California, here we come…

Well, after almost exactly 2 years, the Coast Guard finally cut Hubby his orders to go to A-School-exactly two months before he has to report. He got the email today saying that he will be leaving his station and heading out to California on April 19 {our anniversary, of all days}. It’s a bitter sweet kind of emotion for me. I am more than ready to leave Florida. Really. Living in Florida is very over-rated and there hasn’t been a whole lot here for us, to be honest. There will always be fond memories here because this was where we had our first home as husband and wife, and this is where our Little Man was born, but other than that, I really won’t be sad to go.

I am slightly overwhelmed at the sudden urgency of getting things done. We have exactly 6 weeks until Hubby as to be in California. And he’s taking 2-3 weeks of leave before then to go back to Alabama and visit with family before he has to head out. Which gives us between 5 and 6 weeks to get everything done. Since Little man and I will be going back home to Alabama to stay with family, we have to get everything packed up and put in a storage unit. That really isn’t that big of a deal for me because when we moved into our new house last March, I had everything packed in about 3 days. I can get it done easily. We do have to repaint our living room and one of the walls in Little Man’s bedroom. Hubby bought some paint tonight and we’re going to go ahead and start on all that this weekend.

Then there’s the process of contacting our landlord and getting the house back in tip-top shape so they don’t try to charge us for a bunch of junk that they claim needs fixing. I have to find Little Man and I new doctors in Alabama because he’ll have to have one for insurance purposes while we’re there. And I have to make one last round of appointments for myself with my Ob/Gyn & my primary doctor to gather up medical records and all that garbage. Then there’s all of the cleaning to do, the boxes to move to storage, the things to pack up to take to Alabama, figuring out living arrangements and sleeping arrangements while we’re there, going through stuff that we really won’t need once we get moved {like all of Little Man’s baby bedding that he will have outgrown, toys that we won’t really needs, etc.}

It’s exciting though. It’s like New Years. I feel like we are getting a fresh start to things. It’s not everyone that gets to just pick up and move where ever at the drop of a hat free of charge. There are down sides to it, like all of the things we have to try to cram into such a short time frame and the fact that hubby will be gone for almost 5 months. But there’s good in it too. We get to move into a bigger house. Hubby will make rank while he’s at A-School, which means a raise. I get to buy new furniture and redecorate. Little man and I get to spend the summer in Alabama at the lake and back and forth at the waterparks and the beach with family we rarely see. I’ll be home when my very best friend Tori has her baby and I’ll be able to take her maternity portriats and do some other work on building my photography portfolio. Little man and I will get to fly to the west coast ourselves several times to visit. It’s exciting. And once we get moved I’ll finally be able to start back to school and we’ll be ready to start trying for another baby {in early 2011…not immediately after hubby get’s back}.

There is so much to look forward to. Once the initial shock and sense of being totally and completely overwhelmed goes away, I’ll be able to kick my butt into gear. I’m the kind of person that thrives under pressure and time limits. That’s when I’m at my best. I’ll have all of this junk with the house and the packing and the paperwork done way before it’s time to say goodbye to Florida. Which will be the end of March, by the way. Holy cow! It’s almost the end of February already and we’ll be leaving in March. Geez. That really isn’t a long time, is it?!

Hubby’s mom is coming down in March anyway to visit and take some things back to Alabama with her for us, and I think she’s going to take Little Man with her so we can finish the last minute details a little bit easier. Like giving the house that final scrub and handing over the keys and all of that whatnot. Then hubby and I are going to just rent a hotel the last couple of nights here before we head to Alabama. It will be fun. That will give us some time to be alone before he leaves {sniff sniff}. And we’re planning to spend the weekend before he leaves for school in Panama City to celebrate our anniversary and, again, get some alone time.

I didn’t do to well with him being gone to Pit-stop right after we got married, but I think that was because we had only been married 2 weeks and we had just found out [literally days before he left for NJ] that we were having a baby. My hormones were all kinds of out of whack and I didn’t have a whole lot going on then. Now that I have Little Man and there will be so much to do during the summer, I think I’ll be better able to handle the seperation. Plus, I’ll be able to visit every few weeks, which I couldn’t do the first time. It’ll be hard. No doubt about that. But technology is a wonderful thing and we’ll have Skype and all of that to talk to him while he’s there. And Facebook and my blog and text messaging. That was the biggest thing about him being in NJ. He couldn’t have his cell phone so we rarely even got to talk, and when we did it was literally only for minutes at the time. It won’t be that way this go around.

And the biggest thing about all of it is that Hubby will finally be doing what he loves. He’ll be ready to really start his career doing what he enjoys. It just feels like things are finally about to take off for us. All of the waiting and sitting around and not knowing is over. We have orders. We have a destination. We have a path and a plan now.

We’ll find out in probably June or July where we will be moving. That’s what I’m looking forward to. Hubby will get a list of what’s open, get to fill out a dream sheet, and then they’ll give us the place. We’ve talked about moving up north to Boston or Staten Island or DC, but the more we talk about it the more we think we would really like to stay down south for now. Maybe go to Savannah or Elizabeth City, NC. Then when Little Man gets older and can really enjoy living somewhere like DC, we may move farther away. But for now, if it’s where we can, we’re probably going to stay closer. Our families have a hard enough time coming to visit when we’re 6 hours away. They surely won’t come if we live somewhere where they have to actually fly.

Sigh.

I’m excited [have I said that?] Really. I’ve started my list of stuff to do and we begin tomorrow…well, probably Monday because some things I can’t do until then. One thing at the time. It’ll get done. And you guys will be here for me every single step of the way to offer the encouragement that I look forward to. And to listen to me rant and vent and let out frustration.

On a last note, hubby is excited too. If for no other reason than because he’ll be back at home [wherever that may be] on August 27. Alabama football kicks off the first of September. So he won’t have to miss a day of it.   🙂