Year Old Yankees
Today is our one year anniversary of living here in New York. I use the term "Yankee" lovingly for a friend of ours that we made while living in Lawton, OK. Colleen you are our favorite Yankee :)
A year ago we had completed our 24 hour drive from Oklahoma with our luggage and my mom in tow. The day we arrived here in the North Country, it was cold and rainy. We soon found our temporary home at the Fort Drum Inn and Mom and I set out to locate the commissary to buy food and shampoo. Mom and I then got extremely lost on post because of a major geographical change, trees. Trees limit ones ability to see into the distance and know if you are approaching a turn. I was missing the Oklahoma plains. Another geographical change that I wasn't used to was roads built on a loop pattern. I had always lived in a "grid pattern" and for that reason, had always hated being in Tulsa on their looped roads.
The next day we set out to begin the in processing procedures. Those of you who are also in the military know how much fun (NOT) and stressful it is. Learning new buildings, figuring out if I had misplaced important papers in the move, seeing if the rumors were true about our new home, and attempting to understand the almost Canadian-accents. Our first day was also accompanied with our first Fort Drum snow. Ross and I had never experienced a late April snow and thankfully it was a weak effort that did not stick to anything. Well, anything beside our fear of the snow rumors!
We spent the next few days looking at neighboring towns, duplexes, and apartments, all while living in a hotel room... We soon discovered that the hotel walls were not terribly thick. This pertains to many things, but mostly to the small child who slept all day and cried all night. It was a test of our patience but we succeeded at never beating against the walls during the day to wake that little child up. Now as parents we understand, let the baby sleep when it will sleep. People will learn to deal (at least that is the theory we hope our now neighbors are living by!).
We found an apartment about 2.5 weeks after being here and we are still in the same apartment. We were hoping to be living in on post housing by this point, but life didn't go quite as planned. We are now looking at being in a house in the next two months (hopefully)! Our apartment is small, has very few cabinets, and our living room is also our kitchen, but it works for us. It worked better for us when it was only Ross and I, but now that it is Ross, Levi, Juno, and I, it is a little cramped. We are very hopeful to have more space!
Life has been very interesting since moving here. Ross and I have learned a lot of lessons, changed as individuals, and as a couple. I knew when we became an "Army couple" that life would be challenging, but I think we are doing quite well at the battle. We have learned that even though the trees make it difficult to see, they make for AMAZING autumns. Those looped roads mean that if you take a wrong turn or miss your turn, you will eventually make it back to where you need to be. And the snow... We can't say much because we were blessed with an extremely mild winter. We only received around 3' total of snow which is so below average that the locals are already panicking for next winter. We will be prepared with our snow shovel, sidewalk salt, and more than likely, 2 4-wheel drive vehicles.
Here's to another year of living in New York. We are looking forward to seeing some friends, making a trip or two home, having visitors here, and watching our little guy do some major growing. This year is bound to be just as exciting, crazy, busy, and trying as the last.
A year ago we had completed our 24 hour drive from Oklahoma with our luggage and my mom in tow. The day we arrived here in the North Country, it was cold and rainy. We soon found our temporary home at the Fort Drum Inn and Mom and I set out to locate the commissary to buy food and shampoo. Mom and I then got extremely lost on post because of a major geographical change, trees. Trees limit ones ability to see into the distance and know if you are approaching a turn. I was missing the Oklahoma plains. Another geographical change that I wasn't used to was roads built on a loop pattern. I had always lived in a "grid pattern" and for that reason, had always hated being in Tulsa on their looped roads.
The next day we set out to begin the in processing procedures. Those of you who are also in the military know how much fun (NOT) and stressful it is. Learning new buildings, figuring out if I had misplaced important papers in the move, seeing if the rumors were true about our new home, and attempting to understand the almost Canadian-accents. Our first day was also accompanied with our first Fort Drum snow. Ross and I had never experienced a late April snow and thankfully it was a weak effort that did not stick to anything. Well, anything beside our fear of the snow rumors!
We spent the next few days looking at neighboring towns, duplexes, and apartments, all while living in a hotel room... We soon discovered that the hotel walls were not terribly thick. This pertains to many things, but mostly to the small child who slept all day and cried all night. It was a test of our patience but we succeeded at never beating against the walls during the day to wake that little child up. Now as parents we understand, let the baby sleep when it will sleep. People will learn to deal (at least that is the theory we hope our now neighbors are living by!).
We found an apartment about 2.5 weeks after being here and we are still in the same apartment. We were hoping to be living in on post housing by this point, but life didn't go quite as planned. We are now looking at being in a house in the next two months (hopefully)! Our apartment is small, has very few cabinets, and our living room is also our kitchen, but it works for us. It worked better for us when it was only Ross and I, but now that it is Ross, Levi, Juno, and I, it is a little cramped. We are very hopeful to have more space!
Life has been very interesting since moving here. Ross and I have learned a lot of lessons, changed as individuals, and as a couple. I knew when we became an "Army couple" that life would be challenging, but I think we are doing quite well at the battle. We have learned that even though the trees make it difficult to see, they make for AMAZING autumns. Those looped roads mean that if you take a wrong turn or miss your turn, you will eventually make it back to where you need to be. And the snow... We can't say much because we were blessed with an extremely mild winter. We only received around 3' total of snow which is so below average that the locals are already panicking for next winter. We will be prepared with our snow shovel, sidewalk salt, and more than likely, 2 4-wheel drive vehicles.
Here's to another year of living in New York. We are looking forward to seeing some friends, making a trip or two home, having visitors here, and watching our little guy do some major growing. This year is bound to be just as exciting, crazy, busy, and trying as the last.
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