Tales of Nine: Home, Sweet Home

Tuesday, August 6, 2013

Home, Sweet Home

Since my last post, we have been feeling a little homeless. We lived with friends a week, then crashed at DH's Aunt and Uncle's in Colorado for a few days, and are now at Many Point Family Camp this week, while some of our boys are at the Scout camp side of the lake. We will return to our friends' house for a night it two, then off to DH's parents' house for a week. DH, his dad, and two of our Ds's will be going to the Boundary Waters for a few days in there.

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Many Point was great (and also busy, as I never finished my post), and now most of us are at DH's parent's house for the week, while DH, DS1 and DS5 are at the Boundary Waters with my father-in-law.

We found an apartment in Fairfax, so now I am busy trying to enroll the kids in school. We can't get into our apartment until September 8th, so we thought we would get a hotel for a few days so that the kids could be there by the first day of school. At the high school, however, in order to register, they require me to show up in person with the students for individual counseling sessions before they begin. So, it looks like those two won't be starting school on the first day. But at least we know where they are going, right?

Aaron has filled out and returned all of his employment paperwork, and we are ready to start thinking about our pack-out. Our house has had three showings and an open house. We are hoping that the market will start moving again soon, as the vacation season hit right as we put ours on.

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Abbreviation Help

A few readers have asked what DH stands for. They figured out that it had to do with my husband, but didn't quite get it. For anonymity's sake, when necessary, we use the following abbreviations:

DH = Dear Husband

DS = Dear Son

DD = Dear Daughter

I have put numbers after each of the DS's, since there are six of them. I numbered them DS1-DS6, from oldest to youngest.

You may see other abbreviations over time, like MIL (mother-in-law). I'll try to add their explanations here when that happens.

HHE - HouseHold Effects - items that you can't bring to temporary housing with you that are stored in a warehouse, such as Haggerstown, MD. When you leave temporary housing, you get to send HHE items to your new post from storage. You can add anything you don't want from your temporary housing to HHE storage, and anything that isn't going in your UAB or on the plane with you will go into HHE that is going to post. You get to visit Haggerstown once before you leave and take out boxes if you need to go through and remove some things. For example, our packers mixed ice skates with garden tools in one box. I will be removing that box, and will send the skates back to storage (other than any we have outgrown) and send the gardening tools onward. HHE allowance is 18,000 lbs and includes items in storage in Haggerstown or any other government storage facility. 18,000 lbs. can go to a post with no furnishings provided. 7,200 lbs. can go to a post with furnishings provided. The remaining 10,800 lbs. can stay in storage. Weights include packaging materials, and you don't get to pack your own stuff.

UAB - Unaccompanied Air Baggage - When you go anywhere, you get a small shipment sent more quickly than your HHE. This could mean you get it two weeks after arrival or 3 months after arrival, depending on the destination and customs hold-ups. Nothing in UAB can be over 3' long and 2' wide, as this is the approximate size of a UAB shipping box. UAB weight allowance changes with family size, and any amount you don't use can be added to your HHE allowance. Weights include packaging materials, and you don't get to pack your own stuff.

POV - Privately Owned Vehicle - You can also ship one vehicle at the department's expense. Every country has their own guidelines as to what vehicles they will allow to be imported, so don't take this as a blanket rule that you can ship whatever you want to drive. The maximum size the Department will ship on their tab is 800 cubic feet, and you have to pay overages if it is bigger.

CDO - Career Development Officer - The person (which will probably change once while you are a junior officer) who decides where to send you for your first two tours

TED - The date of departure from your current post (even though it is a specific date, for bidding purposes, you can use the whole month, and after that, we hear there is wiggle room up to a month prior to that date, if necessary)