Thursday, September 15, 2011

The Boat

Since day one that I moved to Moscow I had been waiting on my shipment to arrive.  Or the boat as I like to call it.  We were told it would take 6 to 8 weeks to get here.  And that was a pretty accurate time assessment.  When the boat finally arrived I had forgotten half the stuff that I packed.  You get used to living on the basics but it is not something that I recommend.  The boat arrives at Customs and takes about 2 weeks to clear.  So Monday morning here I am waiting on it to arrive at my house.  The movers show up and start bringing boxes in.  Well I was not aware that they were going to unpack everything too.  This is good and bad.  Good because you don't have to worry about where to put the empty boxes and paper and you get to see all your stuff laid out.  Bad because all your stuff is laid out with no home.  And in the middle of all of this Owen is napping so all of his stuff is in the living room.  I have to say it took more than a few days to get everything organized.  Actually, I am still trying to get everything organized.  

Where to start?  I tried very hard in Lafayette to go through and tell the movers what to take and what not to take.  Of course things got packed that I did not want.  For instance, yearbooks.  I mean really they aren't even all mine.  I have a couple that belong to my sister and then the same one that belongs to my brother.  My yearbooks are the ones from elementary and middle school.  I tried to throw them away but David would not let me.  Memories I might want to see later or show to Owen.  I seriously doubt that.  Of course my elementary school pictures are cute.  It is not until later that girl we don't recognize now made an appearance.  Also, something else that got packed that I did not care to see about was my boot that I got when I broke my foot sophomore year in college.  Maybe the Lord is telling me that I may need that thing again here in Russia with all the snow.  I sure hope not.  Dad never would let me get rid of it in case I needed it again.  I think I am just asking for my foot to break.

One thing that I have way to much of now is hangers.  When I told the movers to pack what was in the closet they took me literally.  Thankfully they did manage to leave the wedding dress.  But I got tons of hangers. I have a huge box full of them.  And I am not sure what to do with them.  And of course I have no closet space so I have even more hangers from clothes I am forced to fold now.  Ugh!  Oh and now Owen has no closet so I have baby hangers out the wazoo too!  I mean seriously.  If I never see or step on another hanger it would be too soon.

And now here comes the next step. Where oh where do I put everything?  It takes a bit of creativity to come up with some solutions.  Let's move this desk so we can get a dresser because we have no closet space.  At this time I am trying to move some stuff around so if we do have a guest they can put their stuff somewhere.  And of course there is no home for my shoes.  Shoes are everywhere.  And NO I am not getting rid of any of them.  So don't even suggest it.  Of course in the process of putting everything away I only hit my head about 50,000 times.  I had  headache for days.  And if you know me well you know it does not take much for me to hit my head.  I manage to do it in places that nobody else would ever hit their head.  I did have a friend in college that said I should wear a football helmet.  

I think the best thing about getting the shipment was all the toys for Owen.  He had toys everywhere.  Toys that were too old for him when left and toys that he has not seen in awhile.  It was like Christmas morning for him.  He did not know which way to go.  He crashed hard that night and for a few nights after.  Toy overload.  I was putting away one of his play mats and he got mad at me.  I had to tell him that he was too old for it and that he had plenty of others.  The good thing about Owen is that he protests for a second then is like Okay, Mom!  Of course, now I realize I should have saved some of the toys because now he is bored with them.  Figures.

All in all I was very happy to have my shipment.  We went to IKEA to buy some items and are still working on it.  Hopefully my last trip will be soon.  There are a lot of things that I didn't pack that I wish I would have. I would have packed just about my whole kitchen.  And many foods that I love in the US.   This first move international has been a huge learning experience.  Well next time I will be better prepared.  And of course if any of you ever move you can always ask!  :)



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