And then it was empty...

Wow, this place looks really nice without all the stuff! There is really a fine line between "personal touches" and "excess clutter." I think we crossed it way back in September.

This was my favorite and least stressful packout ever. I'd like to say I'm getting better at these things, but really the reason is that we didn't have most of our stuff. We only brought 700 pounds of stuff to VA from the DR, and acquired a bit more stuff, but not much! We had probably 300 pounds set aside for UAB, so they kept telling us to go find more stuff to send by air. The best problem to have! I don't know how much our final HHE shipment was, as they will weigh that back at the office, but it wasn't a lot.

I want to go on record saying that my husband was right. Last time, when we packed out of the DR, he wanted us to completely pack our suitcases before packout. I organized and packed our clothes, but decided that I couldn't REALLY pack everything because I still needed a lot of it before we left post. Well, really the issue was that I hate organizing toiletries and the sock/underwear drawer and all the random stuff, so I left them for last. Plus shoes, bags, etc etc. Let's just say that we had SO MUCH last minute stuff that I don't know how we got it into the bags and under weight.

This time, we actually have an entirely empty suitcase and 2 half-empty bags! Woohoo! I tried to be more ruthless about bringing less clothes. So what if I wear the same outfit a lot?

We will be on home leave for the next 5 weeks, and then my family stays in OR for another month, so I'm pretty sure we'll fill those bags with stuff. Besides, my son is having a birthday during this time. But still, I feel really good about not packing our bags to the brim at this point.

We had a lovely get together last night with some new and old friends. I found it hard to be as social as I like to be during this time in VA. People (us included) were busy and stressed learning new languages and I think many of us with kids packed a ton of activities into the weekends. It was kind of a knee-jerk reaction after not having enough to do in the DR (other than pools and beaches...oh, how I miss them!). Anyway, maybe next time in VA, we will try to take more time to smell the flowers and spend quality time with people. I'm grateful, though, for the new friends we made and the old friendships we nurtured as best we could!

Ok, 3 blog posts in 3 days is a little much. Let me sign off.