One of the hardest things I have had to deal with in regards to moving from Kansas to Georgia is leaving my friends, my family and the known, again.  Georgia is great.  Being with my husband and dogs in our own little house is great.  But not having friends to call up last minute and go get drinks with or my parents around to help with the dogs if Rob and I want to take a day trip.. among so many other reasons... is hard.

When I moved from Kansas to Maryland to join Rob.. I was fortunate enough to kind of walk into a great group of friends.  We had our differences.  Many of us didn't have children.  Almost everyone was under the age of 30.  Rob had already been in Maryland for over a year, so he knew many of the husbands already which made it that much easier for the wives to naturally get along.  I had that support needed.  In fact I was at a company FRG meeting when I found out one of my grandpa's had passed away.  If you've never seen a group of Army wives come together when someone has an emergency, then you haven't been around the military long enough.

So maybe I had my expectations set really high about moving here.  I thought, it can't be THAT different.  Oh yes Amanda, it can.  I've kind of touched on this before.. but Fort Gordon is a rather large base (bigger than Meade at least) that consists of a lot of AIT students and a lot of higher enlisted/officers.  Which poses a problem because you can't all intermingle.  So I can be friends with the AIT students wife, but our husbands can never hang out.  I can be friends with the officers wife, but our husbands can never hang out.  Makes it kind of hard to do normal married couple with friends things.

The other issue that I've noticed in regards to this is age.  I'm 22.  Rob is 22.  He enlisted straight out of high school and has 4 years under his belt.  At one point he was one of the youngest if not the youngest person at his rank in the entire Army.  So when you look at other 22 year olds... they are either fresh into the military as a student or at a lower rank.  Or they have kids.  Not that I hold anything against those women for starting a family young... it's just not me, yet.

Where do I fit in then?  A married 22 year old with 2 dogs, no kids and a husband on the fast track to making his military career above standard.  I want to build that support I have in Kansas.  The support I had in Maryland.  But I'm just not finding it here at Ft. Gordon yet and we've been here since July.  I've tried clubs on post and Facebook pages associated with post.  I have gone to lunch with a few different girls.  Out of all of my effort I have one person from post that I can go to lunch with and talk to.  But she won't be here forever as her husband is done with AIT soon.  Then what am I to do?

I'm just at a loss.  I made friends easily in high school.  Then made friends easily at the community college I went to.  When I left Kansas I made friends easily at Ft. Meade.  Heck I even made friends when I lived in Kansas while Rob was deployed... but now here I am six months into this adventure at Fort Gordon and I am not making friends like I have in the past.

I guess it is just something you learn to deal with.  I can't obviously change the fact that I am young and my husband is a superstar (not that I would want to!)... hopefully shortly after the new year I will land a job to preoccupy my mind.. so I don't spend days like today thinking about all that I wish I had here in Georgia.

Regardless of who I can consider a friend though.. I am thankful to have my husband.  I can call him my best friend and mean it.  He knew that so far this twelfth day of the twelfth month of this twelfth year of this century (tongue twister much? Had to incorporate it!) was not going quite how I hoped and he swooped in and took me out to lunch.  I am blessed and I know it.

But being young and not having a huge Georgia support group is really weighing on me.


P.S. I'm sending a special shout out to the one cousin I have here in Augusta.  She's great and I am thankful she is here.  When our schedules work out the same way we can go shopping, get food and just hang out.  I know many military individuals don't get this luxury so I'm soaking it up while I can and trying not to think about the fact she won't be here forever.  (Wait, neither will I!)

"Live fast, die young and leave a good looking corpse."  -John Derek One of the hardest things I have had to deal with in re...

Today I went to lunch with my cousin and an interesting idea was brought to my attention, yet again.  I say yet again as this is not the first time I have entertained this idea.  Since I just moved from Kansas to Georgia, I obviously gave up my secretary job... which leaves me to find a new job [starting the hunt after my parents come in a few weeks].  My cousin asked me if I would ever do a home business such as Avon, Scentsy, PartyLite, etc.  The answer is yes I would.  But I'm not sure it's a good idea.  Let's face it almost every military spouse has some kind of home business that they do in an attempt to bring income in to their family without having to leave the house on a schedule they don't control.  But there are some positives:

• Make your own schedule.
• Holidays off.
• Stay at home with the dog.
• Discount from whatever product.

Today I went to lunch with my cousin and an interesting idea was brought to my attention, yet again.  I say yet again as this is not the fir...

We have a home, an address and space again..

My first plant at this new house. :)

Piston in his amazing backyard.

We have a home, an address and space again.. Thursday we got the keys to our new humble abode.  3 bedroom, 2 bath, 2 car garage with a h...

Well. We've arrived. In Georgia that is.

There was tons of sleeping, book reading and passed cars. But hey those are just details. :)

There was also a quick stop outside of Fort Campbell to meet one of my favorite bloggers, Jenn at Life With the Lieutenant. She gave us a water bowl because someone **cough cough Rob** forgot Pistons water bowl. And some wonderful fudge and salty snacks. Girl can rock some fudge. Let me tell you! Hands down her recipe rocks (this is the recipe). Oh and double bonus.. something off of my summer to do list!


When we crossed into Tennessee we shared a laugh... Rob looked at me and said "We may be in Tennessee.. But you are the only ten I see." Mans been working on his pick up lines in Kuwait. LOL.

Other than that we are here... I'm an out of place person at the moment but other than being overwhelmed I like it here so far.  Especially since afternoon thunderstorms are the norm.

Hopefully my next post will include news of our new home! As of now we are still on the hunt but have an app in.. so keep us in your thoughts and prayers that we get approved and are out of the hotel, into a house by the end of the week!

Oh and.. check this out.. sneak peak of the homecoming pictures:

Always,
Amanda

Well. We've arrived. In Georgia that is. There was tons of sleeping, book reading and passed cars. But hey those are just details. :) ...

Just wanted to pop in and give everyone a definition of what the "next step" is for our little family:

Just wanted to pop in and give everyone a definition of what the " next step " is for our little family: After this deploy...