I am originally from NY, near Fort Drum. The 10th Mountain Division is the most deployed division in all of the Army. My husband has been stationed here for most of his Army career and has deployed to Saudi, Somalia, Haiti, Egypt, Uzbeckastan, Afganastan, Iraq (TWICE) with the 10th Mountain. Our Son went into the Army his senior year of highschool, went to basic soon after he graduated, then AIT (where he learns his job), then came to Fort Drum. He was here for about four months before shipping off to Iraq to do his 15 month tour.

Normally, father and son wouldn't be in the same camp but while they were in the same division they weren't in the same brigade so it just kind of happened! They were lucky, they got to spend a few months together before my husband headed home.

Now here we are after this last 8 year stint at Fort Drum, heading off to a new post with only 2 years left to go before my husband retires.

I have to admit I have been really dragging my heels when it comes to getting things ready for the move. This has been home for a long time and it is really sad to leave it.

As sad as it is, it is all part of being a military spouse. You move, its a fact of life. We have just been lucky that we have gotten to stay for as long as we have!

So I am getting ready, digging thru boxes, having a garage sale and donating all of our winter clothes to the local thrift store. We are selling our snow shovels and putting away our snowmobile boots and turning them in for year round hot weather clothes!

Its a new post, new friends and a new life. I'm not going to say it isn't scarey, it definately is, but it is also an adventure. I've never been to Arizona before, so Grand Canyon here I come!

Ok, now I really don't know anyone that LIKES to move. Well not the actual physical part of moving. We are a little bit lucky in the military, packers do come in and pack us up and move all of our belongings across the country or across the world.

There are a few choices when moving. If you are moving within the states you can move everything yourself which is called a DITY Move. The military does pay for your truck, mileage, gas, etc to do this move, but you are on your own when it comes to packing, loading the truck, driving the truck to only God knows where, and then unpacking it. This is NOT the option for me.

You can do a move where the movers pack up everything you own and ship it all for you. You usually get a couple of shipments this way. The first one comes to you faster and has all your bare essentials in it such as bedding, some pots and pans, TV, clothing stuff like that. Then the remainders of your house hold goods come later. In this choice the movers do everything including unpacking when it gets to your new duty station.

The last one is the one that we are planning on doing. Half household goods and half DITY move. We are doing it this way because we have to tow a vehicle anyway so we figured we might as well bring those few basic essentials with us ourselves because we don't know how long it will be until we can find a place to live once there. The movers will come in and do the bulk of the packing and move it out of here. We will pack up a truck with the remainders and head out ourselves for the open road!

The choice is yours, unless you are going overseas, obviously you aren't going to do a partial DITY move then! There is very little you get to choose about your move so make the most out of the things that you CAN get the way you want!

We are in the phase right before we are actually moving. My husband will start to clear the post soon and will be setting up our appointments for the packers and whatever else we need to do.

The Army is really great with providing you resources with tons of information! They really leave nothing to the imagination, but I know that sometimes all the stuff that they hand you can be overwhelming. Sometimes hard to understand with all the acronyms. It is almost like they speak another language. Definitely check out Military One Source, they can answer almost any question you have and will do it in layman's terms!

One of the first things I do when my husband comes home with his orders is hop on line and check out everything I can about the new post. I want to know what kinds of clothing I will need, what their housing looks like, how long the wait for housing is, anything I can that will help me to prepare for the move and that will slim down the amount of things that we will need to bring with us.

In this case, we are moving from Fort Drum which right now in June is warm, anywhere from 70-90 degrees on any given day. We have about two to three months of warm weather, and then it gets cold. Fleece is a major staple in any wardrobe along with a slew of mitten, scarves and hats.

Fort Huachuca on the other hand is in Arizona, I've read that it gets up to over a hundred degrees! But don't worry they say...it's a DRY heat!...Whatever!! Heat is heat! It isn't going to make it any cooler!

I have spent day going thru our closets and drawers along with the stuff we packed away for the summer getting ready to send it all down to the local charity thrift shop. We are going to be there for at least two years, no senses in storing it all so why not bring it to where it will do some good AND we can get a tax write off too for the donation!

Next I put together folders for each of the family members. We have three kids but one is in Iraq, one is in France in College and the other is 4 so her folder will probably be the biggest!!!

I need to have my paper work organized. My husband has enough of his own to worry about so the stuff for us personally falls to me. I make sure that I have in each folder birth certificates, shot records, school records, and medical records, new prescriptions that I ask the doctor to make out so we can have our medications until we find a doctor, anything that we could possibly need and that is important for that member.

I then make folders for all of the house hold accounts. I include a book of checks in there to pay bills. I also put in copies of all the bills because it might be a while before they get forwarded to our new place. Most things can be paid on line but not all. This will prevent you from having to pay late fees. I also put in envelopes and a book of stamps. I also include receipts for expensive items such as bedroom furniture, a TV, stereo whatever. Just incase they come up missing or damaged you have everything right there to help with the claim

As it gets closer to the packing day, I clear out one entire room. This is the NO PACKER room! This means that the stuff that is in there is the stuff we are taking with us personally. I line our suit cases up around the room and fill them as I go thru things. Who knows how long we will have to live out of them!! I need to make sure our daughter has things to do, some of her favorite toys, movies, and pillow whatever. I also make sure that we have a set of bedding, pillows, personal items such as jewelry, special photo albums. There are things I just don't trust to anyone else and that I would be heart broken if they were lost or damaged.

Once we are down to the bare bones of what the packers are actually going to take, I go around and either takes a video or pictures of all of my furniture. Make sure the date stamp is on in your camera. That way if you have to make claims for damages you can.

The day before the movers get there I go thru my kitchen cupboards. I want to make sure that all the canned and boxed stuff isn't expired. They will pack the dry goods and spices up for you so you can take them with you but no sense in taking expired stuff!!

I also go thru and clean out my freezer and give whatever I have in there to friends and family. I hate to see good food go to waste!!!

Also make sure you have what you need for your pet. You wouldn't want the packers to leave and find out they packed up your pet's kennel or favorite bed!! So don't forget them!!!

Being organized is key!!! As long as you know where everything is and you are prepared your move will go along smoothly!

The big packing day is here!! You are up early, running around like a chicken with your head cut off. Trying to get the last minute things ready. Everything you are taking with you is in the no packing zone room, everyone has had breakfast, and the movers should be there any minute, so now what?

Well first thing you should do is go around your house and empty EVERY trash can you have. I am not kidding! They will pack up EVERYthing including any trash you may have in the trash cans or even empty boxes that you meant to get rid of...they will pack them!! It's their job...to pack!! I know that sounds ridiculous but the last time we moved our oldest, a teenager at the time, had a ton of empty shoe boxes along with actual trash bags that she had been throwing papers in but I didn't notice that she didn't actually take them OUT to the trash. So...low and behold..at our next duty station...tadaaaa here was all her trash from the old place!!! It's actually kind of funny now that they packed it but we were lucky, it was just old shoe boxes and papers, I would hate to have seen what it would have been like if they had packed kitchen trash or something! Yuck!

Next, run to the store, leave your husband there with the kids and have a few minutes of alone time. Get a coffee, maybe a yummy scrumptious doughnut, whatever floats your boat. Packing day for me is stressful because it is a bunch of strangers touching MY STUFF! They are taking it to where I can't see it, even though they are careful, they probably aren't going to be careful enough up to MY standards so I usually need some breathing time away from the house.

While I am out I also head to the deli department in the grocery store. I pick up fresh rolls, meats, cheeses, salads etc along with sodas, ice teas and lemonades to feed the packers. Yeah they would probably just go somewhere to have lunch or a snack but hey if that little bit of kindness makes them decide to be a little bit more delicate with my grandmother's china...then what's the harm!?!

I try to keep out of the packer's way. They really don't need our input, they have done this before. Unless you see one of them blatantly cramming your stuff into boxes like they didn't care how it was packed, try not to be too knit picky. I kind of like to think of them like the cook in the restaurant. Complain too much and they will spit in your food....so I try to hold my tongue and really just try to be productive with what I need to do but still keep an eye on what they are doing..it is after all...MY stuff!!!

After all is said and done and they drive away in that big huge 18 wheeler with all of your thing in it, it gets a little bit sad. The house, apartment, housing whatever it is you have been living in while you were at that duty station was your home. We each try to make the place we live in our own while we are there. There are memories of things that have happened there that you are going to be saying goodbye to along with friends and neighbors.
The best thing to do is to try to look forward to your new duty station and think of it as an adventure!!

Then you get to spend the night on air mattresses, eating pizza and watching TV shows in the dark with your family!!! Not so bad all the time!

Of course this isn't my first move. We did one overseas tour in Bad Kreuznach Germany. I had to move FOUR times while over there and I have been in Fort Stewart also, which I didn't really like. Way too hot and humid. Georgia smells weird too...just my opinion.

I am kind of looking forward to going to Arizona. It isn't a place that I ever expected to live or even visit. While it is exciting, I am also worried because there are alot of critters!!

In Upstate NY, we may have horrible snow storms and it may get to 20 below zero or more, but I will take that any day over rattle snakes, tarantulas, poisonious lizzards, huge bugs, and any other odd kind of creature. Where I live now, I can't think of a single thing that could bite me and that I could die from it'ts poisonious venom!! I swim in the lakes, ponds and streams. Nothing attacks me there. I am confident that when I send my child out to play that the only thing she is probably going to get bit by is a skeeter.

My next worry about our adventure is that we have decided to live in housing. We haven't lived in housing in a lonnnng looonng time. Don't get me wrong, alot of the posts have really nice places now. It's close to my husband's work, there is tons of stuff going on in the community, lots of kids for my daughter to play with, but there are also close neighbors. Neighbors that are in your business. I am definately not looking forward to that.

But all and all I think I am prepared. I hope that my lens can help someone out there if they have to move within the military system. It has been fun writing it and I thank you for reading it!!!