Moving to Maryland...finally

After a fabulous year in Davenport, Iowa, Jonny & I are getting ready to move again. For those of you who are wondering why we're incapable of staying in one spot longer than 13 months, I present the following story: After finishing up his ChemE degree at BYU, Jon took a job with the Army Materiel Command Fellows Program. Basically this is a 5 year program: The first year, they send everyone to Texarkana, Arkansas/Texas where they pay you to get your MBA (or MSBA in Jon's case) at the prestigious Texas A&M-Texarakana. Once that's done, they ship you to a random Army installation around the US for "training." When Jon started the program, the deal was that we'd move to a different location every year. However, the government realized this was getting too expensive, and decided that wherever they sent you, you'd stay for the remaining 4 years and just rotate between programs.

Around April 2006 we were told that we'd be heading to Aberdeen, Maryland, where Jon would be working on chemical demilitarization. We were both very happy about this, as it put us only 6 hours from his family in West Virginia. Then, inexplicably, a month later, they changed our location to the Rock Island Arsenal in Illinois. We were surprised, especially since there didn't seem to be any ChemE work going on out there. But we went anyway.

Turns out we were right. After about 6 months Jon realized that there was nothing here for him and began the incredibly slow and painful process of trying to change our location back to Maryland. 5 1/2 months later, we finally got the official go-ahead. Jon reports to work on Nov. 5th. Yay!

Lest you think that our time in Davenport was a complete waste, I would like to say that we really wish Jon's job had worked out. We love our neighborhood (full of young LDS couples at Palmer College of Chiropractic and a few Arsenal people) and have made some great friends. Not to mention the fact that rent will probably cost us $400-$500 dollars more per month on the East Coast.

So...if any of you are thinking of heading out East, Jon & I are planning to buy a house around May. If you head out before then, we can try to squeeze you into what I'm sure will be a disgustingly small apartment.