Back in our House - Oh My Stuff!!!

November 3rd was our official move-in day! Having now done this three times in as many years, I have it figured out. My awesome friend, Lindy, took the kids for the day so they were out of the way and I had the freedom to check off my 'bingo boxes' without distraction. My other awesome friend, Charmaine, brought reinforcements in the form of coffee - yeah!!!

Here's all our precious goods packed up in two shipping containers (they came over in one, but they all get gone thru at Customs and then repacked in two smaller containers for delivery). You start to realize just how much crap you own when its packed up in paper and boxes time and time again.

We had a massive garage sale in Texas before we left and purged a lot of stuff. Believe it or not, I managed to collect about the same amount of stuff on the unpacking end and took load after load of "things" to Good Sammy's. I realized just how unprecious I have become about so much clutter. I purged beer steins that we received as an engagement present and have used about three times, yet took all over the world with us. Cooking utensils and serving dishes that have been used once or twice in 10 years - gone. Books I know I'll never read (some bought second hand at my University bookstore 15 years ago). It feels so good!

Here's the garage mid-day. I really think the guys should have had me on retainer as I worked the entire time in the garage with a box cutter opening up boxes and sorting. I had the entire garage unpacked by the end of the day and four huge bags of packaging material collected.

Amidst the garage things were the iron Texas Star I brought back. There was a hook in the garage still installed, so I hung it up. Its since been installed in our backyard hanging proudly in the eating area.

The kids quickly made themselves at home - I think this photo was taken a week or two after we'd been back in. You can see they are super concerned about helping me unpack and organize.