We are in Guadalajara

The flight was smooth. The house is awesome. The neighbors are friendly. And by some miracle, we already have internet. Off to a good start!

Morning

The bright Texas sun is coming through the hotel room curtain. Birdie is up wanting to draw. Deevie and Cubby are still sleeping in the adjoining room. N is showering.

The kids and I had a wonderful day yesterday with the Mezas while N had a full, good day of meetings. It was so nice having a home to hang out in -- filled with toys and friends, instead of a hotel room. It was another sad departure for the kids at the end of the day, with us yelling, "We love the Mezas!" and Albert yelling "Vaya con Dios!" Cubby was doing his little clenched fist open-close waving-good-bye move.

Our two hour flight to Guadalajara is around noon. The day is here!

Last Night In Virginia

So much to pack before morning (10 checked suitcases! Plus hand carried!) but I wanted to get something down for the record. What a Whirl. Wind. It has been.

- Yes, we sold the red car. Funny memory of how N handed Dad and I the cashiers check from Bank Of America and asked us to "make sure it's real" before heading out to finish up the sale. We were holding it up to the light and looking really closely at it, laughing at our inability to ensure its legitimacy.

- I still can't believe we emptied that house! Holy cow. And when I say "we", I really mean EVERY ONE involved in the pack out. Thank you just doesn't cover it for how much Dad and Mom helped us out. Everyone sort of took on an area of the house, and as I scurried after the kids, I kept seeing things being dealt with that I hadn't even thought of. The fridge! The shed out back! The attic! Ack! It's really hard for me to believe that we just can't go back there and see all our stuff around - laundry on the way up the stairs, kid art galleries on the wall, wet towels from swimming on the doors. Sigh. We threw out so much stuff I can't even begin to explain. Mom gave me kudos at the end saying that she was a little concerned about my ability to give stuff up (because I am so sentimental, like her) but that she was pleasantly surprised. Believe me, there is still going to be a lot of stuff showing up in our HHE that I'll certainly question our thinking in shipping it! In the end I think I found 17 nail clippers. That is but one small example of how an unorganized life can lead to sickening amounts of overpurchasing.

- The professional packers who came (Fernando, Elizabeth, Bobby and Michael) were awesome. Seriously awesome. I really enjoyed talking to them while they worked, and couldn't help but give them big hugs when they departed after 3 days. We way underestimated our UAB (air shipment) and ended up throwing a bunch more stuff in at the end - including the grill! The girls got to add their bikes to UAB too, so that'll be fun.

- Our HHE allowance was 7,200 lbs and we came in around 5,200 which was very good to hear. And that includes the piano! We were tempted to add things from storage to that group but in the end decided against it and just went with the weight we had.

- Thanks to Mom's great idea, we designated the upstairs bathroom as the "NO" room, and put anything in there that was NOT to be packed. Like the passports. N had all the important documents and papers in a yellow bag nicknamed "the football", and if he didn't have it on him, he had it in the No Room. I should've put my shoes in the No Room. Yup, the one casualty of the pack out seems to be the two pairs of shoes I meant to put in my suitcase. Until the mall trip on Sunday, I only had flip flops to my name.

- We are now in the Residence Inn, where we've been through the weekend. We fly to Houston tomorrow, where the kids and I will hang out with our wonderful friends we met in Strathmeade. N will have meetings during the day but will be joining us for dinner. On Thursday we fly to the Guad.

- Jenny came by to pick up her newly strung guitar and some bins she'll be holding in storage for us. I cried when she drove away. :( I love our friends and this place so much.

Status

- House: rented. Tenants found. They move in a week from tomorrow. (!)
- Red car: almost sold, I think.
- Back yard: full of stuff headed to the curb.
- Clothes: massively pared down. (Good job, The Bee.)
- Toys: sorta pared down. (Sorta good job, me.)
- Furniture/stuff: covered in red and green dots denoting whether it's storage or HHE (Household Effects, aka, the big, slow shipment).
- UAB (Unaccompanied Air Baggage, aka, the small, fast shipment): mostly isolated in Cubby's room.
- Cubby: sleeping MUCH better. The almost 11month old is finally pulling his weight.
- Girls: Excited. Behaving well, for the most part.
- ToDo list: unfortunately... still kinda long! For everything I cross off, I think of one more.
- The Cavalry: arrived Thursday and Friday in the form of my parents and brother, who are a tremendous help, have some experience with this whole international move thing, and can run interference with the wee ones.

Our next-door neighbor held a good-bye barbecue with the rest of our neighbors on our lil' road tonight. Love our street. The kids were running around like crazy.

Tonight is the last night that all of us will sleep in this house. When we arrived here we had one 5 month old lil' Birdie. Six years is a long time. I wonder when (if) we'll be in one place that long again.

Tonight we sang the Weebster song to the girls, which we've sung most every night since...oh, probably since Deevie was born. I told them we'd keep singing it in Mexico. Deevie, mostly confirming, slightly questioning: "And we'll sing it in English."

"Yes, Sweetie, we will. A lot of things we do are going to stay just the same.”

One more full day, then the movers will descend. I think we can, I think we can...

Rally Time

The seasoned FS grandparents are here - yay! They just took the girls to the store, and I just put the boy down for his nap. Time to empty out/organize at least ONE thing/area/section/category.

You should see our house. Actually, no you shouldn't.

I want to tear through it like the Tazmanian Devil and throw everything away. I have bouts of feeling like this, SUPER NARRA TIME, etc. But then I tend to have a change of heart later in the day and find myself picking through the big black plastic bags. "Gee, I could really cut up this old skirt and use the bits for crafts with the kids!" Awful.

But time is a'tickin' Time to rally.

It is very hard to believe that we only have 4 more nights in our home. It makes me want to cry. I told the girls last night that when I was a kid and had to say goodbye to my grandparents house after staying the summer there, I'd dash around blowing kisses to the lamps, the walls, the pictures, right before departure. I have a feeling we're going to see some of that before we leave here as well.

Stuff

We are overwhelmed with STUFF. And although we've managed to give away so much of it (9 bags of girls clothes just yesterday! And several bags of stuff to the Salvation Army!) there still is always more.

I've been pretty good at being ruthless with clothes and toys, but there are certain things that are like cement walls for me:
- photos
- old letters
- CDs
- art projects. So many cute little art projects.

We do have the option to just put anything in storage (since our assessment of weight limits came in under), but when I have something in my hand and it's heading toward the storage pile, I stop and think "Am I really going to want to see this in 15 years?" and realize I should just throw/give it away.

I've been reading other FS blogs the last few nights and am overwhelmed at how organized some people are. At the same time that it instills a fire in me to be better, it also has the effect of making me feel USELESS and really dumb for not jumping on the bandwagon earlier. So far I have not been a very good FS housewife, and I am so sorry about that.

And now I must get some sleep so I can (try to) be (more) useful tomorrow.

a shot in the arm

[wrote this yesterday but it wouldn't post.]

Well, we are all one-third inoculated against rabies. And we have a travel itinerary. And I know the difference between an B1 visa and a B2 visa. All of which is to say, things are happening, baby.

But many more things must happen before early August pack-out and travel, and I'm really trying to keep it together. I wish I could stay digitally organized, or even maintain a respectable looking planner, but that's not how I roll. My system is a sheet of 8.5"x 11" white paper in my pocket. It is torn and sad looking because I pull it out countless times per day and add reminders, phone numbers, etc. Every now and then, when enough things are crossed off, or when the paper's about to fall apart, I transcribe whatevers not crossed out and begin anew.

And that, inshallah, is how we're gonna get to Mexico.

Actually, there are plenty of to-dos that aren't on the list at all--house chores, things to fix, etc. Seeing it all in one place would give me a heart attack.

Incidentally, the girls did great with the vaccinations last week. Who knows what kind of inner turmoil was going on, but they were outwardly very brave. I'm ashamed to admit that neither The Bee nor I have informed them of the two rounds of shots still to come. Before the appointment was not the right moment--I was absolutely certain of it. But afterwards I didn't want to spoil their "we did it! it's over!" euphoria.

Cubby did not get inoculated--too young. We will remain vigilant lest he become rabid.

Went out for beers last night with some guys from work--I rarely do this and it was great. Turned out the place they chose was doing Karaoke. I know, right? I sang Rocket Man and the old stand by, Kiss, by Prince. Good times.

We have some old friends coming in this weekend, and a party on Saturday, and it's possible we are going to completely blow this move. :) Oh well, we'll arrive in Mexico one way or another, and I'd rather hang out with friends than sort through our junk.

We spent the rest of the day yesterday prettying the yard and sorting through the aforementioned junk because our house went on the rental market yesterday.

bye bye, house.
I will say, having a For Rent sign in the front yard has upped the urgency level in a big way. T-minus three weeks until packout.