We’ve made more progress this week, and I’m surprised to say that it feels super-exciting (at least to me) rather than overwhelming. These days, there aren’t that many moments that give me that fluttery feeling…like back in high school (or until I was in my early 30’s) when I sat by the phone wondering if *HE* would call. There have been big moments over the years like an engagement, wedding, house closing, children’s births, and job changes, but really – when was the last time you felt butterflies (when it wasn’t an annoying symptom of perimenopause)? The exciting moments are still nice, but now the flutters are due to the release of the new season of Orange is the New Black, reaching 20,000 steps in one day on my Fitbit, or gluing the last photo onto the Research Fair posterboard. It’s just not the same.
But during our preparations to move, the moments of anticipation and excitement have been frequent. There have been ups and downs. Suddenly there are things to wish for and a lot of finger-crossing. There has even been some praying. Each day I’m accomplishing things, whether it’s matching the two laundry baskets of socks or ordering a year’s worth of hair color or finding the answer to a question that takes us one step closer to departure.
The biggest accomplishment of the week – Ben had his cataract surgery on Thursday. He has been putting it off for months but time is running out, so it’s finally done. It took about 25 minutes, they vacuumed out some stuff, put in a new lens, and he went from legally blind to 20-20 vision at long distance. He still needs glasses for reading, or longer arms. In 24 hours the bandage was off and he was back in business. It’s a big relief to check that off the list.- Another big deal was buying the plane tickets. ONE-WAY plane tickets – eek! I had to book them with an AeroMexico agent over the phone because of the pets – their phones went down during the call and the reservation had to be wiped “for security purposes” so we had to start again when the phones came back up. Hopefully their planes work better than their phones. We have a direct flight from Boston to Mexico City on Thursday, July 30th. It’s an afternoon flight which is great on this end but means that we won’t arrive in SMA until the wee hours. Oh well…we’ll be running on adrenaline. I paid for extra luggage so we will have 122 pounds of crap each, plus the dog and cat ($80 each).
- I also booked the van to take us from Mexico City to San Miguel. It’s a 3-4 hour trip and it’s $250 which I don’t think is too bad considering the amount of people, animals, and stuff we’ll be transporting. I read online that Immigration only processes animals at certain times of the day, but I checked with the agency that does it at the Mexico City airport and they said they’re there 24 hours, so that’s a load off. You can’t believe everything you read on the internet, apparently. I also started the pet paperwork with the vet, and took Wally and Annie in today for a couple of shots and international microchips.
The head honcho from the Mexican Consulate called me this week to say that she had been thinking about us and wondering whether we would need anything in particular so the kids could go to school in Mexico or so they could get credit for their Mexican schooling once they return. I don’t think they need anything to go to school in Mexico other than pesos, but I got their records from their current schools and am waiting to hear if there is anything else we need to do. I’m so touched that she took the time to call me, although I’ll admit I had the bad kind of flutters when I saw her number on my phone.- Speaking of school, we got through the last week of school, 5th-grade graduation and the after-party, Aliya’s presentation about why she is ready for 8th grade, volunteering at 8th-grade graduation (photo right), report cards, etc. Yesterday was not an easy day for the girls…it was tough to say goodbye to some of their friends. But between Skype, Facetime, and all of the social media sites they’ll be able to stay in touch and know who likes who, who wore what when, and who went where and ate what, even from afar.
We’re off to Maine for the weekend to celebrate my niece’s birthday! The kids are insisting on sleeping in the tent, so keep me and my lumbar region in your thoughts and prayers!
P.S. The last-day-of-school photos weren’t going well…
This is the photo from when I flashed them in retaliation…
AAAAAAAAAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!
Last walk to school via Cushing Park!
