Tuesday, August 4, 2009

Feeling rushed

We are trying to get together all of the paperwork, passports, visas, and medical exams together in order to be able to move. Jay decided yesterday that he wanted this done asap. Okay. Step 1, fill out and print application for passports online. Done, except when I print it, the answers for everything is just random letter (for example, Name: TLWXRN when it is supposed to say JOSEPH). So Jay is going to have to figure that out. Step 2, birth certificates. I have Tom and Sam's in hand, but need to hunt down Joe's. I used it when we applied for school last year, but I was lax in putting it away and now it is lost in a pile of stuff somewhere. Step 3, passport photos. I need about a dozen copies per kid as I have to attach two copies to just about everything. We are doing that this afternoon. Step 4, make a passport appointment. Jay and I and all three boys have to apply in person at the Post Office for the Passport. We have to make an appointment for this. Step 5, once we get the passport, we have to get our medical exams. They are pretty detailed and I have to get a chest x-ray since I am over age 11. We will all need lots of blood tests. Oh fun. Step 6, once we have all of our current medical and dental records, plus passports, birth certificates, vaccantion records, marriage certificate and school records, we can apply for our temporary residential visa.
Now, if we are still moving in January, this should all be okay. However, Jay came home from work yesterday and said he may need to go to Seattle for a few weeks for training. Umm, okay. 15 minutes later, he says that there are lots of people at work telling him that he is scheduled to be in Australia in the 3rd quarter. It is the 3rd quarter now! The 3rd quarter ends at the end of September. Then an hour later, he makes a comment about us not moving until Jan. So which one is it, I ask. His reply "I dunno". Thanks, really helpful.
On Saturday we moved the Checker and the motorcycles to our storage building on the Eastern Shore. The drive was terrible. Traffic was horrible. It usually takes me 1 1/2 hours to get there. It took 3 hours this time. The Checker doesn't run the best and has lots of problems overheating. It is usually okay if the car is moving at a decent rate and the air moves over the engine and cools it a bit. Well, sitting in traffic doesn't let it cool much. Jay was really worried about it blowing its engine. Thankfully, we made it without incident.
Moving them freed up quite a bit of space in the garage so we can sort all the boxes we had previously packed. I spent 2 hours yesterday doing that while the kids played outside in the dirt with their trucks.
Joe and Tom have VBS again this week. They are at Pasadena United Methodist this time, for $6 each the whole week. Joe says it is much better than Galilee. They are having a water day tomorrow and have to wear swimsuits. Hopefully they will have fun.

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