Cleared!

So we got to clear housing! Back a few posts I talked about how much money it costs and what a pain it can be to clear housing.

If the housing is run by the military it is very difficult to clear (usually).

I hired ServPro to clean my house.

The inspector gets there at 3:30... walks in, straight to the kitchen with his muddy shoes all over my clean floor... Asks "Anything change since the lease?" I said "No"

He asked for the keys, I handed them over. 4 minutes 11 seconds later, without even going through my house, I was free and clear.

ServPro cleaning fee- $545.23 WASTE OF MONEY!

The cleaners have arrived

Bye house... it's been nice

the kids bus stop, the only one the kids have ever gone to!

Fixer for Fiona

So I took my fiona... Oh wait you haven't been properly introduced

This is fiona.


I took my fiona in for a car inspection. While there I decided to get her some new shoes tires and accessories brakes.

When I left she was making this awful noise. Sounded like I had a bird chirping under my car. I took her back in. They said it was a ball joint defrosting. Otherwise known as the winter crunch. It would go away. Monday rolls around still there and I wasn't happy. So I took her to another salon repair place and had them look at her. They said it was the backing plate for the rotor. However with it raining the sound wasn't as distinct as before. So new brakes on the back from this shop. I'm on my way. 5 hours later. The bird was still haunting me. I called them and they told me to come back. So I did Tuesday morning. Which also happened to be very nice out. The bird was even worse. Well long story short. This was the problem



When the first people lifted my car they did it from the frame and not the lift points. When the lowered it the jarred the exhaust. Causing these two pieces to rub. Causing that god awful noise.

The bird has been freed! And my sanity is somewhat still here.

What a day!

It's been a long day. A Good day! A very productive day! I knew this day was coming. I didn't realize weeks or months ago, how fast it would creep up on us.

We completely moved everything out of the place we called 'home' for the last X amount of years. It was our home. We made it our home. It was the longest house we've ever lived in since Dan started his military career. It was the house I liked the best out of all our houses!

Again, my neighbors daughters helped me tremendously with all the work. Those poor girls are probably beat! I appreciate their help more then the $$ I pay them!

We are now checked into our 'hotel' which is actually a little studio apartment. It's quite cute and nice. It'll do the trick for the week we are here. The kids have settled in nicely and went right to sleep without any issues.

Tomorrow we do the last trip to the dump and our house will be ready to clear the military on monday.

The suitcases lines up in the living on the 'wall'

That 'wall' after they were gone

The van packed. Where are going to stick the children?

See you in 3+ years

I am still a bit confused. Why am i putting stuff in storage? If we can live without it for 3+ years do I really NEED it? We put all our plug in stuff in there, as well as our sleigh bed, the luggage carrier, tools, yard stuff etc, oh and a high chair that I've been holding on to for 7 years lol. My aunt lent it to me and i promised her I would give it back to her some day. Bahahaha.

So.. that's it! See ya in 3 years 'stuff'!

Gift from the Gram

I got a nice little gift in my mail box from my grandmother today. It made me teary. Made the move more real. Not sure how being homeless hasn't made it real enough lol.

Let the movers move

Try and have the movers move every last thing for you. We ended up with a 30 day extension so we needed more then the typical people would need. And in return we had to pay to ship our stuff. We had 4 boxes and the weight was over 100 lbs.

Why did I wake up today?

Exactly!

Why did I get up this morning? I woke up on the wrong side of the futon. Go ahead and laugh. Sleeping on the futon sucks! I am over it. I had to get up extra early today on the winter recess, why?

Let me begin!

Passport/visa's screwed up our visa process. YEAH! They call me YESTERDAY to tell me, we are leaving in a week. They needed us to fill out ANOTHER consent form for the kids. Fine, I did it.

Went to travel to get our tickets. Perfect. All set.

Come home to get the house in order. Pit stop. make a phone call to USAA to cancel the car insurance on Dan's sold car. I get a beep.. didn't answer it.

2 hours later, a retirement account, college funds and two new bank accounts, I am off the phone with USAA.

Call this number back. It's the travel office. Apparently there is an embargo from Amsterdam to Italy. great! Cat can't fly. Perfect. Oh yeah and NOW is when they tell us we have to pay for our own luggage when it is stated they are paying for it on the orders. I flip out. Dan flips out. He hangs up on them. I call back, figure out we can take another air line (MAYBE) So call the airline, confirm that yes the cat can fly. But now we are going through Germany. Okay. Call travel back. Tell them to switch us. They say it can take 72 hours to let us know if its been accepted. If not we can't take our cat. GREAT! 6 minutes.. SIX minutes later, they call us back. ACCEPTED! PHEW! Now we are flying Lufthansa instead of delta. Flying out 4 hours later... have a 5 hour lay over in Germany and arrive at dinner time. Whatever. JUST GET ME THERE!

now.. Where the heck in this mess of a day am I?

Well, thanks to my neighbors kids, lots of success with the clearing of the house! Those girls are amazing. And I paid them $$. LOL

So this evening I was supposed to go to the last FRG meeting I could for this unit. Not that I enjoy being around them, I don't... but I do like to make them wiggle. Me just being there probably makes their skin crawl. I'm okay with that.

Well, the douche bag that was supposed to do my husbands NCO-ER for his final out day in TWO days, emails it to us last night. LAST FREAKING NIGHT. So today it has to be signed. Well, he waits. waits. waits... and waits. The guy who he needed to sign it, never shows. He needed it signed to go to S-1 TODAY because it is closed tomorrow. And Friday is his final out. So, 630 rolls around, FRG meeting is over. Husband pulls in the driveway WITHOUT clearing s-1. YEAH! So now what?
I gave Dan 3 options-

1- he goes in and demands they do his paper work.
2- he makes the dumbass who slacked on his NCO-ER go to s-1 and demand they do it

OR 3- I go in there and get it done. THE RIGHT WAY :)

He doesn't want me to go in there

So we will see what happens tomorrow.

I missed the frg meeting. So I went and picked up Tammy and we headed to the PX for some retail therapy. I got new guess sun glasses and Captain Morgan. Went to the com and got chocolate cheesecake. My life is complete.

If today is any sign of what is to come. Screw you all. I quit!

Pack it

15 suitcases + 4 kids + cat in carrier+ Nissan quest= one really long trip to NJ?

Tid bit of advice

If you are pcsing over seas and plan on selling your second car... DO NOT ship the title in the safe with your household goods.

And if you are shipping your other car, do not leave the title to that in your safe either.
Cost to replace title x2= $40

I am going to be RICH!

So I was informed by my bestest Casey that there is no walmart in Italy. Silly! I already knew that. However I do not have any idea what is going to replace my walmart addiction. I have a bad addiction, seriously. I go to walmart 2 times a day... I remember a day when I went 5 times. It doesn't help that we live in BFE and walmart is all we have. Oh, and the fact that walmart is so close I can spit in the parking lot from my house. I go to supply us with what we need and with being a family of 6 we run out of something every 15 minutes. Milk, bread, cheese, eggs, cereal, toilet paper, laundry soap, etc. Yes, I do buy things we don't need but walmart just sucks me right in.

I have to go buy ANOTHER suitcase for our travels because I have accumulated too much stuff since the movers were here. Guess where I have go to buy that suitcase? Walmart.

Now today, Case tells me there is no walmart in Italy. That solves it! I am going to be RICH by the time we get back to the states.

There has got to be a walmart equivalent over there. Something that'll tigger me to shop. LOL. All the markets! Something will be sure to please me!

The last minute stuff

I thought the last minute stuff to take care of around here was going to be easy.

Right now we have 4 boxes around 50lbs each to mail off to Italy.
Three trips to waste management ahead of us
At least 2 trips to storage
A washer, dryer and deep freezer to haul over to my favoritest neighbor

loads of wash to wash, dry, and roll.. yes roll... rolled clothes fit so much better into suitcases then folded clothes.

With 3 days left and the kids on mid-winter recess how on earth am i going to do this?

Where we are heading

This is a map of the base that I found, small doesn't even say it!

3-5 minutes to WALK across it!

Location of Vicenza

Picture of the gate to Caserma Ederle, Vicenza Italy.

Atleast this is what I am guessing is the gate, courtesy of google images.

Clearing our house.. You have no idea!

If you've never lived the military life, this is probably going to sound ridiculous to you. Scratch that, it's ridiculous to me!

We've cleared 6 houses in our military life.

House #1- We cleaned ourself.. FAIL. Tried again... FAIL.. hired cleaner cost us $200.. Passed
House #2- We cleaned ourself.. Passed
House #3- We cleaned with the help of my mom... Passed
House #4- We cleaned ourselves.. Passed
House #5- Hired a cleaning crew because hubby was deployed. Cost us $300 dollars... we walked away free and clear and the passing was on them

Now house #6 is the house we live in. This used to be military housing. The army turned it over to private back last october. We stayed here because we were getting a good deal. No security deposit. They wrote off any and all damages at that time. We also paid a $450 non-refundable bond to walk out of here free and clear at then end.

Well, "The End" is now here. And I walk into give them my notice of vacating. And they recommend getting a cleaner. Fine, no problem! I would have hired a cleaner anyway because I don't have the time. However, the cleaner... Serve Pro, charges for cleaning & carpet shampooing. So to clear house #6... is $600 dollars! You are have got to be out of your rabbit ass mind! I am paying it though. Not that I want to, trust me on that. I had to find a way to justify the cost. Between the bond and cleaning, it still doesn't equal what a deposit would have been. I don't have to worry about it. And you don't pay until they pass you. So I know I am passing my clearing on the 28th.

Living in military housing is the BEST! and the WORST! You don't have to pay any utilities, you meet some wonderful people, you meet some horrible people, you know your stuff is going to be fixed (even if it is with duct tape), but the rules, regulations and cleaning is a real pain. We have a roof over our heads and that is what matters. Because at this time in my husbands career we cant buy a house because we have at least 2 more moves before we are ready to settle down. And renting a house that is ours out, is just not for us.

17 days out

Well here we are. 4 days before we leave our house for the hotel. 17 days before our feet hit the grounds of Vicenza.

I am NOT excited to be living in a hotel for 2 weeks with 4 kids. We have lucked out with finding a studio apt. type hotel here in NY and in NJ.

We are supposed to head to NJ next friday the 4th. We are planning on taking the kids through NYC before we head out. We have plans to see Thomas and Friends at madison square garden and head to the Statue of Liberty. We'd be crazy to be a half hour away and not take advantage of it.

Now.. WHERE ARE OUR VISA's??? If we dont get our visa's by next wens, we are going no where. LOL. It's been 2 1/2 weeks since they sent the visa's out. I know its out of our control but come on now. I am impatient!

I am getting so excited! I cannot wait to start this new journey. After all I've had to personally do to get this all situated and ready go, I just want to be there already.

There is so much 'last minute' stuff to do around our house before we hit the road... I have faith that we CAN do it, we don't have much choice now do we???

Housing

I've been looking on AHRN for houses for when we arrive to Vicenza. The ones i've been finding are so beautiful. They are all larger then what we currently have and the prices seem decent in comparison with OHA.

Our first shipment of goods has been waiting for us in Italy for a bit now. If we only had a house to put it in when we got there :)