I didn't call my Blog what I did for Nothing!!!

Through my Insanity, that sure is what it is right now! The orders came and we have spent the last week or two trying to make arrangements for our move. Simple, right? Not exactly.

I was preparing myself for a fight with everyone I encountered, mainly because I had stupidly added myself to a Facebook page someone here had created specifically for the mess that the Army, congress, whoever created by disbanding the Brigade and moving thousands of soldiers and families out at the same time.

I had heard "They aren't flying pets out! There is no room!", "We have to stay in our homes till the last day because there is no lodging at the hotel!", "They are not shipping anyone's Household Goods and Unaccompanied Baggage right now because they are full up until after June 15th!", "There are no commercial flights available for people with pets!". I was freaking out, we have pets, 3 of them. We came here with them, we are not leaving with them. We have to have our things out of our home before June 15th because we are LEAVING! I NEED a hotel for my family, we cannot stay in our home until the last day... we do not live on post!! I realized that page was freaking me out more than I needed to be, and that just because other people were having issues did not mean I would. I removed myself from it. 

My husbands orders came in and we went straight to transportation to arrange shipment of our stuff in the house. We got an appointment right away and our things will be picked up and shipped before we leave. We will have to live without our things for a while since it will take 65 days for our vehicle to get to Alaska, 88 days for our furniture and other stuff, and 52 days for the unaccompanied baggage. I got a hotel room reserved for us a few months ago, and rechecked our status; the room is still waiting on us to move into on Tuesday. The only headache I encountered was getting our plane tickets. 

It took me three days to arrange our flight. "There is no way we can fly you guys and your three cats out at the same time, they will have to go before you (or after you), or you need to call pet shipping companies." I was told United and Continental do not fly pets anymore. I argued with them, told them they were wrong. They were adamant about it. I asked them to call and clarify, she called someone and spoke to someone in German so I had no idea what was being said on either end. I told her "I am American, I do not speak German. I do not appreciate you speaking German when it concerns me because I have no idea what is being said", she insisted that she was trying to help but there was still no way I could get the cats on a flight with me. I went home in tears to call the airline myself and get answers. 

When I called they stated that they would fly my pet, that military families on PCS orders were an exception. OK, got it... I went back and told the people at SATO Travel that I could fly my pets on United no issue. They made arrangements for me and I called PetSafe to make the cats flight arrangements and I was told they cannot fly the cats straight into Fairbanks because there is no one there that can take responsibility for getting the cats off of the plane, like certified pet handlers or something (Seriously? Like if a baggage handler saw a cat carrier they would throw it off of the plane like they do the luggage??? Hmmm... maybe). Ok, so we have to fly to Anchorage and then drive to Fairbanks... a six hour drive. Wow, ok... we can do it. Originally I was going to have the husband and my daughter fly to Anchorage, and the youngest son and I would fly to Fairbanks, but the husband threw a minor hissy fit because of driving with jet lag, blah, blah, blah... so I said I would do it. He replied no, I can't drive (whatever makes him feel special) he would do it but continued to complain. So I changed the flight to all of us flying into Anchorage and driving to Fairbanks. Then we found out that we were going to have to pay twice to have the cats flown out with us. Once on Lufthansa and again on United. This was going to cost us around $1300 or $1400 just for the cats! The husband pitched a fit about that and after I had FINALLY got all of the arrangements made and aligned between SATO and Petsafe said he was going to go to SATO in Ramstein and start all over again. He thought he could get us a flight from Frankfurt to Fairbanks with the cats and only having to pay once. I knew this was not going to happen unless we paid for the plane tickets for all of us on our own and risk not being reimbursed by the Army later. Sorry, not gonna happen... I flipped shit and yelled, cried, and screamed at him just to LEAVE IT AS IT WAS. He was even talking about just sending the cats to his mom... uh... no. It is bad enough she has our DOGS. I REFUSE to part with my kitties!!! Especially with THAT WOMAN! 

Three fucking days of fighting to get a flight, and calling between the two companies because SATO refused to call themselves and make it easier on all of us. Didn't they realize that if they called to begin with that it would have saved us ALL a lot of time and work???? Fuckers... After the 2nd day I went home and got drunk. I bought two bottles of wine, one for that night, and one for later down the line because I KNEW I would need it. Since I have not drank in over a year I knew one bottle would get me drunk.

Nom, nom, nom...

We decided to try to purchase a car to be waiting for us in Fairbanks, that way we would not have to rent while we waited on the Envoy to get there. We applied and were told we were approved for a loan. When we went to the bank to finish the paperwork the stupid bitch there started us from scratch to apply for a loan, even though we were told we were already approved. She kept arguing with me on what pay was what and what we get. HOLY MOTHER OF SHIT! I am NOT a stupid blonde, nor am I a stupid Army wife. I am an educated woman and most of the time I am right about what I say!!! If I am not sure I will say so, but I will not pretend to know about things that I don't. The looks she gave me on top of the arguing set me off. I got up and walked out of the bank. I sat in the Envoy and read my Sony eReader (Sookie Stackhouse Series if you were wondering). 

The husband called me on my phone asking me to come inside. I yelled "NO! You know I hate more than anything to be treated and talked to like I am stupid! I know for a FACT I am more educated than that stupid bitch in there and I will NOT have her talk to me in that manner. I refuse to go in there, you can do whatever without me." Just because I am blonde, just because I have pink in my hair, just because I have tattoos, and just because I have a pierced tongue does not mean I am not educated. Looks can be deceiving people!

To top it all off, some stupid German cut some line with more than 100 cables doing construction. We (along with all of our neighbors and the majority of people in Baumholder) had no phone and no internet for DAYS! I still do not have phone, but now I have internet, but I was flipping out. How do I call who I need to? How do I research what I need to??? How do I play Castleville?????? The internet is my life blood. At least I can make phone calls on Skype if I have no phone, if I have no internet I slowly shrivel up and die.

Another added stress-er is that my oldest son has flown the nest and begun his adult life on his own. He left a week ago today back to the United States. While I know this was something he had to do, it has been hard for me. I had my son when I was 14. He and I have a bond that I do not share with my other children mainly because we kind of grew up together. My oldest is like my son, brother, and best friend all in one. I still have moments when I think he is still here for a split second. I still have moments where I will shed a tear or two. It just makes it so much harder not having him here with me.

Right now I am focused on trying to clean, get rid of unnecessary shit, sell all of my appliances since they are all 220v and will not work in Alaska, and keep what little sanity I have remaining. Today I need to go clean and detail the vehicle so that it is ready to be shipped. I also need to continue cleaning everything in this house. I feel like I am doing it alone, but sometimes it is better that way because I know that it is getting done right if I am the one doing it.

The Fun Is Over

Spain was fun, Paris was a blast... now we are home.

The husband re enlisted in the Army for another 4 years and we are on assignment. We are leaving Germany and moving to Alaska. Yes, I am happy and excited about the move, but at the same time I am freaking out and my head is spinning. Why? Let me explain...

The brigade here in Baumholder is disbanding, which would be the same as a company or factory closing down. Some people are being transferred to other locations, some people are getting out of the army, and some are being kicked out of the army.

The majority of people that are staying in the army are moving to other locations. All at roughly the same time frame. Over 4000 families all trying to get out of here at the same time. Most of everyone here do not even have their orders yet. The orders are what is needed to make things official really. Without orders no one can get their belongings packed up and shipped out, no one can ship their vehicle to where they are going, no one can get their airline tickets. There are not enough personnel to assist everyone with this process to make it smoother. It is really frustrating, and at this moment I am feeling very overwhelmed.

I am doing everything that I can do without the orders, but the other issue is that the date we are eligible to return overseas (DEROS) is almost two months BEFORE the date my husband is supposed to report to his new duty station. He asked me if I wanted to go Stateside first and travel... no. We have three cats that will be traveling with us and that would make things way too stressful on us and them. So we are going straight to Alaska. Fine. So where are we going to stay? I checked military lodging and they are booked solid for the time frame in which we are leaving here. That leaves us having to get a hotel room off post. Fine. That will deplete some of our funds that I wanted to use for first months rent, deposit, utility hook ups, etc for our new place (wherever that might be).

Our DEROS is also just barely over a month from now... and still no orders. We leave in a month and a half (roughly) and all of our belongings are still here, our car is still here, we have no tickets out of this place... I just want to cry.

In addition to all this I have to take the cats to the vet next week, take my daughter in to see a doctor to see if she has depression or not so that they know whether she needs to be on EFMP (Exceptional Family Member Program), take my son to the doctor for the same reason but for his ADHD. I am highly annoyed right now. DON'T FUCK WITH ME! Just get what I need done, DONE, and let us be on our way!!!

I am normally able to handle stress, but sometimes there is so much that all happens at once and you need to be reminded to just take a step back and breathe.

So much chaos!

Yes, I know it has been a while since I posted a blog, no excuses... well a few... I was working, and then quit my job so we could go to Spain; they would not give me the time off since "I just took a week off to spend time with my hubby post deployment", never mind that I only took one week off of work when he was home on R&R and worked the entire last week he was home (out of town) before he went back downrange. I politely told them I would be resigning to spend time with my family before we leave Europe. I did not want to look back and regret anything!

When the hubby got back from Afghanistan, we took a trip to Garmisch and while we were there went night sledding in Austria. Here is a video from that experience... just me on (and off) the sled! That night I got so bruised it took me days to recover... it hurt so bad just to sit down my butt got so bruised! Next time I try something like that I am sticking a pillow in my pants.

We also went to Innsbruck, Austria where I felt like I was transported back in time. Such a beautiful city!!!

We went back to the Neuschwanstein castle and  saw Hoenschwangau instead since we had seen Neuschwanstein already. We also went to Weiskirchen, a beutiful little church out in the meadow...

This is also where we got the most delicious donuts in Germany!

We went back to the monastery in Ettal just because the hubby wanted his beer cheese... and beer....

We also hit up the hot tub to relax a bit.

Not too long after we spent a week in Bavaria the hubby, the oldest, the daughter and I went to Calella, Spain. That was awesome! I saw a beach for the first time EVER in my life, saw a medieval show, flamenco dancers, went to the Montserrat monastery, and traveled to Barcelona. The down side was that the souvenirs were pretty pathetic. I got what I could for me and for friends.

The day after we returned from Spain the hubby and I went to Paris. Just him and me. It was so much fun, we walked over 10 miles and got lost in the Louvre (I SWEAR I thought we were going to end up an exhibit in the Egyptian part...).

 

 

The time we have spent together has helped our marriage, and made us stronger as a couple. I feel truly blessed and thankful for the time we have spent recently working on our relationship.

In other news, the brigade here is being disbanded and everyone is being sent elsewhere. Our date to leave Germany has changed to less than two months from now... problem is we have no orders... so no idea where we are going yet!! We have somewhere we would like to go, but we won't find out if it was approved until next week. I am not saying anything until we know for certain, and I am even refraining from posting that our date to leave has been moved up in order to avoid an interrogation from everyone until I can answer their questions with more than an "I don't know".