Posts Tagged ‘Military Move’

This was how ridiculous my car looked on the final leg of our move!

As many of you now know, we recently moved from VA to CA.  It has been quite the experience but we are finally getting settled in and I am able to share it all with you.

The first leg of our road trip consisted of my husband and I driving from Washington, DC to Arizona where the two P’s were staying at Gigi’s house.  Let me tell you, there is nothing like your babies being in another state to motivate the drive!  We drove through 10 states, a total of 2300 miles in just two and a half days (56 hours to be precise)!

I am not a fan of road trips, in fact, up until this point I had not been in a car longer than 12 hours and all of my roadtrippin’ had been completed in the southwest.  Well that all changed with this move!  Oh, and did I mention I was 23 weeks pregnant at the time????   Here is our trip in a nutshell:

Unfortunately, our drive started out with an accident that resulted in us sitting in 2 hours of traffic to make it 30 miles!  Once we got out of that we were headed southwest through VA and into West Virginia.

*Did you know?  (or really did you care?) that Orange County, VA is the home of James Madison-thought I’d give you a little history lesson.

Let me just tell you, the drive through VA/WV is NOT fun…it is all through the mountains and the freeway is a toll road!  Yes that’s right, there you go winding your way down a steep hill when what do you find at random intervals along the way?  Yep, a person in a booth wanting your money.

Next we were on to Kentucky!  The plan was to make it to Louisville before we stopped for the night and we ended up staying in Corydon, IN just outside of Louisville…it was almost 3 am!

In the morning we completed the 4 hours through Indiana, Illinois and into St. Louis, MO where we would be stopping to hang out with my husband’s Grandma and Brother.

After chatting for a while and playing a very competitive game of ‘Phase-10′ we set out again, with the hopes of making it to Amarillo, TX before stopping for the night.

We headed southwest through Missouri where I had the pleasure of meeting a state trooper while passing through Rolla, Missoura!  (hee hee, insert southern Missouri accent here).  I was given a warning, made fun of by the hubs who had been sleeping in the passenger seat and we were back on our way…with Cruise Control set!

OOOOOOKlahoma, where the wind comes sweeping down the planes…ya, I got a little annoying with my songs for every stage of the road trip.  Anyway, just warning everyone out there who may also be driving through Oklahoma…it is another one of those ‘toll road’ states.  This time it cost us $12 to make our way through!  And to satisfy any of you with a dirty mind, here’s where we stopped to fill up on gas

We made it about 100 miles from Amarillo when we decided to stop in Shamrock, TX for the night.  At this point it was around 2am and the next day was the home stretch into AZ so we wanted to get some sleep.  If you all are planning a road trip through the middle of no where, may I suggest one thing…stay the night at a Holiday Inn Express, they are new and clean and located right off the freeway in just about every po-dunk town along the way!

Amarillo by morning….this was it!  we were on the home stretch and I got to see my P’s that evening! (and it also happened to be July 3rd which meant we got to spend the 4th with the babies swimming and grilling by the pool with all the fam!)  This leg consisted of nothing but a bunch of Wide Open Spaces (yep, I sung ‘em all!) so I’ll just show you in pictures…

And we were there!!!!  Of course we still had to drive from AZ on into CA with the P’s but we had a week of hanging out at Gigi’s and the 5 hour drive was nothing compared to what we just completed!  And this is what was waiting for me in AZ:

Probably the worst part of being military and moving around is having to say goodbye to some great friends along the way.  We left a friend’s house this morning, after saying goodbye, and I got a little teary eyed.  Peyton said to me, “Mama why are you sad?”.  I explained to her that I was very excited to be heading back to California but I am also sad to be leaving such wonderful friends.

And today was even more emotional for me because I also took my babies to the airport to fly with my mom to her house in Az.  I have never been away from my little peanuts except for overnight and this time they got on a plane without me and it will be four days before I see them again!  I miss them already!

We are now all checked out of housing and staying in a hotel for the night.  Tomorrow we will officially be leaving but not until my hubby gets promoted!  Promotion ceremony will take place around noon and then our adventure will begin!

…but there was yet another change of plans!

At this point I don’t even know how many times they have changed dates on us. The moving company did send two ladies yesterday to pack everything and aside from running out of paper to finish the last of the garage, our whole house is now in boxes.

The truck was supposed to come this morning to load everything but the guys that were assigned to help the driver decided they weren’t going to show up for work. Now, the plan is to come at 7am tomorrow morning and load.

Today also happens to be P-daddy’s birthday….and I can’t make a cake since everything is packed We did have Donuts for breakfast and are planning on heading to the pool later.

The rest of the week should go as planned. Monday they are loading the truck and I have my last ultrasound, Tuesday will be spent cleaning and getting ready to check out of housing, Wednesday I am dropping the P’s off at the airport (because I have the best mom in the whole world who is going to fly my babies to her house in AZ while hubs and I drive), and Thursday we have P-daddy’s promotion ceremony before we hit the road and are outta here!!!

Whew! That makes me tired just thinkin’ about it! Hope nothing else changes!

Wow I can’t believe it. Today is the day! And ready or not, here they come!!!!! The movers, that is…

So here’s the plan. They should be here to start packing between 8 and 10am. We also have to take the accord off base to meet the truck that is going to be shipping it, and try to make it to P2′s swim lesson at 1030!

Tomorrow the truck is coming to load our stuff, and then off it goes to California. Meanwhile, we have to try and entertain a 2 year old and a 4 year old in an empty house for 3 days because the P’s don’t leave until Wednesday. During that time we’ll also be cleaning the house to check out of base housing.

Throw in ultrasound #5 for me and P3 on Monday, getting the P’s to the airport to meet my mom on Wednesday, and P-daddy’s promotion ceremony on Thursday (the day we also leave for our drive across country) and we have a crazy week ahead of us!

And don’t worry, if you missed some of that you can track me down on twitter @tootutucute and get minute by minute commentary as #TutusandTantrumnsgoWest

UGH!  Yesterday we got slapped in the face with the news that our move is not going to go quite like I had so perfectly planned it….but lets be honest, is that really such a surprise?

You see, in the military there is something called TMO (I’m usually pretty good at figuring out the acronyms but this one I have no idea).  Basically, it is the organization within the military that files all the paper work to send to moving companies to schedule your actual move.  Meaning they are the ones who will get the moving truck to your house to pack up your crap!

We have known where and when we will be going for over a month now and my husband immediately went to TMO to schedule our move.  He filled out all the paper work and gave them the dates of the 29th & 30th to come pack and load.  We are sending the kids with my mom via plane on the 30th to her house and then my husband and I are leaving on the 1st and driving.  It all fits into place perfectly.

OH, but there is always someone that does not do there job!!!!

Yesterday the hubs decides to call TMO to check on our moving status since the moving company that they have outsourced typically calls about a week out to confirm everything.  He couldn’t get through so decided to go into the office and low and behold; THEY HAD NOT PUT OUR ORDER IN!!!!  Yep that’s right…we will not be packing up on the 29th, loading on the 30th and leaving on the 1st!  I am a planner and now all of my planning has gone out the window!

The only dates they could give us were packing on the 24th (yes that would be this Thursday) and loading on the 26th!  We caught a small break, and some relief for a teary eyed preggo mama, when the moving company called to confirm that they now have our paper work, and asked if we’d be able to have them pack on the 26th (this Saturday) and load on Mon, the 28th.  Yes, oh LORD Yes!  It is still 3 days earlier than planned but a heck of a lot better than a  week earlier!

Now the other obstacles.  I have to have everything ready to go and organized and all of our suitcases packed for 2 weeks worth of travel by Saturday, P1 still has school tomorrow (thank goodness, her last day), I have a hair appointment on Friday (because I can’t be driving across the country in a minivan without my hair looking great), P2 has his last swim lesson on Saturday (yes, the same day the movers are coming to pack), and I have an ultrasound for P3 on Monday (the day the movers will be here to load)…and we have to find a place to stay for the 3 nights that there will be nothing in the house!

As my cousin put it: “it’s a good thing you do well in crisis mode”…well, this is quite the test…we will see just how good I can do!

So if you’re not military let me explain…PCS= Permanent Change of Station or in other words WE”RE MOVING!!!!  Typically, you dread moving, especially after only being somewhere for 18 months but as many of you know, I am a California girl that has been living on the EAST COAST for the last year and a half!  And guess what?  I’m going, going, back, back to Cali, Cali (yes that was a totally dorky 2-pac reference).  ***happy Dance***

Today is June 1st and the movers will be here to pack us up on the 29th and 30th so that means I can officially begin my count down!  There is a lot to do to get ready, and I’ll be blogging all about that too, but today I am just soooo excited!  I cannot wait to be back on the West coast, a few hours away from my family (by car not plane!), minutes from the beach, and NO SHOVELING SNOW, NO AWFUL HUMIDITY, AND NO BUGS ATTACKING ME EVERY TIME I GO OUTSIDE!!!!