Our Orders are in!

YAY! After months of waiting, we finally know where we are moving to this spring...Chesapeake, VA. Matt will be stationed at MSRT (Maritime Security Response Team)..it was his first pick and he is very excited about it. Here is a snippet about MSRT from the Coast Guard's website:

"The MSRT is the Coast Guard's only counter-terrorism force with advance interdiction capabilities. The MSRT concept was advanced from the Maritime Safety and Security Teams which were directed to be established by the Maritime Transportation Security Act of 2002.

The MSRT was officially established in May 2006, though training for the unit began in November 2004. The MSRT was realigned under the U.S. Deployable Operations Group in July 2007.

The MSRT enhances the Coast Guard's capability to respond to maritime disaster and national threats. The members are trained in maritime security, law enforcement boarding procedures, force protection and environmental hazards response within a tactical law enforcement operation."

Click here and here for videos of MSRT in action!

So, what does this mean you ask? Things are going to happen pretty fast I think. Our next, immediate, step is to put the house on the market by March 1st. Matt is most likely going to a school March 22nd for two weeks as part of his training for the new command. Best case scenario, we find someone that wants to buy the house and close beginning of June. All of us move up to Northern NC in Elizabeth City where we found a cute little house being rented by another Coastie. The rent fits our budget, has a big back yard for the dogs and we can bring the cats too. It is a little smaller than our house but that is ok. It is about a 40 min commute to the station for Matt, which is right on the border of NC and VA. Worse case scenario, Jack and I stay in Wilmington until the house sells and Matt moves up to VA by himself. We really hope this doesn't happen but we are preparing for it anyway. Keep your fingers crossed that we can sell this house in time.

Some other news that you may not know is that I am going to now be a stay at home mom! Yep, when we move I am not going to look for a new job..we will cut out a lot of the bills we have now just by moving (we won't get 300+ channels in cable, no home phone, etc) and should hopefully be able to make it work. We will have to sacrifice but I think it will be worth it in the end. I won't have to stress about finding a job right away or a day-care for Jack. We can go out of town whenever we want to since I won't have to worry about my vacation time. And the best part about this is I get to be with Jack! I know it will be difficult some days but I am really looking forward to this. Then if things go well, we can start trying for another baby soon. :)

Well, I think that is it for now. I will keep you guys updated on how things are going with the house. Once we are done painting, I will take some pictures to show you what we have done as well.