Packin out

This last week or two has been a complete and total mad house after getting back from Utah.  I knew it was a tight deadline, but had ZERO idea really what was entailed in being the leader (aka sponsor) in a move overseas.  Yeah... whose idea was this?  Oh, yeah... mine.  It's still surreal some two weeks after this whole thing REALLY got going... you would think it got real when I shipped my car, but nope.

Packing really didn't make it real.  I'm sitting in Germany right now catching up on the blog and it is still surreal and doesn't seem like this is my life... not really.  weird feeling... but I digress and I need to get you updated on what has happened over the last few weeks.  This was published on the 14th.  This was the "household goods" move, so really the 2nd part of the move.... we are a little more organized on what we going to take with us.  In hind sight we really should have culled a LOT more...

Packing of storage went fairly well, we had them come in with three guys and get done in a day. They went from 9am to 9pm to get it done and the LAST thing they loaded was the lawn mower.  Talk about scary and funny to watch all at the same time... it was scary as they had NO tools to get stuff done on this and funny as they were trying it all sorts of ways without a clue what they were doing.  They finally let Butch get them a chain and a pulley to get it into the back of the truck.  Geeze, that was some work. That was the 8th and was supposed to go the 9th, but didn't happen, they packed it all out that night and were gone!

Next up was the Household goods:

MONDAY 14th:

the back bedroom getting packed.  The cutting machine is packed in a box somewhere in there... the packer is around the corner as well.  I tried not to get faces unless they were aware and willing to be photographed....

Maurice in the living room packing up in there... you can see his arm just past the column!

I don't remember this genleman, but he was packing the kitchen and was super slow and meticulous.  The rest of the folks gave him crap about being so slow.

THIS packing we bought the crew lunch.  The storage guys were in/out in one day so we didn't even think about lunch for them and they didn't eat all day.  Very strange that we didn't think to feed them.  Duh... Oh, well.  That's life.

THIS is what happened when I went to get them lunch at Zaxbys down the road - flatter than flat.

I called a tow truck and got one that hadn't been on the road long enough to have the proper tools to get it done AND the truck was missing the bar to crank down the spare tire so there we both sat looking at the truck and debating how to fix this mess.  The driver went to WalMart behind us and got a plug kit and finally got the plug in after three times... I guess in this case third time IS the charm, eh?

This is him STILL working on it.... on try two for the plug...

AND working on it... he finally had success and the truck was sold with that plug IN the tire... we just sold it and ran!!

AAANNNNDDDDD back to packing and emptying out the living room....

lids going on the crates... to be shipped over.  It's going to be like Christmas when we open all these boxes again.

And now for TLF (Temporary Lodging Facility)

bedroom in the "hotel" on base.  It's older and sort of run down, but did the trick.  It was a bed for exhausted bodies to fall in to nightly at 10pm or later.

and the living room of the hotel on base... as seen from the dining area... it has the front door to the left side by the green chair, then the door you see just to the right of centers is to the bathroom.  I would have been just as happy with a hotel room at this point, but OK... whatever you want to give us.

It's a BIG puzzle and this guy has some serious skills in cramming stuff in there... one of them he used a huge clamp to get the nails in... and honestly I will be surprised if anything survives this trip, but hey, it's covered, right?

TUESDAY

 Packing for these guys is total randomness.  They would pack 99% of one thin in one box and the rest some 10 boxes later... as I said, it's going to be like Christmas when we open these boxes!!

Butch'es specially crated Big Green Egg.  Fun stuff.  He's happy to be taking it with him.

 THIS is everything we were shipping in Unaccompanied baggage and in the plane with us... and then we still overpacked for the plane.  Lorie.  more of that later.

 empty room!  Well, except the bed.

 LOTS of items on the counter that we could not pack.  Sad, but true.

 Maurice agreed to have his picture taken putting the nails in this crate for shipping...

The first casualty of the move... my Alaska ornament that was a little bird house was crushed.... and so was I :(

Wednesday they had the final push to get the crates out of the final rooms, last bits of beds to get from here and there..then they were gone and the house was almost empty, except the room of stuff to go on the quicker shipment (unaccompanied baggage). 

Christmas Vacation

Christmas vacation started out at the butt crack of dawn.  3:30am to be precise for me.  I set my alarm, went to be really early and then got up and got ready to go.

First stop was to get Liz.  She was a bit slow coming down to the car, but she didn't dawdle too much.  Next up with Angela.  She also didn't dawdle and was awake at her pickup time of 6am.  Yeah, I know, shocking, eh??

We got to the airport in good time, parked and got to the terminal - holy tons of people!!!  There had to have been 200 in each of the terminal check-in places for bags.. there are something like 4 of them in the terminals for Delta and they were ALL packed.. the lines to security were also SUPER long!!  So, I went on a walk to see if there were other options.  There were some outdoor checkin folks.  So we chose to stand out in the cold with something like 75-100 in front of us instead of 200.  We finally got checked in with our bags and headed to security - they were wiggle waggled all the way through the airport and out around the outside to the check in area.  VERY LONG lines to get in.  So... we were all TSA-pre-checked and made it through the lines quicker than most and made it into the terminal in record time.  We were able to even sit down for a good breakfast with a mimosa even :)

Off to Vegas!

Once we touched down in Vegas, got the rental car - with full discussions of the english language.  My upgrade card said "upgrade TO a full size car" and the guy was telling me it meant upgrade to the next higher grade up TO a full size car.  Nope, nothing about next step in there, just "up to a full size car" so I did end up with a full size car :)  Yay for us since we had enough luggage that we had to play tetris to get them all in there without shoving and cram.  So - yay!

We then took a few tours around town, first up was a stop for me to see the old Condo - so I drove out there - boy has the surrounding area gone downhill.  The condo's looked like they were in decent shape, but the area around it wasn't so hot.  Oh, well, I don't own it anymore!  it was interesting to see what has grown up around the south side of town though - WOW has it grown!!

We took off from there driving south to go through the strip and show the kids all the fancy places and there were some HUGE ones down there now.  So - we have agreed to meet Angela there for her 21st birthday.  Wouldn't that be fun?

The next stop was for Butch to see where he lived while in Vegas.  It was crack central and drive by shooting level places.  Scary!!  It did look good though, it looked like it had been upgraded a bit from when he lived in it.  Then it was north toward Nellis and exiting town.

All those stops took quite a while and it was now dark, so the kids got to see the lights as we were driving out of town.  Ah, nothing like Vegas lights at night, hum?

I then proceeded to drive to Cedar while the rest of the crew nodded on and off on the way up.  Good thing I wasn't tired!!  It was a good drive up and much shorter than I remembered.  We had the added bonus of having the HUGE full moon coming up over the horizon as we were driving through the desert.

No-one was hungry until we hit Cedar, so we stopped at a FireHouse Sub and had a sandwich for dinner and then headed over to Linda's house.  She was funny saying she would have fed us, not sure what, but she would have fed us.  I know she would have, but it was much simpler to just stop and eat on the way and be done with it.

Sunday morning dawned with Butch and I actually going to church and listening to the nice Sunday service with Linda and Mike in the choir.  It was nice and very Christmassy.  Sunday evening Gail and Seth and kids came into town.  It was fun to visit with them and hang out.  We did a lot of games and visiting and napping and enjoying the down time.  At one point - not sure what day - we went to see Christmas lights around town.  It was very enjoyable and we had a good time driving through one neighborhood that goes all out and has the Christmas story on boards throughout the drive.  Very nice large homes up there!

We also made it to Cedar Breaks. Well the canyon road to cedar breaks. For photos in the cold and snow.

Figured out we needed to turn around so you could see the Breaks :)  Duh!

I hope that Liz shares the pictures she took as well!

How Liz gets in position to take pictures of the initials on a tree on the slope - too funny!

So.... right at the summit - as in right across from the summit sign the kids had to pee... so they got out and went pee over on the side of the road (behind tress and a snow berm) over the south side of the road.  They then did a bit of vandalism while they were there... at least they would know exactly where they marked their tree.

Christmas was met with vegan casserole.  It's funny that Linda calls it that as it's eggs and meats and cheeses, nothing vegan about it.  ha!  Johnathan was very anxious to open presents, but the one tradition they insist on is to have breakfast before opening presents.  We had a few presents to open - just little silly things for the girls and Butch.  We got some yummy dried apples from Linda and Mike  along with some candied pecans.  I have LOVED the apples!  They are great!  AND it snowed!  Ok, it just stuck a little, but it snowed!!

 This was right after Johnathan had gotten their.  They found a bonding moment with pokemon.  Funny she did this with Katies kids too :)

 APPLES!!!

 SNOW!!!

 Ok the story behind this one was so funny!  They game was Telestrations.  You get a word, you draw the word, you pass, they guess and it goes around... and when you get to the end,  you see what you have... we did have some funny ones with naked eye... how on EARTH do you draw that?  Then man purse ended up as cross dresser ;)  The BEST one that had us breaking out cameras was the nurse shark that half way through became the first aid shark - then Angela's illustration of First Aide Shark was precious!!

I had made the choice to stay in Cedar until the day after Christmas to drive north.  Mostly it was the snow and the fact we would be driving up after dark.  The other part was that I really wanted to stop at the Family Tree restaurant for scones.  They are FAMOUS for their scones and have been since I went to college there.. probably before then.  they are tasty with the honey butter!  Everyone was hungry by the time we got there and ordered foods.  They ordered different foods and I opted for the Indian Taco on a (you guessed it) a scone!  We had heard from Linda and Mike that the food had gone down hill, but it wasn't so.  They had good food when we were there, maybe they were there on a bad cooks day!

We got to Roberts and settled in.  It was nice to sit and visit with them and we even got to enjoy getting to know Hobbs their big male mouser.  He was a friendly one!  Sadie warmed up by the time we left to some degree.  She even let me pick her up and snuggle her a bit.  Jinx was the other yellow tabby male, brother to Hobbs and he was friendly, but not as friendly and snuggly as Hobbs.  I wanted to take Hobbs home in my suitcase!

Wednesday was just hanging out and visiting and eating and even playing games.

Thursday we went for a short hike up the canyon to Bridal Veil Falls - in the snow!  Yep, it snowed quite a few times while we were up there... it was nice to adjust to snow a bit before heading to Germany.  I got to test out my warm boots as well :)

Snow at Robs house on the way out... lots of snow!!  Pretty!

 Bit of a snowball fight before heading out...

these photo's are out of order and honestly I'm too tired to fix them, sorry... they're all in Provo however!!

We also went to the restaurant Sarah works at and enjoyed some sushi for lunch!  Eric was able to join us for lunch, but Brittnee was working and wasn't able to join in. 

After that we headed over to the Cabela's there in town for Butch to shop for some winter gear.  Then back to the house to meet up with Katie and Casey and their kids of all people.  They were headed down to Linda's that night and were able to stop by to say "hi" before they continued on!  Very nice visit.  Then we went to the movies to see the new Harry Potter movie about Magical Beasts.  Good show.

Friday was spent seeing old friends in Ogden and nieces.  We started out with Butch's friend on Base, then lunch, then off to Sue and Marks.  The boys were there too, so that was a surprise - Jordan and Zack are all grown up - both married and doing good.  It was fun to see them all.

Next up was Janette for just a second.
Then Jessica with Scarlette and her boyfriend.
Then off to the lights in Temple square with Mandy Colton and Onyx.

We did have a fun thing to do, we had some money from Linda to get things from the "Light the world" kiosks at the Temple.  So we did...
We donated $100 worth of things that we hope will have the most impact on the world.  The ones we chose were polio shots (for 100) and menstruation kits for 5 girls in third world countries, glasses with eye exams, chickens to produce eggs and babies, and fish to start farms.  Here's hoping that this will have a positive impact on multiple people in the world who can use a leg up.

By that time it was too late to make it out to see Nick and Kaylee and kids.  Sad!!  It was a long fun day, however.

Saturday was our departure... it snowed overnight again... nice light airy snow.  very pretty and fun for the girls to see.  AND off to the airport and home... it was a LONG week.. a fun week... and we have discovered 5 days is enough.  6 days we start to get testy... then 7 days and are pure ill with each other.   BUT overall we loved it and had a great time!  We need to go back again and not in 17 years that it took for all of us to get back at the same time... but here's hoping we do it in the summer....  not a fan of snow!!  ha!

PCSmyPOV and adventures in a move to Germany

Well, you would think after deploying hundreds of thousands of folks around the world that these things would be fully and accurately updated and tasked out with a check sheet for any and all places you would be going. Yeah.  No.

 

So, the first lesson I learned on moving my car from sunny Georgia to Wintery Germany was that you need snow tires.  I DID find this out by reading all the documentation on line about the requirements... and we needed new tires anyway, so time to spend money on new tires but making sure they will meet the requirements to be driven in Germany in the winter.  Problem solved.  New tires.

 

The day arrives for me to actually get things moving on the move and get the car turned in.  I did have to get a letter from the moving offices (TMO - Travel Management Office) stating I was authorized to ship said car.  Although, I'm still wondering WHY this added piece of paper is needed since they had it on my orders that I was authorized, but OK.  OH, and something they also needed was proof of ownership.  Say what?  Yeah, proof of ownership. Well, I don't really own it, Toyota owns it for now.  Hum, call Toyota finance to get their approval to move overseas with said car.  I was told "no".  Uh, hello?  I’m on government orders, now is it OK?  Nope.  Yes, you read that correctly Toyota will not let you be financed through their institution with payment due on the vehicle.  I would have to refinance it through another company to take my car with me.  Hum.  I'm at zero percent interest and I HAVE zero percent interest in refinancing and paying someone else to borrow money for this so I guess that I'll be paying those last NINE payments now. SURPRISE!!  Sigh.  I'm grateful I have the money in the bank to even contemplate doing this, much less actually DO this.  So, the car is paid off.  The next hurdle is to get the letter from Toyota saying the car is indeed paid in full and technically mine, just holding on the title to be delivered to me.  What's that?  Oh, I have to wait TWO more days to get that letter as they have to make sure the money really makes it to your banking institution from my banking institution.  OK.  I will wait....

 

Two days pass without incident, the money comes out of my account and I call Toyota back to confirm they have indeed gotten the money into their banking records.  Yes, transfer is complete, happy car ownership day!  I kindly ask them to email me the ownership letter.  They kindly tell me they are not able to email outside of the company.  WHAT???  Yeah, no email capability.  They can fax it to me however.  Did you know that fax machines have gone the way of the dodo bird?  Yes.  I finally found a number for a fax machine and when I asked WHERE this fax was in this building no-one knew.  The Admin person pointed to me to the machine that she THINKS it is... I monitor said fax machine as there are notices on the machine and it appears to have the fax capabilities... they are all included in copy machines now.  So, I wait the next 24 hours hoping it will show up.  Nope, I run the settings files and such where I can see what the history is on that machine for faxes.  The last fax that was successfully sent was in 2016 - yes 2016.  YIKES!!  There are a number of failed attempts from 2018 where it states no dial tone.  Gee, that is a bust.  So, I call back to Toyota and get them to fax it to Office Depot and for $3.5x I get my fax.  Frustration.  I did tell the lady when I "RE" requested the fax that the fax machine has gone the way of the dodo birds and they really need to get that updated in their system.  Sigh.  They don't care, they are just workers.

 

So, fax in hand, all paperwork ready, car cleaned (well, sort of) and ready to go, just need to vacuum it out and I'm ready to GO.  I make an appointment for the following day at 3pm in Atlanta.  OK?  OK.

 

That day was yesterday.  I went to work as usual and realized that I had slacked out last night and did NOT vacuum the car out before going into the house and getting wrapped up in scanning negatives and doing laundry and generally doing things that needed to be done like dinner and the like.  Whoops... and it's RAINING today.  Yep, pouring.  Sigh.  Oh, well, I know the place by me has a very LARGE overhang on the vacuum machines and I know I can get in there even with rain and get it done today.  I also had a girlfriend lunch at 11am to meet the girls for Gift exchange and visit.  OK, I've got this.  I leave work, go to get the car vacuumed - get that done, get to the restaurant, meet the girls, have lunch and have a GREAT time at lunch then head to the house. 

 

I was met by a panic stricken husband who was wondering where I was because my phone was still forwarded to the office.  Whoops!  SO.  I tell him the appointment is at 3 - it's JUST 12:30 now, we're fine.  The place is in SOUTH Atlanta.  I get home, get the potty run done, grab the last minute things and head on out.  No problems.  I even looked at my gas tank and it said I had 118 miles left on my gas tank and I had to go something like 95 miles to get to the place so I'm thinking "GREAT, I should be at 1/4 tank of gas by then".

 

I arrived on site at 2:40ish – a little early for my 3pm appointment time but they took me right in.  There was some confusion about the funding of how these things were getting paid for – aka the shipping and I’m sure the flights, etc. for my trip over as well.  (I need to go over there and take care of that as well) 

 

That gas tank level?  Yeah, I wasn't at or UNDER a quarter tank.  I was a titch over.  Not much but just enough that they said "nope, not low enough... you need to take a drive and burn some gas off"... ugh!!!  THEN as she is walking away she said "Oh, you're going to Germany right?  I forgot to check to see if you have window tinting on the front as it's not allowed in Germany".  Hu?  This one is new on me.  So I told her we didn't get tinting when we got the car, so it doesn't have any.  Well, it DID.  Aftermarket window tint on the car. CRAP!!  So, there we stand in the pouring rain looking at the windows and the gas tank!!  UGH!!!!  Butch had his knife and started to peel the tinting off the windows in the parking lot... and low and behold, it all came off without a hitch - hard to get the peel started, but it peeled right off no problem.  NOW to deal with the gas.

 

By now it's 3:15 and we took a drive for about 15 minutes through the side streets in a big circle in 2nd gear to burn off gas... then Butch wanted to test my dexterity (which, by the way I DO NOT HAVE) and wanted me to REV the engine while at stop lights.  Yeah, this was not fun!!  So, between him grousing about whole gas situation and me NOT reading the whole freaking regulation on the move my stress level was NOW through the roof!!  In addition the lady had said they do not accept cars after 3:30 and of course we're damn close to 3:30 as it was.  Yeah... can you imagine how much I'm freaking out and wondering if we will have to come back the next day??  I was NOT happy, Butch was NOT happy.  AND I let him have the car while I went back into the office to tell them I was back.  Sigh.  I had a little "incident" due to the stress of it all so had to be in the potty for a bit longer than a normal person to take care of business... when I got back out I was told they had called my name already and they went ahead with someone else.  GREAT!!  I was happy with that but then I came out to Butch revving the CRAP out of my poor car.  I'm surprised the engine still runs for as overheated as I'm sure it was getting... poor Reba!!

 

It's now 3:45 (ish) The gal finishes her 2nd inspection and rescues Reba from the revving from hell and states "you're fine" ... thank goodness... the needle was BARELY on the line, but good enough for them to accept it!  Thank you, thank you, and thank you!!! 

 

It's now 4:00 (ish) I go BACK into the office to finish up with the rest of the paperwork and the exterior inspection - they marked the most minuscule scratches on the paperwork.  To the point that I was questioning him on just WHAT he was seeing.  I actually DID question him and ask him to show me what he is talking about… he insisted there were SCRATCHES there… but to me it was a little rubbed, but that was all… ugh.  I was SO over this process by then I just gave up, initialed everything and then took a video of the damn car and called it a day!!  Ha!

 

At 5:15 I walked out of the offices... yes, folks that was a LONG drawn out process of 2 hours and roughly 15 minutes with only 20 minutes added by my gas and tint fiasco.  What have I learned from this effort?

 

1.       BEFORE signing up for overseas jobs ensure your car finance company will let you travel with the loan - if not move it LONG before you head out so you're not waiting for paperwork from them saying you’re OK to travel

2.       Believe them when they say 1/4 tank or LESS...

3.       Ask for the regulations for the country you are going TO and ensure you're meeting all the needs, not just the obvious ones

4.       Plan for and schedule an earlier time slot because wrapping something up and driving out after 5pm SCUKS!! (Especially if you are over an hour away from home for this effort!)

5.       ALWAYS be nice to the folks pushing the paper, they commented on how patient I was during the process and treated me well and explained it all to me as I went.

6.       When it says "you can" print something out from that web site.  PRINT IT.  It means they want you to bring it with you (not that the blasted web site SAID that. (grumble, grumble, grumble)

7.       Breathe, this is just a small step in the whole process and there are more joys coming your way!