We found out we would be moving to Virginia Beach, VA in February of 2017. I was super excited that I would finally get to be with my amazing husband! We immediately started looking at houses, school districts, and daycare. You would not believe how fast these houses go! By the time I would send it to my Husband to look at and him reply, it would have been rented and off the market. I spent months looking and looking because I literally had it pinned down to a neighborhood! My Property Management side got a little carried away and I was not only looking for location but for commute time as well. (yes, Nashville ruined my love of driving for forever!)
Fast forward till November, at this point Mr. Husband is completely freaking out because we still didn't have a house and I was getting extremely nervous that we were going to end up in a bad area so I held on tight to the neighborhood I wanted and just crossed my fingers. FINALLY a house got posted that was everything I could have asked for! It was in our budget, not renovated but not falling apart and enough room for the family. I think I probably called that guy at least five times until he answered. Still to this day I think our landlord is a tad bit creepy but we have had zeros problems with him thus far! Only one problem we would have to move in during the month of December..... Husband wasn't going to be here until March. I was extremely nervous but still very excited & hopeful. Keep in mind this is my first PCS & my first move more than 2 hours away from home.
- Turned in two week notice
- Scheduled pack out & movers
- Put together my first PCS binder (seriously this thing saved my life)
- Tried to clean up all the kids randomness as much as possible
- Spend as much time as I possibly could with my friends and family
We set our move date for the first week in December and the plan was to drive up with my Mom, meet the movers the next day, get everything situated while I still had her help, and take her back and spend Christmas at home. Let me just say that so many of the horror stories are true they may not be life or death but you can be sure to go into culture shock. We originally were supposed to arrive the day before the movers, come to find out they got delayed not once, not twice, but three times. We had two kids with only a back pack full of toys and us with a suitcase for a weekend. My first memory of Virginia Beach was that it was cold and windy. We stayed in a hotel for the first week and a half, both children were sick and my mom and I were dying from allergies. It was a disaster! The only good part was that it was the beach, who doesn't love the beach?!
I had finally came to the conclusion that I was going to have to take the chance and move without having a job. This drove me absolutely crazy as I have always been the head of house hold and the fact I would be at the mercy of my Husband giving me an allowance to live scared the hell out of me. I found a job withing two weeks but I was beyond nervous for a good minute with our Son's daycare being $299 a week and after school for my Daughter being $96 every two weeks I needed every single bit of that raise! FYI I found out the hard way coming from TN where there are no state taxes to VA where taxes are high....OMG I got almost a $3 an hour raise and I am bringing home less. I about fell to the floor the first pay check I received.
After we dropped my Mother back off in Alabama and said the hardest good-bye ever, we were on our own. Me, a soon to be 7 year old and a 7 month old. Lord help me! Remember how your parents told you all bad comes in threes? Well its completely true, first the movers but now this Alabama girl had to deal with snow! I had never driven in snow let along driven with kids in the snow. Here I was starting a new job and schools were cancelled, roads were closed, and I was stuck having to learn to drive and find a baby sitter for the first time ever. There were a lot of tears that were shed!! ALOT!! The Diva liked it for a total of five minutes before she came in saying it was way to cold for her and then pretty much refused to go out in it again. It was pretty but I still hate it.
On a funny note: You know what you can't do with two kids? Go to the liquor store!! I mean I don't think anyone would have kicked me out for taking the two of them in with me but I was just too scared to chance it. When I needed it the most my Mommy juice was no where to be found!
Here are some truths!
- I never realized how hard it would be picking up two kids from two separate daycare's. ( My Mom has always been the babysitter for my kids)
- I think in my first month of work I have had one week were I didn't get a call from my Daughter's school about her having a fever or her eye swelling shut that I had to leave work immediately to go pick her up.
- Teething baby = zero sleep and no one to let you tap out.
- I have had enough Dr's visits to last me a small lifetime.
- I might have said "I am moving back to Bama" about 397,268,000 times!
- I did not win the military wife of the year award. I called him crying and couldn't hide my emotions. Felt extremely resentful especially when he was in school and got to go out to bars and casinos. I pretend killed him in my mind at least a 1000 times!
- I have realized that this whole PCS thing is not for the faint of heart especially with children and I will know better next time.
- Lastly clicklist and grocery pick up is the best invention ever!!!!! One trip and two melt downs later I am never taking my children in a grocery store ever again!
