Life Is All About Adventure: Moving time

Well it is that time again. Where we say goodbye to one home and hello to another. This move is by far different since we are going home. Back to America home! While we have loved all our time spent overseas so far and cannot imagine not doing this again in the future, we are thrilled to show Little Lady what her country is all about. So far she has asked questions like "are there stores in America?" "Are all the walls white in the new house like they are here?" "Do they speak English and have tv?" Yep I think it is definitely time for her to go back to America. So while we wait for our airplane day to arrive we have to pack our things. I thought I would take this post to give you a look at what it is like for us when we move two adults, one four year old, and two cats half way around the world.

Day, weeks, months before, we started purging and cleaning. Since we are focused on the weight limit we have to be careful with what we have. It is pretty freeing donating and trashing all the things we do. No hoarding allowed in the foreign service lifestyle!

In the final days before, we start sorting. For this move we only have three piles our air freight, our personal going on the airplane, and our HHE (house hold effects). Easy Peasy!

First, we clean a room for the no go room. This is where we put everything the movers can't pack. Including the cats! It looks something like this

Just a few important items. Lol

Then we select a spot for things we want to have within a few weeks of leaving and arriving at the new place. Then we fill it up with 700lbs of stuff

Well we only had 300 lbs here so quickly grab more stuff and still only made it to 450 before we gave up. Those boxes when packed look like this

Now it is a free for all with the rest of it. This time we have an amazing group of three guys who actually speak and write in English. Lol. They are fast, after an hour our bedroom was done, airfreight done, and LLs room almost done. That looked like this

Before we stopped for lunch the majority of the house was done. Still to go attic, garage and living room.

Now it continues more and more boxes.

Kinda sad when the playroom is empty

These are our bikes and a dvd rack

Now you may be wondering what do the movers eat? Yes we feed them. I asked what they wanted and they chose pizza. So 5 pizzas, bread, and drinks later they were full and we had plenty of left overs.

What did S and I do during this time? Haha great question! We were the most relaxed ever. We sat on the couch and would answer the random question. They hardly had any. These guys were great. Now we will see how it turns out in the end but so far it has been wonderful and fairly stress free.

Sometimes the labeling is interesting.

Other pictures include

I am still trying to figure out how to steal this huge roll of bubble wrap

Then at 4pm the movers went home. They arrived the next day at 9 am with a truck full of packing crates

Out comes the labels, packing list for customs, and most important the scale. Every box is weighed, given a number, and its contents listed on an inventory sheet for customs in the next country.

From this list we love posters... Hum I wonder what those will turn out to be.

At one point I left to get sandwich supplies for the guys. During my absence they started work on our attic and finalizing the rest of the rooms. No more comfy bed for us.

They also started loading crates.

The large wooden crates are lined in plastic in hopes that moisture, bugs, and whatever else won't get in and ruin our things.

Once a crate is full they are closed up and nailed shut. Then they are labeled with our name and what number crate it is.

Then more packing until the job is done.

I still haven't gotten a roll of bubble wrap but there will be plenty to pop once it is delivered.

Eventually the truck is full. All crates are sealed. We sign on the dotted line and the truck and 2 strangers drive away with all that has been our life at this post. Now we live in an empty house with things that are loaned to us until it is time for the airplane.