Getting Close Preparing....

Wow...what a week or so.  This week we have been working on the kitchen.  We want to get everything over to our storage unit this week.  Next week we have misc. things to get done and talks to prepare.  We got permission from our Stake President to get set apart on Tuesday the 22nd.  We will then we will take off early on Wed. the 23rd.  We will go to St. George.  Then Thursday we will stop and see my brother Bill in Vegas and drive on down to Southern California.  We will visit my Aunt Kathryn on Friday.  Then head back to St. George on Saturday, and Sunday drive on up to Provo into the Missionary Training Center.  The reason for the early departure is that our Mission President wants us to get back to DC as soon as we can.

Kitchen has been a mess to go through.  We still are not done.  I have some drawers and cupboards to pack and then to clean them all.  I also had a friend come over yesterday and help me clean out the storage room in the garage.  That was so good to get that done! SO much stuff to DI.  It is amazing what we had that we can live without!  Amazing!  We are mostly eating our fast food as we have packed all the dishes.

I have some comments we have received from the couple whose apartment we are going to move into:
     " Forgot to tell you that I am leaving a printer behind.  It's a Kodak inkjet type with wifi connectivity.  It prints real good but the ink cartridges don't seem to last very long.  It was advertised as the lowest cost ink user but it doesn't seem that way to me.  If you don't print a lot it would probably be good for you.

The kitchen has a microwave and toaster plus a toaster oven.  Gas range, dish washer and disposal.  There is a dumpster outside plus recycle bins.

There is an auto shop next door "Logans Repair" and I have had him do oil changes etc.  He's reasonably priced and is a real personable guy.  There is another repair garage across from the Safeway.

There is a farmers market every Saturday morning.  Winter has less available but summers have a lot of good produce.  There are quite a few other produce stands here in summer."

 "There is also a computer desk of sorts plus the second bedroom has a desk that I had my laptop on plus another desk and some work space.  There are also a couple of DC Metro pass cards for seniors 65+ which were here when we came.  There is over $20 on each one of them so you won't have to add any for a while.  Round trips to downtown from Forest Glen Metro are about $5 for seniors and parking there is about $5 per car.  Weekend parking is free.  Metro fare is reduced for seniors after 9:30 am until ???pm.  There are others here who can help you learn the Metro if you even use it.  If you have a smart phone there is an app titled "Embark DC" which is useful.  There is a credenza with a drawer full of maps and other stuff about places to go when you have time.  There are some small tools and misc. other repair stuff, extension cords, laundry soap, laundry basket.

The temp control is quite good except when there is a power failure.  We had about 3 days without power the end of June because of a bad thunder storm.  We went to another senior missionary apartment building that had power to stay cool.  It was 100F+ those days.  The apartment has a window fan and a pedestal fan plus a couple of auxiliary electric heaters if the building heating quits.  We only had to use one for a couple of days once.  There are also some miscellaneous Christmas decorations in the apartment.

The apartment is fairly quiet because it's outer boundary structures are concrete.  The elevators work most of the time, fortunately the 4th floor doesn't require many stair flights.  The mail pickup is on the ground floor and usually gets here by 5pm.  There is a post office close by plus a Safeway and other stuff.  Kensington is a rather quaint old town, 1894."

"The Archives missionaries drive from the Kensington House where the apartment is to the Archives II facility in College Park where there is a free shuttle bus down to the Archives Bldg in downtown DC.  It takes 1 hour for the bus to go about 10 miles through the streets here.  I hope you have a GPS for your car or you will wish you had.  Avoid the beltway except between 10am and 3pm on the week days.

The patio faces west so you'll have afternoon sun.  The blinds work great and the AC is good in the warm part of the year.  There are some planter pots on the balcony already if you want to plant flowers or some tomatoes etc.  There is plant food here.

I hope you don't have an antique addiction because you'll be in trouble here.  Kensington seems to survive on the antique trade.  Everything is old here but Kensington is well kept and quaintly charming. "

Sounds like we will have everything need.  A real nice place.  Oh...and I do absolutely love antiques!  ooops......  :)

The emotional energy that this all is taking is massive...So very much to think about...memories of the house, things to tell chad...memories of friends, and grandchildren, the quiet "organized" live from last year...just so hard to shut down your brain at night and get any sleep. Not to mention the sore muscles from lifting and moving stuff and boxes...but the Lord has blessed EVERY step.  We got a bill the other day from the attorney doing Jaden's guardianship papers and it was almost another $500.  Well today we got a rebate check from buying our car that we were not expecting for almost that exact amount!  The young missionary sisters have wanted to come and help me with some service.  They were going to come today...but I woke up not feeling the best today...they called this morning and said they had something else come up...the Lord knows what I need and when.  He is taking such good care of us it is amazing.