Moving prep for overseas

In October my husband and I got orders to go overseas.  We will not be living on a base so our moving checklist may be different than most over seas checklists, but this is a reminder for me of what hoops we need to jump through if we end up doing all this again sometime in the next 12 years before retirement comes around.

some of the first things we did were:

• begin sorting stuff. (Move, store, donate)  In the past 7 months I've probably taken at least 10 loads of stuff to the thrift store and I am finding new items all the time.  I just keep a tall dishpack box in the basement and everytime I find something that we don't need I toss it down there.  Once it is full or we decide to donate something really big, I make another trip to the donation center.

Once you receive your orders, (hopefully 6 months out because Visas take a while!)

• Apply for diplomatic passports (you need them to apply for Visas)
• Apply to school (there is no DOD school at our new station)
• Once you have your passports you can then apply for Visas. (These are supposed to take 4 months.  We are still waiting on ours.)

In February we finished doing our OverSeas Screening (OSS).  We had to go to 20 dr. apt. in 2 months time!!!  Here is a list of everything that needed to happen for our OSS:

• Print out the OSS paperwork for each member of your family
• If you have children in school there is a page in the paperwork you need to have the school sign to confirm that your children don't need special services requiring an ILP.
• Take the dental page to your dentist and have them sign off on it saying that you don't have any work that you can't get done before you move.
• Any adult females need to get a pap-smear done and have the results sent to their primary care manager prior to the OSS appointment.
• Take your immunization records to the medical records office on base (they had my husband and my Children's already but I had to call my mother and ask her to find my childhood immunization card.)
• Once you've filled everything out your ready to schedule your appointment.  
• Your paperwork will need to be dropped off at the health center at least 1 day before your OSS appointment so the staff can review it and the necessary research can be done regarding your new location.
• At your OSS appointment, the dr. will review everything for you, then tell you if he needs anything else to be done.  (Our Dr. requested that we take our children to see the specialists that they had seen previously to get the go-ahead from them that no medical attention would be necessary for the next 2 years.)  So you may need to continue going to dr. appointments even after you've had your OSS appointment.  
• Your OSS paperwork then gets turned in and sent off to your new station and they will review it to see if they find your family to be in good health and good candidates for the local living conditions.
• Next you will get a phone call that your "Orders have been approved."  Once they are approved you are then allowed to go and get all the necessary immunizations required to keep you healthy while overseas.  (the approval process can take a while, ours took 3 months!  We know of 2 other families who did not get approved just last month, so the military is being very thorough on this right now.)

Shipments-

• There are several different types of pack-outs that will eventually take place.  You need to first discuss them with the moving office, who will then put you in contact with one or more moving companies. (we have 1 company handling our air freight and household goods, and another company handling the storage.)
• about 2 months out you will have the moving company come over to assess how many boxes to bring and give you an educated guess regarding the weight your shipment will probably and if it will be over the weight allowance.

Different types of shipments

  -air freight/unaccompanied baggage

• Stuff that will arrive shortly after you do.  (probably a few days to 1 week)
• since space and weight are limited you will probably want to send 1 table setting per person, a week or 2 worth of clothes (you will be wearing these for 3 months.)  Pillows, baby bed and diapers if needed/not available at your new location, a few toys, a disposable shower curtain, toilet paper, folding chairs, ...
• the dimensions for the boxes are 41"x28"x25"  they go onto small aircrafts with limited space and small doors.  So that is why you can't take a bunch of furniture or anything.

  -Household goods

• Stuff that will probably take 3 months to get to you.
• It will be sent on a barge or large ship across the ocean.  
• This includes your furniture and other general household goods.

  -Consumable goods

• If you are being stationed in an area where certain things like personal hygiene items, food or cleaning supplies are expensive or unavailable, and there is no commissary, you may be allowed to bring some of those items with you
• We have learned that since we will have an APO address we can order most of the things we will need through walmart.com, target.com, amazon.com...  So we don't have to buy 2 years worth of consumable goods before we leave. Instead we plan to buy 1 large container of each essential thing (diapers, Toilet Paper, tampons...)  enabling us to focus on getting settled in before we have to worry about ordering more stuff and how long it takes for it to arrive.

  -Storage

• Chances are there are some things that you just won't need, so the military will pay to move and store some of your things.
• They will go to a storage facility that you will not have access to.  So whatever you put in storage will stay there until you move back into the states.

Oh, and don't forget all the other usual things that go along with a move.  :)

Lots of little things

As we have been getting ready for our move I have been doing a lot of projects
LITTLE PROJECTS-

• Pillowcase dresses for my girl's nightgowns

• Zipper pouches to keep things in our suitcases organized (we'll be living out of our suitcases for 3 months, so they need to be REALLY organized!)  Here is a tutorial I re-watch every time I have to make one.  (I just loving listening to Debbie Shore on youtube.)
• Wish I had time to make them super cute like these. Oh well maybe next time.

FINISHING PARTIAL PROJECTS-

• Sewing modesty panels in lots of my deep v-shirts(I won't want to wear a cami under them in the humidity I will be living in for the next 2 years.
• I just find a scrap of fabric, hem the top and string a skinny piece of elastic trough.  (if it is bunchy instead of flat the fit is normally better)  Pin and sew into place.
• Some things look better with a flat panel, but it takes SO long to sew in a flat panel that looks perfectly lined up and like it was original to the garment, so I'd rather Sew modesty panels that I can switch from one shirt to another.  I think they give a little more dimension, and they don't get saggy and show cleavage or Boob when you bend over.

• My Hubby's uniform patches for his new uniforms

GETTING THE HOUSE READY-

• yard work (I think I've been doing at least an hour a day for the last 2 months.)
• donations to the thrift store and friends
• Eating all the stuff in the freezer and pantry that we have been avoiding but are too thrifty to just toss out.
• Organizing my sewing area, SUCH a big project.  What to store, what to get rid of, what to take with me...

Luckily our Health Clearances went through this past week so we are officially authorized to go.  (can you imagine not knowing until a month before an overseas move if you are actually going or not!!!)  Hope to get our flight details soon so we can start making more plans

Gwen & Toby's wardrobes (Maggie has everything she needs handed down from Gwen)

This is probably sort of strange to see bad pictures of my kids clothes, but I'm trying to create a small wardrobe for the next 2 years for my kids.  We are moving over seas and A LOT of the American women there have been telling me to buy before we go.  But I really like the idea of supporting the local economy and buying local.  So I feel like I should assemble a small wardrobe for my kids that I can build on with local goods.  

Here is a list of the things I already have collected from hand me downs, thrift stores and clearance racks.  I wanted to have all the info here so I can refer to it through the moving process.  Since we don't want to have too much extra stuff, i want to make sure to be searching for things that coordinate with what I've already got instead of collecting a bunch of great deals that don't match.

I'm going to try and continually update this list

Gwen Size 8

(Assuming we are accepted to the school we applied for, Gwen will be wearing a uniform to school every week-day, so she really doesn't need a ton of clothes anyway.)

I'd like Gwen to have some more

• t-shirts
• underpants
• hoodies or light sweaters
• very light and breathable rain jacket (May need to purchase after arriving overseas)

Gwen Size 10

I'd like Gwen to have some more

• shorts (all the bottoms pictured here are skirts) 
• underpants
• Socks
• Dresses

Gwen's shoes

Gwen is currently wearing a size 13.  In june I'd like to take her shopping for some size 1 shoes.

She will be needing at least 

• 1 pair of sporty shoes to wear for Gym and other high energy activities. (they should be a size 1.)
• 1 pair of sandals that fit her well for all the summer fun we will have before we arrive to our new home.

Toby's 2T summer clothes
He seems to have plenty now.  But if I find some deals on things I don't have I won't turn them away.

Toby could have some more:

• t-shirts (he's got 3 dress shirts, 4 polos, but only 1 t-shirt)
• Shorts (He has 1 pair of khaki's, 1 pair denim shorts and some swim trunks)
• Short-alls (because I LOVE overalls :)
• socks

 Toby's 2T fall/winter clothes
We will probably use these if Toby grows out of his 18 month clothes before the warm weather arrives this spring, or when we travel back to the states next year.  I don't feel the need to expand this wardrobe right now.  It's a great base and I'll add to it when the need arises with some more long sleeve shirts or sweat shirts.  

 Toby's 3T clothes
I think we are fairly well set.  He will probably need some underpants.  But we can order those when he's ready to be a big boy.

 Toby's Shoes
Right now Toby is in Size 5, but he has been wearing them for a long time and I can see they will be too small soon.  He will be having foot surgery in March, so when he is all healed in April we will probably take him out to get some size 6's.
He will need

•  Some everyday play shoes that he can wear to the bus stop size 6
• Another pair that he can wear to church on sundays. Size 6
• Some dressy size 7 shoes if I can find a deal.  Otherwise, just wait to see what is available locally.

 The shoes in between the 7 & 8 are size 7 1/2
I also have some size 9 sandals that are in one of the size 3T pics

Things for me to remember:

• Come back and update with 
• Maggie's shoes
• Coats/jackets for Gwen & Maggie
• Gwen's size 10 clothes
• I've been thinking about shipping some boxes of heavy winter coats to my mom's house so we don't have to take them overseas, yet we will still have them available to us when we come for visits.
• Any stores that ship to APO boxes can send stuff to me while I am overseas at regular US Shipping rates.  Most of the time stores will ship any item that is not to large to APO addresses.  The stores I've heard ship to APO addresses are:
• Amazon
• Target

wish list ornament

One set of ornaments done, lots more to go.

Here is how my nephews ornaments turned out.  I think they are adorable and I'm fairly sure they are going to just love them.  I just used some empty black spools that I had in my sewing area and some ribbon from my box so they were basically a free way to say 'I love you' and 'Merry Christmas' all rolled into one.

Here is the link to the original tutorial where I found the idea.

Christmas ornaments

This year I'm doing something a little different for my extended family Christmas party.  I haven't been abel to attend for a few years now and it just seems a little silly for me to be a part of a christmas exchange for a party I don't even go to.  I've been trying to come up with an idea of how to still show my love to them, and I think I've found it.  I'm going to make them Christmas ornaments.

Here are some of the ideas I found today that I'd like to try out.

"charming ornaments"

"Christmas wish list ornaments"

• I think my nephews will love this.  One of them has a CRAZY long wish list this year.

"Christmas tree stump"

"Scrabble ornaments"

Dala Horse ornament

Here are a few picture ornaments.  I can't decide what one is my fav

wood plaques
Tin wedding box
Paper sewing
Juice top lids

Batman cap for Halloween

For Halloween this year I made a few costumes.
I used this tutorial to make myself a candy corn costume. Make sure to sew the fleece so that it stretches from side to side and then you don't have to worry about a zipper or buttons to get in and out of the costume.

And since we already had a batman costume for my toddler I fell in love with this idea for a cape.  I made mine out of fleece so that it would repel rain and possibly offer more warmth.  Plus, I didn't have to worry about hemming everything or the fabric unraveling.

Toby thought it was the best peek-a-boo toy EVER because it never fell off.

 Hope you all had a great Halloween too

It's fun to dream

For a year or 2 now my husband and I have been saving money every month to buy a house "some day"  which to us meant probably not for another 12+ years when he retires from the military.  The money comes automatically out of his paycheck like the kids collage savings plans and our retirement plan.  It was so far out into the future that we didn't really think much about it.
But recently we have been day dreaming of buying something small near our families in a vacation community so we can use it in the summer and rent it out to skiers in the winter.  Who knows if it will ever happen, but the idea of it has been making it easier to increase the amount of money we are putting into our account every month.

Some of the options we have been finding are:

• Ski in/ski out condos.  Those are really small, but probably easy to rent out because they are so convenient.
• Cabins that are close to the resort shuttle locations so we could have more space and an easy way for vacationers to get to the slopes.  
• Buy land and build our own cabin on our own time.

My favorite thing has become the idea of buying some land.  Because when we look at properties online, no matter how perfect they might seem to us, they probably won't be available when we are ready to buy.  

Its fun to see lots on the computer and research things about it like...

• Could we camp out on the land for fun before we decide to build?
• Are there rules about how long the land can stay empty before we build?
• How close are the trail heads and ski lifts?
• how much would it cost to install all the necessary utilities on land that is not yet equipped with power, water, sewer/septic...

But even more fun than looking at land is looking at floor plans/making our own floor plans.  We especially love the idea of floor plans that can be added onto in the future.

• A free floor plan website 
• A building cost calculator
• We found this website that has floor plans for sale with guesstamits on how much they would cost to execute.  Here are some of our favorites for a snowy area like Snoqualmie Pass.

• 1 story country Tudor $68,130-$128,690

• cheep lake house* $43,200-$81,600

• cheep camp cabin* $48,600-$91,800

• Shed House* $84,240-$159,120  

•  A Frame House* 

• 2 story A-frame* $71,640-$135,230  

• 2 story chalet $70,380-$132,940 

•  bunk house kit $56,900

• Silver ranch kit**  $135,995 

•  Linwood kit** $114,700  

•  Unique 2 car garage apartment plans*

•  Unique 3 car Garage Apartment* 

•  The craftsman* 36 $28,728 

•  Mason* $43,925

*plans with Lofts for bunkbeds and cousin sleepovers :)
*So small the bedrooms don't even have built in closets.  (Meant to be true vacation cabin I think.)
*Something we could comfortably retire in
*Garage with apartment above for a quick build on a lot

As fun as it is to dream, dreams don't always last.  Before I was done dreaming of our attainable vacation cabin/condo, sam moved on to bigger and better things.  He is now dreaming of buying a real home in about 5 years if all the planets a line and we get stationed in Washington.  And now he has gone money saving crazy.

In his search for a home near the WA military bases he has found some great things that we should be able to afford.  He showed me one that I liked and decided I must document the awesome master suite.

I LOVE that bathroom/closet set up.

We don't know what our future holds, but we know we will need to keep saving money to make our dreams come true.

New idea 2-28-2014
Every day when my husband comes home he likes the kitchen counter to be clean so he can use it to look through the mail.  I love that he takes the responsibility to get the mail, sort through it and manage the monthly bills.  But I hate that his mail place is also my kitchen space.  It just makes it hard to clean.  When mail is left out occasionally, I never know what to do with it.  I normally just pile it up at the far end so he can sort through it when he has time.
I think the perfect solution would be a counter against 1 wall in the mud room.  It could be all his, out of the way when we have guests & it would simplify kitchen clean up.  Right now we have a roll top desk in the kitchen that is "his"  but the kids and I use it too.  It's size is probably the reason why he just leaves the mail on the counter.  Maybe I should clean the desk out and rededicate it to him as a solution until its dream house time.

New idea 6-6-2014
Sometimes we think it would be fun to do an off-the-grid cabin, mini-survivalist style.  But I can't imagine enjoying it when it gets too hot.  This homemade air conditioner would be inexpensive and not use too much electricity from our solar panels.  Basically it is a cheep styrofoam cooler with 2 holes cut in the top.  1 for a fan to blow into it.  The other to put an elbow Shaped PCV pipe for the air to flow out of.  Then all you have to do is add a big hunk of ice to the inside and you've got 10 hours of cold air :)  desertsun02 on youtube has a lot of cool do it your self projects that are easily powered by solar panels.