T-Minus 3 hours and counting

So, in the end we decided it best to depart all together. 9 checked bags, 4 carry ons, 4 "personal items", four tired and sad passengers and one tired dog... The shuttle to the airport is schedule to pick us up in three hours. The flight to DC then Vienna then Yerevan departs in 6 hours and 15 minutes. Are we ready? Sure we are!

It has been a marathon month. We finished the remodel just in time to list the place for sale and lease. (for a preview check out 2705ellisondrive.com) No bites yet. The market seems to be coming down for its "soft landing". We are hopeful we can rent our house out pretty quickly. A quick side note on our shipping company and experience. To cut it short, American Global Shipping sucks. More on this once our stuff makes it to Armenia....

So, during the hottest week in LA in forever, the Abajians decide to move all of their crap via uhaul to the shipping company in Compton. The weather was over 100 degrees each day as we moved things from my Mother-in-laws house to our house, our house to my mother-in-laws house, and our house to shipping company (three loads!). During day three of this ordeal, I woke up either with a 12 hour flu or a touch of heat stroke. I ended up spending the day vomiting and laying in bed. While I was taking the day off from moving stuff, a brush fire breaks out three blocks away in the canyon. Good news was that manditory evacutations were not in effect. Hey if the guy could play the violin while Rome burned, I could lay in bed neaseted while Benedict Canyon burned!

This last two weeks has been incredible. Goodbye dinners, parties, girls off to camp, play dates, last minutes trips to various stores, etc. The outpour of emotion from our friends and family was overwhelming. Today, the phone and cellphone literally rang off the hook for the better part of the day. It is going to be really tough leaving our family and friends behind. I have told all of them at least once to plan on visiting. I truly hope all of them take us up on it!

I plan on adding some photos to this site as I get a bit more organized. I am new to this blogging thing. I had several memorable quotes that I need to note before I forget them. Bridget last Sunday said in response to Houry commenting that this was our last Sunday at St. James prior to our departure "aw this is sad, because I love this church!!" Today, just a couple of hours ago before Bridget went to try and get some sleep and said "Well, today was aweful and sad. Now all the sadness is done and our fun will begin!" I really give them both alot of credit. This is a tough move. Our friend Gayane visited today and told me "you know Pete, you are not my favorite person right now!"

It was especially difficult this week saying good bye to Houry's father. His cancer seems to be under control, but he still has numerous other health problems.

On the Hayastan front, our condo at Window's to Ararat is still not completed. We have about another month or so to go. This may actually work out as our furniture is not due to arrive in Armenia until the middle of October. So, for the time being, we have rented an apartment on the corner of Zakian and Amirian just around the corner from the Marriott Hotel.

I will continue to post once we get to Armenia and get settled in. High speed internet is a rarity and I am pretty certain we will be on dial up from the temporary apartment. Good thing an internet cafe is located around the corner!