Moving to NC... a comedy of errors...

Many of you have already seen these pictures when I posted them on facebook. However, we've never really blogged about this whole moving business so... here it comes... (at the bottom of this post, after all the pictures.) :) Warning. It's a LONG post.

Swimming in the pool at our hotel in Portland, OR

Happy baby!

Noah James - 3 months old!

No-yah on his first flight... he slept most of the trip

Micah FINALLY fell asleep once we made a bed for him on the floor of the plane.

John & No-yah hanging out

Micah and Bree on the plane

Lydia and Daddy

Micah and his "bag o'goodness" on the drive from Atlanta to Fayetteville

No-yah had a meltdown somewhere in SC

Our first morning in NC. We went to the Starbucks in the "mini-mall" - it felt like home-sweet-home! :)

Moving to NC has sort of been like the movie, "Planes, Trains, and Automobiles" - minus the traveling shower curtain ring salesman. So, our version of "Planes, Trains, and Automobiles" started at 4:30am in the Portland International Airport when the ticketing agent at the Delta Airlines counter declared Reuben's crate was "too big" to make it on the flight from Atlanta, GA to Fayetteville, NC. John and I both looked at her in disbelief and said "what?!?!" This had happened to us before but we figured that since John had confirmed once and twice with the Army travel agency about the size of Reuben's crate we'd be good. Well, we were wrong. So right there on the spot John and I had to decide if we were going to:

A) Have my mom (Bree's mom) come & get the dog at the airport (she was staying down the road at our hotel) and fly her out with Reubs at a later time/date

B) Have Bree's mom get the dog and then make arrangements to fly him separately (at a later time/date) as "cargo" ($550 by the way!)

C) Fly to Atlanta and rent a minivan and drive to Fayetteville, NC (approx 7 hour drive minus feeding kiddos and bathroom breaks.)

So in our sleep deprived stupor we decided on option C - so the ticketing agent had to immediately try and pull our bags which were already enroute to the plane and bound for Fayetteville, and I immediately got on Expedia and was looking for rental cars to reserve in Atlanta. After all that fiasco we had to make our mad dash to get Reuben through security and locked and loaded, and then ourselves through security (yup, all 5 of us - stroller, carry-ons, diaper bag...) we didn't get a chance to rent a car (more on that later). We got to our gate in just enough time to hit the Starbucks, feed the kiddos some 'good wholesome' (read with sarcasm!) Starbucks food, and then get on the plane.

The plane/flight to Atlanta was actually great & quite peaceful. There were individual movie screens with MORE then enough FREE kiddo entertainment to keep both Lyds & Micah busy. Noah slept most of the trip and we only had 1 minor spill & that was when the guy in front of Lydia slammed his seat back and dumped Lydia's "white-coke" (Sprite) ALL OVER Lydia and me. Lydia had a change of clothes, my pants however, had to dry on there own. (I guess you could liken that to the cans of beer on the vibrating bed?!?!) And my only complaint about the in-flight entertainment was that the Food Network was not working. HA! :) Delta also has wireless internet available for all passengers on their flights. (Yahoo!) You gotta pay $8 however for access. (Boo!) John and I bit the bullet though and paid the $8 b/c we still needed to reserve a rental car in Atlanta.

And speaking of rental cars... Do you even KNOW how much rental minivans cost these days?!?! Holy smokes! John just about fell out of his seat (I did too!) The problem was that we needed a car for a week because... the car that we thought we had shipped 2 weeks earlier somehow got overlooked and was still sitting in Troutdale, OR the day we took off out of Portland. Lovely. Thank you "Dependable (not so much) Auto Shippers."

So we landed in Atlanta - the busiest airport in the nation mind you. It was HOT. It was MUGGY! We had to walk FOREVER & ride a train to find the baggage claim. We got to the baggage claim, loaded ALL our stuff (like 6 bags + suitcases + dog crate) onto a large luggage cart and proceeded to ask an airport employee how we could get to the rental cars. They just took one look at us and said, "Y'all gotta leave that cart here. Can't take it on the skytrain." ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!?! So, we left all our luggage in the baggage claim and got on the "skytrain" to the rental cars. While on the skytrain we got yelled at for having the dog with us. "Whatever" is all I had to say to that. :)

Rental cars... waited over 30 minutes for our RESERVED rental car while Lydia and Micah ran around like 2 little monkeys and Noah cried (he was hungry). Got our minivan. (A Toyota Sienna by the way... we were now "the Toyota Sienna family!" and I want one!!!) Drove BACK to the airport (kids not in carseats) to get our luggage, carseats, dog crate... We finally headed north towards Fayetteville around 4:30pm... only to have to stop off at the 1st exit on highway 20 to get dinner for all of us since we hadn't eaten since the Portland airport.

After we got dinner John plugged in the kiddos' new dual screen DVD player - and that is what saved us and made the drive do-able. :) John and I however had to (got to?) listen to "The Squeakquel" and "Shrek 3" on our way north.

Somewhere in South Carolina Noah had a total meltdown so we had to stop on the side of the road and hold him while he calmed down and relaxed.

We FINALLY pulled into one of the many Ft Bragg gates at 11pm on the dot. It's still 82 degrees and muggy - at 11pm. WHAT?!?! :) Then we had to find our "lodging." It took us a bit since this post is just huge and when we finally found it we were informed that we were not staying at the "Airborne Inn" but at the "Leal House" b/c that is where people with "animals" stay." Lovely. Oh and by the way, our room is on the 2nd floor of this place AND there is no elevator. Great.

We get to the Leal House at 11:45pm. Haul kiddos upstairs. Reuben REFUSES to walk up the stairs. John has to carry him. (All 90lbs of Reuben) John has to schlep all of our bags/stuff upstairs. It's hot. It's muggy. Our "lodging" is a 1 bedroom space with 2 full beds, 1 bathroom (with a sink that didn't work), 1 small fridge, and 1 microwave. The AC constantly runs but the room isn't cool and it smells like stale cigarette smoke. John and I collapse into our full sized bed sometime after 1am. Welcome back to the Army.

Since we've been here we've decided to rent an apartment for the time it will take for an on-post house to open us. There are many reasons for this decision. I won't write about them now b/c this post is already too long. :) Our cars should be here on Monday. (They had better be!) And our household goods should be here sometime around Wednesday-ish. That's when we'll move into our aparment and out of this Army lodging situation. I'm thrilled about the apartment. I cannot wait to have a kitchen again. I am learning to be content, whatever my circumstances... (Phil 4:11) and that is a very good thing for an Army wife to learn. :)