One year

It seems fitting.

One year ago today was one year since I wrote on this blog. Since I even opened the blogger page, as a matter of fact.

There are many, many reasons behind this. One, that I've talked about before, is Facebook. That's my outlet now.

But that's not the biggest reason. The biggest reason is that, contrary to what I thought on June 12, 2010, CPE experiences are, many times, not something to be shared. It is such an intense, personal, unique-to-every-person, challenging experience, that a public blog isn't really the place to write about it. (That said, if you found my blog because you are a chaplain/ spouse and are headed to CPE, contact me. I will share. :-)

On June 12, 2010, I had no.idea. what was about to hit. I think someone could have even told me about what CPE was like for them, and I still would have been unprepared.

Enough on that.

On to other news. Thankfully (though that word seems immensely inadequate), CPE is OVER! Next week we are on to Ft. Leavenworth, KS, where Jon will be utilizing the CPE training at the prison. He will do well in that environment... and I will do well back in the midwest and within a day's drive of family! :-)

Speaking of family... #3 will be here in September! I might just break my "once a year blogging" routine and tell you a little more about that. Maybe.

Anyway. Last night, I got a Facebook message from Meredith telling me she found a comment I left on her blog a couple years ago - long before we ever imagined we'd meet, let alone knew our husbands would go through CPE together! It gave me some motivation to sign back in, and here I am. Will I come back any time soon? Probably not. Maybe. We'll see...

New Again

We're here!

We made it to Fort Lewis, Washington a couple weeks ago. Jon took some leave, so we've had time to get settled in - that was great! The trek from Alabama to Seattle was long, but not nearly as bad as we had dreaded - the kids were troopers!

So now begins a whole new chapter. Up until this point, Jon has, with one exception, been a battalion chaplain, serving 700-1000 Soldiers. Ministry in that environment had become normalized and a way of life for both of us.

Now, however, he has shifted into "Student Status" - his primary job this next year is completing the CPE (Clinical Pastoral Education) training and working on his Doctorate of Ministry. We met yesterday with the supervisor, the outgoing class, Jon's incoming classmates (he's one of 5), and all their families. That took some of the mystery out of it. It seems it will be a challenging year, but I think we'll really enjoy it.

One of my original purposes for this blog was to share my experience as an Army chaplain's wife. But, like I said, there were fewer & fewer new things worth sharing! :-) And, the older Sophie gets, the less comfortable I am putting up pictures on here. I know Facebook has its own privacy issues, but at least I have some sort of control over that. So, no more pictures here, and little family updates. If you want to be my FB friend, look me up!

All that to say, now that we ARE having new experiences, I hope to write more about those. When we found out Jon would be headed to CPE we both tried to find stories online to get an idea what it would be like, and came up with nothing.

Have a great day!

Drumroll please...

We have an RFO!

(read: We actually have *in writing* where we're going next!)

We'll be headed out to Ft. Lewis, Washington in May. Ft. Lewis is near Tacoma, about an hour from Seattle. By all accounts it's a gorgeous place to live, albeit far far far away from family.

So the pre-move preparations have begun. We've looked at moving companies (Full DITY is TOTALLY the way to go, even paying a company to drive the truck for us), just today we sold the boat (don't worry, I'm quite certain there will be another one in Seattle...), we've begun a garage sale pile (though I feel an enormous need to get rid of anything & everything baby, I'm resisting that urge for now...), and we've been drooling over houses to rent.

Jon will be moving into "student status" as he does the Clinical Pastoral Education training and works on his Doctorate of Ministry. This means that this coming year his job will look very different from what it's been, but a little change of occupational scenery is a pleasant shift.

In April we'll be celebrating 5 years of marriage... and in that time, this will be our 6th move... ah, the Army life...

Family Update

Sophia...
~ LOVES being a big sister!
~ enjoys "pretend play" - working in the kitchen like mom, sweeping, dusting, transforming ANYTHING with handles into a purse, "fixing things" like Dad does
~ is learning new words every day! It is so fun to hear her rehearse words... my favorite is "cranberry" which ends up more like "kah-pee-pee."
~ really enjoys crafts. She asks to "cooor" (color) several times a day, and also loves painting, gluing, drawing with chalk, and anything that involves crafts at all!
~ also enjoys reading. A few weeks ago I overheard her choosing a book from the bookshelf, saying "I Shopee. I Shopee. I reeeeeaad." Thrilled my heart!
~ weighs about 24 pounds and will be 2 years old next month!

Ransom...
~ LOVES his big sister!
~ is full of smiles and laughs. He is a very happy baby, and it doesn't take much to get him to smile.
~ is sleeping about 8 hours at night.
~ is very strong. He's happiest when he's sitting up.
~ rolled over last Saturday!
~ weighs about 14 pounds and is just over 3 months old.

I...
~ finished one CLEP worth 6 credits - 2 more CLEPS and 3 classes to go - I should be done by early spring! The test I took last week was definitely the one I was most confident in: Social Sciences and History. I crammed for 2 days and did better than I thought I would!

Jon...
~ was chosen to do training to become a hospital or prison chaplain in the Army! It's the Clinical Pastoral Education (CPE) program. As a part of the training he'll get his Doctorate of Ministry, so he's super excited about that! This will be very good for our family, and we're both looking forward to it. Of course, that means leaving here sooner than we anticipated, but that seems to be the story of our lives, so nothing new there...

~ is pastoring the contemporary service here on post as well. Actually, he was the one who started it. It's going incredibly well. We've been having about 60 people - some Soldiers, some families, some civilians.

Happy Thanksgiving!