micheleandtom.com

Follow up post to my previous item on the death of the dream that the girls would attend the same elementary school where Ian works.

Well, after Ian facilitated communications between us and the school, we heard from them just recently–something like a month-and-a-half later! They said that we could be on a waiting list.

We wrote back something to the effect of: “Thanks, but we’ve already moved on.”

Which, again, circles back to the “we have to do it all in person” nature of Argentina (not complaining, just observing).

The Setup: Sitting on the floor in the middle of the living room of my parents’ loft surrounded by a ring of stuff we think we want to take to Argentina.

The Challenge: Getting all of that crap into 8 checked bags. (It sounds like a lot of bags, but with a family of four…not so much. It does occur to me that we will look ridiculous at the airport with a zillion bags.)

The Bonus Round: We had weird stuff to pack besides clothes, including, but not limited to, the Lego Mindstorm robots, two large All Clad pans with lids (stock pot and large frying pan), the home pedicure kit from the Body Shop, a box with our speakers, a lot of tampons (they don’t have much brand variety, or in some cases availability in Argentina), and some large reference cookbooks.

The Winner: The Offermann/Reeves!!! Mmmmm Hmmmmm. That’s right. As of last night, we fit everything we had set out to pack in just 6 1/2 bags, and there is some extra room in 2 of those bags. “I feel like we’re not taking enough stuff now,” offered Tom.

We do have a wee bit o’ reshuffling to do, since two of our bags are a smidgen overweight (they have to be 50 pounds or less), but once I do that, I will have 6 bags, fully packed, easily under 50 pounds. Yes, that means that we will have some extra room to take Ian a few of the items that he has been requesting we bring him. I suppose that I can always hope that he doesn’t read this post…

Zoe had her peanut allergy food challenge today. (This is the last test, where they feed you peanuts and see if you have a horrible allergic reaction, to determine if you still have the food allergy in question.)

The doctor began by dipping a peanut in water and having Zoe drink the water.

Slowly, over the course of four hours, she worked up to a half a cup of peanuts. She was fine, loved the taste, and had nary a reaction.

Actually, “fine” is probably an understatement. She was deliriously happy. She came home and ate some Peanut M&Ms and then wanted to eat at an Asian restaurant for dinner (which we previously had to avoid because of their ubiquitous use of nuts).

She was so excited, she asked Tom and I to be her “nut buddies!” We hope Zelda grows out of her nut allergies as well.

Step 1: Move out of apartment.  Check.

Step 2: Clean apartment.  Check.

Step 3: Lock myself out of the apartment on the last night cleaning while Tom is unloading stuff at our storage space. Make sure that I am only wearing socks, no shoes, and that I don’t have a cell phone on me.  Check.

Step 4: Get really dry hands. (You know, the kind where the skin on your fingertips starts peeling up in tiny increments, catching on fabric all of the time.  The kind where it feels like you have a thousand tiny cuts on your hands when you use lotion.)  Check.

Step 5: Become so exhausted that you can’t remember where you are driving pretty much every time you get in the car. Check.

Step 6: Buy more luggage. Slated for Today.

Step 7: Sort through the huge pile of crap that is sitting in my parents’ loft to determine the final packing list of items that we will take. It has got to fit in 8 bags (that’s two per person, unless Delta changes their free baggage policy on international flights in the next few days.) Slated for Today and Tomorrow.

Step 8: Try to eat something fresh and green that does not have sugar. May Not Happen!