I’ve washed windows, walls, baseboards, mini-blinds, vent covers, and scrubbed showers with Tilex and Magic Erasers, all in preparation for my things to arrive. I had hoped to have at least some things arrive by the end of this month. Seems like maybe I had more time to get the cleaning done that I thought I did.

When we moved from the United Arab Emirates to Cairo, I split our shipment so that some things would arrive by air and other, heavier, less-pressing items would come by sea. I told my husband to do the same this time. He said he told the movers but somehow the message was lost because when I woke up Tuesday morning he’d written to tell me that the reason the quote they gave us was so reasonable was because it was ALL scheduled to travel by sea.

Not. Acceptable.

I was whining about this to a friend of mine who pointed out to me how lucky we’ve been through this whole process overall. I know we have been extremely lucky – finding a job in such a tough economy and getting all the rest of the logistics sorted out so efficiently has been nothing short of a miracle. However, knowing that doesn’t really help in this moment. I have been living adrift for NINE MONTHS. I’m tired of making do and improvising. I want to have my own stuff, in my own place, and start doing my own thing again ASAP. Having our things shipped by sea will delay that possibility by at least another two months.

Yes, I could buy more towels and sheets and dishes and utensils, but what a waste of money – I have all these things coming to me from two different sources, dammit. It’s just getting it all here that is the problem.

In the end, I basically threw a tantrum by email. Though they are many hours ahead of EST, the movers were still in our place and my husband was able to divert most of our kitchen things by air freight along with as many of my quilts as he could find (they had already been packed). He tossed some of my sweaters in his suitcase and called it good. I guess I’ll have to be satisfied with that for now.

I am still working on getting our US time capsule shipped to us as well. At this point, any of my stuff will do…

School starts tomorrow.

The children will be going to two different schools. My son will be in what seems to be a very nice elementary school located five minutes drive from our house. We met his teacher on the day we registered him for school and she seems very nice – she basically interviewed my son about his interests and took notes. It is only my first impression, but I feel very comfortable with the school and the teacher.

On the other hand, I’m very nervous for my daughter : she’s going into middle school.

The school building is very nice – pretty mosaic murals on the walls, lovely specialty classrooms and computer labs, and no less than three full time art teachers. However, it used to be a high school so it is also very large – two stories, with every hallway lined with lockers. The contrast between the elementary school and this school was fairly extreme.

I’m trying not to show my nerves because my daughter is nervous enough on her own.

The schools my daughter has attended previously have been fairly small – this one has about 800 students. She’s never used a combination locker before – one of my recurring anxiety dreams is being back in high school and forgetting my locker combination! I keep telling her that even though some of the other kids will know each other from elementary school, all the sixth graders are new to this school and no one will know how to get around, etc.

I don’t know if I’m comforting her or me.

We went this weekend and bought her school supplies and also a small locker mirror with a dry erase board and a couple of cute magnets. Why didn’t they have such fun things when I was in school? It’s not as if magnets are a new thing!

While the children are in school, I will begin working on getting all of our utilities – including internet! – set up and start work on having our things shipped from here, there, and everywhere. Since I’m already freaked out by how much I have to move, I’m fairly certain I’m going to be appalled by how much there is when I finally have it all in one place!

The house I ended up renting I found myself on Craigslist. Craigslist is a service I have often heard of but have never used. I admit that most of what I have heard about is the funny / sketchy things / scams people post there so when I saw the house advertised there, I was somewhat skeptical. I almost didn’t inquire about it at all – the listing seemed almost too good to be true. If the house was so great, why was it on Craigslist?

I sent off an email anyway, requesting pictures.

As it turns out, the owners had only recently moved out to follow a job to Wisconsin. The house was for sale but in the meantime they were willing to rent. I made arrangements to see it and very quickly decided that it was the house we wanted.

The landlady is new to renting and was understandably every bit as skeptical about me as I was about her – and I am sure that when she listed the house she never expected to attract a refugee of the Egyptian revolution! She asked for rental references – all of mine are pre-1999! She settled for personal references. She asked for a letter confirming my husband’s employment. Done. Then she sent me an email late on the night before we were going to sign the lease whether or not I had power of attorney to sign the lease on my husband’s behalf (since he has the job, not me).

Um…no.

I spent the next hour forwarding emails to my husband asking him to print out, sign, and fax the 20+ page lease – which is a challenging enough task on a regular day in Egypt but it was also a holiday there and he wasn’t at work. I was so anxious that I might not have been able to sleep if I hadn’t also been so exhausted. If we didn’t get the house, I couldn’t go forward with getting the kids enrolled in school and I’d have to start the process over again. (N-O-O-O-O!)

For once the time difference worked in our favor and by the time I woke up the next morning, I had a confirmation that he had sent everything back to the landlady and we were all set for our morning appointment. Phew!

I got the lease and the key and went directly to the elementary school to register my son. Our luck was still in and we got to meet his teacher too – I think he is going to be in very good hands. After lunch we went to the middle school to enroll my daughter. More on that later!

Yesterday I left the children with my friend in NW Ohio and drove down to my other friend’s house in Hamilton (southern Ohio) to collect all of the things I left there before summer. My car was cram-jammed top to bottom but I got everything in there. I’ll spend the weekend sorting and prioritizing because with the children hogging up the backseat, it is going to take multiple trips to get everything moved!

I’ve put nearly 2000 miles on my car in a week. Not. Going. Anywhere. This. Weekend!

The day we drove from Minnesota to Munising, MI was not pretty. Rain, rain, and more rain. I was really afraid that our stay would be limited to the hotel pool but the sky was (relatively) clear Wednesday morning so we set off to see what we could see.

There was more to see in the local area that I would have thought, given how small the town is. I decided that I wanted to do the Pictured Rock boat tour in the afternoon because that particular tour time included the Spray Falls. That left the morning open to do the glass bottom boat Shipwreck tour.

Confession: I love boats. I probably would have paid someone just to take me out on a boat ride. Adding shipwrecks into the mix just made it all that much sweeter and scored me major Mom-points with my little man.

(Click any image to enlarge)

The children and I choose to sit up the upper deck – sun and scenery, duh!

I took this picture from the upper deck of the boat. So, I was probably at least 12 feet above the water level and according to the tour guide the shipwreck was 5 feet below the bottom of the boat. How clear is that water???It looks close enough to touch!

A much clearer view from the glass bottom. It’s amazing how much is left after 140 years submerged.

A historic lighthouse in Grand Island, in the Munising harbor. Was it a beautiful day or what?

I would love to do one of the kayak tours of these rocks – so beautiful! Maybe next time

All in all we visited the sites of three shipwrecks, all in shallow water. Between the scenery above and below the water it was a thoroughly enjoyable tour.

The children and I made a quick trip back to the hotel for lunch and to change into swim suits: the tour guide had pointed out a pretty sand beach nearby that I decided we should visit. Kids are a bit like dogs: they behave best and are happiest when they’ve had ample playtime / exercise!

Is that a pretty beach or what? I am so used to rock beaches on Lake Superior I was a bit disoriented by the sand and the pretty colors in the water from the shallower depths. It looked more like the Caribbean so I kept expecting salt spray!

In hindsight, I probably should have flipped my tours. The glass bottomed boat never leaves the protected waters of the harbor so it runs rain or shine – not so for the Pictured Rock tour boat. When we arrived at the ticket desk for the Pictured Rock tour, we were told that they would only do a 1/2 tour because of wind and waves – at 1/2 price. We wouldn’t see most of the rock formations or the Spray Falls but since we were leaving the next day, it was a 1/2 tour or nothing. We went for it.

The way the sky looked by the time we boarded the boat, I thought we might have a Gilligan’s Island scenario on our hands. I could see why they cut the tour short when we left the shelter of the harbor – with nearly 6 foot waves, it was more of a thrill ride than a tour. The children were howling with delight as waves slammed into the boat and spray hit us. We were some of the only people who stayed on the top deck the entire ride (in spite of rain).

This, Miner’s Castle, is the only formation we saw. I could hardly even get a picture with the boat tossing the way it was. The crew were busy handing out barf bags. What a change in weather from the morning!

After arriving safely back at dock, we tidied up before dinner, and then spent the rest of the evening at the hotel pool. The children swam while I warmed up in the sauna. It was cold on the boat!

When we left yesterday morning, the sky was dense with dark, gray clouds and the waitress at breakfast warned us away from the beaches because of wind and riptides. I guess we can consider ourselves lucky to have had such a nice day – and gee, I guess we’ll have to go back sometime and try that Pictured Rock tour again!

Goodbye to friends and family in the US when I leave for Egypt; goodbye to friends in Egypt when I come to the US for a visit (or an evacuation!). Goodbye to friends in one place when I go to another. You get the idea.

Most of the time I can jolly myself out of the poignancy of the farewell by focusing on the good time ahead. It doesn’t always work so well when you have children who hate to say goodbye as much as their mother does or when you aren’t exactly sure what you are supposed to be focused on next.

Life is still uncertain.

Ah well, I have nothing to complain about really. Just feeling a bit blue because summer is once again over and we are still adrift.

Today we’ll focus on enjoying the beauty of the Upper Peninsula of Michigan – a relatively easy task given what I’ve seen so far.

I take my children to the Alpine Slide at Lutsen Mountain once every summer – I am so lucky I have children to use as an excuse because I might look a bit odd spending the day out there zooming down the mountain on my own! It is such a fun thing to do. It had rained on Thursday night and was looking pretty cloudy and gray Friday morning but we lucked out because it was clear in Lutsen. The only thing we had a little trouble with was wind – they shut the ski lift down a few times because of it. It didn’t slow us down for long though. I always mean to count how many times we end up sliding and I always forget to do it when I’m caught up in the fun. We were there for a little more than four hours = LOTS OF SLIDES.

Saturday morning we headed out to an inland lake to play in the water. It was another beautiful day, though it was a bit chilly when clouds would pass by. I finally tried out the paddle board my step-mother bought this summer. I was doing pretty well standing and balancing on it until I tried to be cute and do some yoga poses on it. I’m lucky that she got pictures of the poses and not of the splash I made as I slipped off and fell in the lake!

Sunday’s weather was looking iffy again but we decided to go back to the lake anyway. Why not? It was cool enough when the clouds blew past that I wasn’t inspired to swim however – I stuck to my kayak and wore a fleece pullover!

The clouds rolled in thicker and thicker throughout the day, but we never felt even one raindrop.

What a beautiful end to a wonderful summer.

For anyone keeping track, I’ve gained at least five pounds this summer and the children have NOT finished the math workbooks I purchased for them to do for practice. So much for self-improvement. Oh well… there’s always tomorrow!

So, instead of worrying about things I can’t control, I am distracting myself with fun stuff.

This week we stopped at a place I have passed countless times on my way up and down the North Shore: Kadunce River. Now that I’ve been, I can’t imagine why I waited so long to investigate.

There is a nice trail along the river that eventually connects up to the Lake Superior Hiking Trail system. We didn’t go that far, but you can believe that I’ll be back.

The children were more interested in playing in Lake Superior where the Kadunce River empties into it – it was a windy day and the waves were impressive.

I know it looks more like the Atlantic Ocean here, but you’ll have to take my word for it – this is actually Lake Superior. A man who arrived as we were leaving, wearing his wet suit and carrying a surf board! I can only imagine how frigid it must have been on such a windy day, but that didn’t deter my children one little bit. I had goosebumps just sitting on the shore watching them!

Have a great weekend – I intend to…

So when the urge to do a little yoga struck the other day, I decided I didn’t actually need a mat. Apparently a large rock will do in a pinch.

Good to know I can still do the stretches, though I doubt I could make it through a proper class anymore!

I don’t look too bad here but don’t let it fool you: I was doing pretty well on the whole gain-weight-in-the-summer issue until this week. It was the raspberries that did me in. I’m going to have to do a lot of rock yoga to peel off the pounds that have crept on…

It’s been a very good berry year – we spent nearly four hours picking berries in the brush and there are still tons to be had. It was hard to stop actually! It was only the mosquitoes and my aching muscles that forced me home. Just look as this bounty:

Who knew that picking berries could be such a good workout? The Warrior I yoga position (an extreme lunge) is a very good position for picking berries growing deep in the brush. You also get to practice good balance while doing the lunge on a rotting log lest you end up face first in the bushes!

Did I say it was a good berry year? It was really hard to make myself stop picking when I kept finding clusters of berries this big, so ripe they were practically jumping in my bucket!

I not only got a jar of jam out of our harvest…

We got a fantastic pie as well.

If I ate too much dessert this weekend, I have no one to blame but myself!

Instead I seem to be in a more industrial mood.

This old truck has been sitting in the side yard next to the garage for a few years now. In fact, I can’t count how many times I’ve done my best to take a picture of something in the yard and angle my camera in such a way so that the old truck is not in the frame. Then I looked out the window and saw the truck in the afternoon light and just had to go take a picture.

Is this not a picturesque truck? I played with the photo a bit and it looks really, really nice done in sepia tones – and why not? It’s halfway there in real life! It’s easy to make a wildflower or a deer look nice and it’s been easy enough to overlook the rusting hulk of metal until this year.

Once I saw the raw beauty in this truck, I was seeing great old trucks all over the place. There was another not quite as old Chevy sitting just next to the old timer.

How many times have I tried to take pictures of hummingbirds and been frustrated by the old trucks in the background? Much easier to make them the subject of my pictures instead!

This old truck was parked on the side of the road across from my step-mother’s brother’s house and it immediately caught my eye. Look at the colors!

My father is amused by my sudden interest in old trucks and has suggested a few places I might go to see more old trucks. Now I’m feeling a compulsion to go crashing through the brush to find them…