Say What Again?

I had an interesting conversation with Oscar yesterday. We were having one of those "What does _____ eat?" conversations when he came out with this one: "What do criminals eat, Mommy?" I kind of looked at him funny, then tried to explain that criminals were just people who made bad choices, not an actual species. 

I have actually wondered before whether or not this is how their line of thinking went, so I wasn't entirely surprised by the question. It was, however, a confirmation that cops and robbers is a game that can be very much misunderstood by kids.

Major Life Changes

So, Virginia. Here we are. Well, most of us. Oliver is cooling his heels in Georgia, trying to finally check into his boat. I am fairly sure it's going to happen today, which is a huge relief.

We actually drove him down there so he could report on September 17, after spending a week in VA getting our housing worked out (and got lucky enough to have our stuff arrive the day we did, so they delivered it before we had to drive to GA - I was SO happy about that!). He didn't actually report to his boat, though, but a sort of transitional command that vets people and makes sure all is in order before they move on to their actual commands.

For the most part, this is no big deal. They spend a couple days running around doing paperwork and double checking everything, then that's it. Unfortunately for us, it turned out to not be so simple. From the medical records we accidentally left in VA (I had to drive back and overnight them, only to have them get temporarily lost in the Navy's mail system for almost a week), to the lack of a barracks room that Oliver had to practically beg for (something that should have been a given when he showed up because he had been ordered to move his family to another state), to the submarine physical that apparently had to be redone, to the total backup of the eye doctors there in Kingsbay because one was transferred unexpectedly...

Slowly, he's been working through the whole mess. The medical records were found, an eye appointment unexpectedly opened up, and we are no longer looking at a November time frame to get him to his boat. The physical is finally almost done, and hopefully we will get some more concrete information about when he'll be joining us here.

I have more to say, but am not ready to say it, so you'll have to wait, but our life has been so crazy lately! And it's going to get crazier. I'm still trying to figure out this whole homeschooling thing. It's been tough with the move and transitioning, plus missing husband, but I'm at least working out a math, cursive practice, spelling program, and reading time day that mostly works. I just recently worked a little science into it, and will hopefully improve on that as we get farther on and have less pressure on us. There's a library near our home, with a couple more with in a half hour that we can also use. I'm going to work out a few field trips when I have the energy for it, and we're definitely going to do some schooling this summer to make up for the last few months.

So far, I think we all like it okay. Wyatt, while missing his old school a bit, has told me he's glad to be homeschooled, so that makes me feel better about the decision. I like teaching him, although I'm sort of surprised at times at the gaps I'm finding in what he knows. I don't know if that's a warped expectation from me, or if his schooling on Andros was a little more uneven than I realized, but we're working on it.

I really want to start up the Spanish program I ordered for them, but am struggling with how to fit it in. I hope I can find a way to do that soon. So much to think about!

Anyway, I'm going to keep blogging for now. I keep thinking about quitting, but since I have gotten terrible at journaling, find Facebook a poor way to look back and see how things were in life, and now actually have something to talk about, I think I am loath to quit. So, for you three people who still read this, thanks for hanging around! It's always good to hear from you!