Category: Goals

Goodbye June, Hello July

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July is going to be busy but pivotal month for us – we’re scheduled to move out of the house on the 28th and over to the condo we rented. We’re greatly looking forward to our stay there because Brett and I will have no obligations other than to relax and enjoy our remaining time on the island – we’ll finally get to take a Kaua’i “vacation” (YaYu will continue to work right up until we leave though). The condo is the same one our son and family stayed in earlier this year, with that fabulous pool, which is where I intend to be spending most of my time while we’re there, either swimming in it or sitting by the side under an umbrella.

The “lazy river’ feature at the condo pool

Here’s how we did with last month’s goals:

  1. Pay at least $900 on our credit card. We paid $3210 toward our remaining balance (we sold an additional $435 worth of things this past weekend). Just a little more to go!
  2. Purchase travel insurance. It turned out we didn’t need to buy this because our credit card already provides insurance for things like lost luggage, cancelled flights, etc. and our health and dental insurance are valid all over the world. In fact, we discovered that – surprise! – because we have military health insurance we were ineligible for regular travel health insurance.
  3. Clean, oil and buff all the tansu. Done! Cheryl and Alan arrive this week and we’ll get them all moved over to their house.
  4. Take down and package TV; disassemble and clean girls’ bunkbed. Done! Both of these items are also going over to Cheryl and Alan.
  5. Take down all art work from the walls; fill and repair nail holes. Done! This pictures went in our shipment, and I defy the landlord to find even one of the nail holes I repaired.
  6. Empty pantry, clean shelves (repaint if necessary). Done!

    The finished pantry closet – it almost looks better now than it did when we moved in! (I wish I had ‘before’ pictures – it was a mess)

  7. Take all items to be shipped for storage into the garage for the movers. Done – the movers came and picked up everything last Friday.
  8. Start pricing items for moving sale. We’re off to a slow start with this, but will finish it off this week, once we’ve gotten everything else out of the house and over to Cheryl and Alan’s.
  9. We also took four big bags of stuff to the thrift store and are working at filling another one.

Here are our goals for July:

  1. Hold garage sale on July 6 through July 8; take all items that don’t sell to the thrift store.
  2. Deep clean the house like we’re preparing for a navy-style white glove inspection.
  3. Detail car and list for sale on July 20. The rental car for our last month on Kaua’i is already arranged.
  4. Pack suitcases and move to the condo on the 28th.

Just four goals this month, but they will keep us busy!

 

Goodbye May, Hello June

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June doesn’t actually arrive for another couple of days, but we now officially have less than two months to go before we move out of our rental house, and there is more than plenty to do in the coming month to continue to get ready for that.

First though, here’s how we did with last month’s goals:

  1. Pay at least $900 on our credit card balance. We paid $4613.50 on the balance. We still have a bit more to go though.
  2. Clean out paper files. Brett took care of this, and got our entire file box compressed down to one envelope of papers to keep.

    Before: The original finish on the table was dissolving, and a hot mess thanks to heat, humidity and salt.

  3. Strip, sand and oil table top. Done – the table is beautiful and ready to go to its new owners!

    After: Believe it or not, this is the same edge on the table. Citrustrip, mineral oil and a little elbow grease made the table gorgeous once again!

  4. Reserve window cleaners and house cleaners for move out in July (we’ll need help with the windows and floors). We decided to do these tasks ourselves.
  5. Clean out bookshelves in YaYu’s room and help YaYu fill at least one bag of stuff for the thrift store. The most difficult task of all because she hates to throw away anything (but of course can’t take it with her to college either), but she got it done! We filled one bag of stuff from her room along with another bag from around the house to go to the thrift store.

Here are our goals for June:

  1. Pay at least $900 on our credit card.
  2. Purchase travel insurance.
  3. Clean, oil and buff three tansu for new owner.
  4. Take down and package TV for new owner; disassemble girls’ bunkbed and clean.
  5. Take down all art work from the walls; fill and repair nail holes.
  6. Empty pantry, clean shelves (repaint if necessary).
  7. Take all items to be shipped and stored into the garage for the movers.
  8. Start pricing items for moving sale.

Let’s see how it goes!

 

Goodbye April, Hello May

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Here’s hoping we will be able to go to the beach in May!

Here’s how we did with last month’s goals:

  1. Put at least $900 into our travel savings account. We saved $1005 last month; it all went toward the balance on our credit card.
  2. Continue to look for and possibly book air travel down to Buenos Aires. I found a great non-stop fare from Miami, so these tickets are booked.
  3. Clean out and shut down the garage freezer. Done!
  4. Use up as many condiments as possible in the refrigerator. We made good progress with this; there are just a few more things to use up.
  5. Move my IRA from the local bank to our primary bank; help YaYu open an account at our primary bank. We decided to leave my IRA in the local bank for now to maintain Hawai’i as our state of domicile, but got YaYu’s new account opened.
  6. Order lei and a haku for YaYu’s graduation. We still have to do this, but my daughter-in-law wants to go with me to the flower shop. YaYu will be getting five different lei: one from her brother and each of her sisters, one from Brett’s sister and brother-in-law, and one in memory of her grandparents. Brett and I will give her a floral haku (head wreath).
  7. Take at least one bag of stuff to the thrift store. We could not find enough stuff to fill a bag this past month! We did take some other stuff though.

Here are our goals for May:

  1. Pay at least $900 on our credit card balance.
  2. Clean out paper files.
  3. Strip, sand and oil table top.
  4. Reserve window cleaners and house cleaners for move out in July (we’ll need help with the windows and floors).
  5. Clean out bookshelves in YaYu’s room and help YaYu fill at least one bag of stuff for the thrift store.

Once again, we’ll see how we do!

 

 

Goodbye March, Hello April

Although some good things happened for us last month, I think we were all glad to see the end of March come around. Mainly because we’ve all been pining for blue skies and warmer temperatures, but also because we are eager to keep moving forward toward the fall and the big changes that will be coming around for all of us. We’re making progress, but it still feels like there is so very, very much to get done, and not enough time to do it all. Things are still moving though, albeit slowly for now, but will pick up speed the closer we get to our move out date.

Anyway, here’s how we did with March’s goals:

  1. Put at least $900 into our travel savings account. We put $1067.50 in to our account. Lots of it came right back out to pay for all the reservations we made at the end of the month.
  2. Clean out at least three cabinets in the kitchen. Done! I organized two cabinets and one now holds the dishes we’re storing, and the other holds the ones we’re letting go. I also cleaned out the baking cabinet; most of what’s in there now are items we’re using now but selling later.

    Although we’re still using them for now, these dishes are all being sold.

  3. Clean out and organize my nightstand. Done! There was an awful lot of junk in there.
  4. Clean out the two tansu in the living room (they’ve both been sold). Done! Most of the stuff that’s left are things we’ll continue to use until the buyers come to claim the chests.
  5. Narrow our list of suitable Airbnb rentals for the first half of our trip. Done! We’ve reserved all our homes for the first half of the trip, with the total less than $30 over our budget.
  6. Set up an additional area in the garage for moving sale items. Done! And it’s filling up fast.
  7. Take at least one bag of stuff to the thrift store. We filled one bag last month.

Here are our goals for April:

  1. Put at least $900 into our travel savings account.
  2. Continue to look for and possibly book air travel down to Buenos Aires.
  3. Clean out and shut down the garage freezer.
  4. Use up as many condiments as possible in the refrigerator.

    So many (hot) sauces, so little time

  5. Move my IRA from the local bank to our primary bank; help YaYu open an account at our primary bank.
  6. Order lei and a haku for YaYu’s graduation.
  7. Take at least one bag of stuff to the thrift store.

Once again, we’ll see how we do!

 

Goodbye February, Hello March

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It’s a new month, and time to post the goals we want to accomplish this month. But first, here’s how we did with February’s goals:

  1. Put at least $900 into our travel savings account. We put $1261.11 into our account in February.
  2. Combine all pantry items into one closet. Here’s how our two closets looked before . . . and here’s how they look now!
  3. Make reservations for an overnight stay on the Big Island, and a two-night stay at one of the PMRF cottages during spring break. We have reservations now for the Big Island in late June, and will be staying overnight in a cottage at Camp Kilauea (with a fireplace and jetted tub!) inside the national park. My HawaiianMiles will cover our flights over to the Big Island and back (Kona), and we have free entrance to the park, so besides.lodging our only other expenses will be a car rental and dining (we plan to have dinner at Volcano House, but otherwise will bring our own food along). Brett also got us booked for two nights in early June at one of the beachfront cottages at Barking Sands on the west side of Kaua’i. They’re fully furnished, so we’ll take along our own food, and have dinner one night at the restaurant on base (Shenanigans), which is supposed to be very good. Brett and YaYu are going to spend one day while we’re there hiking in Waimea Canyon; I will hold down the fort and relax (i.e. sit out on the beach and read).
  4. Decide on bed pillows and cases to take along on the Big Adventure.We checked out several pillows this month at Costco. Some were too heavy (I’m looking at you, Tempurpedic memory foam), and others were lightweight and cheap, and we didn’t think they’d hold up well, especially after getting stuffed into our suitcases over and over. We have settled on these pillows through Amazon. They’re expensive, but very lightweight (around one pound each) and durable. There’s no hurry to order them right now though.
  5. Take at least one bag of stuff to the thrift store. We took four bags to the thrift store in February.

Here are our goals for March:

  1. Put at least $900 into our travel savings account.

    The baking cabinet is on my list of clean-outs.

  2. Clean out at least three cabinets in the kitchen.
  3. Clean out and organize my nightstand.
  4. Clean out the two tansu in the living room (they’ve both been sold).
  5. Narrow our list of suitable Airbnb rentals for the first half of our trip.
  6. Set up an additional area in the garage for moving sale items.
  7. Take at least one bag of stuff to the thrift store.

Let’s see how we do!

Goodbye January, Hello February

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Here’s how we did with our goals this past month, and our goals for February.

Our January goals:

  1. Put at least $900 into our travel savings. We put $6067.96 into our travel account, which included $5000 from my inheritance.
  2. Clean off one set of shelves in the garage. Done!

    The shelves before . . .

    . . . and after. Everything on the shelf now is something that we’re going to sell (well, except for the Diet Coke – that is all mine!).

  3. Get my hair cut. Can you see how happy I am to have gotten rid of that big frizzy mess that was on my head? I tried a new salon this time and had a much better experience for the same amount as I was paying before at a different salon.

    New glasses, new haircut

  4. Get Brett’s hearing aids. They were fitted a little over two weeks ago – yeah! He saved a bundle by choosing the Kirkland brand of appliances at Costco.
  5. Have new glasses made with my updated prescription. I love having red glasses again. I also saved a bundle by ordering the frames online, and having the glasses made at Costco.
  6. Update our wills. Done! Besides creating our wills, the software we used also allowed us to prepare advance health directives and a durable power of attorney to handle our finances if we become incapacitated. And, we got the software for free!
  7. Take at least one bag of items to the thrift store. We took in three bags and one large box of stuff that WenYu cleaned out of her closet.

    Three bags of stuff ready for the thrift store.

Here are February’s goals:

  1. Put at least $900 into our travel savings account.
  2. Combine all pantry items into one closet. We currently use two small hallway closets for our pantry, but will downsize and condense into one.

    We want to clean out and organize this closet . . .

    . . . so all of this will fit in there as well.

  3. Make reservations for an overnight stay on the Big Island, and a two-night stay at one of the PMRF cottages during spring break. Camp Kilauea on the Big Island is inside Volcanoes NP, and very affordable. The cottages at PMRF out in Waimea are one of the best places on the island to see the sun set, and a good base for Brett to do some Waimea Canyon hiking.
  4. Decide on bed pillows and cases to take along on the Big Adventure. We’ve got a few options in mind, but need to make a decision. We’ll wait to buy in March though.
  5. Take at least one bag of stuff to the thrift store.

Let the downsizing continue!

 

Until One Is Committed

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“Until one is committed, there is hesitancy, the chance to draw back, always ineffectiveness. Concerning all acts of initiative (and creation), there is one elementary truth, the ignorance of which kills countless ideas and splendid plans: that the moment one definitely commits oneself, then Providence moves too. All sorts of things occur to help one that would never otherwise have occurred. A whole stream of events issues from the decision, raising in one’s favour all manner of unforeseen incidents and meetings and material assistance, which no man could have dreamt would have come his way. I have learned a deep respect for one of Goethe’s couplets:
Whatever you can do, or dream you can, begin it.
Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it!”

William Hutchinson Murray

The best description I ever heard of the China adoption process was that putting the dossier together was like doing your taxes over and over and over and over and over and over . . . again and again and again and again. A slew of documents needed to be assembled upfront: a homestudy, birth certificates, marriage certificate, medical reports, police reports, financial statement, adoption statements, immigration forms, etc. – there were nearly 20 documents required in all. Each one of them had to be notarized in the state where they originated, then each notarized document went to the Secretary of State of that state for the notary to be certified. After that, the entire stack, by now nearly three inches high, was sent by courier to the U.S. State Department for certification, and then to the Chinese Embassy for each document’s final certification and approval. Four copies then had to be made of every page of the entire dossier and only then could it finally be sent to China and put in line for us to be matched with a child.

The process took several months to complete, and along the way there was always the possibility for China to tweak or change their requirements. For example, we were almost done with the dossier for Meiling’s adoption when China suddenly announced that physicals could no longer be more than six months old, and ours were seven months old at that point. Panic! But, our doctor squeezed us in, and every other part of the certification process worked flawlessly (for a change) and in just a few short weeks the dossier was finally complete and off to China in late May of 1996. Matches and referrals were taking only three or so months back then, so our hopes were high that by the time we returned home in August from taking our son to college we would have news of a new daughter.

However, when we returned home and called our agency the news was not good; in fact, it was very bad. China had shut down adoptions for families that already had children, which of course included us. Our agency was moving families into other adoption programs, but China had been the only program that worked for us because of our ages (we were each over 40 years old). What had happened, we later learned, was a power struggle over the international adoption program had broken out between two different political bureaus in China, and adoptions had ground to a halt while they fought it out and reorganized. (We later learned our agency was convinced at the time that the entire program was going to collapse.)

All of our hopes and love, and quite a bit of money, had gone into the adoption process for more than a year, including all of Brett’s and my work assembling our dossier. I was in graduate school at the time, and my work began to suffer because I could barely concentrate. Brett unhappily slogged off to work each day as well. Our son was at college in another state, so it was just the two of us at home each evening, and we were glum, depressed and unsure of what to do or how to proceed.

On one particularly bad day one of my professors emailed me the quote above, and told me to “hang in there.” I shared it with Brett that evening, and we talked about how deeply committed we still were to adopting from China, and had been from the start. All sorts of unexpected and serendipitous events had happened and helped us along the way to make our adoption dream so far a reality, and we decided that rather than pull out we would stay with it to the end and see what happened, no matter the outcome. We both felt in our hearts that our daughter was waiting for us there.

The William Murray quote was a turning point for us. And, it has proven prescient ever since. When we have committed to something, whether it was adding an additional child to our family again through adoption, or getting ourselves out of debt, or moving to Hawai’i, or planning a trip – when we have committed ourselves, as the quote says, Providence has always moved too. Things we couldn’t have imagined happened to help make our plans a reality, and we were given the drive, vision and persistence to see our dreams come true and our goals reached.

Commitment has been the step where we’ve gone from “do you think?” or “should we?” to “let’s do this” and then started figuring out how to accomplish it. The path to success has not always been straight or smooth or easy, but time and experience has shown that the unexpected does and will occur along the way to help, especially when we need it most. As each journey continues we begin to see things in different ways and act on them accordingly, with our commitment to finishing growing stronger the further along we get.

As the new year began in 1997 we were still waiting, but Brett and I had reached the depths of despair. There had been no positive word from our agency for weeks, and we felt like we were hanging on to hope by our fingernails. We had enjoyed having our son home for Christmas, but he returned to school on January 9. So, when the phone rang on the morning of January 10 I assumed it was him asking about something he had forgotten or wanted us to send. I had been lying on our sofa, crying and asking God for some kind of a sign, that if there was to be no adoption to let us know somehow and we would let it go, but if we were to continue to hope then we would continue to hang on. When I answered the phone though it was not our son but our social worker: “Laura, there’s a baby girl waiting for you in China.” On March 12, 1997, in the hallway of a hotel in China, we met our little Meiling for the first time and she was ours.

This was the only picture we received of Meiling before we met her.

Whatever you can do, or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power and magic in it!

Lists, Lists and More Lists

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2018, at least until August, will be known around here as Our Year of Lists. At least that’s what it feels like now. We are in the throes of list-making in order to make sure that when we take off on the Big Adventure everything, or at least as much as possible, has been taken care.

List making can be fun (especially for someone like me who loves organization), but as we’ve learned about lists from past experience, when one thing gets done or is taken care of, two or more things seem to pop up and go back on the list

Here are nine lists we are currently juggling:

  1. Reservations/tickets: This list is pretty straight forward, and includes all travel-related reservations (lodging and transportation) we need to take care of, but will also include reservations for things like museums in Florence, for example. There will also be some fill-ins as we get closer to departing, like an overnight stays here or there between plane connections. We’ve already been able to get some reservations made (India, Australian train journey, Kaua’i rental), but it’s still too early for much else of it. The 2018 part of our journey can’t get started until we know when and where YaYu will be going to college, and that won’t be known until around the end of March. Brett and I work together on this list – I’m the researcher, but he keeps the spreadsheets and marks things off as they get done (and tracks the money).
  2. Paperwork: This list has two parts: 1) Official things like visas and 2) personal paperwork, and what we need to keep and where it will get stored while we travel. We are currently working on winnowing down our personal paperwork, and Brett is keeping a spreadsheet of where and when we need to worry about visas and other documents.
  3. Clothing/shoes: While this list has been fun to think about and compile, it has not been as easy as we thought. We will literally be living out of our suitcases for a year, and need to have both cold and hot weather clothing, as well as be prepared for everything in-between. We’re both almost done with acquiring what we need, and then will do a practice pack and weigh and see where we stand and what we (may) need to take out. I have searched for lists of what to pack for a year, but everything I’ve found is for travelers who intend to live out of a backpack for the year, and we’re not those people. We’re trying to keep things to a minimum, but want to have some variety for the year.
  4. Toiletries/medications; This is another seemingly easy list that’s turning out to be not as easy as initially thought. We’ll need to make sure we’re taking enough medication (both prescription and over-the-counter) to carry us through until we’re back on the mainland over Christmas, but we’ve decided that we can pick up most toiletries as we travel so we want to keep this as minimal as we can, and take just enough to get us started. Excusez-moi, où est la crème à raser? But what should those items be?
  5. Electronics: Both Brett and I are sure we have all the electronics we will need and want as we travel (laptop, iPad, iPhones, iPod, Kindles), but also want to make sure we take along all the accoutrement as well, things like chargers, cords, adapters, ear buds, etc. as well as back-ups.
  6. Miscellaneous: This list is really just the odds and ends of stuff that doesn’t seem to fit anywhere else, like books we want to load on our Kindles before we set off, or small financial matters (local and otherwise) that we don’t want to forget to take care of. Following the Senior Nomads example, we want to carry along our own pillows, so they’re on this list so we don’t forget them. Also included on this list are games we want to take along to play during down times.
  7. Downsizing/storage: We have divided our household items, including our car, into three areas: Sell, donate (or throw away), and store. We’ve already sold some things, and will be working for the next several months on the donate/throw away aspect. We have a pretty solid idea now of what we’re going to put into storage, but we go back and forth on some items (with Brett usually insisting we let it go).
  8. Kaua’i bucket list: This (bittersweet) list was posted last week.
  9. YaYu’s college stuff: All the admission paperwork has been submitted (or almost all), but once we know where she will be going we will continuing the list of what she will need in the way of clothing and dorm essentials, most of which will be purchased at her college location.

I’m sure there is probably one or two other areas I’ve forgotten about, but when I remember, they’ll get lists as well. We’ll be able to finish checking off some of these lists sooner than others, but most we’ll be working on right up until we go. The key is going to be staying focused, and relying on the lists to make sure it all gets done and that hopefully nothing gets forgotten.

#Kauai: The Bucket List

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Kipu Kai Ranch view – part of the ATV tour.

You’d think that after almost four years here on this small island we would have seen and done it all, but with less than eight months remaining before we take off on the Big Adventure, we’re realizing there are several things we still haven’t experienced and would like to do before we go.

Neither Brett nor I are those people that feel compelled to do everything when we visit or live somewhere. We like to do enough to gain a better and/or deeper understanding of a place, but also are OK with leaving some things undone, to give ourselves a reason to want to return (or at least rationalize a reason to return).

Here is a list we’ve come up with (for now) of some missing Kaua’i/Hawai’i experiences we’d like to have before we leave:

Experiences:

Sunset view from the PMRF beach cottages

  • Rent a beach cottage for a couple of nights at the Pacific Missile Range Facility, to enjoy the beach and experience the gorgeous sunsets. This is one of our military benefits, and we’d be remiss not to use it before we go.
  • Hike Waimea Canyon. This is high on Brett’s list. By the way, the reason I don’t hike with him is that while my knee (that I broke over 18 years ago) is OK going uphill, going back down doesn’t go so well – same for stairs.
  • Hike the Stone Dam trail. Brett’s done this a couple of times, but it’s a hike I can do too because it’s flat!

    We plan on getting VERY dirty on the ATV tour!

  • Take an ATV tour out to Kipu Kai Ranch This is the only “touristy” activity we really want to try.
  • Get up early and hike out to watch the sunrise from the Pineapple Dump.
  • Take the tubing adventure tour with our grandson if our son and family visit next summer, through the historic irrigation system of the old Lihue Plantation. Apparently it’s quite the thrill ride!

    The Kaua’i Museum

  • Visit the Kaua’i Museum in Lihue. The reason we haven’t gone before now is that even kamaaina have to pay to visit, but we feel it’s something we should see.
  • Tour the Limahuli Gardens & Preserve. The garden, located on the north shore, contains a wide variety of native and Polynesian-introduced plants, including a 100+ year-old taro garden and terrace system that dates back to the earliest Hawaiians.

    The Limahuli Gardens taro garden and terraces

Food:

  • Celebrate our anniversary this year at Duke’s Kaua’i, down at Nawiliwili in Lihue. We’ve heard nothing but good things about the food and ambience there.

    The view from Brenneke’s Beach Broiler

  • Have a lunch date at Brenneke’s Beach Broiler in Poipu.
  • Have dinner at The Eating House 1849, in Poipu (Roy Yamaguchi is an award-winning chef from Hawai’i), and at Bar Acuda in Hanalei.

    Breadfruit is a protein and nutrient-rich staple in Hawaii and other islands in the Pacific Ocean.

  • Try breadfruit. I can’t believe we haven’t done this yet. WenYu bought a breadfruit at the farmers’ market yesterday (after I had written this post) and cooked it in the microwave. It was delicious! We will be buying it again. WenYu’s friend also bought an egg fruit which we had never had before – it was also tasty!

    Egg fruit – the inside is soft and sort of dry, and mildly sweet

Off-Island:

  • Make an overnight visit to the Big Island to visit Volcanoes National Park (Haleakalā National Park on Maui is just going to have to wait until we can get back though).

    Hawaii Volcanoes National Park

This was a hard list to come up with for the reason that the thought of leaving the island, even for a little while, is almost more than I can bear. I will revisit the list in three to four months and check our progress.

 

 

January Goals

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My crazy hair has got to go! We’re undecided about whether Brett should keep his hair long or not.

With all that’s coming up this year, trying to make a list of the many things we want and need to accomplish before we set off on the Big Adventure would be overwhelming, as well as a post too long to organize. So, I’ve instead decided this year to break down our goals month by month to make sure we can get them done. Initially the tasks shouldn’t be too overwhelming, but building on what we get done each month’s should help us avoid a deluge of last-minute craziness when it’s time to go next summer!

Here are our January goals:

  1. Put at least $900 into our travel savings.
  2. Clean off one set of shelves in the garage. Only things that will be sold at our moving sale next summer will remain or be placed on the shelves (the shelves have actually already been sold though!).
  3. Get my hair cut. I grew out my very curly (and frizzy) hair last year, mostly out of curiosity, but it’s driving me crazy now so it’s time to go back to short hair again. Brett may get his hair cut as well.
  4. Get Brett’s hearing aids. He’s already had his hearing tests done, and now just needs to be fitted for the actual appliances (will get this done at Costco).
  5. Have new glasses made with my updated prescription. I have the frames ordered (from RayBan); when they arrive I’ll get the glasses made at Costco. The prescription didn’t change too much so I will be able to carry my current glasses along as a back-up pair when we travel.
  6. Update our wills. YaYu turns 18 this month, so we no longer need to have a designated guardian for her, among other updates.

Besides prepping for the Big Adventure, the big theme here at Casa Aloha this year will be downsizing. One thing that will be happening every month is at least one bag of stuff will go to a local thrift store. We’d rather get as much as possible of this done up front so we’re not left with tons of stuff to get rid of right before we go.

I’ll post at the end of the month with how we did!