And so it begins . . .

I've been thinking a lot about doing a blog to record our time in Thailand, and today I decided to just start, since that's the advice I give to my students who aren't sure what to write.  If I'm going to tell them to just write and see where it takes you, then I figure I should practice what I preach.

I also need to give credit to Leah, who gave me a picture of us with our first literary magazine group today, and then said, you should do a blog while you're in Thailand.  Yes, Leah, I should!

Well, we're not there yet, but we're definitely getting ready to say good bye to our life here in Virginia.  The movers are coming next week to pack up everything besides what I can fit in five suitcases.  I've decided not to go for the full eight suitcases that we are technically entitled to bring on the plane, because I was visualizing me and Jeff managing eight suitcases and the two girls, and I started screaming inside my head.  So, five suitcases, one of which will probably be full of diapers.

I have to go through everything in our house and decide if we want it to go to Thailand in air freight (UAB, unaccompanied air baggage, takes two to three weeks), sea freight (HHE, house hold effects, takes two to three months), or storage (a humidity controlled warehouse somewhere in Virginia, won't see it again for three years).  There's also the fourth category that is not in the government handbook, trash.  I have used so many of those giant black trash bags, that I had to go to the store and buy a new box today.  When is the last time you went through everything under all the sinks in your house? I guarantee at least fifty percent of it is trash.  We have been in this house for eight years, and I swear I try to keep it organized, but man we have a lot of junk.

To add to the fun of deciding how to pack things, the government gives us size and weight restrictions.  We get 700lbs for our UAB, and anything we want to ship has to fit inside a 3'x2'x2' box.  That means no crib, no television set, and almost no high chair until I discovered a handle, pulled, and the whole thing collapsed down to half the size.  Luckily, HHE and storage is far less of a challenge.  The embassy provides us with furnished housing, to include lamps, which is great, until you start looking at the details.  For example, what size bed are they going to provide for us? Jeff and I have upgraded ourselves to a king size, but the government only provides a queen size in our assigned housing, so the bed goes in HHE, not storage, and Jeff is going to need to watch his elbows for two to three months.

A rep from the moving company came on Tuesday and did a quick survey of all our stuff.  He said we should be good to go on weight, which was a relief.  Now I'm mostly working on stacking things in UAB and HHE piles around the house, which makes for a bit of an unintentional obstacle course. Tomorrow is Vivi's last day of Kindergarten, so I've signed her up for a martial arts camp for next week to make sure she's out of the house when all the packing is going on.  She's so excited about the move, but we'll see how she does with everything in our house being packed up and taken away.  My goal is to keep her busy, which will hopefully also keep her happy.