Less than a month to go

My last post was about speed bumps, I left off with the brilliant idea to have my documents re-routed to Boise...didn't happen. I spent quite some time online and on the phone with UPS, but until they attempted to deliver they could not re-route, at one point the "lovely" customer service rep said, no threatened...she would put a 5 day hold on the package, before re-routing. I decided to cool down, and let them try to deliver on Tuesday, then I would re-route, but I neglected to tell our dog sitter not to sign for it, and she did. Which turned out to be fine, I just had her open the package of documents and take a picture of the marriage license, so I had a copy. Got word last night on the way home from the airport, that the new marriage license had arrived at the expeditors, he was on the way to apostille it, and it's now on its way back to me, via UPS, but oh well, it's done! 

We had a great time visiting our families in Idaho and California, most are up on the blog, but of course we love to talk about our upcoming adventure, so much of the conversations were about Ecuador. The most frequent question was "where is Ecuador?" So here is a map, notice how Mexico and Central America are twisted, and South America ends up being under the East coast of the United States. Some of Ecuador is on the same longitude as Raleigh, North Carolina. Ecuador is the little pale blue country on the northwest coast. (West coast, Eastern time zone) 

So, now that we are home, with less than 30 days...23 to be exact! It's a mad dash to the finish. Last yard sale this weekend, having handyman and plumber friend next week to finish projects, veterinary appointments for the pups (7 shots each) must meet with property management people at the Winston house, (because the girls are talking of moving out) and if we do inspection now, when they do leave we will all know what needs to be done for new tenants. We want to go to Ikea to buy some items to ship in the container ( May not happen) finish packing, because the container and moving crew come on the 20th! (Yikes, is that really only 14 days from today?!) I need to follow up on our background checks, (hopefully they are in the huge pile of mail) because they need to be sent to Raleigh for apostille, then I think we'll have all our required documents for visa when we get there. I have a visa helper in Ecuador, ready for us to arrive, said he would pick us up from the airport if needed, so that's good to know. 

Lots to do, and the puppies are especially needy, which we don't mind! We missed them like crazy, a week is a long time, and we have kisses to catch up on. But, must get busy, I mentioned that huge pile of mail, guess I'll start there. Stay tuned, much more to come, Hasta mañana!