Packing...

We had a busy day today. Well, some of us did. Grandson Micah evidently didn't get a whole lot of sleep at his overnight party last night. We heard something about getting to sleep sometime after midnight, then waking up again with the sun shortly after four am... Anyway after Granddaughter Havela went to get him mid-morning, he ended up sound asleep in his room.

Daughter Dawn is not too happy with her yard. For some reason, everything is blooming early this year. I saw some beautiful pictures from a week or so ago with all of the rhodies and clematis in bloom. She would have like them to have waited a couple of weeks so that they would have been blooming for Havela's graduation party. I took a bucket and the clippers this morning and went out to dead-head the peonies, then Granddaughter Kyra and I worked on the spent rhododendrons in the front of the house.

This afternoon I started packing up the Mexican pottery from the tall cupboard at Dawn's house. They had gotten some packing boxes from a friend, but they were pretty big. We didn't want them to be too heavy, so I packed them about half full, then we filled them the rest of the way with comforters and pillows. It took three boxes to empty out the cupboard. I remember when we brought all of the pottery from Guadalajara in our private plane. We had the twelve place setting for us and a six place setting for a friend as well. They were all packed in boxes with wood shavings that pretty well filled the airplane.

We had been told there would be no customs fees as the pottery was considered "hand-craft," but the first agent at the US border wanted us to unpack ALL of it for inspection so that he could determine the duty owed. (You can realize how many years ago this was when you realize there was no concern about possible drugs...!) Fortunately for us, his supervisor came along and informed him of the "no duty" status for the pottery before we unpacked it all. (I don't know how we would have ever gotten it repacked as tightly as they had packed it at the factory.) The pottery has been enjoying life at Dawn's house since we down-sized to live in our RV and I'm sure it will enjoy the new house as well!