Thursday, November 19, 2009

Family photo at Christianway Farm in KY
Our house in Clarksville, TN



Pictures

So I finally went around today and took pictures of the house. I am finally adding it to the blog along with other pictures.
Everyone here is doing well. Mark is busy at work. Always a hard worker. I'm sure he is looking forward to the holidays because of the day on day off schedule. That will be nice. People who know Mark might be shocked that he is going to PT in the mornings...I know...my mouth dropped too. LOL
The kids are doing well. Abby and Matthew are enjoying school and I am so blessed for that. The school is wonderful. Teachers are great.
Logan is enjoying helping me out around the house and especially enjoys 3:45 when the bus pulls up. Loves to see the bus and see his brother and sister. He has spent some time at his Mimi's and Grandaddy's house and has enjoyed that. It gives me a break especially when I am sick...which seems to be a lot.
I told Mark I think it is the house. He cleaned out the duct work and is checking a few other things. Glad that I have someone who knows a thing or two about houses, vehicles, computers and so much more.
Well Matthew turns 9 tomorrow. Can not believe it. I can not believe we have a 10 and a 9 year old. Where has the time gone.
Well I hope you enjoy your pictures!!

Tuesday, September 29, 2009

Fort Campbell, KY

Well we finally made it here to Fort Campbell, KY. We got here last Wednesday and found a house the following day. It has almost everything we wanted. A huge fenced in backyard, 4 bedrooms, 3 full bathrooms, a dining room, 2 car garage, basement. The kitchen is small so that was a setback. A very big setback. It will do. The neighbors haven't been friendly so that is going to be very hard for all of us. We were very spoiled in Texas. Had incredible neighbors. We miss them all so much.
The house is coming together. One box at a time. The rooms are pretty much put together. Still have lots of boxes in the garage calling our names. Still have to hang pictures and clean the house. That will be one of the last things we do. My father and Mark's parents came out on Friday to help us unload the truck and set the heavy things in the house. They were such a big help. God bless them. They left Saturday evening and Logan wanted to go with Mimi. He cried so hard. I asked if he wanted to go and off he went and got in the car. I packed his bag and he waved bye bye. He's growing up so much. We are supposed to pick him up tomorrow (Wed). We miss him a lot. Its so quiet without him.
We tried to enroll the kids in school yesterday. With no luck. Have to have a physical for them simce this is their first time in TN. Shot records had to be transferred to TN green card (that was easy). Once that is all done it takes 24 hours to actually get them in school. So maybe Monday. Matthew is having a hard time with going to school. Once I get him there it should be ok. I hope.
Mark is off until the 16th of Oct. He has been a great help around the house. I have been so sick since Thursday that I haven't been much help. Thank goodness for him.
Tennessee is very pretty. We drove to KY yesterday to the lakes and drove the back roads back to Clarksville (where we live). We are excited to see the area when Logan gets back. We like the area so far but it is very different to Fort Hood. Hood was so big that 9 out of 10 people are military. Here at Campbell you might have 3 out of 10 that are military. Just looking in our neighborhood there are a lot of civilians. Just a shocker for us. Campbell itself is small. Went to the housing office and was a shock when it was in a little parking lot of maybe 10-15 cars (if that much) and the building was itty bitty. The lady at the front desk of our hotel was telling me Campbell was a big post - really??? Hood was big this is small. Need to adjust but we will all be fine. God brought us here for a reason so I need to leave everything in his hands and not try and control it all.
God bless you all!!
Our address is:
1476 Buchanon Drive
Clarksville, TN 37042
931-802-2716
Our cellphone numbers will stay the same.
Susan - 254-368-4725
Mark - 254-220-3235

Monday, September 14, 2009

Update....

I am absolutely horrible in keeping our family and friends updated.
Well in case some of you do not know...we are moving!!! Yes we are finally leaving Fort Hood after 7 years. We are moving to Fort Campbell, KY. We are all excited for a new change and of course 4 seasons!!! We leave on the 21st of this month...exactly 1 week. Our housing inspection is at 2 which we are not liking very much. We were hoping to get out of Texas on Monday - but that is not going to happen. I do not know when we will be in KY / TN. Mark and I are hoping for Wednesday evening. We will be doing this move ourselves which at times I regret. It has been very stressful to say the least. When we pull out of TX, Mark will be driving the Penske truck and pulling his truck. I will be driving the van pulling the boat. That I am not looking forward to. We do not have a place yet to call home. That has been hard. Not knowing where you will be living. If we pull in on Wednesday then we are dedicating Thursday to find a house. We are trying to do this in one day. So please say a prayer for us. I would like to have the kids in school the following Monday.
I started to homeschool the kids here in Texas. They were only going to be in school for 19 days and I thought this would be best...I sometimes regret it but can't look on regrets. Lets just say I will be excited when they do go to school:-)

Mark is doing alright. He is busy clearing Fort Hood. He is looking forward to his new job at Campbell. Up for the challenge!!

Susan - I'm doing ok but am stressing really bad over the move. There is so much to do. I treated myself to a massage last Thursday. (Thanks Heather and Stephanie). I have a huge to do list that I need to get done but as you can see I am not doing it but instead I am procrastinating.

Abby is doing really well. She turned 10 on the 8th. I can not believe I have a 10 year old child. She is loving every minute of being older. We had some neighbors over to sing her Happy Birthday. I couldn't make her her cake this year but I did get her a Baskin Robbin Cake. She wanted a chocolate cake with chocolate chip ice cream. When we got it, it was vanilla ice cream. Kind of disappointed but no big deal. We went the next day to the Dr for Abby and had lunch at the Food Court and I mentioned to the manager that the cake was not what it said it was. She gave Abby another cake which I said no...it was fine but of course Abby said yes! So this time she got what she wanted. The day of her birthday I took her to get her military ID card. Boy does she love that. I'm having to keep the ID in my purse. Since she is 10, if she has to go to the DR and get meds at the pharmacy she has to have an ID card. (which we found out because she didn't carry it). The joke is that she will lose it within the first 2 weeks but now that I have it lets hope I don't lose it. (In case anyone doesn't know...I "misplace" things somewhat a lot!!)

Matthew is Matthew. He's doing fine. He let me know after the first wq\eek of homeschool that it was harder then school. lol. He is looking forward to the move. He is so happy that we will be closer to family. We took the kids to the Snake Farm here in Texas yesterday. (Dirty Jobs did an episode on the farm). Matthew was in heaven. He was snapping pictures left and right with my phone. A lot of pictures came out blurry...he was so excited that he couldn't keep his hands still. He wants to work with snakes when he gets older. Hopefully that will pass...his dad and mom HATES snakes. We know he didn't get that from us.

Logan is a mess. He constantly tells me that he wants a new house. I wish he understood the concept of soon. Logan is OCD when it comes to cleansiness and neatness. Our house is far from clean and nest. Boxes are everywhere. He has been a big helper packing up the house. Sometimes little too much. Like when a box is half full and he is taping the boxes up. He has to write on everybox to label it. There are scibble scrabble everywhere. Too cute. He is not looking forward to the kids going to school. He'll be busy helping put the new house together.
Loagn had a dentist appt last Thursday. He had 2 cavaties filled and 4 sealants done. We got there at 9:00 and left at 12:45. Yes I typed the correct times. It was a VERY long morning. He did fine going back (Abby had to go back with him for him to go back). He let them numb his mouth and put the contraption in his mouth and then he flipped out. They stopped and talked to him and started again. He let them try it 3- 4 times then called me back. I went back there atound 11:30 to find out they hadn't done it. So we did the conscious sedation. I had to hold his hand for him to let them do anything. After almost 4 hours later he walked out with 3 balloons and a smile!!!

Hopefully when we move and have structure in our lives again I will do a better job in keeping everyone updated.

If anyone has facebook, Mark and I have an account. I check mine a lot more then he does. Just type Mark Jackson in the search area. He should pop up with a picture of him and I. For mine type Susan Clingerman Jackson.

Please keep us in your prayers for our upcoming move!!!

Wednesday, July 8, 2009

My first blog!

I am horrible when it comes to weekly newsletters. I have a few friends who "blog". It can't be that hard and maybe I can keep this up.
For those who do not know, Mark is home from Iraq. He got home on June 6. We are so happy that he is home. He had 4 days off when he got home and then he returned to work for some reintegration. Now he is off until the 24th of July. He is doing well. The kids are so happy that he is home. Logan has been a Daddy's boy until he doesn't get his way, then he is Mommy's boy.
Abby is enjoying her summer. She did well in school and she will be returning to school as a 4th grader. I can not believe I will have a 4th grader. She had swimming lessons in June for level 3 and graduated. She is now taking speech for 2 weeks. The school district didn't have a speech therapist the beginning half of the school year so they owe her 9 hours. Hey it is free and she is owed this so we are utilizing it. She likes it and there are only three students so she gets a lot of one on one.
Matthew is Matthew. He is doing great and is so glad that it is summer. He still wakes up early though. That hasn't changed. He did really well in school and will be going to 3rd grade next year. He has been enjoying playing with Dad and beating him in sport video games. Matthew loves to rub it in. It won't be fun anymore when Mark practices and beats him. Then it will be a different story.
Logan is a handful. He says go and the other 2 go. It is funny to watch. He wants to go to the lake everyday and gets mad when we can't go. We can't even change plans from going to the lake to somethinf else. Mark and I don't want to be the ones to tell him. He loves to go with Daddy to go and pick up the boat and bring it to the house and load up. He now jumps off the boat into the water without anyone being there to catch him. He loves it and loves the water. That boy is a fish! He will be taking a swimming class next week with either Mark or I. I think he will love it.
I am doing well. Like having Mark home. I didn't cut the grass the pass two times and kind of enjoy it. For the people who do not know I actually like cutting the grass and working out in the yard. The only thing I can't stand is all the laundry. One extra person can not make that much of a difference. So you would think but let me tell you it does. I told Mark that today we were not going to do anything or go anywhere. I had to catch up on laundry and housework. The house has been a mess since Mark got home a month ago. Well laundry is all caught up but shirts and shorts have to be ironed. Yes everyone I iron. Don't have to say anything...I have plenty of people who think I am crazy!!!
We went to New Orleans the last weekend in June for a wedding. We had a good time. The wedding was beautiful. I had never been to New Orleans, always wanted to go. I wish I had gone before Katrina so I could see the difference. We hung out a lot in the French Quarters. The food was delicious. We will definitly go back.
Well that about wraps it up for me. I will soon post some pictures of all of us. Hopefully I will do better at keeping up with this!