A huge update after not having internet for over a week:

May 11th:
We drove away from Denver and I cried so hard it hurt. My miss my Colorado family so intensely but know that the pain will ease with time.

May 15th:
Joshua graduated from Medical school. He became a D.O. and a Captain in the Air Force all in one day. It's still hard to believe I'm married to a real live doctor! I LOVE it!

May 18th:
We arrived to a VERY hot and humid Florida, checked in to our TLF (temporary lodging facility) at 2:00pm and were at a loss of what to do. We called up the only people on base we really knew and asked if we could come over. Wendi, you are such a blessing and have been so servant hearted through this whole process. (Thank you, Wendi, Brittny and Joia for all your help these past few weeks. I don't know how to repay you!) We went to Wendi's house, put the boys down for naps and scarfed down some VERY late lunch. I got to meet two other awesome ladies this day (Brittny and Tiffany) and we joined Brittny and her family for dinner that night. It was apparent then that Brittny and I will get along VERY well. :)

May 19th:
Josh went to the housing office with a couple numbers of houses we wanted to look at and we were told there were NO available houses in the area we wanted........and NO time line of when a house would be available. They gave us keys to look at a place that was ready - it sat high atop a small hill, in direct sunlight, with no trees, shrubs or sign of plant life anywhere around. We said no thanks and returned to the TLF a little disheartened, but sure that we'd be in the "perfect" place by the end of the week.

May 20th through June 2nd:
Wait. Frustration! Swimming. My ear REALLY acting erratically! More waiting! Phone calls. Questions. Crying, a lot of crying on my part! Naughty cooped up 3 year old boy with feeling of lacking all sense of security and constancy. Trips to the beach in Fort Walton Beach and Destin. Waiting more. REALLY wierd ear issues, cluing us in that it probably isn't Meniere's OR labrythitis. Making an appointment to get referral to an ENT MEETING JOIA! Feeling like MAYBE looking for a house off base would NOT be the end of the world. Look for housing off base. Find NEAT-O house, but still not wanting to live of base! Having to give landlord an answer. Saying "yes" to a house off base only to find out we can't get our stuff until the 8th. More crying on my part. More frustration! More waiting, swimming, and boring days in the TLF. Appointment to get referral to ENT.

June 8th:
The movers show up at 9:00 am with 7 HUGE crates of our "junk"! I was slightly embarrassed that it took a semi with 7 crates to carry our belongings and how long it took the movers to unpack it. Wendi, Joia and Brittny came to the rescue again! Elijah spent the day with Joia, Keenan (Elijah's age) and little Moriah while Wendi came here for the morning to help me while the movers where here. She was INCREDIBLY helpful and saved me from a serious amount of stress and nerves. Brittny watched her kids and then they swapped at lunch so Brittny could come here and help me unpack some boxes. All in all, the day went pretty well. The movers got our dresser up the stairs without breaking it, or themselves and there was minimal damage to a few of our other belongings. Joia returned a VERY happy and VERY sleepy Elijah to us at 8:30 that night and he went straight to bed but not without telling us stories of the days adventures as he fought to keep his eyes open.

From then up to now:
Unpacking. Unpacking. Unpacking. All sorts of weird ear issues. A MUCH happier 3 year old boy and baby boy. Still waiting to get appointment with ENT to get MRI to rule out a tumor or MS....yikes!
I've been LOVING tooling around in our HUGE backyard when I get the chance in the evenings. I've done a fair amount of pruning of the overgrowth that the past tenants have neglected to care for. The house is coming together much more slowly that I would prefer but I'm not a bit surprised at how long it's taking with two kiddos to keep track of. It seems I just get a box cut open long enough to remove the top paper and see whats in it and I have to drop all and change a diaper, feed a baby, make lunch or crack down on some bad behavior.....all well, it will get there eventually. Plus, it's no big hurry because we'll be here a FULL 3 years! That's longer than Josh has lived anywhere since undergrad and for me since I was in high school. It doesn't feel like home yet, but it will get there once all the boxes are gone and I can start painting and decorating.

My ear:
I have NO idea what to think now. I've noticed a pattern with my ear problems revolving a lot around stressful situations and that doesn't really come as a surprise to me. The nice thing is that while for the past 6 months any time my ear "stuffed up" it seemed I had to have a vertigo "attack" in order to be able to hear normally again. That hasn't been the case these past several weeks. I haven't had much problem with bad vertigo (only slight vertigo here and there), but in turn I've only been able to hear normally our of my left ear for 3 days out of the past 4 weeks. I never know what to expect from one day to the next and have given up and trying to guess what is wrong with my dysfunctional inner ear and balance system. I just have to wait for my MRI and ENT appointment and pray pray pray that they don't tell me "We don't know", or "we have bad news."

So, thats that. Not a terribly exciting post, but it's up to date and now come the musings of daily life in this hot hot hot hot hot hot hot hot hot hot hot hot hot state called Florida for a family that is used to using TONS of lotion and not having to drink a gallon of water a piece each day just to stay lucid.