Monday it is

We are moving.

It's really happening.

We are actually the first amongst my "group" here on Base to have the movers come to our house. They will start on Monday. They will pick up our UB (unaccompanied baggage.) This shipment is supposed to reach the Azores faster and is limited to about 1,000 pounds. We'll put things like bedding and bikes and kitchen supplies in this shipment. We may throw in a rug or two to help pad Abigail's crawling when we arrive.

Then they'll take our Household goods. That's the rest of our stuff.

I struggle with motivating myself to split these up when last time we did this, for our move to Turkey, our UB actually arrived slower. But I know that's not normal. So I'm trying to keep that in mind.

The moving men will leave behind the things we want to keep with us until we go in early June. We are keeping a lot of stuff with us that we'll take on the airplane or mail to ourselves. With three kids, you sorta got keep more than just the essentials. So the only things that will be left in our house are the things we want for ourselves and the loaner furniture that the Base will bring to our house.

Making decisions about what items go where is exhausting. This toy? Stay with us? Go in the fast shipment? Go in the slow? Mail to ourselves? Nearly every single item in our house needs this decision made about it. We put the things in different places and then label what kind of item it is. UB for Unaccompanied Baggage. HHG for household goods. And a big NO (HAYIR -- the Turkish word for NO) for things we don't want them to take at all. The things we want with us. Things like passports and toiletries and food and stuff like that.

We'll actually be in our house for about six more weeks after this move out. We decided to ship our stuff out early in the hopes that it will be waiting for us when we get there. There are many strategies to an overseas military move, but we decided that, since we have good support on this end, people who can loan us things and have us over for dinner, we'd rather be without here instead of be without there.


Oh and our van. We'll ship that out next week. We are going to try to not rent a vehicle. We'll try to get around Base walking or taking the shuttle. Having people drive us when we need it. Maybe renting a car for a short period if we want to make a day trip. The only complication to that is that, here in Turkey, you are not allowed to drive anyone else's vehicle off-Base. So we could not go off-Base without someone else for the rest of our six weeks here. We'll have to decide if that will work for us.

We're also going to keep the boys' little three wheelers that they take everywhere and ship those to ourselves last minute. They are so good with those things. It has helped so much. I wondered how I would get three kids around on Base, but with them being so diligent in their bike riding (they never get tired and want to quit!) I can push Abigail in the stroller and let them pedal in front or behind. They also do a great job stopping at all intersections and waiting for permission to cross. (Not that cars can go very fast on Base anyhow ... but still.)

In the midst of getting our couches cleaned and our carpets rolled and our lives totally uprooted, we've been trying to do some last minute shopping. We finally bought the handmade rug we have had our eyes on (plus two more that grabbed us at the last minute.) We've also bought a few Turkish things, like pottery and furniture) that we've been thinking about for the two years we've been here. We feel like waiting until the end, while a little more difficult, has allowed us to really know what things we want to take with us to represent the memories we have made here.

I'd love to put pictures of the rugs up on the blog, but truthfully, taking a picture of a rug is nearly hopeless. It just doesn't work. You just cannot capture the beauty of rugs via photo. So if you want to see them, you'll have to come visit us in person. (Please do!) But handmade rugs are SO amazing. They can take up to a year of a person's life to make one. I'm going to try and do a post on this sometime in the future.

In the midst of the total chaos in our home, I've been trying to find sunshine. For instance, here is a video of Abigail showing off her newest trick. While we are so busy and life is whirling around us, our kids are still growing and nearly oblivious to the hours Daddy and Mommy are staying up to get things ready for the movers. This video shows just that!