What's left to do

Here's the longer list...we still need to:

Get paper copies of prescriptions

Set up all bills online

Mail boxes of books, toys, coats, boots

Put cell phones on hold

Get a new camera

Get two new backpacks

Order fall pants for the boys

Apply for visas in DC

Order one year's worth of contact lenses

Order one year's worth of Frontline and Heartgard for Fig

Apply for Yakken Shoumei (permission to bring medicine to Japan)

Stock up on medicines

Mail work papers

Figure out car and home insurance

Put deposit on Japanese house

Pack 10 suitcases at 20kg or less each

Get house ready to leave

Organize medical and dental records

Sell the rusty Honda

Eat all the food in the house

Find homes for our plants

What we've done

Life seems like one big list. Getting ready to leave for one year isn't easy....

Some things we have already done:

Found a house to live in in Japan

Applied for international school for the boys in Japan

Found a doctor for Max in Japan

Asked US Health Insurance to see what they cover in Japan (note: This says "asked." "finding out the answer" is a totally different item, which apparently will not be resolved until we make our first claim)

Switched health insurance to more flexible plan

Got the boys a Japanese teacher

Purchased omiyage (presents)

Got a credit card that doesn't charge for international exchanges

We have also...

Talked to US Schools about withdrawal

Asked about online voicemail access for US phone

Filed for medical clearances

Found a temporary home for the Figgy boy

Gotten plane tickets for us to go from PHL to Japan

Found out what to do with our US cell phones

Hugo is ready!

The first post

Welcome to the first post in the Surprising Breezes blog. I set this up yesterday, after a tutorial with Tiffany the Amazing Blogger. If you want to click over to her blog now, fine; but make sure you have about 2 hours free.

The goal is to share our upcoming Japanese adventures with our family and friends back home. We aren't leaving for 2 more months, but I'm deep in List Mode right now. And if you're reading this, you are witnessing yet another thing I have crossed off the "get ready to go to Japan" list.

Surprising Breezes is a name that Darrin coined for our house a few years ago. It's a great blog name, too (Tiffany assured me). Appropriately, while I was fussing with blog layouts last night, Max handily illustrated why we call our house by this name. At 10pm, I heard footsteps in the bathroom.... And then I got to hear what happens when somebody closes the toilet lid before the boys go to bed. Max was basically asleep. You can guess the rest.

To be honest I didn't feel mad. Partly because I was the compulsive one who closed the lid. And partly because up until a year ago, Max would have been doing the same thing--only in bed. Floors are easier to clean. Anyway, there you go. Our house is full of surprising breezes, especially near the floor of the bathroom.