Final Countdown: 13 days to departure!

            Being at my Mom’s for the past several weeks, I often run into people I haven’t seen in a while—maybe a couple times, if at all, in the past 6 years. An obvious question is, “Wow, it’s been a while. What are you up to these days?” I try not to shock people by my response, “Oh, I’m just home for a few weeks before I leave the country.” Ease them into it, you know? There is a lot of preparation before leaving the country for so long. Here’s a bit of what I’ve been up to…

-Selling my car… SOLD! This week, sold to a friend from high school. Loan paid off, insurance cancelled. Check.

-Packing all I own…to store in Mom’s garage for 18-ish months. There are approximately 6 boxes of books, 4 of clothes, 2 of household items, one of kitchen stuff, and a few random items in the mix.

-Canceling all medical, dental, and auto insurances, cell phone (thank God I went to monthly with Boost—no cancellation fees!), applying for student loan deferments, writing thank you’s, finalizing lists of donors, spending time with my Mom and Joy, meeting friends for coffee at a new Irish café in town (on State St. by UW-L—check it out!) and enjoying a beer with deep fried cheese curds from the bowling alley.

-Practicing my entrepreneurial skills (more on that coming) as a way to help fund my mission…Making lists and calls to build my business team, attending meetings, making business cards, and hosting grand openings in Atchison, KC and La Crosse…adds some fun to my life!

-Packing for Thailand: An umbrella (for sudden rain showers; also useful for plentiful sunshine), sunscreen (for that plentiful sunshine), chocolate, coffee, tea, coloring books… for my sisters of community and activities for the kids, books—spiritual reading, as well as a couple of light reading materials, an iPod (which requires me finding 8 GB of my 14 GB on iTunes for the next 18 months)… and figuring out what else!

     **Packing for Bangkok**—the hottest city in the world: heat-and-humidity-friendly-and-mosquito-proof-clothes. As missionaries, we live simply. We hand wash our clothes, and do not have air conditioning in our house. We are missionaries not only by how we live, but also how we dress. To be an example of modesty and purity in the heat and humidity…tough! No spaghetti straps, shorts, low cut shirts…etc. In all honesty, I don’t own a whole lot of those clothes anyways, but it is a challenge! Sister Regina, whose first mission was in Thailand, suggested two types of clothes: one set for when we go out into Bangkok—for language lessons, our day of rest, or going out for a birthday, to have skirts, nice tops, and a scarf for the air conditioned taxis. The other set for around the house and neighborhood—capri pants, t-shirts…nothing the kids will pull on!

         Thus began the search for 100% cotton clothes: thank God for Kansas City, Forever XXI, and my girlfriends! We went to the store and found some fantastic buys! Good thing it is spring and they have all their spring and summer clothing on display!

         Between what I already had, buying a few choice items, Mom giving me some of what used to be mine that she had grabbed from the ‘give to charity’ pile before it was donated away, and my darling Mary (who has little lambs…see her blog!) donating a beautiful blue skirt to my wardrobe, I think I am set for a while. Haha… Now, I never wear long dresses… People say that because I am tall I can pull it off—but I am not confident wearing them. But they are cooler, and easier than picking out a whole outfit to wear—so, driven with practicality, I purchased one.

            My favorite is to laugh when I am asked “Where are you living now?”

Since August, I’ve left Kansas City, which still feels like home, and moved to Madison, essentially living there Sunday night through Thursday afternoons—exceptions on a few weekends when I stayed in Mad-town, or spent Fridays helping my sister in law with the twins’ doctor appointments. On weekends, I visited friends and family in the Twin Cities (MN), Coon Rapids (MN), Milwaukee (WI), Tomahawk (WI), Ashland (WI), Chicago (IL), Kansas City (KS & MO), Sioux Falls (SD), Des Moines (IA), Decorah (IA), La Crosse (WI), New York City, and then traveled to sing at weddings on the weekends in Kansas City and St. James (MO).

WHEW.

            In the past 5 weeks I’ve been in Madison, Kansas City (twice), New York City/Upstate NY (two weeks), and La Crosse (two weeks)… with one more trip before I leave to Colorado as I visit my brother Kyle(!!!) in Salida, Dad and Bev in Windsor, and lovely Elizabeth in Denver. These days, I’m essentially washing and re-wearing the same small suitcase of clothes—or what I can borrow from Mom, Joy, or my roommates in KC—everything else is in boxes!

            So when people say, “Wow, Thailand. Are you excited?” I try to refrain from giving a sarcastic answer of, “No, not at all”, and instead say, in all sincerity with my best Wisconsin accent, “Hoh yea, I can’t wait to be in one place for 18 months!”