Video, Skiing and the Army

First of all, I have been VERY behind on sharing video with family. I'm not even sure when I last sent video. I think probably August, right after Allen's extension. You would think that I might keep up with that during his extension, but nope, I did not. I was even a slacker on videotaping at all really. However, I have a new plan for sharing. Rather than sending cds with months of video, I will now have links to short video clips. These are posted in the sidebar under video. So far, my new video list includes a video from the park, some dog teasing, slide, and a tantrum. I also have a few older videos that I think I already linked to the blog. I may put old video on there, but don't count on it, since I would have to reedit them for size.

Perhaps I was not meant to go skiing this week. I was going to ski again on Tuesday morning, but the water and septic guy was supposed to be here in the morning. He never showed, but I wasn't too concerned since I was pretty tired from Monday's trip. On Thursday, I had Ashlyn in hourly care for the morning, so I decided to go. Ranger was so excited when I started getting ready that I decided to take him with me. I haven't taken him before, in part because he isn't allowed on the groomed trails. So, I went to Chena Flood Plains with the dog. As I was starting down the hill from the truck, I thought to myself that this was such a good idea to take Ranger. He was just running full out. He doesn't ever get to go that. The snow in our yard is just too deep now, and when we walk he is on a leash. For some reason, I had a hard time getting my boot into the ski. As I was cursing the boot or ski or whatever the problem was, Ranger ran off. After dealing with the skis for about 10 minutes, I started calling Ranger and skiing. It didn't take long before I heard Ranger barking and realized that he was at the truck. I kept calling him and he just kept barking back at me. Wimp dog was too cold to go skiing apparently. He is such a southern dog! This did not stop me, though. I still skied. I just left Ranger in the 4-runner, with the auto start. When I got back, he was just curled up in the front seat.

So, remember what I wrote earlier about how the military had actually streamlined one of its processes? Scratch that. Of course they didn't make things easier, Angie, what were you thinking? Instead, things are a little more unorganized at FWA than Fort Benning (Big Surprise.) We were just not informed of everything that we needed to do. (There are probably still things that we don't know.) We do need to do medical crap. And, of course, there are no directions on how to do these things. Or any type of checklist for moving to another country. I called the clinic Friday morning to find out if I needed an appointment to have the EFMP paperwork filled out. She just tells me that I need my DA 57890 and my DA 257[q75. We were given one of these documents in a stapled pack (with no instructions), but not the other. So, I download the document and go (during Ashlyn's naptime) to the clinic. Once there I am told that I must also have some type of registration paperwork from an office downstairs, plus the S-1 has to verify that the information on the form is correct. The information on the form says that Allen is our sponsor. It also says that on my stupid military id and in their computer. So, stupid extra steps. Now, Allen will need to get this part of the paperwork filled out on Monday morning, so that I can take Ashlyn during her nap on Monday to get the rest of it verified. And, basically, the nurse is going to say that we do not have any special needs that would keep us from moving to Germany. Again, something that they could see just by looking at our medical records, without all the stupid forms. (I'm really saying stupid a lot in this ranting.)

Ok, enough ranting for the night. I'll add a few pictures, and then I am going to bed.

Ashlyn found her glasses in a drawer. I guess she had forgotten about them since this summer.