Its getting to be that time...

There are many great things that come from existing on a 3-4 year moving rotation.  

• You get to see the country as you zig zag thousands of miles all over the place.
• Your son can smoke all the competition at a Geography Bee because round after round they ask him questions he knows based on different regions of the country he has lived in.
• You house is not filled with clutter, crap and trinkets that you just don't want to pack and repack 
• You refer to your children's growth patterns based on demographics, ie: houses, different schools, certain neighbors, various states.
• You are highly proficient in living out of suitcases and out of your car.  Packing your vehicles with enough life supplies for 2 months.  Making sure not to forget BBQ utensils, a hibachi grill, laundry detergent, dog food, passports and Benadryl for when you need to quiet the children.
• You learn to let go of the fact that its possible that a young teenage boy working summer employment is going to see and touch your extra bras, panties and unmentionables while packing up your entire house as you stand there and watch him.  
• You are an expert at checking hotel rooms for bed bugs before unpacking your suitcases.  (I'll admit I might be the only person I know who does this but I have a phobia)
• You learn that you really are not a "Home Port Pooper" when you don't have a home.  Your living out of your vehicle and hotel rooms for months at a time.  
• You know to memory which states don't have a speed limit and which states have stretches of road you hope to never traverse again.  
• You get the opportunity to plan you route of travel from the old unit to the new unit based off where you can stop to tour another Microbrew. 
• You get to travel, enjoy adventure, be diverse and let each new place let you grow to be different and better.

There are many things that suck about existing on a 3-4 year moving rotation.

• You have to say goodbye to wonderful people who you wish you didn't have to say goodbye to.
• As a spouse you have to quit your job and hope to hell you can find a new one that is just as good.
• Your children have to say goodbye to every comfort they have that makes their life feel normal.
• Your stuck in your car for what feels like a million miles with multiple children and multiple pets.
• You have to trust perfect strangers to get every single belonging that didn't fit into your car from one house to another and hope it doesn't all arrive in a million pieces.  
• Your kids have to start over with friends, schools, activities, etc.  It gets harder the older they get.
• You have to hope like hell your furniture that fit so beautifully in your old house is actually going to fit through the front door of your new home and not be overly large or ackward.
• You have to find a new doctor, new dentist and new hairdresser.  Trusting your hair to just anyone is risky and stressful.  More stressful then finding a dentist.
• You have to relearn the layout of yet another grocery store.  
• You have to remember yet another new home address and another new home phone number.  
• You have to start over....

Making a move every 3-4 years is such a mixed bag of emotions.  Its exciting, exhausting, frightening, refreshing.  I can not believe we are already heading down this road again.  (((Sigh)))