Well, a few hurdles have been jumped. We can relax a little now. We have spent the last 5 days (which has all seemed like one, big, very long day!) moving, cleaning, painting, cleaning, painting, cleaning, eating out, cleaning, painting, locking ourselves out of our very clean house (ok...I have to take full credit for that...thankfully my heroic husband found an open window and climbed through...seriously, he did and he has the bruises and scrapes to prove it!), and more cleaning. Imagine out disgust when the housing inspector walked through and DIDN'T EVEN CLOSELY CHECK EVERYTHING!! As Cody said (after the inspector took 5 minutes to inspect our VERY CLEAN house), "I think we overcleaned!" Oh well, it sure looked good in that house. Too bad I didn't scrub like that before!! Lessons we learned during all this: 1. NEVER paint an on-base house...well, at least in dark colors; 2. ALWAYS have childcare arranged (thank you to great friends who, last minute, spent entire days at our friend's house with Jackson!); 3. DON'T try to make sense out of the AF minimum housing cleaning standards...your thoughts will never come to a conclusion; 4. NEVER live on base again!! I was worried about all this rocking Jackson's world...never thought about mine!!
On other subjects...our stuff was packed out in a wopping 4 1/2 hours on Monday. The packers arrived bright and early at 7:30am...about 1/2 and hour earlier than expected. So, you guessed it, we weren't ready for them. But, I suppose ready enough. After living three years in Japan, you would think that we would have expected them early...as they usually are. But alas, not that early! It was completely amazing to watch them. So efficient and friendly at the same time. Always asking when they weren't sure. And, catch this, no break in between packing!
Here's the glich we had...we actually had childcare arranged for Jackson, but this fell through that morning. So, Jackson hung out with us...and did awesome. He waved to the stuff as it was being packed, and seemed interested as I talked about where it was going and how hard the workers were working. At 10:15am, Jackson was quietly sleeping in his stroller (see picture below) for his nap. How blessed we are to have a truly flexible child.
So, as we speak, Cody should be outprocessing...although he's been there a while... Tomorrow, I will take one last trip to get a "Japanese pedicure" and to get my hair hilighted and cut before leaving the island. My hubby thought I needed to do this...he's just too thoughtful!
And then, on Saturday, with any luck, we will be heading to the states to start jumping the next hurdle...obtaining our visas. We will plant ourselves in L.A., where the Secretary of the AF International Affairs (yes, we have officially made a name for ourselves in the AF with all of this visa mess) has arranged for us to get our visas processed hopefully a little faster. I'll keep you updated.
With the way things are going, I'm sure there will be another story to go along with this move. Although, I will say, God works everything out, if you just give it all to Him and don't worry. THAT is the biggest lesson I've learned during this move!
4 comments:
Good to hear that you have made progress. Unfortunately, moving is never easy even if you don't live in base housing. The pressure of selling a house is super stressful as well. Ryan and I think renting may be the answer. We have not tried that since we were first married. But there is always stuff to do and every move Ryan and I say we never want to do that again. But you know we have been here 3+ weeks and we have already started to talk about putting in for Florida in a year. So like childbirth you forget the moving pains pretty quickly. Good luck on the rest of the move and see you in a few days, YIPEE!! (Long blog, long comment).
I am so glad this is all working out! I guess a little "magic" and a lot of PRAYER has helped. Now next week when you are all together I want you and Vicki to both blog. You know I am going to feel left out! I am not family, but still... longevity of friendship should count for something!! My prayers are still coming your way!
Oh how I am thinking of you guys! I hate that I couldn't have somehow returned the childcare favor. Maybe another base, another time. As far as making a name for yourself, there are times when it just has to be done, so good job! We'll be saying lots of prayers for a smooth transition!
Oh, Kristin. I'm just now catching up on your move and hated hearing of your visa drama. I'm not sure I would've held it together as nicely as you. :) Keeping my fingers crossed for a smooth transition!
(By the way, I had the same disappointment with the final inspection. Upon hearing horror stories of the white-glove inspections, I detailed my entire house down to the air conditioning vents and under the fridge only to have the inspector come in and do a "quick walkthrough." I was like "Don't you want to look under the fridge? Behind the stove? In the corners of the floors?????" Oh well. Better to have been unnecessarily prepared than the opposite, I guess.)
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