Final Week

Our last full week in Maryland was a busy one. We had the movers packing up all our things, Abigail had her last cross country race with the Chopticon team, we moved into a hotel, we sold a car, we moved into another hotel, we spent a day at the Smithsonian killing time before our flight, and we made one last Chick-fil-a/Wawa run before returning our rental car and taking the shuttle to the airport. 

For the first time in my many, many moves our packers were women, not men. I have to say I was a little shocked when the truck door opened and three women climbed out! They spent a couple of days  boxing and wrapping and our house sounded and smelled like packing tape. Anyone who has moved more than twice knows what I mean by that.

The next day the big trucks arrived and they started loading our things into big wooden crates. When the movers are there we really are just sitting around watching them work and maybe answering an occasional question. My favorite thing is to watch how they make everything fit like giant puzzle pieces inside the crates on the truck. It's like an amazing Tetris game being played out in front of my eyes. The majority of our things went on these two trucks and we'll see all those things again next week - eek! We also had another smaller shipment of items that were boxed up and sent to live in a warehouse somewhere in America while we're overseas. At this point, I don't even really remember what we put in storage. It will be a big surprise four years from now when our stored items are delivered to us wherever we are.

 A little hand-stitching was the perfect way to pass the time spent watching packers work. This quilt was started in the winter of 2015 and was finished except for the binding. I just kept putting it off in favor of more exciting projects. I'm glad I got it completed though because it's been nice to have an extra blanket in our hotel the last six weeks. The girls have been taking turns sleeping on the couch so I know everyone appreciates it when it's their night!

Abigail identifies herself as a runner and was nervous and excited about running cross country in high school. I think she was surprised at how difficult it was but she got better and better as the season continued. Her last meet in Maryland was her best and she was so happy at the finish line as she realized she had met the time goal she'd set for herself.

It's tricky to find the right balance of too much luggage and not enough. Because our flight was connected with a military move we were authorized three checked bags per person. Any normal person would know that 18 is way too many bags to fit in a car, let alone carry through an airport but we're not normal people. We brought the maximum but when we made that decision we didn't know how long we'd be living out of our suitcases. By the time we move into our new home next week it will be nine weeks of suitcase living and I'm glad we made the insane decision to bring them all. The only thing we didn't bring that I wish we had was winter coats because it's getting chilly!

Our last day in the US of A was spent at the Udvar-Hazy Air and Space Museum which is part of the Smithsonian but not in Washington DC. Instead this Air and Space is in Virgina near Dulles which made it the perfect place for us to spend our time after checking out of the hotel and before our red eye flight. And wow, this place was awesome! There were so many cool planes to see plus an entire space shuttle fit inside this building. There were flight simulators, an air traffic control tower, and the most crowded McDonalds I've ever seen. It was a fun day and having a day of just fun at the end of a long, busy week was the perfect break and just what we needed to reset and refresh before the big flight and the adventure of finding our way around in a new country.