Chronicles of a Kappes PCS: Day 10

All of us in our coordinating outfits. 

We are out of South Dakota! Man, that state was BORING! This is what we have been seeing for the past 2 days. Cows and grass. Grass and cows.

We are now in Montana! It started out similar to South Dakota, but now we are in a really pretty area. Trees, water, and the mountains are added!

We ate at 2 really good restaurants today. I don't know you can tell, but we have planned our trip around food. We have scheduled the days to drive after breakfast, meet up at lunch, then drive until dinner. After dinner, we are done for the day. It has been working out for the most part for food, breaks, and Morgan's naps. I'm pretty sure I've gained about 5 pounds already though. 

For lunch, we went to Custer's Battlefield Tading Post. It had a restaurant on one side and a store on the other. There were also Tee-pees outside you could go in. Nate's favorite part. Surprise, surprise.

Inside the tee-pee

Nate wanted to "battle".

Jason's food.

My mom and I split this. Indian fry bread stuffed with chili and cheese. SO. GOOD.

Back on the road after lunch. We arrived at another house we found through AirBnB. It's a cute little farmhouse in Montana. It has 3 bedrooms, 1 bathroom, full kitchen, and a fireplace. Pretty adorable. 

We checked in with our "host", got our stuff situated, then went out to dinner to Pickle Barrel. It is a little sandwich place in Livingston. 

The kids are both asleep and I am ready for bed, too. Tomorrow is our longest driving day. Two more driving days left until we get to our home! This has been quite the journey already, but I am ready to be settled. 

Fingers crossed the next 2 days go smooth! 

Not a very exciting day. Just driving and eating. Not great for a blog post, but having a calm, mellow day is what I like when taking a 5 day road trip with 2 littles. 

Until tomorrow! Sweet dreams!

Chronicles of a Kappes PCS: Day 6

This post will be short and sweet. I'm tired. 

Today we woke up, had breakfast at the hotel, and went swimming. All before 9am.

Morgan took a nap after swimming, then we met up with a friend for lunch at the PX. Then we met Jason at the house to finish loading up the truck. My mom took the kids to the park so Jason and I could load without distraction. 

Thanks, Mom for taking the kids!

The truck is now loaded with all our stuff! Yay!! And no craziness today except a VERY tired and grumpy Nate.

I dropped my mom and the kids off at the hotel and Jason and I went to Chili's for dinner. We had a gift card from a friend so it was free! BONUS! It was nice for us to just sit and discuss what the next week is going to be. Because it's going to be...a lot of driving. 

Thankful we had a somewhat normal day. And also...I'm tired. Night everyone!

Chronicles of the Kappes PCS: Day 1

I'm starting our chronicles day 1 today because, well, I'm starting today. Also, the movers came today so it works out well. You're welcome.

We decided on a "Partial PPM"(aka partially procured move aka we move some, packers pack and move some) this PCS(aka permanent change of station aka move to another base). We decided on a partial PPM because it is really hard to move big bulky stuff. Especially big bulky stuff that doesn't weigh a lot. When you move, the Army pays you by weight. For every pound, you get $.80. so, you want heavy stuff. But you also have a maximum weight. Ours is about 18,000 pounds and it is determined by rank. We definitely don't have 18,000 pounds worth of stuff.

 I know, it's kind of confusing. The point is we make money by moving ourselves. It is a lot of work, organization, and planning, but it can be done and we make a pretty little penny. Also, my husband is anal and likes to pack his stuff the way he wants to pack it. He is VERY organized. He is a logistics officer so this is right up his little type A alley.

Nate with the moving company's truck. He is very excited. 

When you do a partial PPM, you have to schedule movers to come pack you up. The movers come to your house, wrap everything is the most crazy ways, put a sticker on the box or object, and put it all on an inventory checklist. Every single thing has a sticker and you will find those stickers for the rest of your military life.

Our movers were scheduled today with a time block between 9-11. They showed up at noon. Not horrible. We figured they were stuck at the gate getting checked in with all the other moving trucks. We were told TWO HUNDRED other families were also getting packed up today so you can imagine the amount of trucks in line trying to get on a military installation. It takes forever if you don't have a military ID. Being an hour late was a success.

Two guys showed up and started right away. We had waters and Powerades for them because moving and packing SUCKS. Especially in 95 degree heat. Usually if they are morning packers, you provide lunch. Ours were here from 12-5 so we just gave them some money to go get dinner themselves.

The crates our stuff gets put in

While they were packing, I took the kids out of the house to get frozen yogurt. You don't want little kids in the middle of them packing. We got home and the packers still had about another hour left to go. After they left, we had dinner, got the kids in the bath, put them to bed, then more moving stuff. In this house we have a basement so we moved what we could up into the living room so we can get ahead of the game on that. We don't have much left to pack, just a few odds and ends.

We get our moving truck in a few days, so now we have time to pack up the last minute stuff, clean, and prepare for hotel living and driving for 5 days.

And that's it for today! It wasn't too bad! I'm pretty sure I hurt my shoulder carrying up a tough box(rolling box that carries all the military things like uniforms). Those tough boxes suck to bring up steep basement stairs.

Hope everyone had a great Monday!