After being thrown a huge and fantastically surprising surprise party for our going away (and Ray's birthday) last Saturday, we have settled down to the task of packing. The party is more fun to write about so I will start there. Our daughter and our two roommates here at the lake house have been planning a surprise party for us for MONTHS. We knew we were having a small cookout for Ray's birthday and our going away. It would be the last weekend we would all be together this summer. I was told that things were being planned (such as games), and for me to just stay out of the planning. I knew the people that were coming. I knew that fourteen people would be at the house when we returned home from Costco that day. SURPRISE! There were 45 people at the party. Many past co-workers, Ray's dad and stepmom, my sister and nephews and their dad, friends from high school, lake house neighbors, friends of ours that we love and share with our lake house roommates and more. They had a table of light food and munchies set up for the guests while waiting for us to show up, then they had pork and chicken BBQ along with many sides and cornbread picked up from a BBQ restaurant, a dear friend made to die for Sangria, and there was beer, wine, soda and water. Guests brought lemon cupcakes, chocolate lasagna cake, peanut butter texas sheet cake, fruit, and brownies. Plus there was a humongous sheet cake that read "Farewell For Now" on it from Costco. I know I have left out tons of stuff that I either did not see (darn it because that means I did not get to eat it!), or I can't remember it, because there was so much! We played a trivia game on the deck. Half of the questions were about Ray and me and our relationship, and the other half was what everyone knew about Panama. Ray and I did not know the name of the first female Panamanian President, and we off by one year when Noriega was captured. Heck, Ray's dad didn't even know his middle name! Streamers were running the gamut with balloons, and while I wore a tiara that said "bachelorette" with a banner saying the same on it (since Panama does not recognize us as a married couple), Ray had a birthday boy hat and banner to wear.
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| Birthday boy and bachelorette surprised! |
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| Mom and daughter |
My daughter then started moving into a new apartment, so on Sunday we drove to her old apartment and helped her pack up the kitchen. A daunting task since her new kitchen is smaller. She will be living in an area where she can walk to the restaurants and Metro, but with this convenience comes a more costly apartment with an additional roommate. We enjoyed our alone time with her even though it was alongside packing and moving, and then we had pizza at Naked Pizza for dinner. Fantastic!
Monday Ray brought the suitcases out of the space above the garage, and we eagerly packed our shoes and medicinal incidentals. We are purposely packing (and this could be a good or bad thing) cold medicines, ibuprofen, allergy medicines, bandaids and the like which we know we can find in the stores there, but I don't want to be spending a lot of time or money my first few shopping experiences reading labels in Spanish figuring out what brand I want to buy and what is what--I know, what else will I be doing, but I would rather spend time and money on actual groceries/food then medicinals and incidentals such as bug spray/wipes and suntan lotion. We are also packing rafts for the pool, because we were told that they are not that great of quality there. Two bags packed weighing under the maximum that we can take which is 70 pounds. Two bags left and then electronics in our carry on bags. And a lot staying behind until we come home in November with four empty suitcases for more pictures and collectibles.
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| Some things shrink wrapped. The band aids will be for me, I am sure! |
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| Ray's shoes (mine are super flat flip flops on the bottom haha) |
After some light packing, we helped our daughter take two car loads of boxes to her new apartment yesterday. The movers come on Saturday, so this little stuff is out of the way. Then we had a wonderful dinner at PF Changs, and we walked there. Fabulous! I am feeling great about her new environment.
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| Daddy's girl |
Today, Ray spent time with his former co-workers today having lunch. I rummaged through the totes in search of those "must bring to Panama this trip" items. I have them stashed in a bag knowing it all will not go this time. It may just sit in this house for a while, but I need to know I still have these things. This is important to me and has been a deal breaker when we first started researching our dream of retiring overseas. Does not look like the deal has been broken, because we are still on track in our quest to move to Panama with bags on our back!
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