Wisconsin

Today, one year ago, we crossed into the great state of Wisconsin.

The journey does not begin there however. We knew about 18 months in advance that we would be coming to the small base of Fort McCoy, Wisconsin. We did a ton of research on the area because all we knew about Wisconsin prior to receiving orders was: Beer, Cheese and the Green Bay Packers.  I was only interested in the "cheese" portion.

We began our trip north on November 1, staying with family in Atlanta and leaving Georgia on November 3. We decided that with 2 small children and an 18 hour drive that we would take it in small stages. We stopped that first night in Tennessee, then Bloomington, IL and finally on a cold wet November 5th we pulled into Tomah, Wisconsin. Ten days later we had located a house on the other side of Fort McCoy in the town of Sparta.

At first I was nervous about moving to such a small area (the surrounding environs are only about 20,000 people) and the house we found was outside of the town amid corn, soybean & cattle fields. And then the snow started. Having lived in Germany I knew snow was wet & cold but it had been 7 years since I had dealt with the stuff so I stuck close to home while I relearned how to deal with it.

Enter Spring and Summer, met our neighbors, who are absolutely AWESOME by the way. Ally took part in a Pre-Kindergarten summer school and we went to Twin Cities, MN and the Mall of America on a short vacation. We hung out with our neighbors and fell a little more in love with life up here.

And now back around to Fall. Watching the leaves change I almost feel like I am back in Georgia. It is so pretty up here. My parents got to come visit and I tried to talk them into moving here. John is excited to do some hunting here. The deer are huge, I am talking like strap a saddle on it and ride it to town huge. Or maybe tame a couple fawns and raise them to pull the kid's sleds. Halloween is one of my favorite holidays, to me it is so much fun. This year we got to take the kids (with our neighbors) into town and go to all the hot spots going from door to door Trick or Treating, something that I would not have done back in Georgia. Watching my daughter & friends run across the yards and up to the door ringing the doorbell and shrieking "TRICK OR TREAT" brought back so many fun memories for me.

For 13 years John and I have discussed what we wanted for our life after the Army. He wanted the country but I wanted the city, here even though we live in the country we are 5 miles from the center of town. Our neighbors are fantastic, the school system is wonderful, the health care is top notch. I never thought I would find what I wanted 1100 miles from where I thought it would be.

Happy Anniversary, Wisconsin, thank you for a great first year!

Amy