THIS is our new home!

"THIS is our new home!" is what Clarissa said the other day as we unpacked our UAB (air freight....limited to 700 lbs, we had 681). She had asked when we were going to go home a number of times the past few weeks when we only had the items we had put in our luggage. The magic of being re-united with her beloved toys (and other household items) made the lightbulb come on that we are in our new home.

So what beloved items made the cut while we wait for our HHE (household effects....they come via boat)....which are set to arrive tomorrow (yes, our UAB and HHE both arrive on Tuesday....because UAB was smaller it cleared customs and was delivered. Our HHE is waiting till Friday because New Years Day was a holiday as is Georgian New Years Day (today) so the embassy was closed. (BTW....UAB should take 2-3 weeks.....ours took 4....it relaxed in Germany for 3 weeks while we pined for it, but I digress). So back to the topic....what beloved items made the UAB cut.....I will make a quick generalized list so in 2 years when I go to pack out for our next post I can remind myself what really made a difference and making our house into our home.

1 - More clothes.....after 4 weeks of wearing the same 7 outfits or so in different combinations we have a little more variety.....Clothes were a last minute we have more space I'm throwing more stuff in....so I also have a few more pairs of shoes....so the brown dress pants that were in my luggage that do not go well with black heels or tennis shoes can now be worn! The kids now have snow pants, boots, and toboggans for when it snowed our 4th day here....oh wait.....

2 - Bedding! Glorious bedding! The pillows that were in our welcome kit are equivalent to a double sized airplane pillow....so not very supportive or comfy....but better than nothing. So we have new pillows we got during the college dorm sales.....so nice! Also, the kids now have twin size beds (a first for both) so they both got a new set of sheets/comforter/mattress pads. Their bedrooms look much less institutional white now! I got a foam mattress topper, mattress pad and sheets for us.....its amazing how much better we all sleep now (and when our king size bed arrives....ahhh, it's going to be heaven).

3 - Computer and such. We have an iMac that we used our original shipping packaging that went in the air freight box....it survived just fine. We also packed our printer and data back up device (we had a small USB drive that had a data copy in our suitcases but this device does regular back up and multiplicity stuff in case a drive fails (what I caught before my eyes glazed over from Richard's computer lingo). We also have some basic office supplies....like staplers and tape for my craft loving but been on withdrawal children to go to town with.

4 - Kitchen supplies.....aaah, grown-up toys (at least for me).....so I tended to pack mostly plastic things since they are lighter weight and better for the kids to use in case they drop something...we would rather not break the welcome kit plates. So a handful of kids plates, cups, our britta pitcher, Mason's lunchbox (1st day of school next week!), some plastic leftover storage containers, then my favorite Pampered Chef cooking gadgets (mandoline, cheese grater, batter bowls, measure-all cup, mini muffin tin, scrapers, tongs, garlic press, whisk, etc), some food items (goldfish and cosmic brownies for the kids, Starbucks coffee for Richard), some spices/baking supplies (we had homemade buttermilk biscuits for breakfast today.....so good!), some oven mitts (I have burnt myself so many times over the years just using those little square hot pads), some dish towels, our cloth napkins, dish drying mat/rack, my favorite recipes cookbook....you get the idea....a little bit of everything that makes things so much nicer till my beloved Kitchenaid mixer gets here!

5 - Toys and other kid things.....the most important probably being the WiiU! (those santa gifts can now be played....like Sing Party....oh Santa why do you torture us so!), larger variety of movies (more kid movies), a princess storage box for said movies, a trunk of dress up clothes, a doll stroller (the most desired object when boxes arrived and it was in the 2nd box I opened....yeah, I'm that good!), play food....decorated wooden cupcakes for all, kiddie table and chairs, legos, books, a few more dolls and stuffed animals, a handful of board games.....

6 - Some toiletries and such....our consumables shipment/some new HHE things we picked up in DC are set to arrive mid/late January.....so some more toothpaste, body wash, deodorant, etc were tucked in there to keep us from being the stinky family until then. I did forget to put in some laundry detergent....I brought some in my suitcase but there was leaking issue.....so while the plastic bag contained the spill, we have run out....luckily our housekeeper was able to direct me towards a decent sensitive skin brand.....while I have had some issues, Clarissa (the other sensitive skin person) seems to be doing fine....they do sell some recognized brands here (Pantene, Johnson & Johnson) the brand name is in English, the other information is in Georgian.....I don't want to buy the dry hair shampoo....I would be slicker than a 50s heartthrob.....not good. Plus cost-wise it is a little more expensive. I had thrown in a package of pull-ups for Clarissa at night time.....with all the moving I hadn't been pushing big girl undies at night, but most nights she is dry (the first night she slept through 3 am while getting over jet-lag she wasn't).....so now that her waterproof mattress pad is here....big girl panty time....she's doing great....now, what to do with 1.5 packages of pull-ups.....run them down and return them to Target....oh wait.....

I think that is it.....we will be reunited with things we packed up in July in the morning.....then the work of getting all that put away......I think besides the bed, I'm most excited for our kitchen island. We've decided to put the transformer on the bottom portion, then when we need to use a non 220 appliance, we can just roll the island to an outlet, plug in the transformer and then we have a workspace on top of the island to use.....we shall see if that works out okay.