PCS Party

It's an interesting thing having virtually no control over where we'll live for the next, oh, 17 years of our lives. All we can do is submit Matt's dream sheet, cross our fingers, and hope that the mythical-sounding functionals will use a click of their mouse to send us somewhere wonderful. That time between putting in our requests and receiving Matt's orders is killer, and we are fully aware that the answer we await could be either incredibly exhilarating or incredibly disappointing.

During that waiting period this time around, I came up with the idea to start a tradition of PCS parties. PCS stands for "permanent change of station," and is basically military-speak for "move." I pictured getting Matt's orders, then throwing a party to celebrate the news and start getting excited for our new adventure, wherever it may be. These PCS parties would include a dinner menu from the new location, a delicious dessert, and a little activity in which we'd list all the great things about the new location as well as all the fun things we want to do while we live there. In my mind, I imagined PCS parties being particularly important down the road, with an older Jake and his younger siblings. Having moved around a lot while growing up, I know that moves are both awful and awesome for kids, and I think kicking off the news with a party will soften the blow a bit and help our future family focus more on the awesome.

Then, we got orders to Hill AFB. Wonderful, for sure, but also terribly anticlimactic. (For those of you who are LDS, it felt a little like opening a mission call to Boise, Idaho. Really amazing, but when you could go anywhere in the world...) A PCS party felt a little less necessary since we already know basically all there is to know about the area, so I put it off for a bit. But then I realized that perhaps a party is even more in order to get us really excited about this move. Plus, if I'm going to start a tradition, I might as well start it now. So last weekend, we threw our first little PCS party!

For dinner, Carolyn helped me whip up Cafe Rio sweet pork salads -- one of Matt and my favorite Utah restaurant meals -- and we broke out the sparkling cider. Then we had a yummy cheesecake (hooray for Utah's new Cheesecake Factories!) for dessert and got started on our list. In the end, we had a poster board full of dozens and dozens of the best things Utah has to offer.

We were happy about our impending move before, but I can honestly say that we are excited now! (Even though, I must admit, its close proximity to California is one of the items on the "great things" list haha.) I therefore consider our first PCS party a complete success.