A Jumble of Thoughts!!!

So the past few days have been rather interesting around here. My mom was in for the holiday weekend and she allowed me some much needed rest time for myself! Yesterday I spent about 6 hours outside washing both SUV'S... vacuuming them out... cleaning the windows... washing the floor mats... and cleaning every other surface in between! Today mom left super early and I woke up completely sore! Stella still has her staples in her noggin, Sky is still in her splint, and Stuart is still cutting those first two STUBBORN teeth! Not one of us is quite right and we are not working as a team right now. I think we are all tired of this craziness. 

I spent most of my "rest" time searching the internet for information on this move that is lurking before us. In the beginning I told Dylan that we were going to be to broke to travel... now that I know even more details... I am sure we will be to broke to travel! NORMAL power here in the US is 110/120 V and 60Hz.... in Europe the power is generally 220 V and 50Hz. You may say... "No worries just get those little plug adapters"... that was my thought too until I really looked into it! If the item is not marked that it can handle the difference in the V and Hz chances are high that it will run hot and burn the motor, not work, work and die slowly, OR best case is that it will work while there but when plugged in back here it will no longer run b/c of the difference. Sounds like fun... right?! They will give us two "dinosaur boxes" that we can plug into the wall and then plug our appliance into it but two isn't nearly enough for the whole house and a family of 5 or 6 if mom can get her visa. This means we will have to purchase a microwave, coffee maker, vacuum, TV(or buy a couple hundred dollar unit to plug into the wall first that can handle the wattage that the TV pulls), hair dryer, straightener, curling iron, clothing iron, crock-pot... and anything else that you can think of that runs on power! :) The one positive I guess is that our lamps will be fine with the little plug adapter and european bulbs. Most German homes do not have freezers and the size of their refrigerator is just slightly larger than our mini fridges! The army will lend us a full size refrigerator/freezer that can be put in a basement or garage if we have one... they will also lend us a washer and dryer for our whole assignment if the house doesn't already have one. 

The pilot will need some work before it is "boat worthy". There are certain requirements that it must meet for the shipping company to be able to insure it during transport. Apparently it can have no chips in the paint or chips/cracks in the windshield. We have the normal rock chips in the paint that I can fix with a simple tube of touchup paint but there is a chip in the front windshield that was filled and it didn't stay so the windshield will need to be replaced $$$$ and there is a huge spot on the rear bumper where someone hit it in a parking lot at Fort Bragg before Dylan deployed.  We also need to have all foreseeable routine maintenance done before shipping it b/c it is hard to get repair appointments and the parts are very expensive to import and it can take a while to get parts too. So while purchasing a new battery ( I bought the top of the line guaranteed for 3 years) for it last week ( it has been sitting for two weeks b/c the battery was dead) I purchased new brake pads ( ceramic with life-time warranty) for the front and rear that my dad will install for us to save a couple bucks. My grandpa gets a great discount at all of the auto suppliers bc he has a business account with them. We got new tires about 7 months ago and those should last us the entire time we are in Europe. The transmission fluid and differential fluids both also need to be changed in the near future. I bought a couple packs of different bulbs for the exterior lights and my dad showed me how to change them out myself! He is also going to change the engine air filter and cabin air filter and show me how to do both of those! I am going to also change the wipers but I am going to wait until spring for that!  We should be smooth sailing in Germany after all of the repairs! 

Now for readying the family. From my current understanding the family is not placed on Dylan's orders for concurrent travel / Command sponsored travel until we pass the EFMP (Exceptional Family Member Program) medical exams. I have printed off all of the forms for the kids to take to Dr. G tomorrow when he takes out Stella's staples! I will need to pick up exam information for the girls and I from our dentist too. I have applied for a referral to my OB/GYN through my PCM and I have an appointment with Dr. Wheeler on Friday for a full physical... I will give him my medical paperwork to fill out at that time. Hopefully with all of this done we can move through the whole process rather quickly when Dylan returns and is clearing Fort Bragg. My goal is for it to be as uneventful as possible! As much as I don't want to go to Germany I don't want to see him put on 2 year unaccompanied orders for two years without us... this is what I have read can be one of the options if one of the family members doesn't pass the EFMP process. 

I am full of fear and probably will be until everything is completed. Once Dylan is home we can start the briefings and the process will begin. We will have to get no-fee government passports to use for official government travel purposes and it will also be where they place our SOFA( status of forces agreement ) stamps. If we plan to travel outside of Germany not on official orders we will also all need blue tourist passports. I do not look forward to paying for 5 at one time!! $$$$$$ 

Well now that my head is clear of these spinning thoughts I am going to call it a night! The kids are all asleep and it is my turn to get some sleep! I have to be up super early to get a new ID card made so I can get into Bragg next week to welcome Dylan home! We are so close I can almost smell him... he says that he really smells! :)