Everytime I hear the word I cringe. It raises my blood pressure. My nerves are frayed and I break out in cold sweat.

It's PCS.

I know most of my fellow military spouses completely understand. My non-military friends are thinking "first, it's not a word. It's another one of those acronyms you throw out there and I have no idea what it means. Second, it's only three letters."

Trust me. It's a four letter word. Throw an "F" or a "D" in there anywhere if you need to. Goodness knows I do it often enough.

PCS stands for permanent change of station. Which, when you think about it is hilarious because nothing in the military is permanent.

It means complete strangers with varying degrees of personal hygeine and questionable background descend on your house. You happily greet them and stand back as they transform your home into a sea of cardboard boxes.

You spend a small fortune on food and drinks to keep them happy. Happy people are less likely to steal or break your shit.

Happy people are less likely to throw loose silverware into your non-stick pans to rattle around for 5,000 or so miles. Happy people are less likely to pack a full trashcan with your unmentionables.

Sometimes though, all the Big Macs and Cokes in the world are not enough to ensure all of your items make it to your next destination and in the condition you last saw them.

I have thirteen days until this adventure begins...

It is really difficult to put into words just how amazingly beautiful Spring is here.

Pictures help a lot, but it encompasses more than just one of the five senses. I could record the sounds of the birds with the bells tolling in the background to capture that sense. But, it's hard to find the words to describe how it smells.

At least it is for me.

Walking back from dropping her sisters off at the bus stop Taylor stopped, breathed in deeply through her nose, closed her eyes, soaked it all in and then declared "Ahhhhh, it's like a garden party in my nose."

I think that sums it up perfectly.

Let's take a quiz, shall we?

It'll be easy! Just one question.

When should you (grandparent, aunt, uncle, cousin, friend, generous benefactor or anyone so inclined) buy my children any more toys, gum, candy, treats, really just anything?

A. Only on their birthdays and holidays.
B. Whenever I see something I think they would like, because they are so good at taking care of their things and cleaning up after themselves. They always put things away. They are all about "a place for everything and everything in its place."
C. Three weeks after the Second Coming.
D. Never.
E. Ever
F. Ever
G. EVER!!!!!

Not sure how much I'm digging the new template. It is spring and I love the flowers as long as they don't tale on the 60's wallpaper ultra busy theme. The orange color is symbolic, so even if tweak it a bit, the orange will most likely stay in some form.

Thoughts??

I think my husband is trying to kill me.

Seven countries.

Ten days.

2400 miles.

Too wiped out to say anything else.

Sitting by a full length window that open out onto a balcony. What morning light is being let though by the dark, gray clouds fills the room. Rain is pouring down outside.

But, it is okay because it is Paris rain!

The girls are up way too early, as usual. We've had breakfast watched two episodes of the Pink Panther - quiet appropriately in French, and now have moved on to Tom and Jerry. The are trying very hard to stay quiet and let daddy get some sleep.

"But, it's Paris!!" We have to go see the tower and find Remi and Emil and eat a Gousteaus, and see where the Hunchback stays and go paint on the river, and..."

Taylor has plans and doesn't plan to be deterred by a little rain.

She stands before me wearing her raincoat, her sister's shoes carrying and empty toilet paper roll, a piece of paper and a crayon. "I have to go out on the balcony and see where we and going and make a map."

Gotta love a girl with a plan.

Though blogging about it isn't going as well as I had imagined, the challenge is!

I had hoped to be able to take a picture of the bag or bags I had filled and post them daily.  But, time just doesn't seem to be allowing for that.

I want to once again offer my thanks to SimplyCatholic for the idea and also for daily quotes which are great inspiration.

What a great idea!

I am definitely accepting this challenge.

When her sisters are not home to blame everything on, Taylor has to get a little creative.

Just today "somebody" has messed up the TV and won't let her watch "channel 9" (that's AFN Family for those of you who get more than 11 channels), drank all her juice, lost her markers, spilled Cheerios in the living room and made her take her socks off.

I told her we really needed to find that somebody because they sure were causing lots of problems today.

Her reply was "Yeah, and when we do we can kick 'em in the bum!"

I guess she thought a bum kicking would convince me it wasn't her.

Oh, and I'm guessing she will not be offered any diplomatic jobs in the near future.

Gates orders review of ban of photos of coffins.

Then check out the post and comment at The Mudville Gazette from people who actually have a clue.

Of course, the best link is to the fabulous Chuck Z who sums it up with the comment  "First, any American who doesn't understand that people die in war, isn't going to understand what a flag-draped casket coming off of a C-17 means."

Isn't that the truth!!! And, my second favorite quote on the matter. My first being [...} and his editors who encourage this line of thought, are cocksuckers.

I love Chuck. He always seems to make sense.