Little pig, little pig

That is definetly the title for today's update. Everywhere you go on post, your hoofing it. Can we say the Cartwright's are out of HIBERNATION!!!!. I've never walked so much in my entire life, not even when I was in school. All of our little piggies are pooped. Man I can't wait until the truck get's here.

Not to mention all the dangers we've exposed our little piggies too. I mean after all we are now wearing sandals 24/7. No misunderstanding, but hazards we're just not used to. For example; day before yesterday Aaron and I were walking to school and it's a pretty hefty hike. Especially for the two of us since during the winter we're the couch potato's number one fan's. It's about a 2 1/2 mile walk, we were pumped to go. La, la, la we're walking, we're looking and bam out of nowhere comes this huge drain cover and smacks my piggie baby on my right foot. Down I go, reaching, grabbing and dragging Aaron down with me. What the hell!!! We get up and I'm ticked. I'm thinking ok I'm sober, relatively mobile I mean I realize I'm getting old but c'mon here. We look down and there is this huge cut on my foot and bleeding like crazy. So ok setting all that aside we look to find what knocked me down and it's this huge drain port cover. It's also says on this sign and I quote "No trash or garbage, drainage flows straight to the ocean".

NEVER SAW THAT ONE COMING. So our first little piggie incident and lesson to look out for drain hole covers.

2nd piggie incident: Dad

ok so now it's a couple of days later and Brian along with Aaron are playing around in the hotel. They are mighty Hawaiian hunters in search of the man eating lizard. Picture them running around this little room with plastic forks in their hands, wearing Brian's new and old beret's on their heads and searching for all of Aaron's plastic lizards I've hidden all over. Now quickly the story on Aaron having all these lizards is before we left Ft. Bragg we bought him all these lizards. He and Cameron Jr placed them all over the house, garage and yard. The plan according to Aaron was we had to get used to seeing them around. Good idea I thought. So now they are in Hawaii with us and all over our hotel room. Ok so back to the story.....lizards hunters and defenders of women. As our hunters are stalking the prey they tend to backtrack each other. Well in the course of backtracking Aaron is setting combat boots and such in the path as to block the lizards. You know in case they decide to come that way as a means of escape. Well being that our mightly hunters have no means of communication other than hand signals I don't even think they get.....Dad comes rushing out of the bathroom to attack of course the monsterous leader lizard. Trips over all the boots and bam.....poor little piggie baby slams right into the bed frame. Omg who would thought a grown man could scream so loud or so long. That was the end of that hunting expediton.

Final little piggie: Aaron:

So today we're at the pool as we've been going every day. Working out as a family you know and strengthing up Aaron's swimming strokes and all. After playing around in the pool for a few minutes Dad and Aaron decide to go off the diving board for a while. Ok they've grown tired of that real quick saying diving boards are for sissys. Their tuff guys you know. So they move over to the swimming lanes where the real guys hang out.

Aaron: bet I can swim faster than you Dad

Brian: I don't remember you eating any Wheaties today Jr.

I don't know about you, but where I grew up that's called the magic button. Slicing thru the water like a lumber jack in a tree cutting contest. Legs, arms and water just a flying. All of a sudden you hear a scream and Brian cuts over to Aaron. He is tangled in the plastic things that divide the lanes. His left little piggie baby somehow and don't ask how because only Aaron could manage that. That or he just beat Brian to the punch. But it cut his little toe and was bleeding so out the pool he had to come. He come the lifeguards, the girls, the momma's and anyone else who was at the pool. Talk about a little ham just soaking up all the attention and lord the limp show he put on.

Well long story short it's been pretty harrowing all our little piggie baby incidents. We're definetly going to have to start taking better care of them since they are fully exposed. If your not careful there is a big bad wolf lurking around every sidewalk, jungle and swimming pool.

Paradise Achieved

ok so today is going to be short and sweet, basically a quick catch up if you will as I have limited access to the computer for a short being. Long story short......we made it safe and sound to Schofield Barracks Hawaii. After a very long day, even longer flights with tons of turbulence, connecting flights and all. We made it to Honolulu with a short stop at the USO, and stop over at the quarantine center to get the dogs signed out. I don't know who had the bad experiences with getting their pets into Hawaii, because we had none. It just goes to show a little research and work before hand definetly does pay off. Our pets were released directly at the airport and moved straight into the MWR kennels. And the people at both locations were as friendly and helpful as they could be. Footwork people, footwork! It helps!

Now we're at the Inn at Schofield and it's also turning out to be another pleasant experience. They have a shuttle to cart you off to and from all your appointments which is great. Otherwise your options would be to rent a car or hoofing it as we say back home. Brian is processing in this week and that's another great thing as we've already been assigned housing. It will be available on the 23rd of March. Another payoff to research early and tip......get on the waiting list as soon as you have your orders. We did and bada bing bada bam. We were assigned housing two days after we got here. The delay is coming in that they are preparing the home because they timed it to our report date to someone moving out here to corrulate together and they are painting and making it ready for move in. So we've waiting approx. 10 days. Which according to all we've heard from EVERYONE here that is a wonderful time frame. There are families here that have been waiting over 60 days and some have just moved onto privatized renting which by looking at the classifieds here. Expensive to say the least. So we're counting ourselves very fortunate.

Your alloted $132.00 per diem daily for food expenses. My advice as we have learned since you have a small kitchnette in your room. Walk across the road to the commissary and buy food items to keep in your room, save your receipts for reimbursements and save as much of that per diem as possible. Go shopping as close to payday as possible. What you don't use on your daily perdiem you can daly at the end of your housing allotment to use for your first months move in. Oh yes I said it....you've got to pay a first months rent and such until your BAH kicks in and you can use your per diem to offset that cost. You will need it. So utilize the commissary...not only is it cheaper but it will pay off in the long run.

Ok folks I've run out of time. But it's beautiful here, the people are nice and very friendly. The cost are only high if you hit the little shoppettes and such. The weather is to die for....bring your shorts, sunscreen and swimsuits. We absolutely love it here. Oh and one more thing we have found and we've ignore it big time. Those that have been here for a while will tell you after a week of being here you've seen and done it all. NOT TRUE, NOT TRUE. OMG there is so much to see and do every single day. Tropics and the MWR constantly have something going on. The ITR (travel and rec center) every single day have something posted. So don't believe that statement for one minute. Take the time to research and your exploration options will never run out and there will always be new people to meet.

Aloha, all of us

One step closer

So after a long week of dealing with transportation we are now in a sense homeless. Our household goods have been shipped off. Today we drove to South Carolina to drop off our truck at the POV port for shipment to Hawaii. Now they have guidelines that have to be followed and I'm sure they are in place for the safe transport of your vehicle. One of them is that you must have a 1/4 tank of less of gas before they will accept your car. Ok so my husband fills our truck up at Ft. Bragg figuring that we'd use a full truck of gas in the three hour drive from here to there. So off we go.

Pretty uneventful trip. We talk all the way down about all the new things we'll be doing and experiencing at our new duty station. We get there and we have exactly a 1/4 tank of gas left. Brian is feeling pretty proud of himself and strutting like a peacock singing I'm the man. So they have these guys that come and inspect your cars before you can even start your paperwork and they tell Brian he has to drain or run out some more gas. He's like...."what", I have a 1/4 tank of gas and that's what your lady said to have. The guy tells him again he has to get rid of some gas and that there is a gas station up the road that will siffon it out for him. Okay if you know Brian you know he's pissed by now cause his bubble is busted, he's no longer singing, but cursing instead. He hollars at me to get in the truck and c'mon. He slams his door and he's hollaring at the guy the whole time that a 1/4 tank of gas is a 1/4 tank of gas. He's pretty worked up at this point. So I tell him to just c'mon that it's no big deal.

As we're driving down the strip and looking for this gas station we realize it's easier to find than we thought it would be. The guy should have told us to just look for all the other military people lined up to get their tanks siffoned also. This sets Brian off all over again, but he pulls next into line. So after sitting there a few minutes this guy comes up and tells us that any and all gas they remove they get to keep and Brian says ok whatever he has no choice we need it done. So one by one we're watching all these soldiers come out of this office after turning in their gas and they are madder than hell and we can't figure out why other than they are just as angry as we are about the whole process. So it's our turn now. They hook up the hose into the tank and drain the gas. He tells Brian that they removed two gallons and he needs to come sign the release for the gas. Few minutes later Brian comes out and he to is now far madder than he was before. I ask him what the hell is wrong and he says that not only did they keep his gas but they charged him $30 dollars to remove it. That they charge a $10 a gallon removal fee. Are you kidding me? Now I know why some of those soldiers were really pissed off. A few of them had a half of tank or more to have removed. Can you imagine the cost they incurred.

What a rip off! So I made Brian go back inside and ask for a receipt and they guy wouldn't give him one. So I went in. Not only did I get my cash receipt along with the signature, store stamp, phone number and what service was rendered. I left telling that guy I was reporting them to the Better Business Bureau for pirating and operating services under the table. I was furious.

It's hard enough for military families trying to pcs on a limited income as it is. Even if you take out an advance on your base pay, take your DLE or TLA, you still have to budget to make ends meet. So it really pisses me off when someone or a business takes advantage like that or makes it that much harder on a family. Did I report them. You damn right I did. But at the time what could you do other than pay it. Nothing because you have to clear that inspection for POV. But at least I got a receipt for our taxes that we'll be able to claim on our taxes next year for moving expenses.

So word to the wise no matter how well prepared you think you are. Always watch out for those unexpected and unforeseen costs that are sure to come up somewhere.

up, up and packed away

ok so can we say Candice has left the building. For the last two days I have put up with people in and out of my house like crazy, and acting like they lived there. You want to talk about feeling invaded. Let me explain. Transportation hired a moving company to come in and pack us up for our move. Don't get me wrong, I'm extremely grateful to not have to do it myself and so is Brian. But they are crazy. Going thru your personal items, looking at your pictures. One guy even asked me who were the people in the picture and where were they at. Are you kidding me. Shall I hand you a pair of my panties to sniff while your making yourself at home???? Want me to pop the top off a beer for you?

Our plan was if we took care of our packers they would take care of us. Right.......neither one of us thought to improvise a second plan. Brian and I thought hey if we provide breakfast and lunch, they would take extra care to packing our things. I mean after all it's all we have and not that you can take it with you if the good Lord saw fit to call on ya. But c'mon now, it is ours and we worked hard for it. Nah they were chunking stuff around, dragging furniture across the tile as if they laid that shit and so forth.

Now here is the part I really took issue with. The inventory accounting. Here is where they list a description of the packed item and the condition. Anyone who knows me knows I am a clean freak. No I am a obsessive or anal as Cathleen my daughter in law says.......CLEAN FREAK. So you can imagine my horror when I'm reading this list and everything says and I mean I'm horrified. Every piece of furniture we owned they marked as soiled, damaged, dented, scratched and so forth. What the hell are you kidding me. Over half the furniture in our house is new because we've slowly replaced everything in the last year. And soiled, are you kidding me. Aaron has a brand new mattress on his bed, not even two months old. Not a single stain or even water spot and you want to tell me it's soiled. So the more I read the more pissed I'm getting. For someone to not know you and their reading this you would think man these people are just trash. So being the person I am much to my husband's demise.....I start asking what the hell.

The mover's response was that anything used, sat on, and even slept on was considered soiled. Everything that is moved in or around a house is considered scratched, scuffed and/or dented. Ok I'll give them the benefit of the doubt because they have no idea who their dealing with....I'm crazy myself after all. I graduated from the school of B.S with honors. So I asked the lady that since I sat on my ass to potty, did that label me as soiled also. Brian says the look on her face would have been fantastic on the mastercard priceless commercial. It's not that I meant to be so crass, but I did have a point to make after all. So after a tense pause the lady proceeds to explan that it's just company policy. So I in returned stated I thought the company was trying to CYA, since they had to cover any and all damages 100%. Another awkard pause. So now I'm given the opportunty to make my own comments on the inventory sheet. Imagine her surprise when I made annectoes on each item I disagreed with, and also stated "refer to video footage" See that B.S degree pays off. Prior to packing we video taped our entire household. Up, down, frontways, backways and anyway you can imagine of taping. No awkard pause this time....just a tense thankyou Ma'am.

So again while I'm thankful for not having to pack myself. But again I am glad that's over with..

on the road again

Ok so tomorrow is the big day. Transportation comes in to pack us up to head to Hawaii. Finally, finally, did I mention Finally. So being that I'm exhausted, ready to kick dogs, get divorced and put my kid up for adoption. I'm keeping it short today, calling it a night and tomorrow is a brand new day.

PEACE