Moved...

Well we made it to Jacksonville!  We are currently staying at the Lodge on base until we can move into a home. Our trip was pretty uneventful which is great. We spent the night in New Orleans. Apparently that weekend there was a dog show. The hotel we stayed in was full of dogs. Rowdy and Pepper were in heaven. Thankfully they settled down so we all slept. Things weren't so great when we arrived here. It turns out the reservation for the hotel was made for the incorrect date and my husband never noticed when he printed the confirmation. Unfortunately this is not new for him. This is the third or forth time he has done something like this. I am starting to think I need to reserve rooms from now on. Anyway, they didn't have any pet rooms left, but they gave us a non-pet room. We had to pay up front for the room which I was not prepared for. We also have not received our travel advance yet so everything has been out of pocket. They made my husband check out earlier than stated on his orders which meant the money wasn't ready in time. I woke up this morning to see our bank account at zero. It was not a great feeling. We had enough in savings to put a security deposit down on a house and they are letting us wait until the money comes in to pay rent. However that means we are stuck in the prepaid hotel room until Friday when hopefully the money is in. We were hoping to be out of here by tomorrow so we could get some money back, but at least we do have a place to stay while waiting. The house we are renting is in a pretty nice area. It isn't the exact house I was hoping for, but it will do. I can tell that a dog and kids have been living in it. It is pretty beat up, but they lowered the rent and they will let us paint. Hannah has been begging for a pink room. We are trying to get used to living in a big city again. Traffic here is crazy! That will definitely take some getting used to. The other good news is we will receive most of our rent back from our last house. We lived in base housing so our rent was paid by allotment. They had already received our money for August before we moved. They held onto it until their inspection so they can take the money they need for repairs and then refund the rest to us. When we moved in they didn't require a security deposit if you pay by allotment. It will be nice to have that money back again. I will say this, if you are ever stationed in Corpus Christi avoid the housing there. Their pest control is horrible! I know that bugs are bad in the south, but we had ants living in our walls and from what I hear it is a common problem. We had them coming out of our baseboard in the master bedroom, they came out of the door jam in the back door (the day before our movers arrived), the electrical outlet in the master bedroom, and a light switch in the living room. This is after they sprayed. It was disgusting.  I know I will have to deal with ants here because it is the south still, but I really hope I don't have that level of infestation again.

And one last kick to the head is I am sick. Of course. It happened when we moved from Florida to Texas and now from Texas to Florida. Also, if you are pulling a trailer you better stop at the agriculture inspection station when entering the state. I didn't thinking it was only for commercial trucks. Turns out I was wrong. I was quickly pulled over, and given a warning. Thank goodness he didn't give me a ticket.

Orders are in!

An hour or two after tweeting about how nerve wracking it is waiting for orders, the husband received a call from the CO.  Orders were submitted Friday morning, and by last night the CO had been told of their slots.  My husband was picked up for the P-8! That is the plane he wanted since he made the move to maritime. I am so proud of him. He has worked his butt off to get this plane. Now we know for sure that we will be in Jacksonville for 3-4 years. We haven't been in a city longer than 10 months since we moved in June 2011. We are still waiting on the hard copy of orders so we don't know when we will be moving, but it is nice to know that we have a destination.  His winging is in 6 days and I know that things are going to be crazy the next few weeks.  Here is the plane he will be flying:

It is basically a 737 that the Navy uses to hunt for subs.