yes, it’s true, we’re moving…again

We tried to ignore it. We really did. It wasn’t hard at first, still learning our way around the area and settling in to our new west coast adventure. The problem lurked under the surface, breaking through every now and again to remind us it wasn’t going away. We were infatuated with our bigger than life house, typical subdivision living and trying to feel like we belonged here (this was perhaps more my issue than anyone else’s). Unfortunately the problem reached a level that we couldn’t push back below the surface, this of course happened just before Tom left for 29 Palms for 5 weeks.

We can’t do it anymore. We can’t live here. It’s not the rent that’s hurting us, the rent is perfect, especially for the wonderful house & landlords that we have. It’s the increase in gas prices, the long drive for Tom back & forth to work, the cost of groceries, the increase in the cost of our utilities and most importantly the amount of time that the boys could be spending with Tom that he’s stuck sitting in traffic for an hour and a half. If we were closer to his work he could sneak out for an hour to see an awards assembly, right now he can’t. It’s an hour drive here, then 1/2 hour at the school then turn back around and drive back for an hour. So, during a heated phone conversation 3 days prior to him leaving for 29 Palms we came to an agreement that we would have to look into base housing. We filled out the paperwork, he forgot to bring it to work the following day, his last day at work before leaving. So, a day or two after he left I faxed it into the housing office prepared for a long wait. A portion of that spent on the inactive list because he hadn’t provided them all the required information and paperwork needed to be placed on active status.

On Monday we had agreed that we would drive out the base and finish up the process and cross all of our fingers & toes that we’d be able to swiftly move closer to the number 1 spot on the list before the school year started. That’s what we spent the day doing. The boys and I waited in the truck for most of it. Once the military portion of everything was taken care of we visited the Lincoln Properties office. She took Tom’s info, searched for our paperwork, amazingly found that the family housing office had input it all already and set to work looking to see what she had available. A 4 bdrm in a community that accepts pets was probably going to be a good 3-6 month wait. They are few and far between she said. This makes me wonder why more 4 bdrms aren’t built…let alone why more of the housing communities aren’t pet friendly. The news of the 3-6 months immediately crushed my hopes. The boys would start school out here in Temecula and then have to start yet another new school once we moved. The lady kept looking though, answering some questions for us as she clicked and slid the mouse around and pecked at the keyboard. Then she says that we might have better luck if we’ll accept a 3 bdrm. I didn’t like the sound of that, technically Tom “rates” a 4 bdrm and I think we should have what he’s entitled. She explained that on a lot of the houses the square footage is vey close and the bedrooms just get smaller. So we considered it.

She suggested that we drive to the community office and ask for the floor plans and see if there might be one unoccupied that we could walk through fast. She said she had one that was to be available on July 28th that she would put our names in tenatively until the end of the day unless we called to say we wanted it. So, we ran off to the other office as she suggested. Tom and Anthony spent an awful long time inside but came out with floor plans and some information. (The best news being there are gas and electric dryer connections so there is no need to replace our 7m old dryer!) He ran back in and came out with a key and we made a quick trip up the street to run through a house fast to get an idea of the size of a 3 bdrm.

It’s small. Much smaller than we have now – but we were expecting that. So much smaller though that we are going to have to part with big pieces of furniture. We debated. We dropped off the key to the office and headed to the movie theater in Oceanside, we promised the boys we would go see Transformers. After the 10 minute trip to the parking lot we had agreed we would accept it. It was the easiest and quickest way to get out of where we are now. The quicker we get there, the quicker we can start saving money. I have 2 growing boys that are going to need new clothes and shoes this fall and I had no idea where the money was going to come from. The Marine Corps ball is coming in November, in Vegas, and we really wanted to go, I just didn’t know how we were going to swing it. It won’t be easy settling in & paying all the partial month utilities, but it will get better. Plus Tom will be home much, much sooner and will be able to help with homework and take the dog for his much needed walk. As much as I love our neighborhood, the school and this house, having Tom home sooner at night (and not as cranky either since he’ll be getting more sleep! lol) is much more important.

I’ll have more information later in the day after Tom runs to the community office and signs for the house. After this weekend we’ll start the fun stuff…packing!