A Blast from the Past

    Just short of 8 years ago, we signed the form you see in the photo to the left.  It is a listing of all of the boxes and items that we were putting into storage as we were leaving for our new home in Chile.  Yesterday, I signed it again and took possession of, well, our possessions.  Of course, when we first signed it, we thought we were only going to be gone a couple of years, 3 at most, and all of these priceless possessions would be very useful to us when we returned.  Had we known that we would be leaving the country for so long, I think we would have rethought the keeping of many of the things almost all of what we packed.  At the time most of the items we put in storage were only a few years old.  It just seemed much more cost effective to keep it all and not replace it all upon repatriation.  But 8 years is a long time in terms of technological advances and also in terms of your taste in furniture/decorating/clothing styles.  My advice if you are ever in the same situation:  Sell it all. Even if you think you could never part with it and you will always have a need for that 300 disc changer, sell it.  Because you can't even donate it 8 years later; no one wants it.  Lesson Learned!  Though it was a fun trip down memory lane.

Why did I think I would want the two wooden Target stools?

No one will take the tv.  Except for the dump.

I did keep the Dyson.  But didn't exactly appreciate the fact that it got packed FULL of cat hair.  The cat passed many years ago but we still had almost all of her fur it seemed.

Look what music is in the boom box.  Yes, I said boom box.

I even kept clothing.  What clothing did I still think I would need even 3 years later?  And the double-breasted corduroy jacket is what I came up with???

1st day of school - again

Finally, the girls are in school.  You would have thought it would be an easy process since it's public and the neighborhood school.  But nothing is ever that easy, is it?

We moved into our house on the 12th, which was a Friday.  First thing Monday morning, Nana, the girls and I were in the office of their new school.  I had all of the forms and documentation needed to enroll them in my hands.  Not so fast!  First, we have something called School Choice here in Broward County.  This means that even though you have a school assigned to you if you would prefer to have your children attend a different school you can apply, and if they have space at your preferred school, you are enrolled there.  It did not matter that we wanted the girls to go to their assigned elementary school, we still had to fill out the forms stating this.  But first, they needed ID #s.  Request forms turned in while standing at the front desk we had nothing left to do except wait for the email that would give us their numbers so we could fill out School Choice paperwork.

Late in the afternoon on Wednesday, we got the email with their ID #s.  Paperwork was filled out immediately but there was another snag - we had to mail them in!  Snail mail - no emailing the forms, no faxing, not even able to take them to the office - they had to arrive by USPS.  So first thing Thursday morning the paperwork went out.  And then we waited.  Again.

I finally got an email from the school district on Tuesday with the confirmation that Stinkerbell would be assigned to our neighborhood school.  But somehow MadHatters was missing.  Seems that they forgot to tell me that you had to put both kids on the paperwork, but each child still needed to send in a copy.  It is now Wednesday, and by some miracle, MadHatters paperwork came through late in the afternoon.  The girls were finally enrolled in school.  And it only took us 10 days!

No matter that it was Thursday already - they had a school - they had teachers - they were going.  I dropped them off, looking none too thrilled to be doing this again...  

I don't blame them, this is MadHatter's 4th and Stinkerbell's 3rd new school in 6 years. That's a lot of upheavals and making new friends, and they aren't even out of elementary yet.  They are just hoping we can stay awhile this time.  So am I girls, so am I.

Auf Weidersehen

The day dawned early.  Well, in reality, it had not even dawned yet.  But we were up and out of the house before the moon even had a thought of retiring for the night.  And it was just as well because if I was awake and thinking I may never have gotten on the plane.  And not because I wasn't ready to come home, because I was, but more because I would be leaving such great people behind...

Just a smattering of the fabulousness I found in Munich!

But I did not have time to dwell on any of that.  I had flights to catch, a daughter in a walking boot (more on that update later) who needed a wheelchair to get around, a cat that was very confused by what we were doing and two super sad kids that I needed to keep occupied for the next 16-18 hours.  No time for my own emotions (those would come later).

Appropriate last picture at what would now be a former home airport.

We spent hours travelling away from the new day; a new beginning.  It almost seemed like we were trying to stave off the inescapable reality that daybreak would mean that we were no longer expats, but were now repats.  And we just don't know what that life looks like anymore.  But you can only go so far, so fast and daybreak finally caught up with us somewhere over Portugal.  It was inevitable.  As was our return to "home".  I silently said a quick thank you - to whom I am not quite sure - for the adventures, friends, for the lifetime of memories. And then I settled in for the long flight back to the U.S. and all that awaited us on the other end.