Moving?

When I moved to Maryland, Jonathon and I decided I should live on base since I would be alone. Andrews gave me all of 10 days to get from Colorado to Maryland (1700 miles..) and claim a house. When I got here, I was surprised by the quality of the house. We do have 3 bedrooms and 2.5 baths. We have all new appliances, carpet, cabinets, etc. We would be the first to live in it.

Now however, we find ourselves disgruntled that we pay so much to live here. Our house is nice, but neither of us believe it is worth what we pay. We have talked about getting an apartment off of base, but now that we've had a house, apartment living doesn't seem so appealing. Plus, since Jonathon works at night, I feel safer on base.

We were invited to a bbq at Fort Meade, which is an Army base about 20 minutes away. Apparently, you can live on any base within a certain amount of miles of the base you're stationed at. Jonathon's friend is Air Force, and therefore makes money to live at Fort Meade since the Army makes less than the Air Force. Let's see if I'm explaining this right -

In the military you get a fund for housing - this is called "BAH". If you live off of base, this is just extra money you get in your pay check. If you live on base, they take all of it and call it rent money. The higher rank you are, the more you make. Since Jonathon is an "E5" in rank - or a SSgt - we would have to compare what an E5 makes in the Army to see how much of a difference there is. If we moved to an Army base, we would be able to keep the difference between the two services in cash.

To make a long story long, Jonathon and I were really impressed with the new housing development Fort Meade was offering. Even though he would have to commute, we would save about $350 a month and get an even nicer house. I've emailed housing over at Fort Meade to see what we would have to do to make the move. See - if Andrews Air Force Base takes our money from our BAH automatically, (called an allotment) then they will take about a month to stop that allotment and give us our money back. So - if Fort Meade wants a massive amount of money right away it would make us think twice about the move. We'll see what they say and what they want from us.

On to baby news - we're 26 weeks into this now. 3 months to go! He's still very, very active. No weird cravings still, I would just say I eat a lot and pizza and Mexican food - still my favorites. Honestly, I don't get tired of either one! I crave toffee a lot as well. I'm down to 26 days until I'm in Colorado - and I'm already missing Jonathon....how lame is that? But, this is my first real trip home for no other purpose than visiting. I've had orthodontist appointments that dictated my trips in the past so it's nice to be able to go and just enjoy my family and friends.

Jonathon works the 4th of July which is the only reason I agreed to going to Colorado for that holiday. I know my sister and I already have our usual plans while I'm in town - it's still strange not seeing her everyday. I talk to everyone in my family each day though while Jon is at work or sleeping. I'll tell you that doing dishes goes a lot faster when you have someone to talk to!

I've made this long enough - I hope everyone is doing well and I'm so glad I get to see you guys soon!!