5 Month Count Down

So I've alluded to it in past blogs...but in less then 5 months we'll probably be loaded up in the Suburban...2 adults, 3 kids, 2 80lb. dogs and all our necessities and headed east. Yep...we're switching coasts again and returning to New Jersey! Brad was accepted into an Air Force graduate program called ASAM (Advanced Studies in Air Mobility). A basic break down on the way the schooling program works is that you first have to be a school select candidate, then you have three years as a young Major that you are eligible to find out if you get picked up for a school program from your list of 7 different programs. This was our first year of eligibility so we were happy and surprised to get school as well as the ASAM program was our 2nd choice out of 7 programs...so all in all we feel blessed and can't complain.

The program is only 13 months and then we have no idea where we're headed. The options after school are broader then normal since Brad will be going to a staff job instead of a flying job which increases the bases and locations where he would be qualified for a job. We're not thrilled about uprooting for just over a year...but that is one reason NJ was our 2nd choice if we had to do a short assignment. We still have a great group of local friends from our church that we attended when we lived in NJ during our previous assignment. It will be nice that we don't have to spend our time meeting new people and then have to quickly pack up and move. We already have established friends that are amazing and we know the area and have a great church. It's funny to me that Baileigh will attend kindergarten the same place where she was born!

It seems whenever we move from somewhere we have regrets that we didn't get to do or see more. This was especially true of our time on the east coast since our exploring was limited by the fact that we had 2 daughters in 3 years and 911 occurred and as a result Brad was deployed for hundreds of days in the course of our time there. So we feel like we get a second chance and we're going to make our best effort to take more trips to the "Jersey shore" and NYC.

Our tentative plans are to head out sometime in April, depending on the sale of our house. We plan on taking two or three weeks of leave and making the move into a roadtrip where we can visit friends and family. We're hopeful to find a nice rental house in NJ and not have the commitment or responsibility of owning a home. The other part of us is anxious to buy something that needs so work and look at it as an opportunity to do a flip...but Brad's program looks intense and we don't want to spend any free time working on a house when we could be with our friends or on an adventure.

So that is the latest...never boring in the military. We have loved the northwest and agree that it is probably the most beautiful place we will ever live. But we also love our friends back east and think it's a pretty fair trade!