PCS - Part 2

Even though we had a long day of driving and spending more money than either one of us had ever done in our lives.... we still had a lot of work to do. We unloaded the cleaning supplies and got to work. My dad had to go back to Western North Carolina but Ryan, my mom, Stefan and I got to work. We put Dippy, my mom's old golden retriever, and Rylie in separate rooms and started scrubbing. The house sat empty for a good six months and before that the owners got divorced, leaving the husband here on his own. I think the guy just stopped caring before he left because some things were GROSS. The bathrooms were so gross I refused to take a "before" picture of them. Ick. Press and peel vinyl was tearing up, the toilet and bath tubs were ringed with grossness and it was just not pretty. The oven was so caked with grease (and it is SELF CLEANING) that when we cleaned it the house reaked for hours. There was also the general dirt of six months sitting empty, so we were busy. We knew all the stained carpets had to be replaced in the bedrooms before the furniture arrived and we had to paint before the carpets got replaced. The list seemed pretty long!

 The living room became home base for all our cleaning supplies and the trash bags, we used a lot.

The dining room was our eating area during the day and the bedroom at night, as you can see from the air mattress.

The office.... looks dark but I was hurrying to get the pictures and it isn't that bad I promise!

The spare room, very stained carpets.

The master bedroom, worse stained carpets and stained ugly powder blue walls. And gross drapes. Those are gone!

But that first night we just cleaned our butts off. Ryan and I set up our air mattress in the dining room as the wood floors were cleaner than the carpets as you can see! Then things moved quickly. We had to order new carpets and have them in before the furniture arrived Friday and we had to paint the bedrooms before the carpets were replaced! We ran out and got our paint and then ordered carpets and vinyl for the bathrooms and laundry room. While we ran all over town my mom and my brother helped clean and set up the rooms with frog tape so we wouldn't make too much of a mess. Then the painting began.

 The kitchen was going from white to red, so priming had to happen and then red paint... I was nervous about it but it came out GREAT!

Check out that frog tape!

Rylie slept in the master bedroom, actually she still does. Spoiled little thing she is!

Stefan helped keep Rylie entertained and took her on long walks, which we ALL appreciated!

The menfolk painting... so cute!

I was definitely not looking my best.... oy!

We decided to do an accent wall in the living room, gray popped out at us from the fireplace and we ran with it. It looks awesome.

Painting with one hand behind his back.

In between the painting we made many trips to the store in various pairings. My mom and I hit up Walmart and the boys hit up Lowes and Home Depot. And we switched. For those few days a lot of fast food was ingested, my tummy was not happy with me. Finally we cracked and got some sandwich stuff and fruit to enjoy and give our digestive systems a much needed break. We'd start early, by 8 or 9, and work all day until hunger made us stop. There was one night we were at Applebees at almost 11pm getting dinner! We'd then pass out and repeat.

But it was worth it!

The floors looked fantastic once they were in Thursday and Friday. Then Friday our furniture arrived...

More boxes! Luckily everything made it. Yes my bathroom trash can got packed with trash in it (I swore I emptied it but I was wrong) but everything made it pretty much unscathed.

My mom and I tackled the kitchen, and while I am grateful the movers who packed us up did so with care, there was a dead forest in my kitchen. Even the SPONGES were individually wrapped in three full size pieces of paper. Overkill gentlemen. Overkill. But it was fun to play in!

Once we unpacked and settled a bit, it started to feel like home! My dad came back on Friday and he and Ryan spent the weekend getting the yard and garage door in order. My family took us out for a nice dinner to celebrate our new home (and both our anniversaries that were coming up) and then they were gone. It was a busy busy week, but we got a LOT done!

After pictures will hit tomorrow!

 

PCS - Part 1

Wow... I don't blog for two weeks and blogger looks totally different! I am a little confused on this new interface thing but I hope I get used to it soon. I cannot believe tomorrow we will have been in our house for two weeks. We are finally settled in and Ryan checks in on Tuesday to start work. I have definitely gotten spoiled having him all to myself the past few weeks. Considering I am not working yet (nine applications out so far, no response back at all on any) I am wondering how I will feel once it is just me in the house. Anyway, back to the beginning! The weeks leading up to the move involved my mom coming to help for a week, a drive to Jersey to see the family, and a semi college reniuon at a local bar to say goodbye to everyone!

Ryan was due to land at Reagan Airport at 11:30pm the night before the movers were due to arrive at 8am. No big deal. We lived literally right down the street from the airport. I could turn left out of the apartment and drive for ten minutes and be there. Well.... when my husband flew from Palm Springs to LAX they sat on the runway in LA for over an hour since no gates were available. His flight door CLOSED EARLY and refused to let him on the plane even though it was still fifteen minutes until take off (the rule I believe is ten minutes). After being bounced around from person to person he got another flight into Dulles Airport, both Reagan and BWI were not an option apparently. Dulles is a good forty five minutes from us and his flight was landing an hour or two later, but what can you do?

Then his flight got delayed again. And again. And again.

Long story short I went to bed at 11:00pm, woke up at 2:00am and drove almost an hour to Dulles to meet Ryan when his flight landed at 3:30am. Naturally his luggage SOMEHOW got on his original flight so none of his bags were at Dulles. So at 4:00 am we are driving to Reagna to pick up his bags. Naturally my grand nine months apart reunion was a little different than expected (aren't they always?)! Between my sleep deprivation and his annoyance at everythin from airplanes to the state of California as a whole, we were both kind of cranky. By the time we got home hit was about 5:30 in the morning and the movers were due in less than three hours. Ryan's reunion with Rylie girl was downright adorable though....

We were home so late/early that our neighbor Adam was leaving for work and stopped to chat with us. Finall around 6:30 am we collapse into bed, I didn't bother changing out of my jeans, and tried to sleep. 8:00am on the dot my phone rings with the movers being ten minutes away. Before I could get up and get Rylie outside, they were there. Four guys and a big truck to pack up our entire lives... except for my husband still sleeping in the bed. Ugh. I had to go in and yell at him (three times) to get up and he ran and got breakfast for everyone. We played with Rylie girl outside and tried just to stay out of the way mostly. By noon we were down to what was coming with us in the truck.

At this point we were both deliriously tired and wanted to blow up our air mattress and pass out. Here, I goofed. I forgot to buy an air pump... major wife fail there. So in the car we go, we return our cable box to Comcast, grab a quick lunch ala drive thru and run to Walmart for said air pump. By 2pm we were passed out! We napped a few hours and the next few days were sort of hazy. We took Rylie girl on walks together, went out to dinner with Adam and once by ourselves to our favorite restaurant, and said goodbye to Alexandria. We strolled King Street and the Waterfront, played with the pup at the park and basically did a lot of walking. When you have no TV (and um, no furniture) it makes you go out more!

Saying goodbye to Carrie was very difficult for me... honestly it was the only time I shed a tear during the entire process. She came over with Poncho and we all hung outside for a bit, like always, and then we walked her back up towards her apartment and walked to our favorite Italian place for dinner. As soon as she went one way up the street and we went the other I had tears running down my cheeks. Carrie got me through these last nine months, it would not have been the same without her and she has easily become one of my best friends.

Before I knew it, Monday morning rolled around. Naturally things went wrong. Rylie gets carsick and needs Benadryl to be ok in the car and we couldn't find it. Ryan went to four gas stations and then just waited to CVS to get more (it was in the trunk of my packed car in case you were wondering). We wanted to be on the road by 8 and didn't get on the highway until well after 9. Oops. I was nervous about the drive, I've never been the driver alone in the car for more than four hours really so the six to eight we were looking at had me nervous, but I did it! I followed Ryan who followed his GPS down 95 and the backway through Farmville.

We stopped a few times, to let Rylie out, grab food and get gas really. I had a moment where I was rocking out to my iPod that turned out kind of funny. I'm blasting *NSYNC and singing and dancing (fist pumping and waving my arms may have been involved) to Crazy For You when suddenly I get a text... "You having fun back there?" Busted. I look at the truck and I can see my husband laughing hysterically in the sideview mirror. This happened more than once. A rock the size of a small meteorite also hit my windshield less than five miles from the North Carolina state line on 95.

It scared the bejeezus out of me, but luckily it didn't hurt my visibility and I could still drive fine. Not fun to have happen on moving day though. We had to be at our closing by 4 so we were pushing it regardless! My parents and my brother were already in town to help us move, clean and settle, so we met them at the house around 3pm. Of course it was locked but I got my first sight!

We handed Rylie girl to my parents and jumped in the car again. We got a cashiers check at the bank and squeaked into our closing with the lawyer and realtor a little bit after 4. I signed my name on more pieces of paper than I ever though possible and then we were done. We have a house! Chris, our awesome realtor, took us back to the house, opened it and let us inside for the first time. He also gave us a welcome mat, some decorative lights, a watering can and a wonderful card as house warming gifts.

Looking inside we had a LOT of work to do.... but that you shall see tomorrow!

 EDIT 12/15/14 PERSEC

Guest post - Mommy Musings

hopefully things are still going smoothly with our move! Please enjoy one of my favorite bloggers and fellow Jersey Girls!

Hey guys!  My name is Mandy and I blog over at Mommy Musings. 

I am so very excited Allie is allowing me to take over her little space on the internet today!  I have been following Allie's blog forever and love all the stories about her and her husband, and their new puppy!  Like Allie I am a Jersey girl and my hubs was a Marine {well is, once a Marine, always a Marine right;-) } 

We have been married for almost seven year {woah!} and have two sweet little girls, Little M and Baby C.

But the only reason we were able to get married and have these girls is because of what happened on February 26, 2005.  The day Skip came home from Iraq.
When Skip and I met back in 2003 he was in the police academy, as well as the Marine Corps Reserve.  He drilled out of Pennsylvania and was an MP.  We were in the early stages of the Afghanistan and Iraq wars, and sure enough Skip's unit was called to active duty.  After some training in California in the early summer of 2004 and our engagement just three days before he left, I sent my man off to war.

The time he was gone was total hell for him and exhausting for me.  I had sent other friends and family members off to the desert before, but when it's the man you want to spend the rest of your life with, everything changes.  I really only survived that deployment with help from my family and friends and of course my Battle Buddies...my Marine's Girls.

Month after long month passed and before we knew it dreary February was winding down.  I cautiously started to get excited {because as we all know, until their boots are on the ground nothing is set in stone}  I got a phone call when he was in Kuwait {PTL!} and another the night of the 25th when he was on a layover in Germany.  Then the morning of the 26th came.  After barely any sleep, my girls and I headed over to the base to wait for our men.

I cannot even describe to you the absolute joy I felt when that plane touched down.  And after what felt like FOREVAH the door opened and there was my fiance, my Skip walking {practically running} towards me. 

Skip is behind the guy who is waving

I wanted to scream and cry and never let him go all in the same moment.  When he held me in his arms it simultaneously felt like he had never left and been gone for years.  The sense of relief though was ridiculously overwhelming.  He was safe, he was home, he was okay.

Skip finished up his contract and got out of the Marines the following year.  We were so lucky to only go through one deployment together, but we were even luckier that he came home.  Every year on February 26th we watch he video we have of his homecoming, hold each other a little tighter, say I love you a few thousand more times, and thank God we are able to live the life we dreamed.

Guest Post: Handling with Grace?

Hopefully we are making progress in the house! Today's blogger is Jamie from Handling With Grace?, she is an awesome blogger so be sure to check her out!

Hi!  My name is Jamie
and I blog over at Handling With Grace? 
I am a Navy wife and mother to a two year old daughter.  Allie is currently doing her first PCS move
so I am popping in to say hi while she is busy.

So it got me thinking. .. PCS’ing.  For most of us it is a undeniable
reality.  Whether we like it or not, as
long as our husbands stay in the military, Uncle Sam tells us where we are
going to live.  Sometimes we get lucky-
the stars align and we end up where we want to be, when we want to be
there.  It seems like this is happens
less often than we would like.

{In the midst of the chaos- our most recent PCS}

It is a pretty rare opportunity that we have though.  We get to transform our lives every 3 or 4 years.  We will get new neighbors, new friends, a new
job… everything.  It’s like New Years Eve
resolutions on crack.  You can literally
decide to be a different, better version of yourself every couple years in
front of an audience that didn’t know the old you.  

{Exploring our new city- The White House}

It is an interesting way to think about PCS’ing, right?  It is not being forced to pick up and leave
everything that you know and love every few years but an opportunity to experience
a transformation and re-birth for ourselves every few years.

On my blog, Handling With Grace?, every Monday different
bloggers review their current duty station so that the rest of us military
spouses can learn about potential duty stations (and maybe even make a friend!)
before we get there.  Come check it out or
email me to join in!