Moving

So it's time for me to talk about moving plans again.  If you recall, I left off talking about it when Pat's orders got deleted.  Pat talked to a bunch of people about how this affects his career path etc.  I think it was at this point that the people who wanted the orders deleted were beginning to realize all their plans up to this point had been pretty stupid.  Finally a few people (same people who wanted Pat's orders deleted) started working to see if they could just delay Pat's orders.  Thankfully, Pat's next assignment was willing to wait for him, and things were worked out so that Pat could report next winter.  

The funny thing is that every excuse the Army gave on why Pat should stay here, they have now contradicted.  Pat isn't even staying with his unit.  He'll be moved up to BDE to fill a staff spot.  I know that this job will come with a lot of pressure and stress.  He will have very little time left for family.

Our original plan was to be moving within this next month and settled into our new home before the baby arrived.  Obviously that isn't happening.  One of the biggest problems with the timing of the new plan is selling our house.  We've tried to sell a house around the holidays before, and it is a terribly time to try to sell.  We want to avoid that time because when we do put the house on the market we are hoping for a quick sale.  Also, Ryan is turning 5 this fall (he's growing up way too fast), and this is his last year of preschool before kindergarten.  I know that doesn't seem like a big deal.  However, something I haven't blogged about is that Ryan has a bit of a speech problem with articulation.  I feel like it is really important for him to use this year of school, and if we are able to get into the public school system he can get his speech help there (in addition to what is provided from our health care).  We'd prefer not changing schools after only a few months of the school year because we want to make the transition as easy as possible for the kids.  

So after much deliberation, we've decided that we'll be putting the house on the market near the end of next month and hoping to sell this summer.  Then the kids and I will move up so that Ryan can start the school year in the new school.  But this plan is not without problems.  For instance, we'll be living away from Pat for at least 5 months if our house sells in the time frame we are hoping for.  I hate the idea of living away from Pat for so long especially by choice.  We'll be putting our house on the market when I'm something like 36 weeks pregnant.  That is not quite an ideal time for me to be dealing with all that selling entails.  I won't be able to decorate a nursery for our baby girl because we'll be moving shortly after her birth, hopefully.  I will be responsible for settling our family into a new house by myself--decorating and organizing, plus getting used to a new home/town.  We have to move our furniture and household goods by ourselves, so we're going to try to live with the bare minimum.  We won't be getting BAH for that area, so money will be tight.  Unless we pay to fly Pat up to visit, he'll be missing more birthdays and holidays.  I could probably go on and on about all of the hard parts of this new timeline for the move.  With all those problems I sometimes wonder why we decided to move me up early.  But it's two simple facts:  education and stability for Ryan (and Sean) and selling our house at an ideal time.  

If our timeline doesn't quite work, that's okay.  There are so many issues with it, I'm willing to just go with the flow of what happens.  You see something else to consider is that if our house is to sell anytime between May and July, I won't be able to go house hunt in our new location.  Pat and my mother would be responsible for visiting all the prospective houses and buy one.  

So it's turning out to be quite the chaotic time again.  We had such motivation last time we were supposed to be selling our house, I'm just not sure I can find it this time.  I've warned Pat that most of the work will be falling on his shoulders.  This whole thing just makes me a bit irritated and also worried and stressed.  For the most part, right now I'm trying to ignore all the upcoming challenges and unknown.