the Highway

Uncle Dell, A shock to see his "Post" Navy persona!

The kids ready for a fun day at the water park

Domino, Dell, Jay, P-Goat, and Tim

Dell, Tim and Jay all served in Iraq together. Not to mention all the fun trips to AZ together while Jay and I were dating. It was great to catch Tim while he was in town!

Our own Fireworks

Dell, Tara, Domino, and Jay, looking for the perfect fireworks!

The "sprint" don't let the fireworks getcha!

Domino helped light that one and ran!

You never can catch great fireworks on camera!

This is P-Goats "hiding" spot from the noise and flames!

We were actually in Texas over the 4th of July weekend. Because of a fire-ban we were unable to watch a public display or do our own. The kids did get a chance to play with some sparklers and had a lot of fun doing it. When we got to Oklahoma, Dell was upset to hear that the kids didn't get to do fireworks. So what does he come up with........ A huge box of left-overs from their 4th weekend. Domino had a blast picking out the cool ones and watching them go off! P-Goat on the other hand would run and hide! What a little snot, but secretly from her spot in the truck she smiled and watched. Once again THANKS Dell and Tara!

Family Reunion, not for the faint of stomach

I have been really horrible this trip, I just can't seem to remember my camera! I know there are some really great pictures out there from our family reunion, I'll just have to beg and plead with my grandma and cousins!

We arrived in Texas on a not so great note! Poor P-goat got car-sick in the middle of nowhere! Now for those of you that know me and know me well, vomit is the one thing I CANT HANDLE! So I brace myself, trying extremely hard not to mimic P's actions, and find a place to pull off of the highway. Jay proceeds to clean up EVERYTHING, I love that man! We move on to the next truck stop and buy as many wipes and febreeze air-freshener we can find! We hit the road again and the little devil decides she wants an encore performance! Note to self, chocolate milk, high temperatures, large blankets, and P-goat don't get along when all put together! We made it to the hotel and while Jay was cleaning another mess, I was checking us in and unloading.

Now we were in Texas and would be here for the weekend, a nice time to relax and hit the laundry mat! I hate laundry mats!

Soon we were meeting up with family and getting into the swing of the reunion. It was so wonderful to see everyone, it had been far to long! We ate great food (of course), caught up on the years, reminisced on the old, swam, had water fights, watched old home movies, went to the river and over-baked ourselves, and planned for our next reunion (vowing to never let it go this long again)! There were several things we had planned and didn't get to, but it didn't matter. The fact that we were all together was the important part.

Jay had never met this side of the family and I knew he would fit right in. He enjoyed himself greatly and looks forward to the next reunion. He enjoyed chattin with Pat, bonding over motorcycles, suped up golf carts (made for off-roading), and military life.

I promise when I get my hands on some pictures, I will post them! It was a reunion to remember, especially since we had ALMOST everyone in attendance, we hope we can get the rest there for the next one.

3 Days and 11 States! The first leg of our Trip.

This has been a long time coming, I know. We started our trip on Sunday June 28th. We left our home in Weymouth MA and headed north-west to Holyoke MA where we spent the night with our friends Rob and Emily in their new home. Leaving MA has been a bitter-sweet experience and all of our goodbyes were hard. On Monday we headed out and drove through 5 of our wonderful states, ending in Harrisburg PA. The next day we hit the road driving through 4 more states, ending in Knoxville TN. We drove around Knoxville looking for some good BBQ and ended up with Taco Bell! Every BBQ place we found was closed or out of business so we settled and hit the beds early. Next morning we hit the road and drove across Tennessee to stay in West Memphis AR.

NEVER STAY IN WEST MEMPHIS ARKANSAS!!!!!!

It was only about 10 miles away from Memphis and all of the main attractions, but once you cross the Mississippi River and hit West Memphis you are in the GHETTO! By this time the kids were begging to get out and do something, they picked bowling. We found one close by and luckily it wasn't too scary! That night we set our alarms and hit the pillows hard.

What our life was like for 2 solid weeks!

Bowling in West Memphis, we were the only people there!

Stylin shoes Babe!

Domino's super cool bowling form!

P-Goat has the Grannie down pat!

This video was cute, Domino spent his spare time between frames narrating the rest of our turns. It was really funny and super cute!

Sorry for the lack of "better" pictures. I saw tones of cool stuff while driving and when we would stop, but I always forgot my camera! Stay tuned for the next leg of our trip, Texas and our Family reunion!

Our last days....

So some of the girls and I went out to a last minute "Good-Bye" dinner. Thanks Gretchen for setting it all up. I'm really thankful to these ladies (and some who weren't able to make it), they really helped make Boston the best "Home away from Home"!

Saying Good-Bye to Julia at Chuck-E-Cheeses!

Our last Boston Beach trip! We spent a few hours playing at the playground and searching the beach for snails, crabs, and other little sea creatures.

P-Goat isn't too Happy, she is having a hard time realizing she wont see anyone for a long time!

Rob and Emily, we really will miss you guys! See you in NM soon......

It's Official!

I will be leaving Boston WITH my husband in tow!

The Navy has finally approved his TAD (I think thats what is called) orders. This means that he will come to Mesa with us, he will work in Phoenix until the end of September, then he will be on what they call Terminal leave until the end of December! 

We have been married almost 7 years now and I have to say that we have probably spent 3 1/2 of those years APART! With Deployments, Detachments, No vacation time, and things like that we were always apart! I am looking forward to actually having a full time husband! 

With that said they have also approved the Household Goods Move! We were getting a little worried that we would be leaving here with all of our stuff packed up (by me!) and in storage. Since his actual Detachment isn't until Dec. they tried telling us we couldn't get a move approved until November! What that would have meant; I would have to pack all of our stuff, put it in storage (so we are paying for storage instead of a 2000 dollar apartment), and then someone would have to come here in Nov. and supervise the movers unpacking and repacking our stuff! Kind of annoying, huh! So they approved it, the downside is that they will only move our stuff to his "Home of Record" which is Farmington. We did find out that we can pay extra for them to move it the rest of the way to Mesa.

I am starting to get very sad, I have made some very very good friends here. Out of all of our Duty Stations, this one has felt more like home than any other. It was easier to fit in, make connections, and be myself. I am stronger in the church, the kids have regular routines and friends, and Jay has even been more social. I am excited to move closer to my family and some "old" but good friends, but at the same time my heart is breaking to leave these wonderful people and even the great history that surrounds us. SO I plan to make an extra effort to stay in touch and I promise, WE WILL BE BACK! Even if only for a visit now and then......

73 DAYS!

The Countdown is on! The Cherrey family will be moving back home in 73 days. Dominick will finish up school the middle of June and Payton will have her dance recital, then we leave for a cross-country road trip! We aren't sure yet if Jay will be able to travel with us, but plans are being made. We will make a few stops on the way, Hershey PA, Knoxville TN, Hill Country TX, Oklahoma, New Mexico, then our final destination MESA AZ.

With this said, I'm not looking forward to another move. The details, the money, the stress, I could really do without, but the benefits out-weigh the negatives! As our plans progress and we know more details I will update the blog, until then.........

The Countdown has begun!