Four weeks and counting...

So, the moving company arrives 4 weeks from tomorrow to start packing and loading those of our belongings going with us to Frankfurt, but not going with us to the various places we're going in the 6 weeks it's going to take before our belongings make it to Frankfurt. The move date is looming large and I'm going crazy, as is to be expected.

The moving company starta packing & loading on Wednesday, June 21 and expect it to take 3 days. They won't touch our bedrooms on Wednesday, but will on Thursday, so we're booked at a local hotel on Thursday & Friday nights. I plan to drive to our cottage in Upstate NY on Saturday, 6/24, which is the day that my dh flies back from Germany. (Perfect timing, huh?) I'll be taking dds #2 & 3 with me, but leaving dd #1 behind in IL for another 4 weeks.

Dh plans to spend his week in our empty house, unless it's been rented, sleeping on a bed he hopes to borrow from someone. He figures as long as I leave him a towel or two, he'll be happier in his own house & bathroom than in a hotel. I don't think dd#1 will be impressed with this set up, but she'll move in w/her best friend the following weekend, before dh returns to Germany.

Meanwhile, I have the window washers coming next week. The exterior painters will be power-washing the garage near the end of next week and begin painting it, and touching up the house, by June 5. The interior painter is coming the week of June 5 and expects to be here the whole week.

DD#1 & I are flying to Minneapolis after she finishes finals at her high school here on Monday, June 5. She'll take the five placement tests required by our Frankfurt school on Tuesday & Wednesday, 6/6 & 6/7 and we'll fly back to IL on Wednesday evening.

The handyman still has a few minor things to fix, as well as figuring out how to stop the leak in the upstairs shower. It'll be fairly important to a renter not to have water pouring through the ceiling onto the toilet in the master bathroom, but we haven't made any progress on fixing the leak yet.

We have 16 more softball games that I know of, pretty much evenly divided between dds #2 & 3. The girls friends are planning various events and good-bye parties, although I don't know the dates of everything as of yet. My friends are having a block party for us here on our block on Friday, 6/16, since that will be the last night dh & I will both be in IL for months, or maybe years, to come.

Dh leaves for Germany this Saturday, our anniversary is Sunday and he'll be back next Saturday. He'll be home then until June 17 and be in Germany again until June 24. His new passport hasn't been returned yet, but we paid to have it expressed, so it should be here w/in the next couple of days - we hope! Once it arrives, I have to make about 8 copies of it for all the places that need one. Same whenever mine arrives, which was not expedited and should arrive in the next 2-3 weeks.

We have 8 more dentist, doctor, ortho and hair appointments on the schedule, as of right now. Plus, I need to get copies of everyone's files. The pediatrician has them ready, but I haven't picked them up yet. I'm still waiting for confirmation from our insurance company of our clean auto insurance records. I did get our drivers license records from DMV and one of dd#1's letters of recommendation from teachers here for her college applications in about a year and a half. I also still have to get copies of our birth certificates, a US IKEA catalog (so I can compare it to the German one), and a letter from someone in the IL tax dept that we don't currently receive Kindergeld (payment just for having children) so that we can get it when we move to Frankfurt. And I'm waiting for the number of our new P.O. Box in NY so I can start sending out change of address info. w/our bills.

Last, but not least, I need to close my business bank account, transfer several Girl Scout accounts, close the girls savings accounts (since they can't access them from Frankfurt) and open a new checking account to use as our main US checking account with a bank that has branches in Frankfurt, then open the girls savings accounts in NY and then open a German checking account with the same bank when we're in Frankfurt. Dh will be opening our passbook security deposit account in Germany next week so that he can hand over the passbook to our landlords, who return it to us after our lease is up, assuming they don't have to withhold any money when we move out.

The good news is, I am checking things off the list everyday. The past week, I've been stocking up on OTC and Rx meds, staple food items, tampax, pads, latex-free bandaids, and my hypo-allergenic beauty supplies. OTC meds are apparently much more expensive in Germany, as are some of the American brands of HBA supplies. This way, we have a cushion until we find an appropriate substitue. Plus, you can't have enough peanut butter, brownie mix, Crystal Light or macaroni & cheese. :) Both the German listserv I'm on and our German language teacher have been very helpful in giving me suggestions on items that we might want to bring with us.

The other good news is we have a showing on our IL house tomorrow. Hopefully this family will be interested in renting the house, so I can stop worrying so much about having to pay both our mortgage and the rent on our Frankfurt house with nothing coming in. I'll feel a lot better about it all once we find a renter.

So, as time gets tighter and life gets busier, I'm trying to keep my sense of humor and make small inroads into everything on my list every day. Even if I only pick up a few supplies we want to add to our stash, pack a box or two that's going into storage, and keep the house clean enough to show to prospective renters, I consider that a good day right now. I'm trying to help the girls get ready for the separation by making things fun for them during these ending days of school. We have 4 sleepovers planned for this weekend, although at least 2 are not at our house. I'm hoping that they will have lots of great memories from these last weeks in IL to look back on when they're feeling homesick in Frankfurt. Well, and me too, I guess.

Sweet but also sad...

We had the big Sweet 16 party this weekend and it was wonderful. We probably had 45 teenagers, plus 10 adults, and everything was great. The weather was colder than we would have liked, but it didn't rain - which was my biggest worry.

My two oldest sisters arrived Friday night for the weekend. I picked them up at the airport, we stopped at the junior high track meet and picked up my middle daughter and then met my husband and oldest daughter at a German restaurant for dinner. It was a lot of fun and everyone had a great time. Our DD#1 was very happy to have her aunts fly in from Upstate New York for her party, as we all were.

DD#1 was surprised by the Flamingos that "flocked" our front yard on Saturday morning in honor of the party - it was really cute. At least she didn't have to worry about people finding the right house. We took a group trip to the nearby nursery and stocked up on hanging baskets and some annuals in the party colors of hot pink and lime green (well, hot pink anyway) and brought home some beautiful plants for decorating. Then, DD#1 went off to a baseball game much of the day, although she had to leave early to go to the house of one of the boys who'd been invited to the party. His parents had never met us or our daughter and wouldn't let their son come to the party until they met her. Smart parents, although I was surprised they didn't want to meet us as well.

I took DD#2 and the aunts and headed to the outlet mall for a short spurt of shopping before the big event. They don't have a Chicos outlet near them, so it was a fun trip. By the time we got back home, DD#3 had a bunch of her friends over playing on the trampoline and the rented bouncy-house Twister board. After a quick surge of energy for planting the flowers (the aunts did this) and some cleanup and set up, we all took a short nap/breather in the afternoon, to get ready for the big party.

We had arranged for about 10 of DD#1's closest friends to arrive at 5 p.m. to help with the decorating and set up - streamers, balloons, etc., - and ordered 8 pizzas to feed the workers. This turned out to be a really nice time for our daughter and her best friends, since they worked and ate and still had fun. She really has a nice group of close friends - both guys and girls - and not many of them are couples, other than DD#1 and her boyfriend. He was the first to arrive, even before 5 p.m., and got right to work. He's really a nice guy and has been a great first boyfriend for our daughter. We'll all miss him and his family, who are also really nice. We've gotten to know them a bit this year, spending some time together at Thanksgiving & Easter - they even came to the party on Saturday night. Just a great family - I'm sorry we didn't get to know them sooner.

More and more kids started arriving as the hour got closer to 7 p.m. and the party kicked into high gear. We had invited a few adults, including the boyfriend's family, one of DD#1's closest girlfriend's parents, and our neighbors down the street, who have 4 kids that were all at the party. So, it was a nice evening for us as well, with my two sisters, dh & myself having adult guests and great conversation.

It was great to watch the kids go from the trampoline to the bouncy Twister board, to the ping-pong table, to the food tables, to the silly string, birthday cake, and many food tables. They are really a great group of teenagers and it made me feel proud of DD#1, happy for her and also sad. I know this is a hard move for her, leaving her school, her best friends, her boyfriend, her tennis team, and all of her friends - this just made the sadness all the more real for me. I see the good that can come from the move - for all of us, her included. I think it will be especially good for her sisters, but I do think DD#1 will have some incredible, life-enriching experiences during her 2 years in Europe. But, I also see what she's being forced to give up and I know that it's valuable, worthwhile and important, too. She's found people who love her, like her, value her, and enjoy her - people outside the family that she feels this same way about. That's precious and it's going to tear her apart to leave them, even though she'll be able to stay in touch with email and IM and phone calls, even though we've promised that she can come back and visit often. It just won't be the same and, even though we knew this, it was hard for me to see it up close and personal on Saturday night.

I know that the chance to live in another country, on another continent, to learn another language, know more about other cultures, and travel extensively is a valuable opportunity. This is a good thing and she will benefit from it. I also know that she's a happy, smart, strong, well-adjusted young woman and I couldn't be prouder of who she is. So it's also tearing me apart to have to hurt her this way, even if it will be a good thing in the long. We're betting on the fact that it will be, but seeing her with all of her friends sent some fleeting second thoughts racing through my brain. This is going to be hard.