Gathering Info....

Before we get to the blogging....how about a little Mahoney!  Here is the Princess with her proud Daddy on Saturday (8-18-12).  I just love her skinny little arms and legs, and her tuft of hair on top!

Holy cannoli!  This impending retirement is a pain in the ass!  Peoples reactions are kinda scary....it's like retirement equals cancer, when people find out.  They say "Oh man, I am so sorry...".  This is not cancer!  I cried like a banshee when my mom told me she had cancer...I (although, I am kinda shocked at this) did not cry when I was told Lee would be retiring...so it can't be that bad!  I have a couple friends, who made me feel a lot better...especially Susan, who made a point to come by on Friday night and congratulate Lee.  At that point we were starting to wonder if we missed some information...why was everyone's reaction filled with doom?  

I have been gathering information, pertaining to retirement pay, the hoops we need to jump through with the V.A. for Lee's disability rating (a long process that's kinda hard to explain...but we want one!), terminal leave (that does kinda sound like cancer...but it is the time between retirement ceremony when you are still active duty and the actual date of your retirement), medical and dental insurance options, and how the "final" move is set up.  I have my notebook ready and I am taking notes as I go along.  Thankfully, the CG has a web page with lots of links and I have my Coastie Chicks forum to reference too.  I have not found anything too scary yet...except we may have to pay for the gas used to get up there (to WA).  That will be reimbursed after we get there and Lee goes to Seattle to do a travel claim.  The funny thing is the CG's amount the reimburse you for gas...is 23 cents per mile.  They must figure everyone has a Prius!  How would I get three people, a huge dog, two cats, our luggage for a week or two, laptops, guitars, a catbox...and all the other stuff that the movers will not move (or you don't want to come up missing...guns, valuables, paperwork) into a Prius....that is just funny!!!

I feel everything is on a timeline...washing the dishes this morning and my thoughts were 'a year from now, we will be prepping to move'.  I have peeked at rentals in the area we want to live in, and I sure hope the people who move in there now, move out next year...there are some cute houses!  Thankfully the budget we have in mind affords us something comfortable.  Yet, that all depends on where Lee finds a position...if he gets something on the other side of the Sound (the Seattle side) everything changes.  

I just keep chanting....It's all good, it ain't cancer...that is some scary shit...cover your eyes kinda scary....this is the scary that in a few years I will laugh at!