Not So Much Stuff

Image by Kassel via Flickr

The time rushes nearer! The passports arrived two days ago. We have boxes everywhere. I told Meg and Sara they had to be completely packed for China before they can pack for EFY next week. They have discovered that they don't have as much important stuff as they thought they did, though everyone is wishing we could take our beds.

The two girls will be living out of a suitcase for the next two weeks but the boxes and household items we are sending to China will ship out next week. We will then spend the last week cleaning.

Brad and Jace come home from Timberline National Youth Leadership Training Camp today. It will be nice to have their help. Sometimes I wonder if I'm taking too much or not enough and it will be nice to get Brad's opinion once in a while.

I still haven't gotten the soap made. If I have to, I suppose I can take the remnants of past batches. That would be interesting (especially the batch that was supposed to be green but turned purple!), grab bag soap. :-)

The photo today has no significance to me (I got it from Zemanta), it just brings me a calm, peaceful feeling, and I like it. Here's a great song to go with it.

Sticks, Not Soap Today

Part of me keeps waiting to receive news that, "never mind, you're not going to China after all," but the news never comes. Although if the passports don't hurry up and get here, it just might happen. They are supposed to be here by the 8th. We paid a fortune in expedite fees, so they'd better hurry up.

I'm starting to feel the time crunch. Partly because Brad is at Timberline Scout Camp and I'm not sure what to pack, and partly because things keep coming up that seem to eat time. We need to get the car's registration and inspection renewed, new tires (here's expensive: new tires on 4 cars in 2 months!), and an oil change and tune-up. I need to get sealed grade transcripts for school applications, try to keep a running list of what we should bring, and oh yeah! half a bazillion passport photos (well maybe not quite that many).

At some point this week I need to get some sunshine. The eczema on my leg is FINALLY almost gone thanks to the sun and vitamin D and I want that to continue to be a happy thing. (When all else fails, do what the dermatologist first recommended, lol.)

Today was not a soap day. It was a stick day. We finally got rid of all the pruned branches and the bush stumps that we recently dug up (and some not so recently). Tomorrow will not be a soap day either. It will be a funeral and dentist day; neither of which are the cause of nor contributing to the other circumstance. :-)

For a Girls' Night FHE (Family Home Evening), we went to the Dollar Movies. Best deal in town on a Monday, $2 for 4 people. I almost felt like I was stealing, the price is so ridiculously low on Mondays, I had to laugh. We went and saw the Hannah Montana Movie. That is a silly but fun show, with some make-you-move music. It was actually nice to go to a show where I didn't worry about "naughty scenes" or language.

At this point, I'm too tired to think about anything more to write.

Independence Day

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One thing I am really glad about with this move to China thing. We will come back to the U.S. every summer. I am so happy that we will be here for the 4th of July. I think we probably will be very glad for a heavy dose of "God Bless America" and "The Star-Spangled Banner". Besides that, today I ran the Provo Freedom Festival 5K the whole distance. I have never run that far before and I would like to do that race again. Erin and Jace also did it. Brad ran the 10K. Yea! To top it all off we had the big family 4th of July picnic. It wouldn't be a properly celebrated holiday without everyone there playing games together. Especially the candy bar game!

Tonight we will once again go to park along with the Stadium of Fire crowd and have a picnic, games, and watch the fireworks. Ooo... aaah... ohhh...

Tomorrow the guys leave for Timberline Scout leadership training all week. Hopefully the girls and I can get a lot done at home to make progress toward moving. Only 23 days left!

Making Salve to Take Along

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Today was spent making our family's favorite skin salve. We call it Boo-Boo Goo. It's great for insect bites or stings, or cuts. It seems to decrease irritation and help the wound heal quickly. I made a double batch because of requests from some family members. We want to be able to take some with us to China. I don't want to have to figure out what the Chinese equivalent is. It's a long, slow process but it was a good occupation while I waited for my girls to come home from camp (covered in mosquito bites!).

Monday will be a soap day, I think, since I also want to take about a year's supply of homemade soap with us (I KNOW China's Customs officials would frown on bringing the chemicals necessary to make soap over there!).

A friend died today. I think that after her long battle with cancer, she can finally have peace and rest. I only hope her family can too. I pray for them.

Tomorrow is Independence Day. Besides running the Provo Freedom Festival 5K, and enjoying some picnics with family, I plan to take a few minutes to re-read the document that started it all. You can read it too if you click here. Happy Holiday!

Dashing Around

Today was crazy, but the Lord's hand must be in our efforts because the timing of everything worked out OK. Jace and I spent the day dashing from one appointment to the next trying to make sure all body parts are in working order. Teeth are good as long as he brushes well, ears are good as long as he actually want's to hear what you are saying. :-) We made it home from the appointments just in time for me to remember my appointment with the sister missionaries. After that Jace cooked dinner - yea!

Brad and Jace and I went to the book store to look at some Chinese Mandarin language resources. Always read the reviews on Amazon before you fork out the big bucks! Doing this saved us a lot of money. We did not buy the very expensive "big name" language program after all. Turns out the format doesn't work so well in Chinese, though it's great in many other languages. We bought some other resources for a lot less money that will work out better for us. We still plan to get some other things but we will wait till we are in China for that.

We also heard today that a friend of ours is moving to the same area to teach at the "international school". Wouldn't it be something if he was teaching at the same school our kids were going to? It will be strange enough to know someone else in the church branch we'll attend. Small world.

Apparently Google and China are having some challenges getting along, and Google was cut off in China for a couple of hours last week. If there are bigger problems that develop and you think I may not have email access to gmail, send email to my alternate address (I will never check this unless there is a problem with gmail or Google) which is: ilovewarmsocks2@yahoo.com . I hope there won't be any lasting difficulty, but it pays to be prepared.

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• Google briefly cut off in China (mycompuquest.blogspot.com)

Catching Up

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So, to catch up some of you who haven't been talking to us for the last week or so, here's the general set-up (or breakdown depending on the moment ;-) ):

We are moving to Clifford Estates, Guangzhou, China. The college students will stay here and work their hiney's off (besides someone has to take care of the dog and cats). The younger ones will be attending an international school. The timing for getting all the documents in order seems to be coming right down to the wire, so keep us in your prayers, we can use all the help we can get. Meg will continue her homeschool studies for her senior year of high school.

We will likely be living in China for several years, with long vacations to the U.S. in the summers. We're hoping to be able to work in Girls' Camp with our "home ward" for Sara each year and maybe some sort of Scout trip for Jace.

We will be attending an English-speaking branch of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, composed of international members of the Church. We are not allowed to meet with members who are citizens of China, and proselyting is prohibited.

Brad will have a long commute to work everyday, and the kids' school is about a half-hour bus ride from where we will likely live. No, we don't have an exact place chosen yet, that's why we are leaving on the 27th of July. (YIKES!) Any other questions?