Made in Indonesia.

My brother almost got me deported.

Okay Okay. It was me. I was the one who brought in bamboo and straw. two absolutely illegal items.

We got our shipment from the USA yesterday! When I opened the boxes, everything smelled like our old apartment. It made me a little sad since our house here doesn't have the same smell. Even though both are pleasant smells (just in case you were wondering).

Even though getting the shipment was awesome...it is quite a tale in how we did it.

First thing in the morning, Jared's boss calls and asks me to come in as an assistant because they were short staffed. I got ready and headed into work with Jared. I got to work with a hygienist for the day. She is a very nice lady and took it easy on me.

We set up the room and got ready for the first patient. Looking on her patient list, we had a lot of 45's. This means that there is 45 minutes scheduled for their cleaning because they haven't been before or haven't been recently. Some of those didn't show up but the ones that did were interesting. I never would have thought that I could enjoy suctioning blood and saliva from people's mouths. The only part of being a dental assistant that I am not fond of is the quickness with which you have to prepare the surgery for the next patient. You literally have 3 minutes to wipe down everything, breakdown instruments and take them to be sterilized, set up tray and instruments for the next patient and be back to welcome the patient and get them ready. Fun...but nerve wracking.

I also learned of a radio commercial that says 'Jared's back! Jared's back!' and advertises Jared's dental services. Pretty awesome.

The night before, we received confirmation that our shipment would be here. We had to pick it up and have it back to the house by 2:30 so that it could be inspected by the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry (MAF) Biosecurity agent. I had planned on getting Ian's Jimny and trailer to go get the stuff in the morning and have time to unload it at the house before the MAF agent came.

When I had to go in to assist last minute, that complicated things.

At one o'clock, Jared left with the trailer to go pick up our stuff from the carriers while I finished up my last patient. I must acknowledge that at 12:51 it started pouring the rain. Jared met me in the parking lot and we transferred the stuff to the Jimny. Due to the size of the trailer, we were only able to get one pallet at a time.

I had exactly ONE hour to drive home and unload the pallet (in the rain), break the pallet down in order to get it out of the trailer, unhitch the trailer and back the car to it, find my way to the carriers, load the remaining part of the shipment and get it inside...in torrential rains.

I did it in 45 minutes. because I freaked out and went into speedy gonzales mode.

A funny side note, I backed the trailer into the street and got down on the ground to hook up the lights and chain...and...the garbage people came to pick up the trash. Which I was parked directly in front of and not to mention, I was laying on the ground...in the rain. Those people are going to hate me after all of the things that I have put them through. :)

I got everything in without it becoming totally drenched and took a break on the couch. As I was watching a Rachael Ray special about breast cancer and bawling my eyes out, a guy from church came by to drop something for Jared. So he saw my house was crazy messy, im sitting on the couch with my cat and tears were rolling down my face. haha. All I could do was laugh about it.

In about an hour after that, I had my TOMS from Christmas delivered; a visit and wedding present from some great friends; and the MAF agent came to inspect our stuff.

We had put all of our wooden items into one box so that we could declare them together and find them easily.

A few years ago my brother and sister-in-law brought me some wind chimes as a souvenir from Jamaica. I absolutely love them. I have had them in my classroom but I knew that I would want them here because the wind is always up so they would play some great music.

When the agent saw them, he said 'Oh no. no. those won't be allowed. Did you know bamboo is prohibited? Did you know straw is forbidden? Where did you get these?'

MY STRESS LEVEL RISING.

The next moment, in a stroke of luck...they had a sticker that said 'Made in Indonesia'. I don't know what it was about that but apparently that made everything okay because (after smelling the wood and) seeing the sticker, he said 'Oh. Nevermind, you are all good. Cheers.'

What a day.

It feels so good to finally have some familiar stuff. I sold most of what I didn't need so the things that we actually shipped are things that mean to most to us. It's exciting being able to display your favorite things. Even though 'stuff' is not the most important thing...it sure makes a difference when you are so far from everything you are used to.

I haven't mentioned this lately...but I am absolutely stoked to be here. I get a reality check every now and then and realize how immensely blessed I am.

I love my family and can't wait to have them in my house in the future! I am going to keep those wind chimes until forever!!

Cheers!