Ma'a salama Montero!

 

We'll see you on the other side of the world!

Dropping off the car went very smoothly today. The only hiccup was that we arrived with too much gas in the car (it needed to be less than 1/4 of a tank) so Josh had to go driving to burn it off. As resourceful as he is though, he stopped at a Kragen Auto Parts store and bought a gas can and some hose and bypassing the anti-theft valve on the gas tank, was able to siphon off 5 gallons that he added to my car. Yea for "free" gas! The entire process took about 2 hours since they inspected the car even closer than we did before we bought it, noting every single spot or scratch in the paint or on the glass. Oh and anything that was loose in the car had to be taken out and put in a sealed box so it didn't "disappear" during shipment. So the car was stripped of all floor mats, the tools that are in the hidden panel in the back door, and even the cover for the steering wheel were all taped up and Josh had to sign his name across the tape so we'll know if it has been tampered with upon arrival in Egypt.

 

Killing time while the dude did his thorough inspection. He circled the car 2 full times and I'm not exaggerating when I say that part took about 25 minutes. *snore*

The highlight of the trip was while I was sitting in the office waiting for Josh to dispose of the excess fuel, an Army guy, who I have renamed "Poor Dude," came in to ship his car. The first thing he said was, "I don't have the registration because the movers packed it." Poor Dude, I know how you feel.

But then it turned out he didn't have the title either since he had just paid it off and the bank hadn't mailed it to him yet. I knew then that he was up a creek. The lady said, "we can't take it today. When do you leave for Germany?" Poor Dude replied, "Sunday."

So I don't know what happened to Poor Dude and his friend, but I do know he wasn't very happy and he didn't get to ship his car today. Glad that wasn't us . . .

Next step -- load the minivan with all the excess worthless stuff that didn't make it on the moving truck and drop it at the storage place. Then all that will be left is to get on the plane.

attack of the teething baby

yes, she's actually gnawing on my chin.

Poor girl. We're hoping she gets some teeth soon to put her out of her misery. She doesn't look too miserable though, does she? We dose her up with Tylenol when she starts whimpering and has trouble sleeping. In the meantime she is chewing on anything she can get her mouth on, including my chin, hands and shoulders.

twinsies?

 

Carter

Camille

I think so!

two things I'm thankful for . . .

one.

two.

This was our last night at the house. I was thankful she fell asleep while we were finishing all the last minute cleaning. I'm also thankful that I don't have to scrub any more appliances, sort through any more of our junk, and that we're another step closer to being finished with this move. And that we cleared housing without being charged for the carpets that started out beige, but ended up black.

down time at the hotel

While the movers were finishing up the packing, baby girl and I went back to the hotel for a much needed nap. Watching people work is exhausting. 

"Look Mom! I found my feet!"

crisis averted!

Project Egypt Vehicle is back on track. The shipping company has the faxed copy of the title and as long as our registration has us listed as the owners of the vehicle (it does) we will be able to ship it out on Friday.

Even before the news from the DMV I was feeling relieved because Dad said he would deliver the car to the shipping yard for us if we had to wait for a new title. That way I wouldn't have to endure a year of, "it would be fun to do ______, if only we had our car . . ."

Yesterday was full of cleaning, cleaning, cleaning. My hands are totally beat up from using steel wool to try and scrub the stovetop grates and from pulling weeds in the yard. Technically not weeds, just mint. Lots of mint. But it is so invasive and burrows so deep in the ground it is essentially a weed. I didn't even plant it. I composted cut up pieces of it. It didn't compost. It took root and grew all over the yard. That's what I get for trying to be green.

Today is sit around and feel like Scarlett O'Hara with a plantation full of slaves while the movers do all the packing. It sounds luxurious, but really it is just a day of feeling lazy and in the way. I always feel bad sitting and watching the packers work, but I can't leave and I can't help. I should just embrace it and get someone to massage my feet and bring me food on a silver platter while ordering everybody around . . .

happy interlude

she's not worrying about packing

or car titles

or moving to Egypt.

Adding a video for Nana -- it's been a while.

The one where I reveal how much of an idiot I am . . .

Way back in the spring of 1998 little newlywed me and my friend Jill went to a moving class to prepare for our first military move. Here we are, happy and naive.

 

We were treated to horror story after horror story of how packers will wrap up and pack *anything* in their sight, household garbage, your car keys, cell phone, the oven racks (that belong to military housing, not to you), and there was even the unfortunate tale of a cat that was packed in an overseas shipment. (and yes, it died. ick.)

The purpose of the horror stories was to scare us straight -- so we wouldn't become the central character in our own Moving Tale from the Dark Side. And I would have called myself Queen of the Move: until today. I've pre-planned and packed and organized and decluttered to the point that every packing and moving day has run like a finely choreographed ballet. The cat contingency plan is that before the movers arrive, she is locked in the master bathroom with food, water, her litter box and any luggage that is going with us in the car. Every time. The image of unpacking a dead cat is one that has stuck with me. *shudder*

I was confident, cocky even. I thought I could master the Overseas Move since I had proved my abilities in 7 previous moves. New baby? No problem. I'll wear her on my back. I can do it all. And then, I failed. Complete and total belly flop.

It started this morning while I was scrubbing the stove (prepping for our move-out inspection, #437th thing to do on my list), there was a little tickle in the back of my brain that something wasn't right. I was forgetting something . . . what was I missing? I remembered holding some important papers in my hand . . . where had I put them? And then I saw myself holding the titles to both of our vehicles and thinking, "we will need this in Egypt" and PUTTING THEM IN THE FILE FOR THE MOVERS TO TAKE. Now this wouldn't necessarily be a bad thing except the tickling in my brain was telling me, "you need the title to the car or you won't be able to ship it to Egypt." So I went upstairs and asked, "we don't need the title to ship the car, do we?"

And then there was a teensy bit of yelling and a teensy bit of crying and in the blink of an eye I went from SuperMover to one of those people. The ones they warn you about. The ones who call the moving company, begging and crying to get into their shipment and the movers laugh and tell them, "Too bad. See you on the other side." The ones who unpack a mummified cat. The ones who have to pay to have their cars rekeyed. The ones who are bad movers.

****the next part of this story involves a trip to the DMV and lots of praying and begging. To Be Continued . . .

sitting in the rubble with a box of Christmas Joe Joe's

Our move is 2/3 over. We still have too much junk. And dust. Lots of dust. But I'm eating candy cane Joe Joe's so it's not too bad. Have you had them? They are Trader Joe's oreos with crushed candy canes mixed into the filling. YUM.

At least we still have our TV and DVR so I can watch TV as I erase pencil marks from the walls. Caleb did it soon after we moved in (along with busting a set of blinds and the towel rack in the bathroom) and I haven't gotten around to getting rid of them until now. I told him he had to get an eraser and help me since he put them there and he said, "I didn't do it. Some other kid did."

The movers took our mattress so I can go sleep in the bed in Calvin's room or sleep on the floor of my room and watch Judge Judy and The People's Court as I fall asleep. Sad that I'd rather have TV than a bed, huh? We have a room at the Navy Lodge for the rest of the nights, but I'm going to miss the soothing voice of Judy and Marilyn as I'm drifting off to sleep. I'm getting a little punchy again. It's almost time to break out another poem except Camille just woke up, so no poetry tonight.

testing post to get rid of the picasa boxes

I don't know why these boxes exist with each picture on my post. I know it has something to do with the html code when I upload pictures to Blogger via Picasa. And I upload the photos individually as draft post and then just copy and past them all into the same post. So this post is a placeholder so I can upload and edit the html and see if I can figure out which code relates to the boxes. Please ignore . . .



Interesting, when I use the "blogging for dummies" control panel and upload it directly from the blog post it doesn't attach the picasa square, but it takes longer to do it that way (I think).

another pet peeve of mine: I can't figure out how to post photos side by side. That will have to be my next blog project to conquer.

Ha ha! I win! I am no longer the victim of unwanted Picasa advertising. And I owe it all to this guy: My Blog Hero

Know why she's so happy?

 

Because her daddy is home! Actually I'm probably the one that is happier about that, since it means I don't have to worry about all the moving details by myself anymore.

And what did he bring home with him? The Vineyard Vines catalog that features our family! Here's the 2 page spread with the write-up about Josh (you can click on the images to see them full size and to read the text):

 

 

** in case you didn't know, Josh's friends from high school started a clothing company back in 1999 and they have been so successful they have grown from one store to many stores all over the east coast (and one opening soon in LA). Ian called Josh back in September and asked if we would be willing to do a photo shoot for their Christmas catalog. We said "Yes!" and got a bunch of beautiful clothes and had a great time being models for the day. You can see in the top picture that I'm wearing my sweater from the photo shoot -- I live in it here in Monterey. Their website is here: Vineyard Vines

Who does she look like?

All pictures were taken at approximately 4 1/2 months. (and yes, Calvin was sitting unassisted at a ridiculously young age.)

 

 

 

It's pretty clear that she looks nothing like Caleb, with his round Charlie Brown noggin.

 

 

We know who she gets the tongue from! (that is Calvin, in case you couldn't tell.)

Everyone says she looks like Calvin, and after going back and looking at some of his old baby pictures I don't disagree, but when I see her, I think "Carter." I think she looks more like his older baby pictures:

 

1,2,3,4 . . . my Lord

So twice this week I've had people comment on the number of kids I have. All these years I've never heard anything other than the occasional "wow, you have your hands full," but 4 has certainly been the magic number for attracting attention.

At First Awakenings I was waiting for Bob outside the bathroom and this woman came up to me and said, "My friend and I were commenting that you deserve a medal. We couldn't believe you have 4 kids!" Um, OK. That is a nice-ish comment. But a medal? It's not like I was fending off an attack of a pride of lions or something equally ferocious. I was just sitting at a table with my 4 children who were happily (and quietly) eating their raspberry/coconut/granola pancakes.

Then at Target today we were leaving the checkout with our cart at the same time as another woman and she says, "Go ahead, you have your hands full." OK, fine. I've heard that one before. So as we pass her I hear her counting, "1, 2, 3, 4 . . . my Lord!" I think it's funny that 4 attracts attention because 1) coming from a family of 4 kids, it seems perfectly normal and doesn't feel like an an extraordinary number of humans in one family and 2) in the military I'm surrounded by breeders so 4 is only 1 more than the "norm" of 3 and enough people do 4 that it doesn't stand out.

Well, I'm certainly thankful to my Lord that I do have all 4 of my children. Cause if we only had 3 I would miss out on this sweet face:

 

or this one:

 

or this one:

 

Heck, I was happy with just this one:

 

but then I would have missed out on moments like this one:

 

Thankfully we decided that we owed it to #1 to give him some brothers. And who knows, maybe this newest one one will eventually get a little sister. We could go for "1, 2, 3, 4, 5 . . . oh my!"

Who needs a sugar daddy when you have 3 big brothers?

So we were at Target, picking up a few supplies for the trip and the boys kept picking out things to buy for Camille. New shoes, special sippy cups, a tulip print crib sheet instead of the plain one, baby plates and silverware . . . I resisted all their requests until they found these:

 

I think she likes them.

 

finishing up . . .

Our last soccer games of the year were today. Just in time, since they're outgrowing their cleats. I was trying to take video of Calvin playing goal today -- he was playing better than I've ever seen him play before, but (1) I got caught up in the excitement and forgot and (2) when I pulled out the camera, the battery started to die. Probably because I used up all the battery life taking pictures and video of this beautiful thing:


So that's why all I have of Calvin's game is this pathetic clip (again, there was this crazy lady screaming in the background. Some of his fans are insane):
He actually does make the save just as the video starts, but with all my jumping around you can't really see it. But I did pause it and check. When it starts, the ball is not in his hands and then he catches it. If you blink, you'll miss it. Obviously Carter gets his fine videographing skills from me.

 

 

But I do take some pretty great pictures. It's easy when I have such a photogenic subject.

The calm before . . .

The next few days we are just taking it easy before the big push to pack the house. The boys were practicing their photography and videography skills tonight:

 

 

 

I know it's hard to believe, but I actually edited this down to the best (least shaky) part. Carter was getting a little wild with the zoom.



It's hard to believe we're actually going to be living in Egypt. Not going on vacation, not passing through, but actually getting up in the morning and doing normal things like going to the grocery store or paying bills. And laundry. Tons of laundry. And even harder to believe: I'm not nervous. Yet. I keep waiting for it to happen and we're less than 3 weeks out and I still feel calm. When I consider that 6 years ago I couldn't leave the house to go to the grocery store, it's amazing that so far this Egypt thing isn't flipping me out. I've come a long way baby!

The biggest hurdle in my mind has always been the plane flight -- 12 hours with nothing to do but talk myself out of freaking out, but I'm not feeling that tension yet like I would in the past. I used to play the game, "Exactly 2 weeks (5 days/12 hours) from now, I'll be on an airplane." And it wasn't anticipation or excitement I was feeling. I'm still counting on the fact that this has been such an involved process with so many details and so many steps that getting on the plane at the end will be a relief. Hopefully God doesn't provide a distraction in the form of a screaming baby to occupy my thoughts for the 12 + 4 hours . . .