JBLM, Korea, Ft. Huachuca, Korea, and ... JBLM!

I guess it's about time for a Talbot family update.

After flying back to the states in a KC-135 (in some sort of military miracle the whole family was able to go) Aiden spent another week in a hospital. We found out he'd had a terrible Crohn's flare, an abscess somewhere in his intestine, and a ruptured appendix. The staff at Madigan Army Medical Center was amazing, and we're really thrilled with his doctor.

After Aiden was discharged (the day after Thanksgiving) we spent some time in a hotel on Joint Base Lewis McChord, and then traveled to Utah to spend the holidays with my family.




























While we were there, we found out that David's request for a compassionate reassignment had been approved. That was excellent news, but it did mean he'd have to go back to Korea to basically finish his stuff there. So the kids and I hung out with my parents for another few weeks, and then drove from Utah to Washington to meet David at the end of January.



The only major hiccup during that whole time was that Aiden had started having Remicade infusions by that point and had one scheduled at the hospital in WA during our time in UT.

So he and I made a quick trip back to WA for his treatment.

The cool thing about that is that we got to stop by the house we lived in when Aiden was born!

Once we got back to JBLM we got to spend more time in a hotel. I think our total time in this particular hotel eventually came out to just over a month. Luckily the military paid for the first month, since we were traveling due to a medical emergency, and the next 10 days were also covered because we were house hunting. And boy howdy, was that an adventure.

We had 10 days to find a place to live. We had been hoping to live on post, just because it's nice to have David close by, but that was not going to be an option. The waiting list was extensive. So off we went, searching for a house to rent before our time at the hotel was up. We really only had two major requests - it had to be pet-friendly, and have a yard. We've got a dog who likes to spend time outside - although it's going to be interesting to see how he reacts to all this rain after spending so much time in the south - so no matter what, our next home needed to have a fenced yard. Let me tell you, that doesn't leave you with a lot of choices.

In 10 days we saw 4-5 houses, and on day seven we had pretty much resigned ourselves to the fact that we'd be living in the first place we'd looked at. It was actually great. Very much my style; funky, nothing quite matched, and it had a nice big yard for Charlie. Unfortunately it was WAY outside our budget. Like, "the whole family will be selling plasma to live here" outside. And then on day eight we found a house that fit our budget, had a yard, and actually also had a huge, random, add-on room that we can use for homeschooling! We threw the deposit at them and grabbed the keys out of their hands with an insane speed.

As we drove our things down from the hotel, it started snowing. Because of course we were going to move into our new home during a snow storm. I mean, why wouldn't we? As someone who spent a large portion of her life in Montana I was literally laughing at the response Washingtonians were having to the weather reports. Stores were practically being looted. School was being preemptively canceled. People were saying goodbye to their loved ones. And then... Two feet of snow descended upon us and we could not leave our home for four days.

It was nice to have David home with us for a little longer, but since we don't have any of our household goods yet we don't have a washer or dryer. So we can't wash clothes. So ... if we couldn't get out of the house soon to find a laundromat, things were going to get ugly. Luckily by around Wednesday the cul-de-sac was slushy enough that we could get the van out to venture into the city. Long story short, I didn't have to resort to hand-washing the clothes of five people in a kitchen sink. This would have been especially problematic because how in the ever living heck would I have dried them?

So we're getting sort of settled now. The snow is melting, the kids are doing their schoolwork again, David is going back to work and figuring out what his new job will be, and we'll be going out and exploring Olympia soon. We won't have any of our stuff for a few more weeks at the earliest, but at least we have a place that we can call our own and Aiden is healthier than he has been in years. So Korea, I miss you with all my heart, but we're ready to start our next adventure.