Oh, the list...

Have any of you thought about all of the little things you would have to deal with and take care of if you were to leave the country for 18 months? I hadn't. Until now. Besides wrapping up the usual for the year end, we get to plan our Utah end.... so to speak.

Here is a glimpse of what is going on in my head...
House- Rent? Sell? Depends on dogs.... Could we sell, given the market? Probably not. What do we do with our stuff? Most will go into storage.

Then I guess I need to buy rubbermaid bins and garbage sacks to protect my stuff while it's in storage. Books are important - we have a few hundred and they need to be protected.

Depending on who we rent to - what stays, what goes, how much do we charge, do we make it a sweet deal because we are asking them to take the dogs? What if no one will take our dogs for us (I wish they could invent cryogenic freazing successfully....) we can't take them with us... I love my puppies.. will anybody be able to love them like me....?

Then the cars - sell, lend?, what about when we come home... what do we drive... Car insurance - don't need it...

Cell phones - I want to keep my number but I'm not paying full service charges for a phone I can't use... will it port to the internet... like google voice?

Food - what about the 200 pounds of meat in our freezer? Oh gosh - I'm going to miss good beef.

40lbs of rice, 30 lbs of flour, our food storage...

25 quarts of pickles I put up to enjoy can't go with us. oh, the washer and dryer are in there too... will the renters use those? will they be nice to our things... we need to be picky here. How picky can we get...?

Do I need to take kitchen stuff... there are no ovens in China... I guess I won't bake. I love bread. Can I buy bread there? I'm going to lose weight given the foreign food .. but wait, they have rice and noodles. Hello Carbs.

I need to buy a kindle - since I can't get english print books there. We need an external hard drive so we can save our stuff when we give the work laptop back in 2 years... can we get wireless internet in our apartment?

How big will our aparment be? Fully furnished? Can I take my sewing machine? What am I going to do? I could teach English... where? I need a Chinese cell phone. Gosh learing that language is going to be hard - even if I am smart like people say....

No more American TV! AHHHHHHHHHHH! We need to buy the next season of all our favorite shows on DVD so we can catch up when we get home. Are we allowed to get Hulu over there? I know we can't get facebook - stupid Great firewall of china... internet regulations. I'm going to miss America.



Maids? What - we can get cheap maids? and have our laundry done? Sweet. Massage therapy? What? it's only 10$ an hour? I need that. Crap - it's going to be hard to come home. Tailored clothing? cheap? you're kidding! Wow. I need to lose weight and get to be my perfect self. That won't be hard given the food over there. I'm going to miss Mexican food. I don't want to eat Asian food while in the US - I'm going to have that fresh for 18 months. Seafood is yummy. I hear there is tons of great seafood in Xiamen.

Travel... I have always wanted to see the Terracota warriors, and they arein Xi'an and Beijing. I hear Beijing is pretty and has a billion people. I don't like crowded cities! Oh S***! I hate crowded cities and I'm moving to the most crowded country in the world!!!

I hear the Philippines are close... they are pretty. I should research where to go. We need to negotiate for Daniel's time off. I'm so glad he gets to work American hours. We will have Saturday's off. So much to see and do. I wonder how much we can travel. Gosh, we need more money.

Income tax? what? We have to pay Chinese imcome tax while on a working visa? and in the US? We really need more money then. Talk to people about that.

Wow. I need chocolate and a nap. I can't sleep - I have so much to do! Chocolate? how am I going to reach my goals for weight if I keep eatnig junk food! 7 layer dip for lunch was a bad idea. But it was so good. I wonder if they sell cheese over there? I hear they don't use many, if any dairy products.

Good grief. At least my passport application is in and on it's way. I hope that doesn't take too long. I need to get my travel visa and my work visa. I'm going to miss the piano. We can't get one over there. Maybe I'll buy a keyboard. Should I take some music? I understand that there is an app on the ipad that is sheet music... I need an ipad. (see previous post.)

Panic... panic...panic... panic...panic...panic...DEEP BREATH. Remember - you are excited to go. Amazing opportunity. New food, new culture - travel, beauty. A special experience that few will get to have. The Lord said we're supposed to go. This will all work out.

If you read this at a fast pace you now know what ADD is like. At least for me.

If there are any things in here that you have an answer for, let me know. We want to be prepared to have a wonderful experience while we are there.