Well it is officially here - moving day! The movers have been here for about 3 hours now...unpacking and repacking all of the boxes we (especially Mom) so carefully packed only a few short months ago. After 6 extra large space bags of clothes and our bikes were moved to Mom and Dad's (to be put in the car top carrier upon our return from Tennessee), a load of hanging clothes taken to Jos. A Bank's last night (they shipped about 15 business suits and dresses for $35!), a load to Goodwill, a load to the Planned Parenthood book drop, a load to Mom and Dad's (shopping in our pantry), several loads to the dumpster and packing an exceptionally full car, we went through our 450 lbs allotted air freight in about half an hour. Even after all that, the remaining shoes, files, hangers, picture frames and Christmas tree sucked up that 450 lbs so fast it was like we didn't even have it. So much for wanting to bring games, some extra kitchen supplies (not even my dishes - I just wanted to bring some tupperware and measuring cups and organizational pieces but none of it fit) and my photo albums. I guess that means I have too many shoes and purses but I suppose that really shouldn't be much of a surprise. Everything else, which I still can't believe how much that comes to, I mean garden hoses and tools and towels and sheets and dishes and coffee pots and serving trays and pillows and tissue paper for gifts and art and the ironing board and you get the point) will be shipped by freight to storage, which we will be able to access upon our move abroad. Whenever that is.
The dogs are doing their best to make things easy on us. Last night we ran a few errands and when we got home to finish packing (well, keep packing - this time I really did learn my lesson and I started packing two weeks ago, but it's really a never ending process), the dogs had left us quite a surprise. Since the kennels are so big and since we wanted to make sure we got the absolutely essential stuff in our car, we packed them first. I had also packed 2 1/2 boxes of my special-order protein bars - $20 a box of 12, cold-pressed, alkaline forming, no artificial anything, GreensPlus protein bars; they are always sold out at Campbell's and it's the only place in town you can find them so I special ordered them a few weeks ago to make sure I'd have them for our drives so I didn't have to eat gas station's excuse for food - in my backpack on a chair. Well when we got home last night, we found a carpeting of wrappers. The dogs got my backpack down and ate every single one of my protein bars. All 30 bars were entirely gone, as well as my Cliff ShotBlocks I'd packed for my run on Sunday, and a ziploc full of dog treats (dehydrated beef lung). Let me tell you, too, those bars are very filling - they contain a lot of organic peanut butter and greens - one bar is enough to get me by at least two hours so you can imagine how the dogs probably felt after having probably around 8 or so each. So after staying up until midnight to pack, Moe woke us up every few hours to go outside (I almost feel bad for him after seeing what he's going through, or rather, what is going through him), and then every other hour to vomit (thank God for concrete floors - they only got it on the ugly rugs once). What a treat. I think probably what upset me the most was the fact that for the last week I've been gradually switching the dog's food from their wet, rehydrated meat and veggie diet to dry dog food and so as not to upset their stomachs I built a spreadsheet to give them exactly the right proportion of each food each day and have been measuring everything out to the gram (yes, I am anal and apparently have too much time on my hands). So yes, after all of that effort, they go and eat my protein bars and totally upset their stomachs anyways. What do you do.
Tomorrow morning we drop the dogs off at the kennel, drop my car off at Lithia for a tune-up (it is for sale if anyone is interested), and head to Tennessee for some R&R. I'll post a picture of the car when we get it back from the oil change.
Finally, congratulations to Tiff and Chris and Levi on their new baby girl, Finley! We can't wait to meet her!
