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What I am really hoping is my good bye translation is correct. Wow, I can't believe the day is here. Leaving our home and community. I hope M - finds what it is he is looking for. Yesterday the girls said good-bye to their house and tortoise. We left our house in really good hands and I am at peace knowing that a good family will be enjoying the safety and love of our home.

I am going to miss me mum terribly. I cannot put into words how much she means to our family. Watching her with our little girls is an awesome sight. The run her round and keep her young.

So, movers came on Monday and packed us out completely. M and I were working one room ahead of them and hoping to keep up. We purged a lot of things for M and me. After that we just kept getting the place ready for our friends to move in. I took a day to enjoy a spa package that M & the girls bought me for my birthday.

Friday, I kept being "called" to go to our house. No reason, just felt I needed to be there at 8:00. Thank goodness as the movers were just unpacking their moving things to get started on hauling all of our things out of the house.

They were done by 3:00, M & I had so many other things to do we took turns watching the movers and running errands. By the end of the day we both wanted to just cry. But the house was empty and the cleaning continued.

Packing began in earnest Saturday night. We have too many suitecases and they are all too big! M is a packing machine. We finally finished at around 12:00am. Mostly because I couldn't take it anymore and was ready to just leave everything except for a package of underwear and a light jacket.

We will leave this morning not too early which is nice and will eat breakfast in Seattle.

I hope to post at both of our stops.

Movers here today. All household goods have been packed and put on the truck heading for Ukraine! Later in the week they will come back for our household goods to be stored. Everything is in boxes. We will stay and my mom & dad's until we leave.

We are still waiting on our visa's hope that all works out because without the visa's we aren't going anywhere.

Going to lunch tomorrow at the Deli with my friend S.T.

Night.

M

Still Packing

Oh, God make it end! We have finally finished typing up all the books that we are going to take. We have weeded out what we think we absolutely don't need. The movers start to pack us out tomorrow.

E & N were here today helping with the typing and making adjustments to N's things that she will be bringing. I am excited for her and hope that she won't be disappointed in joining us. I hoping to make a couple of trips for all of us in the first month or at least right after we find a place and get settled in.

Rose & I are going to practice our Russian now.

Night

Books

According to my sources you must have all book titles, authors, and publishers typed up and in your packed goods to Ukraine. I have presently141 titles with about a couple million to go. Well maybe not a couple of million but it sure seems that way. I have a stack for N and my stack for teaching support. I have to put the rest of the books in storeage.

M has been busy working on plumbing issues in the house and is doing an awesome job. Z went to play at a friends house and boy are we thankful. C napped and we still squeezed in some time for father's day.

I have most of our stuff in the staging room and will figure out what the movers want use to do with Ukraine vs. Storeage stuff.

I am tired so Nite!

M

Saying Good-Bye

Who says saying good bye has to be painful. We said good-bye to our wonderful family night friends. What fun. I need to get the game things before we leave so we can share it with new friends in Ukraine. Although I am not sure GTG's body parts will show up in that game.

After a hilarious round we decided to try our hand out Scattagories(sp?) and well it was ugly. After that we traded stories and memories. We were all laughing so hard we began calling those who were with us.

Much fun and singing was the highlight of the night when we broke out the Karoke(sp?) machine. My fave of the night was M and T singing Cherry Pie! M even took down his hair and jammed out. O.K. I took down his hair and was a great sport! That is why I love him. He completes me, no he tolerates me.

Thanks to our couples and we look forward to our first night together when we return. And yes Virginia, Whipped Cream Vodka is the bomb!

Schools OUT

Well school is finally out. Both for teaching and graduate school. I had my last class on Wednesday and was surprised at how well I had done on an assignment I had turned in. Felt like it could have been better, but I have been a bit busy!

I turn in my keys tomorrow and feel very emotional about that! I know it is only a job, but it was something I was good at. I know your thinking, get a life, but for 7 years teaching has been my life. I cannot wait to start focusing on my own children and their lives. Both girls have been so much fun this past couple of days that I have been home. Of course, mommy has been crazy busy and now things are starting to focus more on the move and protecting the girls from what we are heading out to.

We met with M's new boss and the assistant to the project. They both seem very sweet. I think they think we are a little nuts, but they want to make sure our transition is as smooth as possible. I like that because it makes me feel like someone is looking out for us. The last time I was overseas, the Army put me on a plan and basically said look for someone who looks like you and they will drive you to the base. I was only 18 and had barely been outta Kansas. So this is feeling way more in control even though there is a lot outta of my control

Just go our tickets today and N's. I am so excited that she is coming with us and hope that she doesn't regret coming. I really do want her to have an amazing (but not too amazing) time in the Ukraine. I hope to get her around to see a ton of things. I am going to miss her mum a ton. I can't believe how much they have become a part of our family. O.K., enuf mushy, E is gonna kill me for being all sentimental.

Next - movers are coming. I know M won't read this so I can report that we bought him a watch that keeps time in two places and his Yaktracks. Actually I bought Yaktracks for everyone. Then we purchased a couple of small portable transformers for the electronics that we will bring. I also purchased some plug converters for those things we won't need a transformer for but don't have the right plug tips.

I also must finish typing up the books we are taking. I also need to finish the homeschooling information.

For those of you who are friends and family, I am trying to remember not to put our names in the blog or too much identifying information as we are going out of country and I want to share the experience but also want to keep the family safe. So any comments on the posts try and keep them on the D.L. Thanks

Cheers to you all

Nite

SHOTS

Ouch! What a day. Good news only two of us needed shots the eldest didn't need anything except the typhoid. They now come in pill form.

I have made appointments for Monday to get TB tested.

We are all getting pretty excited and spend more time thinking about what we want to take with us. I am of the mind that if it can't go in a suitcase do I really need it. If we can't buy it in Ukraine did any of us really need it?

I am really about the experience of living in Ukraine as one of its citizens. I am do not want to go and become an American living like an American in the Ukraine. Although having a dishwasher and washer and drier are nice to have. Maybe they will make me appreciate what we have or use less clothing. I mean seriously, I could probably go a month without doing laundry. Is that necessary. Simplifying our lives, I can't imagine since I just bought a new laptop to stay in contact with the outside world. It will be interesting this little cultural experiment we are embarking on.

So, in 18 days life will be slowing down a ton for us. I mean literally the world will turn whole lot slower for our family.

Medical

Today, Michael had a series of shots for the trip. He found my old shot records from the military and his in our files. What a miracle we were able to find these things. The only record we don't have is the eldest, just need to call the Dr.'s office to get a copy of the eldest's, so not too bad.

However, I still have to go the appointment by myself with both girls. That ought to be fun!

Finished my annual today and will go in for the old lady mammogram. My advice to anyone reading this, don't get old!

Tomorrow I have class and a major assignment due. I haven't looked to see if I have a reading to do either but if I do, I am screwed.

I will get the girl's haircuts Thursday and will be having lunch with the American team that will be "taking care" of us while in Ukraine.

On a personal note, I am very happy to have school be over!

Schooling

O.K., Just sent an e-mail out to the school district to find out what materials they will supply for home schooling. Another thing to remember is you are going overseas with kids is their education. You don't want to plunk them down in a classroom when they return with just the "experience" of living overseas. They need to stay with or above their peers.

I let you know how that worked out. I also need to call and cancel the crappy newspaper for our town.

Getting Ready

So my family and I are still in the United States and are preparing ourselves to travel and live in Slavutych‎ Chernihivs'ka oblast, Ukraine.

What does one do when they are preparing for a trip aboard and living in a land where you don't know the language. I don't really know. You take the essentials and if you have two young girls like myself you take the necessary items they will need to make life easier for them and to begin educating them at home.

The first problem I have encountered is finding out information about this former Soviet town. I have been so trained as a westerner to believe that every town and country has Realtors and they would have a website with all the available properties and schools. No, not true. Even though this town was developed in 1987 there is nothing known about it on the world wide web except its very limited history.

So what is your plan you may ask? The answer is simple, document our existence and share it with everyone else. Others plan to come and help with clean up so why not make information available to them.

I have a mission and time and hopefully an open enough mind to create the perfect travel log for someone moving with a family to have enough information that they feel a weebit in control.

To all my friends who may follow this adventure, being in control for me will be interesting.