Packing up

Time is flying by as we prepare for our return to the states! They packed up our household goods on Sept 30th which was quite the adventure. The Army contracts movers to come in and pack everything up, which is nice because it saves us the trouble. Also, anything we pack isn't covered by the Army so if it gets broken, we're out of luck! But everything packed by the movers is covered. Jay was walking out the door to take Hayden to school as the movers arrived, so the first hour was definitely the most stressful. We had separated some things out to not be packed and wouldn't you know it, those were the first to be packed! Once we rescued the "PCS box", the passports and my work clothes, we were good to go.

 Holy cow did we have a lot of stuff! We didn't come over with much, but four plus years in a foreign country when you add in a dog and a baby adds a lot to what you own! We didn't want to just toss Hayden's clothes when he outgrew them since we're planning to have more kids, so there's all that. Plus every baby toy he ever played with. Then there's the clothes and dishes, the keepsakes from our travels, the books and DVDs we picked up and the scrapbooks I've completed. Did I mention the new furniture and the antiques? We were amazed at how much stuff we had! The movers did a great job and we tried to keep them happy with food and of course, by staying out of their way!

That evening we slept on our air mattress and Hayden enjoyed running around in our furniture-free house. The next day they dropped off government furniture, so now our house looks a lot like it did when we got here in 2006! It's definitely challenging to cook the things we're used to with limited kitchen ware, and we only have four forks so there's always dishes to be done! It's kind of nice to live simply, and it made us realize we have a lot to throw out once it all gets to our house! We've held on to a lot of stuff that we really can do without, and less is definitely more in our house! I kept a few dvds, a few books and some scrapbooking stuff and it seems like we have more time to do the things we enjoy when there's not as much other stuff hanging around.

Speaking of scrapbooking, I have finally FINALLY finished Hayden's one year album! And just two months shy of his second birthday :-) I have a few things to work on for his next book, and I'm mid-October 2009 in our family album. I'm hoping to be finished with 2009 before we leave here, but that remains to be seen!

The next step is to ship our car, which is made much easier by having our 2nd car that will be sold just before we leave here. That way we can ship the good car early and have it waiting on us when we get home. That should be done next week, and then our unaccompanied baggage goes on October 30th. UB consists of the things we need here longer and need sooner in the states, like our air mattress, one of the TVs, Hayden's crib and a few kitchen items. We've thrown away a lot, recycled a lot and taken a lot of things to the Thrift Shop for consignment. It's starting to happen!