We don't feed our kids

Or at least that's how they act lately. They never stop asking for more food, and when we leave them with our parents they tell us "all they did the whole time was eat!" Maybe they're both about to hit a growth spurt or something. Odin does look a little taller, and Freya has just exploded with her verbal skills lately....

Yesterday Alyssa had a piece premiered at the OCF, and it was her last one state-side until a choral work in November (for which we will come down to visit and view). The school year is basically over for her, since she now has no deadlines or assignments to speak of. For me, it's about to get interesting, as I have several finals, some of them on the same day as others.

The next few weeks will be interesting. There will be the flurry of finishing the school term, then there will be no obligations on our time other than getting the house cleaned and packed up, and then Alyssa's dad will finally be coming to visit just before we leave.

The Move

We've figured out how it's all going to go down.

We reserved a Penske truck for the 29th of June. This was the cheapest option. Most rental trucks would cost $600 or more, and most freight or shipping options at least twice that. Taking "luggage" on the train was extremely limited due to the border crossing. We called Penske on a suggestion and we were able to get a 16ft truck for only $250, so we can move more of our stuff. We'll also save money on re-furnishing the new place since we'll be able to take some of the bigger items, like beds and the dining room table.

So the plan right now is to leave the kids with Paula and Zaideh for a couple days. We'll grab the truck the morning of Wednesday the 29th and load it up super fast. On our way up we'll make a quick stop in Portland at IKEA since their stuff is cheaper than the IKEA in Vancouver (and tax free!). The drive to Vancouver will take about 8 hours with the border check, or maybe as much as 10 depending on traffic and how much we stop. We'll unload everything and completely set-up the apartment (so there's nothing left to do) the next day and the following day (after one more night's rest) we'll drive back to Seattle and return the truck. Then we'll take the train down (this will probably be Friday or Saturday) to Eugene to hang out a bit before heading back to Portland to see some family for a day or two. Then it's just the final one-way strait-shot train to Vancouver, and a taxi to our new home!

Garage Sale

We've been going through all the stuff we plan on not taking with us when we move, and oh man is it a lot of stuff. We've laid out half the furniture, all the clothes, toys, electronics, books, etc. It more than fills the garage. I don't know how we accumulated so much crap! Either way, it's a ton of stuff, and it's all really nice, not just your standard "I-want-to-get-rid-of-this-crap" garage sale stuff but actual good stuff people would want. We're gonna try to have it tomorrow and through the weekend, but it looks like there's going to be rain. There's still a lot to get together before tomorrow, so we'll see how it goes.

We got a call yesterday from Peacehealth to tell us about the vaccines that Odin had. Apparently there was a possibility that they were not properly refrigerated and therefore ineffective. They offered to take a blood test to see what he still needed and give him what else he needed, and then tried to push some new ones on us. They also accidentally admitted that they had given him a shot we refused, which was really upsetting. With all the side effects of vaccines, we were careful to pick only the ones he really needed, and it's possible that some of his current health issues (like some mild behavior stuff or his food allergies) started with that vaccine we didn't want.

We've all been sharing a cold and now I finally have it. Caused a few small set-backs in the homework department, but otherwise okay so far.

A Place to Live!

Well, it worked. On Friday we got an email offering us a place and we said we'd take it! It's student housing that has been "converted" from the faculty housing so it's in a nice location and it's a little bigger. It also has a washer and dryer in the unit (which only that building has) so we don't have to worry about that. It's on the third floor with huge windows and a big balcony. It comes to about $1350/month (which is really good for that area), but what's really awesome is that that amount also covers our heat, electricity, water, etc., so everything is in that one price! It means we have to move a month ahead of schedule, and pay for a month of the apartment that we wont fully be there, but it's better than waiting and probably not getting a place at all.

We've been going over our resources and figured that we actually will have enough money for three months of living until Alyssa gets her first cheque from school. We need to pay the deposit and first month up-front, which we will have, just not yet, so we've been scrambling to get it together by the due date on Monday. Luckily, our parents have voiced their willingness to contribute.

It was a nice wrap-up to an odd day. Murphy's law seemed to be in effect. Keys were lost, food forgotten, phone dead, meeting times not remembered properly. Nothing serious, and it all came together in the end, but it was just rattling for a little while.

Anyway, we're really excited to have a nice place in an area we like for a really good price. We can't wait to get back up there (and neither can the kids!).

We spent yesterday just enjoying a little bit of free time (Dad is out of town so we have the run of the place). The rest of today will be about buckling down on some homework and studying for tests and performances.

Middle of the term

Well I suppose I've been neglecting my blogging duties, but I've been busy. We all have.

The piece which Alyssa was commissioned to write for the former Dean of the Music Department was premiered at this seasons' FMO concert this last weekend. It was really nice, and well received.

I've been storming through the schoolwork, mostly. With Alyssa's commission out of the way, and her Gamelan concert soon to be over (in a week or so, I think) her work level has been lowered a bit. Mine has only gone up lately, so she's been able to help out with that a lot.

We've been trying to put some time into getting our stuff ready to move. Lots of stuff is being sold or put into storage. All of our furniture is going to be sold and we'll just make an IKEA run once we're in Vancouver. I've already listed our car for sale, and we're trying to thin-out what we own so there's less to bring with. We decided on moving with Amtrak, so the less, the better. We can pay just slightly extra on our tickets to have up to 16 checked bags, so we'll just manage as many of our boxes as possible. Paula (and Kellie, I think) are coming with, so they'll rent a truck while we're up there and just help us bring it home from the train station. If we catch the strait-shot from Portland it should be pretty easy, we just have to get all our stuff to Portland, and then get it all on the train fast enough at 8am when the train is ready to leave. Still, it'll all cost way less than any of our other options.

So things are starting to wrap up. Odin had his last gymnastics class at Bounce today, he's in his last month of school, I'm in my last term, Alyssa just did her last FMO concert.... We're going to try to hit all our favorite places in town one last time. And we're taking pictures and video's of everything so our kids can see the place they grew up and all the hang-outs they crawled around as babies.

We emailed the housing department and had them change our availability from July to June. This means we'll have to pay another month of rent, and go up early, but it also puts us way higher on the list since most people check August or September. We're checking voicemail regularly, hoping to have gotten that call that says we got a place to live.

I should get back to the translating. More on this story as it develops.