PCS'ing to Germany (Part 6/ Communication)...

Will I be able to call you? Can you call me? Of course! It's not as hard as you may think to communicate across countries. Germany isn't on some other planet without definite signs of life or technology. We do have phones... we do have internet. It's just like it is in the US. Our internet connection is a little slow since we live in a very small village further away from everything, but we get great connection for the first 10 days of the month and I am always able to chat or send messages through the ever so faithful FACEBOOK!

Our cell phones however, were not transferable from the US to Germany. As long as both the soldiers name and spouses name are on your orders, AT&T will cancel your current plan without a fee (I'm not sure about other US plans... but I'm sure it should be the same). We had to purchase new ones here in Germany. But on base we have a small TKS phone office (T-mobile). First you may want to find out what service all of your friends and co-workers use. There is another service called Vodafone, but most of the people we speak to use T-mobile... so you get to talk for free (mobile to mobile). If you choose the wrong provider, you may end up having to pay to call some of your friends if they don't have the same one :( . We were able to set up our service the day after we arrived. John got a small plan for 29 euro that did not include much data. But for me, I need to check emails for my business so mine was around 59 euro. We got our phones with our plan for only 1 euro. And yes... they do offer IPHONES!!!! I wanted to use my iphone, but you have to find out how to unlock it and I just don't feel like finding out how to do that. I hear it's a pain in the butt.

For our home phone, we added an unlimited long distance option for only 5 euro! So I can call any of my friends and family back in the US and not have to worry about long distance charges. Sweet right? Easy Peasy! The only set back is the time difference, but once you figure out what works for everyone... you are good to go!!!!

Can my US friends and family call me? Not without a fee :(. BUT... a couple of my Germany friends have Vonage. From what I understand, they have it set up so they have a local US number. So their US friends and family can call them without the extra fees. I'm not exactly sure how it works, but it might be something to look into if you plan on receiving a lot of stateside calls. I am on FB alot checking for messages from clients and things... so if anything my people just ping me real quick and tell me to call them. It works for me :)

PCS'ing to Germany (Part 5/ Finding a House)...

I love this one :). I did tons of research before I got here looking for living arrangements. Quite honestly... none of that research needed to be done. People told me to hire a real estate agent, but there really wasn't a point (especially when there was an extra fee involved). I also searched far and wide on all the Classified websites. I found a few that were adorable, but you really can't KNOW until you get here.

Anyways... we had an incredible sponsor. Probably the best. I keep hearing bad reviews about sponsors, but Jason was A-M-A-Z-I-N-G! He really prepared us and put us on the right track to what needed to get done. The day after we arrived here in Germany, he drove around with us looking at available houses. We were told to do a search on AHRN.com to see what our options were. We printed off several homes that met our requirements and we were off! There was one house that stood out to me on our drivebys. It was the one I had my heart set on. I hadn't even seen the inside yet... but it was PERFECT for our family. Just PERFECT! It was a little out of our price range, but we figured out that we could make it work with what we were alloted for OHA and our utility supplement. Seriously... the army pays you EXTRA for utilities in Germany???? How easy!!

On Monday morning I went to the housing office and they gave me the letter of exception to allow us to live off post. But they would only allow us to make appointments to view 2 homes. I immediately told them I wanted to see this ONE. And we were off again. We went to the second one first but it did not make me happy one bit. Next we landed at our cute little cottage... the one I had my heart set on. The landlord was friendly and even made an exception to their pet policy. We smiled every time we entered a new room. I felt at home. We had to have it. And we did. We signed for it 2 days later and it was ours.

I am still in love with it. We have a yard! A garden! A 2 car garage! And no backyard neighbors... just open fields. I keep begging them to let us stay here longer than 3 years... but we will see where life takes us when the time is right. Until then, I am happy in my little corner of the world :)

PCS'ing to Germany (Part 3B/Pets)...

I got distracted and have not written in nearly 3 months! It has been a busy 3 months. Arriving in Germany, getting settled in our new home, setting up my business, and learning the lay of the land. I don't think it's possible to explain everything that has happened in those 3 months. We love our new house, we love Germany, and to top it off... Our doggies came home! All that fuss about getting them shipped over here and it was kind of easy! When we left, it was the middle of summer. Most of the airlines told us they were not allowed to ship pets at the moment because the temperatures were too high and it would be dangerous for the animals. So we left them with our parents. We are forever grateful to them for caring for our babies for 3 months. The paperwork was ridiculous. The shots were all updated, but they needed the forms to be signed in BLUE ink. What is the difference right?? Then they had to get a health certificate within 10 days... and have a raised stamp. Mom's vet didn't have a stamp so she had to drive 2 hours away to get that. Well guess what... all that leg work and the airport didn't even ask for the paperwork! I was a little surprised when I've heard customs horrer stories about dogs being shipped BACK to the states for not having some miniscule piece of information. Oh well... it is done... they are home, and I am enjoying a nice relaxing visit with my mom :).

If anyone ever runs into issues shipping pets... just know that it is cheaper to ship them ACCOMPANIED! Sending them unaccompanied was going to cost us over $3000! But with my mom, we just paid for her ticket (maybe $800 with taxes)... and then another $200 per crate when she arrived at the airport and checked the dogs in. Much cheaper, and if you get the ticket early enough... it will be even lower!

The point is.... My babies are home!

Are we there yet???

I feel like we've been driving for ages.  So far we've driven to and from Alabama (7 hrs each way), to Arizona (26 hours), to El Paso (8 hours),  to Austin (9 hours) then back to Clarksville (13 hours), then to and from St. Louis (4 hours each way).

John had some training at Fort Rucker, so Aidan and I tagged along to get a little beach time in.  I brought my mom down also and we visited Destin, FL.  It rained almost the entire time we were there, but we still managed to make a good time of it!  

Next we drove back to c-ville so John could finish clearing and ship off the rest of our things.  We sent Aidan and Gma off on a plane back to AZ so we would have room in the car for the fur babies.  

John and I loaded up the Cadillac with all four of our pets and drove all the way to Az.  We spent 3 days with my family getting Bailey and Kahlua all settled in at their new home.  I miss them incredibly, but know they will be well cared for and probably even more spoiled when I get them back!  It was a nice relaxing visit.

On our way to Austin, we stopped for a night in El Paso to have a quick visit with gma and gpa Kimball.  We also got to see Johns aunts and uncles.  It was a nice little visit.  Gma stuffed us like little piggies!

In Austin we saw Nana and dropped off the kitties to their new home.  Aidan is going to miss those fur balls, but we know they will also be well taken care of until we can get them back.  We also met our beautiful new niece and visited with the rest of the Armstrong family.

In St. Louis we dropped off our Cadillac to be shipped over the pond, but decided to stay an extra day to take Aidan to Six flags for part of his birthday celebrations!  It was hot, but soo worth it!  He had a blast!  

And now we are headed back to Clarksville to finish up a few last details before we ship ourselves over to Germany.  Only a few more days but it seems like we have been in transition forever!!!!
 

Limbo...

The house has been packed into crates and sent to the ships. Every wall, every baseboard painted fresh. Every fingerprint, every noticeable sign of life erased from what we knew as our HOME in Clarksville. Well... what Aidan and I knew as home. John didn't spend much time in that house, but I had a hard time letting go. The weeks leading up to the goodbye were incredibly emotional for me. I cried as I watched the movers box our things, and I cried the morning my boys left me alone in that house. I stayed another 2 days alone there. I think it was good for me. I was able to reflect on what I had there and also dream about what we have to come. And now we wait... in this strange sort of Limbo. We don't have a home to call our own. We will bounce around from hotel to hotel for the next 2 months. Already 2 weeks into our hotel stay and I am going stir crazy! We had a little trip to the beach this weekend and I couldn't get enough. I am happy for the friends I've made in all of these places. I'll always have someone to come back to. I don't have anymore moving tips right now. Most of our plans fell through. Our pets will no longer be joining us in Germany as we had hoped. I will continue to try to get my babies to me, but for now our parents have so graciously offered to care for them until we can make further arrangements. Now we will take it one day at a time and try to enjoy the summer :)

Here is a photo of my boys at our favorite beach... Destin, FL!

PCS'ing to Germany (Part 4/Temporary Living)...

We've been putting it off, waiting for our actual date of arrival. My friend kept reminding me to make a reservation at the Inn on Base. Here we are about 2.5 months before arriving, and they are already booking up. It was possible that we could have even got a pet friendly room. But all of those rooms are already taken! It's ok, because we were provided with a list of local kennel services. These services cost anywhere from 9-12 Euro per pet, per day. Oh well...you snooze you lose right? The good thing is that we have a room reservation on base. If we hadn't done this, they would put us in a hotel off post which we would have had to pay out of pocket and that can be expensive. Yes, you would be reimbursed "later" but who has the money to pay up front for everything during a move like this! Short story... make your reservations months in advance!!!!

UPDATE: We DO have a pet room now! Yay! No off post kennels to worry about (crossing my fingers)!

PCS'ing to Germany (Part 3/Pets)...

This has been the one thing that I've been most worried about for this move. We have 2 dogs and 2 cats. In prior moves it wasn't a big deal because we just drove ourselves and our dogs and cats with us to the next station. But this time we have to fly. There are rules for flying with pets, and rules for taking them overseas. I'm not sure what all of that entails just yet but I want to explain my experience up until now.

I've read and researched... but for the most part, I've listened to rumors. Scary rumors. You can only take 2 pets. It costs over $1000 per pet. You have to put your pets in quarantine for 2 months. RUMORS! Do not listen to the rumors. Do the research yourself, it will ease your mind a bit. John set up our flight date and at the appointment they told him he would get an email explaining what he needed to do next. And THEN we could call the airline that was flying us and find out how they handle pets. But in the meantime, we were waiting for this email that we were supposed to get the next week. 1 month later we still hadn't received it so I had him call. That's all it took. A phone call. Why are men so afraid to make those phone calls? It could have saved us a lot of stressful worry. I'm not saying the worrying is over... it's still there... but it's a relief to know exactly what needs to happen now.

Basically what we were told was all pets need to have their vaccinations taken care of 10 days before departure. Not earlier. I'm not sure if that means you can get it done 8 days before you leave or 15 days before you leave. But you'll bet I'll be making our vet visit exactly 10 days before we leave just to be safe! As far as I know, there are no quarantine laws in Germany, but we will have to make arrangements with a kennel to care for them while we look for housing.

Our particular airline (I think it's American Airlines) will allow you to travel with up to 5 kennels. Each kennel can hold 2 pets, but the total weight (including the kennel) cannot exceed 100 lbs. So if you have 2 small cats weighing only 10 lbs each, they can go together in one small kennel. That takes care of the cats. But the dogs are a bit heavier so they will have to go in separate kennels. The cost for each kennel is $150. Not $600... not $1000. Thank you God the bank account can breathe. There is still one slight worry though. If the temperature is higher than 85 degrees at the time of departure, they will not ship your pets and you will need to setup separate travel through a pet shipping company. We are traveling in a summer month... so there is still some concern. BUT... our plan is to wait for our itinerary and if our departure flight is during the day, we'll try to reschedule it to a morning or evening hour. Keep your fingers crossed... because we do not want to go through a pet shipping
company. I have no idea how much trouble that will add. But for now... a little of those rumor worries are eased.

UPDATE (Thanks to my friend for providing me with this helpful information!):

-Get them Micro chipped (the microchip needs to be inserted "PRIOR" to the most current rabies vaccine)

-Pet must be current on rabies vaccine and the vaccine needs to be older than 30 days.

- Get a bilingual health certificate by a USDA certified vet (military vets are all USDA certified) for German customs. This certificate is good for 4 months. But some airlines require it to be less than 10 days old. Check with your airline to make sure! If you don't have a vet on post, you can go to any non certified vet and send the paperwork to the USDA office of your state.


And a further note... we just received our itinerary. The flight was set to leave at an early morning time out of our local airport with one stop. We wanted to avoid these hours because of the risk of the temperature being too high. So instead we will be renting a Van and driving to the airport that will take us directly to Germany. In our eyes, this is a small exchange for having to ship our pets through a pet shipping company.

UPDATE: All of the above still seems pretty accurate... but since we are traveling in the very hot month of August, we will not be able to benefit from the regular $150 crate cost of shipping them accompanied as cargo. Booo! So we've decided to leave our dogs with my parents, and the cats with his mom. The plan is to ship them over to us when the weather cools off a bit, but it's looking like that may be pretty expensive like the original rumors suggested. Darn why can't we just have orders to get there in October instead!