Tonight I came upon this article. I couldn't believe what I was reading. I understand that today's military wife probably receives more than those of the past, but to say that we don't make any sacrifices is preposterous.
Is this how the general population thinks? Am I completely out of touch that people think I'm a whiny wife? Please let me know.
Sunday, November 6, 2011
Sunday, October 30, 2011
Part 2
We get on the road, we pick up the boys in Kansas at their grandparents. When we get to the grandparents we find that our two boys are sick. Sick enough to be running 102 fevers and a visit from the PA across the street. Because we have been delayed so much we don't have any cushion in our drive time, we have to push on. We drive on to our college town. Within 5 minutes of checking into our hotel room, Kyle manages to throw up all over his bed. Not a good start to the trip.
Thankfully by the next morning the antibiotics and Tylenol had kicked in and the boys were feeling better. We drive on. Day 2 of the drive goes pretty smoothly. Kris got a hold of the manager at the moving company, and he reassures him that its not going to cost us $18,000 after all, but since they haven't weighed our stuff yet, not positive of our total. I feel so much better.
Day 3 of the drive, not as smooth. My pregnant boy was not liking the drive. I had to pull over several times to pray to the road gods. The kids were driving me nuts, Kris swapped cars with me that helped, until we stopped because I felt like I was going to pass out. I wanted to nap. Kris indulged me in this. Apparently I napped for two hours. We decided to push on for a little longer, because Kris really needed to sign in to his next duty station, so he wouldn't be considered AWOL.
Day 4 we made it. It wasn't too bad of a drive, and we were all happy to make it to my mums.
Day 5 Kris signs in. Signs for our new rental house, and sees it for the first time. He loves it. I hate it. We call our movers to see when they will deliver our goods, they give us a 3 day window the following week. Kinda annoying but not horrible. The kids and I decide to wait it out at my Mums.
The three day window come and goes, they couldn't make it, they will deliver on the weekend. This does not happen.
This goes on and on. Kris finally loses it with the moving company. It just so happens that our landlords son is a lawyer, and offers to help us out. Moving company doesn't like that we hired a lawyer. They tell us that unless we now pay them $22,ooo they will auction off all our stuff in CA. Lawyer suggests we pay this, and then sue them later.
We have to report the company to the Department of Transportation. They tell us not to pay them, call the police, and file a report. PS its now August!!! We do everything the DOT ask us to do, and they find the movers in violation of federal law. They are currently fining the company over $ 1000 a day that this continues. This has now been 4 months.
I miss my stuff. Next time you move, before you hire a company, don't just check their licence number, check them out properly. This is a common scam. Most people just pay up and move on. We are fighting it until the owner goes to jail.
I pray that one day soon we will have our household goods again. I will keep you updated on when we finally get our stuff, and what condition its in. I am purposefully not posting the companies name until this is over. If you would like to know message me, and I will tell you. I just don't want to blast it over the web, until all legal matters are over.
Thankfully by the next morning the antibiotics and Tylenol had kicked in and the boys were feeling better. We drive on. Day 2 of the drive goes pretty smoothly. Kris got a hold of the manager at the moving company, and he reassures him that its not going to cost us $18,000 after all, but since they haven't weighed our stuff yet, not positive of our total. I feel so much better.
Day 3 of the drive, not as smooth. My pregnant boy was not liking the drive. I had to pull over several times to pray to the road gods. The kids were driving me nuts, Kris swapped cars with me that helped, until we stopped because I felt like I was going to pass out. I wanted to nap. Kris indulged me in this. Apparently I napped for two hours. We decided to push on for a little longer, because Kris really needed to sign in to his next duty station, so he wouldn't be considered AWOL.
Day 4 we made it. It wasn't too bad of a drive, and we were all happy to make it to my mums.
Day 5 Kris signs in. Signs for our new rental house, and sees it for the first time. He loves it. I hate it. We call our movers to see when they will deliver our goods, they give us a 3 day window the following week. Kinda annoying but not horrible. The kids and I decide to wait it out at my Mums.
The three day window come and goes, they couldn't make it, they will deliver on the weekend. This does not happen.
This goes on and on. Kris finally loses it with the moving company. It just so happens that our landlords son is a lawyer, and offers to help us out. Moving company doesn't like that we hired a lawyer. They tell us that unless we now pay them $22,ooo they will auction off all our stuff in CA. Lawyer suggests we pay this, and then sue them later.
We have to report the company to the Department of Transportation. They tell us not to pay them, call the police, and file a report. PS its now August!!! We do everything the DOT ask us to do, and they find the movers in violation of federal law. They are currently fining the company over $ 1000 a day that this continues. This has now been 4 months.
I miss my stuff. Next time you move, before you hire a company, don't just check their licence number, check them out properly. This is a common scam. Most people just pay up and move on. We are fighting it until the owner goes to jail.
I pray that one day soon we will have our household goods again. I will keep you updated on when we finally get our stuff, and what condition its in. I am purposefully not posting the companies name until this is over. If you would like to know message me, and I will tell you. I just don't want to blast it over the web, until all legal matters are over.
Wednesday, October 26, 2011
Nightmare Move
Part 1
Earlier this year we found out that the Army was moving us across the country. No big deal we were expecting this. When Kris got his orders cut he made his appointment with the moving office. When getting there they proceeded to tell him, that they couldn't move us with their contractors by the time when had to report here. Our options were, move ourselves, hire someone to move us, or me wait behind with the kids and our stuff and have them move us. Since I was pretty pregnant at this point, and we already had renters for our house, the option for us was to hire someone ourselves.(The Army reimburses us 66 cents per pound). This was kinda a inconvenience but not a huge deal. I told Kris I wanted nothing to do with it, and he was to organize everything.
We found a company that was able to move us on the dates that we wanted. They were very personable on the phone. Everything sounded like it would run smoothly. We decided that we would pack up the house ourselves and save some money. I was annoyed at this, but figured that we could handle it.
Moving day comes. The house is packed up. The movers don't show up until after 1pm. GRRR. We should have known something was up then. Some of them movers throughout the afternoon and night started to talk to me, and some of the stuff they were telling me was very concerning.
A. on was on parole from another state. These people were supposed to be background checked.
B. three of the movers were hired off of Craig's list the day before.
C. the older of the three was smoking pot out the front of our house.
This is when I should have called the cops and had them all arrested. Hindsight is everything.
Well since they showed up so late, they couldn't finish loading all our stuff that day. They would have to come back and finish the following day. Pushing our leaving CO back a day.
They show up late the next day too. Now this is starting to get real annoying, but what can we do right. They already have half our stuff, and we really need to move. Also Craig's list workers didn't want to work a second day so we were down to two guys.
At the end of day two. They give us a copy of the packing list, and tell us they think we have gone over our original weight estimate, so the cost to move us is now over $18,000. What this is triple what the binding estimate was. We are completely in a bind, they have all our stuff, we know this isn't right. But what can we do right. This is a nightmare.
The nightmare continues in Part 2.
Earlier this year we found out that the Army was moving us across the country. No big deal we were expecting this. When Kris got his orders cut he made his appointment with the moving office. When getting there they proceeded to tell him, that they couldn't move us with their contractors by the time when had to report here. Our options were, move ourselves, hire someone to move us, or me wait behind with the kids and our stuff and have them move us. Since I was pretty pregnant at this point, and we already had renters for our house, the option for us was to hire someone ourselves.(The Army reimburses us 66 cents per pound). This was kinda a inconvenience but not a huge deal. I told Kris I wanted nothing to do with it, and he was to organize everything.
We found a company that was able to move us on the dates that we wanted. They were very personable on the phone. Everything sounded like it would run smoothly. We decided that we would pack up the house ourselves and save some money. I was annoyed at this, but figured that we could handle it.
Moving day comes. The house is packed up. The movers don't show up until after 1pm. GRRR. We should have known something was up then. Some of them movers throughout the afternoon and night started to talk to me, and some of the stuff they were telling me was very concerning.
A. on was on parole from another state. These people were supposed to be background checked.
B. three of the movers were hired off of Craig's list the day before.
C. the older of the three was smoking pot out the front of our house.
This is when I should have called the cops and had them all arrested. Hindsight is everything.
Well since they showed up so late, they couldn't finish loading all our stuff that day. They would have to come back and finish the following day. Pushing our leaving CO back a day.
They show up late the next day too. Now this is starting to get real annoying, but what can we do right. They already have half our stuff, and we really need to move. Also Craig's list workers didn't want to work a second day so we were down to two guys.
At the end of day two. They give us a copy of the packing list, and tell us they think we have gone over our original weight estimate, so the cost to move us is now over $18,000. What this is triple what the binding estimate was. We are completely in a bind, they have all our stuff, we know this isn't right. But what can we do right. This is a nightmare.
The nightmare continues in Part 2.
Saturday, October 22, 2011
Fast
So I thought that I will elabrate first on what I consider the biggest thing that has happend in the past year. The Birth of our third boy Lucas.
He was born on the 29th of August this year, one week over due. We decided not to find out his gender while pregnant, so Kris keep on joking that he had to be a girl since he was late. I have come to the conclusion that I am not meant to have girls.
So at lunch that day I started to have contractions, I wasn't too concerned as I had been getting them on and off for a few weeks, they would start and then go away. While sitting there I noticed that they were pretty close together, so I started timing them. 3 and 1/2 minutes apart. After I decided that they were not going away (in less than 1/2 an hour) I told Kris to hurry up and finish his lunch. He jokingly asked why was I in labor and I said yes. He asked if we needed to go straight to the hospital, I said no since it hadn't been a hour of contractions yet, But I wanted to go home and lay down. This was probaly a big mistake. As soon as we got home I decided it couldn't wait any longer we grabbed my bag and drove to the hospital. We decided we didn't have time to park the car, we left it in the middle of the street, handed our keys to the valet and headed upstairs.
The nurses got me straight into a room, started hooking me up to machines, and decided to check me. I was 9 cm dilated. They called in the doctor on the floor, he checked me and I was 10.5 cm dilated. They started getting suited up, and told me it was time to go. At this stage I started to panic. It was never my plan to have this baby naturally. I wanted my epidural. I wasn't going to get it.
The doctor broke my water, and told me to push. 4 minutes later, baby Lucas was here. Weighing in at 10 lbs 7oz and 21 inches long. I was so glad it went quickly and that it was over. I am also very thankful that we made it to the hospital in time, and that both of us are healthy.
Friday, October 21, 2011
Friends
Yesterday I had a friend and her husband come visit. They are in the process of moving to Germany, and doing the rounds before they leave on Monday. After they left, it made me realize just how much I missed my friends. I have been so busy running around chasing after my three boys that I haven't made any new friends here in PA. I miss my girls from CO.
This is the bitter sweet part of being married to someone in the Army. You meet so many new people you make friends with people that you would have never have met otherwise. But you have to leave them. Living here in the civilian world its harder to make friends. Its not that I am saying that civilians are unfriendly, because they are anything but. Just Civilians don't move every three years, so they don't have the need to make new friends all the time.
This is my first move in about 8 years that I didn't know someone there. That I haven't been moving with a friend. I miss my friends. I wish I could be with them all again soon.
This is the bitter sweet part of being married to someone in the Army. You meet so many new people you make friends with people that you would have never have met otherwise. But you have to leave them. Living here in the civilian world its harder to make friends. Its not that I am saying that civilians are unfriendly, because they are anything but. Just Civilians don't move every three years, so they don't have the need to make new friends all the time.
This is my first move in about 8 years that I didn't know someone there. That I haven't been moving with a friend. I miss my friends. I wish I could be with them all again soon.
Sunday, October 16, 2011
Catching Up
So alot has happened since my last time I was really blogging. We bought a house moved into that house. Kris deployed for a year to Iraq. Our cat died because someone was speeding thru our neighborhood. Kyle Joshua and I spent a month in Australia. Kris was lucky enough to meet us down there on his mid tour leave. We had a great time. I came home pregnant with our third baby Boy.
Kris got orders for us to move to PA where he is currently teaching ROTC at a private college. We had our house hold goods stolen during the move, and are still working on getting them back.
I gave birth to Lucas. He was our biggest baby yet. Weighing in at a whopping 10 pound 7 oz. I couldn't believe it. I am very thankful that I made it to the hospital in time. From the time I started having contractions to the time he was born was less than an hour and a half.
Kyle started kindergarten. He loves it. I am amazed at how much he has learnt in the past month. I also love drop off time everyday. Not because I am leaving him, but I love seeing all his class mates run for the door. I love how much these kids love school. I wish I loved school as much as these kids.
Josh is starting to talk up a storm. He tries to repeat almost everything I say. He has also mastered counting to 3. The other night he even pulled out three pieces of his dinner and counted them. Its amazing to watch our kids learn.
Lucas will be seven weeks old tomorrow, and he has been able to roll over from stomach to back for almost a month now. But what I love the most about him is that he is now giving us a social smile. It melts my heart. In the past few nights he has also started sleeping thru the night. I love it.
Over the next few weeks I will go into more detail about many of the things I have mentioned above. But thats the short version on whats been happening in my life lately.
Kris got orders for us to move to PA where he is currently teaching ROTC at a private college. We had our house hold goods stolen during the move, and are still working on getting them back.
I gave birth to Lucas. He was our biggest baby yet. Weighing in at a whopping 10 pound 7 oz. I couldn't believe it. I am very thankful that I made it to the hospital in time. From the time I started having contractions to the time he was born was less than an hour and a half.
Kyle started kindergarten. He loves it. I am amazed at how much he has learnt in the past month. I also love drop off time everyday. Not because I am leaving him, but I love seeing all his class mates run for the door. I love how much these kids love school. I wish I loved school as much as these kids.
Josh is starting to talk up a storm. He tries to repeat almost everything I say. He has also mastered counting to 3. The other night he even pulled out three pieces of his dinner and counted them. Its amazing to watch our kids learn.
Lucas will be seven weeks old tomorrow, and he has been able to roll over from stomach to back for almost a month now. But what I love the most about him is that he is now giving us a social smile. It melts my heart. In the past few nights he has also started sleeping thru the night. I love it.
Over the next few weeks I will go into more detail about many of the things I have mentioned above. But thats the short version on whats been happening in my life lately.
Saturday, September 24, 2011
Starting Up Again
So I have finally decided to start blogging again. My husband requested it a little while back, he said he missed reading my blog. Who knew. So stay tuned new posts coming soon.
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