The physics of this is complicated

Two suitcases, one duffel bag. Four or five mountains of stuff. I'm not sure the laws of space and time are going to let all of the latter fit into the former. We may have to rethink our money saving plan of putting J in a duffel instead of buying him a plane seat. :-)

But we leave tonight for the airport! More hurrahs!

I keep getting last minute emails from our agency rep that trigger extra trips to the store. They are helpful, but it would have been more helpful if they'd arrived last week. Yesterday's first email told us that D likes "cars, balls and crackers" so I sent my mom out for the first two, in airplane travel sizes. Rice crackers we can get everywhere there. The second one said that we should bring baby clothes to TWCA rather than other gifts listed in the travel guide as that is what they'd like to have. So, out go the nuts and such that I bought, and off to collect some clothing (gently used is fine they said so that helps speed things up as there is a place down the road). The third one said that we'd get our extra foster fees amount soon. Soon? We leave tonight! I think we'll be able to send it through Google PayPal to JOH (our agency) so I'm not running to the bank to withdraw thousands of dollars at least. Though now that I think of it, I need to run to the bank anyway to get dollars to pay our agency facilitator when we arrive in Taiwan.

I'm getting very foggy with all the plans and prep. Yesterday I forgot that I was supposed to stop at my mom's after picking up J to get the things she's been collecting for me. I'm forgetting words and losing track of sentences in the middle. I need a bit more sleep and a little more sitting calmly and thinking about what needs to be done. But I'm just so excited!

A little too excited, because it gave me all sorts of extra energy and ideas, one of which is going to result in another trip today. Somehow I thought it was a good idea to trim J's hair on the back porch last evening. We're going to need a trip to the hair cutters to fix that idea. I tried to convince myself that it looks OK, and it does if you look at only one side of him at a time. Each side looks good - neither side looks like the other. Maybe if I hadn't been talking on the phone at the same time, trying to say good-bye to family? Multi-tasking should only be taken so far.

Yesterday I spent some time at school, planning on getting the library back in order since I won't be there when school starts. Our district is in contract negotiations so no one even knows what the first day of school is going to be - either the 2nd or the 9th. Parents must be going crazy, trying to make plans.

I'm hoping for the 9th because it will 1) give me more time before I have to start using up sick leave days for time off with D and 2) the library is NOT back in order. There was an unexpected math meeting going on so I couldn't pull the bookcases back or arrange the tables, or do any other clean-up after the summer decimation. I had to send Mom & Mr. Al - my volunteer helpers - home. I did get most of the check out/in software reloaded after a couple of hours of cursing technology (every summer they reimage our computers and reinstall all the district software, except my library software because we're the only school with that particular library program - since it isn't standard, they won't help with it, even though the district purchased it - end of mini-rant).

I also got my sub arranged - very luckily the same woman who subbed for me during J's leave is available again. Great to have a competent replacement. My new principal wasn't in, so I had to email her: "Hello, hope you've had a nice summer, I won't be here in September."

Cat care is arranged, plants are deeply watered, knitting project is started so security won't think the pointy metal things are weapons, J has picked his books and stuffed animals, passports are piled on the counter. Just the shoving into cases left to do. If you hear a loud "sproing" noise, it is the sound of failing suitcase zippers.