Bombs over Stella

Our home is situated about 30 minutes from 2 Marine bases.  The one to our north is primarily flight related and the one to our south, where Vinny works, is gigantic (over 100,000 acres) and includes and air station.  I thought with us living so far away we would be sort of insulated from all the military activity.  On the contrary, we're privy to flight exercises from both bases.  Resulting in this being a common sight:

And for some perspective on how far away these were:

They aren't always so far away though.  The day before, they did their turn basically in the back yard.  I was on the back porch and actually felt the wind from the helicopter blades.  Crazy!

The past few days, they've been doing some sort of bombing or artillery practice.  Sometimes it even makes the house shake.  Provides some pretty unique opportunities for sure.  So far, it hasn't been enough to bother us, just enough to be really interesting.

Have you ever been to an air show?  Have you seen the crazy airplanes with helicopter blades on the top?

Beach on Base - Onslow Beach

My family and I decided to check out the beach on base on the 4th of July.  I had heard it was pretty good, so it's something I've been looking forward to for a while.

Camp Lejeune has something like 11 miles of beachfront, some of which is training area, but a lot of which is recreational area.  There are separate sides for officers and enlisted.  Lifeguards on duty, areas for fishing, a store with food and supplies, restrooms, showers, and cabins that you can rent beachfront.  I hear the vacation houses are really reasonable too, something like $30 a night.  Plus, you get to avoid the summer tourist traffic on Emerald Isle.

We drove 2 cars, so we had to get a visitors pass for my family's car.  License, registration, and insurance are required for that...which turned out to be a good thing because my stepdad was driving around with an insurance card that was out of date.  Got that fixed :)

Then we headed on down to the beach.  I got a kick out of these signs along the way.  Anywhere else this would be a joke:

Yeah, that's right...tank crossing!

Anyway, got to the beach, put up a tent so we had a shaded area, grabbed some food and ate lunch then I sat back and let her grandparents play with her on the beach.  She got whammed by a few waves but rather than being scared or deterred, she thought it was hilarious.  

Bella, Papa and I only stayed a few hours before Bella had a meltdown and needed to go back to some non-sandy surroundings to take a nap.  It was plenty for me.  We were there long enough for me to remember why I don't like the beach...sand sand and more sand.  UGH.  We're going to be doing sandy laundry for a while.  But Bella got her requisite summer trip to the beach, so I guess it was worthwhile.  Here she is 'jumping' some waves with her grandma.

Moving Part 3 - The Unload and Unpack

OK, so, I've always seemed to be a drama magnet, but the unload and unpack really does take the cake for drama.  It's actually been about 3 days since I wrote Monday's post, so I have some perspective now.  And even with perspective, it was awful.

After sleeping on the floor overnight Thursday night, I was awoken by the driver of our load, chiding me for not telling him about the road he was supposed to turn off on.  Guess he forgot me pulling up the map online before he left and pointing out the turn VERY specifically so that he didn't follow the GPS directions (because the GPS likes to direct you through a tiny wooded path with holes the size of refrigerators...no kidding).  So I got him back on track and about 15 minutes later, the big truck arrived with 3 contracted unload/unpack-ers.

Things were going ok, boxes coming off the truck and heading inside.  Though they were heading inside through 3 different entrances and I was moving like crazy to try to write down all the tag numbers as they came in so I could mark off what we did or didn't receive.  I also caught things being put in the wrong place.  In another situation I could see that maybe they would mistake Bella's room for the master, etc., but I had anticipated this problem and made up printed out sheets with the name of each room and used painters tape to put each up so there was no confusion.  It unfortunately didn't seem to help.

All the doors were open, so my grandfather was keeping Josie out on the back porch so she wasn't running around and I closed Pippen into the laundry room and told everyone where the cat was so they wouldn't accidentally let him out. (he ended up being let out 3 times).  And my grandmother was helping me by watching Bella, which was good because I was barely keeping up anyway.

About 4 hours in, they decided they would all focus on getting everything off the truck and onto the driveway and then run everything in the house together instead of each one doing the whole process alone.  And, murphy's law didn't fail us, everything was off the truck and in the driveway when the clouds started getting dark.  So everyone started running things inside as quickly as possible, regardless of where it was supposed to go just to get it in before the rain started.  It didn't work.  The storm lasted maybe 15 minutes, but it was a really rough storm.  The rain was driving so hard it was hitting the living room windows even though there is a big screened in porch.  I looked out about 5 minutes into the storm and saw a few boxes getting soaked and I had to send guys after them. *le sigh*

In the mahem, things were put all over the place, so I had to go around correcting where boxes went.  The driver later made a point of telling me that according to the contract, once boxes were put down, they were supposed to remain there.  Needless to say, that didn't go over well with me, and boxes ended up being moved anyway.

So, about 3pm, which was around 7 hours in, the contracted help started grumbling that they weren't being paid enough for as big a job as we had.  They said as much to the driver, who was responsible for paying them and he told them that they were only going to get what was agreed upon and left it at that.  So, for about the next 2 hours, every time a mover would pass the driver, they would make a snide comment about getting screwed over on the job.

When I asked if there was anything I could do, they apologized for being discontented in front of me, and that it wasn't about me.  I called the moving company, who told me that it was between the driver and the contracted help.  From there, everyone started getting irritable and pretty much everyone I saw said something to the effect of "now what do we have to do?" as if they couldn't see which boxes had and hadn't been unpacked, or what furniture hadn't been put together.  The biggest problem at that point was that we had zero beds put together.  If they had walked out, I could unpack boxes, but putting together furniture alone was going to be tough.  To make matters worse, we couldn't find the hardware for the beds.  So we started turning things upside down looking for it. Turns out it was already unpacked...and was on the floor of the master bathroom under a huge mound of other stuff that didn't belong in a bathroom, go figure.

So, hardware in hand, we finally started putting together beds and attempting to find all the parts of the mattresses.  We have Select Comfort sleep number beds, which were in pieces and we had to locate them all.  As an aside, moving a select comfort bed is probably best done with the parts all together.  A ton of our parts were torn or damaged or destroyed...over $1000 worth of parts in all.  Exhibit A:

So, we had all been in Bella's bedroom putting things together and I ran downstairs to grab a part that was missing when I started hearing yelling.

The altercation was between the driver and one of the movers, who had decided enough was enough and they weren't going to do any more work for the price agreed upon.  The argument got heated and there was a lot of yelling and I wanted to make sure that Bella wasn't hearing it.  Since I was on a different floor and could hear it, I figured I should ask my grandmother to take her outside for a bit.  So I went to the living room where my grandmother was and I didn't see Bella.

So, I asked where she was and Nanny replied that she thought Bella was still upstairs.  So I went flying up the stairs and into her bedroom yelling, "My daughter is still in here!"  I found her crouched behind the rocking chair, sobbing, and terrified.  I picked her up and assumed they would stop and apologize and take it elsewhere, if necessary, once they saw her, but no such luck.  They kept right on yelling.  So I ran her downstairs and into the master bedroom, closed the door and held her close and rocked her til she calmed down a bit.  She looked at me and said, "Mommy, I want to go home," and I felt like there wasn't a punishment great enough for the idiots who hurt her.  I was shaking and furious.

The driver came to me to talk and she totally lost it again, scared of him, so I gave her over to my grandma and went outside with him.  I wanted them out.  All of them.  Just get out.  He said the guys were wanting to leave and I told him they should all leave.  The 2 guys who weren't involved in the fight apologized and shook my hand and I assured them that I was quite clear on what happened and who was involved.  I tried to lock all the doors so the driver couldn't come back and I could do whatever I needed to outside but I didn't get them all done in time so he came in complaining that he got 'accidentally' locked out of the front door.  Apparently he missed the memo about 'getting out.'

Then he wanted me to sign the paperwork saying the job was done and I told him I wasn't going to sign anything because the job was far from done.  And there were things that he couldn't fix alone.  I told him another team was going to have to finish the job. He was ticked off and I thought he was just going to leave for a while. After a number of phone calls, he told me he would be back in the morning with new people to finish.  This is a little preview of what I was left with:

After talking with Vinny, I went around the house room by room and made a list of things that still needed to be done.  I was up til almost midnight, but it was totally worth it to be able to check things off a little at a time.  The moving company sent 2 guys who actually worked directly for them instead of contracted help.  I was shocked to find out that the moving company still hadn't been told what happened, which of course I fixed no problem.  Things were finally done decently once they were done.  It took them about 2 hours.  And then I finally had my house.

Or rather, I finally had a boatload of stuff to put up.  But that's a story for later.

Moving Part 3 - The Unload and Unpack (prologue)

This will be short and sweet.  The unload and unpack did not go as planned (to say the least) and eventually ended in tears.  I'm not quite ready to blog the whole story...hopefully tomorrow.

Moving Part 2 - The Load Up

Once we got everything packed into boxes and ready to go (see Part 1 about the packing here), it was time to put everything on the truck.  The truck pulled in, bringing with it half of the lower limbs in the neighborhood.

Jimmy, our master inventory and control manager, made sure everything was running smoothly from the get go.  (And no, that wasn't his official title or anything...but he earned it)  He kept calling himself 'the model'...meaning a model of how loading was supposed to happen.  That earned him this photo:

The big showoff!

So Jimmy, our driver Arthur, and 2 other loaders had stuff flying past me all day.  I couldn't really see the rhyme or reason to what they picked up, they didn't do 1 room at a time or anything like that (which drove Vinny nuts).  Then I headed out to the truck during one of their breaks and realized that while I may not have seen the rationale...they certainly did.  It was like moving box tetris:

We got derailed on day 1 of loading by a monster thunderstorm that sent the loaders scrambling to get items that were outside into the garage.  Because of the low hanging limbs, that were even lower after rain, the driver wanted to leave the trailer in place so he wouldn't have to maneuver back in the next day.  Hint: Call your local police department and let them know what is up and get permission to leave it parked overnight.

So we went about 4 hours into day 2 as well.  And we managed to get the house cleaned in time for a showing an hour after everything was out.  Whew!

Other tips we've heard of and taken advantage of (particularly in military moves but many apply in all move situations):
     Get your driver's cell number so you can be in touch.
     Call them to ask what your initial weight was. (all of our stuff was a bit over 11,000, well under our 14,500 lb limit...yay)
     Touch base every few days to make sure you know when your delivery is coming.
     Request a reweigh on the delivery end.  You end up getting the lower of the 2 weights, so there is no harm in having your stuff reweighed
     Provide lunch for your loaders and packers, preferably not always pizza.  I made pasta the first day when I still had pots, did pizza the second, and the third day I ordered Subway.  I can't tell you how appreciative the guys were to not be eating junk for once
     Make sure to have bottled water or cups and water on hand, especially on hot days
     Learn your guys' names and use them.  Smile at them.  They're carrying all your stuff and it's easier for them to care about their job if they aren't ticked off at you.
     Pray for good weather
     Make an inventory beforehand of everything if possible, including serial and model numbers of electronics
     Make sure you can read your copy of the inventory they do of your items and ask if you have questions about notations they've made about existing damage
     If something drops or falls, ask them to note it on the paperwork so you can double check for damage on the receiving end
     Keep your cool
     Cross your fingers

Do you guys have other moving tips?

Moving Part 1 - The Pack Out

Apparently in the military, the lingo for packing is 'packing out.'  We got 2 packers, and they were scheduled to pack us for 3 days.  These guys were fast.  And I don't mean, wow they packed up ALL of our stuff in 3 days.  I mean...holy crap I can't even see their hands and they managed to finish in 2 days!  So I'm going to show you our total wreck.

I thought they would work together and I'd be able to sort of follow what they were doing.  I was also hoping that I'd have some time to work through some of our things I hadn't had time to do.  Instead, they worked in 2 different places, on different floors, both at lightning speed.  So I spent 2 days running up and down the stairs, trying to make sure they weren't packing stuff I didn't want packed (which totally didn't work), and that certain things got extra padding.

Not that extra padding was much of a problem.  I think each item that got wrapped was wrapped in 3 HUGE sheets of paper.  I'm even more glad now that people on the other side have to unpack everything.  And I understand why they won't transport matches too...the whole load is a massive combustion risk.

Huge irony on the first day: I took Bella in to daycare so she wouldn't be under our feet while we were packing and one of the packers showed up with his 4 year old daughter.  It would have been alright if she had stayed with him, but instead she followed me around all day.  And my mommy brain was checked out...so I wasn't quite emotionally prepared for it.  The second day Bella was there too.  And the little girl refused to play with her.  So I spent more time that day interacting with Bella instead, which was way better.  I guess there really is something different about your own child.

Anyway, by the end of all the packing we were living in a city of boxes.  We're short...so this is a problem.  I lost the dog more than once and the cat was in heaven.  I got up in the middle of the night to get a glass of water...forgot about the packing thing, and was in the middle of the dining room in the pitch black before I remembered that I was surrounded in boxes and my memory of how to get to the kitchen without running into stuff was completely useless.

(ugh, and how hideous is that paneling in the basement?  If we ever move back to this house, that so has to go!)

Luckily they moved our loading up a day so the boxes didn't stay long.  More on that soon.

Have you ever had a packing debacle?  I need people to commiserate with!

Take me out to the ballgame

Thanks to Bella's BFF, Xander (and his Dad), Bella and I spent Monday evening at the Pawsox baseball game. (Vinny was home because he had to work overnight and needed to sleep a bit)  This was Bella's first baseball game, and I think her first professional sporting event too.  

Bella, her BFF (Xander), and his Daddy (Marcus)

We saw at least 4 home runs in the 3 innings we were there for, so the 'Sox' were kicking grass and taking games...or something like that.  The innings were a bit long so we had to leave after only 3 so the kiddos could get to bed.

A gorgeous evening for baseball

But first we had the official baseball stadium dinner: hot dogs (sub in fruit salad for me), french fries, peanuts, and Cracker Jacks. And no, Bella didn't care if she ever got back...in case you were curious. 

She even got to say hi to the HUGE mascot...which is (I think) a polar bear.  It was basically a gigantic white bear and Bella was understandably dubious about approaching and say hello.  Luckily, Xander was more courageous and said hello first so Bella gave high fives from my arms once she made sure the bear wasn't going to eat her.  She had a blast dancing with the music and joining in with the clapping, and best of all, she loved getting to (finally) use her OUTDOOR voice!

Also, as a not-so-aside, aside...The national anthem felt more patriotic than usual today.  I'm proud to be a Navy wife, and I'm proud to be an American.  I'm proud to raise my child in a country where she can have Muslim friends, and Jewish friends, and Christian friends, and friends from all nations; where the possibilities are bounded only by her dreams.

One quote I heard today that resonated: “I’ve never wished a man dead, but I have read some obituaries with great pleasure.” - Mark Twain  


EDIT: So I hear that quote isn't actually Mark Twain, but rather a simplification of the following quote from civil rights activist, Clarence Darrow:
"All men have an emotion to kill; when they strongly dislike some one they involuntarily wish he was dead. I have never killed any one, but I have read some obituary notices with great satisfaction."

Yay internet!


EDIT 2: and, you know...cause we already went there:

Military move, the next step

With power of attorney in hand (along with pretty much everything from the safe: marriage license, social security cards, birth certificates, orders, and passports for good measure), I headed back down to the Naval Station at Newport today.  4 hours later and I've managed to check these things off my to-do list:

- I got a reserve spousal ID (still have to update them to active in a few months)
- I got myself and Bella set up as Vinny's dependents
- I updated Vinny's page 2 (still not exactly sure what it is, but it's updated)
- Bella and I went to a moving class and got that a step further along
- We got new lieutenant insignia for Vinny's uniforms
- We got vehicle decals for both my and Vinny's car

And we also managed to drop off donations at Savers and the Barrington library.  I'm looking for my super navy wife badge, but I've misplaced it. Now I'm planning on sitting on the couch for a bit and relaxing for a little bit before the dinner rush starts.

Some military history and the first step toward our move

Some background for folks not familiar with our military situation.  When my husband was in medical school he joined the Navy through a program called HPSP (health professions scholarship program).  This paid for his medical school, covered most if not all of his books and supplies, and also paid him a stipend.  In return he had to do 6 weeks each year he was in medical school and then he was obligated to repay 1 year for each year they paid for.

Instead of just doing the single match day to find out what residency program he would be into, he first went through the military match process.  So, about mid December of his 4th year of med school, we sat anxiously around the computer waiting for the match results.  The options were he could do a military residency, he could do a military intern year and then a civilian residency (which would have meant he likely would have done his 4 required years after the intern year), or he could get a full deferment to do his residency in the civilian sector.  Vinny really wanted to do his residency at Brown in Rhode Island, so we were ecstatic when he got the full deferment.  Then we also had to do the civilian match day with the rest of the medical students in March.  And, you might guess since we're now in Rhode Island that he got his first choice. :)

Fast forward a few years, Vinny is now finishing his residency at Brown, and getting ready to go on to active duty with the Navy.  A frequent question we get is whether he had any choice in where we were placed and the answer is yes.  The detailer (the guy who decides where everyone goes) sent us a big list of all the possible places that would need radiologists, and we submitted our top 3.  We thought that it would be most likely that we would be placed at one of the 3 big naval hospitals, San Diego, Portsmouth VA, or Bethesda.  We were very excited when the possibility list included 2 Marine bases in North Carolina, where I'm originally from.  (I didn't know this, but apparently Marine and Navy are kind of 2 divisions of the same branch.  Marines don't have medical officers from what I can tell, so the Marine medical needs are covered by Navy doctors)

We finally heard from the detailer that we would most likely be going to Camp Lejeune, in Jacksonville, North Carolina.  Notice I said 'most likely.'  Apparently with all of the hub-bub going on in Congress and the budget being up in the air, orders were put on hold for a while.  We were very nervous there for a bit wondering what would happen if we couldn't receive our orders.  We already had a week off planning to go house hunting, so we took a leap of faith and decided to go house hunting in Jacksonville and the surrounding areas hoping that orders would come through.  While we were there one of the military spouses we met mentioned that her husband's orders had come through the day before, so when we got back to the house that afternoon, Vinny emailed the detailer to ask if his orders were out.  Turns out they had been released almost 2 weeks earlier, and they just didn't send out a notification or anything.  So Vinny finally figured out how to get logged on to the right website and found out that (WHEW) we were officially being stationed at Camp Lejeune.

Now, we just have to figure out all the logistics of getting moved down there.  I figured I would detail out what we do in case it's helpful for someone else later.  I went down to the base at Newport armed with his orders, our marriage license, 4 forms of ID (overkill I know), a notorized letter from him giving me permission to do this stuff, Bella's birth certificate, and a bunch of snacks to try to keep Bella occupied.  Most of the stuff I did yesterday I think I could have done on the www.move.mil website, but I had tons of questions as I filled out the forms, so I'm glad I was there in person.  The people there were very nice and helpful, and Bella was amazing and sat so nicely while I did all the forms.  It helped that she had her ipod touch with a movie on it.

So we found out how much weight we're allowed to move (14,500 lbs).  I used a spreadsheet they had on website to estimate how much we have...and we're going to be lucky to be under that weight.  Anything over that we basically get charged a dollar a pound...eek!  So I'm much more motivated to start cleaning out the basement.  We are given a 10% weight allowance for packing materials that the moving company might use, and anything Vinny uses for his job, books, diplomas, etc. doesn't count against our weight limit, but has to be set aside and packed separately.  It's going to be a very complicated pack out.  They suggest that you make a very detailed inventory of everything they pack in case something gets lost, and it's a bit overwhelming how much STUFF we have.  I'm going to have to start piles for donation, things to go in my car, things to go in Vinny's car, professional gear and then everything else gets packed up.  Sheesh...I'm tired already.

The process of packing (with a regular carrier that the military assigns to the move and pays directly) should take about 3 days and then it will take about a week for it to be delivered to the new house.  We're also allowed 3 days of travel to drive down, and if we need it, up to 10 days to stay in a hotel while we wait on the arrival of our things.  There is also a displacement allowance that will help up with putting down deposits.  We could request an advance of that displacement allowance, but it will be easier to get it when we request the other things, so we're going to try to make it through with savings.

The next step is to get Bella and I added as Vinny's dependents, get ID cards, and vehicle stickers, and to attend a class about doing a military move for first timers.  And Vinny has to go to Boston to do a medical evaluation and get the forms for all the travel reimbursements. We couldn't do the dependent stuff while we were down there already because I didn't have an official power of attorney. So we're going to do that too.

I feel like we've accomplished something at least now, so the new focus is on cleaning out the house of stuff we don't need and getting it SOLD!  Wish us luck!

Any advice on the best way to do an inventory or tips for moving?

Emerald Isle

For our house hunting trip to North Carolina we stayed in an amazing ocean front home at Emerald Isle.  Absolutely one of the best vacation homes we could have imagined.  I'm going to gush for a minute.  The place was beautiful...the ocean was right at the back porch, there were games and books for rainy days, even dog bowls and pick up bags.  Every time I thought 'oh, we need to go get *insert something here*' I would find that very thing in a cabinet a few minutes later.  (I swear they aren't paying me to say this)

There were dolphins swimming out there most mornings and while the weather was atrocious (just our luck), we at least had a beautiful view!

Nanny and Papa met us down there and helped us out a ton (really can't thank them enough!) while we were there.  They watched Bella for us and let us sleep in every morning, took care of her while we were out house hunting, made lots of meals for us and were generally just great company to have around.  We got very spoiled!

Joseph joined us the last part of the week since he had a day and a half off from school and Bella was overjoyed to get to spend time with her uncle.  It was a very 'joe-filled' house there at the end of the week with my Papa (Joseph) and my brother (Joseph) and our dog (Josie).  Yell 'Joe' and you never knew who would answer :P

Papa brought a fishing pole and brought Bella a smaller fishing pole and she had a blast trying to figure it out.  Then the fishing pole made the rounds...

Vinny and Bella fishing

Papa and Joseph fishing

Papa and Vinny fishing

I use the term 'fishing' lightly because it was really just throwing hot dogs on a stick into the waves to get knocked off and washed back at you...but they seemed to enjoy it, which is good enough for me.

Nanny and Bella and I also took some time to pick up seashells of course

Nanny had just read an article in a magazine about fulgurite, which are formations made when lightning hits the sand.  She was thrilled to find 3 or 4 of them while we were out.  I picked up a select few shells too that I'm hoping to craft into some cheap artwork for the new house.

I wish the weather had been a bit warmer, but we made the most of it.  And the storms made for huge waves and great photos!  This was my favorite:

This beach is about 30 minutes from our new place, but there is also a beach on the base, so we'll probably use that one because it should be less crowded during the summer.

Where is your favorite vacation destination?  The beach?  The mountains?  Any specific spot in particular?

House Hunting

I mentioned before that we are moving to North Carolina this summer.  Well we can say that is now official.  Vinny received his orders to report on or before July 11th at Camp Lejeune.  We spent last week's spring break in Emerald Isle, Jacksonville, and a ton of other towns in the area looking for housing and getting to know the area.

The big news is that we found a house!  And we're really excited about it.  We're going to be leasing this year but we really like it, so we're considering buying it eventually.  I'll be chronicling our home improvement projects and the move and such and asking for feedback and advice, so don't be afraid to speak up if you have ideas!  Here is a sneak peak at the front of the house:

Looks fairly unassuming from the front, you'd never guess it was hiding over 4000 square feet!  But what really won us over was the view from the back.  And these pictures really just don't do it justice:

That's the White Oak River and we even have our own boat ramp down to the water.  Boat dreams can commence now. 

The house is about 35 minutes from the base at Camp Lejeune.  What we realized in looking all around the base is that the commute is 30 minutes no matter whether you live a few miles from the base in Jacksonville or further away in Sneads Ferry or Emerald Isle.  The traffic in Jacksonville means it still takes 30 minutes.  So we decided we would rather live where the commute in is a bit easier.  

The school system in Carteret County is great too, so we're excited about that and I'm looking forward to knocking on all of our new neighbors doors and meeting everyone (probably bearing cookies).  Beware the over-enthusiastic new stay at home mom!

So, our trip to North Carolina was a great success.  I'll follow with a few stories from the trip itself soon!