Stocking Up, Cleaning Up, and Packing Up!

It is a weird feeling to know that you are leaving your home for two months and leaving your husband behind. I have been busy trying to clean and organize a little so life will be easier on James while I am away. A major undertaking has been stocking the house so that he hopefully will not have to shop for anything but perishables while I am away. I have made sure that there is plenty of toilet paper, paper towels, cat food, kitty litter, light bulbs, laundry detergent, dishwasher detergent, water softener...the list goes on and on...the house is pretty stocked and I'm getting there with the clean part. When you have kids, it's always kind of a "work in progress". And before I leave, I need to show him how the house "works" i.e. how to turn on the oven, the dishwasher, where to add the salt in that each month, the washer (and how to do a load of wash since we use water softener here and he has no clue what to do) where the emergency shut off button is for the power, in other words, all the little things that I take care of and he never has to think of. I also need to go over the recycling calendar because heaven help him if he misses a pick-up date!

Then there's the packing. My mom will be horrified to know that I have not started. But, I do have a plan. I'm bringing a lot of clothes...and shoes. And my camera and video camera and prescriptions and my contacts and glasses and pretty much anything else can be bought if needed. I can't do the normal thing and bring a week's worth of clothing and wear those outfits all summer! I'm not staying three weeks or even five...no, it's eight weeks! I also can't do that with my kids...they have a lot of clothes that they will only wear this summer. They'll both be in different sizes next summer. And, by the time we return to Germany, we'll probably be wearing fall clothes again! But, it's a nice feeling to know that I should basically pack almost everything. Both kids are ticketed and because it's an international flight, we still get two bags each. I think my mom is only bringing one checked bag for her three-day jaunt over to Germany...but still seven bags in the back? Plus all our carry-ons (which we will be taking full advantage of)? Probably not! When we return from Utah, however, I'm sure we'll have our maximum amount of baggage (there is MUCH shopping to be done!) along with James' two bags...so we'll probably have two trips from the airport that day! Luckily it's fairly close.

How comforting it is to know that whatever I forget I can honestly go out and buy it! I'll buy doubles of a lot of things once I get to Utah and keep a set at my mom's and the other at James' mom's. That way I won't have to pack up quite as much every time I take a trip up or down the Wasatch front.

Until later,

Emily