Packing and To Do Lists

While sitting here in the chaos that is packing, I thought I'd blog and let you know what's going through my mind. We've got random things we didn't even remember we had laying all over the floor, begging not to be filed, wrapped up in newspaper, shoved into boxes and put away in a dark corner for who knows how long. With a 20 kg (44 lbs) each weight limit, there's tons of things that we'd love to bring but we just can't. My worship music notebook alone weighbs 10 lbs! That would be about a quarter of the total weight I can bring, so that will have to get stored away. The coffee maker, heavy but a possibility. It's hard to find inexpensive quality coffee machines in Pakistan, as most people drink tea. I wanted to bring my riding boots and helmet, but that would have had to have been at the expense of my clothes....so that will have to stay. I hope I can find a helmet over there if I ever take up riding again! Most times I've seen people ride they didn't have helmets on.

There's my winter coat, which I really want to bring, but it just takes up so much space and it doesn't get cold enough in Lahore to justify bringing it. There's Duarte's soccer ball, which doesn't seem to really let all the air out, and the pump for the soccer ball. There's a ton of CDs, that we won't bring with us and I'm trying to get imported into iTunes so we can still listen to them. There's things I borrowed from people that I need to return, some of which never got returned last year before I left for Pakistan. It got put int a box and there it stayed until I came back. I'm wondering if those things will only make their way to boxes yet again. Which microphone should we bring, and which wires? How many pairs of socks do you really need? Should I buy more shampoo because I can never find the right kind over there, or should I not bring the shampoo because it's so heavy? Really do you need that many sweaters or jackets? I guess I probably don't need that many pairs of pants either.

And besides the packing, there's the to-do lists. Have we called this company to cancel the phone? And how do they want us to prove that we've moved? A lease agreement or a utility bill, I lived in Pakistan for a year and I never had any of those things. Hmmmm...how will we prove that we've moved so we can get $175 back? Did we ever get the refund from the tango lessons which were cancelled? Who do we need to see? Dont' forget to change our address at the post office!

Now the fun part is all the things that we want to do before we go, not that we have to do. We wrote down our lists last week and we're working on them amidst the busyness.

In no particular order

1. Eat wings at the Hangar - honey mustard & honey barbecue flavor (check!)
2. Drink coffee coolattas
3. Eat Trader Joe's veggie tortilla chips (check!)
4. Go bowling with Duarte's bowling ball
5. Go waterskiing with Dad (Heather)
6. Enjoy an American BBQ (thanks Walts family & Veej!)

Ok, I've taken too much time on this, back to packing!