Goodbye Ohio!

The day has finally arrived. I am packing and getting all the last minute things together this morning and when Scott gets home we will be heading out to D.C. This still does not feel like it is actually happening right now. I do not feel like I am going to be sleeping somewhere new tonight. I also do not feel remotely ready. 

Even as I sit here and type this there is so much I need to do that I have not done. But I needed to eat breakfast, so I figured, "I can type while I do that!" Nope. I read some news stories and watched a couple videos and now that my cereal is gone I am typing this. This does not bode well for my day.

My sweet Belle knows we are packing and does not want us to leave without her. Even after we made her get out of the bag I'd turn around and she would be right back in. I had to close it to keep her out. Little does she know....

We went through everything in the basement in an attempt to organize for a future pack out. The dogs, who have previously refused to go into the basement because they were afraid of it or something, came down the stairs and watched us move everything around just to make sure they were not missing something. 

Although my time in Ohio was a lot shorter than I anticipated it has actually been really great. I am so thankful for the people I met while we were here. 

I am thankful for the friends we made at Ontario Christian Church who took us into their lives even though they barely knew us. It made such a difference to feel like someone cared about us in a town where we knew no one and invited us over on holidays. It makes me realize I should have done the same when I was at a church where I knew everyone. I never understood how difficult it was for new people to get acquainted and become part of a group. I feel so blessed for everyone who reached out to us and I hope to do the same for others!

Zephyr and I outside of Grandpa's Cheesebarn!

I am also thankful for Grandpa's Cheesebarn and all the people I met there. I feel so blessed to have been able to keep working there even after they found out I was leaving in a couple months! The atmosphere was welcoming and the people I worked with were kind and fun to be around. I actually looked forward to going to work (and not just because I love cheese. Although I do love cheese, that should not be understated).

Although my time in Ohio was much shorter than I anticipated I am thankful for it. Now I look forward to new adventures, new people, and a plethora of other things I will soon be thankful for!

Tune in next time for reports from Washington, D.C.! (Haha, I know, that was so cheesy. Did I mention I love cheese? I really don't think I can say that enough).

The mess

My poor dogs know what packing is. Having moved three times in the last ten months, they understand the meaning of the suitcase.

I was trying to figure out why they were being so clingy this afternoon. I figured MeiLi's problem was that age had been stung by a bee and was therefore not feeling well (I had the flick the honeybee off her leg). But Belle was inexplicable.

However, as I started packing all my clothes this evening I figured it out. I couldn't walk into the other room without my little companions right at my heels. They know I'm packing and they think they are going to be left behind. Oh little dogs...they have no idea what is in store for them.

They had to be right in the middle of my mess. Also, this picture makes it look like I own a lot of pink. I do not. These are probably all the pink clothing items I own, except for the shirt I am currently wearing.

Its all coming together, or apart...

By this time next week I will be in the midst of my first day with the State Department. I will be getting my picture taken and getting all sorts of new employee paperwork and tasks to complete. This does not seem real at all. Sometimes I feel like Scott and I are a little in denial. Even though we are preparing, packing, and getting everything done I still do not feel like I will be living somewhere different on Saturday night. But then again, what is it supposed to feel like?

You think Scott and I would be used to this by now. The other day I figured out that in the past ten months we have only spent one full month together - May. Starting in October 2011 and coming to this July one of us has always been gone. He was in Oklahoma from October to January and then I was living part-time in Colorado February, March and April. May, we were finally together and even went to Canada as a little celebration. June I was in Chicago for a few days and now here we are in mid-July I will be on my way by the end of the week. This will be much easier than Oklahoma was though. A 7 hour drive is much more manageable than a 10+ hour drive.

The house looks crazy and a little sad. Even though Scott is not moving out yet we took everything off the walls and off shelves to put in piles for the eventual pack out (he didn't want to get stuck with all the moving duties, again). So now our house looks much like it did when we first moved in just six months ago.

And for seemingly silly concerns:
What shoes will I wear on my first day? I don't have them yet. I know all the shoes I currently own are either not dressy enough or will not allow me to last the whole day without being in pain. Where are my comfy dress shoes? I am beginning to think such a thing does not exist. I know you are probably asking yourself, who the heck cares about what shoes they are going to wear? Well, ever since my foot surgeries I cannot mess around with shoes that are not just right and for all the walking I am going to be doing all over D.C. and Virginia, I need good shoes.

And for serious concerns:
The State Department has yet to receive my transcript with my master's degree confirmed. If they don't receive if before Monday my pay has to be downgraded as if I did not possess a master's degree. I called the school and it was sent June 27th. They cannot help me any further. I decided to order another and pay for a rush order and the website timed out so now I cannot tell if it has been ordered properly or if I still need to pay for it. All it says is "pending." That is a very unhelpful word.

And I still don't have my amended travel orders. Not that either of these are huge concern, they are just not helping my already semi-stressed self get stuff together. What justifiably stresses me out: possibly fraudulent e-mails saying I am delinquent on a student loan I never took out for a University I never attended.

I think from the time I sat down and started writing this to the time it is now has been about 2 hours. I have had to make a lot of calls, write a lot of emails, and wait for webpages to load this morning to make sure I have everything in order (and that I am not getting my identity stolen). I am ready to go but I am also not ready. I have so much to do before I feel ready. Speaking of, I really need to get going.

Take it, Leave it, Store it?

The question of the day: do we take this item, leave it here (sell it, donate it, whatever), or send it to storage for the foreseeable future? Thanks to this line of thinking, our house is in utter disarray.

It has been hot here. Really hot. 90+. Now most of the time that is not really a big deal, but in a house that has no A/C (and possibly no insulation), that is really hot. Usually we can get our house to be between 5 and 10 degrees cooler than outside, which is not saying much. And then add the humidity. Needless to say, its very difficult to get the motivation to do anything inside the house when its that warm.

We should have buckled down and worked on packing this morning before the heat really took over but I just could not get moving. So Scott worked on the computer and I watched a movie and went through the rest of my clothes in the one room that does have a window air conditioner - our bedroom. I only ventured out to get more clothes or put them away.

However, after realizing that we did not accomplish enough on our precious day off together (one of the few we have left) we decided it was time to just put a few things in order for the future pack out. Instead we attacked the living room, dining room, and office. It may not sound like much but that is at least 60-70% of our possessions. I found myself parting with things that nine months ago I was sure I needed in my life. I imagine that in the near future I will find myself doing this again. We want to downsize but at the same time there is no reason to get rid of everything just because we don't want to take it overseas.

We have some heirloom dishes, antiques, Chinese artifacts, and various other items that are not going to make it if we haul them around the world. But really, there is no reason we can't just put them in storage and leave them for years if need be. Its funny, but Scott and I have attached different meanings to different items which makes it difficult for us to let them go. For instance, there is a painting I absolutely love that we bought from an artist in France. Scott feels bad about the painting because he feels that he haggled with the artist to harshly while I love it because it was so difficult bringing it home without it getting ruined. For these separate reasons we will not let it go. It is an interesting time for us actually; learning what certain objects mean to the other person.

We did take a break to go see a fireworks display but a thunderstorm shut it down. Sorry about that Ohio. The 4th of July rain apparently followed us from Colorado this year. Instead we hung out with our friends for about an hour and then returned home to continue the packing. It is now 1am and we are calling it a night.

In other news, we had a wonderful 4th of July on the 3rd and Scott set off all kinds of fireworks with some people from our church softball team. I have some great pictures I will try to put up if the heat doesn't chase me out of the office. Tomorrow we venture to Canton to run some errands we cannot accomplish in this small town and visit with a friend we haven't seen since we were last in Colorado!

Its crazy. I have about a week and a half left here. I feel like I have so much to do and that I am walking  into a future I don't really know anything about. Should be quite the trip!

Happy 4th (now 5th, sorry!) of July!

It begins...

I finally started packing today. Since I'm no longer using my UAB shipment (that's unaccompanied air baggage. I can ship 250 lbs. of stuff in addition to anything I could take on a flight with me) I really didn't feel any rush. Scott and I will be driving to DC and then he will be making subsequent trips over the next six weeks so even if I forget something I can just have him bring it a week or so later.

I got through all the clothes in my room and was feeling really good about that accomplishment until I remembered all the clothes I also have in the spare room's closet. Oh man. I have a lot more to get through. Scott might be right, I may have too many clothes. I tried my best to get rid of things but I kept thinking, "who knows where we will be going!? This might be perfect there!" This is a dangerous attitude.

I am also starting to be sad about leaving Ashland. We visited one of our few friends today and I held her newborn daughter. She is so tiny and the next time I see her she will be...who knows? Will I be back to Ashland in a few months or is it possible I will never return to this area? It's a difficult position to be in. Some of the people we've met have been such great friends to us. But will they be lifelong friends? We won't know until we leave.

I have been fortunate enough to know more than a handful of people I can call lifelong friends. No matter how long we go without talking we pick up right where we left off. I feel so blessed to have so many people like that in my life. Unfortunately it has been hard to find the time and money to physically visit them as we are all spread so far apart. With my new job it will now be even harder but I do hope that I can put Ashland on the list of places in the world where my lifelong friends reside.

And now....Ashland Balloonfest pictures!

Papers and balloons

Today is my day off and I planned to get all kinds of things done like packing and planning and sorting and so on. Well, it did not quite go that way.

I slept through my alarm this morning, multiple times (read: I kept turning it off without looking at the time) so I was nearly late to both the groomers and the historic society. After we dropped the dogs off we made it to the historic society to help set up for a silent auction. Unfortunately, I also had to tell them about my new job.

I am so excited about working for the foreign service but my heart just breaks telling everyone around here about it. I was so proactive in trying to meet people and get involved and now after mere months I'm already dating goodbye. The director of the society had to break my heart even more by telling me she was going to have me do research for her next book. I almost told her I would do it anyway, all the way from D.C.

These women at the historic society, the people I work with at the Cheesebarn, and the friends we've made at church have made my short time here so enjoyable. I am truly sad to be leaving but I think that's a good thing. It's better for me to be sad than to hate this place and just want to get out. But I wanted to do that research. I might still find a way....

In FS (foreign service) news, I am not having a UAB shipment anymore. I was already not going to pack out the house at this time since Scott is not moving out yet. But I was informed today that the company doing the moving will not come all the way to Ashland for my little UAB shipment. So I will be taking everything in the car and learning about UABs in the future. Oh well, it's honestly one less thing to worry about now.

Only two and a half weeks left! So crazy. Time is flying by. I am trying to organize all my paperwork today so I know where everything is when I'm asked for it. The house is so hot that I've confined everything to the kitchen table, which is tough when all my scanned documents are on the computer upstairs. But it's like Mordor up there. I'm staying in the Shire.

This weekend is also Ashland's balloon festival! We are going to try to ride a hot air balloon tonight! Should be fun, unless it's crazy hot there too in which I may reconsider getting in a small basket next to a giant flame.