You Want Him Where...WHEN??

Last Fall my husband was finally up for picking his orders for his next Duty Station and it really came down to 3 places; Norfolk , VA, Washington State, and Japan. I knew immediately where I wanted to go but it was not initially where he wanted.

First, he wanted Washington State. At the time, his future boss had a good reputation and my husband was excited to work for someone of whom his current peers and coworkers spoke well. Unfortunately, the guy that was supposed to be his future boss, got slated for somewhere else so my husband was no longer too keen on going there if he couldn't know his future boss or really anything about them. So Washington State was out. Sad day because I was looking forward to the Pacific Northwest and all of the hiking we could do! Oh well, on to the next thing.

 Next he was looking at Norfolk. The orders were for a ship that was going to be in the yards for basically the entire time he would be there which would mean no underways and no deployments. Ok, great, but really...Norfolk? Ugh. I was going to be a reluctant participant at the very least. I have always steered him away from Norfolk if I could because it seems to be a Mecca of drama from a MilSpouse's perspective and while I like to hear about the drama, I definitely do not want to be in the middle of it...at all. In addition to that, there just does not seem to be much there that we would be interested in. The traffic is also supposedly terrible. So, really, no thanks. However, I have always told him to do what is best for his career and I would happily (although sometimes with a grumble) follow him and support him to get him where he needs and wants to be. Norfolk was looking like it would be where we ended up but then my husband made a joke that changed everything.

"What if I were to take unaccompanied orders to Japan?"
"I would murder you."

He knew that Japan was one of my dream locations to PCS to so he thought it would be funny to joke around about going there without me and the girls. Jokes on him because his joke turned into a thing. He had always told me he DID NOT want to go to Japan because the tempo and the pace were fast and he would be insanely busy and would never see me and the kids. Then after he made his joke I didn't really want to let it go as it is possibly our last chance to live overseas. He asked around and found out it really is not as bad as he had thought or heard and that families, at the very least, tend to absolutely LOVE it there. Now, it was looking like Japan.

Over the next month or so, my husband continued to ask around about Japan and see if it was something he really wanted to do. I kept telling him I would support whatever he wanted to do but I did let him know my obvious preference for Japan over Norfolk. I wanted him to do what was best for his sanity and his career though. In the end, he opted for Japan. Yay!

Fast forward a few months and here we are in March 2019. His orders were always supposed to be for October 2019. He wanted to get there a little sooner though so have more time with his new boss before being evaluated though so he was looking to get there in August 2019. Ok, that is doable with selling the house and doing everything that is involved with that. Joke was on us.

On a Monday, he gets an email from his future boss, "I want you here in June." Well, shit. I call our realtor that helped us by the house to have her come by and talk about listing the house. By Wednesday he is trying to talk to his bosses here in Mechanicsburg to see if they will allow him to leave that early. By Thursday he has 2 yesses to being allowed to go in June. Ok. Friday, he emails his future boss and his detailer and tells them he can be there in June. Friday also has our realtor at our house to tell us what we need to do to get it ready to list....by the latest of mid-April. Heaven help us cause I'm gonna go crazy trying to get this house ready plus keeping two toddlers and an infant alive. So Japan it is....but first San Diego....in approximately 3 freaking months.

This also brought on a whole new myriad of questions...What happens to me and the kids? Is only Bill going to San Diego? Are we staying in Mech? Are we going ahead of him to Japan? WHAT HAPPENS TO OUR STUFF?? Those are, unfortunately, questions we are still trying to get answers to and it is frustrating as hell to me because my biggest concern is what happens to our crap if we end up selling right away? Hopefully we get answers this week so we can make more solid plans.

So despite all the crazy currently going on in our lives, we are all, even my husband, particularly excited to be moving to Japan. We tell our 3 year old that it is our adventure. She is particularly excited about the beaches and mountains. We are  anxious, nervous, and, above all, excited for what our adventure will bring.

Out of the Hotel and Into Our Villa!

Finally! In the end of March we were able to get out of our hotel! Now, don't get me wrong, the dragon was amazing, especially the part where I got to eat a breakfast every morning of fresh fruit and I did not have to do a damn thing to make it! Ha! It was great but it was also nice to move into our new villa and start making it our own.

To move out of the hotel and into our villa we had to pack up all our stuff from the hotel, both what we had brought with us and what we had acquired since getting to Bahrain. We had to load it all up into the car and the van hubby brought from work. Then Bill follows me to the villa because he has never seen it! He trusted me to find something we would love. We get there and pull up to the villa and before we start unloading, of course, he wants to see the inside. I show him around and he loves it! I'm so happy that he likes it!! 

After Bill's little tour of the place we have to bring in all our stuff. It is a crazy amount of stuff that we have amassed since we got to the hotel. SO much stuff! Seriously, because even our express shipment had already arrived while at the hotel. We carried it all in and then collapsed onto the couch. 

The day before, I had gone to the Al Jazira complex to get internet. I ended up going with Viva because it seemed like the best deal at the time. However, I had managed to somehow forget about the Zain tower RIGHT NEXT to our darn villa. Dang. Anyway, we had internet so we could at least use the computers and not be completely bored out of our minds.

I also had to schedule our HHG delivery once it finally arrived. Fortunately, it was not too long after moving in.  Our stuff actually arrived before a friend's stuff that had even been packed BEFORE ours! Certainly do not know how it worked out that way but, hey, I'm not complaining.

From there, the movers unpacked and re-assembled EVERYTHING and even got it to the correct room (for the most part.) Wow. We always knew they could do this but had never taken advantage of it with stateside moves. Now, our movers will never be getting off easy again! I don't have to un-pack anything and it will be even more glorious than not having to move ourselves! They took the boxes and packing material when they left and while our house was definitely dirty and needing cleaned again, our stuff was there and I could begin to make it feel like home.

Getting a Place to Live......It Doesn't Always Work Out as Planned!

So, as it sometimes goes, the first place we had chosen to live fell through. This happened for multiple reasons:

1. I was never truly in love with the whole place, just really the master bedroom closet =)
2. The landlord was not only not willing to negotiate almost anything on our list (which we were fine
     fine with), but he also did not want us moving the furniture around. Um, hello? Who does that?!
3. Our realtor showed us two perfect places after we found out about the "no moving furniture" thing!

So You're Going to Live in Bahrain....? You Can Negotiate Your Lease!

So before we ever got to Bahrain, I had been told how renting here was different than in the states. You can negotiate what a landlord provides for you! Now I’m not talking, ‘Hey, we lived here for a year already and if you make our rent go up $100 then we are leaving,’ type of negotiating. No. I am talking, ‘Hey, a 55-70” LED HD SMART TV would sweeten the pot,’ kind of negotiating. Crazy, right? I think it might be because so many people decide not to bring their entire household with them an just put a good amount into storage. Unfortunately, for us, we did bring almost our entire household and only put a few things into storage. So we will have lots of extras that we either can't use because they are not dual voltage or just won't have room (unlikely though). We mostly asked for stuff we don't really have anyway.

Moving to the Middle East: Manama, Bahrain!

So we knew when we got to San Diego that we would both eventually be PCSing to Manama, Bahrain. Both my husband and I were very excited for this because this now meant we wouldn’t have to spend 6 months together and 6 months apart. Much better that I get to stay with my husband and only miss him a few weeks at a time rather than several months.