Finding a home

Let's face it, sometimes moving can have it's stressful moments. It's inevitable. And given the fact that we just picked up and moved around the globe, I'm fairly impressed at how well we have managed. [especially with our little trouble maker!] There have been a few tiny kinks that we've had to iron out along the way, but nothing big--thank goodness! With that said, today we hit probably our most frustrating point in all of this. (which still may not seem huge but since everything has gone so well up till now, it's really all we've had to be frustrated about. haha) So bare with me here.

Since moving out of our home a few days into August, we have been so anxious to settle back down. We've done so much research on homes here and looked at floorplan after floorplan just trying to get an idea of what we will call home for the next 3 years. Now that we know how it really all works, nothing could have really prepared us, but it made us feel better at the time so no harm done. The way it's SUPPOSED to work is: you arrive, go to a briefing, tell them how many are in your family, pets, where you work, etc. Then you wait for the phone call. The phone call where they offer you two homes. Once they extend an offer you go by their office and pick up the keys to view said homes. You look at the homes and have till 330pm that day to tell them which one you want. Then you make an appointment for another briefing where they go over rules, expectations, etc., then 3 days later, you move in.

Now, this is how it actually happened: (we arrived on a Friday night so we had to wait till Monday to go into the housing office.)

Day 3 on the island, tired and not adjusted to the time change we venture in to our initial housing briefing ready to get the process started. Logan was a TERROR. I'm talking blood curling screams and fits like you see from kids at WalMart. I was mortified by his behavior. I couldn't even sit in the briefing. I took Logan to the waiting area where he continued to be a terror, but at least I could spank him and take him outside. One of the poor fellas who witnessed his many fits came out and asked if we were ok. My response was, "other than wanting to overdose on birth control right now, I'm good." He laughed, not knowing if I was serious or not, and went back inside.

Day 4 and 5 we heard nothing. Heard other people getting phone calls that attended the briefing AFTER we did, but we contained our jealousy and said, 'our turn will come.'

Day 6: In the middle of getting the car situated and in our name, Jon's phone rang! YAY! IT WAS THE CALL! They didn't have housing on the base we requested so they had 3 offers for us instead of 2. One offer was in Plaza housing (a duplex type home situation), and the other 2 were towers; one on a ground floor and one on the 3rd floor in the adjacent tower. At the end of the phone call she said, "oh but you can't come get the keys till Monday." UGGGGHHH. Like dangling a lollipop in front of a kid and then pulling it away saying, "you can have it after dinner...in 4 days." So we buck up and wait.

Present day, 9/16/13--we arrive at the housing office about as soon as they unlocked the doors, at which time they informed us that the towers were unavailable for viewing until Wednesday but that we had to make our decision today by 3:30pm. Ummmm..."so we can't see them? not even another empty one to get an idea of the home?" Their response, "No." So we opted to drive to the duplex home and see what that had in store. It was a decent little home. It drives me crazy when all the people on HGTVs House Hunters only view the negatives, so I will say it did have it's positives. It was in a cul-de-sac, had great storage and a beautiful sliding wall to get to the back. But it had a huge yard which we are responsible for, and nothing on base but other homes. No gas station, no child care, no shops at all--and again, pretty far from work for Jon and hopefully soon, for myself as well. Due to the location issue, we felt that even without seeing the towers, at least we know people on the base where the towers are and they had things to do on base. For instance: right outside the tower doors is a huge playground. Most nights we go to the playground to let Logan burn that last bit of energy before bed. He loves it, we love sleeping all night; win win scenario. It's also down the street from a huge soccer field and track, and the daycare we are putting Logan in is literally around the corner from the towers. Oh, and there's a PizzaHut down the street too. Mommy Win right there. So now the decision between a ground floor or the 3rd floor in the other tower.

Ground Floor: can flood during typhoons, has more bugs, is on the trash floor so kinda stinks. Also, this particular tower has not been renovated yet compared to the other so we opted for the 3rd floor unit. Taking a leap of faith here and trusting it's for the best! On Monday (next Monday) we will meet for our one on one briefing and then Wednesday the government furniture will be delivered until ours arrives. Thursday we will get the keys and can officially start settling down in our home!

Like I said, may not seem like that big of a deal but we were really hoping to get to see all our home options to feel like it's actually happening and to have an image in our head to look forward to. After a month+ of being homeless, we really wanted to SEE what could be our new home. But I will end on a great note and say that even without seeing it, we know it was the right choice and are so excited for next week!

In other news we are asking you say a prayer for me tomorrow night before you go to bed. I have a job interview on Tuesday afternoon here (Monday night on your side of the pond) and I need my nerves to be calmed and for confidence in myself.

I know this was a long post but finding a home was huge for us! I will post pics as soon as I'm able to take some!!!! Thank you all for keeping up with us! We love you!

A few pics!

 

 

Talk about breath taking!

 

 

 

 

The American Village

 

 

 This is our current view in our TLF room

Day 1

As I write this post, I am sitting at the kitchen table with Logan having a mid-night snack. He did SO well yesterday while we were out exploring the island and then waiting in line to set up cell phones...so when we got back to the hotel around 2:30pm it was time for a nap. I put him down and decided to lay down next to him to make sure he stayed in bed. Well, we both fell asleep. BAD IDEA. Jon came in around 6pm and said we needed to get up, to which Logan and I looked at him like he was crazy and then rolled over on our stomachs. It's now 2am here and Logan and I just woke up from our nap. FAIL. So he and I are sitting at the kitchen table eating a small snack while Jon snoozes away.

 

The island here is beautiful! It's so hard to even express. We didn't stop and get out to explore, really just drove around and soaked it all in. Pure amazing. They have an American Village here with shops and places to eat specifically geared for Americans. Huge ferris wheel in the middle of the whole village, it's truly a sight to see. I did manage to snap a few pics but haven't uploaded them quite yet.

 

We did manage to get our cell phones set up yesterday...boy that was interesting. They only have 2 carriers out here, both of which had shops at our BX on base. So we scoped out both shops. One had a plan where we could call home after a certain time unlimited...but then we were charged about 50cents a minute to call anyone over here. They don't have cell phone minutes here! So crazy to me. So we ended up going with the other carrier where jon and I get free calls to each other and to other people with the same carrier. As well as unlimited internet and texting to each other and others on our network. We don't get free calls home on our plan, but there are apps we are finding and of course, facetime and our magicjack. Our magicjack we sent in our shipment which we can get once we get housing...so once we get that set up we can make more calls. We can also receive texts for free on our phones and I think she said we can imessage other people internationally for free...but jon didn't remember her saying that so i'm not 100% there. otherwise its about 4cents a text. and if we call other people like Jon's work or something it's about 25cents a minute. So basically these cells are for us to be able to communicate between each other.

 

We do have a car that we purchased, it's a Toyota Will Cypha and it's oh so cute. But we can't drive it yet because we don't have our license! We will get that after Monday when we start our briefings on the island and stuff. Driving on the opposite side of everything is super hard to get used to. I think i'll be ok except when it comes to turning into places. And I guess they have a 3 car rule after the light turns red--that 3 cars are allowed to still go. Kinda neat but kinda dangerous. I think i'd rather stop haha. Anyway, I think that's about all I can think of and process right now. :) Can't wait to see what today brings and what all we discover! I am really wanting to dive in and try some local places to eat but Sunday is a down day for the locals here so not much is open. (from my understanding, anyway.) Love you all!

We Made It!!!!

Last night at about 725pm OUR time (525am Abilene time and 425am NM time), we stepped out of the airplane onto Okinawa land! Words can not express how elated we were to finally be here.

After arriving at the Seattle airport at 3am, we waited around for our actual flight 5.5hours later. That flight ended up being a bit over 12 hours. ROUGH STUFF. Time dragged. Logan was awake for the first 5 or so hours of it, and he didn't do bad during that. No real meltdowns that couldn't be calmed with a drink or food. Then we got him to fall asleep for a couple hours. Now, in our minds this was gunna be a 10 hour flight. Then, we had our watch set to Abilene time, not Seattle time, so when we were counting how many hours we had completed, we were adding 2 extra hours. So little Logan is napping, we're exchanging high five's thinking we only have 2 hours left, then 2 hours later we were quite devastated to find out that not only was the flight longer than anticipated, but we didn't do our math right...so 4 more hours! AHHHHH. The last couple hours on that flight were hard. Logan was a grump, didn't wanna sit (who can blame him.) Thankfully we were all seated together and there were about 5 families around us with boys the same age as Logan who did the exact same thing, so instead of grumpy looks from onlookers, we got smiles cuz they were just glad it wasn't their kid. haha.

 

At each stop we made we HAD to de-plane and sit in a holding area till the plane was ready again. Logan ran around at the first one to burn some of that energy, then he crashed on the next flights. It was kinda nice. Won't lie.

 

Once we landed we went through customs and waited for our bags for what felt like forever! Then an announcer said "McAtee" through a microphone to call for our sponsor in the crowds, and we were greeted with nothing but love and welcoming smiles! Such awesome people. Let me brag a moment...

 

They loaded all of our bags for us, gave us their cell phones, took us to our hotel which not only did they arrange, but they had stocked full of food and drinks for us, and they brought every one of our bags up the stairs to our room for us. Today we plan on going to look for cell phones and picking up mail, and our sponsor's wife is graciously taking us around to do all that. I really don't have pics right now, it all was such a whirlwind and we were so exhausted last night that we didn't get any. But the weather is humid, but beautiful!

Once we got to our hotel (home for the next month or so), I was able to make us a quick dinner thanks to our Captain and sponsors, and we showered and crashed! It was good timing because it was night time and we were all so tired. Logan slept all night except for waking once...he flopped around and talked for about 30min, then crashed again and woke around 7am! So we are hoping that will help us adjust to the time!

Anyway, I'll get pictures up later! Sending our love to everyone from JAPAN!!!!!!

Getting Gone

We are officially out of our home {bittersweet}.

Movers came last week and had the entire house packed and loaded all in one day.

It was a whirlwind of chaos, but very efficient and kinda nice that it all happened at once. We basically moved everything we didn't want packed into one main room and told the packers to steer clear of that room.

Oh my goodness it was a disaster! We couldn't even walk in the room at one point...but slowly we got it all organized and somehow made it out!

Right now we are in Albuquerque. We left Portales on Tuesday and we will leave here on Saturday. We don't actually have our plane tickets yet, so still no word on our actual leave date...we have a general time frame.

As it gets closer we get a bit more nervous, but deep down we are just excited and ready to get there!

{Break time during the move!}

Goodbye Sweet Romeo

Today Jon and I drove to Dallas and said goodbye to my sweet Romeo. It was a hard goodbye to make, but a very necessary one. We figured it was just another car payment, and since the AF wouldn't store it, our best option was to sell. He was a great little vehicle for me and my first big purchase with Jon. This Jeep brought us to Abilene, and brought our baby boy home from the hospital. Such awesome memories. Goodbye, my friend!

 

Just one step closer to our actual move date! This week is going to be super crazy.

Tomorrow and Monday are set aside for organizing the house between items we are going to store and ones we will take. Movers will be here Tuesday to start packing!

 

 

and the winner is........

 

MONICA CAROLAND!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

with a guess of 737 pounds!

 

Our actual pounds in our first shipment was

 

Thank you all for playing our first game!!!!! <3>

Competition #1

So we have a few ideas to try to get our family involved in our move! It's nothing extravagant, and some may think it's silly, but we want you all to experience some of this with us so that we can feel our family and friends throughout each step! SO here goes.

 

COMPETITION NUMERO UNO!

 

For our first shipment we were allotted 900 lbs. We didn't have a scale or anything, we basically just put it all in a room and hoped we were within limits. Well, today we got the final "poundage" of our shipment from our movers and your job is to guess how many pounds we were at! Below is a picture of the room...

Now, I did add a few things, and there are a couple things you can't see so I will try to help you out there as best I can. On the far left side we have the big pack of toilet paper and paper towels, and we added a desk that we bought (semi-small from my IKEA trip!), and I also added an extension cord, and a pack of straws from WalMart. Can't tame me, i'm a wild one ;)

 

The way to submit a guess!

-comment on this post!

-comment on the link I have on facebook leading you to this post

-send me an email :)

 

Winner will be announced tomorrow night at 7pm our time.

What does this winner get?....

WINNER GETS THE FIRST PHONE CALL WE MAKE FROM JAPAN!

 

so you better make a guess!!!!!!!!!!! only one guess per person! and no changing your guess once it's submitted!!!!!!

READY, SET, GUESS!

 

ps.

we will have another competition soon, so keep an eye out! ;)

An insight into a crazy mind

This above saying rings so true with me right now! I find myself going absolutely crazy with all the things running through my mind lately...between work, school, packing, toddler time, life, bills, dogs...it all starts to pile up. So this post is two-fold. It will give you an insight into my [crazy] mind, but it will also allow me the opportunity to write down everything that has my mind on overload. And let's face it, sometimes making a list is just the easiest thing to do.

READY.SET.PREPARE YOURSELF

• Dogs gotta go to the vet tomorrow, gotta get them caught up on shots and all their records in order for my mom
• I have my dentist appointment tomorrow. last one. big YAY.
• movers Tuesday. nuff' said.
• [^I wish nuff' said...]
• gotta get the final things together...toaster, bedding in space savers, extension cord, toys,
• oh that reminds me, clean logan's room
• clean my room (like that's gunna happen)
• 2 weeks left of school, 4 papers left to write. lord help me.
• {screaming toddler, can't think}
• need to look at a stroller for our travels
• need to look for a fan
• water bill due this week
• gotta clean real good tomorrow (sending my mop and vacuum in our shipment Tuesday)
• oh crud. I need to borrow a mop and vacuum before we actually move so I can clean.
• need to clean out the jeep and take it to a dealer to see what they will buy it for

ok i'm done for now. may not seem like much, but if you could see my house right now, and then know that in 12 days it has to be empty and spotless...you would probably be like, "good luck, sister!" ;) It'll all come together, of this I have no doubt. Now that we are down to crunch time, it's just a little bit more stressful, like most moves are. But it'll all be great! and if my above worries are the small sacrifice for the adventure that lies ahead...I wouldn't trade it for a bit.

Down to the days

Well folks, we are less that 72 hours away before the movers arrive for our first shipment. The house has officially exploded into a hot mess. We figured we would put all our items for this first shipment into one room...which I still think was a great idea, but in the midst of it all I feel as though my house is a disaster. We spent most of today in the garage, organizing and sorting through what is going into storage, what we are taking, and what we are selling...which resulted in an impromptu garage sell, and while it may not look like it, the garage is pretty much set.

We put tape down the middle of the garage; one side is storage, one side is take. Anything we didn't sell today got loaded up and taken down to the Salvation Army. We haven't even started on the inside though. Since we know we are downsizing, we have lots to go through. I've pretty much sorted through my closet but now we have to sort through what we are taking during our travels and what we are putting in our "to check" baggage.

I've basically started to just take one day at a time, if I think any further ahead I freak out and become crazy overwhelmed. So as of now, we are putting the last minute touches on our express shipment items which will get picked up at the beginning of this week!

Today marks 13 days left in our home. So crazy. To know that in 13 days this house will be empty, kinda freaks me out! haha. It'll all be worth it, but good golly, this is a lot of work!

 

Also wanted to update everyone on our going away parties...

We will be having our party in Portales on Aug 10 and one in Abq on Aug 16. We will head back to Abilene on August 17th to finish up things here.

 

Getting closer...

As we head into a new week we are literally days away from this move becoming reality. Next week our mover's come for our first shipment. This entails about 900 lbs of the stuff we will want right away. Basically stuff that gets there faster as it is shipped by air and not boat! So about a week ago I made a list of some of the "basics" that I imagine we will want right away...pillows, pots, pans, hangers, shower curtain...etc. all the big furniture and stuff will come much later. Since Jon doesn't have any days off before the packers show up, we opted to get a head start on it all today...

We figured if we put everything in one room, we can just direct the packers into one place, rather than scramble all over the house that day and get something we don't need, or forget something we do. So the toy room is now packing central. May not seem like much, but we are just getting started. I imagine our 900 lbs will go fast! haha. Thankfully my mama is coming in this week to help!

Hope everyone is doing well. I know we haven't been the best at keeping in touch lately. As August approaches we become more and more crazy. School will come to an end around August 11 and start up again around the 26th. So much to do! So little time!

Happy Birthday Logan!

July, 11th marked our little boy's 2nd birthday. I am amazed (as most parents feel) at how quickly these past 2 years have gone by. This kid has changed our world for the better in so many ways that I wouldn't even know where to start. His smile and laugh can brighten my day no matter what, and that's a pretty awesome super power to have.

 

For his 2nd birthday, we drove down to Portales and celebrated with family. We had a "Hotwheels" themed party since this boy is all about cars right now. This kid can not go anywhere without displaying some sort of car...car sippy cup, hot wheels car in hand, car clothes...you name it. He loves cars!

 MY HAPPY BABY BOY....LOVE YOU MORE THAN YOU'LL EVER KNOW!

 

A BIG thank you for everyone who celebrated with us! For those that drove down for his party, for Gary and Sandy for letting us use your home while you were out of town, for the help making food and decorating, and for loving our sweet baby boy.... We appreciate each of you so much and are so thankful we were able to celebrate his birthday with you all.

My Bucketlist

Bucket lists. We all have one, or at least we all SHOULD have one. As annoying as the saying “you only live once” or “YOLO” is, it rings with truth! Which is one big reason we are so excited for our Okinawa journey that lies ahead. The things we will be able to do and see will be once in a life time opportunities and I count myself blessed to be accompanying my husband on this tour. Soon we can scratch “live in another country” off my list J

This month has already proven to be an awesome month as far as my bucket list goes. At the very beginning of the month I was able to attend a taping for one of my favorite TV shows, The X Factor (read post here), and today I crossed another item off my list….

Call me crazy but if you’ve ever been to an IKEA store you would understand. This is like decorating, home goods heaven! We went in today looking for a bookshelf that we can take with us overseas that will hold all our many books, but we walked out with a few other things ;)

  

My post of the picture on facebook prompted more questions as to what else is on my list, so I’ll divulge a few more that I WILL conquer one day.

-Visiting Ireland

-Renewing our wedding vows at The Voodoo Doughnut Shop in Oregon and celebrating with a maple bacon donut. Oh yes, it’s happening.

-having a flower bed in the front of our home

-NYC is on my list of places to go

-conquering Cupcake Wars J

-Visiting the Harry Potter set in the UK

-try sushi. I’ve never had it. The thought of it makes me wanna puke a little bit, but I’m determined to make this happen when in Japan

-Visit the Presidential Library (GW’s)

-visit the 9/11 memorial in NY

-eat a cannoli at carlo’s bakery

-ride a Ferris wheel. Never done it

-stay in one of those underwater hotels at The Poseidon Resort

-go to a flea market

-go to a farmer’s market

-get my nurse practioner’s license. (one day, if I get motivated! haha)
 

Those are just a few. Some realistic, some if I win the lottery. I count myself blessed to have done a lot of things so far and I know the adventure that lies ahead in Japan will just add more to my list. (for instance, learning how to [effectively] use chopsticks!)

So awesome that I was able to visit this store today. May seem random and crazy, but it was so awesome and I got to do it with my 2 loves by my side J Doesn’t get much better than this.

 

LOVE

My world.

So thankful for my beautiful family. Counting my blessings tonight.

Let Freedom Ring

This time one year ago, my sweet husband was deployed to Afghanistan, fighting for the very thing we celebrate on this day. I'm so proud of him and all he has done and sacrificed for this nation. I'm also so grateful for all of the other families who are without their loved ones as they are overseas defending our country. I thought of them often today and prayed for their comfort as they celebrate another holiday without their loved one. So often we get caught up in the BBQs, fireworks, and having the day off, when really this day represents so much more. With that said, I soaked up every moment of having my dear husband by my side today. We didn't do anything crazy special, but just having him home was perfect. We didn't grill or anything, in fact he had a PB&J, I had spaghetti, and Logan had a hot dog! ha ha. But at the end of our evening we gathered outside with our neighbors watching and lit the few fireworks we did buy. Logan got to stay up past his bedtime and throw "poppers" (which he absolutely LOVED) and watched as we set off our bigger fireworks. He was such a happy baby and was in such a good mood for it all. It was beyond perfect.

 

 

On that note, here is a sweet picture of our precious baby boy. So hard to believe this little ball of cuteness is going to be 2 next week. I just can't imagine a day without him. I hope you all had a safe and wonderful 4th of July. Happy Independence Day! :)

The X Factor

If anyone knows me they know my obsession for reality TV...yes, I am one of those people who watches that stuff, don't judge me ;)

Yesterday my mama and I had the opportunity to go to a taping in Denver for this season! It was such an awesome experience.

And in case you're wondering, Simon Cowell is even more good lookin' in person ;)

It's Official!

It's officially official! The house is sold, we are no longer home owners! We are still living in the home, renting back from our buyers till August. But knowing that it's sold is a huge weight lifted. So thankful! God is good!

June in a nutshell

I feel as though time is flying...it's already the end of June! and I don't mean this to sound bad or selfish, but I'm so ready for this month to be over.

This month has been filled with unexpected dental surgery ($$$$), plumbing issues ($$$$), home inspection, appraisal, school, work, and just life in general. We were scheduled to close on our house this week but didn't look like it was gunna happen...come to find out it is! We are officially set to close tomorrow and will be so relieved once it's all official. No more cleaning for showings, no more negotiations...just ready to know this is one chapter closed! Don't get me wrong, it's bittersweet because this house holds so many memories for us, but the actual process of it all will be a relief to have behind us.

We officially have our orders in hand and are beginning the process of arranging our TMO (mover's to come pack and store) and we have dropped our info off for the AF to begin booking our flights! Life is super crazy right now, and while I know it's bound to get crazier, I'm a tad bit on overload! Time for me to put my happy face on and start cleaning so the house is ready for our walk-through tomorrow. If we happen to cross your mind throw up a prayer for us and our sanity ;)

 

It's hit me.

“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines, sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.”--Mark Twain

As of 2 days ago, we will be moving out of our house in less than 2 months. If I hadn't had a freak out moment yet, this was it. It hit me...hard.

Don't get me wrong, we are filled with excitement and can not wait for this adventure, but it's all starting to become more real...

We recently found out that our amazing daycare provider, who has watched Logan since he was just weeks old, will be going out of town for a bit at the end of July and not returning till the beginning of August. This means his last official daycare day is about a month away. [Oh my gosh. Still freaking out.] His birthday party is about 1 month away and less than 3 weeks after that, we will be gathering with our precious families to say our "see ya later's."

I've started to do as much research as I can to become prepared for what's to come in terms of what it will be like when we land, cars, housing, flight information, internet...etc. and while I'm so excited, I find my heart torn by what we are leaving.

My job will be a hard thing for me to leave. The company I work for is beyond amazing. My boss is pure awesome, and my co-workers have become my best friends. My patient's are my world here... I was discharging a patient recently and as I hugged his neck to say goodbye, I was holding back tears. These people have been such a blessing to me that words cannot even begin to describe how hard leaving them is going to be.

Our home. This was the first home that Jon and I owned together. We made memories here, brought our first baby home here, watched him take his first steps in our living room, and used this home as a safe-haven during Jon's deployment. This home has been a comfort and a sense of peace and safety for so many reasons. But as we are not planning on returning to Abilene, we decided selling was our best option, allowing another family to make their own memories here.

Family. Just typing that word has me crying. Our families are so amazing and we want each of you to know how hard leaving is going to be. But we want to also thank each of you as well because without your love and support and encouragement through it all, we wouldn't have this awesome opportunity at our feet.

A blog I once read said this,

"It’s amazing, when you really think about it. Moms and Dads willingly subjecting themselves to inevitable heartbreak each time their child leaves home again. Our families teach us courage by their example, by the hugs they give so freely, by the tears they hold back to shield us from their own pain."

This could not ring more true for our wonderful family, and we want you to know how much we love all of you!

 

While these things will be so hard to leave, we know that God has an awesome plan ahead for us. We are going to have such an adventure and learn new customs and experience a new culture that very few people get the chance to do. We truly are so excited and I hope that my above message doesn't take away from that. We count ourselves blessed beyond measure and so thankful that we were selected for this journey.

I hope you all know how much you mean to us and in the midst of excitement and preparing for this adventure, you remain on our hearts and mind. ALWAYS.

My Kryptonite

Yesterday Jon and I happened to have our lunch hour at the same time, so we opted to go out to lunch [toddler free] and just spend a meal sitting in the same booth together. (oh the little things!)

Our food arrived and with my first bite and excrutiating pain in one tooth brought me to tears. After a call to the dentist begging him to see me, he told me I have a crack in my very back tooth. Given my bad luck with crowns failing in the past, my best option in all of this is a root canal. :(

Dental work is my absolute kryptonite. I'd rather take advanced triganometry, in Spanish, outside in the Arizona heat, than have dental work done. Alas, since we have so much going on in the next two months, I opted to get this over with. So Wednesday morning ya'll keep me in your prayers!

Questions

Throughout this process we have had many questions that we've needed answered, and I'm sure we will have MANY more along the way. However, I'm going to answer the most common ones WE get asked so that our friends and family can kinda keep up with what's going on :)

1. What will you do with your cars?
Well, unfortunately, we are unable to ship our vehicles overseas so we will be putting them in storage for the duration of our tour. When we arrive overseas (from what I understand) they have a "lemon lot" on base where you can buy a decent, used vehicle for around $3,000.

2. When do you leave?
End of August

3. Will you live on base?
Yes, for many reasons. Base housing is more "American-ized"...meaning they have dishwashers, washer and hot air dryers, etc. We will be downsizing into a 2 bedroom apartment type situation, but most of the housing has recently been re-modeled and is all made out of cement for their crazy weather.

4. How will the phone situation work?
Jon and I plan on getting local cell phones so he and I can communicate locally, and we will also be purchasing a MagicJack that we can plug into our computer and make international calls with no additional charges. The only way family will be able to initiate the phone call is if it's done via Facetime when we are home or in an area with Wi-Fi. Family stateside can also purchase the MagicJack if they want to be able to call us too...but financially it makes more sense for us to arrange a time for us to call you and make a "date" out of it :) A MagicJack can be purchased at BestBuy for $70, and that comes with a years worth of international calling. After that year you pay a monthly fee of about $25.

5. What will you do with all your furniture?
We plan on taking most of our furniture, but the items we can not take we will be putting in storage.

6. What's the time difference?
We are currently on Central time, so based off that, Japan is 14 hours ahead. For instance, it's 6:15pm on June 3rd as I type this, but it's 08:15am on June 4th in Japan.

7. What are you doing with the dogs?
My beautiful mama will be adopting our pups while we are gone. We are sad not be able to take them, but I swear these dogs love my mom more anyway so they will be just fine ;) haha

8. Will you [Jalane] work?
They do have a Naval Hospital on base that I plan on trying to get on with. Nothing full-time, just enough to keep my skills and experience up.

9. How long will you be gone?
about 3 years

10. Will you make trips home during your tour?
Sadly, airplane tickets range from $2,000-$2,500 round trip/per person...so to pay for the plane tickets alone for a trip home will be almost near $10,000 and that's not including the taxing jet leg and other expenses that accompany international traveling. (And for the record, I'm dreading the 17 hour flight with a toddler...just thought I'd throw that out there! haha.)
From what I understand, we may be able to catch the military hop flights to Hawaii and perhaps meet family there to vacation together... and that may just be cheaper for all of us. We are also looking at the situation like this...when we come back home after the 4 years, we will be able to travel the states all we want again. Chances are we wont be in Japan again so if we are going to spend the money to travel, we feel we should take advantage of the traveling opportunites we will have on that side of the world :)

11. Will you get to take time off before you leave?
YES! Jon and I will be . We will have going away parties at each location so if you want in on that info, shoot me an email :) We'd love to see everyone before we leave.

I strongly encourage you to comment or email me with any other questions for me to post about...perhaps you have thought of something that we haven't yet!!!!!! We are very open about this experience and we want all of our family and friends to know what's going on during all of it :)

House

As I'm sure you can imagine, we have a TON of things on our list of things to do for our move...But one major task was selling our house!

 

 The day after we found out we were receiving orders, we called USAA and within a few hours, they hooked us up with Coldwell Bankers here in town. We knew that getting the house listed was a top priorty because we want to know it's sold before we go so that we aren't stressing/trying to manage everything from another country. However, our buying experience through Coldwell Banker was beyond frustrating and so upsetting that we were extremely hesitant to list through them for selling. Thankfully though, a nurse I work with has a sister who is a realtor through them, and she has been SO amazing during the selling process that it has renewed our faith in the task of owning a home. [Seriously, if any of you Abilene peeps need a realtor for any reason, Char Glidden has been our absolute hero...check her out.]

Anyway! within 48 hours of the house being listed we had a bite! And 3 weeks later (after much negotiations) we are under contract and waiting for the appraisal!

We've had the inspection, and after finding a plumbing issue that we had to fix, all is well and we are scheduled to close at the end of the month. PRAISE GOD! The appraisal is set for tomorrow and that will be the last of it all until we sign on the dotted line :)

 

In Case You Missed the Memo...

Just in case you happened to miss the memo....WE'RE MOVING!

 

At the end of the summer, our little family will board a plane for a 4 year adventure in Okinawa, Japan.

We are getting more excited as the days grow closer, but also more nervous as well. We are stoked for the journey that lies ahead and we know that it's going to be one we will never forget.

 

 

As you can imagine, there is a lot of "red tape" one must go through for a big move overseas to a new country...and it's all quite overwhelming; but we've started a binder to organize all our documents, we've sent off for passports, and today we turn in all our forms for our medical clearance. As of June 1st it was 90 days till we leave! In the 87 days now that we have left, we have to manage to sort through all our stuff as we prepare to downsize...so we are trying to decide what we're taking, what we're storing, and what we are garage selling! As you can imagine, this in itself is quite overwhelming.

During the process and while we are overseas, I'm vowing now to attempt to make an effort to keep you all updated on our adventures and experiences along the way. I know most of us are connected via facebook and such, but over here, I can elaborate a bit more on what we have been doing, and not force it into your newsfeed on facebook ;)

We love you all and appreciate all the prayers and support we have been getting from everyone. We truly know in our hearts that this opportunity is a blessing from the most high and that He will guide our every step!

Jon's Homecoming Video

Together forever and never apart...
Maybe in distance, but never in heart...