Things have been getting increasingly stressful at the Smith house of late. This week we're getting ready to close on a house we're buying (closing tomorrow) with the intent of moving in once I return. We were planning on buying it in a year, but since interest rates are so low now and since my situation is up-in-the-air, we opted to close now. We're still not moving for at least a year, though -- the current owners will be renting from us until the house they're building is ready. It's a really cool house and I can't wait to get back so we can move there.

You'd think buying a house would be stressful enough, but we're leaving Friday morning for Missouri. I'm pretty used to travelling, but I'm not used to having to pack for a year at a time. Probably the biggest issue at hand is getting our computer systems set up so that Michelle can manage both our business and our personal lives without me. I had to rebuild my laptop on Tuesday and that took longer than expected (and I'm still fiddling with Outlook folders and rules), and I'm trying to make as many backups of everything as I can just in case Michelle needs something.

We also got our wills and powers of attorney taken care of today, after doing the initial workup a week or two ago with our attorney.

I'm still sporting a goatee; that will probably go tomorrow before we go to close on the house. I also did end up having to get one pair of slacks (dress pants for class B uniform) taken out a bit, which I need to pick up tomorrow. Hopefully I'll get myself slimmed down to where I'd like to be in the next few months.

Lastly, I've called Ft. LeonardWood a few times with various questions that may be of interest to others. Most are pretty obvious but it never hurts to ask just to be sure. I wondered if I might need a passport, like in case I was in Germany and wanted to go offpost on leave or something. Nope, don't need it. Military ID is fine. I wondered if I might need anything more than Class B uniform (class A, dress blues, etc). Again, no. I wondered about how much civilian clothing I should bring, and the answer was 'one set should be fine.' That's cool - it makes it easier to pack. But now I have to decide what my one absolute favorite set of civilian clothes is, since it's all I'll have for a year. Tough call...

So far the folks at the training support battalion at FLW have been very friendly and helpful, which is nice. I'm hoping to have at least intermittent Internet access once I'm there, but we'll see how that goes. This will probably be my last blog post until I'm situated in Missouri.

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• iraq