mixed post

This post will have several topics, so brace yourselves.

Moving is a recurring theme for our family. We're doing it again... soon. At the end of July, we're heading from our home here in Java to a new place in Borneo (that's further away than it may sound). For those of you who have our old address, ignore it from now on. For those of you who would like our new address, send us an e-mail and we'll make sure you get it (or leave a comment here and we'll track you down).

Packing up and shipping our household from one island to another is kind of a lot of work. We weighed our options:

1. Pack up and ship everything

2. Get rid of everything here and buy it all again there

3. Get rid of most things, buy some new things there, pack and ship the rest

We went with option #3.

We're in the process of selling and giving away most of our big items (like shelves and chairs and stools, an oven, a printer, motorbike helmets, etc). I'm tasked with figuring out a way to safely pack and ship everything else. Every day for the past 3 weeks, I've spent 1 hour each afternoon working on collecting packing materials, making lists, calling the post office to arrange prices and details for shipment, making scary trips to the dark, dank heart of our local market for supplies, and beginning to pack what I can get away with taking from our every day supplies.

Almost done! The barrels ship out next week.

On a completely unrelated note... In a recent post, I mentioned that Phil graduated this spring from his master's program at Moody. A few weeks ago, I threw him a little party to celebrate. We invited about 25 people to come enjoy dessert and coffee with us as we rejoiced in the completion of Phil's degree. It was, I'm sure, not the way he would have chosen to celebrate (especially with the painfully obvious absence of our closest, dearest friends and family - oh, how we miss you so), but I couldn't very well let this milestone slip passed unacknowledged.

Our house was full for the evening of people, both brown, and white; those who stand, those who squat and those who sit in chairs. We had a lovely time visiting together and eating American desserts (I managed to make a pecan pie for Phil - I also scored REAL whipping cream... it cost me... but it was REAL!).