You know where to come if you get a headache.

I've had a blissful day putting my UAB things away. It was only eight boxes of stuff, but having not seen anything except what we had in our suitcases since June, it was quite a celebration around here. So much so that Henry, uh, got "sick" and had to stay home from school and play xBox all day today. I know, you don't have to tell me about my excellent mothering skills.

Everyone got something they really, really wanted.  Olivia got her Dog Academy Playset and she and Grace got two bins full of skanky Barbies and dolls and stuffed animals. I've barely seen them since they disappeared into their room to play.

Henry also got one of his bins of Legos and Jack got one of his guitars. We also got our desktop and the wireless modem so we can now use our laptops and Kindle wi-fi and whatnot. Right on the day that Kindle began lending library books, which, YAY.

Mitch and I were happy to have our own coffee mugs and I have all my lovely kitchen things. Well, not all, but at least the most important ones.

Hello, Lover:

We got some weird stuff, too, like my blender box but no blender. One thing we got that I had no idea how happy it would make me is the pepper grinder. The only pepper you can find here is this powdery stuff, and forget about peppercorns.

Oh, and we got something else! But before I show you, you must first know that my kids get migraines, and if they take ibuprofen right away, their heads don't spin around while vomit spews all over the room. So, you can imagine that having ibuprofen on hand is very important to me. Would you like to know how important?








This important:

UAB. Finally.

We're going on 10 weeks without our air baggage, although it's been in Brasilia for the past four weeks at least. Today I learned that if you cry in front of a Brazilian man, you can make things happen. A mere four hours after I cried in someone's office:

I'm working on my tears for when we find out where our HHE and car are.

No, ma'am, this isn't a dog, it's just a furry carry-on.

                                                          Photo by Mark Gesinger

We are never getting another dog. I'm not going to bore you with the details, but it's going to cost about 3 bazillion dollars to ship Seamus to Brazil in the middle of summer. In fact, it might be cheaper to just charter him a private jet. We are using Club Pet to handle the two (or eight? twelve? depending on the heat) week boarding, vet checks and shots, final groom (we want him to look good for the Brazilian bitches), and international health certificate, and they seem pretty good. They have been extremely helpful so far, and if he gets there alive they'll get a double thumbs-up from me. And if he doesn't make it, well, then, I've saved a bazillion dollars on the next post. I kid! I only wish I could just buy him a seat on the airplane. He's a much better traveller than Madame Barfsalot and Sir Arewethereyet. Maybe we can ship the kids as cargo.

The house looks like a badly-played game of Tetris. Boxes, luggage, purchases, and mountains of sunblock and laundry soap are everywhere.  I won't be able to live like this for five weeks due to my control-freak nature, so my plan is to sort it into organized piles for the five destinations (long-term storage-like my boots *whimper, our snowshoes and most of the furniture, air freight-like my kitchen stuff and extra clothes, stuff that will be put on a boat and take a while to get there-like our bed and not my boots *whimper, stuff we are bringing to Seattle/Spokane-just our clothes for two weeks, and finally, stuff we are going to store and bring with us on the plane from DC to Brazil. We each get two 50 lb bags and a carry-on, and I intend to use every ounce I can on my own sheets and towels, shoes, and kitchen stuff. But no boots, because boots are dumb and I hate them.

I have little color-coded dots for everything so the movers don't get confused. All this organizing has really put a damper on my relaxing in bed all day. It's so irritating. Plus, I've had to get up every day this week and make my own coffee since Mitch is off learning to shoot automatic weapons and crash through roadblocks at what my teenager calls "Jason Bourne Preschool" (said teenager also thinks this is much cooler than finding out Nirvana once opened for his dad's college band).

UAB

These are SOME of Henry's Legos.  Not pictured are all the ones that are currently assembled into some space ship or war thingie.  The movers will be here in a few weeks.  We are allowed to take most of our stuff, but the whole family is only allowed 900 lbs total in UAB (unaccompanied air baggage).  UAB is stuff we will get right away.  HHE (household effects) is stuff that goes to a dark, lonely place until we move into more permanent digs (permanent meaning longer than a year or two).  In the UAB will go some of my kitchen stuff that I can't live without, some electronics, and most of our clothes.  That stuff right there probably puts us over our 900lb. limit.  Henry claims he can't live without the Legos, so we're working on getting them down to a single bin.  I suppose I can part with the Kitchenaid mixer for a bin full of Legos.  As far as other toys, the girls aren't really attached to anything, so a small bag of stuff for each of them.  Jack claims his XBOX will be pried from his cold, dead hands, so I imagine that will be going in the car with us.

As for me.  Ahem.  Well.  I've spent the morning getting rid of two boxes worth of shoes I no longer wear.  These are the shoes I've decided I'll be needing in the next few months (not pictured are the five pairs I'm bringing in the car):

So, what do you think my chances are of staying within the 900 lb weight limit?