Hi Shannon! I'm in onslow as well- Swansboro area, but I drive to Jax to go to the park and shopping all the time LOL and our kids are 2 months apart

 

I'm in Jacksonville!!

 

Hey, I know I saw more than 2 other people out there!

But HI!

Jacksonville sounds central for us three, anyway!

There's an LLL meeting on Friday at 9 am at Our Savior Lutheran Church on 24...on the old stretch of 24 right near the new overpasses.

 

I'll come to that

I might be dragging a bit because I have to work tomorrow night but what can you do LOL

 

oops - double post

 

Can't go to the LLL meeting - I have to work. But next Friday (the 12th) is my last day, and after that I'll be in school M-Th... so Fridays are free! I'm so excited; I've wanted to go to a LLL meeting forever, but never been able to.

 

Oh, I'll be dragging a bit too...DD has been up late lately.

Marilyn: Congrats on being almost done!!!

 

Quote:

Originally Posted by MovingMomma Marilyn: Congrats on being almost done!!!

Thanks - I've been telling people I'm getting promoted from Corporal to Mrs.

 

I'm excited too- this will be my 2nd meeting as I've just recently stopped working m-f days.

Shannon- I hope to see you there! I'll have both kids with me, bman and a lil tye dyed baby

 

MonkeyBoys_Mom:

Just wanted to say it was nice to meet you on Friday! Your boys are too cute!

 

thanks you too! I met up with marily on saturday and we had a great time over knitting! very cool!

New peeps are awesome!

 

Awe, you girls make me miss that area! We lived in Surf City for a couple of years, then moved to New Bern for 4 years. Now we live in stinky Florida! I loved my LLL ladies in New Bern. I miss is so much! NC will always be my home...

 

Hi Ladies! I'll be moving down your way in August most likely and would love to hook up with some crunchy moms when we do.

Heather and DD 2yrs

 

did I kill this thread? if not, any of you have any advice on on base VS off base housing for a no vaxing, cloth diapering organnic type? I think it would be New River housing and we are looking at DH deploying sometime next year. Any advice would be appreciated.............

Also what is the music scene like down there?

 

I'm in duplin county but we go to the area frequently.

 

I'm not sure about base stuff- I'm civilian, but I can assure you that you don't want to live in New River housing. are you going to be at lejeune or the airstation?

and the music scene isn't much (as in non exsistant unless you like cover bands) but we do get occasional stuff- wilmington is the closest place for live bands

I'll help the best I can, I grew up in this area so I suppose I could be rather helpful LOL

PS- Hi Laura! Its wino *snickers*

 

New River housing is all SNCO and officer, so if your DH is a good ole' junior enlisted like us, you'd be in TT (Tarawa Terrace) or Midway Park. They're okay. I'm not a fan of base housing just because I don't like sharing my back yard with 5 other families. A lot of military kids are brats.

If you can get into the new housing at TT, go for it. There's still the yard issue, but if that doesn't bother you, then whatever. And the new houses are really really nice. Much nicer than you could get for BAH unless your DH is a bit higher up the food chain. What rank is he, if you don't mind me asking?

DH is a active-duty Cpl and I'm a Cpl on terminal leave (finally!!!!), so I see everything from the junior perspective.

I don't know a single person who doesn't vax or uses cd, or... anything like that. No military people, anyway. But this is ******* City, USA, so you are not going to find too many like-minded people. I didn't know one person who could qualify as crunchy until I found MDC. Again, this could depend on rank...

 

Thanks. He'll be stationed at Leguene but the only on base housing avalible now is at New River. Do you think it would be better to live out in town? That's what we do here and i love it, but he'll be deployed a lot more there and I'm wondering about pros and cons of each in that situation.

Marilyn, he's a Mustang Officer and I'm prior Navy so we've been on both sides.

Mommas, What things do you all like about the area? What are your favorite things to do with your kids? Are there good craft stores in the area? I'm addicted to scrapbooking/card making/origami and I have been known to quilt and cross-stitch on occassion and am currently trying to sew clothes for dd. Is there anything hard to get there I should be sure to bring with me?

is New Bern the closest LLL?

I'm a bit frazzled about the move, we were suppose to be here another year and I'm really not ready to leave but we have to or be seperated as a family which isn't really an option so finding some other crispy/crunchy moms would aleviate some of the stress I think

Thanks mommas
Heather

 

I also play viola and am always looking for other musicians to play with if you know anyone who might be interested. Is there a community orchestra there?

 

I honestly don't know all that much about base housing. I've only been in a couple of houses on base, they were both pretty small (NCO/SNCO housing). We've never lived on base, either...we've rented before and we own our house now. Anyway, I can't tell you much about base housing, good or bad! There certainly advantages to living on base during a deployment, but we've done three while living off base & it all works out.

As far as off base housing, are you looking to rent or buy? We love the area we are in (towards Richlands). It has a rural feel, although our road is getting more and more developed (but that's good for our property value, so we aren't complaining...we estimate that our house is worth about $40k more than when we bought it nearly 3 yrs ago). It is 13 miles for DH to get to work on New River and 20-30 minutes for me to get just about anywhere I want to go in Jacksonville. We go to Richlands (10 mins or so) for DD's tumbling classes at a great little dance studio...the owner is a MDC member & DD's teacher is awesome. I'm taking belly dance lessons there also. We're also 10 mins or so from the Bulk & More store where we buy free range organic eggs & non-homogenized milk. My friend across the street is thinking about homeschooling. Oh, and we're only 5 minutes from the airport which is so awesome when we're traveling!

What are you looking for in housing?

 

Oops, missed your last 2 posts when I wrote the last one...

Speaking for myself, I'm really not a base housing kind of gal, & that outweighs the benefits of living there during a deployment. If you do end up living off base, be sure to make an extra effort to make friends as soon as you get here. Make crunchy friends, make friends w/people in your DH's unit, and make friends who live near you. I had all three rolled into one with two friends during DH's last two deployments, and it helped so much. If you have small children, hire a lawn service while your DH is deployed. You'll have extra money from the deployment that will cover the costs. When DH was gone, his part of the grocery budget went to the lawn mowing service!

There are several scrapbooking stores in the area. I'm not into that so much myself, but I know a lot of ladies are! There's a Hancock Fabrics & at least two quilt shops. There's a neat little yarn shop up in Richlands if you get into knitting/crocheting or anything.

There's an LLL group in Jacksonville! MonkeyBoys_Mom & I met there a couple of weeks ago.

I don't know about a community orchestra. I'm sure you could find a bluegrass group to play with if you are into that, though.

Any chance your DH is EOD? Mine is & I'm wondering since all EOD officers are Mustangs.

 

wow- I really showed my civilian side- I thought you meant new river apartments, not new river the air station LOL!

I am partial to the swansboro side of town- close to the beach and right between jacksonville, new bern, and morehead city (all withing 30 mins) there is the LLL in jax and one in new bern (I'm going to try the new bern one soon)

 

violafemme - I'd live in town, but that's just me. I don't like the busyness/crowdedness of base housing. I like to be able to go out to my backyard and pretend I'm not in "oohrah land." I mean, I love the Corps and all, but in my 4 years, I never got into the whole "Marine 24/7" thing. I like to separate work and home, and it seems like living on base would make that difficult for me.

On an officer's salary, you could probably afford something nicer/more private out in town... shoot, we do it on a Cpl salary plus my GI Bill. Base housing around here, except for the new junior stuff, is not that great.

Don't know about musicians.

MovingMomma - where is this Bulk & More? I've never heard of it.

Not to hijack or anything, but is there anyone around here who could help me with sewing? I know MonkeyBoys Mom does some.... but I just got a sewing machine on eBay, and I have a dress pattern and some fabric, etc. It's a really simple pattern and I've done a bit of sewing before, so I don't think I'd have a problem with it, but I need to modify it to make it compatible with nursing. I have a general idea of how this would work, but would appreciate a helping hand, so if anyone is experienced in this sort of thing, let me know. In return, I can teach you some knitting, or hook you up with some of my fabulous home cooking (bread, jam, cookies, whatever - lately everyone's been getting bread & strawberry jam).

 

when its time I can help you find a place if you want- I used to work in the real estate feild and have some good contacts (and you can live on the beach for apprx 900-1200 a mth in emerald isle)

marilyn If you can wait until next week I'll come and help you with that-I'll be outta town until then. I owe you for the knitting lesson LOL

 

Bulk & More is on Fountaintown, off 111 past the airport. I posted details (directions, hours, some prices) on this thread the other day.

I'm no expert seamstress, but I did modify a pattern to sew a nursing dress the summer before last. I think I can still remember how I did it!