It took a village

What moving looks like...

That ain't no lie.
As I write this entry, we're already in S Korea and Dan's schooling me in 220V and 110V (or whatever) stuff and the importance of reading labels. NO, I have not burnt anything up...yet, but apparently, I was lucky that my CHI hair straightener didn't explode this morning. Gosh, isn't it enough that I endured that flight?? Now, I have to learn about Korean stuff as well?
The week the packers came was a crazy one. On Monday (the 16th), Ava had her Pre-school spring musical/graduation. My mom and dad came down for that and then we ate some lunch before picking up Abby and heading back to the house. Dad helped with a few things around the house and then drove back to Indiana, leaving Mom to help for the next few days. I gotta admit, my stress level was pretty high, but a chunk was lifted with each day that passed. The actual packing and loading was pretty uneventful. On Thursday, the day they packed our non-temp storage, Dan's parents came down to help for the day. All of them were so much help and I honestly don't think I could have done any of it without them.
Thursday night, Dan flew in! He was supposed to come in at 8:51, and I figured with de-planing, baggage claim, etc, he wouldn't be ready until about 9:10, but as I was getting Libby into her stroller, he called! He wanted to know WHERE we were!!:) His plane had arrived early and he was waiting for us in baggage claim. He wasn't even supposed to land for another 10 minutes. I *could* insert a funny story about Bill yelling at the wrong person here, but I won't....
It was great to see Dan and the girls were very excited to be with their Daddy again. I was so worried Libby wouldn't go to him, but she did. She was a little shy, but they have made up quickly and famously, so all is well with the world.
The next few days was a flurry of cleaning and organizing the house...prepping it to be rented. We mailed a lot of our stuff to Korea because anything that the packers sent would take at least a month. Not good when you have three young children.
Our families hosted a party for us in Westport on Saturday so we could see everyone in one spot to say goodbye. We won't be back until we move back, so it will be 1.5 to 2 years before we even have the chance to see these people. We were pleasantly surprised to see all those who came! We counted about 80 guests! It was a wonderful time, but so sad to say goodbye to everyone.
I'll have to post later about our first few days in South Korea, but Dan wants his computer to play a game while I watch 'Water for Elephants'.:)

The trip to St Louis

I enjoy St Louis....




So...the UAB (unaccompanied baggage)and dropping the Acadia off in St Louis had me NERVOUS. Trying to figure out what to send in the UAB was kind of complicated to me until I realized I would just send what I wanted to live the shortest amount of time without. It also helped when I decided anything I didn't send in UAB and really wanted quickly, I would just mail. I know it's probably pretty simple for some people, but if you know me, you get this.
The day of the UAB pickup, I needed to leave for IN to drop the girls off at Dan's sister's house for the next few days. After that, I had to head to Indy for the night because Angie and I were leaving early Friday morning for St Louis to drop our car off for shipment.
Dan's parents came down the morning of the UAB pickup, but the packers didn't get here until early afternoon. That all went fairly smoothly, and then they drove Dan's truck to the Hertz office in Elizabethtown. Bill and Martha left to go home from there, and I headed to pick Abby up from after school care. On the way, I reached for my iPod I got for mother's day (early) and realized it wasn't in my purse, where I thought I'd put it. I debated going all the way back home to get it, when we were so close to the interstate. I decided to run home, even though it added probably a half hour to my trip, but I really wanted to listen to music with all the driving I was about to do. I am so glad I did.
I got the girls dropped off at Deb's, with a little tears, and headed for Indy to spend the night. Now, I fibbed to a few people and told them I was staying in a different place than I really did. I stayed in a hotel in Plainfield just because I didn't want anyone to worry themselves over me staying in a hotel by myself. BUT, it saved me a lot of travel time and it was just more convenient. I was SO tired when I finally got there (almost 10pm) and really don't remember much from the check-in other than where I parked. The next morning, I got up and rushed to get ready. I had to meet Angie at Christy's house, which is super conveniently close to the interstate, at 7am. I was heading out the door, on time, mind you, and couldn't find my keys! I searched everywhere, but I honestly didn't have much stuff, so all I could think was that I dropped them in the parking lot the night before. And, if that was the case, someone probably had my precious Acadia in Canada by then. Thankfully, the front desk had them, and gave them up after identifying me by Dan's dog tags on them. PHEW!
Angie and I head out and enjoy a chatty and pretty uneventful 3 hours to East of St. Louis, where we were to drop my car off. That's when Sandy, our GPS decided to freeze. SHE DIED!! We had no other directions, but thankfully, we were near a McDonald's AND we had my iPod (See? And you just thought that was a boring stupid story). We were able to look up directions to the Hertz place downtown, then to the VPC (vehicle processing place), and then back to our hotel in downtown STL. We got to the VPC and a lady hops in to look at our gas level. It was *right* above a 1/4 of a tank, but needed to be AT a quarter or below. SO, we drove about a five mile loop...onto the interstate, exit off to a highway, and GUN IT back onto the interstate for an hour. It was funny...but not. Needless to say, we were pretty pooped.

Flooding...you could tell it had just been up over the road because it was a little muddy.


Not a half bad view....
We walked around the arch and area for a few hours, got something to eat, and then headed back to our hotel, which was right next to BUSCH STADIUM!!! As we were walking in the hotel, we heard this roar and realized that we could sit on the hotel patio and listen to the game! Angie had a beer and we ate our desserts from the restaurant.


It was a really nice time and was so happy to spend some time with my 'big' sissy. I only wish our younger sister could have came as well, but she was on vacation in FLORIDA!
Getting the car sent off is a huge weight off my shoulders. Thank you to everyone for your help this weekend to help us get it accomplished. It is SO appreciated.

The prep

Someone once told me that moving is one of the most stressful things in life...followed by divorce. I don't know if it's true (probably not), but it sure feels like my head is going to explode some days. Ever since I got the email from Dan, "OUR CSP IS APPROVED!!!", there are moments when I just want to sit down and refuse to even think about all the things I have to do. Moving, alone, is hard, but moving overseas, with three kids, and my husband not here, is HARD. I always complain to Dan that he doesn't do enough to help, but when he's gone, I realize that's not quite the truth. He does A LOT around the house!
Right now, I'm sorting our things that will be going WITH us to Korea and into storage. I feel like I have been purging and organizing since last October when we got word we would be going, but seriously? We have a ton of junk in this house. A lot of things that we don't use and really won't use anytime in the near future and I just don't feel like putting in storage. I can imagine when we get our things, in January 2013, or May 2013, I will realize that I have lived without these things for two years and get rid of even more stuff.
They came to get our unaccompanied baggage three days ago and I have another 8 days until the main bunch of packers/movers come. There's still a lot to do and I still have to work on the house so we can rent it out. We finally decided on a property manager and I pray that the house doesn't sit empty for too long. I can't stress about THAT right now, because really there is not much we can do about other than to have it as presentable as possible
I'll add a few pictures of the process of sorting/purging/organizing...I swear the house doesn't usually look like this.





Ok...so I don't know how to move the pictures...yet, and I don't know how to delete pictures I put on here (that don't belong). Let's just all agree that it ain't pretty, this moving process.

I dunno...

I don't know if I will do this. A blog? Oh gosh... My mom has told me for the past 11 years that I need to keep a diary, but I'm not big on writing things down....I had a diary as a young girl, but would go months in between each entry. We will see. Maybe I'll just keep this to myself and never share. I dunno.
The only reason I am attempting this is to keep family updated on our time in SOUTH Korea. We should be there until January 2013, or June 2013, or August 2014, or October 2020...whenever the Army decides to move us again because we thought we would be in Kansas, with Dan going to school, right now. Quite a contrast, huh? All you can do it laugh at it all, or you will go insane.
SO, if I do decide to share this, I hope you enjoy it...if not, then I'm talking to myself and I might be crazy!