Shots and Stuff

5/24/10
Kristen says:

I have 3 new holes in my arms today (quickly healing, of course) from the shots. When I went in I was really thinking I was going to have to have something like 10 shots (grossly overestimated, as it turned out.) We actually each had just the three: H1N1 and Tetanus booster in the right, Hepatitis A and B combo in the left (I actually had Hep. B back in Junior High, after my mom had cancer treatment, but I thought better be safe than sorry.) I will also start taking an oral Typhoid round sometime this week or next, depending on whether my sister's doctor says she can be around me or not. (Now that the secret is out in Iowa I can announce it to the blogging world: I AM GOING TO BE AN AUNT!!! :) Baby Bock (the nickname it will have from me forever) is due in early December, so now we have all the decisions to make about whether or not we go home for Christmas...)

And, that's it. (For shots, anyway).

We opted out of Rabies (the nurse said it only eliminated like, 2 shots that we would have to get if we were exposed anyway, and it costs something like $700, so we figured it wasn't worth it.)

We did get a prescription for Malaria medicine --don't ask me which one, we didn't go pick it up from the pharmacy today-- so we have some decisions about whether or not to take it once we get down there. All-in-all, I feel very confident after visiting the Polk County Health Department today, and happy that it didn't cost the THOUSANDS of dollars I thought it would. Grand total for all our shots was less than $400, and my insurance even kicked in $80 for the Hepatitis shot and the county paid for H1N1. Woot.

So, today we have made a small dent on the huge Honduras to-do list:
Inoculations, check!
Underwater video camera purchase, check!
Date scheduled for moving out of the apartment, check!
Plane ticket for dog ... well, not so much...

So, it turns out that Continental doesn't pick up live animals in Des Moines...so we may have to change our flight (goodbye $300!) and leave from Omaha instead. Hmmm. That drama will be interesting to follow.

My big project for, well, the next long time is to take care of this:(That's Pip in the foreground, looking a little washed out--the afternoon sun was strong today)

The project of which I speak is the sorting, cataloging, packing, and/or --sniff!-- getting rid of all those books behind him. If you can't tell, they are stacked 10-12 deep on all the shelves, spilling out onto the floor, creeping around behind where I was sitting to the side of my bed...and that doesn't even count the books I have at my current classroom. As I said in my last post, I love STUFF, and books are my #1 stuff. They make me happy, and I really do read a lot. Chris is being VERY nice about the whole way-too-many-books thing, but I know I have to step up to the plate and sacrifice some of my beloveds so that my mom doesn't end up with a basement full of my books.

A great visual analogy for Chris and myself:
This is the "wall art" above our bed. Can you guess whose side is whose? No, I didn't stage this picture, this is how these have been since they were put up 3 1/2+ years ago. Notice my side...full of STUFF! :) Glorious, junky, meaningful stuff. Chris' side? Totally empty. I actually tried to put something on his side a few years ago...notice it's not there now.

So, as you can see, this moving to Honduras thing is going to be more than just an adventure in where we are living, it is going to be an adventure in how to live.

Questions of the day:
Will Kristen get rid of more than 5% of her books? Will Chris grow totally exasperated with Kristen's pack-rat-i-ness? Will Pip get to come to Honduras on July 6?

Stay tuned, dear readers...

KF

Update: We are still moving to Honduras! :)

May 21, 2010
Kristen says:

Hello faithful follower(s)!

Sorry for the long blog hiatus, but this first year teacher/planning a move to Honduras/totally busy life thing is really slowing down my blogging! However, with just 8 days! left in school (and only 3 more days to actually plan a lesson for due to fun end-of-the-year projects and 2 days of finals) I finally have time to slow down, catch my breath, and update you on our moving to Honduras progress...

What we know:
-Our plane leaves Des Moines at aprox. 6:30 AM on July 6. Threeish hours later we will be in Houston, have a slight layover, and will arrive in Tegus in the early afternoon of that same day, about 3 hours after leaving Houston.
-We are excited! (It comes in spurts, but I alternate between totally terrified and over-the-moon excited. More excited, today.)
-I have a job in Honduras! Woot! :)
-I have curriculum. Bigger woot! (There is a lack of curriculum at my school right now--I hear they are changing that this summer, and it was actually ok for a person like me who likes to be in control, but it is refreshing to know exactly what I'm expected to teach next year.)
-We're getting our first round of inoculations on Monday. (Perspective cost? $100/shot. Probably looking at something like $1000 apiece. Wow.)
-I get to "meet" one of my classes for next year on June 7! (Discovery School has "Fly Up" day for their 5th graders, and I get to have a Skype conference with them! I can't wait to talk to them! It will make this all so much more real, I think, and will be good for our relationship building too. I plan to come up with 3-4 questions I want to ask them: their favorite thing about Tegus, their favorite thing about Discovery, etc.)

What we don't know:
-Where we will be living in the city. (We've requested a 2-bedroom apt or small house, but they haven't gotten back to us yet about exactly where that will be).
-How we will get around Tegus (we are either going to buy a Jeep or lease something Jeep-like for maximum traveling ability)
-Spanish! :-S (The business has also led to a lack of practico del español...my goal is to practice 2 hours a day in June...)
-If our dog can come. (Ok so we actually know that, what we don't know is if he can come right away...we have to get an import permit for him to come into Honduras--the problem is that we have to have it when we get there, and we can't get it without being there...so, either someone from the school will have to get it for us and either mail it or meet us at the airport with it, or...Pip may be making a separate trip from us -- NOT what this doggy-mom wants, I assure you.)
-What we are taking with us. (My list: dog, clothes, books. Chris' list: ) Haha just kidding. He will be taking more than nothing, we just pack differently. I like STUFF, he likes, well, non-stuff. We are doing a great job of not fighting over this, but with 1000+ books, it's hard to know what to keep and what to toss...
-Whether we will take Malaria drugs or not. (Is this as big of a deal as I'm making it?)
-When we are coming home. (We got a really good deal on our trip down there. Flights home for Christmas are, well, outrageous. Remember how much we're paying for vaccinations...?)

So that's where we are at. Any suggestions/thoughts/ideas on any of this stuff would be appreciated. I wish I knew how to contact some of the people who make comments on our blogs without just adding another comment after theirs. I never know if they are getting the message that I read and appreciated their comment, and hope to have more in the future. So, if you've commented, THANKS! Keep it up! I love other people's ideas! :)

Have an excellent weekend...I will let you know next week how the shots go!
KF