Our weekend

I was so excited for Friday to be here so that I could cook Jarrod a meal! He has been working his two jobs like a farm mule so I never get to cook for him anymore. I was so excited that lunchtime Friday I sent Jarrod an email with options to choose from: 8 different main dishes, like, 6 or 7 vegetables, and three different bread options. What can I say? We did recently go to the grocery store. I ended up cooking a fantastic meatloaf!! I must admit it's not my recipe, but one that I got from my dear friend in Athens, Travis. It's so delicious! I made homemade macaroni and cheese, cooked some green beans, and we had rolls. It was all so good!

We had so much that we reheated it for lunch the next day with my in laws, Kim and Robin. We had a great time kicking the ball in the back yard with Addie. I think she's going to be an athlete. She's got mean soccer skills. After some quality yard time, which included Papa Robin putting leaves between Addie's toes, we drove downtown and showed our guests around town. We drove them over the Dames Point Bridge and the Matthews bridge past the Jaguars' stadium. We made my favorite stop for visitors at The Treaty Oak which is a humongous oak tree that seems to have been there forever.

After downtown we drove to the park near the Coast Guard base and let Addie monkey around for a little while. She loves the slide and already thinks that she's big enough to walk up them. She is getting big enough to climb up the platforms that lead up to the slides, though. She also loves hanging from the monkey bars with a little help. She's also picked up a new favorite word! No! She will sit and say it to herself over and over. At the park she was saying excuse me to kids when I would. Pretty impressive (and sad) that my 16 month old has more manners than most grown folks. We know please and thank you, too.

After some fun park action, we went out to the CG base and went for the tour. Jarrod showed Robin and Kim around and taught me a few things that I never knew before--like, you can tell the length of all of the CG boats under 100 feet by just looking at the first two numbers on it's hull. We saw some Coasties practicing their knot tying on the back of a self-righting boat (it flips itself back upright if overturned) that can withstand 40 foot seas. Our tour of the base ended in Jarrod's office.

We then went to the Navy base and looked at some frigates before heading home to relax before dinner.

We ate dinner at a little place on the corner near our house called Cattleman's Catch. It's some pretty good food to eat! Jarrod and his mom shared seafood for two and I think the restaurant meant for the menu to read Seafood for Four. I had steak with a sweet potato. After dinner, I was showing Addie the animals that were taxidermied when some men at the bar started telling me what kinds of animals they were; which included a wildebeest and a baboon. I asked one guy if he was the owner then and he said no, he was just a friend. I told him to tell his friend that I needed a job and he did. I spoke to the owner before leaving and it sounds like I may have a job 1 or 2 nights a week and I can ride my bicycle to it.

So, that concludes the excitements of my weekend. The Harrison's left this morning around 9 and it's now 2 and Addie and I are still in our pajamas.















The Dames Point Bridge




The Treaty Oak

Update

After looking over our options last night we have changed the order in which we will list them. First will be the two jobs in Kings Bay even though they aren't in Jarrod's real job description. We're choosing it for proximity even though Jarrod will occasionally go under way.

Our next 12 picks will be Lake Charles, LA--this is where we both believe that we will be ending up. It's a little bit smaller than Macon but larger than Warner Robins and it's on I-10 almost in Texas. It seems to be an alright place and the houses are priced right. Also, there are plenty of schools there in Calcasieu Parish that maybe I'll be able to find a job for next year.

After Lake Charles, we are putting down Memphis. We took Memphis from the top of the list when we read all this from wikipedia:

"Although in 2004 violent crime in Memphis reached a record low for over a decade, that trend has changed. In 2005, Memphis was ranked the 4th most dangerous city with a population of 500,000 or higher in the U.S. Crime in Memphis increased in 2005, and has seen a dramatic rise in the first half of 2006. Nationally, cities follow similar trends, and crime numbers tend to be cyclical. Local experts and criminologists cite gang recruitment as one possible cause of the rise in crime in Memphis and to a reduction of 66% of federal funding to the Memphis Police Department.

In the first half of 2006, robbery of businesses increased 52.5%, robbery of individuals increased 28.5%, and homicide increased 18% over the same period of 2005. The Memphis Police Department has responded with the initiation of Operation Blue C.R.U.S.H. (Crime Reduction Using Statistical History), which targets crime hotspots and repeat offenders. Memphis ended 2005 with 154 murders, and 2006 ended with 160 murders. 2007 saw 164 murders and 2008 had 168. In 2006, the Memphis metropolitan area ranked second most dangerous in the nation, it also ranked first most dangerous in 2002 and second most dangerous the year before in 2001. Recently, Memphis ranked second most dangerous among cities over 500,000 in 2007, as well as the second most dangerous metropolitan area once again. In 2006, the Memphis metropolitan area ranked number one in violent crimes for major cities around the U.S according to the FBI's annual crime rankings, where it had ranked 2nd in 2005."

Doesn't sound like a place that we want to be raising small children regardless of our closeness to the king and the blues. Sounds pretty dangerous to me.

Our final picks will still be the five in Port Arthur, TX which can only be about 100 miles from Lake Charles.

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The List

We got the list today and it's not too impressive. I believe this is the order that we are going to turn in: Memphis, TN, (2) Kings Bay, GA, (12) Lake Charles, LA, (5) Port Arthur, TX. There were a few other options, such as: (2) Staten Island, NY, Belfast, ME, Valdez, AK, Seattle, WA, and San Francisco, CA. Not much for choices.

I don't know what else to say except wish us luck. It's looking like best case scenario we're looking at being 500+ miles away.

The numbers next to the cities are the number of jobs at each location. So, there is one job in Memphis, 2 jobs in Kings Bay's, 12 jobs in Lake Charles, etc. I didn't mean to be so confusing.

No news isn't necessarily good news

I've once again gotten the scoop on what's going on at the Coast Guard. Jarrod says that the detailer will have another list for us to look at tomorrow. This is essentially the leftovers and new jobs that have come open since the original list was made. I have no clue what's going to be on there but it according to the detailer it's actually a decent list.

I got some good news this morning. My Spanish teacher sent me an email asking if I could tutor some of her teen students during the week for a little bit of money. This is all good news because it means that I am doing really well in the course and also that I might be able to make a little bit of money on the side. Who knows, maybe if this goes well I could tutor other High School Spanish students in the afternoon for a little bit of cash. I've also talked about looking into being an ESOL teacher. I always enjoyed Spanish and made good grades in my classes until I got to UGA. I'm glad that I like it again and that it seems fun because there are endless opportunities for me if I continue.

We found out the other day that we will be going on a vacation soon. We'll be leaving March 7 for Park City, UT. I have been skiing for a few years now and am very excited about being able to take Jarrod out there so he can enjoy it too. We will be going with my dad so I am excited that this will give Jarrod and my dad an opportunity to get to know one another a little better. He's yet to see what a joker my dad is. We'll enjoy a week in my favorite place in the Rockies and return on March 14. For those of you that don't know, Park City is where they hold Robert Redford's Sundance Film Festival every January. They also held many of the Olympic events there during Salt Lake's Winter Olympics.

Well, Addie and I are off to ride our bike. Mott (my mom) got us a bike trailer for Christmas and I just got my new bike seat in today. It's so much more comfortable on my bottom than the old one and I'm trying to ride at least two miles everyday. I'm doing good except for when Jarrod's home. He needs a bike. I'll let you know tomorrow about the list.

It's a Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood

Not much going on here today. We got up early because of our sweet child and went to the grocery store, so at least we have some food. It's turning out to be a pretty day outside so Addie is happy. Yesterday I was trying to connect my new printer wirelessly to the computer and the rest of the network and lost my internet. After hours of frustration, I gave up on it and made oatmeal chocolate chip cookie dough, which makes Jarrod happy. Today, I'm preparing for week 5 of 8 of this whole last class thing by doing a lot of Espanol today and I got the internet back up. Addie is in the kitchen with her daddy helping him unload the dishwasher. She likes to get the silverware out and hand it to you to put in the drawer, piece by piece. I love that she's trying to help. I have tried three times to upload a video I made of Miss Giggles this morning but it's not working so I may put it on you tube or try again later.

Just getting started

I suppose that I'm here because I want to do what everyone else is doing--document everything that happens to us so that we can share it all with our friends and family since they're so far away. I know that I will get busy and that I will from time to time totally neglect this blog by forgetting to write but I am going to try because I feel that there are so many small things that I could try to share more frequently. I will also be considerate and try to send out notification when I do update it so that you don't wait on my every word. hehe

Today finds the Bohler family waiting on the military to give Jarrod his set of orders. We originally put in for jobs in Savannah, Charleston, Mobile, and others farther away like Wilmington, NC and Paducah, KY (which is on the Ohio River). The Detailer (the guy who decides our fate) has been toying with us since the beginning of the year as to when we will be receiving them but we were guaranteed to have them by Friday the 13th. Well, Friday came and went without anything which most likely means that we will be getting a second list of jobs (the leftovers) to choose from next week. Wish us luck!! We're hoping that we can pull one of two options: One, Jarrod's Commander really likes him and knows that he's a great worker and is willing to call the detailer personally. This might work only because the First Class Beau Vallier is making Chief which creates a vacancy in his office that Jarrod could possibly fill with Comm. Gibbs' recommendation. If this doesn't work then our second option is to cross our fingers and hope that there is still a job in Kings Bay, GA open. The job in Kings Bay is really out of Jarrod's rate (his field of specialization) which could hurt him in the long term because he wouldn't be doing his "job" and would risk delayed advancement like he saw here the first two and a half years. I don't think it will hurt his advancement too much since he hasn't technically been pinned a Second Class and he's already completed everything necessary for him to become a First Class except taking a test that he isn't allowed to take until he's been a Second for a year. Also in Kings Bay, Jarrod would be on a boat from time to time for two week intervals. This isn't so bad since we would so close to family still and Addie and I could just leave the coast for a while. Either way, let's pray that we can stay near.

Addie is just growing into a beautiful and well-mannered little girl. She says please for everything and will attempt thank you with some coaxing. It looks like her little 'fang' teeth are starting to come in, I can see the little white bumps now and we're dealing with a nap-less little girl. I am thankful that we have an outdoorsy child that loves to play outside in the dirt! I am not thankful, however, that I sweep the living room at least once a day because she likes to bring leaves, grass, and more recently huge handfuls of black dirt. I can't keep my plants on the ground because she will dig roots and all out. More about her later or I'll never end.

Here is a photo of my Valentine! We stopped at Best Buy on the way to the car show and I had to get a photo!
Lastly, I am currently having the last house in Hawkinsville worked on! After that I have roofs that need to be fixed and it all never ends! I am also going to class number 5 of 8 tomorrow night and am so close to the end I can taste it!! Graduation is May 9 in Athens at 9:30 in the morning so mark your calendars because I will finally get to wear this cap and gown that I have in my closet and get to feel the grass in Sanford between my bare toes! Go Dawgs!!

P.S. I decided that I would use Georgia as my font to pay homage.