AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

Everything lately can be related to this exclamation:
Yesterday: AHHHHHHHH the movers are coming tomorrow, hurry
Today: AHHHHHHHHHH the movers are here packing, I hope we got everything
Tomorrow: AHHHHHHHHH, it is over we can breathe for a couple days

JAPAN has arrived!

Liz and Michelle, you will love this.
We have spent the past few months telling Garrett that he is moving to Okinawa Japan, and since just Tuesday they packed some stuff and took it he has been very Japan obsessed. Especially after Conner told him he had gone to Japan before and it took five minutes.
So, Pam (the aforementioned sister) gets here, and Garrett calls her JAPAN! Aunt Pam=Japan. To a three year old they probably do sound the same. And he really has no clue that Japan is a place, not a person. It is so funny. "where did Japan go" "Japan, come here, I want to show you" "Japan, you gonna sleep at my house?"

SURPRISE!

My family is much more devious than I would have ever imagined. Standing outside today talking with a couple neighbors, a car pulls into my driveway. It was my sister! Talk about surprised. I had NO idea she was coming out. Tomorrow I will get to see my niece, and she will get to see her mom. They have been scheming behind my back; what a good scheme to pull off. I'll post some pictures we take over the next couple of days soon.

Critter Mania Continues

And I don't mean that in a good way....say hello to the little rattlesnake Lynn found on her driveway.

Monday night is when the cute, little, very dangerous invader showed up. After we were all looking at it, it decided the flower garden was a better place to be. Lynn was not happy. Jerry got it out of the flowers and it into a bucket that had a lid. It spent the night in the bucket until the game warden came to collect it Tuesday morning. Interesting overnight guest. We took these pictures as the game warden arrived. We happily waved goodbye.

Up, Up, and Away

The first shipment is G.O.N.E. It was way more than we had expected to be able to fit. One thousand pounds of HHG, no furniture, is actually a lot. While we waited for the packers to get here we weighed everything we had set aside, only 700 pounds. So, we added, and added until we got to 970. We wanted as much to go express as possible. What is in that shipment is all we will have for up to 3 months while we wait for the second shipment. Three months is a long time. A good majority of the kitchen is gone. Lots of clothes. Plenty of toys, skateboards, scooters, rollerblades, a computer, even one of Garrett's train tables went in the express. I think we actually did really well and we are happy with what we will have when we are first there. It was a very daunting task, I am glad step one is done. I owe a huge thank you to Jerry. He was more than on top of it. I had this amazing ability to wander off task repeatedly. He kept me on the straight and narrow. Thanks honey, I love you.

Big ol' mess

Okay, so it has begun....the whirlwind that we call organizing. Our house is a FANTASTIC mess. (that is for Lynn if she were to EVER read this blog) We have clothes for suitcases, clothes for express shipment, clothes for HHG (household goods) shipment. And, what is with my linens? I am sure I put them into the linen closet organized, but somehow when we are looking to pick out a full set, 4 twin sets, and some extra pillow cases, it is a supreme mess. Who does that? I think someone is messing with me. **edited for Jerry quote** "who is the c*****cker hiding all the f***ing tags on those things." Please forgive the language. It has been a long day. Although I will admit that elicited a huge laugh from me.
My wonderful friends helped me get through the kitchen stuff so I feel much better. I truly love you all. This move is just not going to go easily. I will be leaving A LOT behind. Mostly people whom I could never replace; I just have to hope I will be as lucky in Okinawa.

Synonym for Procrastination

Answer: Jessica. We have packers coming next week. As in, we have less than seven days to decide what are the things we need to live a fairly normal life, in a foreign country, for up to three months, while we wait for the other 25% of our things we decided we needed, to arrive. Does that make any sense? For some reason I find the entire process just too much to even start. Well, we did set aside a microwave, PS3, and Wii. We know we are sending a tv too, but it needs to get reboxed. That is as far as we have gotten. I am sure you can guess who gathered those items. The we should read Jerry since Jessica had no part in that process. I was home though, I will stick with we. Maybe if I could get past "do I need to send a colander" and "what if I want to make muffins" I could be constructive instead of spinning my wheels. Michelle, is any of this familiar? Or were you just too organized/busy/proactive/something to have suffered this inability?
This is not me, well, not normal me. When I had to move from Del Mar, even without Jerry, it took me two days to have everything unpacked and put away. Our stuff was in the new house Friday afternoon, by Monday I had only about 4 boxes in the house. That is me.

I know, would I like some cheese to go with my whine? Yes. Yes, I would. Thank you for asking. I'll leave my pity party now and go wash some sheets to put into the express shipment.