Getting Ready for India

Treating the India clothes with Permethrin

I spent the day crossing things off of the "to do" list.  Today was about the house and getting stuff ready to pack.

Since we will be returning in mid-October and since Minnesota weather is not always very nice in October and since I didn't want to worry about it when I got back from India, I decided that I should probably do something about my garden.  Every fall I put off taking out my garden, and then have to deal with it in the spring making the garden go in later and later every year.  Not this year!  I am actually getting my garden out in the fall like I am supposed to.  Unfortunately with the trip timing that meant pulling out plants that were still alive and tossing them in the dumpster.  I tell myself that they were done producing anyway.  Hopefully they don't curse next year's garden.

We are very lucky that a friend volunteered to house and dog sit for us while we are in India.  Now we don't have to oppose on friends and neighbors AGAIN to watch our dogs and our house for us while on a trip.  This way we have someone here in case the furnace goes out or the sump pump stops working or something along those lines.  As we are going through the house "stuff" I realize that I am giving a lot of directions on appliances.....the dryer will dry, but only if you run it for a long time, the washer works, but the safety stop doesn't - so don't stick your hand in there while running, the dishwasher works, but the timer doesn't - so only run it when you're home and you'll probably have to shut it off after a while.

I think that we need new appliances.

I also spent some time picking out what I was going to pack for India.  For me, packing is a process.  I spend time pulling clothes out of my closet and making piles on the floor near my suitcase.  I then start putting together outfits.  I then put back away about 1/3 of the clothes that I had originally pulled out of the closet.  I then make a second round of picking in which I try to mix and match a few times to make the same number of outfits with less clothes.  I then put away another 1/3 of the clothes that I had originally picked out.  Even with this process I STILL end up overpacking.

Since we are going to a country where mosquito borne illness is kind of an issue, insect repellant is a MUST.  It was recommended that we treat all of our clothing with Permethrin (in addition to gooping on DEET) to help repel mosquitos. According to Wikipedia - Permethrin is a common synthetic chemical, widely used as an insecticide, acaricide, and insect repellent.  It is not known to rapidly harm most mammals or birds, but is dangerously toxic to fish and to cats: in cats it may induce hyperexcitability, tremors, seizures, and even death.  Well, good to know that it will only potentially slowly harm me since I am not a cat or a fish.

I read the directions on my Permethrin and it says to apply outdoors and to try to avoid getting any on your bare skin and inhaling fumes (is this stuff REALLY safe for most mammals?).  So, I hang all of my clothes outside and keep the dogs inside to make sure they don't accidentally ingest any of this stuff.  I am sure that the neighbors are starting to really wonder where the heck we are going on our "vacation" that we have to spray out stuff down with insect repellant.  Hopefully this stuff works.  Hopefully it really is safe and I don't produce offspring with extra limbs.....time will tell.

Where There's a Will, There's a Way

Last week I talked about the seemingly neverending "To Do" list and how I thought it would never be done.  Today I am happy to report that it is done.  Instead of focusing on all of the things to get done, I instead focused on tackling 1-2 a day until I got them done.

Today Mark and I signed our Last Wills and also our Living Wills/Health Directives.  These were things that we always talked about doing, but just never really found the time to do it.  I was a little worried about the potential time and expenses to get this done, but it ended up being pretty easy.

I found on online legal site (I used Rocket Lawyer, Legal Zoom or one of the other sites out there are probably just as good).  It was cheap, it was fast, it was easy, it was good.

The wills were great.  They state that now we do not have children, but also stipulates what we would want for any future children.  And also our furry children.

Now that we had the documents, we still had a bit of a problem.  All needed to be notarized, and our wills also needed to witnesses.  Two independent witnesses who are not parties mentioned within the will and who were willing to attest to the state of our minds and bodies.  Obviously random people at the bank were not going to want to do this.

Luckily we have a couple of notaries where I work and two of my wonderful co-workers were willing to be witnesses for my will.  If you lovely ladies are reading this.....Thank you again for your help. 

It is also good that tax documents are in some ways tax documents are similar to legal documents and that I often need to pour over legal documents looking for possible tax issues.  The point being that despite not having any formal legal training, I did a pretty good job of quickly going through the signatures today and making sure that we had all of the correct initials, signatures, etc in the all the right places within a few short minutes.  Go me.  Super Tax Girl strikes again.

The Deer Stand

 

 

Mark and I did another day trip to Crosslake, MN to get our deer stands ready.  Thankfully the bugs were not that bad this time and I managed to escape a day in the wood with only a handful of mosquito bites and no ticks.  The deer stand is up!  Yay!  The trail is marked! Yay!  We saw deer all over the place on the way back which means that there ARE deer in those woods!  Yay!  Hopefully we will see one in November......

Will the "To Do" List Ever Be Done? - Part 2

Today I am feeling overwhelmed by my "To Do" list.  Instead of happily crossing things off, I just keep adding to it.  As we were preparing our items for the FRRO visit, we realized that we had a lot of other important things that we should probably get done before we leave.  Like most people, we have a list of things that we keep saying that we'll get to, and then don't get to it.  I think that our India trip is making us get to a lot of those things.

Here's the list.....
1) Update and increase our life insurance
2) Update and increase our homeowners insurance
3) Make wills
4) Make living wills
5) Get extra copies of our birth certificates
6) Get extra copies of our marriage certificates
7) Get international calling for trip
8) Stop paper and mail during trip
9) line up rides to and from airport
10) Make sure everything is covered at work while I am out
11) Make sure we have the dogs & house covered while we're gone
12) Let credit card company know that we are travelling.

I know that there's probably more but my chest feels tight from this list already.......

A Nice Weekend With My Parents

 



My parents come up to visit every year and we go the Renaissance Festival together.  This has been an annual tradition since I moved here in 2001.  We have missed a year here and there, but for the most part it is every year.

I really enjoy the trip as I don't get home that often to see Mom and Dad and I think that they like the weekend away.  In prior years it was a whole family affair, but in the last couple of years it has dwindled down to just Mom and Dad.  This is nice as in addition the Renaissance Festival we can do other things with it being just the four of us.

We decided to go to the Renaissance Festival on Sunday, since it puts Mom and Dad an hour closer to home for the trip back.  On Saturday I was able to score Book of Mormon tickets, Brave New Workshop tickets, and a dinner reservation in between at Hell's Kitchen.  Looking back we probably could have skipped Brave New Workshop since we were all pretty tired by the end of the night, but it was still a lot of fun.

Sunday Mark needed to hang back and work on wiring for the house (part of our construction project), so I went to the Renaissance with my parents by myself.  It was really a nice day.  We stopped and watched the fire dancers and The Danger Committee as well as the Joust.  We ate loaded tator tots, beer cheese soup in a bread bowl, and shish kabob.  All in all we had a good time.

When I got home Mark had stopped at his parents and secured his birth certificate.  His mother had his original copy.  I read through the mail that I had been ignoring for a couple of days and found out that my Hepatitis titer came back negative. Yay!  I am immune - no more shots!

I would call that a pretty good weekend.

Will the "To Do" List Ever Be Done?

We got our VISAs, travel shots, IVF protocol, IVF drugs, flights and hotel booked.  We FINALLY feel like we have things under control.....and then we read our email.  India let us know that they will be setting up an appointment with the FRRO (Foreign Regional Registration Office) within a day or two of our arrival.  We knew that we would be required to visit the FRRO within a few days of arrival, what we didn't know was that we still had some work to do.

India sent us the list of documents required for the FRRO:

1) Application (yet another application)
2) Original marriage certificate
3) Original Residence Proof (Driver's License)
4) Surrogate Agreement
5) C Form from the hotel where we are staying in New Delhi
6) 4 passport photographs
7) Medical Visa copy (with stamp of arrival)
8) Passport copies
9) Birth Certificates.

It was the last item that gave me some heartburn.  I know that I have a certified copy of my birth certificate - I had to get one a while back when I got my passport.  What I didn't know is if Mark has a certified copy of his birth certificate.  And, if he doesn't we are going to have to get a copy ASAP.  Yikes!  As if we didn't have enough to worry about.

Hello Walgreens My Old Friend

Today I got to make a trip to the Walgreens in Uptown.  If you are familiar with the Twin Cities you will realize that uptown is about 25 miles from Champlin.  Why would I go to the uptown Walgreens when there is one literally a few blocks from my house?  Because the one in uptown is a fertility pharmacy and they pass their bulk discount to their customers (which is huge when your insurance doesn't cover ANY).

This IVF cycle I will be on the antagonist protocol.  After this I can now say that I have tried them all.  I will be on 300 UI of Gonal F for five days and then start Ganirelix on Day 6.  Luckily I had one vial of Follistim 300 UI left from our IVF cycle last September that is still good.  That, combined with the Walgreens discount saved us over $1,000.

I am waiting in line at the uptown Walgreens pharmacy behind the waiting sign - the one that tells you to wait about 10 feet from the counter to protect the privacy of the customer at the counter.  While I am waiting in line I am thinking that 10 feet is not nearly enough space to "protect my privacy".  I believe that this was proven to me when it was my turn at the counter.  I am handed a very large bag (keep in mind that this was NOTHING compared to my first trip to the IVF Walgreens) and told my bill was $1,216.

I hand my credit card over to the clerk like I just bought a $5 latte, meanwhile I swear I see the eyes of the guy behind me pop out of his head.  I am holding back a giggle as I look at the "What the F%^$ did she just buy?" expression on his face.  Little does he know that my last trip to the IVF Walgreen was around $3,500 - this is a STEAL compared to that ;)