otter party

Last weekend we hit up the local aquarium for an otter birthday party!  Gunnar was a little grumpy so we didn't get to enjoy too much of the party activities, but we did get a cool otter magnet from the gift shop! And we signed their birthday card.  The trip included classics like playing in the sting ray pool, and giving our favorite bronze turtle some love.  And new things, like climbing inside the entrance sign.

And now, you can enjoy some photos:

you've just gotta laugh

So, here we are, approximately 6 weeks out from when we are planning on moving out of our home.  With no moves scheduled yet.  That's okay, right?  We aren't behind, are we?

Ugh.  The actual move has been the bane of this whole process.  We finally got our stuff together enough to get both of us to the TMO (stands for Traffic Management Office) class on moving overseas.  We check in, and they kind of can't believe that we are going to Australia.  The woman was VERY helpful, went and got info for us, and came back with bad news.  Since we aren't going to an American base, we would not be able to schedule and plan our move online like 99% of the military families do.  No, we would have to come in, sit with them, as they do it by hand, and then wait 20 days for local companies to bid on our shipment.  Only then would we be able to get our move dates (yes, plural, I will get to that).

Okay, we could live with that.  But then, wait, our orders weren't to our final destination.  They only had us reporting to the embassy (14 hours away from where we will be living).  So they said with the current orders they could only get our stuff that far.  Well, that's no help at all.  So Patrick had to get his orders modified to say the location we will actually be living.  That process finished up two days ago.  He went, with his new orders, to TMO yesterday, but he was too late.  They told him to come back in the morning.

This morning he told me excitedly he was heading in to the TMO office! We got overly excited, and hopeful, because an hour later he called and said "you will not believe what we have to do now".  Turns out, where we live is not under the jurisdiction of Camp Lejeune's TMO office.  We have to go to Cherry Point, a base that is about a half hour in the opposite direction, where Patrick does NOT work, to go to their TMO office and have them schedule the move. Still by hand, and still with the 20 day waiting period.

So who knows when Patrick will have the time to go to Cherry Point and do all this.

Aside from that mess, we did get all of our medical/dental paperwork submitted.  One thing finally went my way, after the tragedy of getting my blood drawn, it came back two weeks later to say all the necessary antibodies were present and I was good to go.  Hooray!  And if you were also wondering about my dental affiars, I did not in fact need a root canal, I just had an old filling replaced, and there was zero evidence of decay behind it.  So basically, all for nothing.  But, I got signed off on, and am done!  Hopefully...  We still have to wait 7-10 days to see if our paperwork gets approved.

And then there's the passports.  Mine still isn't in yet.  And Patrick actually had to send his government issued one BACK because it needed a certain stamp in it.  Which will take 4 weeks.  To put a stamp on a page.  We still have yet to apply for our tourist passports, which may have to wait until we actually move at this point, depending on the wait time.

Sigh...  Even though it is stressful, I just keep telling myself it could always be worse.  As I found out this week, another family at the battalion is actually heading somewhere I can't remember but it is basically Mongolia.  WHAT?!  Makes me very thankful...

And on that note, here's a little something to make you smile:

I just have to say, he put matching cowboy boots on first.  And on the right feet too! But he has a cut on one of his heels from falling through one of his buckets (he will never learn) and it irritated the cut.  So he swapped it out for a more comfy rain boot.  Then he brought his play mat to the table and decided to climb in.  Oh, how I adore this big goof (who is currently napping with his head in my lap wearing the same outfit - diaper and mismatched boots).