We're moving to Hawaii!

The Monday following my phone call to EFMP we had out paperwork back. We got our amended orders Tuesday and got our plane itinerary on Wednesday!

We already got a call from the movers who were scheduled for the 6th. They are coming on Monday to survey our stuff (see how many boxes they need etc.) and will come the 2nd and 3rd to pack, then the 6th to load and take it all. We are allowed 5 days in a hotel paid for by the Army when we leave here. So we are moving into the hotel on the 8th and turning the house over on the 10th, flying out on the 13th.

We have not shipped our van yet. Today I contacted our lein holder (Santander) and had to get a letter of authorization giving us permission to ship it. After emailing them our orders and amendments, they emailed me the paperwork which I printed off and now we can ship the van. Plus, they were able to lower out interest rate by half! Woohoo!

We had our pre-move walk-through today. We are at Bragg and you never know how picky housing will be when you leave. We have to replace a couple blinds, which is cheaper to do ourselves. we also have a couple dents in the wall from the kids they said we can mud and sand ourselves, not to worry about painting though. We have to pay for a patch in the carpet (technically 3) and it is going to cost us $85 for the carpet patch total. Now if we leave it a mess and not clean we'll have other charges, but I am not like that. Overall it went well. We have less than 3 weeks left in this house! less than a month until we are in Hawaii.

Oh! We called the Inn at Schofield, which is the approved Inn to stay in if you want to have the Army pay for your lodging. We have 3 kids, so we need two rooms. They are booked. So they told us we have to call back twice a week for the next two weeks and if they are still booked toward the end of the month, THEN they will email us a list of other TLA approved hotels.

So that's that. I have no idea if anyone reads this or if it is helpful to anyone, but I hope it is!

Finally.

We finally have everything we need. As of Friday we still did not have our EFMP screening paperwork back. My husband was planning to check out on PCS leave on Tuesday! So I called EFMP in Hawaii and after checking, they told me that our packet had been approved on the 6th. I called on the 13th. Why had we not heard anything?!? So she suggested I call Hawaii Family Travel, so I did, they told me that they were still waiting for approval from Tripler. (EFMP) So I told her I just got off the phone with them and they said they had approved it on the 6th. She said she would get ahold of them and see what was up. I figured if today (Monday the 16th) we still did not have anything, I would call again. But lo and behold, it was there! So now we are waiting for amended orders so we can schedule travel and get this show on the road!!

Phone numbers that are useful!!

Hawaii area code is 808
http://assist.army.mil/assist2/efmp/
EFMP in Hawaii at Tripler Medical is 808-433-4441 they are open from 8am-12pm and 1pm-4pm M-F. Remember, time zones! I am currently in Eastern time zone, so they are 6 hours behind me. Which means I can call them between 2pm and 10pm in North Carolina.

Hawaii Family Travel 808-655-1804
I am unsure of their office hours but assume it is similar to that of EFMP.

Please remember to be polite and respectful when you call. The women I spoke to were very nice and very helpful to me, but I also made sure I was very polite to them as I was asking for their help.