Pack em up and move em out

Today the packers come to pack up each and every item in our house.  Friday, they will load the truck with all of our household goods and take them away.  Friday night, we will have one last camping adventure in the living room complete with our tent, air mattresses, snacks & games.  Saturday morning, we will hand over the keys to our landlord and hit the road, Jack!

I want to find some time to sit down and write a post about how our daughter has handled all this change, and how we’ve been able to help her through this transition. That’s been a lesson in itself, and we’ve been very proud of her!

We’ve already taken all the pictures off the walls, taken apart bookshelves, and sorted most things.  Last night we took apart Emily’s loft bed.  I wasn’t sure if she would be upset at the change in her room, but she actually embraced it! She was thrilled that her mattress was on the floor because it meant she was allowed to jump on it!  Silver lining, indeed!

Today we took apart our bed, and are starting to pack up the minivan with all the stuff that’s coming with us so that the movers don’t accidently pack it.  We are taking enough of our things to live for up to a month just in case there is a delay getting our household goods delivered. 

We’ll be spending 3 days/2 nights on the road, stopping to have lunch with a couple of my good friends along the way! Then, once we arrive in our new town we will spend 10 days in a pet-friendly extended stay hotel.  10 days because that’s how long the Army gives Hubby to find a place to live.  It’s like paid time off that doesn’t count against his regular leave – very cool!

We chose this particular hotel because it actually has a full kitchen, rather than just a mini-fridge and microwave.  This will allow us to save money on food by not eating out for 10 days.  It also has a door to the bedroom, so we can put Emily to bed on the sofabed and we don’t have to go to sleep at the same time she does – either we go to bed early, or she goes to bed late.  That will keep us all rested, well-fed and happy!  The Army is awesome and gives us money toward lodging for those 10 days that we are looking for a place to live.  This hotel will cost us a bit more than the Army is paying, but we decided it was worth a little out of pocket for the benefits it will provide.  It’s easy to suck it up for a day or two at a Super 8 (which we will use on the way there, I’m sure), but for 10 whole days we want a little more comfort.  Since we have a cat, that also limited our choices because we needed a place that would allow us to bring her.

After that, we’ll move into our new apartment but it’s possible that our household goods won’t get delivered right away, so we want to have the basics to live on there too.

We’re taking changes of clothes for several days, snack foods, some food from the pantry, a pot & pan for cooking, our Vitamix because we are smoothie addicts, our coffee pot, toaster oven, and some cooking utensils.  That should allow us to cook most things.  We’re also taking Emily’s most favorite toys, homeschooling supplies for a couple weeks, some towels, sheets, and our air mattresses for sleeping on.  We’ll just use paper plates and napkins and kill a few trees to make it easier than packing easily breakable dishes.

So around 2 weeks from today, we should be in our new apartment waiting on our household goods delivery.  Then the unpacking will begin!

I wanted to update you all on how the move is going so far.  Thursday, Hubby got his official orders, so Friday we started the process of scheduling movers.  It took up my time most of the day on Friday.  I started by tracking down the phone number to the transportation office at the nearest military installation.  There is not an Army post anywhere near us, so I had to work with a Navy base a couple hours away. 

I couldn’t find the phone number for the office I needed, so I ended up just calling another office and asking if they could transfer me or give me the number I needed.  The nice gentleman on the phone gave me several numbers that were possibilities, and I called through each of them until I found the right one.  Right office, but no human answering the phone.  I tried each extension and then finally just left a message.

Hubby had been told that we could not schedule the movers until we attended a briefing on post/base.  So, I was calling to find out when the next briefing was, and if I could attend.  A nice lady called me back shortly and told me that they don’t do briefings anymore and instead it is all done online. She told me the website to go to and said I should just watch the video online and follow the instructions.

Easy as pie.  Or not.

I found the website, watched the oh-so-helpful video, and attempted to start the application.  It doesn’t work. Finally I find something that says it isn’t compatible with my browser (Firefox).  It is compatible with IE, but I have to turn off my pop-up blocker.  Ok fine, I did that.

Still doesn’t work.

I call tech support and find out that I need to download a fix, install it, and try again.

Now, it works.  So I begin filling out the long form with lots and lots of pages.  I have to stop and call Hubby (who is on the road driving home) every so often to find out what answer to put on the form.

FINALLY, around 3:00, after going through page after page of this online form, I finish and get the application submitted.  But then it says I need to give the office all supporting documents (his orders, and a couple other forms).  HOW am I supposed to do that if I’m not actually attending a briefing?

Oh, and by the way, after I finish the whole thing, as I was reading other information online it said that if this was our first time to move our personal property, that I could NOT do the process online, but only in person.  Are you kidding me?

I called the nice lady from before to ask her.  She says that I AM allowed to use the online version, and they need to update their instructions.  WHEW! She also says I can email her the forms she needs.

Ok.  So I need to print out the forms, sign them, scan them in and email them back to her.  It’s just after 3:00, and I assume they are going to close at 5:00.  Better hurry!

I walk into our room to print them, and I remember that our printer is low on ink.  I say a quick prayer that the printer has enough ink to finish this job, but God has a sense of humor, so it ran out in the middle of my job.  I got Emily up from her quiet rest time and drag her to the store to get some ink.  Just as I’m getting back home, the nice lady calls me again and leaves me a message (I didn’t answer the phone because I was trying to get the ink installed) to tell me the office is closing (at 3:30?) but to go ahead and send the email and she’ll get it. 

Of course that means I couldn’t hear anything back till Monday…but at least we DID hear back from them on Monday!  And she called us before 7:00 AM – no wonder they close at 3:30 if they are busy working so early in the morning!

On Monday, the moving company called to say that someone would be coming on Tuesday to look around our house at all of our stuff so that they would know how many packers to send and how long it would take.

Yesterday (Tuesday) a man came out to do just that.  20 minutes or so later and he was done.  We got a call later that day telling us the packers will be here Thursday, & they will come on Friday to load the truck.  They originally estimated they would need 2 days for packing, but once they saw our house that changed to one day.  We only have a 1500 square foot house, and the 3rd bedroom is only being used to store some of the books, furniture, and toys I’ve taken from other rooms, so I had a feeling they could do it in a day.

Making progress!

If I’m not around for a couple of days, it’s because my Hubby is coming home!!! We finally got our official orders TODAY, just one day before he graduates and gets to come home.  I was so worried he was going to have to stay there for another week or so till they worked out his orders.

We are not going to Tennessee after all.  We are going to North Carolina!! Beautiful!! Hiking and the beach – I’m so excited!  It also means that Hubby is back on Airborne status which makes him giddy. Really, he used that word – he’s giddy…and it’s cute.

So, now I am in the middle of Go-Go-Go time. I have to go into the post office to put a hold on our mail.  Evidently there is a special form when you don’t know what address it’s going to go to once the hold is over, so I have to go IN to the post office instead of just doing it online.

I also need to schedule the movers.  I’ve been trying to do this through the military’s “high-tech” website, but it doesn’t like my browser for some reason, so I’m going to have to call tomorrow, and possibly make a trip 1.5 hours away to the nearest military base.

If we can get the movers scheduled, we should be heading to our new home this time next week or so.

Here we gooooooo!

This song by Toby Keith just came on while I was chatting online with Hubby.  I miss him so much! He’s supposed to be home next Friday, but with the delay in getting orders, it’s possible that will change.  He can’t leave his current post until he gets the orders, even after he graduates.  I didn’t realize that until a couple days ago.  I figured after graduation if he didn’t have his orders, he could still come home and be getting ready to move (I know all you military wives are laughing at me, aren’t you? It’s ok!) but nope – that’s not how it works.  He just has to wait there until he has the orders and THEN he can come home and move with us.

We were starting to get really nervous because we told our landlord that we’d be out by the end of January and it’s getting too close for comfort!  We were getting afraid of what would happen if he signed a new renter and we have no way to get out of this house.  We can’t afford to move ourselves, and even if we could, where would we go?

I don’t know why we are so prone to worry.  God has this all in control and his timing is perfect.  Why is that so hard to remember in the middle of things?  Hubby and I are talking and worrying and praying about it….but you have to TRUST too.  Not just ask God to help, but fully trust that he WILL.

In fact, my daughter’s memory verse this past week was

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding.  In all your ways acknowledge him and he will make your path straight.”

While we were chatting, Hubby talked to our landlord and it’s all good!  Thankfully we have a great landlord (and we’ve been good renters for 4 years!), so he’s willing to work with us.  If we have to go over our deadline, we can just pay him a week at a time in February instead of having to pay for a whole other month when we don’t need it.  Who does that?  That’s AWESOME!!! Thank you Lord!

So, I don’t know where we’re going, or exactly when, but chances are that a couple weeks from now we’ll be somewhere else.

As of Monday morning, we are just “10 days and a wakeup” away from my husband coming home. I am so excited! I can’t wait to wrap my arms around him and keep around for a while. It’s been a long 5 months without him and I’m looking forward to telling him good morning and good night every day.

Now that his training is over, we will soon be on our way to our new duty station. 2 weeks from now we will be leaving Texas and saying hello to our new state.

Wherever that may be.

That’s right, we still don’t know where we are going. We’ve been told that it’s one place, but there are 2 other very strong possibilities that could happen that would change that to one of 2 other locations. So, we have 3 possible states we could be going to. Hopefully we’ll find out this week. At the very least, we’ll know the following week because Hubby is coming home!

We still don’t have the official “in writing” orders, so I can’t schedule the movers either, but we have to be our of our rental house by the end of the month. This, my friends, is the “Hurry up and wait!” that every military member and their families warned me about.

It’s odd that this isn’t bothering me. Not one bit. I’m normally a bit of a control freak, but over this last year I have really let a lot of that go. Not all of it was by choice, but I’m learning to let the chips fall where they may.

I’m eager to have my husband home and to find out where we are going, but I’m O.K. with wherever the Army sends us. I’m just looking forward to getting started. A good friend of mine that is an Army wife once told me that “it is what you make of it”. I guess that applies to life in general, doesn’t it? I’m taking that as my motto this year.

This next year is going to be full of ups and downs, of first experiences and new memories. I want to embrace it and make the best out of each and every day. Now before you think my head is stuck in the clouds, I AM realistic and I know that there will be trying times as well. I can’t stop those from happening, but I can choose not to dwell on the negative.

This is a huge life change for my husband and daughter as well. The ol’ saying, “If Momma ain’t happy, ain’t nobody happy” has a lot of truth to it. It’s my duty to my family to choose to have a happy heart. Otherwise, I bring down the whole team.

Thankfully, my daughter is taking this in stride and I can’t help but think that my attitude is helping with that since she responds directly to my emotions. It also helps that she’s always wanted to travel. She wants to visit every place she can find on a map.

With daily things, she normally has a hard time with change and often says “But this isn’t the way it’s supposed to be!” when we do something different. With this change, she can look forward to it as long as she has some information. Unfortunately, I can only prepare her so much.

When we moved into this house, I printed off a picture of the front of the house and gave it to her in a frame a couple weeks before we moved. She was able to look at it and get familiar with it. I can’t do that this time. I can’t even tell her what state we are going to, let alone what house. We’ll be choosing a house after we move. Instead, I focus on talking to her about what I do know. Her bedroom will have a window. We will have a bathroom. Her toys, her blankie, her nighttime music – are all going with us. There will be a playground (somewhere!), and new places to explore.

So far, it’s working. She’s actually excited about the move. We are also doing a lot of planning for the road trip itself and making sure her sensory needs are met while doing two days of driving, and living in a hotel for a week or so.

I’ll talk more about that in another post, and maybe by then, I can even let you know where I’ll be heading!

Then my Hubby will graduate from AIT, hit the road and come HOME!! I can’t wait to see him and to spend every day with him again.

We still don’t have our paper orders that will allow me to call and schedule the movers.  I keep reminding myself that a good friend of mine (another Army wife) once had 2 weeks notice that they were to move.  So, I can’t complain for a couple more days.

I’m 99% sure we know where we are going.  Hubby has even received a welcome letter from the new post.  I just won’t breath a sigh of relief until it’s in writing!  I’m REALLY excited about this post and I don’t want to get my hopes up and be disappointed.  I will be about an hour away from 2 very good friends of mine that I normally only see once a year. 

I also just want to get the movers scheduled. People keep asking exactly when we are going to be moving, and you get some weird looks when you say “I don’t know, but before the end of the month”. They probably just assume I’m not a good planner or organizer. Truth is, we’re in the Army now….no more plans!

I’m still in purge mode around here trying to sort and organize things so that the movers can pack most efficiently (translation: how *I* want them to).  I’m at a bit of a stand-still though because I only have so many places to put piles of stuff.  This coming weekend my parents will have my daughter for a while, so I’ll plan to make some good progress then.

Have I mentioned we are moving with a cat?

Emily and I went today to pick up a new cat carrier for our kitty, Angel.  We have one, but wanted a larger one for the trip so she could move around without having to tuck her tail under her at all times.  I was a little concerned because she’s only been in a carrier twice – both for trips to the vet, but I put it together and she took to it immediately.  I left the door off so she can get used to it, and she’s been playing & napping in it off and on all afternoon.

She probably won’t like it much once it’s in the car and moving.

Our vet (and friend) suggested that we take her on some trial trips around town to see how she handles it and to see if she settles down after half an hour or so.  She’s also going to hook us up with some relaxing drugs and heavy duty tranquilizers just in case our kitty freaks out while on the road.  Actually she said the tranquilizers have to be given a hour before, so we’ll have to decide that ahead of time.

We’ll have 2 days of driving, about 6-8 hours each, a night in a hotel along the way, and then 10 days of staying in a hotel or temporary housing of some sort. 

Our cat is going to loooooove us! Or not.

I plan to take a long a stash of tuna to bribe her.  It might spoil her a little, but she’s worth it.

We’re getting closer!!