Why do I do this????

So we leave in a few days for Legoland, and I am trying to get everything done for the movers.  Of course I waited till Friday to *really* start.

Anyone who has done a PCS with kiddos knows how difficult this can be.  (When we PCSed with no kids, I was stressed out, but I had NO idea how hard it would be with three kids.  I should have enjoyed it while I could!)

Since I have to start work shortly after I get there, I need to pack up all my work clothes and teaching supplies.  I thought the easiest way to do this would to be to clean out the big walk-in closet in the master bath, and we'll also clear out the bathroom so that they don't even have to come in there.  (I really don't want them packing the bathroom trash!)

So I am currently moving everything out of the closet so I can repack it with stuff that we are taking.  Then I have to unload the bathroom to the kids' bathroom.  I usually keep everything in our bathroom because.....well......do I need to remind you of stories of Abs and shampoo, conditioner, floods or toilets?

Gunner took all three kids to the movies so I could get started on this little endeavor.  I think I made a bigger mess, and now I want to quit.  Instead I am procrastinating.

Then there is the separation of all the things we get rid of when we move.  Some people wash everything, but I have no time for that, plus after a few years, those things usually need replacing.  I get rid of the plunger, toilet brushes, cheap trash cans, shower curtain liners, anything plastic, and I'm sure there are lots more.  The outlaws told us to leave the BBQ pit behind.  The thought of washing it doesn't sound appealing!

Of course there are the things I need to hand carry with us because we don't want them to get damaged or stolen.  (Have you ever had something stolen?  We've had a few things that were taken over the years, but nothing too expensive.)  Do you remember that story about the household goods that were ruined by a fire?  So in go the baby pictures, the wedding pictures, his saber, the tank drawing, and all the notebooks with our important information.

After that, we have to pack things for the kids to do on the trip--DVD players, DVDs, a few toys and books.  Add in a pot and a few utensils for cooking and stuff like soap, sanitizer, toilet paper, kleenex, etc. and you have a whole other pile.  But don't forget that you still need to add in the food that they won't carry.  Sometimes I can sneak the spices in, but other times we have hand carried them.  We don't ship canned goods because they weigh so much and we are already pushing our weight limit.  (Do you take your food?)

I'll have to pass on a lot of the food to someone else, although we are currently on the PCS meal plan.  You know, the meal plan where you throw together whatever is left so you don't have to go to the commissary?  All of the sudden we are eating strange combinations, and the kids are less than excited about it.  (The other day, Junior, who eats no meat, was perfectly happy with a jelly and relish sandwich.  He devoured it like it was the best meal he ever had--what does that say about my cooking?)

After getting all these things separated we will still have computers, a copier so I can do my other job, and a printer.  We have no idea where we will leave or when we will move into a house, so we have to be prepared.

How do you prepare for a PCS?  Please tell me someone else hand carries all that stuff with them too!

Tomorrow?

They assure Gunner that tomorrow he will definitely, without a shadow of a doubt, double pinky promise, that he will have his clearing papers tomorrow.

We can hope!

He's already cleared his unit, housing, and a few other things, so the list of things on his list of things, should be minimal. He can't start leave until the magical clearing papers are found, completed, and he signs out of "The Great Place".

We are living with my mom, which is interesting in itself. She doesn't like noise or chaos, so try keeping three noisy children on their best behavior all the time is a recipe for disaster. Add in my two nephews that my mom is babysitting while their mom is on a business trip, and you have even more chaos. I hate being homeless.

We are going to my brother's house this weekend to get away from it all. He only has one kid, one dog, and 2 cats. It will also be the first time Gunner meets his newest nephew that is now almost a year old. Last deployment it was his son he had to meet. We will also be telling them goodbye until they come to vacation in Colorado and become ski bums with me.

I suck at skiing. We went once in the Alps, and I just never got the hang of it. I now blame it on the fact that I was pregnant with Em and didn't know it! I am determined to learn in CO and get good at it--okay, I will settle for just being able to get down a hill in one piece and off the bunny slopes!

I'm trying to crank out school work left and right, plus train for the triathlon on July 12th.

Gunner went swimming and running with me Tuesday night. It was wonderful!!! Unfortunately, the kids didn't stay in bed, so it won't be happening again. Togetherness must be overrated somewhere, so we will settle for splitting up the workouts till they are grown, it's all good.

I'm off to another fun-filled day of class....

The Vocabulary Acquisition Model

Sounds exciting right?

I wish I could figure out how to make an hour presentation on the subject. It's so dry, I've never heard of it, and I don't want to speak for an hour in front of a class with my peers.

Two article reviews completed, one more to go.

Need to update my resume and scan my transcripts for Colorado.

I have the forms to get fingerprinted.

I ran 3 miles at the gym yesterday and felt super fast....granted my mom lives in a retirement community. Let's hope I am that active at their age!

I ran 3 miles last night too. I should have held off since I had taken 5 days off while we were moving. I'm sore today. Tonight I see a date with the trainer in front of the tv to watch Army Wives. I hate the whole Denise story.

Gunner and the kids and I desperately need to sort through everything that we brought and get organized, or I will lose my mind.

I found out that my classes go till June 9th, which means I am here an additional day.

I am glued to FB today as my triathlon trainer is doing the Escape from Alcatraz!

......I finished the third article. Started on my powerpoint presentation, visited with my sister and nephews, my trainer escaped from Alcatraz, and we are drinking wine so that we don't have to hand carry the bottles with us. Gunner and I don't know the difference between good or bad wine, so this should be interesting.

Better post this before we get too far into the experimentation.

We made it

With just minutes to spare, we (I mean Gunner) finished cleaning the house and were ready for the inspection. Abs and I returned from her appointment in just enough time to use the bathroom one last time. At least I know my bathroom is clean!

The driver with the full truck showed up this morning to do paperwork and make sure that the rest of our shipment got picked up. Who knows if they will be reunited anytime soon, but I suppose that will make it more fun. My vote is for the flat screen to be delivered first.

We hung out all day at the outlaws where Junior's eyes swelled up and we couldn't locate the benadryl. He was tired and miserable so I left in the middle of dinner with Junior and went to my mom's. I asked Gunner to bring me a dessert, thinking that a nice chocolate brownie or piece of cheesecake would hit the spot after this week of moving.

Gunner showed up several hours later, after switching out cars with his parents. I couldn't wait to get my hands on that dessert. I found two boxes of leftovers and no dessert.

I asked Gunner and he opened the box with the steak and pointed to a brownie size bite of a brownie. I was devastated. You know that feeling where your mouth is watering thinking about what is to come? Sigh.......

I'll just get a good long run in tomorrow morning and know that I can skip a mile because I didn't eat that brownie. I never liked chocolate until I was pregnant with Em, so I can't be missing much, right?

I think I remember my parents having a similar incident early in their marriage. They ordered dessert, my mom took out a screaming kid, and my dad ate both pieces of pie and didn't get hers to go.

I wonder if he ever did it again?

Tomorrow

The movers come tomorrow, bright and early at 7:30.

We have NOTHING packed.

We are not ready at all.

I am not panicking yet, as it is only 7:20 p.m. Why worry yet?

I'm madly trying to print articles for my article reviews this semester.

I do not think we will be sleeping tonight.

We borrowed the outlaws pressure washer to do the lawnmower and the grill. The swingset needs to be taken down and thrown away.

I still have bags that need to go to certain people. Ugh.

I hope they don't charge too much for being over our weight limit.

Highway Robbery

I tried to make a reservation for a hotel and it was more expensive to use a military discount than it was a AAA. Does that make sense? I guess they do the same thing for most airline tickets too, so I shouldn't be too surprised.

Then Gunner went to give notice at the housing office and he asked about getting our house cleaned. When we moved from our old house to the new house, we decided we didn't want to pay the big bucks to get our house cleaned. It would have cost us $320 and in the end after we scrubbed that house from top to bottom, they charged us a $290 cleaning fee. We argued it and the manager said he would have charged us more!

So any money that we get for leaving the house in the middle of the month will go to pay......are you ready for this.......the $390 cleaning fee for this house. After 4 1/2 years here in this house, I won't even attempt to try and please these people. I'm telling you, it's a conspiracy in order to suck you dry. We cleared Germany and Fort Lewis with no problems, so we know it is possible. Very few of our friends have had luck with Hood though. Just seems like a huge ripoff.

I'm on hold with maintenance right now waiting for them to pickup so I can have them out to fix everything wrong with this place. I guess when you think about my lack of repair bills, even when the baby gate pushed into the wall and made holes.....three times.

....We forgot about going to the summer camp orientation for SAS and made it just in time. One more thing to check off the list.

I got a scholarship for summer school. Guess having a 4.0 finally paid off for something!

I am almost all the way packed up at school. It looks so bare in there. Looking back, the year went so fast, even if at times I was pulling out my hair!

I bet the next 6 weeks just fly by.

Coordination

I'm starting to panic a little bit. I cannot leave Texas until I am done with summer school.

So I need a place to stay until mid-July.

Abs is leaving mid-June to go on her dinosaur expedition with my mom to Utah.

Em will be here with me, but is going to camp for a week right before I am done with school.

Gunner has to sign in early because he has school in KY for 6 weeks from July-August. He might take Junior with him since "supposedly" the daycare information was uploaded to Carson. Let's hope there is room for him or he might be in formation with him.

The inlaws have offered us a place to stay, but seriously, they have 5 HUGE dogs and they (dogs) rule the place, and no one cleans.

We are hoping that there is room in the guest house on post and it is cheap. Local stay by the week places are pricey.

A friend offered her place. Another friend offered her house, but I just hate to impose with a whole crew of people. We will house sit probably our last week here for one of the friends, when I am down to just one child.

We have way too much stuff, and my list of things to take keeps growing and growing.

I am a worrier. Gunner takes it all in stride and doesn't worry, he says because I do enough for the both of us. It drives me nuts that he doesn't worry!

Do I take my school stuff and hope I have a job? I am in the process of filling out the application to teach there, and I have GREAT references from my principal and others, so I am hoping that I can find something. I haven't even brought home everything that I have at school yet. How did I fit so much in my classroom? This week my students are going to help me toss everything I think.

We decided we would give the girls a rubbermaid tote and they could take whatever they could fit in there. Abs came out in tears because she could only fit one of her three feet long dinosaurs in there and she would need to chop of the head. I assured her that her dinosaurs could still go, but that she needed to fit her toys and everything else in there.

Abs came out with her handmade dream catcher and decided it needed to go in a box for breakable things. It's made out of pipecleaners, but I assured her that we would find a way to get it there in one piece. Then Abs found a stash of shoes boxes and started filling them with stuffed animals.

Em got wind of this and decided it wasn't fair that she had half a dozen shoe boxes, so she needed some too.

Then the girls presented us with a plan to make room for their toys. They want to sell all their clothing, use the money to buy material, and Em will sew them all new clothes once they get to Colorado. They are both so excited about this plan, that I told them maybe we could get rid of some and we could use some material I have to make a few things. Em is already designing them. Here's her latest projects from Project Runway II.

So, I am drinking a monster, making lists, checking them twice, and have decided that it will all workout. Worst case scenario, we are over our weight limit and have to pay. I just left a message with my sister to see if she wanted my piano, Gunner took another load to the inlaws and I have boxes and a HUGE pile to go to my mom. She is going to be less than thrilled, especially since she is due back from her worldwind vacation to China, Thailand, and Korea.

Maybe she will be too tired to notice the pile in her living room that I left....

We did it....

After dropping off a carload of stuff at my mom's (don't worry mom there is more coming!), we headed over to REI to look at socks. It seems like every pair gives me a blister unless they are tight in the middle. Of course I can't remember where I bought those socks, and I need them every day, so I wanted a few more pairs. Socks are expensive!

While perusing the aisles, Junior exploded, so we had to go get him a new pair of shorts since of course we had nothing to change him into. Poor little guy. He loves his new shorts, and I just gritted my teeth when I looked at the price tag. I might need to make him wear them every day till he outgrows them and then make sure Tucker wears them every day too!

We had lunch at this hamburger joint--something fine and mighty or along those lines. It was good, and reminded us of the airplane place at California Adventure.

I worked. We came home and I decided we needed to tackle the garage. It was out of control. Gunner's parents took a truckload to store for us, and we have a truckload headed to Goodwill as well. It was crazy the stuff we had in there. I thought I had gotten rid of all the baby stuff, but it was all there. I saved a stroller for my mom and the peek-a-boo blocks for my baby nephew, and the rest is gone. I feel like a HUGE load has been lifted off my shoulders.

Gunner was appreciative too, since he had been putting off facing that mess alone. Of course once we started, it dragged out every kid in the neighborhood looking for handouts. I assured them that their parents would not want them dragging stuff home, so they just sat there and played with all the toys that were in the keep pile. They conveniently disappeared when it was time to clean up, and the kids weren't too happy.

A quick pickup job, a dinner of gizzards, baths, and they are hopefully fast asleep.

Tomorrow Gunner is going to camp out, outside of the transportation office, so that the civilian that works six hours a day can hopefully get us an appointment. I need hours like that! He's the only one too, and apparently works pretty slow, so the line starts forming early.

In other news, I am not buying anything new, anytime soon. The amount of stuff that we have given away, amazes me. I love a good deal, but I think I often buy it just because it is a good deal and not something I really need, want, or love. I wonder where I get that from?

Dresses, Moving, & Life

My friend Abbey and I went shopping on Saturday night and we found the perfect dress! My husband's only request was that it not be black, and for once, it isn't. Abbey was great company, always makes me laugh, and we had the best meal at the Monument Cafe in Georgetown on the way home. I'm always worried when I take someone to one of my favorite restaurants, but she either truly liked it or is a good faker. :)

Today Gunner tried to go to transportation. They have moved so many people all over Hood that I've found I often have to go from the original location to the new location, to the newest location. He'll try again tomorrow.

Of course it was complicated with a baby boy with extreme diarrhea who is now kicked out of daycare until we can get him into the doctor. Thank goodness my MIL was available today and tomorrow since half of my grade level is out because of family emergencies. He'll be in good hands, and Gunner can take him to the doctor to get checked out. It's been going on for a while, so hopefully it is not something that he is allergic to that we don't know about yet. Poor baby boy. He acts fine though, and at this point I am thankful he is still in diapers!

My triathlon training partner and I are going to do a mini-triathlon this weekend. We are doing a 5k in the morning, then we will do an open water swim, bike 12 miles, and do a 1.5 mile run. We've recruited our open water swim supervisors, planned our route, and are ready to practice our transitions. It's all in fun, and I know we will have a good time figuring it all out.

In just over a month, Junior will be three. Where did the time go?
I could just squish those cheeks
Throwing rocks instead of fishing...
Camping with his cowlick...

PCSing

We will soon join the ranks of the starving unless one of us breaks down and goes to the commissary.

The army never switched to making everyone take their pay twice a month. I'm not complaining.

My husband spilled the beans about us moving at my work while having lunch with a coworker. I was not happy. Hopefully this person doesn't breathe a word of it, or Gunner is toast! He didn't get my not so subtle hints to be quiet.

Gunner: When we move to Carson...
Other person: You got orders?
Me: Nope, no orders.
Gunner: Yes we did, we are on the list.
Me: Ummmm....no we aren't, just drop it.
Gunner: I saw the list. We are on it.
Me: (Trying to kick him and give him dirty looks) NO WE AREN'T!
Gunner: I really saw the list.
Me: Whatever. Other person, just don't breathe a word of it.

Sometime I just want to wring his neck.

Thank goodness

Since I am done having babies, I am busy getting rid of all of our baby stuff.

The crib and dresser/changing table went last week. Today I am dropping off the fish aquarium thing for the crib, the pack and play, changing pads, and then another stop for tons of clothes for Tucker. I've got cloth diapers put aside for Allison. A pile of girl clothes for Goodwill.

We can almost see in Junior's room, so I know that progress is being made and I won't have to estimate 1000 pounds for his room. Em's room is a different story, and don't even get me started on Abs and the million lego festival that is happening in her room.

Gym is on the agenda today as well. I have been slacking and need to hit it hard in order to be ready for everything that I have coming up!

A trip to the commissary is in order too, but the thought of it being a payday weekend....ugh!

Neighbors

When we lived in Germany, we had awful neighbors, three sets of them. I was pleasant to them in the beginning, but once I enrolled in school to get my MBA the remarks started flying. DH and I were just married and I had just finished up my bachelor's about a year earlier. We had no children and I was not working, so it seemed like the logical next step. Then I got an internship with the State of Florida in Frankfurt. So not only was I going to school, I was working for free. My neighbors made comments to me about how "your parents should have taught you how to keep house and raise children," "why would you waste your husband's money on something like school and who would be stupid enough to work for free?". The list was endless and they just got downright nasty. I hated stairwell living and learned to ignore them. (I did have one set of neighbors that we were friends with and were normal, lol)

Anyway, I continued working for free and going to school and then eventually I got a job with the American Consulate in Frankfurt and worked for them well over a year while I finished up graduate school and then had our first child. Stairwell living was our first experience living on post and I hated it.

When we moved back to the States we went to Fort Lewis where after 8 months we qualified for on post housing. I dreaded the thought of being in such close proximity of all those other people. We kept to ourselves and I was back at work after staying home a few years and we were plugging away staying busy. During this time our next door neighbor got in a fight and the cops had to be called because his "buddy" pulled a gun as was threatening to shoot because they were drunk and a window on the car got broken. They moved out and the other neighbors moved out and then Megan and Mark moved in. For almost a year I refused to talk to them or acknowledge them for fear they would lead to turmoil. Eventually I broke down and talked to them and they were wonderful! For the next year and a half Megan and I had the time of our lives taking Thai cooking classes, playing games, traveling with our families to Canada, meeting each other's parents and more. When she left we both cried. We are still halfway across the country from each other but we talk regularly and provide support for each other as we survive deployments and face being a single parent while supporting our Soldier.

I need a Megan here. Instead I have what I refer to as "the freaks". Thankfully though, a moving van came today and the "freaks" are headed to a new adventure and thankfully it is one that does not include living next door to me. I will breathe a sigh of relief that I do not have to worry about my car being boxed in, used condoms being thrown in my yard, their dogs running loose, strange men coming and going at all times of the night while her husband is deployed, etc. (Never mind that my husband found their two year old little girl wandering the street at 7 am in a diaper and a tshirt while it was cold and rainy while trying to see into a storm drain. DH picked her up and went to go to his car to find his cell and call 911 when she pointed to her house and he went up there and knocked and gave her back.) Anyway, I know the end is in sight and these people will soon be out of the way and making someone else's life miserable.

Let's hope the next one works out better.....