A Lot Can Change In 36 Hours

For 36 hours, we were PCSing unexpectedly this summer.

Upon hearing the news, I had the same type of freak-out that Erin had when she learned they were PCSing from Germany.  (Incidentally, this remains my favorite PCS post ever.)

As I lifted my hand off the receiver, a panic rushed over me. OH. MY. GOD. We are leaving Germany. Where am I going to work? What are we going to do? The poor dogs! They will be so traumatized on the plane! What about all of my stuff? I need to have a garage sale. Maybe I'll sell it all on eBay. Or maybe I'll consign it at the thrift store. I definitely can't keep the entertainment center. My Polish pottery better make it there. I need to go to Poland one last time. Do I still want to join the Army? There's no snow in Texas, right? I hope not. I'm sick of this weather. I bet there's like four Walmarts at Fort Hood. When should we ship the truck? SHOULD we ship the truck? When will I go to Seattle for Meghan's wedding? We leave June 1st, and she gets married in August. Do I fly to Fort Hood and then to Seattle? Or should I just fly to Seattle from Germany, and then drive my new truck to Fort Hood? If I go to Seattle early, do I get a job for two months? Or do I continue to sponge off my husband and my mom? Eww. I don't want to deep clean this house. I can't wait to go to Walmart. Ahhh. Target. I have so many projects to finish. The baby sweater. The quilt. The dog pillow. The scrapbook. The scrapbooky-type picture frame thingy. Should we rent a house for $700/mo? Or pay an $800 mortgage on a house we can call ours? I need to call Sarah. I need to call Kelly. Where are they going? What am I going to do without them? Maybe we can all go to Cape May next year. And Peoria the next. Just girls. And then Seattle. Or they can come to Fort Hood. I'll have a big enough house. I need to lose weight. Especially if we are living in Texas. Heat and fat rolls don't mix. I want to wear flip-flops in February. Maybe we can go see Dad and Marie on the weekends. But what would we do with the dogs? How often can we see Savannah? Will she want to come to our house? Will she still like me? Will she like the dogs? Gosh, she's growing up so fast. Wow, I sound like my parents. I'm dreading the flight. I need to start using more spices when I cook. Who knows if they'll actually ship them. Do we have enough money saved up? Maybe we should just stay here. Sike.

Breathe in, breathe out.

I started worrying about selling our house in a mere three months.  I started worrying about landscaping, painting, and storage facilities.  I started to have a mental garage sale.

I also started to freak out because we weren't PCSing to a post I particularly wanted to move to.  I started trying to psyche myself up for the good things about going there: living closer to AWTM, trying out a new fertility clinic, and even cold weather, which I hate but it's a better fit for my knitting obsession than the South is.  I tried hard not to think about the bad aspects of leaving -- I love my hairdresser, my job is very accommodating, and I finally found a cheap and good dog groomer after trying nearly everyone in the area -- and to focus solely on the positives.  I actually started to get excited about moving, even though I knew I was going to have to bust my behind to get ready to go so quickly.

And then the husband called home and said it all fell through and we were staying.

We military families have to do this to ourselves often.  We have to always have one foot ready to go and the other ready to stay.  We can't allow ourselves to get too attached to one area because we know we'll have to move, but we have to make the most of it while we live there and learn to find all the good.  We have to get excited about moving but not so excited that we will be disappointed if we end up staying...or moving somewhere entirely different.

We have to be willing to be happy where we are, but able to be happy anywhere else too.

So I erased all the positives about this new duty station from my mind and reminded myself that I hate cold weather anyway and now I don't have to find a new groomer.  I also learned a valuable lesson: When my husband returns from deployment next April and we PCS next summer as scheduled, three months will not be enough time to get ready.  I realized that I need to be well on my way to getting the house ready to sell while my husband is still deployed.  So at least I learned that from the experience.

A lot can change in 36 hours in this crazy military lifestyle.

Comments

[She of the Sea]

Oh, Sarah, you crack me up. I guess we all should have figured that you wouldn't really move anyway. That would be too rational!

I'm with you on the getting ready thing - I figure I have 12 months to get this house and our stuff together. It seems simple enough: clear through all our junk, repair, paint and decorate 2800 square feet, landscape, and keep the house spotless while we show it. Ha!

I'm glad you got a reprieve.

[LAW]

and ya know what? a year won't be enough either! There's always something else that needs/should be/wanna do rather than/must get done first. We are hoping to be PCSing (not far, just up the Beltway a piece) when Chief gets back from this latest Sandtrip. I'll believe it when I see the truck!

LAW

[airforcewife]

OMG - I'm DYING here!

I'll admit it - I was sad you were going to move farther away from me. I'll own up to that.

But I was willing to drive down and help get your house ready for you. :)

[Joelle]

what? three months isn't enough time? we're doing our final pcs (dh is getting out) in about 5 weeks ... i'm having a baby next week ... we always dity move and i haven't even gotten the boxes out yet to start packing. think it'll be a busy month?

[the mrs.]

So true so true. We've been at this duty station for over six years you'd think we felt right at home. But no. Because nothing is guaranteed. Every 18 mths we get word we might be going somewhere, it always falls thru and the chances that we could homestead here are good. But nothing is in writing, nothing is for sure. We figure the second we buy a house orders would appear, I still feel like I'm not really "at home" because I know at anytime we could move on. Mentally we distance ourselves. And its hard to get over that.

[Amie]

We got orders to Fort Huachuaca, AZ...anyone been there? And Joelle, you always do a dity move? We are thinking about that, is it worth it?

[Ann - AF spouse]

We have gotten emails for two weeks saying we have an assignment. Have been told since Dec we will be moving. We have been wrecks not knowing where or when, and unable to "get busy" without a clear goal.

We are NOT moving. My child hates me, hates him, hates the Air Force. We will now be moving her Senior year. That means no new pet (had to rehome the cat when we moved to England), no driver's License , and she has to take French III (3 years, required here). Last move we got grief because we were moving so far away from all her friends.

I'm still afraid to buy large amounts of "non-movable goods", and my husband is planning out his leave for the next year.

I am still sort of expecting something. Once when we were trying to avoid homesteading, he requested an assignment and was told "no way for 3 years, then most likely to Japan". A month later, he got 3 week notice to report to his next duty station! He was deployed at the time!

I remember at least 3 "short notice" you have a month, moves. Sometimes I think the assignment people sit arroung with a magic 8 ball, and a dart board of a calendar and the world.

[Butterfly Wife]

Amie - I might be able to help you. You can email me at butterfly.wife.life AT gmail.com

[Suzanne]

Hey I have a question: where is THE BEST SPOT online to look for info on each post? I mean, the REAL info, not the glossy crap that the mil-offices puts out. I mean REAL INFO. Boots on the ground info. I want to research some very specific EFMP and housing info and don't want to mess around with ARMY sites...

[HomefrontSix]

The only time we've not done one kind of a DITY move or another (full versus partial) was from the mainland to Hawaii. Every other move we've done has had some element of DITY.

We will be doing a FULL DITY from Hawaii back to the mainland when we move, if you can believe that. Had I known we had the option to do so when we moved TO Hawaii, we would have.

As for PCSing, 3 months wouldn't bother me BUT we don't have a house to sell. And it would be Ugly with a capital "U".

I"m glad you're not moving however I think I'd sell my soul to the devil to go where you thought you were going. To each, their own.

[Sarah]

Suzanne: You could try the Military.com installation guides here:

http://benefits.military.com/misc/installations/Browse_USMap.jsp

You can read the discussion threads to hear from "real people" and not just the pre-packaged stuff the individual bases put out.

I understand your frustration, though. Good luck!

[Sig]

Stuff like this is why people transfer to the Guard at the end of their contracts. I've heard a lot of variations on the theme "I got tired of moving."

Of course, the down side is that you can be stuck with/under some of the most disagreeable people for literally years and years, waiting for one of you to die or retire.

Sig

[tads tibbit]

Not to long ago I had the same feelings.. We were looking at finally being back together, but with a move in about 4 months. Having never went with Tad on a PCS, I was going frantic trying to figure out what all I needed to do to get ready.

Only thing is a month later we found out that it wasn't happening and I had went nuts for no reason! hehe Though the good side was that I now have a little idea on things that I need to get done before it does happen. :) So maybe next time I will leave the frantics in a closet with some duct tape....