Life since the PCS

My husband and I have been in California for 7 months, going into our 8th month now. In just this short period of time, SO many things have changed and I've been blessed in so many ways.

As many of you know, I run my own photography studio, Christina Rush Photography. A couple years ago, I had a big project in my mind. The project being working with women and showing their natural beauty. I joined other photography projects catering to women, but nothing fulfilled my idea. Every project seemed to cater to a specific look for women. To fit a project's idea of beauty, they had to be curvy, have a mom body, be fit.. etc. Everything EVERYONE, was labeled by a specific body type. In 2014, after hashing my ideas with a beautiful momma, Jessi, I decided to start putting together a plan and execute it for launch in 2015. I shut down my boudoir site, Just a Little CRush and headed in a wonderfully new direction. In January of 2015, a nationwide project called Raw Beauty Sessions was launched. Thank you Jessi for pushing me to do what I wanted, and what I needed.

Raw Beauty Sessions is on a mission to show all women, they are beautiful, just as they are. No matter a woman's body type, no matter if a woman has what society calls, "Flaws".. all women are beautiful. I'm proud to say that as of May, 1, 2015 we have photographers in 7 states and we are growing! Yeah!

Another awesome growth for me since our PCS to California? My photography newsletter is now sent to more than 40 people. While I don't send newsletters regularly, this is something I'm very proud of. This means people are looking at what I'm doing, and people do enjoy my work. I can't wait to announce a HUGE adventure I'll be taking after our baby boy arrives in a few months.. oh yeah, I still haven't blogged about that either, have I? Man, I'm behind! :D

So, the MOST EXCITING thing to happen in my life since the move and.. well, pretty much ever... We are pregnant! My last posts about doctor visits and seeing where we were heading with our journey to have a baby were actually follow up baby appointments. While there are some scary things going on with this pregnancy and a  lot of risks for premature labor, our little boy is healthy and currently thriving at 24 weeks. I feel his movements, his kicks. He there, he's alive and he's ours. We finally got our little miracle I've been praying and begging for for almost 7 years. Almost 7 years, and 6 miscarriages.. He's our lucky number 7.

We'll have more images, better quality, next weekend :)

Life is is so amazing right now.

PCS-ing is for The Birds

Over the past 6 years, I have heard so many military wives say, "everything breaks/happens during a deployment". I have agreed with this to an extent. It always seemed like there was a couple weeks during my husband's deployment where everything went wrong on the home front. Now, I believe it's more of a, "everything happens when preparing for a PCS" [insert grumble here]. PCS-ing is for the birds!

As a military family, having 2 vehicles is both a blessing and a pain in the rear. We are preparing to move 44 hours across the country, and we had to make a decision. Do we, a. Sell one of the vehicles, b. pay $2000 to ship a vehicle or c. Drive two vehicles the 44 hours. Selling wasn't an option I allowed because we just put a ton of work ($$) into my husband's truck, which is paid off. We can't/ won't do two car payments. Selling was off the table. For weeks (2-3 months really) I looked for a reputable vehicle shipping company. All I could find was brokers and none of which could guarantee a driver by any particular time, yet wanted their money or you to sign a contract. A week before our move date, I found someone who had dates, but the truck was full and I would be a "standby". I needed the security of knowing for sure, so that was not an option. Another company wouldn't be able to pick up our vehicle from Virginia until we've been in Lemoore for almost a month, so again, not an option. Here we are now, 3 days before we've schedule our leave date and looks like we are driving 2 vehicles. We have come to terms with it and are content with it. Well, that was true until this morning really. Today was another whole set of crazy.

This morning, our neighbor took our truck. He's a mechanic and was going to do an oil change and make sure everything is good for the long drive. I do t want to get 3 states into our drive and break down. That would be terrifying to me. On his way to his shop, in our truck, our neighbor rear ended another driver. The other driver slammed on her breaks and came to a complete stop when another vehicle crossed a lane of traffic, cutting her off to get on the interstate. She locked up her breaks and so did my neighbor, but he slid right into her. There is more damage to our truck than the gal he hit, but  the insurance won't fix our vehicle because it's ruled his fault and liability only covers the other person. The bumper is busted, but aside from that, the truck is driving and running fine. No one was hurt, that's the most important thing about all this. Now, 3 days until we start our new adventure and we have to worry about the truck. Our neighbor, being a mechanic at a body shop, he's able to fix everything, if anything more is wrong with the truck than the bumper. He's getting the bumper replaced before we head out. If anything else is wrong, we may have to out out our date to leave a few days, which is pretty much not doable since we only have 10 days to get out to California. 

And to top off today, my job forgot to enter my leave I was granted for my transfer and I'm short a week's pay. They are working on it, but if may have to wait until next pay period to see it back, which isn't feasible. 

There's been so much to go on in the past 2 months prepping for the PCS that I just want a day to not have to do absolutely anything and nothing to stress about.

Finger's crossed our Norfolk home sells quickly to a family that will love it as much as we have over the years. 

Forget the hurrying, just wait

The last post I wrote about my husband receiving orders was months ago. Well, here we are, March 4, 2013 and he still has yet to receive orders.

Then, I was in panic mode. His chain of command told him he'd be going to shore duty, and he was to report in April. However, they never told him where he'd be reporting to. April was less than 6 months away when he told me he'd be getting orders and as far as we knew, he'd be going to Fallon, Nevada. I didn't know if I needed to start packing, not knowing if I should start preparing to list our home for rent, and not knowing if I should look for a place to rent in NV. I was clueless. I was doing a whole lot of hurrying and even more waiting.

Now, I give up on the when and where. Next month is April and he hasn't heard anything as to if he's even still going to shore duty or when he'll be transferring to anywhere. At this point, if he receives orders to leave next month.. it looks like I'll be hanging back a little bit to get things done and I'll meet him wherever the Navy takes him.

Through all of this, I have definitely learned there is no point in panicking over the waiting for his orders. There's nothing you can say to change them, and there is no point in getting all revved up in hurrying to get things done. Chances are, he could get orders here again. 

So, continue on as if he never said, "We could be moving in April". Forget the hurrying, just wait.