Saturday, June 9, 2012

A Happy Bella! (and other stuff)

Bella's school had their end of the year award ceremony on Thursday morning! Bella won Student of the Quarter for her class - YAY BELLA!!! Her class also sang two songs, and Thomas taped them.
Here is Ms. Downey, her teacher, and the Principal 

Bella with her certificate - so proud!!
Way to go, Bella!!
You've come SO FAR this year!!!

Other Bella shots....
Chillin' on the loveseat, watching a video on Daddy's laptop!

Cuddling a kitten before bedtime.

I hope you don't "overdose" on the cuteness!!
All the kittens are in new homes now.
The Bella is sad, but hopefully we'll adopt a new kitty in Germany!

About a month ago, Thomas went to Germany for
the annual Signal Ball.
It was mandatory and a full week thing, so Bella & I had to stay home.

These guys look like trouble, lol!!
(And yes, Thomas has the most awards!!!)

Bella had a birthday party to go to last weekend.
This is the card I made.
It's not the card I had envisioned, but I was pressed for time and this is what she got, lol!

There! I think I'm kinda, sorta caught up now! Whew!!!

Oh yeah - I almost forgot!!
*head slap*

Thomas finally got word on his orders. In the military you can't do ANYTHING without written orders. It's a pain. We've been waiting and waiting.....and waiting and waiting. And the clock has been ticking and ticking! We were originally supposed to have our household goods packed on the 21st and shipped on the 22nd. Then clear housing on the 25th and drive up to Germany on the 28th.

Hmmphh! Best laid plans....

Well, word came down that all was approved and Thomas was supposed to have his written orders on Friday. But didn't. Now it's next Monday, "for sure". We also found out that our dates have all been pushed forward. UGH!!! I'm not a big fan of change, but once I accept change, having it changed again really sets me off. You'd think after all these years with the military, I'd be used to this kind of stuff, but it still throws me. So....crap. Now it looks like we'll be driving up around the 10-11th of July.

Besides the waiting longer to move, it also really bummed me out that I'd have to wait longer to order from the new SU catalog!! You see, we wouldn't have enough time originally to order anything and be sure it would arrive before we left, AND I was on a 100% spending freeze to save money for moving. So, I'd have to wait til we moved up there, got our new post office box, changed banks, faxed updated paperwork to SU, have it approved...and then I could order! So you can see, the extra waiting was not something I wanted to hear!! I've been seeing all the lovely things people have ordered, played with and shown off for ages now!!! So. Not. Fair!

When Thomas came home yesterday morning and told me about the dates changing I was really bummed. REALLY BUMMED!!!! Our LES (pay paperwork) was available online yesterday, so I took the amount of next week's pay and updated my budget spreadsheet on Excel. Looking everything over, I saw we were way ahead of the game on savings. (All that not buying crafty stuff really adds up fast - yikes!) The Army does give you money for moving expenses, but it's a joke. If you don't have money saved on your own, you're going to be in a big, bad way in a hurry. There's also a lot of pay now, get reimbursed later (maybe) kind of thing too. So anyway, seeing how much we currently had, and how much we'd have by the time we were now going to leave, it was A LOT of money. (Well for us military peeps, anyway, lol!)

So.....I got to thinking. And that is usually a very scary thing, lol!!! I called Thomas about my plan and he said GO FOR IT! I got out my lovely new catty, and made my list!!!!! I hadn't even bothered doing it before, because I knew it was going to be ages before I could get anything. The furthest I got was highlighting the stuff I wanted. I opened up Excel again, and made my list and programmed it to do all my math for me. I LOVE THAT PROGRAM!! Currently SU is having a hostess special (which Demos can benefit from too!!), and I wound up getting $150 from my list FREE!!!! So freakin' psyched!!! I got every item on my list (except one, but there's a manufacturing delay on it), and I'll have it BEFORE we move!!! It didn't ship out yesterday (bummer), so it should on Monday, so I should have it by the 19th!!! Tons of new stamps, ribbon, punches, framelits, paper!!!! YAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Thank you, Thomas!!!

OK, I'm done now. For reals.

15 comments:

Unknown said...

SCORE! way to go Jeannie! Sorry to hear the the dates got moved but your right that's the military for you!

Emily said...

Shame about the move being delayed but in a way its a good thing. Now you will have your goodies before you leave... No more waiting for SU!!!

Bella did so well this year... Way to go Bella!

Exclusively by Mel said...

Hi Jeannie,
thank you for your lovely words on my blog xxx
Funny I grew up in Germany my Dad was in the Army. I loved it!
And I bet you can't wait to get all your new crafty goodies!
As for the colouring, I used lots of greys and gade greens for the Liberty Tilda. I don't know what colours in the Copics you would use sorry.
I can't wait to see your coloured.
Love,melly. xxx

Sueann said...

Congrats Bella...well done sweetie!!
And congrats to you Hun...you are getting your new supplies!!
Woot!!
Hugs
SUeAnn

Cassie said...

Way to go, Bella! I don't even know what I'll do when the time comes to move, but I'm sure I can take some hints from you, Jeannie! Nice job on the saving, and yes, Thomas is awesome for giving you the green light! I'm praying that the move goes smoothly and you get what you need quickly :)

Rita said...

Congrats to Bella! :)

Well, at least with the move change you got to get your order made!! Pictures! I want pictures! ;)

Toriz said...

Congrats to Bella; way to go! :)

Well, I bet all those goodies will be worth the change to the moving date. At least, you'll think so after the move is finally over! ;)

Mary said...

I'm so happy to hear that Bella ended the year on a high note!! Moving is expensive, and it still amazes me that some active duty wives don't realize that...and have insane credit card bills at the end of it.

And WooHoo for new stuff. Can't wait to see what you come up with!

Liz Mays said...

That man spoils you so, so much! Lucky lady! Sorry your move has been delayed though. Paperwork is such a pain!!!

AliceKay said...

Congratulations to Bella for her Student of the Quarter award. She definitely looks proud. :)

Aww...those kittens are so cute. I'm glad they all have new homes now.

Thomas looks great in his uniform. :)

Sounds like you will be getting new SU stuff very soon.

STILLMAGNOLIA said...

congrats to Bella....loved the videos. She has really grown and gets prettier every single day.

Welcome to the Garden of Egan said...

Wow! Life is crazy for you again!!!
I'm sure you'll miss Italy.

Ya for all the SU stuff! Fun times.
You make the prettiest cards!

joe tacoma said...

LOL @ Bella yawning. And what was going on @ 2:37 in the first video? Too funny.

Heatherlyn said...

The kittens are so cute. Is there really anything cuter than kittens? Probably not.

I'm glad that it worked out for you to be able to order your stuff. It seems like a little thing but sometimes those little things go a very long way in improving morale!

Allyson said...

A) I LOVE the pictures of Pisa! I read somewhere recently that they had to stop building for a long time because they ran out of money and that allowed the ground to settle a bit, which is the only reason why it's even still standing.
B) I was scrolling through to see where you're headed next. I wish the first tour wasn't 3 years. I can't believe we still have 9 months here. *sigh* But the ones after will be 2 years I think, which I'm all for. Which part of Germany are y'all headed for? What a cool childhood Bella is having!!