PCS Express

Attention Newman family. Please buckle your seat belts and hold on tight. The PCS Express is about to take off.

Today I was talking to a non-military friend in the states and she was asking me some questions about our upcoming move. It made me realize that 1) most of you have never had the joy of having the military move you halfway around the world, and 2) those of us who have done it before talk to each other about it using cryptic terms. For example, can you decipher this? "We're going to TLF for 4 nights- they are giving us an extra day of TLA because our Final is on a Thursday." What do you mean you have no idea? TLF is a temporary lodging facility (on base), TLA is your temporary living allowance (government reimbursement for said lodging, normally 3 nights when leaving Yokota) and Final is the final inspection of your base housing and government furniture (and it can't be on a Friday, in case you don't pass, so ours is on a Thursday). I hope you are all taking notes, there may be a pop quiz in the future.

Even though I have known this move was coming for, oh, about three years, it feels like it has snuck up on me. I am going to try and blog about what is going on, and especially how it affects Abbey and Elliott, so I can remember later on. If you have any tips or tricks for making this a "smooth move" please send them my way!

The next big thing coming up for us is "packing out." This is where the moving company comes and packs all your belongings into two shipments- a small one that goes by air (fast), and then everything else into a larger one that goes by boat (SLOW). It is great to have someone else do all the packing, really it is, but it's also stressful. We have to decide what goes in each shipment, what to take in our suitcases, and what to leave here. And while they are packing, we have to be constantly watching to make sure that everything is going where it's supposed to. (You always hear horror stories of full garbage cans being packed up- what a nice housewarming gift that would be at your next base!) I anticipate this being the hardest part for Abbey because almost all of her "stuff" will be gone, and I'm sure it's hard to understand that we will see it all again.

Several non-military friends have asked me if I'm happy or sad to leave Japan... it's funny because I don't think any friends living here have asked me that. When you are married to (or in) the military it doesn't matter if you really are ready to move, you have to just get ready. If that makes any sense. And to answer that question, I am both happy and sad to leave Japan, but since I can't stay, I am trying to enjoy the things I love while I can, and when I encounter something I won't miss, remind myself it's only for a short time longer.

Please keep us in your prayers this weekend as we prepare for packing out, and next week that everything will go smoothly. I promise I won't let them pack the camera so you can all see what it's really like.