Today is the last day of Junior Guards! Here’s what we have going on today, Thursday, August 11: Kaiyo and Avalon are riding bikes to JG from 10-12 and Halyard goes from 1-3. All 3 are meeting up at the Fun Zone for lunch and arcade fun from 12-1. Big Al is coming back to install the new strikers on our stove at 9am. Tony our painter is coming over to look at our painting needs and give us an estimate. John plans to sell the BMW to a man named Mark today at 3:30! Then, at 5:30 we’re supposed to be at Balboa Peninsula Park for Junior Lifeguard Graduation. Phew! And I won’t be there for any of the morning items because I’m driving to El Segundo at 6am! USDA (United States Department of Agriculture) here I come. I am determined to get there early so that I can get out early and get back. It’s only open from 7:30-11 and they said people line up early.
See Taking Our Cats With Us post for my adventures at the USDA.
On John’s end, he was running around so much that he ran out of time and wasn’t able to meet Mark to sell the BMW today. Mark was super understanding and he agreed to meet the next day (Friday – our last day!) at 3:30pm. We made it to the junior lifeguard graduation about 15 minutes late. The kids hopped out of the car and ran to their groups. John and I parked the car and walked over to a nearby sandwich shop called The Trough. We relaxed for a minute and casually ate sandwiches in peace and then made our way over to the park. It’s our 6th JG graduation (Halyard has been doing this for 6 years!) and they’re all pretty much the same.
Friday, August 12 – our last full day in Newport Beach! What’s on the docket for today? A final run to the storage unit early in the morning. Pack up last minute stuff sitting around. Later, my parents are coming over around 11:30 to come get our computers, monitors, the printer, a few boxes and other odd miscellaneous stuff to keep for us for the year. They’re bringing the kids a last round of In-N-Out Burgers for lunch. 🙂
We have an important, and possibly impossible, task at the storage unit this morning. When Avalon set aside all of the things that she wanted to bring as carry on in her backpack she spread them all over her dresser. Later, when Tori wanted to show some potential renters our house I swept all of her carry on stuff into the top drawer of her dresser. The morning that the movers came I asked John to take all of the things out of her dresser drawer and but them in a bag, but he forgot. So now she’s devastated that all of her important things are stuck in the dresser in the storage unit. I know how the movers packed our storage unit tight. The dresser could be hidden behind any number of heavy pieces of furniture. Or it could be facing the wrong way. I have my fingers crossed.
When we get there it looks like the dresser is facing to the side with other heavy things blocking it. It doesn’t look good. But then I realize that there is actually a 4-5 inch gap between the dresser drawer and the next piece of furniture and it’s literally one of the only places that makes it accessible. It’s also facing the right way for me. We brought the Leatherman tool to cut the plastic wrap off and I am able to pull the drawer open about 4 inches and stick my hand in and feel around for items. I pulled out everything I could that would fit through the opening. Avalon was most concerned about her purse, wallet and money in there!
This is actually what it looked like and Avalon’s dresser is tucked away on the right. You can see a small gap there in between heavy things.
On the way home from the storage unit we stopped at Verizon to pay off our phones to make sure we owned them free and clear so they can be unlocked. John went home to disassemble the computers.
I took the BMW to the car wash. I started getting everything out of the house. John left to sell the BMW at last. Nothing like the last minute! He got that car sold by 5pm on the day before we flew out of the country! Bye Bye Beemer! We will miss you as we ride around on the subway and buses!
After my parents left with all of our electronics, Anja and her kids came over to say good bye. They took Kaiyo’s FELT bike home for Jakob to ride for the year. I also gave her stuff from my pantry to take home. Party favors for everyone that comes over today! Then my high school friend Holly came over to say goodbye. She was squeezing me in to her schedule so that was really nice.
I decided we’d better assemble the White House cookie kit that the Griffins gave us before it’s too late and we run out of time. So the kids sat on the empty kitchen floor and put together a gingerbread like house… except it was the White House. It had a lot of icing and decoration and it looked pretty cool. They said it didn’t taste very good though! Thank you Tate, Tessa and Preston! We miss you!
Then John’s brother Paul and sister-in-law Sue came over to say goodbye! We made sandwiches and tried to eat up stuff in our fridge. I gave Sue more things from the fridge and pantry. I loaded her up with condiments, pickles, couscous, flour, honey, sugar, Worchestershire and other random whatnot from our supplies. Avalon went over to Val’s house to make cookies too. In the end, the night before, I was up till 1:45 am just getting everything out of the house, in the trash, in the Goodwill pile, in the suitcases. John made a last run to Target for me at 9pm. He got to the register for checkout and realized he’d left his wallet at home! So he had to come home to get it and go back out again. I filled out luggage tags and loaded Wendy’s minivan with our stuff. It was a whirlwind.
About Wendy’s minivan at our house… at the Bulgins’ going away dinner, the girls hatched a plan to caravan to the airport and drive us and our stuff there. Wendy brought her minivan over to pre-load and be ready for the early morning run to JWA.
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