We have a HOUSE!!

Baby Boo and I have finally been allocated a house!! With 17 days left until we move. Luckily we've doing this thing long enough and completed enough manic pack moves to know that everything is always left to the last minute with Her Majesty's fine Army!

I can't believe we actually have an address. Bricks and mortar. It's been a long time coming. We were due posting last November but, due a housing shortage in the area we're posted to, we've just had to sit back and wait. That's the official reason anyway. I reckon it's got more to do with the fact that, due to budget cuts, the Housing Office were told they had to downsize from Krispy Kreme donuts to digestive biscuits at coffee break and this was their revenge. Just a theory, mind.

Still, it's all sorted now. The house is small and the garden is about the size of a postage stamp but, quite frankly, they could have allocated us a tent and we'd have found a way to get the sofa in.

Army houses are always painted Magnolia (dirty cream), have either blue, green, dusky pink or claret carpets, heavily flowered curtains and the kitchens and bathrooms often leave a lot to be desired. If there's one thing you learn very quickly as a soldier it's how to make the best of what you've got. We are masters at finding the perfect rug, whipping up the perfect window dressings and covering the walls with as many pictures and photos as possible. Oh, and we always buy plain coloured sofas. I once made the mistake of having the most gorgeous purple sofa and was allocated a house with claret (dark, yucky red) carpets. Two years of walking in to my living room and having to swallow back vomit taught me a lesson or two.

Also, when you move out of an Army house it has to be left exactly as you found it so we don't often paint the walls. Blu-tack is our friend. Painting them back just adds to the stress of the three million other things you need to do including packing and scrubbing the house to within an inch of it's life. If it's not 'Army clean' you get charged.

So what better way to celebrate than with a big cup of tea, a donut (take THAT, housing office) and a mooch through my inspiration folder?

** I've had the majority of these lovely pics for yonks and failed to save sources. If they belong to you or you know who they do belong to please let me know. Credit where credit's due **

Me and my labels.

So today I thought I'd share a few things with you about me. There are two 'labels' that sum me up quite quickly. Mummy. Soldier. My life revolves around these two words and just about everything I do is connected to one or the other. So here we go.....grab yourself a cuppa. Not for any particular reason but just because I have a lovely big mug of tea next to me.

1. I joined the Army straight from school after my parents refused to pay for me to go to drama school. I'm not quite sure where the idea to join the Army came from and I wasn't one of these kids that always dreamed of being a soldier. On my first day in uniform when asked why I had signed up I was honest and stated 'Well, Sgt, I wanted to be on the stage in the West End but my Mum said it wasn't really a career so here I am'. I spent the next ten minutes being roared at and doing press ups. Despite this slightly shaky start I love what I do. I grew in to the role and I love that I was financially independent at such a young age. At 17 I was running my own car and had my first mobile phone. It was a great brick of a thing and I still have over developed muscles in one arm from lugging the stupid thing about.

2. At 18 I got pregnant with my daughter. It became very apparent, very quickly that, if I was going to have this baby, I would be going it alone. So I did, despite many many many people telling me there was no way I would cope. I'm stubborn like that. And thank God. Baby Boo is the best thing that ever happened to me. She keeps me grounded and I love her so much it actually hurts sometimes. It has been bloody hard work juggling both Boo and the Army and we've had some rough times but we've got through them and my little girl is always smiling. I'm one proud Mama.

3. I'm currently serving out in Germany and we've been stationed out there for nearly three years now (which means a posting back to the UK is imminent. Hurrah!). We've also lived all over England and also Northern Ireland. Germany is one lovely country and Baby Boo and I have taken the time to explore and seen some beautiful sights. I am totally in love with Bavaria and would happily settle for life in a little log cabin at the foot of the Bavarian Mountains. I'd buy a cow with a big bell and spend my summers hill walking and my winters skiing.

4. I was last deployed in 2009 to Afghanistan which was one of the most mentally and physically draining things any soldier will do. Sometimes I was so tired I could barely remember my own name. Saying that, I still found time to play in the sand...... thanks for my present Mum!

5. Boo goes to a private boarding school and has been there for a year now. By the time she was ten she had been to more than 6 schools and the amount of moving around we were doing was so unsettling for her. She was also at the age where she was making proper friends and leaving them every couple of years was starting to take it's toll. I miss her desperately and frequently have to fight to stop myself from bringing her home but reading her school report (my kid is awesome) and talking to her teachers (yep....plain awesome) reminds why we did this. I am also scared she's going to leave there at the age of 18 with a posh accent but I can beat that out of her if need be ;)

So there you go. A bit about me. Mummy. Soldier. Fiercely proud of both. I love my labels.