About me, us, and how this all got started

I am a Wisconsin girl, born and raised. My entire childhood and early adult life was spent in West Allis surrounded by my family. In fact, my parents and entire extended family still live there, within an hours drive of one another. I watched my two older sisters leave the state for work, school, and their families, and finally it was my turn. In my early twenties I moved to Louisiana for grad school, but mostly for a boy and the magic words “you can live with me.” Despite all the hype - seriously, college football is statewide addiction bigger even than than NFL - I did not enjoy attending LSU and transferred to Southeastern Louisiana University for my second semester. There, I met some of the most amazing people, with whom I am still friends today. In many ways, they reminded me of the friends I had made while earning my bachelors at Alverno College in Milwaukee. As a small, all girls, college it provided me with an education and experiences (get your mind out of the gutter, I am not a lesbian but that does not mean I never kissed a girl!) that I don’t think I would have had at a larger state school. Alverno is a separate discussion, but worth it.

I digress, back to grad school in Louisiana. Things were not going well with me and the boy, he was selfish and had no interest in spending time with my friends or sharing his friends with me. His reason? He was in law school and I was in grad school, so what could we all possible have to talk about? Umm, Hello? SCHOOL! That, and we were all accomplished, intelligent adults, I am sure we could have found something. As our relationship was burning out I decided to travel North for summer break to South Carolina to visit one of my best friends and her husband who were stationed at Shaw AFB. There I met Eric and my entire life changed. I never pictured myself with a husband and kids, I was more of the “Auntie Mame” type. However, we met in June, I moved there in August, we were married in September, and I began commuting ever other week to LA to finish my masters degree. It was a fast and crazy journey full of uncertainty. Many of my friends and family didn’t understand my decision, but as I saw it, I was 27 and I had dated a lot. Eric had already had a starter wife, so we both knew what we wanted and who we were as individuals.

Less than two months after getting married, Eric deployed. It was during that deployment that Eric’s medical condition became a problem. His medication needed to be kept cold and during a power outage all of his shots went bad. Despite spending several days calling pharmacies, FedEx, UPS, and even the manufacturer, I was unable to find a way to get him more medicine. Eric was ultimately sent home early, effectively ending his military career. What were we going to do? I was pregnant, Eric was being honorably discharged, and we didn’t want to stay in Camden. Luckily, his eight years of EOD experience came in very handy on the civilian side of life. Eric found work in the UXO field and we started to look at homes in Virginia, not far from my oldest sister and her family. We drove to VA a few times and did an insane amount of house hunting, seeing 6-8 homes a day and then driving back to SC so I could work. During that time, I had a miscarriage. We ultimately settled on a house in Goodview, about 25 minutes East of Roanoke. Our property was three acres, and while I could see my neighbor's house, I could not see into their windows. In hindsight, purchasing the house wasn’t such a great idea. Eric ultimately found a better job, but it was in Charlottesville, about two hours North of our home, and so began our marriage apart. When Eric wasn’t home, he was out doing pre-deployment training in whatever state his company sent him to. After a few unexciting jobs at Lowes and the like, I was hired by the Social Security Disability office in Roanoke (that too is a whole other post). Somehow during this time we managed to get pregnant again and have our daughter, Emrys (Em-ris). Eric found a better job, but it required even more travel. Coming home to our daughter (who wanted nothing to do with him), to me (who needed a break), and to our house (which always needed something done), wore us both out. When Emrys was seven months old, we decided that what was most important to us was being a family together.

I packed up most of our things and stored what we didn’t need. We tried desperately to sell our house, but ended up renting it out just so we could cover the mortgage payments. Next came one of the most difficult experiences of my life, finding loving homes for our pets. Why didn’t we take them with? The job Eric was on at that time was in Top Sail, NC and his company put everyone in condos, but the condos had a strict “no pets” policy. Our families were very spread out and in no position to take two dogs. I was able to find a home for Sky, our English Setter, through a Setter rescue group. I personally met, and tearfully gave Sky to Patt and Joe who had lost their own Setter to cancer just a few months prior. Next came Buddy, our Pug. As luck would have it, when we were trying to sell most of our things Eric struck up a conversation with someone who knew a lady in town that loved Pugs. Susan was given our number and we chatted a few times. She came to visit and took Buddy for a long weekend sleepover. He fit in perfectly with her three girls, and when her husband began calling him “Big Mike” she decided he should stay. I am still in contact with both families to this day and am thankful that we were able to find loving souls to open their homes and hearts. One of our cats, Pixel, went back to his home with my sister in Texas. He was initially only going to spend a week or two with us while the foundation on their first house was fixed. Five years later he finally made it back :) Lastly was Eli. He was the first pet I had ever had on my own. Funny enough, he was not the cat I initially went to see at the shelter, but he was the one who came out and laid on my lap. At the time of his adoption, the shelter didn’t know he had renal failure. He and I made it work for years. Sometimes I would have to give him IV fluids, but for the most part a healthy diet did the trick. His illness made it impossible for me to find a home for him. Every place I called sad no, because no one would adopt him. I finally found Caring For Creatures, a no-kill sanctuary in Palmyra, Virginia. They agreed to take Eli as the senior ambassador in their kitten room, and I agreed to send money every month to cover his prescription diet. This arrangement left a hole in my heart that was only repaired by the emails I received from the sanctuary telling me how loving and friendly he was, how much he helped the kittens feel safe, and how patient he was with the rambunctious ones. Eli lived at the sanctuary for 15 months before he stopped eating and drinking. The manager contacted me and together we decided that he was ready to end his 14 years in the company of people. Eli was euthanized listening to me on speaker phone talking to him while she held him on her lap and stroked his fur.

Emotional from rehoming our pets and uncertain of how this new phase of our lives would go, Emrys and I climbed into my crowded Mazda3 and drove to NC. Thus began our wandering family life. We never really know where we will be next, how long we will be there, or what we will find. This blog serves as a catalog of all of the places we have lived, the things we have seen, and our adventures getting to and from all of the different sites where Eric finds work. It’s been four years, three trips from coast to coast, we had our son Easton, just added a lovely dog Ethel to the family, and we’re not showing signs of slowing down!