I've calmed down a bit.

I was very, very discouraged last night. I could honestly not find a single house online that I was happy with in Pasig. Everything I liked was way too much. Location was working against us in a big way.

A called this morning. He thought he had a lead on a house that sounded promising, but when he got there, there was evidence of flooding and the rest of the house was in bad shape, and then the realtor got all angry at his brother for taking photos, so they just bailed on her. He wasn't happy with the other houses they looked at, either, so he's thinking we'll go back to looking where we were before and he'll just deal with the commute. Apparently, there is a highway that will cut the commute down a bit for him, so we'll see.

He has been walking around some malls and stuff, too. He said there are some privately run libraries we could look into, and that the stores there have a lot more American stuff in them than when he was last there; like Hershey's chocolate and Doritos and whatever. Some of that stuff I was kind of looking forward to not having access to, to be honest! Oh, Doritos... Why must you chase me across the world like this?

But I digress... Today, A will be finding out precisely what we need to do for our visas and then tomorrow or the day after the house search will begin in earnest. I can't wait for that to be done!

Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes

Talked to A tonight long enough to find out that due to traffic concerns and commute times, there is going to be a major shift in the location of the office, and likewise, our home. I am having a very, very hard time finding something suitable in our price range. Everything I can find online is either too expensive or too small. I'm freaking out about this, but I'm going to look more tomorrow and try to keep cool till then.

Some of the houses that are too expensive are so large that we might be able to set up camp in a forgotten corner and live rent free until we are found out.

Uh-oh

I went through the kids' toys yesterday. It was easier than I thought it would be. I pulled out anything that they don't play with on a regular basis and put it in a box to set it aside for the yard sale. Any time the kids came in the room, they assumed that the toys were in the box because I was packing them.

Diabolical!

When I was done, the girls had a great time playing with all their remaining toys. With all the fluff gone, it was much easier for them to use the toys they really like. Also, it's still a rediculous amount of toys. I may still be able to pack them all in 2 boxes, but it's going to be like packing 20 clowns in a tiny car.

The jig was up at breakfast, though, when K noticed her play kitchen and Diego set with the yard sale stuff at the other end of the room. They were too big to go in boxes. She was none too pleased, but then decided that since we were selling some toys here, that must mean that we were planning on buying more when we get to the Philippines.

I'm going to let her live what that delusion, too. Sometimes, it's just easier.

I got an email from A this morning. He said church was all in Tagalog, but apparently there was the random English word thrown in now and then. Tagalog is really my kind of language. Between the visit from the Bs last Summer and the videos of house tours I've been watching on YouTube, I know that they pepper their conversation with the occaisional English word or phrase. It's usually enough for me to know what is being talked about, and sometimes body language is enough for me to infer how they feel about it, even if I'm not getting any of the details. I'm feeling optimistic again.

Suspense!

A went to church today and did some house searching with one of his friends. I should have some photos sometime tonight to start looking through.

This is just the first batch of houses. He has another friend who has been looking for him, too, but I don't think he will see those houses for another week.

I went nuts last night looking online for rentals. There aren't many rentals posted online, most are homes for sale, but we were working on the assumption that most houses for sale would also be ok with renting for a year, too. Anyway, even if they weren't, all the looking was helpful for getting an idea of what we could expect in our price range.

I did manage to find a rental agent website last night. None of the rental prices were listed on his website, and he had a list of information he wanted to know when you first called, and one of the things was your nationality. And that made me wonder why? I hope it's not because they would jack up the price on us for being Americans. *ahem*

Stir Crazy

I went to bed last night at about the time that A was getting on his flight in LA.

I've slept 8 hours, gotten up, fed the kids, mowed the lawn, weeded the three gardens, harvested some veggies, and had some time on the computer.

He is still on the plane.

I'm going to make lunch, take the kids to play at a friend's for a few hours, pack some boxes, have some dinner, bathe the kids, and get them in bed.

He will then get off the plane

Sometime around the time I decide to call it a day, he should clear customs.

That's just messed up.

I want to go over on a 5-star ocean liner, please.

Ouch.

My arm hurts, dagnabit! I had to get 5 shots today, and will need two more before we leave. Then another in 6 months. Once we get there, there will be another shot we have to get for Japanese Encephalitis. We're holding off on that, because it costs $525 to get them all at the clinic here. Also, it's three shots, it's only 90% effective, and it's got unpleasant side-effects for 1/10th of the people who get it.

Years ago, the Chinese developed a vaccine for Japanese Encephalitis that can be done in one shot, is much cheaper, is more effective, and has far less side-effects. It's been in wide-spread distribution in Asia for a long time now and is part of the normal vaccination series for children, but we can't get it here. I'm guessing the reason is either fear of the commies or the drug company lobbyists, because it's certainly not common sense.

K and I have 3 days of pills to take for Typhoid, but the youngest had to have a shot. It is the tiniest shot I've ever seen. She didn't even have time to finish the first word of her freak-out before it was over. After seeing how well she took it, I would have opted for the shots for me and K, too, but the pills are effective for twice as long.

Most of our health stuff is now squared away. The last bit to get done are chest x-rays, and blood/urine/feces tests so we can get our visas.

Ain't travel grand?

Passports? Check.

We just got back from taking care of the girls' passports and mailing mine in. In another week or two, we should have them back in our hot little hands.

We had to redo the girls' photos, because the guy at Walgreens sized them too small. Mine was juuuuuust big enough, but I'm a little worried that my renewal application will end up in the hands of someone having a bad day and they will send it back to me.

The next thing to deal with will be immunizations. The girls are all up to date, but there are a couple they will still need to get. I have no idea what my status is. I have no paperwork to prove I've had any of them, so I don't know how that's going to work.

Preparations

Yesterday was President's Day. Normally, we don't take the one-day national holidays off from our homeschool; we just plug on through, but yesterday I lept at the excuse to take the day to get some move-related stuff done.

First on the docket was shoe shopping. Those of you who don't know this fun fact about me: I have size 13 feet. No. I'm not kidding. This means that it is almost impossible to find shoes for myself in a store here, let alone in the Philippines where the average height is 8" shorter than in the US. I love the internet simply because it means I can find shoes. However, because most people looking for womens shoes in my size are transvestite strippers, it is still difficult to find shoes that are appropriate for, say, grocery shopping or attending a place of worship.

(If you would like to get an idea of what I'm talking about, go to shoebuy or zappos, search by size 13, and check the proportion of normal shoes with "show" shoes and you will see what I'm up against.)

Yesterday, I had three windows open on the computer: zappos, shoebuy, and shoes.com. They all had basically the same selection; I was just trying to figure out which had the best prices on transvestite footwear. I was searching for a coupon code when I saw an ad for shoemall.com, so I figured I'd check them out.

That is when a column of light descended from heaven, illuminating my computer as a choir of angels sang. Shoemall.com is my new best friend. Not only did they have an entirely different selection of shoes available for purchase, but all of them -- all of them -- could be worn in the presence of my mother. AND I found a 20% off coupon. Yes, return shipping is not free, but the 20% off coupon more than covered the cost of any return shipping I may have to deal with. Awesome, I say.

I bought 5 pairs.

I only shop for shoes once a year, and I'm going somewhere where I will HAVE to have them specially made if I need more, so I'm not even feeling guilty about that.

After being reminded that most people wear flip-flops in the Philippines, I went to the FloJo site and got pairs for the family. Also, The Youngest needed new church shoes, so I hit eBay for those. All told, I bought 11 pairs of shoes yesterday.

So, yeah. Shoes are done. I can check those off.

After that, the girls and I went shopping for some pasalubong, which are little gifts you give to people when you visit them or return from a trip. The girls were getting a little out of control size-wise. For some reason, they kept picking the largest things possible to send over with their dad. I had to keep explaining luggage restrictions to them.

Furniture

We are hoping to find a furnished house, or at least a partially furnished one, but I have been poking around on various websites looking at the prices of various pieces of furniture in case we do have to buy some when we get there.

I found The Coolest furniture maker on eBay.ph just now, and the prices are maybe 1/4 what you would pay for them here. If you want to see all his stuff (I assume it's a man, but it could easily be a business or a woman, I suppose) look here. If you want an idea of the price in dollars, divide it by 47.

Yeah. I know! Handmade furniture at cheaper-than-Target prices! w00t!

No way it has already been a week since my last post...

Time is flying like crazy and no matter how much I get done in a week, I feel like I'm playing catch-up!

A leaves this week on his first trip to the Philippines. He is going to be doing interviews, picking an office, window shopping to get an idea of prices, and looking for a rental house.

That last one has got me all hyped up. After talking to one of A's friends there who is helping us look, we're thinking we'll end up in Alabang or Paranaque, so I spent some time on YouTube tonight looking at houses. I sent the ones I liked on to A so he can see "yes" houses and included the ones I did NOT like and explained why. A and I tend to be on different frequencies when it comes to houses, so I'm a little nervous about letting him pick, considering that the girls and I will be spending about 80% of our waking hours there, while A will be there for far less. He has promised to take lots of photos and let me decide.

One thing I've noticed so far is that houses in Paranaque have yards the size of a twin bed. Not so conducive to children playing outside. Hopefully, some of these houses are in communities with playgrounds.

New houses in the Philippines seem to lean heavily toward Mediteranean or Modern Asian styles. Either would be fine with me, but I'm leaning more toward the Modern Asian.

Here's a few of my faves from tonight:



Then there is this one. (Scroll down and click on the first thumbnail and then you can click through the pictures.) It has one bedroom on the second floor with a little balcony that would be awesome for a school room.

And then there was this house. Yeah. If you know me, you will understand how much I love and adore this house. Two issues: Marble stairs do not seem safe. And the balcony railings tilt outward which means the kids would NEVER be allowed out there. Other than that, I think this is about the coolest home ever constructed. Seriously, the curvy shelves about killed me with awesome. I'm also pretty sure it's out of our price range, even as a rental. But I can dream.

In other words, I spent one whole afternoon packing this week. That's it. And in that one afternoon, I made it through a bathroom, a desk, a dresser, and a night stand. Four hours, four very small areas. Ugh. It's not that I'm having a hard time letting things go. It's that we have so much stuff to begin with and I do need to hold on to a good portion of it.

One box at a time. I will get there.

Lacking in the gift of tongues.

There is a senior couple in our ward who returned from their mission to Russia. The sister was invited to report on her mission in Relief Society, and she began by expressing her relief at being back in an English speaking ward again after 18 months. It seems that, like me, she was not blessed with the gift of tongues, and attending church without knowing the language wasn't all that fulfilling for her.

I imagine this will be the case for me and the girls in the Philippines. A and I have already talked about the importance of making sure we have formal, doctrinally-based lessons at FHE every week, and I'll be stepping up the amount of religion we cover with our daily homeschooling to try to compensate for the initial cluelessness we'll face when we first arrive and understand none of the language. I imagine that within a year, though, they will have picked up enough to understand and participate in the ward. I'm considering hiring a Tagalog tutor for them, even, but that will depend on a handful of factors that I won't be able to gauge until we are in country.

For me, though... Well, yeah. As I said, the gift of tongues has never been mine. I barely squeaked through 4 years of French in high school, and only passed Hebrew due to an act of mercy that I will never forget. After living in the Southweat for 8 years, I've gone from understanding maybe 20 Spanish words (most of those the names of foodstuffs) to a hundred or so. Calling them to my mind in time to speak them in a conversation is another matter entirely. At that, I fail hugely.

I am nervous about this aspect of our move. I am someone for whom the social aspect of church is important. I wish I could say that I go solely for worship purposes. But I don't even know that I should appologize for that. Are we not to be a community of Saints? Are we not to serve and edify one another? I draw a great deal of strength from being part of a community of sisters. I'm not even so much afraid that I won't make friends there. What I'm worried about missing out on is the ability to bounce thoughts off others and engaging in the class discussion. I enjoy that a lot, because I feel like a gain a lot from it.

I plan to be better about studying the Relief Society lessons the week before and covering the text for Sunday School so that I have the context of the discussion in my mind before Sunday rolls around. I think that will help with my comprehension of the lesson and off-the-cuff discussion comments. Even with the preparations, though, I fear it will be isolating for a long while.

Actual Progress!

I was packing stuff up today, and I realized that I have packed everything we are taking with us that I can pack ahead of time. All that is left now are the girls' toys and books and a few odds and ends. When we have a house picked out, then I may decide to take a few home decoration type things, too, but probably not that many. There are more things that I'm wanting to store here than I originally expected, but still not that much, really.

I measured the "go" boxes today to get an idea of how close we are to the 150 cu ft threshold, and it came to about 30 cu ft. I think what is left to pack will be less than that much again, so we should easily be under 100 cu ft. Now that I know that, I can start seriously shopping around prices for shipping.

I'm feeling a lot calmer about packing now that I have a better idea of how things are breaking down.

Jaaaaackpot!

Hey, Mesa people who need boxes! You know what? There is a recycling drop-off east of Power on Adobe with 6 or so cardboard recycling dumpsters. I was there today and they were JAM PACKED with boxes. I picked up a dozen or so and it was far enough away from the buildings that I was worried about someone walking out and seeing me dumpster-diving.

Boxes are like gold around here. Every free box I get is $5 I don't have to spend to buy a new one at Walmart. That's an awesome thing.

A friend from the ward took the kids today for a couple of hours. That was amazing. I managed to get caught up on a few things that have been languishing. I have found that I can pack or I can clean, but I cannot manage to do both in the same day.

A called as I was dropping the kids off, and we went and had a quick lunch together, so that was a treat in and of itself. We talked more about houses and stuff.

This is a video of one A's going to check out while he's there:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_aYcXsBx5X0

It's not as posh as some we've seen, and there are some decisions I would have made differently about the set up (like what is up with the glass block wall in that first bathroom? and I'm not a huge fan of that floor tile and, oy, those yellow walls!) but there is quite a bit of space and it has a relatively large yard that is pretty private thanks to a lot of well-established plants. The girls would have to share a bedroom, but that wouldn't kill them. It's at the high end of our budget, but it would mean for a shorter commute for A. I love how it's got so many doors to the outside.

Of course, if I had the big bucks, I'd get this one:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-vUpC_2VblA

A more realistic version of the above would be something like this, but it's for sale, not rent:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oTKUBjbG1b8&feature=related

If I wanted to pretend I never left the States, I could get one of these:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LAA_DgS1xHE

A, incidentally, is in love with this house. (Also, I love that the Speedo Outlet is shown as one of life's practicalities. LOL!)

Looking for a rental

I've been watching videos on YouTube this morning of rental houses.

Fun Fact: All the interiors of the houses in the Philippines are either white or a blinding shade of yellow.

The only exception to this rule seem to be houses that have been designed for wealthy foreigners planning to move there to retire. These houses are way out of our price range. Good thing paint is cheap.

Baby steps.

I got a little more packing done yesterday. For the most part, our homeschool stuff is squared away. From there, I moved on to some board games. Have you ever noticed how large a game board box is compared with the items inside? I've decided to trash all the boxes and pack just the game pieces, cards, and boards. Honestly, it's saved a ton of room, and when we get there, I'll just get a basket to put them all in. All told, I spent about 3 hours packing yesterday and got a grand total of 4 boxes squared away. I hope I start getting speedier here soon.

When I ran out of boxes, I sat down with my cookbooks to type up just the recipes I use. I have about 2-1/2 linear feet of cookbooks, and there is no way I can take them all. And it seems silly to, anyway, when I only regularly use 3-4 recipes out of each. The first thing I realized in doing this is that I really only use about 5 of the cookbooks ever, so the ones I never use are going to go in the yard sale. I've decided to take 2 of them with me. One is The Joy of Cooking. I only regularly use 2 of the recipes from that book, but it's just such a great reference. The other is my Indian cookbooks, because the curries are so complicated and I have to flip back to the general directions so much that it just wasn't worth it to type out all the information I'd need. The rest I was able to get down to 10 typed pages, which are now in a 1" binder in page protectors and ready to be packed.

A and I have been talking about the places we should be able to visit while we are in the Philippines. The big one is China. We know, given K's obsession with the place, that we will have to visit China at least once. I blame Sagwa and the 2008 Olympics for her obsession, but it doesn't help that almost all her toys have a "Made in China" tag on them. I was telling A that I think she expects the place to be full of talking cats, the sky to be full of dragons, and the streets to be lined with toy stores.