The Road Trip

Good bye house, we loved living here 

The house has been cleaned, the scooter has gotten sold, the time has come to leave Athens.  More hugs, more tears, and we finally hit the road.

Ahh, the road trip with kids... The ultimate test of parenting skills. I wish we could earn badges for challenges completed. Rain - trucks - road work - hitting Atlanta traffic at 5:03pm - snatched pretzels - spilled cheerios- sticky fingers - fake tummy aches - unscheduled bathroom stops - dvd's not working... How many times you switched from a driving shift only to realize that tending to kids' needs is actually more work than driving.

Yup, this trip was no different. Perhaps because this was our fourth road trip this year, kids got the idea that it was possible to sleep in the car,  and they were all out by 10pm. A major achievement for us! Unfortunately, because of the trailer our speed was 55-60 mph the whole way. We finally reached Michigan after eighteen hours of driving. The next morning kids went straight into their activities, yet Eial and me needed some serious recovery. 

  Child #1 - passed out

Child #2 - passed out

 Child #3 - passed out

 Time for midnight snack

The next few days we will be spending with Eial's family. Also, there is quite a bit of business we need to take care of. Among other things, we need to establish Michigan residency, transfer bank account, GET VISAS, unload the trailer, pack ten suitcases. I keep telling myself that one month from now we will be settled in our new home. Until then, I can only take one day at a time...

Packing the trailer day

What a day! Endless for us, but pretty exciting for kids. The trailer finally got here and it was time to get serious about packing if we were ever to leave Athens. Instead of moving boxes from one wall to the other, we started taking them outside. It was a gradual process, but by late afternoon we did see some progress. The rooms were empty, the walls were bare, yet every corner was full of memories from a wonderful year we spent in this house.

Here is the first pile of stuff, ready to be loaded

Sweaty but still smiling

Maya spending some quiet time. Any emails?

All throughout the day our friends kept popping in to lend a helping hand and to give us one last hug. It made this moving experience much more enjoyable, yet I found myself crying a bunch of times. Thank you Lorena, Doug, Meta, Donald, Julie, Donny, Angela, Jay, Loden, Eva, Inbal, Stephan, Oksana, Timur, Sofia, Orest, and Karen. We already miss you!

Maya is saying good-bye to friends

Trying to spin a scooter deal

And then the boys discovered the trailer, which by that time was full to the brim. But wait, we added a mattress on top of boxes, and the kids came up with a sleepover-in-the-trailer idea. Needless to say, there was a lot of climbing, jumping, head-bumping, and overall excitement. The only way to get them out of the trailer was to promise a pizza for dinner. 

 Three amigos

Saying good-byes is hard

It's been an emotional couple of days for us. Never thought saying good-byes would be so hard. We are overwhelmed by kindness, generosity, and well wishes showed to us by everyone. That makes our memories from times we shared even more precious.  We always said we loved living in Athens, but only know we realize what a phenomenal community and support system we had here. Thank you for being part of our lives,  we will miss you dear Athens friends.

Barrow Buddies forever

Sunday morning status report

It's Sunday morning and our plan is to leave Athens Tuesday, latest Wednesday. I am chasing an early morning cockroach and am determined to stop it from landing in one of packing boxes or a suitcase. But then again, I remember we had to deal with lizards and ant colonies in our house in India. I almost feel nostalgic that this may be my last cockroach encounter. I won't miss them much, but they do make great story subjects.

Back to packing - I am not feeling that strong. Too many wishes in my head, but only ten suitcases. Surprisingly all three kids' clothes fit into one suitcase, but I need two just for myself! Right now we're just packing stuff up, putting boxes to be stored in Michigan to one side, and things to take to India to another. Couple odd items we're planning to take to India are:
* breadmaker - no ovens, no healthy bread in India...
* boys' geotrax train set - 35lbs, but they love their trains

Farewell Athens picnic in Memorial park is later today. I am sure it will be a bittersweet experience, just like it's been the last month. One last time hanging out with Athens friends, feeding the geese, pushing kids on the swings... I believe it will give us some closure as well. I remember ten years ago when Eial just started his PhD program we received our first invitation to a picnic in Memorial park. Obviously, we had no idea where it was. We had a large map of Athens spread out on our lap, we were driving, reading names of side streets out-loud,  looking for a well-hidden entrance... For the last time we really look forward to seeing everyone in our last Memorial park picnic.

Packing marathon is still on...

 This table became a giant "junk drawer"

 Kids are enjoying an open space. Maya's origami work station is right in the middle of the floor

Kids watching their Sunday morning movie

Last Butterflies of Summer

We've been waiting for the last two of Maya's butterflies to hatch so we could let go of her "pets" and pack up her butterfly cage. They finally did, few days ago. These were black swallowtails. The first one was giant, slow and tame, did not want to leave Maya's hand when it was time to release it. The second one hatched couple days later, and was fluttering away in the cage eager to be free. Off they went into a hot fall day, hopefully they have enough time to complete a new life cycle.

Over the course of the summer Maya's butterfly cage witnessed lots tears of joy and sadness, as tiny butterfly eggs were observed, caterpillars were hand-fed with leaves, dropped into water, got squashed, then rescued. Surprisingly, most of them did survive our rough-handling and transformed into butterflies. Maya successfully hatched monarchs, painted lady butterflies, tobacco hornworms, an unnamed moth, and finally black swallowtails. Well, the butterfly cage has been emptied, cleaned and packed for the long trip.