Tick Tock

Time is ticking! Since my last post...things have been quite busy! Craig came home 2 weeks ago and we have worked nonstop.

Medical: On the morning he arrived, I was downtown getting my first round of shots and my exam. The kids have been to TX Children's Travel Clinic twice in the past 2 weeks for their shots and they have one more round on the 15th. I had my second round last week and will finish up on Wednesday. NO MORE SHOTS...yay! I did receive 7 prescriptions that I dropped off today. They lady at the counter looked at me funny and said "Mam, you're going to have to come back in a few days. We don't keep thousands of Malaria pills on hand". Yes, I said...thousand! The 5 of us have to take Malarone E-V-E-R-Y-D-A-Y. And Sam has 2 pills a day! S0...365*6=.....you get my point :-) I can only imagine what that is going to cost. Craig said that his last prescription of 50 was $300! My goodness! Malaria prevention can be costly! So...I think we are squared away on medical!

House: Headache! We are selling our house so that involves several components. Last week 2 Realtors came out to give us an estimate. We have to use Realtors that Chevron has assigned. From there we get to chose the one we want to sell the house. The 2 separate companies have to be within 5% of each other or a 3rd company has to come out. Naturally, because nothing in my life is "simple", the quotes were NOT within the 5% so I get to host another realtor this week :-). Once we choose, the house goes on the market and after 3 months it will go into a forced sell. Don't really understand all that but the bottom line is...after 3 months I won't have a house note!

Packing: WHEW! The moving company came last week for a pre assessment of their job. They went room to room and asked what was going where. We have 3 options: Sea, Store, Leave. So as of right now, they will arrive on August 5th and do it all. They box everything and put it on the right truck. They will be with us for several days until everything is gone. We have decided to take about 1/3 of our things and store another 1/3. The final 1/3 will go to family or Goodwill! Our house in Luanda is fully furnished so we will use many of the things that are already there. The reason being, it takes SIX MONTHS to receive our shipment. There are limited ports in Luanda and it is growing so quickly that it simply takes time to go thru customs and so forth. The same is true on the return shipment. When we arrive back in the US, we will not have our things for at least 6 months. We are able to ship 8,000 pounds and I WILL have 8,000 pounds on that ship!! Unfortunately...NO food is allowed :-(.

Here is my problem....I have to survive 6 months before my shipment. So if I need something between now and January...it is going on the plane with us. Well, for those of you not familiar with Luanda, Angola...Google it :-). There is not much there! Yes, they do have things but I'm just not exactly sure what and how expensive things are. I've probably embarrassed myself but I've left no stone unturned! I've already done my Christmas shopping, I planned a Thanksgiving dinner with stuffing and pumpkin pie, my kids have Halloween candy and costumes and last but not least I have Sam's Birthday party invitations, decorations, goody bags and jumbo cupcake pans with frosting and cake mix! JUST in case! I've done the same for the boys but their stuff will make it in time on the ship! I also have Valentine cards and Easter egg die! JUST in case! I don't want my kids to miss out on anything!

On our first trip over, Chevron is nice enough (HA! As if they aren't all the time) to send our family "Business Class"....boy do I feel sorry for the other fellow Business Class folks on that flight! Anyway, with a Business Class ticket you can check 3 bags each. PLUS Chevron is giving us an additional $2500 to pay for excess baggage. As of right now we are hopping that plane with TWENTY-FIVE pieces of luggage...NO I'm not kidding. And each one will weigh 70 pounds....NO I'm not kidding. I will post pics! My media room upstairs has been converted into a wal-mart dumping ground. Literally, the room has 25 boxes that each represent a piece of luggage. I have it sorted and arranged by category and will continue to fill up every last one of them before we fly! We found some great bags at LLBean but they got expensive so we also got some crates to use. We will also have a few ice chests to take meat and cheese. CRAZY!! That's packing!

Look See: My first trip to Angola will take place on July 17th. I am flying over to see the house, school, stores and culture. Chevron will play host to several dinners and meetings where I am the guest of honor. I'm really looking forward to that and so is Craig. He is anxious to show me what his life has been like for the past year. From there we decided to take a little detour (and to celebrate our Anniversary and new chapter of our life) to Portugal. There is a direct flight from Angola so that is why we chose Lisbon. We will spend 5 days there before returning home to finish packing. It is going to be an overwhelming 6 weeks but as always...I look forward to the challenge!

Stay tuned :-)

What's for Dinner?

Yesterday I spent the better part of the day trying to decide what to cook for dinner. Today it has been:

yellow fever
tetanus
malaria
hepatitis A and B
pre-assignment trip agenda
passport photos for Visa
appointment with expat counselor
KMPG
school records
shot records
renew drivers license
Dr. Cooper
Dr. Anderson
Health Department
police department/background check


Just to name a few..................

God is Good

We have been waiting for this day for months now and it has finally arrived!!

Here is a recap of my evening:
I was sitting at the table talking to the kids while they ate dinner and at precisely 6:58 PM the phone rang. It was Craig calling to tell me that he woke up to go to the bathroom (It's nearly 1am there) and while he was up he checked his email and received his official offer.

HOLY COW! This is it. There is absolutely no turning back now, It's officially official!

He forwarded me the offer and I anxiously printed off the 20 page document so that I could go over it with a fine tooth comb tonight. After glancing over it, I probably understand 1/10 of what it says :-)

So, as I predicted...the stress has arrived. I've literally got a million and one things to do. He plans to schedule my preassignment trip tomorrow when he gets to the office. That will take place mid-July. Once that is complete, it is pack and move time!

The kids were thrilled to hear the news and they each took turns congratulating their daddy. He is very excited and can't wait to have us over there. It will be a very memorable experience for the entire family. It will give us opportunities and adventures that we would never have thought possible. I feel safe and at the moment I have no concerns whatsoever. Craig has spent the majority of the past year there and has felt 100% secure the entire time. He really enjoys it. The only person that might have trouble is me. I'm leaving behind my career and lots of wonderful friends and a family that I am very close to. It's emotional for me but on the flip side, I get to be a full time mom! That's exciting. I get to be there when the kids walk in the door from school. The laundry will be done, the dishes clean, dinner made. I won't have to take time away from them to do those things anymore....and to me, that is going to be the greatest reward. Maybe I'll run for PTA president....