Okay okay I know it's been almost four months since I've done an update and I will probably give you a couple.
So for the follow up on our OCONUS move to Hawaii.
It was CHAOS. It's a good thing I love chaos though, right?!?
Hubby got home from AIT on September 11, 2013. My last post was from September 16, 2013 so some things changed shortly after that last post. i was determined that even though fort eustis would not help us set up our move, there still had to be away other than waiting for hubby to get to Hawaii and set up the move. So I nagged fort eustis. Finally I got a person smart enough to tell me to call our closest base to set up the movers.
Problem 1. Our closest army base is my reserve/national guard base and they do not handle stuff like this. So then I decide to call the next closest military base, Great Lakes naval base. And guess what, they could help me!!!! And they did it without attitude!!!!
If you've ever heard of a website called move.gov well you may know that it's confusing as hell! But mr. Navy man informed me that even though you are not supposed to use move.gov on your first move or an OCONUS move, because I was two hours away from my closest housing office, I could fill out the forms on move.gov, fax them to him with all the paperwork I needed (which included: his orders; the first page of his enlistment contract; and if he wasn't there to sign it, then a copy of our POA).
After getting it all faxed to him, he called and said "hey, the movers can be there as soon as September 30th (one week away) I said great!!! (It wasn't really though because I wasn't expecting them soo soon! But oh well.) Then Tuesday 9/24 I get a call from the moving company informing me that they are actually booked on Monday 9/30, but they could come Friday 9/27 or there next appointment isn't until October 17. I was all "the 27th sounds great!" ...then I got off the phone and said "holy !$&/,!:&$;)/)87 that's only 3 days to get everything ready!! Luckily I have AMAZING family and neighbors who came to help me. My mother-in-law and one of my sister-in-laws were awesome enough to clean out my garage (left overs from garage sale) and make trip after trip to good will! My best friend, who is also my youngest SIL, well she was amazing. She helped me so much.
But things took another turn into chaos town. The reason I was all for the movers coming sooner rather than later was because the ducklings and I were planning to flyout to Hawaii November 1st. So this would have meant only a week without our household goods (HHG). Wellllllll that would be just too convenient right?!
My hubby calls me late Tuesdays (9/24) and informs me that housing office told him if his family could be in Hawaii BY October 1st we would have a brand new 4-bedroom house ready for us. I nearly crapped my pants. That was a week away.!! They told him if we weren't in Hawaii by October first we'd be bumped down the waiting list and may not get a house until December 1st or later. I about cried.
So Wednesday morning I called Wells Fargo first, because if they didn't have our letter ready for us to move the van, well then we couldn't ship it. Low and behold the letter was ready and faxed back to my eldest SIL! Which was not expected because I had just faxed the request to them two days prior and the lady told me it usually takes 5-7 business days. So fate was on my side.
The next step was setting up to have the van shipped. I knew St. Louis was the closest port, but I had to figure out how I would get from St. Louis back to Milwaukee. That's where my mama comes in and I'll get to that ;) but to ship the van I could bring it in Monday-Friday between 8am and 3pm I believe. I made sure to have ALL paperwork, orders, title, etc ready to go. And when they tell you that the vehicle has to be IMMACULATELY clean, THEY ARE NOT JOKING!! I had a little bit of small pebbles on the drivers side floor and they made me go across the street to the car wash and vacuum my van!! They don't mess around!
Anyways back to setting up our move.
I called fort eustis and told them I needed to set up travel arrangements for myself and our children. They apparently didn't have hubby's amended orders so I had to scan them in and email them to the lady. She called me back shortly after and we started to get things set up. We decided to flyout of St. Louis instead of Milwaukee. It was the only way we could do it. Then they informed me that they can only send the e-tickets to a .gov email. I about died. I got ahold of the hubby who gave me his email, had them email it to his email account and then he forwarded them to me.
And that was it. All we had to do was have the movers come in two days, drive to and drop the van off in St. Louis, and board a plane. By 9am Wednesday 9/25, my children and I had less than a week in our home. My best friend / SIL called me and when I told her, she rushed over. The word spread like wild fire and the next thing I knew I had half a dozen people helping me. While many of us cried. My SIL spent every night with me until we left.
Once we got here, we took a shuttle from the USO, and got to the Inn on Schofield around 8pm and we were all exhausted. We spent 3 nights in the Inn and then moved into our house with loaner furniture until our stuff arrive 5 weeks later. One thing I do recommend, is if your vehicle is not here yet, rent a car! It's expensive. For an Altima that we rented here on post, at the enterprise, it cost us about a $1000 for the month, but it was sooooo worth it!
