Orders!!!

Friday hubby finally got the email we've been waiting for . . . our orders! He had the afternoon off for doing some extra work on Thursday, so getting to spend some time together that afternoon just made it that much more special.

Ok, now what?

We took a printed copy to our apartment office to cancel our lease and that was about all we could do right away (I need to take it to the gym to cancel that, too). Now we're trying to figure out how to get a sponsor (an officer that will basically be hubby's guide to getting started out there, even helping us find a home), what kind of emissions testing our cars will have to undergo (we might have to make a few changes to our cars before that), who we call to let them know we're coming, and when we can get our "real" IDs. Actually, I don't have one at all, so I'm pretty excited about getting my dependent ID (hooray for military discounts!). Hubby will just get his fancy schmancy one with an embedded chip instead of his plain reservist ID he's been carrying around since his freshman year.

The actual orders themselves are just two pages that look like tax forms--boxes and boxes of stuff printed in them that don't really tell us anything. I'm not even on there. We're still not sure if I'm supposed to be. It does say that we are to leave on January 4 and be there by midnight January 8. 

Holy cow that's only a month away! 

We have so much to do, but it just doesn't quite seem real yet. We still haven't decided if we want the AF to just take care of moving all of our stuff, or if we want to do it ourselves (a PPM, or Personally Procured Move, as it's called). We already know for sure that we're going to have to go out of the way to avoid snow and ice, so we don't really want to be driving a U-haul or anything like that. The other problem is that we have belongings at two locations here in Knoxville (our apartment and my mother-in-law's garage), but the AF will only move from two locations once in your career, and we'd like to hang onto that free pass for a later time. Maybe a PODS? That way we could load everything up ourselves from both places but not have to drive it. Have any of you ever used one of those?

Anyway, I'll leave you with a picture of something I want to make when we get there, courtesy of Pinterest (oh how I love you, Pinterest).

Waiting . . .

I really really really really really hope we get our PCS orders this week. And by "we", I mean my husband. But I get to go, too, so it's "we". How long have we been waiting, you ask? 

Well . . . 

Hubby took five years to get his bachelor's degree (which, believe me, was completely necessary) in aerospace engineering with a load of ROTC on the side (why yes, I did indeed marry a rocket scientist, hehe). He basically graduated with a year's worth more hours than he needed for his degree, but they were all required for ROTC, which was required for his dream of being an Air Force officer. I was along for the last three years (his junior year, his senior year, and his victory lap as we not so lovingly call it), and it was really cool to see how dedicated (and sometimes not so dedicated) he was, even if it meant retaking a class during the summer or barely scraping by sometimes. 

Sometime in early fall 2010 (during that victory lap I told you about) we filled out a dream sheet. They gave us 8 bases and told us to choose our top 6 in order of where we would most like to go. Of course, our first choice was Coco Beach, Florida (You mean we could live at the BEACH??????). We got our third pick. Or maybe it was our fourth. Either way, they told us we would be moving to Albuquerque, New Mexico. Umm, ok. We can do that. Honestly, I'm just (still) excited about the whole not-living-like-college-kids-anymore thing. It has its charm while you're actually IN college, but that ship has long sailed by now for both of us. 

We wait. And wait. And wait some more. When April rolled around and we hadn't heard anything, we were pretty sure we wouldn't be leaving in June or July like we had hoped. Bummer.

Finally, May 2011 came! We'd already gotten married and had a cat and gotten credit cards and combined finances and all kinds of grown up stuff in preparation for grown up life. Graduation and Commissioning ceremonies commenced! My parents and his dad and grandma came into town for the festivities. A little fun and a little stress (aren't family gatherings the worst best?) was had all around. Although I had to admit, I got a little teary when he and 3 of his fellow new Lieutenants were brought on stage for a salute at the College of Engineering Graduation. I was so proud! And then I got to pin his bars on his service coat at commissioning. <3 However, still no word from the Air Force. 

Summer ended, and still we got nothing. The Air Force is supposed to wait no longer than six months after commissioning to have him enter into active duty (EAD--this usually refers to the date). Yeah, that was November 13. And we're still here. In Knoxville. And it's supposed to snow this week. Grrrrr. I hate snow and love the beach, and I'm pretty sure it has to do with the fact that I was raised on the Gulf Coast of Alabama where 40 degrees was freezing.  At some point in September, hubby emailed one of his cadre from ROTC to see if he could find any information on his EAD. He sent us a clip of a spreadsheet that said 5 January. DON'T THEY KNOW IT'S GOING TO BE SNOWING THEN??? Ok, we can do this, too. 

Now it's almost December 5, which is 30 days before his EAD. We are supposed to have at least 30 days notice, so we can flash those orders around and cancel all our contracts with everybody (apartment, gym, jobs, whoever we need to) without repercussions (fees). *sigh* Oh, I just can't wait.

Maybe it will be this week.