Kimber's Navy Family

Our 2-year olds wrestling on a hotel room couch last PCS ;) I wrote a blog post before titled, " PCSing tips from a Navy wife and mother of three ." We have a PCS coming up in the next couple months and so I wanted to write another blog post about how we start preparing several months before an upcoming PCS. Move Notebook The most important aspect to a smooth PCS is organizing all your paperwork which is why the move notebook is so important. I wrote a blog post called " Write it all down " where I explain how I organize our move notebook. The other day I spent the morning getting our move notebook ready for our next move: throwing out and filing paperwork from our last PCS, printing off new note taking pages, adding sections for our new kitten and baby #4. Move notebook: ready. Donating HHG The next step {and one you can never start too early-- seriously} is going through your household goods (HHG). One of the difficult aspects of being a Navy fami...

  This is our third PCS together. There were a lot of reasons why this past move went as well as it did, many of which you already know if you read my last blog post, " PCS to South Carolina ." Here are the major reasons as to why this was such a good move: My husband was home on both ends and did not have to go into work much. In North Carolina he was working with the ROTC after he graduated college; he took 10 days of house hunting leave during our PCS. Now in South Carolina he is on hold before he actually starts power school. We did not have to deal with a boat schedule or him being underway while I set up the move. That was a nice change (read " STA-21 'Officer's' Program "). Since we moved one state down (North Carolina to South Carolina), we did not have to ship any vehicles and try to figure out how we were going to negotiate having one car for an extended period of time. Along the same vein, we also did not have to deal with getting specif...

Picture taken by TwinBug Photography at twinbugphotography@yahoo.c om Isn't Navy life crazy? We had some stress this past week when we found out we could not extend our lease because the homeowner's plan to return to the property-- the house we are currently living in. (Check out my blog post " Murphy's Law .") My hubby talked to his lieutenant and detailer and we were able to get orders for October. Even better, we have the orders PRINTED and IN HAND so we can set up our move in August before our lease expires. It all came together. In all honesty, I had a bit of a freak out when I found out that we couldn't extend our lease. It really stressed me out. I kept thinking about how much money it would cost for us to move in-town, as well as the inconvenience. And this would be just weeks or months before we would be moving again! (Confused? Read that blog post I mentioned, " Murphy's Law ." It will fill you in.) Not that I freaked out tha...

  When I was pregnant with twins, stuck at home and trying to find things I was allowed to do, I ended up working on our "Navy Notebook," an idea I had after a completely hectic move where paperwork was everywhere and information scarce when I needed it. Moving from Hawaii, we had a moment-- hours-- of panic when we realized my husband's medical records were missing. Since he is in the STA-21 program and was on his way to NSI in Rhode Island, we were exceptionally concerned that if we didn't find the records, he would be thrown out of the program. While he was on the phone with the moving company negotiating prices to unpack then repack boxes already nailed into crates, I tore through our six overweight duffel bags until I eventually did find the medical records. The idea of the Navy Notebook, or Move Notebook, is that all our information is organized in one place. I won't be arriving at the housing office missing Power of Attorneys or socia...