An Army of Movers...

Yesterday an army of movers descended on our house. Originally we were scheduled for two days of packing and one day of loading, but last week the moving company called and told us they only needed one day to pack up all of our belongings. I was completely stunned, I knew that it would take Sam and I a couple days probably weeks to pack up our belongings safety. The surprise I felt then was insignificant compared to the shock I got when the moving company called the day before to tell us that they would probably not need the full two days. They would arrive between 8 and 10 in the morning and assured us they would be gone by five, they promised not to rush. Sam and I laughed, we knew these guys were “professional movers” but come on, we felt there was no way that our whole house could be packed up and loaded into crates between 10 am and 5pm in one day. It was very intense when 3 crews of movers and 8 crates on a flatbed truck showed up at 8am and 12 guys started working. An hour into the packing it was obvious that Sam and I were wrong these men were professional movers and although they hadn’t started loading the crates yet it was already clear that it definitely would not take them a full two days. The whole process of packing our entire house, almost all of our belongs an estimated 9,000 pounds, took only 4 ½ hours.

8 Years...

Memorial Day weekend is coming up, this must mean that Sam and I have endured, sorry I must mean enjoyed another year together. Happy Anniversary to my husband who has been trying unsuccessfully to teach me patients for the last 8 years.

Guilt Ridden...

In a couple of weeks after the movers have come and gone, the keys to the house have been turned in and everything is loaded onto a boat, Laura and I will be headed to Florida to visit with family. Sam and I are very lucky that both of our parents currently reside in Florida, only about 2 1/2 hours apart. This has made visiting in the summer and around the holidays extremely easier then before. Laura loves going to Florida and basking in the love of her Grandparents, Aunts and Uncles. I also enjoy the sun and time with Family and friends, although I spend most of my trips to Florida guilt ridden. When I'm at my parents house enjoying the beach, I feel guilty. When we are at Sam's Parents house enjoying Disney, I feel guilty. I try to make our time spent at each Grandparents house equal, I think it's very important for Laura to have a wonderful, fun, loving relationship with both mine and Sam's families. But I struggle to fit everyone into our visits and make everyone happy. With us moving out of the country I know our trips "home" will be fewer, therefore I have put a lot of pressure onto this visit. I'm struggling to make everyone feel important and missed while also remembering a vacation is suppose to be fun and relaxing.

Laura With Uncle Dan and Aunt Meara

Laura with Grandma and Kylee

Laura with her Grandparents

Laura with Cousin David

An Adventure...

This week we had our own little adventure. Our adventure was a trip the vehicle processing center or the VPC, as the experienced car shippers like us call it. We obviously had the whole process planned out and predictably it didn’t work out as planned. Sam had called the VPC several times to confirm that we had all the required paper work for the drop off. They confirmed that we wouldn’t need an appointment and the drop off procedure was fast and easy. We followed all the instructions our red Escape was clean inside and out, nothing was in the car but the approved items, and the car only had a quarter of a tank of gas. All of this was not accomplished without some effort because after all we had just driven four hours with a six year old in the back of the car. After picking up the rental car that we will be driving for the next 3 weeks followed by a gut wrenching drive down the L.A. freeway, we showed up at the VPC bright and early Monday morning ready to drop off the Escape and make it back to Vegas before afternoon Kindergarten started. This is when things started to diverge from the plan. There was already a wait at the VPC and when it was finally our turn to drop off the car we found out we had been misled. Yes, all of our paper work was correct and accounted for, but the car needed to be rigorously inspected and processed by a VPC worker. This took about 3 hours and Laura never made it to school. The red car is now on a truck headed for Georgia where it will be loaded on a boat to be transported to Germany.

Fun Family Time...

In school Laura is doing some end of year testing. There are two test booklets Math and Reading, the last page in the reading test booklet is the “essay” question “Write a story about something fun you did with your family.” The kindergartners are expected to spell all their sight words correctly in the two sentences they write about their family, the rest of the words are written by sound. So naturally I wondered what Laura wrote about ridding the boat on Lake Mead, traveling to Disneyland, or maybe our Thanksgiving cruise with the Grandparents? No that wouldn’t be Laura she wrote “I went with my Mom and Dad to the hospital to get surgery.” This “story” naturally made us look like we have the most enjoyable family outings.

A planned privilege...

“Driving in Germany is a privilege, not a right.” ~ Ramstein Air Base website

To drive in Germany Sam and I will need special drivers’ licenses. The reason for this is “clarified” in a long explanation that starts: Under the provisions of the German Supplementary…. Therefore I don’t know the full reason why. In order to get these drivers’ licenses Sam and I have to take a written exam. To prepare for this test Sam and I have taken a few practice tests. Most of the questions on this these tests are easy and some are even obvious. For example True or False? POVs may be left unattended and unlocked if no property of value is left in plain view. False. Some are a little more challenging True or False? Vehicles are considered unsafe if the tires have less than 1.6 millimeters of tread on any portion of the traction surface. True. Others are downright confusing.
Which vehicle must wait?

The correct answer is: Vehicles 1 and 2….obviously a tractor would have the right of way.
But I believe that this question is my absolute favorite.
Which vehicle must wait?

Vehicle 2.
Everyone knows that a horse drawn covered wagon has the right of way. Looks like we are ready for the test, too bad they don’t administer it here at Nellis.

I need a magic plan...

She’s gone mental, I mean not that she wasn’t always mental, but now it’s out in the open for everyone to see ~ Ron Weasley

If you know me at all you know I am a huge potter head. I love it when I can make life at Hogwarts relate to my life. This quote pretty much sums up my last two weeks perfectly, I think especially from Sam’s point of view. As everyone can probably guess moves, particularly overseas moves are stressful. Recently, things have become a bit overwhelming for me. Sam had been anxious about receiving orders for weeks now; he was ready to get things literally moving. Earlier this week he not only received orders for our move to Germany, but also for some training scheduled to start in a little over a month. This would have been fantastic news except the orders were missing a very important, at least to me, detail. Laura and I were not included in the order to move to Germany, I was still waiting on medical approval. Sometime in the last year and a half as I was seeing doctors for genetic testing, autopsy results and fertility testing I was diagnosed with a mental disorder, anxiety. I knew that my doctor and anyone who talked to me on a regular basis, felt I was pretty fanatical about becoming pregnant but I was blissfully unaware that I applied that to the rest of my life. I have always considered myself easy going and relaxed, so much so that I’ve wondered if that attitude contributed to my miscarriage. How am I supposed to prove them wrong in the middle of a move? They have assured us that spouses with more serious medical issues have been approved that we just have to wait, but patients has never been something I was good at.

*You might have noticed that this is one of the first times I used the word miscarriage, I hate that word. It might be insensitive of me or just arrogance but I feel that word doesn’t apply to what happened to me, it’s not strong enough.

A Well Child...

A couple of weeks ago the moving process finally began well, moving. Sam was presented with a checklist of things that needed to be done. Most of this was getting Laura and I approved for an overseas move, we got to work right away making appointments with the pediatrician, family medicine and dentist. We waited weeks for the first available appointment, but thought we were rewarded when each of these doctors told us they didn’t see any reason why we wouldn’t be cleared right away. Imagine our surprise when on Wednesday we had a surprise meeting in front of a medical panel. It turns out that only the dentist knew what he was talking about; Laura and I were to be enrolled in the “Exceptional Family Member Program”. Laura was to be enrolled in this program for three reasons a skin condition on her face that the pediatrician felt should be seen by a dermatologist once a month, a cyst under her eye which they thought could require an optometry visit sometime in the future and my personal favorite a risk of tonsillitis that should be monitored by an ENT regularly. When we explained this was clearly a mistake the “Doctor Board” responded with I’m just telling you what it says on the paperwork, you can make an appointment with the doctors to discuss this. I found this unacceptable to wait another 2 weeks for an appointment; I set out immediately for the pediatric clinic once there I explained there must be a mistake my daughter was perfectly healthy. The receptionist and nurses there were very helpful and told us no there was no need for an appointment they could clear this up now. What a relief when Laura’s paper work was handed back to us 20 minutes later stating she was a “well child”. Unfortunately what I felt like was also a mistake on my paper work was not as easy to clear up.