Perfecting the art of packing

We rung in the new year in a very special way this year--packing. We were finishing packing our house so that Jeannie, our exchange teacher from Australia could move in on the 2nd of Jan. Riley, Josh and I all had a cold left over from Christmas and were running around like crazy just trying to get it all done so we could move over to my Mom's house and do it all again in two weeks.  In our efforts to get finished packing quickly, we actually had a moment to take stock in our house. We love our house and really feel at home in a way that I know I personally have never felt before. This feeling of home is not something we will easily duplicate. We are going to miss our home over the next year and it is a pity we will not be able to enjoy all the hard work that went into getting our house in tip top shape for Jeannie.

Our first attempts at packing for a year long trip were nothing short of comical. Let me try to put the packing into perspective. We are moving away for a year with an infant and we are only bringing the luggage we are allotted for the plane ride over. That is equal to two bags at 50 pounds a piece for Josh and myself and one bag at 20 pounds a piece for Riley. We also get one carry-on bag for each of us and we have decided to pay extra to bring one more 50 pound bag. If you have ever gone anywhere with an infant, even just to the grocery store, you will understand that you can fill a car without any effort. So to try to get everything we would need and get all the things Riley would need into 6 suitcases and three carry-ons...well lets just say that neither of us has a degree in engineering.  We do have Josh's creative artistic side to help us but we will likely need a divine intervention.  Needless to say, creativity only goes so far and our first run was a bit of a bust. We were able to get each of our wardrobes down to one suitcase each, leaving three more to fill with sporting gear, shoes (you laugh but just try to count out how many shoes you would need for one year (cold and hot weather), it is not easy) and Riley's stuff, and then the whole operation imploded. We ended up bringing as much as we were able to fit and that we thought could possibly make "the cut".  Not to give away the ending too early but my mother's basement is now full with the boxes of crap that did not make the cut because we determined we could live without it after all. Don't tell my dentist, but the sonic care will have to wait one more year and the good old fashioned tooth brush will need to suffice a little while longer.

Bless my mothers heart because once we moved into her house for our two week visit, our stuff took over her entire house. We could not walk anywhere without tripping over something of ours. You would think that with two weeks to pack at my mom's, we would have had it done quickly and neatly. That was not to be the case. Josh had to finish grading 150 papers and complete his term grades before we left and I had to finish up all the other details associated with moving across the world. On the day grades were due, Josh was working at the school until late in the morning. At 3:30 in the morning, after Josh had not phoned, I showed up at his school to make sure he was still alive and lucky for him, did not kill him when I found him typing away at his computer in a race to finish. I helped him finish and we came home and fell into bed at 4:30. 

In the days leading up to our departure, we spent all our available free time saying good-bye to friends and family. We were very fortunate this year to experience the birth or our daughter and to have the opportunity to fulfill a life long dream of moving to another country. Both of these events have illustrated to us how many brilliant and wonderful people we are surrounded by and how much love we have in our lives. We are truly lucky to have an intricate network to care for us and makes our life full and in this year more than any, we have been reminded of this love in profound and poignant ways.

In true Josh and Amber procrastination form, we had each and every minute of the weekend before we left planned with activities, most of which that did not include packing. Consequently, we were up on the night before we left until 1:30 am packing our bags (are you seeing an early morning pattern?). During this time, we worked out a system of measurement with my mothers bathroom scale that would hopefully have us taking the most weight advantage from each bag without going over the weight limit . Let me just say that NASA should be so precise. When we got to the airport on Monday, we had 6 bags we were checking. Of those six, one weighed 20 pounds, 3 weighed exactly 50 pounds, one weighed 49.5 and one weighed 50.5. A quick little shift and we had 6 bags that weighed exactly their requirement, taking advantage of each and every pound but not going over forcing extra fees. No applause necessary and yes, we are available for parties :)