New Day, New Digs

After 3 years of waiting, guessing and attempting to plan, the time had finally come for us to begin our yearlong adventure in Sri Lanka.  Standing in the airport, stretching our legs from the 10.5-hour flight and feeling a second (or third or fourth, I’m not sure) wind come on, we felt the energy of this exciting transition as it was actually happening.  The kids were just happy to be off of the plane, so they were bouncing around the gate area while we scanned the room for the customs line.  We were also looking for an escort sent by the Embassy who was going to help us get through immigration and help us collect our bags.  Finding our apartment in a new city where we knew nothing yet about money, taxis, travel, or locations would be a daunting task, so we were incredibly relieved that someone was scheduled to receive us.  We found him easily enough and made our way through the customs and immigration lines,

officially checking into Sri Lanka, collecting essential tea information pamphlets from the sari-clad greeters along our way.  Baggage claim was our next stop where, although it took some time, we were able to collect ALL of our many bags, feeling thankful that they were all present and accounted for. 

A few months back, the embassy hooked us up with another US military family living in Colombo, which was an incredible asset in preparing for our trip.  They became our social sponsors, acting as our in-country guides before (and even after) we arrived.  We were fortunate to be able to connect with them via email ahead of time so that we could ask all of our most pressing questions about what to expect, what to pack and what to buy ahead of time that would be hard to find or get while living in Sri Lanka.  This was a game changer and, unfortunately, not something that this family had available to them before they arrived in Colombo.  We learned that they also had 2 kids, ages 4 and 5, so we were excited that the kiddos would have some friendly connections once we arrived.  

Meeting us at the airport and waiting with the van, was another couple (Sara and Tyler), that Ryan had been in contact with before our arrival as well.  This couple has been stationed here for the past year, as Tyler has been the Army FAO representative here.  I hadn’t met or spoken with them before, but was so relieved to see them at the airport as I realized the number of questions I had was growing exponentially the longer I breathed Sri Lankan air.  We were so glad to see their friendly faces emerging from the van and, although I had no idea who she was at the time, Sara and I embraced - her in welcome and me breathing a sigh of relief for her presence.  We were being hurried to climb into the van while taxis, tuk-tuks, and cars whipped around us.  Our driver had loaded all of the bags into the car and we didn’t realize until we were already in that, in our rush to get out of the road, we didn’t grab the car seats out of their travel bags.  They were now at the bottom of our very big luggage pile and, ashamed though I am to say it, in my exhaustion I abused the lack of car seat laws in this country and agreed that we should just press on with Kiddo in a regular seat belt and Little Boy on my lap.  Welcome to South Asia.

On the 45-minute drive from the airport, Ryan and I pelted Tyler and Sara with questions, while they simultaneously offloaded information that we didn’t even know to ask about.  Sara was awesome, having even brought juice boxes and applesauce pouches for the kids that she had picked up earlier at another Embassy worker’s moving out sale.  She and Tyler live in the same building as us and worked so hard to make sure that the place was in order before our arrival.  Again, this was something that they did not have available to them prior to their arrival last year.  They even pre-stocked our fridge and cupboards with essentials like milk, bread, peanut butter, cereal and snacks for the kids since we came in on Friday afternoon of Memorial Day weekend, when the Embassy would be closed through Monday.  They also schooled us on all of the finer points of Sri Lankan money, Colombo taxis and travel, cell phone usage, and grocery shopping, among a variety of other very important topics.   We picked their brains all the way back to our building, where they helped us get upstairs to our amazing new digs.  I could quickly see that these two people would be an invaluable resource for us as we settled in. 

Along with our in-country contact information a few months back, the Embassy

also kindly sent us an email with pictures of our new place.  At the time, we were relieved to see that we would be living in a nice building, near the coast, that had modern amenities, including air conditioning and a modern kitchen.  The pictures that were sent, though, also showed a beautiful apartment with spectacular views of the Indian Ocean from almost every room.  At the time, we thought for sure that these images were just stock footage that they send to every new tenant.  We were wrong.  They were actual images from our actual apartment in Colombo and as we walked through the front door and realized this fact, we were blown away.  We were looking at an amazing, spacious, open layout with a full view of the city and the ocean from every room.  Oh, and 4 balconies overlooking the ocean.  The space had been furnished by the Embassy, which is why we left almost every piece of furniture we own in storage in California.  They were also sweet enough to send a couple boxes of toys for the kiddos, which was vital to our survival upon arrival.  The kids had been playing with the same suitcase of toys for over a month now and the promise of new playthings (even if they were on loan) was so exciting to them.  We also soon discovered that the building has a gym, dry cleaner, café, squash courts, pool and play structure.  Not too shabby.

Sara and Tyler soon broke the bad news to us that they were actually set to leave late that night for a 3-week trip to Nepal.  Although we were excited for them to go on this trip, we were also selfishly bummed that our new friends, cultural buffers and towers of stability were about to fly away, literally, into the night.  So they wasted no time and jumped right in to help us get settled.  Tyler took Ryan down the street to get a SIM card for his phone and set up with an understanding on how the currency works around here.  Sri Lanka uses its own Rupee system (different from that of India) and the current exchange rate is about 100 LKR(Sri Lankan Rupees) equaling $.68.  So, 1000 Rupees is roughly $7 and so on.  They left a few helpful notes around the house concerning metric temperature translations for the oven, Rupee to Dollar calculations for reference, and some notes on using the local form of taxi – the tuk-tuk.  More on that later.  Meanwhile, I looked around our place taking an inventory of the furniture and the room layout, noticing that we did not have a crib or small bed for Little Boy.  I was immediately absorbed by this problem, since him not having his own fenced in space would wreak havoc on our ability to get any kind of rest until our shipments arrived in 2-4 weeks.  Sara was amazing, jumping on the phone (let me remind you this was Friday in the late afternoon, before a long holiday weekend) trying to find someone who could solve this problem for us.  I had little hope of an answer and began the MacGuyver mental aerobics of how to fashion a crib style bed out of the available pieces of furniture in the apartment.  Much to my surprise, Sara was able to get a hold of someone who thought they might be able to find someone to help us out.  Within the next 2 hours, we had a crib rolling through our front door and set up in the room nearest ours.  *Phew.  Dodged a bullet there.  Thank God for Sara and Justin, the helpful Embassy friend on the other end of the line.  I sent Ryan to work with a thank you note and a loaf of banana bread on his first day at the Embassy for Justin, the great crib crisis resolver. 

Anyway, after about an hour or so, Sara and Tyler headed back downstairs to get themselves organized for their flight out and let us get settled in to our new space for a while, inviting us down for dinner a little later.  We unpacked a little, let the kids run around and I closed my eyes on the couch for what felt like (and what may actually have been) 5 minutes.  I will remind you that neither Ryan nor I have had almost any sleep since our 4-hour nap in London, which was now almost 24 hours and lots of kiddo wrangling and road weariness behind us.  It was just about time to head downstairs for dinner and I think, right about then, is when we felt the exhaustion begin to creep in.  We needed to eat, though, and these would be our last moments with our Colombo touchstones before they left, so we soldiered on downstairs. 

Sara and Tyler were kind enough to lend us the keys to their apartment, in the event that we needed any kitchen items or whatever, while they were away and while we waited for our shipments to arrive.  This was incredibly kind and generous of them, especially since we were, essentially, strangers.  I made a mental note to have them over for dinner the second they came back from Nepal.  We also met our social sponsors and email pals, The Greuel Family, invited by Sara and Tyler for us to get to know in person.  We excused ourselves from their presence around 7, after dinner and some more conversation, and made our way back up to our apartment, where we all promptly changed into pajamas and crashed into our respective beds. 

I wish I could report that we all slept soundly for 12 hours, but I would be lying.  Instead, Little Boy woke up around 1:30 or 2 in the morning, ready and raring for action.  I got up with him, got him a snack and we played out in the living room for a few hours, until he was ready to go back down a little before 5.  I was just crawling back into bed when Kiddo came out of her room, ready to wake up for the day having slept 10 straight hours, so up I stayed with her as well.  Needless to say, we all spent the next couple of days lying around, watching dvds and trying to adjust our bodies to this new time zone.  There was a lot of napping through that weekend.  We did manage to get out though!  That first Saturday morning, we walked down the street to one of the nearby hotels, which we heard had several restaurants, in order to find some breakfast. 

Sri Lanka had just celebrated Vesak a couple of days before we arrived – which we were pretty sad to have missed – and there were still lantern decorations everywhere.  Vesak falls on the full moon in May and commemorates the major events in the life of Buddha, essentially.  Sri Lanka is a largely Buddhist country and every month the full moon, or Poya, is celebrated as a national holiday – meaning no school or work on these days, if they fall during the week.  Each Poya signifies something different in the Buddhist tradition, some being more heavily celebrated than others.  May’s Poya is called Vesak Poya and is celebrated for several days leading up to the actual Poya, which culminates with a huge lantern festival and parade.  We missed this celebration by a day.  Bummer.  Anyway, the hotel we walked to, The Cinnamon Grande, still had their lanterns hung and I was fascinated to see that they were made out of recycled water bottles – they were beautiful!  Aside from the view from our apartment, this was our first real introduction to Sri Lanka and as we walked past the immaculately manicured lawn and recycled water bottle lanterns, I grew more excited to learn about this new place that we would be calling home. 

Up, Up and Away!

Grant's Farm!

After 3 weeks of road tripping, I think it is safe to say that the 4 of us were relieved to be back in St. Louis for a week of rest and preparation.  Even though we were planning on doing some visiting while there, we also planned on getting some rest, finding a normal schedule again, and taking time to organize ourselves for the coming journey. 

We spent a little over a week in St. Louis after our road trip, which gave us a lot of time to make the rounds to Ryan’s friends and relatives in the area.  It also gave us a chance to have some St. Louis fun with the kiddos.  We tried to fit something fun in each day.  We took Kiddo to the Science Center one day, where she got to not only experience her first ever movie, but her first ever IMAX movie.  Looking back, it feels like maybe we set the movie bar a little high…

Anyway, we took the kiddos to get sandwiches and milkshakes at Crown Candy another day.  Followed the next day by a trip to Grant’s Farm to check out the Clydesdales and the other animals they have there.  Kiddo has a few St. Louis themed books that she reads at home, so she had a whole list of places she wanted to see and experience based on these books.  We knew we couldn’t do it all, but we gave it a pretty good shot.  She was even quoting the books while we visited certain places, saying things like, “I want to enjoy some mouthwatering eats at Crown Candy.”  That one caught me off guard.

Aside from our field trips, we also got to stop in and visit plenty of people in the area, including Ryan’s 2 grandmothers, who are 96 and 99.  Between them and my 92-year-old Grandfather I think the kids have some pretty solid genes to work with.  We also got to spend a lot of time with Ryan’s local friends, who all together have quite a brood of children that the kiddos were stoked to play with.  We had a BBQ one day and a pool party another, gathering our 4 families and 11 children all together.  The kiddos made fast friends here, even vocalizing a desire to quit our move to Sri Lanka and move to St. Louis instead. 

Traditional trip to The Hickory Log, Dexter, MO

In between visiting and field tripping, Ryan and I had a lot of last minute organizing and purchasing to do.  We both had lists of things we wanted to acquire before leaving the states.  I wanted to stock up on clothes and shoes for the kiddos, as I was noticing them grow out of much of what we owned – thankfully we were leaving close to Memorial Day, so sales abound!  We also needed some odds and ends in the way of gear for Ryan’s expeditions and trips. 

After all was said and done, we managed to get everything we needed and also managed to fit it all in our allotted bags and had it packed by the day of our flights.  Since we had already done a trial run of this process in leaving Monterey, getting ready for the airport felt routine at this point.  Our flights were also at a reasonable time of 1 in the afternoon, so it wasn’t too hard to get up, get organized, get everyone fed and to the airport with lots of time for baggage checking and security screenings.  We loaded up the RV and felt pretty proud of ourselves for getting out the door with little drama or stress and lots of time, just in case.  Grandma Jan walked us into the airport, did a few rounds of hugs goodbye and watched us proceed to the ticket counter.  Watching her leave as we waited for our tickets was one of those moments that, for some reason, started to make this whole thing feel a little more real.  She had been with us for the previous 2 months, helping us get ready and watching the end of one chapter and the beginning of the next.  It seemed very fitting that she was the one releasing us on our journey. 

Thanks a million Grandma Jan!

Our flight itinerary started in St. Louis, of course, with a short jump to Chicago.  This first flight was pretty easy – Little Boy had his own seat with his car seat in it, which was a dream and a treat for all.  He slept most of the way to Chicago while Kiddo colored and read books in her seat.  When we got off the plane, we had a few hours to kill – long enough to grab some lunch, take a walk and let the kiddos play in this really awesome play structure O’Hare had in the next concourse over.  This gave us a chance to stretch our legs and run around, preparing us for our 8-hour flight to London.  Ryan and I were a little nervous about this one, as it fell in the dinner/evening play timeframe, but we had snacks and entertainment on our side, so we hoped for the best.

We boarded our next flight to London around 3:30, for a 4 pm takeoff.  This was a much bigger plane – definitely the biggest plane I have ever been on.  We had to walk through 3 sections of large, plush, leg accommodating seating before we got to our row.  We were hoping to all be put in the large middle row of the plane.  Unfortunately, the airline was unable to pull that off.  We decided the best split would be two and two – one of us with each kid.  It was a crap shoot over who would be the bigger problem on the flight.  I voted to take Little Boy and the two of us had seats on the end of the long middle row of the plane, while Ryan and Kiddo were one row ahead and to the left of us, by the window.  I had braced myself for the worst, but honestly, this flight also went off without a hitch.  We flew through dinner and bedtime, so where I thought the kids would be really squirrely, they were pretty chill.  Little Boy was back in his car seat again, ate some dinner and watched Kung Fu Panda.  He did get a little antsy a couple of times, so I took him on a walk around the plane a time or two, which was fine, because it allowed me to go to the bathroom and make sure he had a dry diaper for sleeping time.  He wasn’t stoked to get back in his car seat, but I turned on The Good Dinosaur to get him seated and buckled and within a half hour or so, he passed out. 

I knew that I should shut my eyes to get some rest, but starting with dinner and carrying on through the flight, the flight attendants were serving free wine.  Coupled with the free in-flight movies and my interest in beginning work on the blog, I couldn’t help but soak up the quiet with my plastic cup o’wine.  Kiddo was content in her seat with her ziti pasta and the cartoon movies that were offered, as was Ryan with his own setup.  Ryan cut her off after The Good Dinosaur, around 9, and she put her head down on him and fell asleep.  We landed around midnight our time, which was 6 AM in London. 

English Cottage and Tea Roses will suffice

Our next flight wasn’t until 9:30 that night, so we had an entire 15- hour day to kill.  In our original plan, we were going to go out for some breakfast, come back to the hotel we booked for the day for a few hours of shut eye, then pop back out to see some sights and have dinner before heading straight to the airport.  This is not how our day turned out.  When we got through customs, we found out that since our flight was not until later that night on another airline, whose counter didn’t even open up until 5:30 in the evening, we would have to collect ALL of our luggage at baggage claim instead of leaving it at the airport like we originally planned.  This meant we had to haul all of our luggage to the hotel, instead of the easy in and out we thought we were going to have.  It took us a few hours to get through customs, collect our bags, and find our hotel shuttle bus.  By the time we got all 13 bags, 1 carseat, 1 stroller, 2 kids and us on and off the bus and into our hotel room, we were all done for.  The 4 of us promptly passed out around 9:30 in the morning and didn’t stir until around 2 in the afternoon.  We jumped up, took a look at the map and realized there was no way we would be able to go anywhere in London from our hotel and still make it back in time to collect all of our bags, get to the airport, recheck them all and get through security.  We were pretty bummed about this, but in a way, a little relieved.  The impetus was off of us to overdo it and the decision was made for us to just take a nice walk in the neighborhood to a local pub around the corner for a bite and a pint.  It was perfect.  We got some fish and chips, a steak and kidney pie, and some cider and Guinness.  It was all so delicious and we were able to just relax and enjoy the beautiful breeze that was blowing through the outdoor patio of the restaurant.  We took a leisurely stroll the long way back to the hotel, collected our things and rolled our 13+ bags back out the door, back onto the bus and back into Heathrow to get checked in for our final flight. 

This is when we got nervous.  Now that we weren’t in America dealing with American airline companies, we didn’t know how it was going to go with all of our bags, their weight and the extra costs involved therein.  In America, particularly because we were traveling on military orders, all of our baggage was free.  When you split it up, it came out to about 2ish suitcases per person/ticket, which isn't SO bad when you look at it that way.  But because American military status doesn't necessarily equate the to the same things in other countries, we weren't sure what would be the outcome here.  It was our turn at the counter and the eyes of the ticket agent grew exponentially when she saw all that we brought with us.  The weight limits were different on Sri Lankan Airlines, with prices based on total luggage weight not numbers of bags.  So, she weighed it all, subtracted from the total allowed, and we were given a receipt to take to a new line, where we paid for our extra baggage weight - which was considerable.  She wouldn’t print our tickets until Ryan returned from this payment line with a NEW receipt confirming payment.  This was when we found out that, again, we were not all seated together.  THIS time we had 3 seats together and 1 seat alone.  Who gets to enjoy THAT seat?!

We shrugged this off in the moment and made our way to security, which was pretty easy to get through.  I have to say, the London security experience was an eye opener – they have that system running like a well-oiled machine.  Instead of many separate lines, there was one line that led to a conveyor belt with individual stations that rolled the empty bins along and straight to a radar machine.  You just filed through, while people on the other side of the conveyor helped get your things into the boxes and through the machine.  It was like a little security factory, with everyone at different posts making things move along at a reasonable pace.  We were in and out of that security line quicker than anywhere else I’d ever been.  Easy Peasy.  From here, we knew we were going to need to let the kids run for a little while, grab a quick bite then get to the gate.  Fortunately, the international terminal had an entire play place on the 3^rd floor – it was super hot in there, but there was a set of rooms with play structures and coloring tables, among many other things for the kiddos to play on for an hour or so.  This upcoming flight was a 10 hour job, so we had our work cut out for us. 

Our flight to Colombo, Sri Lanka was set to leave at 9:30 London time, with a flight time of 10.5 hours and a time jump ahead 4.5 hours, we were set to touch down in Colombo around Noon the following day, Colombo time.  We weren't sure how the timing was going to work out with the kiddos, so we grabbed a pizza to go on our way to the gate and the 4 of us consumed that delicious pie as we waited for them to call our row.  Excitement was definitely mounting, especially for me.  If you have ever traveled internationally (which, before this, I had not), as you walk through the airports you see all of the different flight attendants in their different uniforms.  The Air Emarites crew is a good example.  Seeing the red hats and white scarves, matched with the red lined beige skirt suits moving as a group through the airport presents such a striking image.  Sometimes just the beauty or intrigue of the uniforms makes me want to fly with that airline to see what it's like.  I suppose that's the idea.  Anyway, I was excited to see what this airline would be like.  After we boarded, I felt like a little kid taking in all of the sights.  The flight attendants had beautiful teal saris on and everyone was so accommodating and helpful getting us seated and situated.  We were toward the back of the plane (which was quite large) so making it back there with our carry-ons, children and Little Boy's car seat was quite a spectacle.  Then, we had to figure out how to make the seating work.  Eventually, the man in front of our 3 given seats, switched with Ryan, so he sat with Kiddo, while Little Boy and I sat sandwiched between two gentlemen in the middle row.  I prayed, for their sake, that I was able to feed him and get him to go to sleep soon and without much fuss.  As it turned out, they were both fathers of littles and ended up trying to help us throughout the flight.  The kindness of strangers has not yet been lost. What I didn't expect was how much this airline was going to cater to the kids on board.  While we were still getting situated, the flight attendants brought coloring books, pencils, and even a baby kit with diapers, wipes and bibs.  Then, within minutes of the cabin doors being shut, they came around again and offered apple juice to each of the children.  Once we were in the air, the flight attendants came around again to bring out the kids' meals - which Ryan admitted, made him think his meal was coming as well, and was disappointed when it took another hour for them to bring our meals.  I was impressed, though, with the thought that went into their decision to care for the kids first. Little Boy fell asleep before they ever brought the food around, though, which I was also grateful for. 

The rest of the flight went very smoothly, I am happy to report.  They served us free alcohol again, except this time it was any alcohol.  I went ahead and had a tall rum and Diet Coke, then some wine with my dinner.  There were a bevy of recent movies on the screen that I hadn't been able to see due to our crazy schedule, so I saddled up with my cocktail and delicious meal and watched a few.  I was about to doze off for a while, but Griffin woke up instead, which totally threw off my mojo.  I fed him some snacks, took him for a walk or two, then set up another movie hoping that maybe he would settle back down.  He stayed up for a couple hours and, it took some doing, but I finally made it happen.  I cat napped here and there, but ultimately didn't get much sleep on that flight despite how long it was.  I think I had just fallen asleep, actually, when they turned on the cabin lights to bring around breakfast.  We were happy to find that all of the food was so delicious.  I wish I was able to take a picture of the intricate detail that went into these plates of food.  Individual bowls of delicious bites, real silverware and china teacups - in economy class.  Made me wonder what life in first class looked like...

10.5 hours is a long time to do anything or be anywhere, particularly seated on an airplane.  So, needless to say we were all a little antsy when they announced we were making our final approach and would be landing in 30 minutes.  It felt like a very long 30 minutes.  Once we landed, though, and parked at the gate we were able to make it off the plane quickly and easily.  The kids were happy to run around the airport, while we were more focused on finding the customs line.  We finally made it to Sri Lanka!  Despite my travel fatigue and jet lag, I was suddenly filled with the excitement and reality of our new life.  Something about being in the airport gave me a second (or third or fourth) wind and I was filled with a new kind of energy.  I had so many questions occur to me that I never thought to ask before as we exited the gate area.  What is the exchange rate?  We need to refill our water bottles - but can we drink the fountain water?  Should I have applied bug spray and sunscreen to the kids already?  My mind was flooded with questions I wasn't sure how to answer and now that my phone's SIM card was inactive due to our relocation, I didn't even have Google as a reassuring back up.  For all of the many months that this move has felt like a story I was telling people about something happening to some other family, it all suddenly became unimpeachably real. 

Like A Band of Gypsies...

If you know anything about our family, then you probably know that we love to travel.  We especially love a good road trip.  We have driven all over the continental United States and continue to dream up places we want to visit and trips we would like to take.  Well, what would our preparation for this grandiose trip overseas be without a lengthy road trip thrown in the middle?  Incomplete, that's what.  So, we decided to do one, you know, just for old time's sake. 

Once we left San Francisco, St. Louis became our new home base.  We flew in around midnight and were picked up by Ryan’s parents in their RV, so we would be able to fit all of us plus all of our baggage.  We stayed just one night so that we could pick up a car, prepare a few smaller bags and leave the majority of our luggage in St. Louis.

Even though Ryan had finished his programs and graduated from his schools, he still had some work related training and obligations ahead of him before we could leave the country.  First on the list was a 10-day training in Washington, DC that would teach him escape tactics, evasive maneuvers and hand to hand fighting skills in the event of a kidnapping or attack.  Honestly, this training sounded a lot more like fun than work.  He was definitely looking forward to it.

Mabel's BBQ!

While Ryan went to DC, I planned to take the kiddos to the Northeast to visit family and friends for a couple of weeks.  To save on airfare and car rentals, we decided borrowing a car from Ryan’s parents and driving to Albany was the most economical plan – plus, it gave us a chance to drive through a part of the country we hadn’t done yet, at least not together.  Ryan volunteered to drive with us for this part, instead of going straight to DC, so I could have a partner – thanks Babe!  We had to make it to Albany by 9 o’clock Sunday morning so that Ryan could get on his flight to DC.  We got a late start on Friday, so instead of making it all the way to Cleveland that night, like I planned, we only made it to Colombus.  But, that’s what’s awesome about us – we are super flexible, especially while road tripping.  Instead, we crashed for the night at a cool little hotel off the highway, grabbed some free continental breakfast and hopped back on the road for a much longer day in the car on Saturday.  We made a pit stop in Cleveland for lunch, because Ryan has a soft spot for BBQ and I have a soft spot for Michael Symon and I knew JUST the place to take him (road concierge is a job I take quite seriously).  Mabel’s BBQ was amazing!  After lunch, we continued on up the road.  We made a stop outside of Buffalo for bathroom breaks and snack related grocery shopping.  By the way, the kids did awesome on this journey.  We usually try to time our drives and breaks around nap and food times, so that we can maximize the number of miles we drive before the complaining begins.  Thanks to snacks, we were able to push our dinner stop until Syracuse around 9 PM, which was really our normal California dinner time anyway, and then the kids slept all the way to Albany, a little after 1 in the morning.  *Phew, we made it!

I have to admit, I was not prepared for how chilly it ended up being from St. Louis to Albany and then during our time Upstate.  Because my brain packed our suitcases for Sri Lanka, we were strongly lacking much in the way of warm clothes.  But, we layered and made it work.  Besides, I was so relieved for the brisk winds and weather, knowing that what waited for us overseas was a LOT of hot and steamy.  Another thing I was surprised by was how long it took my kids to adapt to East Coast time.  I don’t think it has ever taken as long as it did this time – I thought for sure the late flight in and the road trip would solve that.  But we were sleeping in until 9 or 9:30 every morning for several days!

Taking time to smell the flowers and blow the feathers

Thankfully, we were going to be spending our days just visiting and relaxing.  Well, that was the plan, anyway.  Once we left Ryan at the airport, the kids and I made our way to Petersburgh, NY where my mother’s (almost) entire family lives.  We stayed with my Aunt Laurie, whose house was always a second home to me growing up.  It’s a place I have found myself during many crossroad moments in my life and I suppose, for that reason, this stay had a certain poetic fluidity to it.  I was really looking forward to catching up with her over nice cups of tea and quiet afternoons.  While there, though, I also had 2 priorities: 1) get my mom set up with a new phone and internet and 2) to get my final vaccination for Japanese Encephalitis.  I had pretty clear plans set in motion for both of these items – but, alas, nothing ever seems to go the way I plan it the first time.  Instead of using most of my time for relaxing and visiting, I spent a lot of time making phone calls and driving around. 

Apparently, obtaining internet services in this particular town is no easy feat – especially where my mother is located.  I spent so many hours on the phone with every carrier you could think of, trying to isolate the address on the map to obtain service, but to no avail.  In the end, after days of work, I at least got her set up with a new phone, some more data and the ability to Skype, use Pinterest and explore Etsy.  Oh, and an email address.  I signed my mom up for her first ever email address.  Welcome to the new world Mom! 

As for the vaccination, that was no walk in the park either.  I had the forethought to get a hand written prescription for Japanese Encephalitis – a lesson I learned a month earlier when I tried to get the FIRST round of shots back in Monterey.  I already knew that there were limited military resources in the Albany area, but I thought if I had a prescription and some insurance I’d be able to get someone to take 3 minutes to stick a needle in my arm.  Turns out, that was not as easy a task as it sounds.  None of the local doctors would see me, because I wasn’t a patient of theirs and, I assume, they didn’t want to do the extra paperwork to see me, talk to Tricare and order the vaccine.  Then, none of the military related folks in the area could see me either.  One was an active duty only clinic, 2 were VA’s who could get the shots but wouldn’t see me, and the other gave me several different numbers that led me to a non-military related travel office who charged $100 to walk in, plus the cost of the vaccine and the appointment.  No thanks.  In the end, my only recourse was to drive 2.5 hours south to West Point, where I walked in, handed them my ID, got my vaccine and walked back out the door 7 minutes later to drive 2.5 hours back north.  That consumed almost an entire precious day that I would have rather spent with my loved ones.  But, at least I got the shot. 

The kids and I spent a lot of the rest of the week hanging out with my Mom – which simply does not happen enough.  It was such a treat to see her every day, spend time chit chatting and snacking on delicious things that she made for us.  Also, Kiddo loves to paint and craft, so when we are there it is such a joy to see them bond over that.  We also got to spend some time with her on Mother’s Day, which was even better!  I picked up some Jersey Mike’s, which is one of her (and my) absolute favorite things.  We had a feast and played with her new phone (which almost blew her mind).  As I drove away, as usually happens, I was left wishing I could pack her up and take her with us.  In that moment I resolved that I would make this blog happen, so that, at the very least, I could share these pieces of our journey with her and everyone else who is interested. 

Our Brood!

Despite the pain of leaving, though, we had to move on to our next stop – which, dare I say – I was equally excited to begin.  On Thursday we drove up to Saratoga Springs to stay with one of my besties Bridget.  She has 3 boys who Kiddo and Little Boy adore and we love spending time at their place when we are in town.  This was no ordinary visit, though.  Also joining us was Rachel (Bridget’s twin) and Kristen – two of my other favorite people in the whole universe.  Now, the four of us (plus our friend Sydny, who wasn’t able to make it :-( have been friends for somewhere near 25+ years.  We have all been friends since early grade school, they were all bridesmaids in my wedding and we try to get together once a year.  It’s hard and doesn’t always work – but we make a serious effort.  Friends like these gals don’t come along in every lifetime, so we work hard to stay connected.  Well, it was the 4 of us, Bridget’s husband (who was on call most of the weekend), and our 7 children under the age of 6 all living in the same house for 4 days. I know that sounds nuts, but it was amazing!  The kids had a blast playing together while we enjoyed cocktails and chatting.  It was the best.  I don’t even have adequate words for how good it felt to have us all together (minus Syd – we missed you!!)  It just felt like home in so many ways that I needed so much at the time.  Those ladies each carry a large chunk of my heart with them and I just feel so much more

whole when we are together.  We even got to spend a piece of Mother’s Day together, along with Rachel & Bridget’s parents and Kristen’s parents, who have all been adoptive parents to me for so many years.  It was all the things and I felt all the feels. 

From there, we moved on to my Dad’s family in Mechanicville – just a short drive away.  I am fortunate enough to have SO many people I love in such a small amount of space and am able to see a good number of them in a small window of time.  Originally I was going to spend more time here, but because of a shift in my timeline meeting up with Ryan, I only got one night.  But, I was happy to have at least that and got to see my Aunt Meg, Uncle Tony, Uncle Billy, & Aunt Cheryl for a short but sweet overnight visit. 

Memories of polishing silver and doing pulls

The next day, we pressed on westward, heading back to St. Louis at a much slower pace than we came, making an overnight pitstop in Ithaca, my alma mater.  I haven’t been back in 10 years and have been missing it so much, I couldn’t resist.  I was able to reconnect with a few of my all-time favorite professors as well as a couple of good friends I just don’t get to connect with enough.  It felt good to wander around the streets of Ithaca, stop in at Wegman’s, stroll around the campus at Ithaca College and feel all the feels I haven’t felt in a while.  I really love that place – it holds a lot of memories for me. It will always be one of my favorite places because it’s where I began shaping my life and where I achieved so many successes, both academically and personally.  I found so much of myself in my writing and my work there, but also found the resiliency I needed to know I could really tackle anything out on my own.  It felt good to breathe that air again and remind myself of those things – values I would definitely need in the coming months. 

On our way out of Ithaca, we stopped for lunch in Rochester, NY with another favorite, Emily.  It was such a treat to spend a few stolen hours with her, gabbing about everything we could gush in a few hour’s time, while also eating as much dessert as possible.  I think we succeeded!  We continued on, with Cleveland as our destination for the night.  You are probably wondering how the kiddos were doing with all of this driving and stopping – I have to say, they did a great job.  I really stuck to my schedule, stopping at similar times of the day, making the most out of quiet, sleepy times and getting to where we needed to be in a timely manner.  Kiddo was a huge help in the backseat, keeping Little Boy entertained when it seemed like he was getting antsy.  And snacks.  Lots and lots of snacks.  That is the key to road trip survival. 

They're both out!  Yes!

I know this post is a long one, but bear with me for a hilarious aside.  During our drive to Rochester, the kiddos both fell asleep.  It was mid-morning, so this was a norm for Little Boy, but I was surprised by Kiddo's cat nap.  Anyway, trying to keep myself entertained in the front seat, I turned on Pandora.  I was singing along, when Adele's "Hello" came on.  I almost skipped it, because I needed something a little more peppy, but something made me leave it on.  Now, bear in mind, Kiddo is out cold in the backseat.  I was humming along with the first verse, taking in the beauty of central NY when the chorus began.  All of a sudden, from the backseat, eyes still closed and mostly asleep, came the sound of Kiddo's voice, belting out those plaintive lyrics at the top of her little lungs - right on key.  I almost swerved off the road, because it both startled and shocked me with the hilarity of it.  She snapped her head up from where it was resting, just long enough to sing out the full chorus, then laid back down - almost as if she were a little robot who only wakes up at the sound of the words "Hello from the other side."  I tried to video it for the next chorus (which she snapped back up to sing, still asleep), but turning the video on turned the Pandora off.  So, I cursed under my breath and turned the song back on, devastated that I had missed out on this highly YouTube-able moment.  I laughed for about 10 miles about that.  She laid her head back down and slept for another 45 minutes. 

We made a quiet overnight pit stop in Cleveland, had some breakfast and got on the road early.  This day, our goal was Chicago, where Ryan’s Aunt Suz, Uncle Bernie, and cousins Nick and Morgan live.  I was really excited about this stop as well.  This was a late development in the plan.  You see, while the kids and I had been traipsing around New York, Ryan had done his 10-day training and then flew back to Monterey for a couple of days to wrap things up, check out and pick up our government passports and visas.  Unfortunately, those hadn’t arrived yet.  So, at first, Ryan thought he was going to be stuck there until they arrived – a timeline which was not foretold.  Eventually, though, he was able to get out of there and, instead of flying back to STL, he found a much cheaper flight into Chicago, where he could meet up with me, visit his family and then we could drive back together – Bonus!

Swimming with Aunt Suz!

The kids and I made it to Chicago on Thursday afternoon.  Ryan wasn’t able to meet up with us until Saturday morning, so that gave the kids and me a much needed opportunity to rest, take a break from the road, and relax with family.  We got some deep dish pizza from Giordano’s, kicked our heels up and enjoyed the view from the 40th floor.  Suz is ever the exceptional hostess and coordinated with her friend Sarah, a few floors below, to hook us up with some kiddo essentials.  Then, while we were there, Sarah invited us down to pick out some toys and princess dresses from her amazing stash – Kiddo was over the moon.  She became immediate besties with Miss Sarah, as well as her granddaughters with whom we had a swim and tea party date the next day.  It was fabulous!  We drank some wine, the girls had a tea party, everyone had a smashing good time.  Then, Saturday morning, Ryan flew in just in time for breakfast.  Kiddo was already downstairs playing with her new friends and preparing for her first ever nail salon experience.  Eventually we had to pack up, though, and head on our merry way back to St. Louis.  It was hard to pry Kiddo away – but we managed it once she realized we were headed back to see Grandma Jan. 

I tell you what, it is always the last leg of any road trip that is the worst.  Not that the drive was bad or exceptional in any way – just that we were all so ready to be there and no matter how long the drive – 1 hour or 5 – it always feels like 10 days.  We made it, though.  Just in time for some St. Louis style pizza from Imo’s and a nice, long, restful sleep with the promise of no road travel for at least a little while. 

Phew!  I’m tired just writing about that road trip!  It was quite a haul, but I am so grateful we were able to do it and see as many people as we did.  People – family and friends – are so important to us.  Ryan and I have been so blessed to have met so many wonderful people in our travels and military stations, people who have changed our lives and become some of our closest friends.  But, we are also blessed with a wonderful and widespread family that we love so dearly.  There is never enough time to spend with each person and I am always so sad when the visit ends – as it must.  This particular trip was a whirlwind, for sure.  But there was so much love and laughter swirling around us, that I barely noticed the speed at which we were spinning.  I’m sorry if you are reading this and we didn’t get very much time, or even any, to spend with you.  It wasn’t for lack of trying – I promise!  If you can believe it, there were people and places I still wanted to fit in during this trip, but just ran out of time and space.  Alas, we still have much more travel to come.  So, until next time!

Are You Ready For This? Part 2

So, to pick up where we left off, moving overseas with the military sounds like a fun and exciting endeavor, but it has its demons too.  As described in the previous post, there were a lot of hoops that Ryan and I had to jump through in order to prepare for our move to Sri Lanka.  On top of all of these hoops, there is also the deed of organizing, separating and packing a house for this kind of move. 

When you move with the military, you have the benefit of a team of people who come in to pack up all of your stuff for you, which, to me, eliminates the worst part of the moving process.  Going through each room, wrapping and packing all of the millions of knick knacks, toys, dishes, kitchen appliances, etc is such a pain in the neck.  Especially when you have littles that want to unpack and investigate everything you are working on.  And then there are the junk drawers.  Oh, those terrible, no good, very bad junk drawers.  The bane of anyone’s existence during a move.  That’s the box you never want to open, because it was the last drawer you packed when you lost all your packing mojo, surrendered all cares and just up ended the damn thing, dumping it straight into a box with no ceremony or sorting permitted.  We’ve all done it.  And then had to live with the repercussions on the other end, having to sort through the random tiny pieces of whatever ended up in that box.  So, Junk drawers: good idea in theory, terrible reality during the moving process.

ANYway, having people come in and pack up your stuff is pretty awesome.  But, when you rely on this service, you have to know one thing: there is no such thing as a free lunch.  If you want to make sure that things end up in boxes with other things that make sense together, you need to do the work and organize so that your life on the other end of the move isn’t a complete circus.  Movers and packers give literally zero f*%&s about what stuff is in what room and where you want it to go.  They move like Hoover vacuum robots, rolling through and grabbing, wrapping and boxing without any thought toward organization.  Their job is to just get it done, not worry about what goes in what box. 

When we lived in Pensacola, for instance, we had our first experience with a moving team.  We went through our house the day before and put all of the stuff we were keeping with us in our bedroom and shut the door.  We thought this was a sensible system and, in many ways, it was.  That is, until the guys came in and started packing right inside the front door instead of the back of the house, where I expected them to start.  I organized from the back to the front, thinking I would have time to finish working on things in the front while they packed up the back.  I walked in the front door to find the guys mindlessly packing up things I hadn't separated yet, like papers and forms we had strewn about the dining room table still needing submission before we moved. They were also in the midst of packing the shoes from our door mat, including Ryan’s work boots, lined up inside the front door waiting for their next use.  I mistakenly assumed they would look at things as they packed them, considering, like I would, whether or not it should go in a box.  Obviously, that's not their job, nor should it be.  That was MY job before they arrived and, unfortunately, there was no tutorial on how to prepare for a move of this nature.  I had to rapidly reconfigure what I thought I knew about these movers as I started ripping items out of the boxes they were innocently packing while simultaneously scanning the room for other items I hadn’t thought to separate out – like my students’ work that I was in the middle of grading and dishes from breakfast that were still out and unclean.  All of these things would have been mindlessly packed if I hadn’t noticed them, all because I didn’t know better and it isn’t the job of the packers to know what stays out and what goes in.  They just wrap and pack; wrap and pack; wrap and pack; repeat.

So, take that need to organize, and multiply it by 4, because that is how many sets of movers we had coming to our house over the course of a week or so.  Oh yeah, and they wanted our stuff separated 3 WEEKS ahead of time for their walk through, so that they could get an idea of how many boxes to bring for each set of movers.  I don’t know about you, but :

A) I don’t have 3 extra rooms in my house in which to store items so that my kids don’t tear everything I organize to shreds

and

B) I certainly can’t be separating things into separate rooms 3 weeks ahead of time when I need all of these things to continue living my life. 

Who has time, space and patience for this request?  Not me.  Needless to say, when they came to walk through our house, we did not have anything separated.  The best I could do was make a detailed list of everything that was going to be included in each pack up so that they could guesstimate their boxes and supplies.  The guy seemed mildly irritated, but I have trouble believing that he often comes across families that are able to meet these requests.  I have to imagine, more often than not, that people are as (un)prepared as we were for this inspection and, given that, maybe they should change the format/expectation.  Just saying.

So, our move was set up like this: 8 days before we were set to leave Monterey, the first set of movers arrived to pack up everything that was going into storage for the duration of our move overseas.  My sorting and organizing game has come a long way since Pensacola, so, I was able to empty and section off rooms a day or so ahead of time to store everything that was coming with us.  This helped a lot.  It also helped that my mother-in-law was visiting for the duration of this process to keep the kids occupied and out of the house while I took apart furniture, continued to organize around the packers and monitored what was being wrapped and packed.  You definitely get more adept at all of these things the more moves you do, that’s for sure.  These movers started on Wednesday, finished on Friday and took about 75% of everything we own.  We were not bringing any furniture or major items with us, so they really cleared out a lot of space, making it much easier for us to take the weekend to separate the other 3 shipments into clear piles. 

Oh yes, and I might add that I lost my wingman on Thursday for the entire weekend.  He flew to Philly for the funeral of one of our close friends killed in the Marine helicopter crash in Hawaii a few months prior.  Obviously I did not begrudge him this trip at all; I was actually devastated I couldn’t go along, however, this did leave me to sort the rest of our things and begin cleaning the house without him.  This was the same night as the cats' lost flight reservation, if you recall from the previous post.  So, yes.  I did stop at In-N-Out for a milkshake at midnight on my way home from the airport fiasco, because I deserved the damn thing.   And yes.  It was delicious.

Strawberry/Vanilla - Hello, Beautiful.

This brings us to Monday before departing Monterey, the next set of movers arrived to pack up the other 3 shipments: Express (a small shipment of essentials, scheduled to arrive 30 days post pack-up); Household Goods (a larger shipment, usually containing any large items, scheduled to arrive 45-60 days post pack-up); and Consumables (all of the food/house related items we bought at Costco prior to leaving, also scheduled to arrive 45-60 days post pack-up).  This was all completed in just one day, instead of the 2 that were scheduled.  Since it was all being done by the same guys (different from our storage packers) and the amounts were relatively small, they were able to knock it all out in one day like the champions they were.  This gave me one whole extra day to clean!  Which, as you may know, you need all the hours, minutes, and seconds you can get – so, woot!

All was going according to plan and, despite our extreme exhaustion towards the end of this process, we were really lining up to finish on time.  We officially moved into the hotel at NPS on Monday night after having spent the weekend sleeping on cots in our almost empty house.  There was nothing left but packing the bags that would travel with us on the airplane and cleaning the house.  That was, until I woke up in a cold sweat, early on Wednesday morning, realizing I had no idea where our passports were.  Strike that, I knew where they had been and I knew that I didn’t remember seeing them in that spot before I left the house late Tuesday night after having gone back to spend a few extra hours cleaning walls, baseboards and floors. 

T-minus 28 hours before we were scheduled to drive out of Monterey for good, we raced over to the house and tore the place apart.  But as we searched, I just knew.  I had that sick, knowing feeling in my gut.  That feeling you get when you continue to look for something even though you know it isn’t there.  When you know you have a good idea exactly where it is instead.  And yes friends, it was true.  Our passports had been accidentally packed up and boxed by our movers.  Of course!  We called them immediately and, fortunately, they had not shipped our containers yet.  Unfortunately, though, Ryan had to miss his graduation in order to drive up to the facility, where he and another guy started pulling open crates and cutting open boxes looking for the black and white file folio that housed our passports, birth certificates, social security cards and immunization records.  We still have no idea how it got from the safe place I set it and the pile of clothes in which it was found, but I have a feeling it was a combination of little hands and gravity.  Just a notion.

Needless to say, we got them back and, by some miracle, Ryan only had to open 3 or 4 boxes to find them.  They could have been in any one of about 100 boxes, but he managed to find them in a box he almost didn’t open because it was labeled "clothing."  Thank goodness for small miracles.  He made it back just in time for our walk through with the property management company, while I was still clearing out the fridge and keeping the kiddos handprints off the windows and fingers out of our packed bags.  I was really wishing for a clone right about then.  Which reminds me, thank God for Grandma Jan.  Did I say that yet?  Because I should have.  At least a dozen times by now.  She really saved our tails helping, not only with the kiddos, but with the cleaning and readying of our house as well.  We had driven her to the airport the night before this whole passport searching/refrigerator clearing/property management walk through chaos went down.  I was missing her so much in that moment.  She’s a saint, that one.

Oh, and speaking of saints, let me also mention, in the same breath, our friends the Attigs, without whom we might never have made it out on time.  The Attigs, who we lovingly refer to as "The Jesse's," (due to the fact that they share the same first name), have been friends of ours for many years.  We met them at the beginning of our Marine Corps life and became close friends during our time in Pensacola.  They were coincidentally stationed in Monterey as well, arriving about a year after we did, allowing us to reconnect after living on opposite sides of the country for 6 years.  In our last few days they, as always, jumped right in to help us out.  They cooked us dinner after we moved into the hotel to save us a night out and took a lot of pantry and fridge items off our hands that we weren't able to donate.  Then, in an 11th hour save, Big Jesse arrived about 20 minutes before our walkthrough with property management and picked up a suburban's worth of trash, recyclables and extra items to take to the dump.  Because Ryan had to take our car an hour north to retrieve our passports, we weren't able to do a final dump run.  Jesse swooped in and saved us - I definitely owe them a 5 course home cooked meal when we meet up again.  You can bet on it!

8 checked bags, 5 carry-ons & 2 kids

I will fast forward through all of the other cleaning, walking through and driving away bits.  Just know it was a tornado of throwing things away, last minute scrubbing and shoving random items into random pockets of suitcases on our way to the airport that day.  Somehow we made it out of Monterey exactly at the time we wanted to and then had to drive 2 hours north to San Francisco airport to fly back to St. Louis for the next phase of this crazy journey.  On our way to the airport, Ryan and I both commented on how normal it seemed to be making that drive, even though it was anything but that.  It was our last drive out of Monterey as a family and our final farewell to this place that we had come to love so very much.  It felt so normal because we had done that airport drive so many times before, but that kind of robbed us of that notion of finality you often get when you drive away from a place for the last time.  I’m kind of glad for that, though.  I have a lot of trouble with goodbyes and I didn’t want my farewell to Monterey to be a blubbering, tear stained mess like all my other goodbyes.  We found so much beauty and adventure during our fantastic life there for almost 3 whole years.  We were #blessed to have so much time in such a wonderful place and, since Griffin was born there, it will always be so close to my heart.  It was a shame that we had to leave in a flurry of chaotic madness, but, honestly, I’m glad I didn’t have too much time to dwell on it.  Monterey and I have an understanding – that wasn’t goodbye forever, it was simply so long, until we meet again.  Because, by golly, we will.