An Emptier House and TDY's

Yesterday, the kids and I dropped my parents off at the Phoenix airport so they could fly back to North Carolina. We were all really sad to see them go, as we had a really nice visit. We'll really miss their company.

The kids and I returned home to a pretty quiet house (until they started running around and screaming again!). Edward left this past Monday morning around 5 AM for two weeks at Ft. Bragg. Ironically, my parents come out here for a visit from North Carolina, and the Army sends Edward back to North Carolina...uggh!

I've come to determine when the Army sends Edward somewhere TDY (temporary duty...it's a generic term, that is used whenever the soldier is away from his/her normal job), he gets the better end of the TDY. Here's why:
1. He gets to travel somewhere
2. Work is usually much lighter, so he has a lot of free time to work out, watch tv, etc.
3. Going along with the free time, he gets to sleep in or sleep more regular hours (a.k.a. he's not getting up at 5AM with Luke who has recently started thinking that's a socially acceptable time to get up in the morning).
4. He gets a food allowance, so he goes out to eat everyday.
5. He usually travels with one or a group of other soldiers, so he has people to talk to and go out to eat with.
6. In this TDY, he's back at Bragg, so he's visiting our old friends.
7. He's not stuck at home taking care of crying kids in a place where we don't know people or a babysitter.
8. Any conversation he has is better than talking about the Disney Princesses.
9. In addition to friends, he gets to visit family on both sides. Right now, he's in TN for the weekend seeing his parents (and to go to the UT football game today...yeah, rough weekend). He'll see my brother when he goes to stay with him in Raleigh before flying home.
10. Basically, he gets to do whatever he wants. My only break from the kids is when he is here, and I get to go to town for an hour or so to run errands without the kids, which is somewhat rare and not really a break.

Aside from all this, the WORST thing about TDY's is that they are always messed up, and we never get paid correctly. This is the third TDY he's been on since we've arrived at YPG, and the first two were never paid; we've had to pay those out of pocket. That's unacceptable in the Army, but guess what, we have the pleasure. I just hope this TDY gets paid for and correctly, as the rental car alone is around $400. YPG has not been good to us about pay reimbursements. We've paid out several thousand dollars for stuff the Army should have covered but wouldn't. The latest this week was a chunk of our moving expenses. Next, I'm waiting on the broken furniture moving claim, and knowing our luck, it won't go well either (well, it hasn't gone well so far considering it hasn't even been evaluated/paid).

And, to top of the TDY even more, I can't even go to church tomorrow because we have no church. We've been to 11, yes count it, 11 churches, and NOTHING. I don't even have a place I'd want to go tomorrow. And, no, the chapel isn't an option. The Chaplin isn't good (he lives across the street from us and won't even say hi), and they have no childcare, so yeah, that would be fun corralling my crew in the chapel.