My husband just spoke to his branch manager today. He has the extension paperwork, but will not approve it…at least not yet. There is still no one but my husband to fill this slot and time is becoming more precious.

Rob will call again next week to see if there is any other news. I think there are 2 things about being married to the military that are the most stressful. 1) Deployment. It is never easy to see your Soldier deploy. 2) Not knowing where you’re going to be stationed and when.

If I were a betting woman, and I only occasionally gamble, I would put my odds on we’re moving soon–as in April–soon. I hate not knowing. I hate not being able to plan certain things. I’ve always been the kind of person that can live by the seat of my pants and just go with it, but certain things need to be planned. Like: I want to go back to school. I can’t won’t submit applications to any school if I don’t know where we’re going to end up living.  I would like to have a look around the web to see about a place to live.  And I’ve done some of that already, but in all likelihood, the houses that I am looking at now will not be available when we move.

There are a couple of possibilities, however, the strongest of all the scenarios seems to be at Ft. Lewis, Washington (state).  If we get stationed there, I will likely go to school in Tacoma.  Where should we live?  Should we try to get quarters on post or off?  Will the quarters on post have a yard for my dogs to play in?  The number of animals that we have shouldn’t be a problem.  It’s simply a matter of getting an exception to policy, and for that, it’s pretty easy to do.  We have numerous friends that have more than 2 animals and live on post so I really can’t see why that would be a problem.  I just want a yard.  My dogs deserve to play outside and off leash.  If we opt for on post housing, Gizmo will not be allowed outside.  He’s not really an outdoor cat, but he needs exercise too.  I have put both Lilo and Gizmo on leashes and it just looks silly.  I definitely get looks for it–and quips.  Gizmo never goes far and he’s scared to death of traffic, but he still needs to be able to play outdoors.

On the other side of the coin, living off post, we just have to find a landlord that allows us to have pets in their home.  Typically, a pet deposit will be required and if we live in an apartment building, there might also be additional requirements such as nutering our dogs.  It’s probably going to happen anyway, but I don’t want my landlord to tell me what to do with my pets.  I’m responsible and they don’t go off leash outside of my house or my property.  Some apartments also have additional rules as to the number of pets that can live there and sometimes weight can be a factor.  We most likely won’t be living in an apartment building, but I don’t want to rule out anything at this juncture–I don’t even know where we’re going to get stationed.  Living off post also has other considerations.  Deposits and pet deposits, where to live that is most convenient to both my husband and I and that is a nice neighborhood.  School districts don’t even enter our thinking right at this stage because we don’t have children, but I do want to go back to college, so we need to find a place that is somewhere in the middle for both of us.  However, college will be a temporary thing, so it doesn’t matter if I have to drive an extra say 15-20 minutes to get to campus.  That really doesn’t bother me.

Oh, the life of the military family.  I hate sitting in limbo like this.  I want answers!  (and I am not the only one!)