Things I'm going to miss . . . .

The countdown is really on now.  We're moving out within days.  Had a decent yard sale, selling a ton of stuff and pulling in a modest sum, good enough.  At least it is less stuff I have to dispose of or donate in the next 6 days.  While getting rid of all this stuff, I had the chance to reminisce about a lot of funny memorabilia and it led me to want to start the obligatory "Things I'm going to miss" blog post.

Obviously I must begin a post like this by saying that I will miss my friends and family most of all. yada yada yada.  No surprise there.  I was a mess saying goodbye to work people on Thursday and Friday, I can only imagine that getting more and more difficult as we get closer to move day.

But, there are plenty of other things I'm going to miss too.  We'll check back in with this list in 6 months or so to see if anything still applies!

1. Trader Joe's - I don't know why, but every time I start this train of thought in my head, this is the always the first thing that pops in!

2. My Car - I'm actually pretty excited to be car less (so many less expenses and annoyances especially in a foreign country).  But, I will miss the mobility and easy independence it affords and city living will definitely be a major change from the non walk-able suburb I live in now.

3. Our house / neighborhood - We love it, it's easy, safe, quiet, everyone has lived here forever, and we're yards from an amazing park for Maia. Hence, why we are renting and not selling.

4. Familiar Comfort Food - Been celebrating a ton lately and indulging in lots of faves (mostly pizza, to be honest). For example, hit the beach today and followed it up with a Long Island Iced Tea, steamers and stuffies.  Yummy Rhody food.  I'm sure I'll find lots of amazing new foods down there, but just going to miss some old favorites (although, I am honestly really excited to completely change my diet and get healthy this year - photos to come!)

5. The Beach - What can I say, we both love a great day at the beach and all it entails - long swims, sun coma, post beach drink, etc etc.  I'm sure we will go to some amazing beaches in Ecuador, of course, but they'll be very different from RI.  
Can't wait to check them out but I'll miss these great summer days in RI:

Long Islands at Clam Jammers, Galilee Beach, RI, July 21st, 2012

Launching this blog.  We're off to Quito!!

Packing & Prepping Trials

So, packing has been incredibly hard.  What does one bring for an indefinite trip to another country?

We're only allowed to ship 450 lbs in advance and bring 2 / 50 lb bags each (plus Maia of course). So this packing process has been a struggle to say the least.  Basically we're only bringing clothes and some photos of family and friends.  

Our alloted shipment.  After spending days packing this up, I had no idea how much this weighed
until we got to UPS.  Thankfully it was only 395lbs!  We were limited to 450.  
Nice!!

Maia helping me pack.  You can feel her sense of trepidation.

"I'm not sure what's happening here, but there'd better be room for me, mom!"

Of course, touch ups needed to be done around the house.  Handy man Spence to the rescue.

Don't want to worry about this crap while we're gone.