To Hawaii or Bust!

Okay, here is the story.

As many of you may well know I was planning on leaving to Hawaii the first week of September. All the plans had been made and everything seemed to be going along like clockwork. The movers came on August 17th and started packing our house. I lounged around the house reading up on all my baby magazines and checking in on the movers from time to time. We already past our pre-inspection just a couple of days before and I was feeling pretty good about my first major military move.

The next day the movers came to finish packing and to start loading our boxes onto their truck. About an hour after the movers had arrived I received a call from Ray who sounded very upset. There was a possibility that he would have to do West Pac with the sub at the end of next year. This didn’t make any sense to me since Ray is scheduled to leave his sub before then. About a couple of hours after I got off the phone with Ray the doorbell rang. It was Ray on the other side of the door. Now I realized that something was wrong .

It turns out that the military only allows one family move every 12 months. But those 12 months are counted starting on the first day that Ray arrives in Hawaii, not me. So if Ray’s sub doesn’t get to Hawaii until December we wouldn’t be able to move again until next December. Ray would have no choice but to extend his time on the sub until next December and be forced to go on West Pac. (For those of you who don't know, a West Pac is a sub spending six months under water somewhere in the middle of the ocean with little to zero contact with family.)

Well, this is not what we had planned. Even though the movers were ready to load everything that day, I knew that we were given three days for the move, so after several calls to the moving company I had the movers drop everything they were doing and asked them to come back tomorrow. Ray and I needed time to figure out what we should do.

After several long talks with the both the moving inspectors and Ray a new plan was made. I would stay here in Washington until after our baby is born. By that time Ray’s sub might actually be in Hawaii, (but no one is holding their breath on that). Once I get the okay from the doctor I’ll have all our stuff here in Washington put into temporary storage and the baby and I will fly out to Hawaii. We will rent a small furnished apartment and make the best of everything for the short time that we are in Hawaii.

So, the next day we had the movers come back and unpack everything. It was a mess getting everything back in order. There are still half-empty boxes and packing tape scattered around the house. We are still working on getting our house back to looking and feeling like a home.
On a good note, all this packing and unpacking has totally confused all our neighbors. Now they don’t know what to think of us. The other good thing is that Ray and I will be together to go trick or treating this Halloween. (It is never too early to teach your kids the art of begging for candy.)

Now, before you get all bummed out, I want to tell you that yes, you will still be able to have an excuse to go to Hawaii. I suggest saving up your money now and making plans to spend Spring Break with us and the new baby. Or if you’ll be in the area come pay us a visit here in Washington. It looks like I’ll be here for a while.