Life's Little Souvenirs: PCS Move: The In Between and Everything Else

After all of the craziness of our house being packed up and trying to get everything cleaned, I had some time to reflect on our time spent in Georgia/Florida and our last few days up until the move. The one thing that really made this entire experience pretty difficult was the fact that we were saying good by

to the place where little Ava was born.

Now I know that some of you are probably wondering why that is such a big deal?

Well, think about it, our first born was conceived, born, and spent the first five months of her life in the Kingsland/Jacksonville area. Not to mention the fact that the first two months of her life were spent in the care of some pretty awesome doctors and nurses; if it were not for them, we may not have our little one here with us today.

Another thing that got me a little emotional did not have much of anything to do with the area, but it was the saying good bye to the car that Brian and I created so many memories in for the first three years of our relationship. Now you are probably thinking, "Whaa?".

Yes, it is true, Brian and I bid farewell to his '92 Mitsubishi 3000 GT also known as "Hoot".

"Hoot" named for the odd hooting sound it would make while going down the interstate, took us on many adventures. We took this car to numerous concerts, went on several road trips, and made several donuts in the snow.
I had a love/hate relationship with this car particularly because of the maintenance it required. But my oh my was it a looker! I still remember the first time that Brian and I met; I saw him pull up into my parent's drive way in this car and I thought to myself, "Ooh dear.".
It was very unfortunate that we did not have the finances to get it running again (the transmission went out back in 2009) and did not have the time to find someone to sell it to. As a last resort, the car was sold to a junk yard. :'( It definitely broke my heart watching it go.

The worst of this whole PCS move experience was when we lost our beloved Cody the cat. While Brian and I were preparing for our final walk through with our previous landlord, we let the animals roam around a bit before it was time to confine them to their carriers. Well, when it was time to put all three of them into their carriers, we noticed that Cody was nowhere to be found. There was nowhere really for him to hide considering there was absolutely nothing left in the house; we checked every single closet and cabinet and came up with no cat. My initial thought was that he sneaked out when Brian was coming in and out of the house, but he swore that he never once left the door open. Of course I was hysterical (he is my fur baby for goodness sake!) and began to really panic thinking the worst and little did I know that the worst of my fears was about to come true.
After Cody had been missing for two hours I had finally decided that he had gotten out of the house somehow. That was confirmed after Brian and I spent another hour walking around our house and I saw that the window to Ava's room was sitting strangely; when I walked over to it and gently pushed the screen in, I saw the bottom corner jut out. Cody had leaned up against the screen while he had been sitting on the window sill and jumped (I am guessing more like slid) out and made his venture into the wild. Cody is a big kitty, so it probably did not take much effort for him to pop the screen out.
The most irritating part of this whole ordeal was the fact that when we first moved down to Georgia I had told Brian that at some point or another we were going to have a cat go through one of the screens and sure enough! That was what had happened.
We spent all day and night searching the surrounding woods looking for him. We left our information with the neighboring fire department and the humane society in case someone had picked him up and brought him in. I made various posts on Facebook and several friends shared those posts. We left food out for him in case he returned later that night as well.
Brian and I spent hours tromping through the surrounding woods but to no avail and instead of going home with our cat, I went home with a TICK. I have never had a tick on me before so you can imagine how much I freaked out when I was sitting in Magan's living room, felt something crawling on my hand, looked down and saw a FREAKING TICK. I screamed and asked Magan what it was, was it a tick?! And she naturally clutched little Sarah and backed away from me and we both started screaming. I ran into the kitchen where Magan's husband, Brian was and began flailing my hand at him yelling to get it off of me. He grabbed my wrist and confirmed that it was a tick and turned on the kitchen sink and stuck my hand under it. Thankfully the tick rinsed off and did not bite me, especially while I was flailing around like a crazy person. The whole ordeal was quite hilarious after the fact.
Thankfully Magan and Brian let us stay at her home an additional night so we could spend the following day searching for Cody instead of leaving for North Carolina on time like we had planned. The day that we were scheduled to leave (the 15th) we spent looking for Cody and posting flyers around the neighborhood and surrounding neighborhoods. Unfortunately we were unable to find my chubby kitty and we were forced to leave Georgia without him.
I still can't believe that he is missing and still has not been found. I miss him very much and am still not used to him being gone. Our other cat, Lammas has been missing him as well; he has just been sort of moping around our new home and I think that he has realized that Cody is not in the picture. I am starting to think the worst has happened to him and I hope that if he has passed that it was quick and painless. I like to think that he was taken into a nice family's home and is having his big ol' belly rubbed and his back scratched by a loving hand.
Amongst all of the chaos of searching for Cody, I learned that Avalyn really loves watching the show My Little Pony. Here she is completely enthralled by the colorful little cuties.

Before we left Georgia we said our "see you laters" to the Boatmans (they are PCSing to North Carolina as well in a few weeks) and then ran a few final errands before finally leaving town. Of course it took much longer for us to get on the road due to the fact that every time we drove by our old neighborhood I had Brian swing by the house to see if Cody was there.

I also had him stop at the souvenir shop in town so we could stock up on peach cider and peach jam because they are our favorites and nothing beats a Georgia peach! It is definitely one of the things that I will miss!

We drove 7 hours to Wilmington, North Carolina where we stayed the night in a hotel. The following morning we drove to Jacksonville, North Carolina where more chaos ensued.

I was feeling a little better despite the Cody incident and thought to myself, "It will get better." but the next series of events seriously made me question that thought.

We arrived in Jacksonville and had to go and get a cashier's check to cover our security deposit and that took forever due to the fact that everyone in the entire city must have been at that particular bank at the same time! Once that was finished we headed over to our realtor's office to drop off the check, sign our lease, and pick up our key/s. None of that happened due to the fact that the previous tenant had just moved out that morning and the cleaning crew was at the house rushing to get everything cleaned in time for our arrival. Of course I began freaking out considering the movers were going to be arriving in a few hours to deliver our things.

So we had to kill some time while the house was being finished; almost three hours later we were at our new house, signing our lease, and welcoming the movers. The house was not as clean as I had expected and the previous tenant had left behind some things, but by that point I was so over everything that I just did not care.

Thankfully the movers arrived when they said they would and began to unload the semi. The worst that happened as far as moving in was the fact that it had begun to snow! I was so excited to see snow even if it was a little dusting; it had been a few months since I last seen snow!

After saying goodbye to the movers we spent unpacked a few things and then called it a night. It had been a looooooooooong day!

So for those of you about to PCS, know this, go into it with an open mind because no amount of planning will help you prepare for those uncontrollable moments. I survived the PCS by keeping an accordion file folder with absolutely everything we needed (orders, LES, bills, lease, etc.) and by keeping a positive attitude/open mind. I will admit that there were a few moments when I nearly lost my cool, but we made it through them.

Always remember to keep calm and carry on! <3