A Cyclone has landed

A category ONE cyclone has just came a shore bringing a lot of rain and wind.

The Bad:
1) Schools, universities and government offices are closed
2) Some friends are having some leaks/streams in there house

The Good:
1) With everyone stay home riding out the storm the traffic is reduced and I made it to the factory in 1:10 mins, usually takes 2 hrs. Thanks Ayyappan! (our driver)

2) The storm has given me my biggest laugh yet in India. Let me explain....... Have you ever seen in the movies when a car goes through a puddle and splashes some one on the side walk and the person getting splashed is total caught by surprise? Well today I was commuting to the factory I saw a man walking down the road holding a umbrella and as my car hit a very large puddle (pond) this gentleman in a split second directed his umbrella at the wave of water. As the wave collapsed his umbrella and he was getting soaked his facial expression was of such shock and surprise...... Ayyappan and I laughed for a good 5 minutes.

3) Chennai's water supply very dependant on rain water so many of the locals and farmers welcome the rain... There wet, but happy!

4) The rain provides a good cleaning for the roads and houses and cuts down on the dust.

Take care everyone :-)

Corey

Moving Day!!!

This is our new temporary home! The Homewood Suites by Hilton - located in Forsyth (less than a mile from our previous home).

So far, we have enjoyed staying here. We have a suite with 2 queen beds, a pull out bed, 2 TV's, and full kitchen. There is an office center (where I am currently typing this), an indoor pool, fitness center, laudry room, and to top it off---the school bus picks up the kids in front of the hotel! Every day Paige says "I really like this hotel, Mom".

Last week we were busy packing up and moving out. The packers came on Monday and had the truck loaded and gone by 4:30pm Wednesday afternoon. We had an "Air" shipment (about 80 cubic feet) that is carrying "most important items" and should arrive in Chennai in 10 days. Then we had a 40' cargo container that will carry most of our belongings to Chennai by sea and should arrive the 2nd week of January (we hope).

Corey has taken a total of 4 suitcases full of stuff as he has gone back and forth twice now. I took an extra suitcase of stuff when I went in early November. And if that isn't enough, I brought 7 suitcases and 4 boxes full of stuff to the hotel. PLUS we are storing 4 boxes of Jayson's stuff at a friends house (thanks Kristen!) Whew!

Following are pictures of Moving Day:

Eric and Paige playing on the dolly's

Packing up the mattresses

Eric on the truck ramp

Eric & Paige on the ramp

Paige doing a dance in the truck

Boxes, boxes everywhere!!

I couldn't resist taking a shot of Corey moving the trampoline to a friend's house. Does the word....."Redneck" come to mind?

It's a Good Thing We Love Mindy!

We were in a dilemma about Mindy, our cat. There is a little history about how we came to adopt Mindy - that I won't go into now. Let's just say she was an answer to two innocent children's prayers. Leaving Mindy behind was out of the question!


This posed a problem because what were we going to do with her while we lived in a hotel for a month, went on vacation to Utah and Florida? I know I could not handle 2 months of "transient" cat. As we were debating what to do, our friend Teresa (in Chennai) offered to cat-sit if I could bring Mindy to India when I went for the home-finding trip in October. Great idea!


Little did I know it would be easier to obtain passports and visas for a family of four than it was to bring an 8 lb. cat to India! In brief I had to:

• Contact the airlines and get their list of 12 rules for bringing an animal over.


• Obtain and fill out the correct Department of Agriculture 7-part form.


• Get a physical for Mindy within 10 days of travel


• Update Mindy's immunizations within 30 days of travel


• Get a copy of her medical records including ID and batch number of the shots she received


• Drive to the Dept of Agriculture in Springfield (45 min) to show proof of the above signed forms.


• Find someone in India who could help us clear customs.


• Fill out about 6 pages of documents for India


• Label her travel kennel with arrows, name, address, feeding schedule and somehow attach food and water and hope someone feeds her.


• Somehow get Mindy into this tiny kennel - took 2 people and 4-5 tries - thanks Mom!

Whew! I was able to get everything done - just barely. We got to the airport

got boarding passes, checked the luggage and they were just about to put Mindy in the back when the ticket lady said "I think you might have the wrong kind of kennel". She checked and sure enough, it needed to be assembled with "nuts-and-bolts" instead of "snaps". I told her that wasn't on my list of 12 rules - it must have been rule #13. They wouldn't let her on. NO WAY!!! Here I was supposed to be leaving in an hour and after all this crazy paperwork and running around, she couldn't go.

Ticket lady said if there was some way I could obtain the correct kennel we could send her. So after I went to the car and had a mini-meltdown - teaching the kids that parents sometimes cry too when they're frustrated - I pulled it together, found a Walmart, bought a nuts-and-bolts kennel, zoomed back to the airport and put it together and checked her. DONE! Not quite......

My flight from Chicago to Frankfurt was late and I barely made my connection to Chennai. They had to re-open the airplane doors to let me on and I begged them to wait for my luggage and LIVE ANIMAL. They said they would try. After waiting at the baggage claim in Chennai for about an hour, I resigned to the fact that Mindy (and bags) didn't make it. Next flight in from Frankfurt was in 24 hours. Three days, $400.00, and lots of gray hairs later.....Mindy was in India!

Things I learned:

1. Changing kennels was a blessing. The nuts-and-bolts kennel was 3 times as big as her original one (she could stand up, roll around and do flips if she wanted). I didn't feel so bad knowing she was going to spend about 3 days in it.


2. I didn't smell too bad after 3 days in the same clothes.


3. Cats can hold it for a long time - if you know what I mean.
4. I can still feel the spirit at church.....even in jeans.


5. Where there's a will, there's a way. Hard work does pay off!


6. I guess I really do like Mindy.

Good Bye Phillip Circle, Hello Sea Shell Ave!

We were very blessed to sell hour home within one week of listing it. However, sadness accompanied the relief. We loved our home on Phillip Circle - the traditional midwest coloniel - and our wonderful neighborhood. We will truly miss this home that has brought us happiness and comfort.


On Halloween day, I met Corey in India and the house hunting search began. We thought we had our priorities straight as to what we wanted in our new home, but oh!, how wrong we were! Thanks to our good friend, Teresa, who quickly taught us the art of house hunting in Chennai (she has been living their for 1 1/2 years). Our priorities changed from:

• What's the square footage?
• What appliances come with?
• What is the neighborhood like?

TO:

• How big is the septic tank, where is it, and how often does it need emptying?
• What's the size of the generator? (power goes out at least once a day)
• Is there a house stabilizer?
• Is there a place for the guards to sit, go to the bathroom?

I actually felt nausiated after the first day and seriously wondered what we had gotten ourselves into. After meeting several other CAT ex-pat wives and seeing 3 of their homes, I felt better and had hope that we would find something. It wasn't until our last day and after several prayers that we decided on a home located on Sea Shell Ave:

I am confident that we will be able to make this our very own "oasis" in the midst of a third-world country and feel blessed to have this opportunity to discover another side of Heavenly Father's beautiful world!

Since He's Been Gone

Since Corey has been gone, here are a few things I've been working on:

• passports for the kids
• passport for our cat Mindy
• selling the house
• selling our 2 cars
• selling other stuff we aren't taking
• going to school
• studying for exams
• decluttering the house
• paperwork, paperwork, paperwork
• preparing for my trip to India to find a home
• about 8 trips to the doctor for 12 vaccinations - who's counting?
• eye exams
• physicals
• dental appointments
• mammogram
• trips to the doc for kids vaccinations
• Food Shipment

And on, and on, and on. The list is never ending!!!!! Just as I cross one thing off the list, 2 more are added.

Caterpillar is kind enough to ship food and other household goods to their employees in India once a quarter. So on October 28th, my good friend Jenny and I emptied our vans and went on a shopping spree! I loaded up my van with our food storage and stuff from Target and we also visited Sam's Club and Walmart. By the end of the afternoon, both of our vans were full! We dropped everything off at a warehouse in Peoria and Corey should be receiving it in a few weeks. Thanks Jenny, I couldn't have done it without you!!!

Corey is the First to Go!

On Monday, September 29th, 2008, Corey left for Chennai, India to begin our family's new adventure! He reported for work at Caterpillar on October 1st and the rest of us will follow in January 2009. It was a sad goodbye. I told myself that with so much work to be done to prepare for this move, time would fly by quickly - and so far it has.