In the beginning....

Long ago, in a galaxy far, far away, the Army decided that our family needed to move to Hawaii. "GREAT!" I said, "It'll be fantastic!" Psyched as I was at first, I had yet to think of everything that would be involved in this move. First of all, we have a LOT of stuff. We live in a four bedroom, 2100 square foot house with a two-car garage. The garage is FULL of stuff. Then there's the dog. She is old and does not do boarding well, much less a twelve hour flight in the cargo hold of a 747. Then, there's the biggest kicker of all: we have FOUR (yes, FOUR) kids. All of the kids are under the age of 7, and they're girls.
Many months (and orders changes) later, our PCS date had been pushed back. Further delays ensued. Frustration was born. Finally, my husband made it back from Afghanistan, and we could begin our long journey to Hawaii. Well, the office that does the orders here in Texas is backed up. So we have to wait for the orders. Again. Finally got the orders (two weeks later). But unlike every other post we have lived at, transportation needs separate dependant orders before they can give us a travel date. And in order to do that, we have to go to an EFMP screening. What EFMP? We don't utilize the services of EFMP, and never have. Why do we need a screening? You just do, they say. So, in typical hoop-jumping fashion, I make appointments for myself and all four kids to go have our screenings. Got to the screening office, and was told that they never received my medical records. I've been to see my primary care physician exactly three times in the two and a half years that we've lived here. And on top of that, the clinic where my PCM used to practice has closed and moved over an hour away. The EFMP screening folks inform me that they can't process my screening without my nonexistent medical records. GREAT. So, I call the appointment line again (they can't reschedule right there in the office) and make new appointments for the five of us, which I am told will not happen for two more weeks.
In the mean time, my wonderful husband has managed to fight the good fight and procure us a moving date. We're scheduled to have the movers come August 10-12 to pack and load all of our household goods. It will take at least 30 days for all of our possessions to make it to Hawaii. So, no stuff for a month. Alrighty then. Then, I get a call from transportation saying that because they do not have dependent orders, that they will have to put all of our stuff in storage instead of shipping it directly to Hawaii. Can't get the dependent orders because EFMP won't clear me without medical records, which I can't get because my doctor's office no longer exists. Rock, meet hard place. Eventually, I did manage to get some medical records faxed, and went to our second EFMP appointment (this screening is only supposed to take 20 minutes, and I've been back twice now). Get to the appointment, hand the receptionist all my paperwork, and she says, "Oh, you need a new 5888."
"What?" I say, "What do you mean?"
"This is the OLD 5888. You have to have the new version of the form."
At this point, I am slightly upset. Not only because this is the second time I've been there, but because I had to drag all four kids up there with me into their tiny office. This 5888 is the same exact one that I gave her two weeks ago, and she didn't say anything then. Are you serious??? So, I called my loving, wonderful husband. Several expletives and a lot of shouting from him later, they magically made a new 5888 appear. We were processed and ready to go. Finally.
So, we sent the EFMP blessing off to get dependent orders, which took blessedly no time at all to get. Transportation came through in a flash and corrected our move to a direct shipment. Woohoo!! Things are looking up!
So, I decided to put in our 30 days notice with our landlord. As a reward for my thoughtful gesture, I receive four more pages of paperwork, which I must return with a stack of receipts for things like lawn fertilization and carpet cleaning. Equipped with my extended move-out inspection list ($75 cleaning fee if the air conditioning registers are dusty), I go home and immediately freak out. My husband tells me that I'm stressing over nothing, as usual, which I am. But, seriously, I tell him, what kind of renter honestly has their lawn fertilized?
After that, things continued to crawl along for a bit. Friends and family came to visit at various times to say goodbye. We cleaned out the garage and the closets. Then moving day arrived.....

Bless our movers! All three days of our move were above 100 degrees. The ladies that came to pack our things were speedy quick, and even finished packing early on the second day! The guys who came to load the stuff worked hard through blistering heat AND rain, and stayed at our house for over 12 hours. Stuff loaded. Check. Now to clean and then drop off our vehicles in Dallas.

Four days of back breaking cleaning later, we finally checked into the hotel. (And, let me tell you, there is nothing sexier than a man scrubbing the floor at midnight.) Yep, that's right we slept on air mattresses and nap mats for FOUR DAYS. Four little kids out of their own beds is not fun. The first night they stayed up until 11 p.m. giggling. So, no sleep = cranky all day = crying melt downs in the afternoon. Joy. Anyway, we did our move-out inspection, which went okay. Then we checked into the Comfort Suites in Killeen. I had specifically chosen this hotel because it said PET FRIENDLY. Well, yeah, if your pet weighs less than 10 lbs. Sorry, but our dog weighs 50! So, the poor dog is stuck outside in her crate. Other than that, though, the room was nice, and the kids did okay.

More on our moving experience tomorrow!!!