Settling In: One Month Later
Here's the update on our life and progress toward being settled one month after landing in the States.
Housing: Our search for a home was kind of all over the place. Our first week in Maryland was spent looking at house after house trying to find on that we liked enough to buy. Our goal was to find a home and make an offer by the end of that week. We didn't meet that goal and since we were kind of on a limited time schedule we decided to switch our focus to finding a house to rent. We figured we could just keep looking for a house to buy but at least we'd be out of a hotel and in a real home. Our plans changed again when the price on a house we'd looked at on our very first day of house hunting dropped significantly. It was my favorite that day but because it was the furthest from the base we didn't put it high on our list - but a big price cut made us reconsider the commute for Jared. We made an offer and it was accepted. If all goes according to plan, we will close on the house August 29th!
For now we are staying at the TLF on base, a hotel/apartment for families as they move to and from Andrews. It's not a perfect fit for our family, but we are so grateful to have two bedrooms, laundry right in our room, and an actual kitchen. Ten days in a hotel off base with nothing but hotel breakfast and fast food for lunch and dinner makes you really appreciate real food at a dining room table with your family.
Transportation: Our car was supposed to arrive in Baltimore two days before we did, but when we landed at BWI our car was nowhere to be found. According to the shipping company it was alternately still on the boat, still in Germany, in Norfolk waiting to clear customs, on a truck being driven to Baltimore, or (and this was the most distressing answer) they had no record of our vehicle in our system. Seventy-seven days after dropping our car off for shipping to the States, and thirty-four days after it was promised to us, we're being told our car has finally arrived and is waiting for us in Baltimore. Jared and I will be going to pick it up on Monday!
We did end up buying a car after about a week so that we wouldn't be entirely without a car and because we'd need a second car for Jared to drive to work anyway. I've always driven our nicer car while Jared has been stuck with a beater to get to and from work. He's driven old trucks, sad little hatchbacks, a minivan with a door welded shut, but never, never anything new or really even that nice. Well, for the first time ever Jared has the nicer car and I'll be driving the old beater. He chose a newer Camry that is practical because of the gas mileage but also good looking and fun to drive.
Schooling: Once we knew for sure where we'd be living it was time to get the girls registered for school. We started by visiting the new elementary school and talking with the principal about Natalie and Samantha and their transition from German to American schools. Their new school is small with just two classes per grade level. Natalie will be able to get some one on one time with a teacher each day to work on her english reading and writing. Also, one of the substitute teachers who is at the school almost every day is German so our girls will hopefully have the chance to speak with her and keep using their language skills.
We then moved on to the middle school to get Abigail registered and set up for classes. Her school is the newest and nicest looking out of the three we visited. The counselor there was really helpful and friendly and was able to get Abby set up for all the classes she wanted to take. I've been most worried about Abigail through this transition because she won't have a sister there at her new school. Seeing how friendly and helpful everyone was makes me a little less worried about our sweet, awesome Abigail.
We ended our big day of school visits at the high school where we talked with counselors, the athletic director, and the music director. It was kind of surprising to me that the staff at the high school were the most friendly of all. I'm really happy for our high school girls; I think they're going to be very happy at their new school. We got both Madison and Emily set up with the classes they want, signed Emily up for volleyball tryouts, and set up auditions with the music director to see in which band classes they would be placed. By the way, we went back yesterday and they both are going to be playing in the most advanced band. It was not a big surprise for Madison; she's been playing percussion for a while now. But it was a great accomplishment for Emily who only had one day to get used to her new instrument and no idea at all what music the director would ask her to play.
Work: The reason we moved here was for Jared's work but so far it hasn't been a huge part of our days. Jared was given ten days for house hunting but after that he had to start showing up for work. Before he could get back to regular police work he had to go through some training. For the last couple of weeks he has been doing weapons training, learning about the base, and basically finding out how they do things at his new squadron. Next week he will start working for real with his new flight and he's pretty excited to get back to work. Especially since for the last two plus years he's not been working as a cop. He'll be the flight chief over one of the security forces flights - about 70 people.
And that's it; we're at least getting closer to figuring things out here at our new home. I can drive lots of places without a GPS, and we are almost used to the humidity!
Housing: Our search for a home was kind of all over the place. Our first week in Maryland was spent looking at house after house trying to find on that we liked enough to buy. Our goal was to find a home and make an offer by the end of that week. We didn't meet that goal and since we were kind of on a limited time schedule we decided to switch our focus to finding a house to rent. We figured we could just keep looking for a house to buy but at least we'd be out of a hotel and in a real home. Our plans changed again when the price on a house we'd looked at on our very first day of house hunting dropped significantly. It was my favorite that day but because it was the furthest from the base we didn't put it high on our list - but a big price cut made us reconsider the commute for Jared. We made an offer and it was accepted. If all goes according to plan, we will close on the house August 29th!
For now we are staying at the TLF on base, a hotel/apartment for families as they move to and from Andrews. It's not a perfect fit for our family, but we are so grateful to have two bedrooms, laundry right in our room, and an actual kitchen. Ten days in a hotel off base with nothing but hotel breakfast and fast food for lunch and dinner makes you really appreciate real food at a dining room table with your family.
Transportation: Our car was supposed to arrive in Baltimore two days before we did, but when we landed at BWI our car was nowhere to be found. According to the shipping company it was alternately still on the boat, still in Germany, in Norfolk waiting to clear customs, on a truck being driven to Baltimore, or (and this was the most distressing answer) they had no record of our vehicle in our system. Seventy-seven days after dropping our car off for shipping to the States, and thirty-four days after it was promised to us, we're being told our car has finally arrived and is waiting for us in Baltimore. Jared and I will be going to pick it up on Monday!
We did end up buying a car after about a week so that we wouldn't be entirely without a car and because we'd need a second car for Jared to drive to work anyway. I've always driven our nicer car while Jared has been stuck with a beater to get to and from work. He's driven old trucks, sad little hatchbacks, a minivan with a door welded shut, but never, never anything new or really even that nice. Well, for the first time ever Jared has the nicer car and I'll be driving the old beater. He chose a newer Camry that is practical because of the gas mileage but also good looking and fun to drive.
Schooling: Once we knew for sure where we'd be living it was time to get the girls registered for school. We started by visiting the new elementary school and talking with the principal about Natalie and Samantha and their transition from German to American schools. Their new school is small with just two classes per grade level. Natalie will be able to get some one on one time with a teacher each day to work on her english reading and writing. Also, one of the substitute teachers who is at the school almost every day is German so our girls will hopefully have the chance to speak with her and keep using their language skills.
We then moved on to the middle school to get Abigail registered and set up for classes. Her school is the newest and nicest looking out of the three we visited. The counselor there was really helpful and friendly and was able to get Abby set up for all the classes she wanted to take. I've been most worried about Abigail through this transition because she won't have a sister there at her new school. Seeing how friendly and helpful everyone was makes me a little less worried about our sweet, awesome Abigail.
We ended our big day of school visits at the high school where we talked with counselors, the athletic director, and the music director. It was kind of surprising to me that the staff at the high school were the most friendly of all. I'm really happy for our high school girls; I think they're going to be very happy at their new school. We got both Madison and Emily set up with the classes they want, signed Emily up for volleyball tryouts, and set up auditions with the music director to see in which band classes they would be placed. By the way, we went back yesterday and they both are going to be playing in the most advanced band. It was not a big surprise for Madison; she's been playing percussion for a while now. But it was a great accomplishment for Emily who only had one day to get used to her new instrument and no idea at all what music the director would ask her to play.
Work: The reason we moved here was for Jared's work but so far it hasn't been a huge part of our days. Jared was given ten days for house hunting but after that he had to start showing up for work. Before he could get back to regular police work he had to go through some training. For the last couple of weeks he has been doing weapons training, learning about the base, and basically finding out how they do things at his new squadron. Next week he will start working for real with his new flight and he's pretty excited to get back to work. Especially since for the last two plus years he's not been working as a cop. He'll be the flight chief over one of the security forces flights - about 70 people.
And that's it; we're at least getting closer to figuring things out here at our new home. I can drive lots of places without a GPS, and we are almost used to the humidity!
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