The Week Has Arrived.

Oh. My. God.  It is here, the move is here, and I am FREAKING OUT.  As you can tell, our timeline got shifted...just a little.  The earliest we could be moved is this week.  The movers come to pack us Wednesday and Thursday and load up the truck on Friday.  While we were originally intending on going to visit family after being packed up, we ended up doing that last week instead, and have so much left to do that we cut the visit shot just a little.  It's a lot harder leaving when I'm not going back in just a couple months like I normally have done since my niece was born.  It was good though... we saw my family, and his family which is just a little harder since he refuses to talk to his parents and not all his siblings get along and blah blah drama so unlike with my family we can't see everyone all at once.  But we managed to see some on the way up to visit my family, including some of his/our friends, and some on the way back down.

I only made it to one night of the dance event I wanted to go to, but that's OK cause in the end I didn't much feel like going (and I had the worst headache ever on Friday anyways.)  I had fun once I got there, though.

There is still so much- SO MUCH- left to do.  He waited until the last minute to figure out shipping his car so he hasn't even scheduled dropping it off yet, cause he needs a letter from the lien holder saying he can ship the car.  We need to get me every power of attorney necessary that is PCS and/or deployment related.  We need to arrange our accommodations for when we get there.  I need to send in all the appropriate documentation for the cats to enter the state, and set up for them to be boarded while we are on our cruise.  And for them to be boarded once we get to Hawaii.  We need to arrange for their flight, which is looking like it will be on a different airline.  I need to arrange to drop off my car to be shipped.

I am so looking forward to everything being arranged and done and for us to be on the road for this crazy journey!

~Katy

How About An Update?

I see I have gotten out of the habit of updating this thing!  Some of you may be wondering what is going on with me.  I know some may be interested in the move.  And at least once of you (you know who you are!) is interested in that blanket.  So, here we have updates... I will start with the blanket.  It's the shortest update:

I have made virtually no progress on the blanket since the last blanket update.  My size on the squares has varied a TON and I had to go through and sort the ones out that were just FAR too big and set them aside to redo them.  In November I spend almost an entire day just redoing squares while at a dance competition that I refused to compete in.  I wanted to go to the event, because those will be few and far between after the move, but I was stressed out that weekend and really just wanted to relax.  So that is what I did!  I partied and danced with friends at night, and spent Saturday in bed in the hotel room with the competitions on the TV while I crocheted.  I might have made a square since then, but I don't remember, I got started on Christmas presents, and then I got focused on knitting socks from a book I got for Christmas.  But have no fear!  I have NOT given up on the blanket!  NO!  I will be bringing every single square and every hank of yarn for the blanket with me as we travel across country and then hop a plane over to the island.  I intend to have an entire suitcase dedicated to yarn. While leads me to an update on the move...

It is almost upon us.  Yikes!  And yet, none of it is scheduled yet.  I have one last appointment for my medical screening so I can be put on the orders, so we can schedule our move and have our plane tickets booked.  Good times.  That will happen this Friday and once that is all set we can get that all scheduled.  What we are HOPING is to get out things packed and taken away the last week of February.  My last day with my kiddos at work will be the 21st... that's right, a week and a half left with my kiddos :(  Then I will have that last week to tie up loose ends with work, and clean the house.  Eric's last day at his command is Feb 28... then hopefully, March 1, we will be out of here.

From here we go to NJ to say goodbye to his family for probably overnight (I am HOPING to make it at east a full 24 hours.) then up to Syracuse to spend the rest of the week with my family.  After that... dance competition!!  I have to get one last one in.  From there it will be off to Ohio to stay with some of my relatives.  Then to Nebraska with some of my other relatives.  After that we don't yet know, Oklahoma?  Montana?  We have relatives in both.  Or we could go through Colorado.  After that- Las Vegas!  Maybe for a couple of days.  We will see.  Then, there is again the chance that we MIGHT... maybe... take a cruise outta LA.  It's a good price.  I don't see how we can turn it down, it will be our 4 days to celebrate both of our birthdays which he will be deployed for, plus an early anniversary celebration.

Then we fly to Hawaii... and get started with our new life.

Did I mention our cats are coming across country with us?  Four cats.  One back seat.  We got them a tube thing for the backseat so they can move around and have a litter box... Well... could get interesting... We will see!

~Katy

Dear Cats,

You are expensive.  Don't get me wrong, I love you all very much and of course you are quite worth it, but yes, you are expensive.  This move is going to kill us, and it is still at least 6 months away.

So, today 3 of the cats went in to the vet for their first round of rabies shots, and 2 of them had to get microchips.  I have to admit, the last one to get micro chipped it was done when he was neutered so he was under when they did it.  Splenda will be getting hers on Wednesday when she gets spayed.  So, I wasn't aware until I asked when I scheduled today's appointment that they don't get any sort of anesthesia for it.  I can't imagine!  Yipes!  But our two took it pretty well and so far it doesn't seem like they even notice it's there.

Splenda apparently has whip worm.  How she managed that is beyond me, being a strictly indoor cat, so unless she got it from the cat we were fostering when we moved in here, it is a bit of a mystery.  So we got a spot of treatment for that.

All in all in the past 2 weeks we're coming in just short of $600 at the vet.  That's before Splenda's spay and tooth cleaning on Wednesday.  Granted, we could have chosen to go with a military vet, which would have cost far less I am sure, I like this vet, they are close, and my cats have been going here for years off and on.

On the plus side, after Splenda gets spayed, which is unrelated to the move, the worst of the bills will be over for a while.

Know anyone thinking of moving or getting stationed in Hawaii?  Here is a break down of our costs for ONE cat, not including any of the treatments they may need since they were all due for a vet visit and not including the vaccinations that they need but are not specifically required to enter Hawaii:

So far:
Checkup: $42.50 (after multipet and military discounts)
Rabies vaccine: $27.50
Microchip: $30

Future fees:
Second rabies vaccine: $27.50 (I assume, unless they give us a 3 yr instead of the 1 yr, cost may be different)
Blood test: $55 (this is the fee for the military testing facility, civilians have to use a different facility which costs more.)
Check-up for health certificate: $42.50 (again, assuming it's the same as the checkups today)
Frontline: $22.50
Airport Release Fee: $165 (for cats who complete the quarantine process before entering the state)
Flying cat as checked luggage: $175-$225 (these are the rates I found for 2 airlines, others may charge more or less.)

So, that means, all things going right and getting the cats on a less expensive airline, the cats will cost $587.50 minimum... each... to get to Hawaii.

I would say "at least all that is less per cat than the flight per kid would be if we have children!" but if we had children the Navy would be paying for their flights.  I do hear a rumor that we get reimbursed for up to a certain amount of the quarantine fee though... we will see...

~Katy

Big Project!!

So some of you may know that I love to crochet.  I love to crochet so much that I started making more than I could use or give away and I opened an online shop, first on Etsy, and now on Zibbet (because Etsy is horrible, people.) which if you want you can check out here... http://www.zibbet.com/kakers

Anyways I don't just make things for the shop.  I make things for ME and for my family as well.  Last year at Christmas Eric and I picked out yarn so I could make us a blanket and well, it's been somewhat slow going but I've been working on it more lately and it's getting pretty close to done!  It needs to be wide and long enough to cover us both at the same time.  I'm actually starting to think there's a chance I may not need the last skein of each color that I have in order to finish it!  But we will see.

This was while I was working on it last weekend...

And I went ahead and took a few more pictures to share with you :)

(Splenda wanted in on the action)

(So did Honey.  Yes, these are different cats.)

As you can see it has a little length to go but it's looking good so far!  I'm going to be so proud once it is done, I've never finished a full sized afghan before!

~Katy

Confined!!

Yeah, she is now confined to the extra room. I found her (she kept going back to the neighbors front steps) and eventually chased her down and got her interested enough in the food in my left hand to catch her with my right hand. She let me grab her no problem, halfway back in the house she started growling and hissing at me, at which point I pinned her to the car, released the rest of the food so I could get a better grip, and brought her the heck inside.

So yeah I have her in the spare room with some water, food, her litterbox, and some toys. She's at least going to be stuck there overnight, the little attention hog. I think a vet visit is in order.

As you may imagine, I end up at the vet a lot. I think Porcellus will be needing to go in soon, I hear noises when he breathes which is a sure sign he's sick. So, I feel like on the 3rd instead of just a re-check of Bandit, there'll be a whole 3-some of my pets going in. Good thing my school money is coming in the next week or so, before I have to visit the vet, and I'll have another paycheck by then too!!