Make the Most of your Move | PCS Time Take 2 | My Hot Mess

We made this trip before. We went across the country - from the east coast to the southwest.

Saying goodbye to our home.

This time, we are going from the southwest to the east coast.

But this time -- with the children.

Yes. You heard that right. The first time we went across country we were blessed to have gone alone - minus the two dogs and cat that tagged along. But the boys (only had two children back then) were with their grandparents.

Hotel Life

My husband and I were able to travel and enjoy each other in the peace (except for the meowing and whining) while we visited adult stops along the way.

This time - not so lucky. Not that we didn't have the choice, but we figured we hadn't had a real family vacation in a while and decided to make the PCS move our vacation. Mostly to take the kids to Universal Studios to enjoy the Wizarding World of Harry Potter.

The boys are ALL about some HP.

The husband and I didn't want to make the same stops we did on the way to Texas so we had to look at the map and figure out some fun family friendly stops while ensuring we stayed within 7-9 hours of driving a day AND make it to North Carolina in our allotted time.

Headed out.

What we came up with was -  Houston, Pensacola, Orlando and then Fayetteville (home).

Why those places? Well, Houston because my eldest is a Texans fan and we thought visiting the football stadium would be awesome. Pensacola ... well, we thought we'd get to see the beach, but really it was a nice place to stop for the night because going all the way to Orlando would have been a horrible LONG drive. And Orlando, because of course, Universal Studios.

The longest of the drives was going to be El Paso to Houston. 10 Hours (without stopping) - why is Texas so BIG?! LOL I had the little girl, two dogs and the eldest to help me out with the littlest. Dad had the middle boy. Mostly to keep the boys from arguing with each other. Save both of our sanities for the multi-day trip!

We almost didn't get to do the Texans' stadium because when I emailed to ask how we went about getting tickets or reservations, they replied the next day stating they were sold out. I was completely bummed and emailed them back explaining our situation and you know what? They were amazing. They squeezed all five of us into the tour and the eldest (and the middle) enjoyed themselves thoroughly. I cannot thank them enough for letting us join in even though they were full.

How do you travel with animals you ask? VERY CAREFULLY. And it requires planning - which we are NOT good at. LOL We had to ensure every hotel we went to allowed dogs. We stayed at Marriott all throughout the trip as we wanted to grab points, use points, and well - the military gives us a per diem, we were going to use that per diem.

Every where we ate had to be fast food or a place where we could keep an eye out on the dogs. We either popped the back window for them or kept the car running while we ate. Though the latter was difficult because cars are smart now and won't let you lock the car doors with the key fob. We had to keep someone in the car, lock with the door locks and then climb out the back window (which would obviously have to remain unlocked) so that we could give the impression that the car was locked ... when really, anyone could have stolen our car with the dogs inside.

In Pensecola, we decided not to go to the beach so that we could get to Orlando a day earlier and actually enjoy Fourth of July at the park instead of on the road. We did stop at a pretty awesome Outdoor World (in which the dogs were allowed inside because Bass Pro Shops is pet friendly). The kids enjoyed the fish, ducks and other sights inside the store. It also gave us a chance to stretch our legs AND feel like we saw SOMETHING in Pensacola!

 We left in the morning to head to Orlando - still a 7-8 hour trip. Did I mention that the boys didn't know a damn thing about where we were going? All they knew was that we were headed to Fayetteville to live in our new home. They had no clue about Orlando.

 We decided to surprise them just outside the Orlando area - at a rest area. Yes, my middle child was NOT happy about "just getting shirts" in his box. LOL until big brother finally let him in on the surprise (since middle can't read ... LOL). My little girl was just excited to be out of the car seat! haha!

Four days at Universal and we had a blast. We enjoyed the Jurassic World area and even got to watch baby raptors get hatched and NAME ONE!

Yes, we were nerds and matched our outfits for our trips. Only mom and dad and the baby (who was forced) met Blue, the raptors. Our middle child wanted to see her so bad but chickened out last minute.

Of course, we spent the majority of our time in the Harry Potter world. We did get a small break in the fact that we got a special needs pass for our eldest (who's autistic) in which if the line was longer than 30 minutes, we just got to get a mark to return in one hour. So that helped us out big time with riding the newer rides and seeing more of the park.

 We also really enjoyed our oldest being 12 and sort of a sissy. We (as in my husband and I) thoroughly enjoyed the family member waiting/child swap area! We got to take turns on rides that the littles couldn't go on, leave the littles with the eldest when he didn't want to go on a roller coaster and get to ride multiple times since the kids all didn't want or couldn't ride. It was amazing.

Only bad thing? The afternoon showers. Florida has afternoon showers in the summer ... like every damn day. I totally forgot about this and didn't bring the ponchos. It wasn't that big of a deal, until it was the last day where it POURED and we got SOAKED. Tensions were on high and we tried to still have fun. The littlest had a blast in the water ... she didn't mind at all.

We made it to Fayetteville for my birthday ... in which we were awoken by the fire alarm. So much for sleeping in for my 35th birthday!

Needless to say though, we had a blast on our trip across the country. My biggest tip to y'all PCSing is to most definitely make the most our of your forced move and vacation. Each military member is given a set time allotment to move, so many days (depending on length/distance), given so much money to live in hotels and to EAT.

Take that and make the most of it!

Here we go again | PCS take 2 | My Hot Mess

As y’all may remember from my other recent PCS post, HERE, we are months from heading back to Fort Bragg, NC.

We are months from starting ALL OVER again.

Okay, I’m being a little melodramatic. I mean, we aren’t starting ALL over again. We did live there before.

FOR 12 YEARS.

So I mean, we have that going for us. BUT we did sell our home. So we’ve been in the process of finding a new home. Of course, we know the area and we are using the same trustworthy realtor that sold our home to find us a new home.

But shit y’all, shopping for a home across the country BLOWS!

We are using the app ZILLOW to look through homes. We did the same thing when we moved to Fort Bliss, Texas to find our rental home. It’s a great app - if the sellers’ realtor spends the extra moola to have a professional take pics of their home! I mean - that’s really how we’ve decided in the past where we were going to live in El Paso because when you’re deciding between a home that has “meh” pictures and a home that has outstanding photos detailing all the good in the home - of course you’re going to pick the better photographed home!

I guess I’m close to this matter anyway, being a photographer myself and having friends who photograph homes for a living. But I mean, come on guys! If you’re selling/renting a home and your realtor/home manager doesn’t hire a professional photographer - find yourself another realtor.

Okay, off my soapbox - main point of this post is that trusting the realtor you’re working with is crucial. Our realtor, Amethyst, has walked us through every process. And lemme tell ya ... we've had a lot of dumb questions. She’s a military spouse as well and understands our struggles and the current market. Not to mention, has a great network of people around Fayetteville that take care of her clients. We felt it when we were sellers and now feeling it again as buyers.

Yes, this is a little plug for her but also a little lesson in PCSing and buying a new home. Granted, we've only sold one house and in the process of buying our second one. I know others have WAY more experience at this. But I have heard some horrid stories about not being able to find housing once getting into town - both on post or off. (At any installation - no one specifically). Large families staying in hotels for weeks upon months...animals being kenneled for long periods because temporary housing wouldn’t allow etc.

I knew that I wanted to come to a home the second we got in town. That's what we did coming to El Paso, that's what I wanted to do again. We spent 5 days in a hotel in Fayetteville because we had sold our home but we couldn't leave for a few days with our three pets (our children were luckily with grandparents) when we were coming to El Paso - and it was cramped and not fun. Could you imagine a family of 5 with two (our cat died while in Texas) animals in a hotel?!?!

No thank you.

Using Zillow, we’ve been able to browse many houses in the area(s) we preferred and bid on one - unfortunately as perfect as it was, we lost the bid. Like it was perfect y’all. Lol.

It was disappointing for obvious reasons but also because our realtor was amazing in setting up quick house tours for us and videoing her walk thru. Like - how amazing is that?! She took the time to walk thru the homes for us and not only give her opinion of the house but to video it for us so we could see the state of it right at the moment. Giving today’s technology - this is crucial. Again, trusting your realtor and knowing he/she will work for you to ensure you get what you want is CRUCIAL!

But we got back in and searched newly released homes and bid on another - after much anxiety. We are currently under contract for it - YAY!!! So fingers crossed everything goes well and we will be homeowners once more.

I’m excited to be able to have an address to forward mail, to change billing info to, to fill out in school applications, to make cute mailing stamps with, and all the other change of address things that need to happen.

Another tip I suggest is having someone you trust who lives in the city (if you have that luxury) to set up an appointment to walk thru the home as well. I have a friend here who had her sister walk thru a home before they put an offer in. I will probably try to fly out to walk thru the home before closing BUT if I can't, I'll be sweet talking some of my friends out there to help a sister out!

VA Loans ... I'm not the subject matter expert here. But all I can tell you a this moment is, your realtor SHOULD be able to dumb down the process to get you to the right lender to get everything settled. You shouldn't have to do anything except submit the proper paperwork for your credit to be scanned and wait for a lender to accept. Running credit is always scary ... at least it is to me and I have fairly good credit. I always wonder what the lender is thinking when they see bank accounts cross by and they're like ... "that's ALL they have in savings?" or "They think they can buy a $200K house on that income?" haha! I'd love to be a fly on the wall.

Put into considerations as well, even though the house we are under contract for isn't exactly what we wanted, it is pretty damn near close. AND we kept telling ourselves - it's not our forever home. I think military families ... and families that move a lot in general for work or other reasons - think this often. I mean, you just need a place to live in and tolerate for the time you're going to be working at said location. You want to be comfy, you want to have luxury, and you don't want to hate the home you're living in for 2-5 years.

I believe looking for a home that isn't your forever home is much easier. I already pity the realtor who is going to help us find/build our forever home ... wherever that may be. (We still haven't figured out where we want to retire .... LOL ) I'm a picky so-and-so and my husband requires certain amenities and well ... we want a diamond studded mansion on a Ramen dinner budget.

Happy PCS season ya'll and here's to finding the home you're dreaming of for this adventure.

Stocking Holder When You Don't Have a Fireplace | My Hot Mess

As you know, we have recently moved from North Carolina to Texas. We've lived in our old home in NC for 11 years... we had a fireplace. We never used the damn thing, but we had one. 

Flash forward to our Texas home ... we don't have a fire place. Did we notice this when looking at the house? 

No.

I mean, it's just something you don't really look for when trying to find an affordable home for three years and you tend to look over the little things like that because ... well ... it's not your forever home.

Do we need a fireplace?

No, I mean, we had one for 11 years and never used it. The realtor asked us if it worked because the buyers were asking ... we just looked at each other and shrugged our shoulder.

Shit. We didn't even try. 

Well, we tried once ... but nothing happened and we didn't feel like getting blown up (it was a propane...gas?) one so we just turned off the air vent and went along with our lives.

With Christmas finally here in the desert... I started pulling out our holiday decor ... and that's a whole other fiasco because face it, you buy the decor to fit your house. The lights (we had to buy more because the new house has more roof than our old), the tree/tree stand (there really isn't anywhere to put the tree so we had to move the dogs bed and confused the hell out of them), the garland (Have way too much for such a tiny space) and the stocking holders. 

Wait ... shit. The stocking holders. Where the hell am I going to put the stocking holders? We don't have an mantel. We don't have built in wall shelves. I didn't want to add holes to the walls .... What the hell was I supposed to do?

Pinterest to the rescue. You'd be surprised some of these crafty people came up with! Hooks on a beat up fence. Hooks on a reused pallet. Hooks on a 2x4 that they hung on their wall. Cardboard boxes to look like brick and pile them up to look like a fireplace. And then there was an old fence pole with antique hooks on it. Self standing. No additional holes on my rental's walls AND it was cute!

So, I made it.

The fence pole is from Home Depot - $15

Long, skinny piece of wood - $3 (I had originally grabbed 4 pre-cut designer pieces in the table isle but when I found the long piece for cheaper, I knew I'd be able to cut it and still look nice.)

The paint - FREE, was left in our rental's garage (I think it's the interior wall color) - Free

Antique hooks from Hobby Lobby - $6 (total for all four)

Also used cabinet silencer thingies - FREE (had already) on the bottom of the stocking holder since we have tile and I didn't want it to wobble or scratch the floor.

I had originally found cheap pack of 2 hooks from Home Depot but when I went to Hobby Lobby, they were having 50% off antique hooks and knobs. So instead of paying just $3 for plain hooks from Home Depot (and they looked harder to put into the pole), I paid just $3 more and got hooks I really loved.

Tools - circular saw, wood screws, electric drill/screwdriver (all in which we had laying around the garage)

Total project: $24 and some quality time with the hubby

I wrapped some garland around it to make it more festive ... I had it laying around and figured I should use it. I know this defeats the purpose of the antique hooks ... but I still love it and it looks great in our odd corner where the tree is.

And oh look! I transformed our Halloween pumpkin decor into Christmas decor! ;) Just bought the $4 white spray paint and used acrylic paint for the features, my sons hat, and my "Gru" scarf from Halloween 2014. :) When you pay $30 for your pumpkins you make them last through Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas!

What are some DIY projects you've come up with since moving to accommodate your new home?

Update: So, two nights after I put up the stocking holder ... the dogs grabbed the Elf on the Shelf from a stocking in which he was sitting in and pulled the entire stocking holder down. Yeah ... momma was not happy ... and the kids were traumatized. LOL Don't worry, our elf is safe and sound - and healing just fine. The bandages and cast are completely off of him now. Just a sweet cheek scar is left of the "attack" but shit, chicks dig scars  ... right? ;)