Monday, September 24, 2007

Crunch Time!

Less than 48 hours to D-Day (Departure Day)!

What a flurry of activity as we get to the final stage of preparation.

The rooms are ready. We have a dog-sitter. We have a house-sitter. The bills are on auto-pay. We're now both officially "on vacation."

You never really appreciate all the fine details to be coordinated in running a home until you have to make sure everything is covered for two months. I have a hard enough time preparing for a week, much less nearly two months!

As I write this entry, it's still 80 degrees in Memphis, but only 44 (and rainy) in Petropavlovsk, up from a low of 37. Our coordinator sent a short note: "Dear Bill. Maria from Petro informed me that they expect cold weather when you come so please take warm clothes." As Cathe's sister likes to say, "Ya think?!?!?"

We spent the weekend digging out our winter clothes which were neatly packed in "space bags." It's amazing how much stuff you can fit in them before vacuuming them down to a more manageable size. They really do work just like the commercials show. Needless to say, we had to open all 8 in order to pull ot those few things which we will need on the trip. The "fun" part will be in deciding which items we will wear/carry and which will be packed. Time to get out the scale to ensure we don't over do it!

Despite all of our preparations, we still keep checking the list.

It's ok though. As the Disney commercial says, "We're too excited to sleep!"

3 comments:

Sarah said...

So glad to see you are on your way!! :) Safe travels to you and can't wait to follow along during this exciting time for you!!

Sarah

Kathy B. said...

Here is a hint. Pack some of your clothes in the space bags. Also, take socks, underwear and things that don't wrinkle and pack them in gallon size ziplocs and squeeze all the air out by rolling them up. I was suprised how much I could pack. We also lived off a jar or peanut butter and granola bars while we were there. I packed 2 bags of good coffee. I left my coffee maker with Maria (aka Masha). Everything else you can find there.

Kathy B.

Jennifer said...

You have Masha?! Oh you're so lucky! She's wonderful- very sweet and easy going. You'll be in wonderful hands.

I'm so excited for you guys. I'm almost as excited as you are!