What a crazy week!

I may have to post a few entries today. This week has been super stressful and moved incredibly fast. We started out the week knowing we could find out at any minute if we were being separated or retired from the Marine Corps. Monday, the first day we could possibly find out, came and went with us pretty anxious. We were much more relaxed and carefree on Tuesday when the actual call came. Kevin drove down to Pearl Harbor and signed the paperwork... we rated separation!

Since then everything has been flying fast forward. First we had to put in our housing notice, then scramble to get Kevin checked out of the base as well as his unit and also find a place to live in NY! We are able to do something called "Home Awaiting Orders" so we had to get everything squared away as fast as possible. On Wednesday evening Tom, my father-in-law, went and looked at a house for us that we had been eyeing for a while. Thursday we spent the day filling out applications and sending paperwork to NY. We've had a great real estate group, The Cannan Group, working to help us and after waiting a few days.....we got notice that the house is ours!!!!! We love this house and can't wait to move in!

As I said, this is all moving really fast. We are set to move out of our house here in Hawaii on January 10th at 9am. Yes, less than a month from now! We don't know our pack out day yet, but think it will be January 7th. That will give us 2 days to clean the house and make any repairs until our final inspection. Tomorrow we should get our official paperwork with our plane reservations. We are thinking that we will either fly off island January 10th or 11th.

Because the Marine Corps will only send you home to your Home Of Record, where you enlisted, we can only fly for free the distance from here to Orlando, FL. To keep from having to pay for our tickets out of pocket, we are flying to Chicago to see my family! This is really exciting not only because we haven't seen them in over a year, but also because we should be arriving on my birthday! I can't wait....well, it's snowing there and it's 80 here.....maybe I could wait? Just kidding.

We are going to stay a few days in Chicago and then drive on to NY. We plan to move into our new home by mid January. I use the term "move" loosely because our household goods won't be arriving to NY for 90+ days.  With or without our stuff, we are super excited for this new chapter in our lives.