So much to blog so little time

Those of my readers who are in the Foreign Service know what we're going through right now. But to those who aren't that I promised I'd update my blog with what we're doing, I realize I've been breaking my promise. I hope I can update you guys enough right now to give you somewhat of an idea of what's going on.

We finally purchased the furnishings for Malachi's bathroom (very cute btw). John's been doing lots of research on where to buy a TV. He's looked at Target, Costco, and Micro Center. Our neighbor is going to take him to Costco one more time tomorrow, and I think he may be coming home with a TV in hand.

We went to our storage area and went through all of our stuff designating our things in two categories: staying in storage and going to Costa Rica. We have been going through our apartment organizing our things into five different categories: throw away, give away, suitcases, UAB (Unaccompanied Air Baggage 700 lbs), and HHE (Household Effects 7,200 lbs). We have a big area in our living room that is devoted to HHE, and a smaller area devoted to UAB. We also have a corner in Malachi's room devoted to HHE because the area in the living room isn't big enough.

Everything we have in the apartment came UAB (at that time it was only 600 lbs for us - Simon added another 100 lbs) from Dallas or we acquired after coming. While looking at everything we have, I realized that we acquired A LOT of stuff (having a baby will do that to ya).

It's interesting and not easy to go through your things to decide what you can live with out for two - four weeks and one - three months and what you can't live with out. All of the packable food items will be in our UAB as well as the utensils and what not from the kitchen. We might be packing our computer in that as well. I've set aside a few games for adults as well as for kids and some activity books for Malachi, our tennis gear, pool gear, sewing kit, etc. We'll send what ever clothes we don't pack in suitcases in UAB as well. Everything else is going HHE.

We pack out soon, and shortly after that send off our car and very shortly after that leave for vacation. I'm very, very excited.

In other news I haven't heard from the school I applied to yet. I've emailed them asking the status of my application. I really expected to have heard by now if I've been accepted.

Simon is growing quickly, too quickly I think. He'll be out of 0-3 month clothing soon and is developing in other areas. He will hold your gaze for quite a while and smile real big at you, he bats his hands at things, he holds onto my fingers quite tightly and for a lengthy period while I feed him, he purposely coos while smiling at you, he eats a 4 oz bottle every 3 1/2 - 5 hours, sometimes going as many as 7 hours at night which is a big blessing for mommy and daddy.

Malachi is excitedly awaiting our move. His room is being torn apart so unfortunately he can't play with everything the way he would before, but is being very good about not playing with the stuff we have set aside. He's been a big help with the organization when we ask him to help. He's played with and said good bye to his friends.

I went to my last mom's group meeting on Monday and we went to our last church service the week before Easter. We would've gone to Easter service but Malachi had a fever on Saturday and his cough was still pretty bad on Sunday so we decided to stay home. If I had been a parent and heard someone that sounded like Malachi in the Sunday school I'd be really upset. Malachi's well now, his cough is gone, and that was the last thing to go.

John's preparing to take us to Costa Rica. He's got a few more things to do at work before we take off. He's very, very excited. I think he's most excited to actually start working. He's had the job for almost 10 months and hasn't done any "real" work yet, he's quite eager to start.

Last night we had a Costa Rica BBQ at our complex. There are two more couples that are going down in May or June, and two more FSO's coming down later this year. We also met another FSO who's going to be joining the family next summer after she serves a year in DC. By the time she gets there everyone in the consular section at the embassy will have cycled out. We'll be the oldies there by then (only in that section mind you).

I hope this has been informational enough for everyone. I apologize for the blog silence. Please know I'm not doing it on purpose.