***Lion Cub Mommies-Back In Action!***

[Shiv]

I don't think its the norm to take more than one vacation a year. We take one holiday a year for a week (this has been in England for the last 3 years though) - we might have a couple of long weekends away but again in England.

I have been considering my dream trip and I have it down to few places, I quite fancy madagascar, to see all the cool animals. Or maybe Brazil, combine seeing the carnival with some beach and rainforest/ amazon action.

Or maybe far east, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia etc. Mainly for the food! I have been To Thailand and it was great.

But lets face it, unitil I pluck up the courage to fly with kids then it will be holidays in England for a while! Luckily England has some truly beautiful places, just a shame you can't guarantee the weather

 

[cleckner04]

I seems like girls on here take a million vacations though. And to really cool places like Greece and Spain. I love acting like a total tourist when I go places. Like disney world I made DH wear a mickey shirt on the last day and I wore a minnie shirt. Which I would never be caught dead wearing that shirt anywhere else but around the house. But it was hilarious that day.


So DH didn't make it so he's out in june! I'm actually incredibly excited. I got up at 5 am this morning because that's when they put out the list of who made it. And the entire time my stomach was churning and I had to poop a few times. But once I saw his name wasn't on the list, the stomach issues went away. And I feel kind of free now. Like I will finally have my husband home like a normal family and my daughter won't have to move around her entire life. It's so great! We are going to see about DH joining the army reserves now instead so hopefully we can get healthcare through that. That's my biggest worry at the moment. It's freaking RIDICULOUS that we have to worry about that in this country. Everyone should get healthcare I think. I know if I were to get pregnant I would qualify for medicare but I honestly don't want to do that. I have way too much pride. I refuse to go on WIC or anything like that either unless we absolutely cannot afford to live.

Edit to add: In the reserves he would just be gone one weekend a month. So that would be great in order to get healthcare and plus a small paycheck on top of that. I'm not sure if they'll take him though after this. But we are definitely going to look into it.

 

[Shiv]

Cleck- I am REALLY happy that you are going to get to be a regular family all living together! So now you can start house hunting for real!

It does absolutely suck that you don't get free health care in the U.S.

See Greece and Spain are the cheapy holidays to Europe from England. I am not slating them, that is where we go on holiday when we go abroad, I love Greece. But they are the cheapest places to go especially as a family. It is often cheaper to go to Spain for a weeks holiday than it is to go somewhere in England!

 

[spidey]

woohoo Cleckner!! Is it THIS June or next??? I would have been taking tons of poop breaks too

Don't get me started on the US not having national healthcare My Dad has worked a labor intensive low paid job his entire life, and he has never had healthcare thru his employer. My family never got proper healthcare and visits to the doctor only happened once a sickness was at it's worse. In my early 20's I went without healthcare since I couldn't afford it since I was making minimum wage. Having any sort of health care is better than none... I don't understand why people in this country are so against it. I hope Corey can get a spot in the reserves. I'll check with DH when he gets home, but I think the volunteer firemen where I live get health coverage...

At my work the people who came from Europe are always complaining about the lack of vacation days We get 10 days of vacation each year.

My dad always got 1 week off in the summer and 1 week off at x-mas. During that summer week we always did some sort of vacation. Sometimes we went to the ocean, sometimes to an amusement park nearby. Some years we did day trips, like to the bowling ally and mini-golf. I always looked forward to my Dad's week off as a kid. Thats too bad Cleckner that your dad made promises he didn't keep... I would have been sooo mad!

 

[Shiv]

10 days? that is rubbish - do you have any public holidays (independance day, thanksgiving) on top of that?

in my old job I used to get 26.5 days holiday and then we get about another 7 days public holiday on top of that! Of course now every day is a holiday (or no day is ever a holiday depending on which way you look at it!)

 

[morri]

hehe I have been to lots of european countries . But as mentioned there are a lot places (really only norway and englnad) that are more expensive that at home ^^

 

[spidey]

we have 10 public holidays at my work.

DH's job is one of the best around when it comes to benefits. The citizens of this county (he works for county government) actually hate the county government workers because they are so jealous! He get 20 vacation days (after 3 years of service), 15 public holidays, and 13 sick days! I think all jobs should be like that because it makes for a happy employee. He's been on furlough the past 2 years too, so on top of that, he gets 13 days unpaid leave. So he's seriously NEVER at work There's no way he could work another job now because he's spoiled by his days off.

My Dad's job has always been 10 vacation days, no sick days, and 10 public holidays. Atleast at my job I get some sick days if I need them. I think 10 days of vacation is pretty standard around here.

 

[cleckner04]

Yeah for us to go to greece or spain that would be a HUGE deal.

It's going to suck because DH gets 24 days of leave(vacation) a year and now it'll only be like 10 days probably. But we usually used most of his leave to go back home to visit anyways so not really THAT big of a deal.

It'll be June 2012 that he gets out. So we have a year to save up more money!

And it did suck having my dad make promises like that. He is VERY hard to talk into doing things. When he takes vacation days, he naps all day or plays around on his computers. (He's a total computer nerd) I am SO glad I married someone that is the complete opposite. Because Corey and I will randomly just hop in the car and go discover new places. But I feel bad for my mom because she wants to see places and my dad has no interest in it. They drove across the country to visit us for Emma's birthday last year. And they stopped in las vegas for a night or two. Well, DH and I went to vegas in 2007 and we had a blast. So I tried telling my parents all of the places they could go while there since they only had a limited amount of time. My mom wanted to see it all. Well they barely left the hotel. They stayed in the same hotel/casino that corey and I stayed in because they wanted to see where we were. My dad is sentimental like that. But they only walked a few blocks before coming back and I guess my dad wouldn't let my mom go into any of the casinos even though she wanted to go in and explore. If it were ME, I would've went in anyways and would've told my husband to fuck off. But Corey and I both want to explore stuff so we always have amazing times on our vacations. I try to fit in as much as I possibly can when we go places. I know by the end of the vegas vacation our legs felt like they were gonna fall off because we walked the entire strip and into each and every one of the casinos.

 

[cleckner04]

Oh yeah, corey never gets sick days right now either. He has had food poisoning and he still had to go into work that day. He couldn't even waste a vacation day because you have to submit paperwork to even take vacations. And it has to get approved up the chain of command. So no way to take off a day with short notice. He is a modern day slave. That's what we call it. Because he has no freedom and they can call him in at any time and he has to go. It's really no wonder my DH is so freaking happy right now.

 

[Kimberly28]

Hi everyone.

Cleck, he has 2 of his 2nd molars now. Still waiting on the last two. But prolly soon.
So glad to hear about your DH cleck! Honestly though Army Reserves is shipping their reserves out like normal army. The best hope of non deployment is for him to go Air Force Reserves. And you still get he TRICARE medical with them too. Not to mention base privileges, BX access, etc. Honestly, the Air Force Reserves has the lowest rate of deployment and that would keep him home with you guys. Not to mention there are AF bases ALL OVER the USA. Please have him research that instead. I think that would be a better match for him and your family.

Hmmm if I could go anywhere... if I had childcare all lined up and such I'd go to BORA BORA!! I've always wanted to go there! It looks like such an awesome exotic paradise. And if hubby behaves I'd drag him with me! LOL!!!

 

[cleckner04]

It really all depends on high year tenure for each branch to decide which he would choose. DH is at his high year tenure right now in the navy. He's an E-4 with a little over 8 years in right now. So we need something with like 10-12 years for HYT at E-4 so he can make rank. The navy is really hard to advance and I hear the army is easy as heck to advance so that's one reason I thought army would be good. We don't really mind if he has to be deployed. At least we'd be getting active duty pay through it. But we will definitely scout our options before he signs anything.

 

[Shiv]

I didn't understand any of that

Kim - I have been to Samoa (western not American) and the Cook Islands, which can't be too far from Bora Bora (in the grand scheme of things!) Very romantic and tropical - would be a shame to not take hubby

If I was to recommend anywhere to go that i have been I would say New Zealand. I loved it there, really laid back but much more beautiful than Australia. I'd love to go back but i feel there are new places to be discovered!

 

[cleckner04]

I have read amazing things about new zealand as a country. I guess they are really family friendly? The most exotic place we've ever been is the bahamas. It was dirty but that was part of the charm.

 

[Shiv]

bahamas is pretty damn exotic!

New Zealand is really family friendly. I quite fancy renting a big motorhome thing and travelling around for a month or so with the kids, what an experience that would be!

 

[cleckner04]

You know you just gave me the idea to buy a motorhome while we are home while DH goes to school and we can live in that instead of paying $700 a month in rent. I bet DH would LOVE that. (I'd probably go crazy)

 

[Kimberly28]

Either Bora Bora or NZ or Australia. I GOTTA visit AU Zoo someday.

 

[spidey]

haha, a motorhome. You could really drive yourself crazy and get a little house boat if there's a creek nearby.

I have a co-worker who goes to New Zealand almost every year so I always get to see tons of pictures. It looks like a beautiful place to visit

Cleckner- If I were your mom, I would be off exploring on my own too! I'm sure she could get a girlfriend to travel with her and leave your fuddy duddy father at home

 

[Shiv]

Thats exactly what your mum should do Cleck. Get a friend (or even you and Emma) and go exploring leaving your Dad at home to play on his computer.

Well it is 2.42am and this is the first night I have had to get up because I just can't get back to sleep. I remember when I was pregnant with Sophia I used to come downstairs about this time for an hour or so and watch tv. It wasn't this early on in the pregnancy though!

 

[spidey]

get back to bed!!! I use to have middle of the night adventures when I was pregnant with Kira. I hope Sophia lets you get an afternoon nap.

DH stood me up again!! We had another date planned- and since AF is gone, this one involved more than popcorn and cream soda It's a good thing I'm not ovulating! I have an early wake up tomorrow so I better get to bed too and join the rest of the family...

 

[cleckner04]

LOL @ your Dh missing another date. Poor guy is sleepy.


I forgot to update you ladies on my weightloss too. I've been a little preoccupied with other things but I have started working out again this week. I wasn't doing good with motivation last week so I am forcing myself to get back into it now. I started watching the biggest loser while I workout and it actually really helps me stay motivated to see them do it. But I'm down to 195.8! I gained from ovulation last week so I didn't count Friday as an official weigh in but the weight started moving again so I added it as an official loss now because I don't think it'll go back up. Hopefully I can lose a bit more before this friday.

Edit to add: I'm no longer obese either. I'm now officially overweight instead.