Curses to the Wall!

I've had a couple of posts ready now for a couple of days, but Hubby left without giving me the secret to hopping over the great firewall so I've been stuck without access to my blog or facebook.  No big loss, really, I've been steadily unpacking and the living room, kitchen and our bedroom almost look like real places now.  I think by the time Hubby comes back we might actually have livable spaces to enjoy.  I've also been doing a TON of laundry because half of our clothes arrived smelling of MOLD-EWWWW!!!!  Luckily you can wash most stuff in vinegar and it will get rid of the smell... they also say you can dry clean the smell out--I'll let you know about that one.  And leather (for my dad's vintage blue leather coat that Mr. Route HATES) supposedly can be sponged off and laid out in the sun.  I'll let you know how it goes.

Anyway, since Babes is at school all day, I'm no longer limited to the big box stores for fruits and veggies.  After the Babes got too big to ride in a backpack, I never wanted to take her to the markets because I don't like all the touching.  It's not inappropriate or anything, I just don't want anyone touching my child with hands that were just touching pig innards.  Call me squeamish- I know I am.   Here are two quick shots of our veggie market, where you can also buy fresh Tofu, meat, seafood, and a few pickled, and ready to eat items. 

Under the avalanche

Sorry for the radio silence.  I have been stuck behind the great firewall, and haven't been able to access my blog for several days now.  Of course my hubby fixed it, with the simple act of turning it on.  GRRRR!  Never mind that I've been trying for days, never mind that I reset all sorts of things. NO, he comes in flips it on, and VIOLA!  *sigh*
Anyway, I have a bunch of pictures from this weekend's walk across the park to share, BUT we received almost all of our household items yesterday and our house looks like this: 

and my husband can tell you that I will not be the same until every box is unpacked and put away.  I unfortunately have to leave the house today, with it still looking like this... must.... unpack....  

First day of school, foreign service Xmas, and a mini moving rant

Due to our move, the holidays and a business trip, yesterday was Babes' first day of Kindergarten.  On a whole, it was not as traumatic for any of us as I thought it might be.  She has to wear a uniform, which she initially objected to ("I don't know about this school thing, how am I to go everyday to school all day not wearing pretty dresses or skirts"), but she seems to have accepted her fate.  I have promised to get her a bunch of pretty hair things and crazy socks.  We went with her on the first day, but she really didn't need us, after the first couple of kids arrived she was busy playing and having fun (as I had hoped).  I however, now have all this free time.... I need a job.

Last week we received the our first shipment of our stuff from Chengdu (for those of you in the know it was our airfreight).  While it was just essentials, dishes, clothes, toys it went a long way towards making this big empty place feel more like home.  FS people often say that receiving a shipment is a lot like Christmas.  Especially because by the time your stuff arrives you have already forgotten what you packed in the boxes, so for every box they unpack you think to yourself "HEY it's THAT!"  Exciting times my friends.

Do you want to know one of the things that irks me about moving every two years?  It's a little thing, you probably don't even think about it, but maybe you don't move every two years...  You know how when you cook on the stove, you reach down and turn on the eye you want without even looking, or how when you walk into a room your hand automatically reaches for the right spot on the wall to flip on the switch?  Well when you move every two years, you can't do that.  Right now I'm in the process of learning a new set of switches, flips, dials, and squeaks.  I walk out of the restroom and keep trying to turn off the bathroom lights from the outside.  I have to flip every living room light switch (for some reason there are EIGHT) to get the right lights to come on.  There are all these random sounds in the house that I don't know where they come from, and we don't have Honeydog yet so I don't know if I have to worry about them, so I'm constantly chasing down noises.  *sigh*  moving pains.  I'll get used to them, but for now I'm still fumbling in the dark.   

Good Housekeeping

How do you compress 70 years of homemaking into one room?  That is the question that I've been asking myself all week.  My 90 year old grandmother (please don't tell her that I told you her age--she'd kill me) has decided that she can no longer live alone and wants to move into my mom's house.  My mom, aunt and I are here now trying to help her get her house ready for selling and moving, but it's tough.  I can see why people wait for relatives to die, before going through this process.  For one, everything in this house has a memory.  The blankets, the books, the clothes, the knick knacks, the plates, even the scraps of paper and mass market pamphlets--everything.  The other problem arises from the fact that my grandmother is of the generation that saved, reused, recycled--hoarded-- everything.  If it still had some life in it, it got used.  To you or I it might look like trash, but to her, someone can get some use out of it.  Add to that someone who is very thoughtful, but forgetful, so she buys cards to send, or picks up a toy to give, but then forgets where she put it, and so buys something else.... On top of that there is the mail... OH THE MAIL...  I think I might be in some circle of hell.  There are endless piles of mail that need to be open, sorted, and anything with personal information in it needs to be shredded.  I have been opening mail for two days and there is still mail.  Did you know that the VFWW, the Diabetes council, and many of the feed the hungry programs send money in their mailers?  Today alone I have made over $5 in money just from mailers.   And I don't mean to suggest she's a hoarder, but she's been housekeeping for at least 60 years, living in the same house for 12, and there was a long stretch of time when she was the sole caregiver for my grandfather who suffered from Alzheimers. 
My grandmother is a trooper.  My mother is relentlessly trashing things and my grandmother has tried her hardest to stay out of the way.  I know it is hard on her.  We are throwing away, and boxing up her life.   It's hard on me and it's not my stuff.  I know we are doing the right thing, but every so often I think that there has to be an easier way.  But I don't think there is.  We only have a week to spend here, I have to go back to my family (and then China), and my mom and aunt can't take any more time off work to come back.  It has to be done this way.  But I know it hurts.  I can tell by my grandmother's sad eyes as she watches the bags fill up.  It hurts, but I don't know of any other way. 

End of Radio Silence

I know I've been absent now for over a month, but I've had good reason.  First, there was the horrible, awful, no good, very bad plane ride with Honeydog and United-- I'm not going to go into it, other than to say the new pet policy is NOT helpful AT ALL.  But then right after we arrived in the US DH called with some shocking news and a decision to be made.  Basically, someone whispered an amazing opportunity into my husband's ear and suggested he apply for it.  BUT what that meant was that he would have to break his upcoming DC assignment to do it.  The opportunity was of the once in a career kind that could not be passed up so DH took the leap.  But that meant that for the last month we have been living in a kind of limbo where every waking thought was "are we moving?  We're not moving.  We are moving!  We're not moving.  Are we moving?  My parents are going to be so disappointed.  Are we moving?" 
And I'm happy/sad/still in shock/excited/disappointed to say that we are indeed moving to Wuhan China.  I'm happy and excited because this will be a fantastic opportunity for DH and our family will again have the opportunities only available to us while we are overseas.  On the other hand, I was looking forward to being in the US and being closer to my family and getting to know my niece and brand new nephew.  I also had begun to paint our house in fabulous colors and doing the work made the whole US experience feel much more real and possible. 
But alas, we are moving to Wuhan for good or ill.  I guess it's good for you, since I can continue to regale you with stories of China and pictures of the crazy experiences we will have.  My stories of the US would have been a lot more mundane with a lot of pictures of me in Wal Mart, Target, or sitting around in my house (probably not but I'm feeling pessimistic and tired right now) 
As of yet we still don't have an estimated departure time, but I'm sure it will come all too soon. 

Tips for pack out and moving --- PANIC!!!!!

Actually, no, don't panic. I've been missing in action for the last week because I have officially started to panic.  I don't know why, I've been trying to slowly organize myself for this move for the last three months.... But still.  *sigh* I don't think there's a way to do this moving thing without it. (I think it's all mixed up with leaving your home, looking forward to the new home, and all the uncertainty and lack of control that you have with the whole process) I actually had planned to do a post in narrative form about preparing for the movers, but I'm way too freaked out to think about it coherently.
So here are a few notes: 

1.  group stuff according to categories.  Put all your pictures together, lamps together, extension cords, cables, etc... You might use them all in different rooms, but every house is laid out in a slightly different way and what you have going on now might not be what you've got in the future. 

2.  Save your original boxes (for tvs, dishes, anything really breakable) if you can, pack your stuff in it.

3.  Breathe

4.  Empty all your trash (yes, some packers will pack the trash)

5.  Label things that don't go with you.  Put suitcases and small things you don't want packed in another room where the packers won't go. 

6.  If you can, arrange for kids and dogs to be somewhere else, or give them a space of their own away from the packers.

7.  Breathe

8.  Prepare a dinner ahead of time, or know the number of good take out.  You will not want to make dinner, or leave dinner plans until the last minute (same goes for lunch).

9.  Try to write specific notes on each box, if you can (I know that I usually can't, there are too many packers and not enough of me).

10.  Breathe

When all else fails, remember they will pack everything and most everything will arrive at your next place, if you are not organized, they will still pack, and you will be able to organize when you get there.  So long as you have your suitcases, pets, and as many children as you started with you will be fine. 

tips for pack out and moving part 2-- the purge

All right, so I've figured out what I want to go into my airfreight, now what about the rest of this crap?  Now it's time to purge.  This step is not really necessary, but it helps to keep your weight down and believe it or not it helps when you unpack.  I usually start my purge a couple of months out so that I can take my time and I don't get frustrated with how long it takes and quit half way through.
I don't know about you, but for some reason my stuff breeds in the dark.  I might start off with a few sheets of paper or a couple of books here and there, but by the time we leave in two years I've got stacks and stacks of paper, shelves of books, clothes, craft items, and other assorted--well crap that has limited use.  So every two years or so with a pack out date looming on the calendar like an ominous cloud I begin a purge.
I usually start with the least used room, no reason, except that in that room I can make as much of a mess as I want and it doesn't disturb anyone's life.   Then I open all the drawers, go into all the closets, look at all the bookshelves to see what we haven't used in the last two years that I can get rid of.  In this way, I slowly move through the house from room to room getting rid of things. 
I know this step sounds simple, but it is time consuming and will help you when it comes time to actually organize your things for pack out.

Tips for pack out and moving in Part 1--air freight

I know it’s still early, but we are getting close to summer transfer season.  And while I’m not supposed to leave post until July (at the earliest) I’ve already started making my lists and mentally preparing myself for pack out. 

Why, you might ask, are you worried about pack out now?  For heaven’s sake, the movers will come and do everything for you!  Well, my friends, I’m glad you asked that, because, as this will be my sixth move, experience teaches me to prepare early.  While the movers will pack everything for you they basically just want to get everything in a box as quickly and carefully as possible.  This might not sound like a problem, but imagine 3-6 strangers in your house with boxes, paper and tape emptying drawers, closets, boxes, in 16 hours—and this includes loading the truck—and you might begin to understand why you need to be ready in advance. 

First things first:  Do you have items going to more than one place, or in more than one shipment?  For instance do you have an air shipment and a sea shipment?  Are you sending some of your things to storage, or to another house somewhere?  What about your suitcases?

Think about where you are sending your things and by what method.  Speak to your shippers early on in the process to find out if you can ship food, electronics, liquids, or aerosols.  If you get a lighter shipment (like an airfreight) to get you settled in before the main bulk of your household effects arrives, separate out those items first.  In this shipment you want to think about what is the bare minimum that your family can survive on and feel at home.  Things like kitchen supplies; pots, pans, plates, silverware, anything you use regularly to get food on the table—and take it from me pack your muffin pans and loaf pans if you might ever make muffins or bread.  I now have 5 loaf pans and 2 muffin pans because every time I move I don’t think I’ll need them, and every time we get there I need them and buy new ones. Bedding; sheets, towels, blankets, pillows—these may or may not be provided for you when you get to post, but chances are they will be weird, scratchy, and unfamiliar.  There’s nothing like sliding into bed in your own sheets to make you feel at home.  Toys—if you have kids this is a must.  There is nothing worse than arriving to an empty house, except arriving to an empty house with kids asking every two seconds “what can I do?”  Clothes—I would bring as many seasons as will fit, I once packed only summer and fall clothes because we were supposed to arrive at post in early summer and there would really be no way it could take 6 months for our items to arrive… well we didn’t get to post until late summer and by the time our shipment arrived it was late fall and I was freezing! 

Of course, every family is different and you are going to have to make your own lists as to what you send by air.  One way to do this is to make a list of everything you use as you use it for a month, then pare this list down to the essentials. Like getting rid of a pizza cutter when a knife will do, or instead of 3 plates per person per day, one set of dishes for each person. 

On packing day have your packers pack and weigh this shipment first so that if you have extra space you can add to it, or if you are overweight you can take things out before your entire house is packed up. 

Moving out....

I sent this as an email to a friend and I liked the way it turned out so much that I decided to repost it here. Keep in mind this was immediately after all the stuff was taken away so I was feeling a little melancholy...

So we are all moved out. The post pack out empty house is always so sad. There is all this dust (and dog hair) and sometime the ghosts of pictures on the wall. I'm sitting in my empty house all alone and trying very hard not to move my head because if I sit very still I can pretend that nothing has changed (the furniture stays with the place, only the trimmings are gone).
The empty house that you are leaving is so different from the empty house when you arrive. When you first get to post, bleary eyed from the plane ride, the empty house is cold, strange. There are corners in unexpected places, new doors to learn, and a host of minor annoyances to get used to. The house you are leaving, is warm and comfortable. The doors and windows known from thousands of glances, the quirks figured out, but the drawers empty of their familiar usefulness. When you are leaving there is the lingering sadness of good times, and the gentle sound of a chapter closing. When you are arriving the air is heavy with the fear of the unknown and the hopes that you have for this space.
This life is full of so many comings and goings, as babes gets older it is going to get even harder as it will not just be my ghosts in a place, but hers as well....

spread out

One of the most maddening things about the foreign service lifestyle are all the transitions. I knew when we left Baku that we would be in the US for about a year. So we had to try to reduce our household into the most used items that would fit into 600 pounds of air freight. Now if you don't know, 600 pounds is a lot of stuff, but it doesn't fit everything. We left behind a good portion of the kitchen stuff, all of our lamps, rugs, pictures, etc. half of Babes' toys, and various other things that make up a household. And while we are pretty well set up here in our furnished rental, it doesn't cover everything. You've got your basic cooking equipment, but no baking pans, so I have been either putting off baking or purchasing baking pans.
You also tend to forget what you've packed or not, and I think in the excitement of packing I left some things that I intended to bring, and brought things that I intended to leave. It's so frustrating because I'm sometimes positive that I brought something and I tear apart the apartment only to discover that it's not here. And if it's not here is it at my parent's house, or my in-law's house? I hate being so spread out! Sometimes I feel as if I can't find ANYTHING!