Well, it has been some time since my last post. Reason being that we are in the middle of our PCS. We have officially left Key West for good and are now temporarily in Norfolk. It will be a couple of months before we head out to Japan and I go missing for a little again until then I promise to try to stay up to date and post as much relevant information as my little hands can grab.
Talk soon!
Michelle
We have all heard one thing or another in regards to Tricare. Things that they do or don’t do. I know I have heard my fair share of myths in my eight years of being a Military Spouse. So to help a little with all the stories and ‘gossip’ you may hear, here are the five top myths I hear in regards to Tricare.
1. You get one PCM for your entire Duty Station.
If you are Standard, then probably. However, if you are Prime you more than likely won’t. Keep in mind these doctors are also service members, therefore, they to rotate duty stations. Meaning you may go through a few PCMs during your stay per station. In our three years in this location, I am on Doctor number four.
2.Getting a free breast pump is impossible.
This is very easy. There are a few companies which all they do is deal with Tricare. When I had my son, i used Target. All I had to do was email the picture of the prescription to them. However, I have heard they no longer offer this service. I know The Breastfeeding Shop is another source. All you have to do with them is fill out their order form.
3. Urgent Care Visits require Pre-Aprroval.
For Standard, there is no pre-approval needed. However, you will still be responsible for your co-pay.
For Prime, you are allowed two visits without approval per person per year. For more than two you will need an authorization, which you may get by calling the Tricare Nurse Line should your regular PCM not be available to see you.
4. You can get your prescription filled anywhere.
Simply put No. Some locations do not cover Tricare. CVS for example no longer takes Tricare. Places like Walgreens, Walmart, and Rite-Aid, are still providers. The best place to get prescriptions filled is still on base since there is no co-payment in the base pharmacy as there is with the other vendors.
5. Prime is the best option.
This is not true, and it comes down to each families specific needs. If you don’t mind waiting on referrals and having little to no say on which doctors you get, then this is a good option. There is also little to no expense associated with Prime.
However, if you want the freedom of choosing your doctor, and don’t want to deal with waiting for referrals, then Standard may be for you. Just keep in mind that Standard is a 80-20. Meaning they cover 80% of the costs and you cover 20%. So if a bill is 1000, you would be responsible for 200. I do know there is also a deductible section for Standard, but I am not aware of the logistics behind it.
So be sure to do your research and choose which plan is better for your family. For example, for my family, Prime was the best option.
Are there more myths floating around out there? Sure there is. There always will be due to misinformation and the telephone effect. The key is research. If you can’t, find the answer then ask the appropriate people. Should you have a Tricare question, ask the Tricare specialist on your base. Question on medical, ask a service member there. Do not just rely on what you hear from other spouses. Though us spouses are a source of knowledge, sometimes we hear things incorrectly or our own personal experiences may lead to wrong information.
So we all hate moving, well I think most of us at least do. I know my stress levels go through the roof, and now with an overseas PCS looming over me, I knew I had to do something. I created a binder. Yes, it may have been an over the top thing to do, but man did my stress go down.
First, I researched… a lot. I looked at a bunch of different examples of binders and created my own. I took the good, dropped the bad, and added what I found to be missing. I hope this helps you as much as it did me. My humble opinion is this works well for both CONUS and OCONUS PCS.
What you’ll need:
1 – zipper pouch with the three ring binder hold on the side
1 – 2 inch three ring binder. You can probably do smaller, but I put EVERYTHING in there, and 2 Inch was the right size for me.
Eight tabs.
And a packet or two of sheet protectors.
The Tabs:
1. Important/ Legal
2. Medical
3. Travel
4. Housing
5. Check List
6. Pet Info
7. Contact List
8. Shipping Info
The rundown:
1. Important/ Legal – Basically a copy of orders, marriage cert, birth certificates, school records, etc.
2. Medical – Vaccinations, medical records, the list of medications.
3. Travel – Hotel info, flight, car rental
4. Housing – Any documents in regards to housing both old and new. Leases, the release of the property so forth.
5. Check List – Can help keep you on track. Can put it on your first tab before move.
6. Pet info – All documents from vaccinations to microchip info. Airline hotel boarding.
7. Contact list – Numbers and addresses for exiting and entering command. Never know when your phone will die and you’ll need a number
8. Shipping info – All HHG info as well as any POBOX info you have.
Zipper pouch – Here I keep passports a pen and put all receipts for reimbursement.
Hopefully, you will find as much use out of this as I did.
Happy Moving!
So we all hate moving, well I think most of us at least do. I know my stress levels go through the roof, and now with an overseas PCS looming over me, I knew I had to do something. I created a binder. Yes, it may have been an over the top thing to do, but man did my stress go down.
First, I researched… a lot. I looked at a bunch of different examples of binders and created my own. I took the good, dropped the bad, and added what I found to be missing. I hope this helps you as much as it did me. My humble opinion is this works well for both CONUS and OCONUS PCS.
What you’ll need:
1 – zipper pouch with the three ring binder hold on the side
1 – 2 inch three ring binder. You can probably do smaller, but I put EVERYTHING in there, and 2 Inch was the right size for me.
Eight tabs.
And a packet or two of sheet protectors.
The Tabs:
1. Important/ Legal
2. Medical
3. Travel
4. Housing
5. Check List
6. Pet Info
7. Contact List
8. Shipping Info
The rundown:
1. Important/ Legal – Basically a copy of orders, marriage cert, birth certificates, school records, etc.
2. Medical – Vaccinations, medical records, the list of medications.
3. Travel – Hotel info, flight, car rental
4. Housing – Any documents in regards to housing both old and new. Leases, the release of the property so forth.
5. Check List – Can help keep you on track. Can put it on your first tab before move.
6. Pet info – All documents from vaccinations to microchip info. Airline hotel boarding.
7. Contact list – Numbers and addresses for exiting and entering command. Never know when your phone will die and you’ll need a number
8. Shipping info – All HHG info as well as any POBOX info you have.
Zipper pouch – Here I keep passports a pen and put all receipts for reimbursement.
Hopefully, you will find as much use out of this as I did.
Happy Moving!
Oh, those lovely little fur babies that become part of our lives and hearts. Normally moves are smooth with them, as long as you bring them food and water they are happy as can be. But what happens when you get orders overseas to Japan?
Many of the things I read up on said to leave them behind or prepare to spend thousands of dollars. While that may be true for some, it isn’t true for all.
For example, if what you have is cats or small dogs, the odds are that they can fly in the cabin with you for a small fee. Now if you need to add them as cargo, due to the larger size, and are traveling on orders, you can get a nice military discount on commercial flights. Just keep in mind a Patriot flight or military flight is always the cheaper option for larger pets. However, those get booked quickly so book as soon as possible.
But let’s rewind just a little, I, for example, have not yet made the big puddle jump. We are currently in the quarantine phase, but I’ll get to that in a minute. Here is a small step by step guide of what you need to do to prepare your pets for travel to Japan.
1. Microchip. If your pet already has one, make sure it is the new 15 digit microchip. The old ten digit is no longer acceptable for Japan. If you do have the ten digit one, you will need to do a new microchip.
2. Two rabies vaccination that is done AFTER the chip’s inserted. The second vaccine can be done 30 days after the first.
3. The rabies antibody test. It is a blood sample that is drawn after the second vaccine.
4. Quarantine or waiting period. This one is the “bad” part. It is 180 wait time or quarantine. The date of blood sampling is counted as 0. If you have to travel before the quarantine is over, you may still take your pets. Depending on the base you will be going to, you may finish the quarantine within the base “house, ” you get assigned, or you may board your pet with the base vet for quarantine completion.
5. If flying commercial, you must send in Advanced notification at the expected port of entrance. You can find all the forms needed here.
6. Vet visit clearing for travel.
7. Get all certifications. Individual information, microchip number, and date of implanting. Date of rabies vaccinations, effective period, kind of vaccine, product name, and manufacturer of the vaccine. Date of blood sampling for a rabies antibody test, antibody titer, and name of designated laboratory. Result and date of clinical inspection, as well as a USDA, stamped international health certificate.
As you can see, it is quite a few steps. We are currently on 4, and waiting to find out how we are flying over.
Hope this has helped you some in finding out how to get your pet over to Japan.
So we just got our hard copy orders….finally. In my head everything would go so smoothly and as planned. We’d get our orders, be able to schedule the movers, hotel and touch base with housing no problem. I also imagined we’d be able to set our flight, get our pets booked on there and all I’d have left to worry about was cleaning up our house and re-painting it to turn it in.
Well, life seldom goes as planned, especially in the military and when you are the mother to a baby.
Like I said we got our order, then I asked about the hotel since it is one of my bigger concerns. Where we are being stationed, they only have a limited amount of rooms that are pet accessible, and we have two cats. I would hate to board them. Well, as you know orders give you a detach and arrive no later than a date with some time in between. And we can’t set apart a hotel until we know when we arrive, which we won’t know until we have a flight because we are stationing overseas. So I ask my loving husband how do we get the flight…. and he doesn’t know, he needs to “look into it.” So here we go, bump number one and two all at once.
Ok, I breathe and let that go. So on to the next on my list. Well third since the flight situation was next, and well, that got nowhere before I was even able to discuss it. Housing. I know were not there but figured hey, let’s at least send in our application, they know we’re coming, and with pets so at least we’re in the back of their mind. So I pull up the housing application, and it asks a bunch of questions I can’t answer regarding detaching and arriving dates. Sigh.
I was going to tackle the movers but let my husband do that one, which we learned we’re going to have to talk to someone in person. We are navy being stationed in a Marine base overseas, and our future base is not in our little drop down menu box. So, that was a no go either.
Did I mention throughout all of this I was carrying a ten-month-old who was screaming bloody murder? I was, and he had a clean diaper and was fed, but was sleepy. I don’t know if I have the only child that thinks that he doesn’t need sleep but, putting him down for the night usually includes rocking him, ignoring him, letting him play, and just laying in the dark until he is cried out and finally passes out of exhaustion.
This was my night yesterday. Futile and tiresome. But at least now we know we need to get some more information, reach out to a few people and hopefully get to that place where I imagined myself all along. Just needing to paint and turn in the house.
If you find yourself here too, know you are not alone. You aren’t the only one banging your head against the wall at military websites, or with bags under your eyes, or the only one with a child that you question where on earth he was spawned from. I am right here with you.
Much luck to you!
I remember every single day of the first time my husband was deployed… and the second too. These are times of our lives that sadly we trudge through but never forget. We keep a little piece alway in our minds to keep us prepared for the next time because with active duty there is always the next time.
For those that are just starting this adventure, welcome. Here are a few things no one ever told you about deployments.
1. You will worry even when you know your service member is okay.
Yes! It is inevitable. My husband is in the Navy, and even when he is in the middle of the ocean and not in a war zone I worry. Why? Because, they are still deployed, which means war zones are inevitable. Also, mishaps can happen. So expect to be worried up until they walk through the door.
2. You will start an unwanted relationship with food.
Whether it is too much food or not enough, prepare yourself for an extream. Stress affects us in different ways, but nine times out of ten it affects in the way we eat. For some, its overindulgence that helps manage stress. For others, it is keeping so busy you forget even to eat, The best way to prevent either one set a meal plan and alarms to help you out.
3. Your phone will become an extension of your person.
There is no worse feeling than seeing a missed call on your phone, even worse, knowing it was your loved one who called. So be ready to have your phone glued to your hand like a teenaged girl addicted to Instagram.
4. Distractions are welcome.
Not only are they welcome, but they are also a major key to sanity. You may not feel up to it, but trust me, accept the invitation. Whether it is an invitation to have coffee, or go to the mall, or even just go hang out at a friends house. It will give you a few minutes of normalcy that you will later be greatful for.
5. Be ready for a lot of “dumb questions.”
What do I consider dumb questions? Oh you know, the good old-fashioned “Are you scared he is going to die?” , “How do you do it?” or the one that makes me roll my eyes so hard I see my brain, “You’re used to it by now, right?”. So if you are reading this, don’t ask those questions. Ever!
6. Time will slow down and speed up.
This will happen multiple times throughout the deployment with no rhyme or reason. There will be phases where a week may feel like an eternity. Then there are those precious weeks where you realize a whole month flew by in a blink of an eye. Don’t ask why or try to understand it.
7. Lastly, it never gets easier.
This is one of the reasons that question “you should be used to it” grates the nerves so much. If you’ve done more than one deployment, you know each one is just as bad as the previous. There is no getting used to it nor it getting easier. There is only moving along and making it to the end where your loved one is back safe and home.
There is nothing to do, I live my days to the max with my loved one and plan the as many memories as possible in the timeframe I have him home. It is all I can do, knowing any day he will tell me another deployment is scheduled. Until then I will live in blissful ignorance as we try to do.
The famous care package. I hate that word, why? Well, it usually goes accompanied with the dreaded “D” word, Deployment. But none the less, it is an imperative thing, and if this is your first time with a deployed loved one, you may have many questions.
The question I get asked the most is how often they should be sending a package. I like sending a box every other month. Of course, this all depends on the length of the deployment as well. If they are on a four-month deployment, I would probably just send one box instead of two.
As for when should, the first box be sent, considering that you can never know exactly how long the mail will take to get there, I like sending the first package by the end of the first week that they leave. My husband is Navy and when deployed that means being on a ship in the middle of nowhere. So mail can take anywhere from 2-8 weeks to get to him.
Now for the good stuff, what goes in the box?
– Well, there is the basic, like underwear. Yes, i send underwear every package because I have heard horror stories of the laundry room, so my husband gladly tosses the ones he has and uses the new ones.
– Shampoo. Sure they sell stuff on the ship (or base, depending on your situation) but many times the things they sell are essentials, and maybe your package receiver has a specific unique brand they prefer.
– Undershirts
– Socks
– Then it’s the special and unique things that personalize each box. For my husband it is Mio. You know those little squirt bottles that flavored water. I send ten at a time, and he shares with his shipmates that don’t receive packages frequently.
– Takis, if you’ve never had them think spicy cheese but better. A must for him.
– Peanut butter M&M’s. Can he get them on the boat? Sure they are basic enough BUT its easier for me to send him a big bag than him having to buy smaller bags regularly.
So it all comes down to personalization with a few necessities. Find out what your service member needs, and add a few things they might like and would put a smile on their face.
Have tips or ideas for a blog post. Message me, and I may just make a post devoted to your questions or ideas!
Happy Shipping!
Michelle
So that day has come, it is time to decide what to pack for your express shipment. The main question is, what can’t you live without? While you may want to say everything, you may have to narrow it down a bit. Here is my list of musts for express shipment.
– Plates, silverware, and dishes. Ok, this is more of personal preference. Realistically you could always go to the commissary and get disposable plates, cups, and silverware.
– Some pots and pans. Don’t take all now, you will still be living in your home for a bit so send maybe one pan and one pot to help you get started in your next location.
– Some Mugs, cups, and glasses.
– A few Bath towels. Oh sure, you could buy more, but it is an expense that can be prevented.
– A few sets of sheets & blankets. Very important, especially if you are using loaner furniture. This will help make your place feel more like your own.
– Kitchen towels & pot holders
– Kitchen necessities (Wine bottle opener, bottle opener, can opener, sharp knife or two, etc.)
– A mop/broom/vacuum. You will want to clean sooner rather than later.
– Mattresses w/ accessories (pad, box spring). This is one of those things you can hold off on if you are ok with using the loaner furniture for a bit longer.
– Folding chairs, small tables (until your other stuff arrives)
– Small, simple tool set (hammer, pliers, etc.)
– Sports or exercise gear or baby toys and furniture. Won’t normally have space for both, so it’s time to choose which you will pick.
– Coffee maker. In my household, this is very important.
– TV, you want to take at least one. Especially if you have littles.
– Desktop Computer w/ accessories (cords, printer, etc.)
It is time to start separating for belongings for the impending move. Here is my list of things to take with me in my suitcase and carry on.
– Your important documents (include IDs, wallet, cash, passports, travel information, contact information, copies of Orders, etc.) I may be a little crazy here, but I create a binder where all of this goes in. Also, keep this on your person at all times.
– Personal toiletries
– Medications & small first aid accessories (bandages and the like)
– Clothing for travel and arrival (plan for hotter or cooler weather than you are used to as well as a variety of events such as more formal occasions, swimming, etc.)
– Shoes for travel and arrival (a pair of casual shoes, formal, and utility should do, the rest I feel comfortable sending with the rest of our belongings)
– Entertainment for the trip and arrival until your next shipment comes (books, magazines, toys, laptops, tablets, mp3 players, etc.) If you have a baby, or child with you, be sure to make some more space for their toys as it tends to comfort the littles to have their things with them.
– Chargers for all electronics you are bringing with you (with adapters if needed)
– Valuables you are not shipping or storing
– Any specialized gear you might need (child seats, health-related equipment, things for your pets, etc.)
– Inflatable mattress/sleeping bag pads w/ sheets/blankets. Keep in mind when deciding if you want to take the air mattress with you that there are lending lockers where they can assign you temporary furniture until yours arrives. You may, however, want to make sure you take at least one set of sheets with you.
– Pillows/travel pillows
All of this said and done, most of these things you may be able to buy when you get to your destination. However, with an overseas move, you may have a lot of unexpected expenses so taking as much with you as possible will help.
Good Luck!
Michelle
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