PCS?! What the What?! Part 5 | My Hot Mess

PART 5 -- if you're behind Check out PART 1, PART 2,  PART 3 & PART 4 using the links.

 

The movers have arrived.

UnPacking ....

Blah. 

Okay, okay, so the packers offered to unpack for me ... but honestly, who really knows where you want to put shit when you have tons of shit wrapped in paper and boxes?! I mean, unless you did what I suggested you to do in Part 4 -- STALKING THE PACKERS TO ENSURE EACH ROOM HAS A BOX. You don't know WHAT you're going to find in each box.

Even if labeled "Kitchen" you may just find a pair of dirty underwear in it as well.

Or a ladle in the box labeled "Bathroom."

Or the crockpot bottom in the "Kitchen" box and the lid in the "Garage" box and the ceramic piece in the box labeled, "master bedroom."

So, again, I suggest you be on those packers super close ... like so close you can smell what they had for breakfast. 

Seriously.

Ya'll the unpackers were quick. They had the truck unloaded by lunch time. 

I labeled each room in the house with the first letter of the person's name who would be sleeping there. This made it super simple to say which boxes went to which room

Again, not all the boxes were labeled properly, or had multiple rooms worth of stuff in it ... I either made the executive decision in which room it would go in, or it would stay in the garage until I was ready to unpack it.

It was easy to say, "Oh baby room, that goes in the 'G' room." or "Master box? Goes in 'M' room." Ect. And I mean, the unpackers were pretty smart, boxes labeled kitchen or glassware would go in the kitchen and knew the TVs go in the living rooms ... I mean, gotta give them SOME credit.

Once all the boxes and furniture was unloaded, the unpackers headed to lunch. Where in which I just stared at the boxes until they returned because I was starting to stress about unpacking. LOL

Luckily, the boys were still with grandparents and not running amok around the boxes and breakables. Again, I HIGHLY recommend the children (and/or pets) stay with someone while you pack, move, and unpack!

Once the unpackers returned, they offered to unpack boxes but when I realized the packers packed oddly, I just wanted these guys to put together the furniture and move them around to where I wanted it in the rooms. That was it, and they seemed pleased with that decision. LOL

The next 6 days, I would go box to box unpacking things; floating around in a sea of package paper and with my trusty knife on my side. 

I would fend off paper cuts, oddly wrapped utensils, cuss out the packers for putting dirty underwear in with the kitchen goods and search the endless piles of paper to ensure I had everything out of the boxes before tearing them down. 

This was the hard part. Once the box was empty, I had tons of paper and no where to put it. So I stuffed some boxes with the paper and broke down other boxes and put into other boxes. It was hard making room for everything when you still have empty boxes laying around. 

By the end of the first day of unpacking, I had nothing accomplished except for the refrigerator magnets. Even though there were boxes EVERYWHERE, at least it became home with the pictures of loved ones and the magnets of the places we've been and things we've accomplished.

Guys, seriously. 

Take your time unpacking.

Not everything has to be done in one day. 

It was just me unpacking for 6 days because my husband had to return to work. I literally took it room by room. And even though boxes had multiple rooms in them, I just opened the box, unwrapped the piece of paper, put the item somewhere in the room, and repeated until the box was empty.

The first room completely unpacked was the baby's room. I think sole because he doesn't have much. LOL.

Plus, I made the boys' rooms priority since I knew they'd be coming home within 7 days. 

Next, once the boxes were unpacked, and things placed SOMEWHERE in the room; I would begin to set up the room. I made beds, I placed items on shelves, bookshelves, drawers, and began to hang pictures on walls. 

Though I will admit, the pictures were last to be hung. Since after all, that's what completes a room! 

6 days ya'll. SIX.

Some say that's fast some would say why so long. But I was on a deadline. I needed the house put together before the grandparents brought the boys home.  And I did it. 

It wasn't perfect, but it was done.

My husband and I would also take the weekends to figure out places to take the boys. I can tell ya, my husband ONLY unpacked his clothes because I figured since I was home anyway, I should take that time to unpack and not waste the weekends. 

We took a walking tour around El Paso to see the murals ... sorta drove around ... ;)

Took advantage of the free concerts in the canyon to see Billy Townes and Marachi bands. And have a few margaritas. It was nice to have "Us" time. Especially after unpacking all day.

We also drove around the Concordia Cemetery (full of history) since we knew the kids would think it was "creepy." We also checked out the farmers' market and a little town that had a gunslingers show. Y'all, take time to SEE and ENJOY your new location. After all, you're going to be there for however long and that's where you're going to say where you're coming from when you leave. You better KNOW the place.

And y'all ... I still have unpacked boxes in the garage. 

I can't tell ya whats in them. Other than what it says on the labels but the house is as put together as it needs to be at the moment.

We are also working with less space in this house than the other and that was the frustrating part. Trying to figure out where everything would go. 

A lot of trips to Goodwill happened. 

I thought I had purged a lot before moving but when I got here and saw that there wasn't much storage, I really started to rethink things I saved and why would someone need two irons and that sweat stained sweater anyway. 

The trash men must've loved pulling up to our house and seeing the overflowing garbage can ... and the multiple boxes and trash bags. I know Goodwill loved me showing up every day with another 3 boxes of stuff to donate. 

Tips I wish I had done or did that you SHOULD do:

1) Follow the packers around when they filled boxes to ensure that each box was just ONE room. If it wasn't a full box, just had them fill it with paper. Multiple rooms in one box is unnecessary stress.

2) (because you would have done tip #1) Have the unpackers unpack your boxes. You may not know exactly how you want a room set up but at least you knew what was in the boxes and saved time unpacking since everything would have been unwrapped. Side note: also labeling the rooms with a letter to tell the unpackers where to put the boxes was super helpful, because saying, "the second room to the left." 5 billions times sucks.

3) Never underestimate the power of help from anyone who is willing to watch your kids or animals while moving or unpacking.

4) Definitely purge before packers pack your house. My mantra was that I'd figure it out in Texas. Bad idea, it was more of a pain while unpacking trying to figure out if the item was needed or could be donated/trashed. You WILL need to purge without a heart. Things have less value to them when you're not attached to them. If you haven't used it within the last 6 months, trash/donate.  

5) Have the unpackers return to pickup empty boxes. Our trash men/recycle men were not too helpful if the stuff was outside the cans. They would just take the stuff from the cans. So I would have to wait a whole other week to throw the rest of the stuff away. Having the unpackers pick up my boxes a month later was FANTASTIC. Though it did take up a lot of space in the garage and I still can't put my car in the garage.

6) If you are lucky enough to have someone who stays home during the week, let them unpack everything because it sucks having to waste your weekends unpacking. If you HAVE to unpack on the weekends, only unpack one day of that and then enjoy the rest of your weekend. Guys, the house will eventually get unpacked. Why stress yourselves out trying to do it in a hurry?

7) We are still contemplating this, but get a small storage unit for the military gear. My husband and I have so much shit for the military and we have a smaller garage than last house. So everything is taking up the garage and we can't use the garage for what it's intended for. To house the cars. We need a garage, especially with this heat here.  My only thing is, if we have the unit, I may put more stuff in it and why pay for storage for stuff you don't use anyway?

Hope this helps you out a tad ... I know a few of you are going through this right now and hopefully this provides some sort of insight for y'all. Because I was going in blindly and had no clue what to expect! Stay tuned, I have one more part this series (figuring out your location)!

So hang in there and Good Luck! 

PCS? What the WHAT?! Part 4 | Having Fun While Moving | My Hot Mess

PART 4 -- if you're behind Check out PART 1, PART 2, & PART 3 using the links.

Y'all, once the movers were gone. Hubby and I were STRESSED THE 'F' OUT. Not only did we have nothing in our house for a week, we also had the boys with NOTHING TO DO in the house for half a week.

You must be thinking to yourselves, "Four days aint bad ..."

But you're WRONG.

I'm sorry, but you are. LOL When you have two anxious little boys with only an iMac to keep them busy and a few small toys ... bickering, nit-picking, antagonizing, and arguing seemed to follow them like the plague.

Luckily, we did do a few "last things in Fayetteville," before they headed to grandparents for the summer.

Daddy took Nini and the boys to the beach one last time.

We made sure we said goodbye to the Librarians who helped teach the boys since birth (and say bye to "mr. bobo.")

And we took a final picture in front of the infamous "Market Square."

After all was said and done. The time finally came for the boys and Nini (gramma) to head on a plane to Colorado for two weeks (which then for another 2 weeks they'd head to Nevada for the other grandparents. We said our goodbyes and had some kisses and hugs and they were off.

And Mom and Dad just stood there.

In complete SILENCE! 

It was amazing!

At the airport saying goodbye.

A few more days in the hotel (with the dogs ... our other children) and then we hit the road. We knew we wanted to make the most of the long drive to Texas so we planned on stopping in certain places. We kinda played it by ear but knew we wanted to make this hassle of a PCS a vacation as much as possible. Especially since we didn't have the kids.

We could be US again.

Before handing over the keys of house to the new owners, I left them some of my plants as house warming gifts because a) it's nice to do and b) face it y'all I have a black thumb. Those things would've died in a heart beat with all the traveling

We would've left sooner but I had a business obligation on the 3rd of July and we decided to also stay for the 4th for one last hoorah! We hitched the trailer, with minor difficulties ... ISH... and we loaded up the animals for our great adventure to the mid-west.

Our free roaming cat DID NOT enjoy his leash. LOL He said "Nope."

So, the plan was to have the animals under a tarp (with lots of airflow) in the back of the pickup for the drive. But not more than an hour in and it was raining. So I had to sacrifice and put my iMac in the trailer, in the HUMIDITY, so that we didn't kill the animals. Guys ... I think animals are worse than children in the back seat for about two days worth of traveling! These guys were so anxious. Shivering, panting, and the cat was NOT happy about the crate. LOL I suggest getting Thundershirts to help with the anxiety ... or drugs. Drugs are cool too. (I kid ...)

Our first overnight stop was Montgomery, Alabama. We spent the night, stopped at the Capital and MLK's house and then we headed out. It was quick but at least we got to see some sights before hitting the road to our next destination.

Like I said above, we really didn't have a plan. We just kinda drove. I believe we decided to go down to New Orleans while we were in Alabama. 

Guys, my husband is a planner (ish) and I'm .... like not. LOL! 

My tip to you would be to plan a route. We did a lot of "Well, what do you want to do?" "I dunno, what do you wanna do?" We sounded like the damn vultures from the Jungle Book, until finally I said, "F it! It's my birthday weekend, we're doing what I wanna do!"

So? Whatcha Wanna Do? SEE VIDEO HERE

So onto New Orleans we headed! We wanted to do the tourists thing, but not like TOTAL tourist. We wanted to be more adventurous since we didn't have kids to worry about their safety or age restrictions sooooooo......

Okay, okay .... I mean... what else would you do childless?? ;)

We took in the sights of Bourbon Street and ate at a REAL adult restaurant and get this

TRIED GATOR!

That's a big deal for me cause I'm not food adventurous at all. LOL! And my hubby got his shrimp and of course had to stop by Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. where we had a drink before our haunted tour around the city.

 We ate some of this ... I can't remember the name but it's basically fried dough and it's amazing.

 
 
   

The following day we took a morning bike tour from Free Wheeling Bike Tours. Guys. YOU HAVE TO TAKE THESE TOURS!

Not only do you get to see parts of the city that many don't, you get an awesome tour guide that lives in, breaths in, and studies the city up and down. Like, they know their shit y'all! PLUS, they're a veteran owned business. I mean, HELLO?! Check 'em out for sure!

 After the tour, we headed on the road again! Next stop,  Starbucks ... I mean it was my birthday after all and just because we are traveling doesn't mean I don't get my
FREE BIRTHDAY TREAT!

But really, we were headed to San Antonio. I had been there numerous times, but my hubby never had been and he wanted to see the sights.

The Alamo!

Here we took a bus tour just so we could see all the tourist sites in the little amount of time we had.  We got slurpees to cool off with (we haven't had a 7Eleven in years) and got a Margarita to get us in the Mexican mind set at a fabulous restaurant. We didn't do much that would be labeled "cool adult stuff" BUT we did find an awesome Irish Pub, "Durty Nellys," on the Riverwalk and we hung out there and relaxed for a little bit.

After San Antonio, we really didn't know what we wanted to do. We thought about stopping at another place but we also just wanted to get to the house we are renting in El Paso too ... so we decided to play it by ear and see how we felt as we drove the final 8-9hours to our new home.

There is literally NOTHING between San Antonio and El Paso. We did see Fort Stockton on the map and thought, "hm, could be interesting." We even thought about staying over night.

But we were literally probably the ONLY customers this place had that day ... or like the whole month of July. LOL  Learn about Fort Stockton HERE.

Being a history buff, I thought it was interesting.

It was cool to see, to learn about it and check it out. But definitely not a place worth staying over night ... especially with the animals. We stretched our legs and then we decided to drive the remaining 4 hours to El Paso.

And then y'all .... we were finally HOME.

I definitely recommend you taking your time across the country when traveling. Make it a vacation of sorts because lord only know if we would have made it alive driving 2 days straight through. Either the dogs or we wouldn't have made it.

Also, HIGHLY recommend have the kids travel by plane and visit people (family or friends) while you get situated. That helped us out tremendously and we were able to be a couple again. It was nice. We missed the buggers ... but it was nice.

Next time, learn what were the first things we did when we got to our new home. Believe it or not, there ARE lists of what to do and what not to do!

Stay tuned!

Making the Most of Your Time | Girl Boss

Y'all ... I have a problem with staying on task.

I guess you could say I'm ADD. 

Maybe that's where my kid got the craziness ....

NO...

No, he got that from his father.

I swear it. Never from me. I'm awesome and perfect.

LOL

I digress.

Anyway, ... wait see? I can't even keep my thoughts straight in this damn blog! ha!

Today I tried something new. I decided to set my phone alarm to keep me on track. Sometimes All the time, when I'm on the computer, I seem to bounce from one task to another.

I'll be editing, then I'll check Facebook, then 15 minutes lost, I'll get back to editing. Then I get bored and start something personal, then 30 mins lost, I'll get back to editing or what the hell, I'll switch to blogging. And by the time I know it, the eldest is home and the baby is awake from the nap and now I'm juggling afternoon snacks and telling the baby to stop messing with my photo props, and eldest that no, he cannot play the xbox until his homework is down and then ....

SHIT.

I forgot to thaw the meat for dinner. And oh by the way, the editing that was due today is not done and now I have to spend the evening away from the family to finish editing and get the gallery up for the wonderful family that hired me but now I'm not close to my family because I'm locked in the dark making some other family happy.

Exhausting, right?

I mean, everyone makes being a work-at-home mom seem so simple. In actuality, it's not. When you go to an office, you're family is already taken care of. Whether they're at school or daycare. You are not interrupted by crying, hungry babies or angry, hormonal kids not wanting to do homework. You are in an office with other people who are stuck in an office doing their jobs. So more than likely, you can get your job done and complete, minus the phone calls or noisy co-workers.

Work-at-home moms rock because they still have to do laundry, watch the kids, make dinner and all that jazz. And that my dear friends, is why nap time is so extra special to work-at-home moms so you HAVE to be able to manage it perfectly.

So the thing I did differently, as I mentioned above before I went on my soap-box, was that I timed my "nap-time work schedule." My littlest sleeps from about noon to 3pm. So that gives me three hours to get shit done. Today I still multi-tasked but this time I timed it.

When I put the baby down for nap at noon, I threw in a load of laundry. Then I got to work at catching up on a personal photo album since, surprise! As a photographer, your own photography gets pushed to the side (i.e. editing vacations, scrapbooking, printing, hanging...ect). So, one of my goals is to catch up on my photo albums. For an hour I did just that using, Shutterfly. Then at 1pm, I began to edit client work. I did about 30 mins of one client and 30 mins of another client. That got me about 20 images, give or take, on each client done. Basically, they're almost complete. 

Then at 2pm (after throwing the wet clothes into the dryer), I forced myself to come on here and blog. Why do I say forced? Because Facebook was REALLY calling my name ... so I cheated a tad and looked on Facebook for about 10 minutes ... this is why I am now whisking through this blog hopefully not too crazily because when my "For Real STOP!" Alarm goes off, I HAVE to stop because a) my eldest comes home from school and b) if I don't wake the baby from his nap by 3pm, he won't sleep at night. GAH! 

The struggle is real folks.

And there it goes, my alarm. So I HAVE to get off people. So hopefully maybe this blog will give you a little insight in work-at-home moms. I don't want to scare you off entrepreneurs. 

I don't. 

Because seriously, working for myself is the best decision I've made. Seriously. I hate to think about working for someone else and on their schedule. I can take vacation whenever I want. I can stay home with the kids. I can partake in school activities and I can have weekends to enjoy family instead of catching up on household issues. 

Guys, be your own boss. But just realize that you'll probably work more hours in the day/night and your boss is the biggest bitch out there. ;) I'm telling ya.

Good luck y'all!

Meeting New People | 'Werkit' Out Wednesdays

Okay, so granted the above pictures are my family ... and this post is entitled "Meeting New People."

HOWEVER,

I am using this picture because we are wearing our Team RWB shirts.

(and the fact that I just met a new group of people and shouldn't use their photos on a public forum without their permission ... but I mean, that's just morals right? LOL)

We became members in NC, and when we found out we were moving, this was one of the groups I made sure to check and see if TX had a chapter. And come to find out, El Paso has their very own chapter. So we were stoked.

This was our first run in Texas. It was a 10k which involved us carrying our passports because we ACTUALLY crossed the US/Mexico border for the run. We couldn't pass up this awesome opportunity. This was also the longest run our eldest did.

He complained the whole time.

I mean, the WHOLE TIME.

But in the end, he was first place in his age group. LOL (probably the only 9 year old to run the race, but none-the-less, he was first)

But I digress.

Team RWB has literally surrounded our lives and we didn't feel so lonely when moving. Because well, we still had a "family." Even though we were leaving everything and everyone we knew in NC.

Sooooooo.....

It took a while for us -- ME -- to join in on their awesome activities here in El Paso. But when I saw that some of the ladies get together for a stroller workout. I knew I HAD to go. And thank goodness for groups like Team RWB.

I was immediately greeted and accepted into the crew with like-minded women who have to juggle working out and little children. They get it that sometimes you have to stop your workout to pick up a sip cup. Or you have to walk a little bit because your little one wants to flail their legs around "run" with you, just like you.

Boy! If my legs fly out to the sides like that when I run ... I've got to work on my technique.

But it's cool. Because Team RWB is all about making sure veterans (and their families) stay community involved and know how to integrate into civilian life and to just be around like-minded people. It's awesome. I'm sure I didn't say their mission exactly right, so check out their website HERE.

But the whole point is, get out there guys. I hate meeting new people. I'm a quiet person and I normally won't talk to you until you talk to me. I've always been like that. But I had step out of my comfort zone and just get out there.

Because who really wants to be cooped up in their house all day and not talk to an adult until their spouse comes home from work? I mean, I don't. Do you?

Also, getting out their with other people who share your own hobbies and beliefs sets an example to your children. They get to socialize while momma is werkin' it to better herself as well.

So get out there guys.

Meet new people.

And hell, if you don't like the first group of people ...

Try again. You'll find your "weirdos" eventually. I promise.

I'm still looking for my "weirdos" here ... but I know I'm heading in the right direction. Even though I may have come off a little TOO hardheaded strong-willed when I had to step up and defend Fort Bragg because another woman had a completely different experience than I had ... I really wanna take her back to Bragg and be like, "See? It's rally not THAT bad..." LOL <3 hope she looks past my loud mouth and doesn't hate me just yet ... haha!

Good luck y'all!

Y'all I'm exhausted with School Shopping! | Raising the Boys

You know what?

"F" it.

School shopping is for the birds.

I don't want to do it.

Nope. No way.


Oh wait.


It's required?


Son of a bitch.

Y'all. I'm exhausted. School shopping is ridiculous. Add in a hyperactive child and an angry toddler. Yeah. Not anyone's dream activity.

This year, I have to admit though, we didn't have to grab as much shit as we have had to in the past years. Luckily, the "communal" buys this year was limited to gallon size baggies (for what? I don't have the slightest clue), one (yeah, you heard me right) ONE container of sanitation wipes, one hand sanitizer, one liquid soap, and four boxes of tissue. I mean, that's not bad. I didn't have to purchase "candy for prizes" or "beans for crafts" or "colored construction paper" or "a sketchbook for art" or a flipping "recorder" that he's only going to use one time. So I lucked out.

This year though, he won't be wearing a uniform, so we had to buy new clothes, but surprisingly that was cheaper than buying uniforms and shoes that were "one solid color that doesn't have a brand on it."

Well Shit .... just got done with Open House ... apparently he WILL be wearing a uniform. You'd think they would've mentioned that when I went into the front office to REGISTER him! DAMMIT! So off I go back to Marshalls and Walmart to return clothes so that we can purchase $15 embroidered polos. 

DAMMIT.

But y'all, I'm exhausted. We had to keep our elbows up in the isles of Walmart and grab things before other people's little buggers snatched things out of your hands. We had to fight the dressing rooms and keep a tired, hangry 2 year old. Our skinny ass son had to try on freaking 20 pairs of jeans until we could figure out what would actually stay up over his butt. We had to clean up a broken emoji biggie bank that is made of clay and within a toddler's grasp. We had walked the isles numerous times trying to find a fucking "ghostbusters pencil box that is so awesome." We had to negotiate the fact that not all Walmarts have the same thing and this pencil box is the same colors as the Charlotte Hornets.

Lemme tell ya, that picture above, it's not all the shit we got, but it's the important shit. And all in all we only spent a grand total of:

$236

We got off luckily this year. I know we did.

Parents.

God speed and good luck with your own

horrible

school

shopping experience.