My highspeed Week this PCS is happening now hooah here I come Germany

Well amazingly my command sponsorship is finished...and just in the nic of time..Go Army lol
The cliff notes version is Pachenko sent an email to ICE on Sunday June 13th & I sent one to Army Family Services about the fact that no one could tell us what was going on with our CS.
  See my husband went to his chain of command and told them on June 1st "my wife got a letter our lease is not going to be renewed she has to be out on the 30th of June" yep gonna be homeless with 7 kids...
Anyways the email went out Sunday well first thing Monday morning we are emailed our CS approval, family orders and an email showing the break down of where are cs was since we turned it in ..it's an awesome time line that I am sharing with my friends so they can actually see the CS process step by step..
So off to housing my husband went on Tuesday the supervisor wasn't there so he went back Wednesday signed for housing, hit transportation and family travel..with in 2 hours my HHG move was set up and scheduled for the 24th & 25th of June and the movers came the next day to do a walk through of our house yikes what a mess..I was starting to think Cs wouldn't happen in time so we had been shoving stuff into boxes, totes & bags just in case I had to move everything into storage at the last minute but thank you to my husbands new Command in Germany for getting this done for me..it is such a relief..
the only kink in this whole thing is I will be here without furniture for 4 days and then we leave on the 30th to drive to Washington Ft Lewis to drop our car off at the Port to ship our POV..
So this means I supervise the movers, then camp out in an empty house for 4 days, then make a 9 hour road trip with 5 kids, spend a night in a hotel, drop off car at port,  spend another night in hotel, hop first plane to Frankfurt 10 hour flight with 5 kids and we have NEVER flown EVER land at Frankfurt Germany then hop another plane to Nuremberg...then hop a ride to our new home at Illesheim just in time to celebrate the 4th of July with Pachenko...
So all  this happened so fast definitely HIGH SPEED..So now I am sitting here doing some more down sizing the movers came yesterday to do a walk through and I told him what was definitely not going with us.
  After finishing the upstairs we went down stairs to the family room he took one look at all the kids my 7 girls and I had 4 additional children over playing he glanced around and said AND ALL THESE TOYS??? LMAO ok so I did tell him that I was going to try to get rid of some more..
I am sitting here going through 5 years worth of saved magazines my keep & toss pile are now equal come on that is better then my previous moves where I said NO WAY I AM KEEPING THEM ALL..after I am done with magazines I am going to work on my books seeI also told the movers I was going to try to get down to 50% on my books...think library and - 50%.
 I am an addict books are my weakness so here I am sitting  trying to get my media down 50% well the mail lady just dropped off my Harlequin box of books...ahhh LML ~{Love My Life}~

A new adventure for our family

I am excited to say that the end of the first chapter of our initiation into Army life is coming to a close. My husband Pachenko will be graduating AIT on April 20th he is graduating honor grad we are very proud of him. I look back at when he first left for BCT time just flew by for us and I am grateful for how the time apart strengthened our marriage.

As that chapter ends we are now starting the PCS~ING process first off my husband received orders to Germany oh yes an overseas pcs~ing. Now for all you wonderful Army wives who have already done an overseas move you know what that entails the dreaded EFMP paper work, Command Sponsorship as well as nofee passports...SIGH...I am very excited and am grateful that we are going to have this experience what a wonderful learning adventure for our daughters as well as ourselves. I have of course already made a list of all the places I want to visit and explore you would be crazy to not take advantage of the opportunity of being in the center point of Europe. Life is a little chaotic and extremely busy we have EFMP physicals and Nofee passport appointments scheduled next week, then the following week Pachenko will be home for a short leave before he heads over to Germany and my poor calendar is covered in to do lists.
At first I was irritated that we would not be flying over at the same time as my husband the idea of my first time flying as well as my daughters first time flying being me in a plane with 5 kids by myself for a 14 hour flight was enough to make me think hmmm stateside would of been better. However it's just not in my personality to be negative so out went those thoughts and in came the reality of the situation there is too much to do to just up and move in 30 days or less. We have a life here in Montana, a house we rent, children in school it wouldn't be impossible to just pick up and leave but I am sorta relieved that I don't have to stress and rush to get things done. Even though I am counting the days until I can wake up on a daily basis next to my husband the organized, list making addicted planner that I am is taking advantage of the delayed travel process and getting as much done as I can to make our PCS as smooth and un-stressful as it can possibly be.
I would love to hear about your ladies experiences with a first PCS to overseas as well as any tips you might like to pass on and of course I am always up for making new friends in my soon to be new home...

Auf Wiedersehen Damen

No Army Wife Left in the dark...

Well my husband and I are PCS~ing to Katterbach Kaserne according to my husbands orders...PCS-ing overseas is a process all onto itself :D The minute my husband got his AKO orders I was into research mode of course leave it to my luck to end up getting the most with the least lol yes mostly what information I managed to find on the actually Army post is out dated..As I browse social networking sites I have the same problem I am starting to fear that we are headed to a ghost town...Where in the world are all the Army wives representing this area??? Well all I have to say is I am on it I have decided to make it my mission to saturate the internet world with all the 411 any soon to be PCS-ing wife will want to know about my soon to be home..

There are some things that I can already share that I have managed to find out..

1. Obviously you need Command Sponsorship for your family to PCS overseas on the Armys Dime..They are not moving your family over there without CS approval and a new set of cut orders with your families name on them.

2. Yes you have to do the EFMP physicals to even apply for Command Sponsorship

3. Without CS approval and new orders your soldier CAN NOT get on the housing list or schedule your HHG move unless he wants to schedule your HHG move as a single soldier no dependents..

4. You need the new orders with you and your family members listed on them before you can apply for Nofee passports

 5. NoFee passports are a must have to even get transportation to schedule your flights over and they usually take 8 weeks to process and they can not be expedited however you might get lucky and they might show up early..

6. OHA overseas housing allowance is paid in the exact amount of your rent (so you will not be pocketing money)

7. Pretty much what I have heard is that you have to live in on post housing or off post military housing unless there is NONE available..

8. To drive your POV in Germany you have to get a German Drivers license written and driving test required I heard the license is like $20. however you have to have a valid stateside license to get it for $20 if not then you have to get a German license at full price which is $1,500 yes you read that right...

I will add more as I learn more and you can follow along on my personal blog or FB page..if you have any info I'd love to hear it..

Making a list and checking it a million times...

I have a thousand random thoughts running through my head which is currently causing me a giant headache since I have caught a cold from my wonderful snotty nose daughters. A few of the things that are traveling at high speed in there are my husbands AIT graduation date is next month which brings about the question of the minute "Do you know where you are moving to yet?" now as most military wives know there is no exact date and time as to when they give you your orders in AIT. Luckily having been through this with my ex-husband I already was aware of this tidbit of knowledge.
I am a planner, a organizer, a plotter, a list maker okay so you get the point amazingly even though the "waiting" to know where we are PCS-ing too isn't really bothering me or preventing me from making plans. Sure I could do more planning if I knew where we were moving to but right now I am as planned as I can be. I have my lists up and running on my laptop list 1 PCS-ing overseas what I am keeping, giving away, throwing out and need to buy, list 2 PCS-ing Stateside same thing keeping, giving, tossing and need to buy...
And then the orders come and the real fun begins pull out the lists and get the ball rolling we are headed to Katterbach Germany HOOAH