Changes

Holy Schimoly, have things changed in the AdventureFamily! AdventureDad is out of his Fellowship. There were a lot of convolutions and politics involved, and I don't want to go into all of the gory details, but the simple story is that he failed to meet some physical training requirements, and was (very) promptly shown the door. I am a bit indignant because if he was in any other program, with any other employer, nothing but academic and medical performance would have mattered. Sigh. AdventureDad is so relieved to be done with all of the silliness that was going on that he has taken it much more gracefully than I.
Since his Fellowship ended, AdventureDad has had a chance to have a life again. He's no longer working 96-hour weeks, night shifts, or dealing with the politics and head-butting that was going on behind the scenes. I actually get to see him in a non-comatose state, and the girls get to have a lot more Daddy time. We also used some of that time to head out to Walla Walla and start our farm. With much-needed-and-appreciated help from my parents (aka Nana and Grandpa), we planted nine fruit trees (I think we're going to name our farm Nine Trees Farm) and put up a deer fence around the orchard. It's a humble beginning, but it sure feels good to have something tangible to look at!
To add to the craziness, literally the day after he was out of the program, AdventureDad was informed that he will be going on a new RLBT (Ridiculously Long Business Trip). He's going to new parts of the world (sarcastic Yay for him), and he's leaving in a little over a month. Needless to say we are all a bit overwhelmed, especially because the owners of our rental house are returning from overseas before the RLBT is over, which means that we have to find a new place to live and get moved in NOW. Not such an easy task with 2 cats, 2 dogs, and 3 horses! We have been running around like chickens with our heads cut off, looking at potential rentals in all directions. Boy, have we seen a wide range of living situations! The good news is that we have found 2 potentials that we are pretty darn excited about. We are most excited about one of them, that we should hear about tomorrow, so keep your fingers crossed. Either way I'll be able to blog about our next home in the next few days.
The other awesome news (and thus the reason for the rental search) is that we get to stay in this area until AdventureDad retires. He has been promised (by multiple reliable sources) a spot doing aviation medicine when he returns from his RLBT. That means no move across the country, and we will be close to our property and able to start our someday house in a much more reasonable fashion.
So, although we have a lot of changes, (and an RLBT that I can't even think about yet) in the long run AdventureDad is out of a very stressful and unpleasant situation (pretty sad when an RLBT is a relief!), we get to stay in WA, and in less than 3.5 years AdventureDad will have a new job and we'll be moving into our "someday" house. Sounds pretty good to me.