Getting Ready

Today we spent quite a bit of time getting Gary and Rachel ready for their trip to Germany. They leave early afternoon Tuesday, and hopefully Rachel will work tomorrow, so we tried to do some stuff to get ready today.

First of all, Rachel is worried that she can't manage for 8 days with just one little carry-on and a backpack. We'll see. I guess she'll have to, since that is the only choice.

I photocopied the passports, dug out the euros we had stashed away, figured out how to use the prepaid phone card for them to call me from Germany, updated some photo software on Gary's laptop, dug out the plug adapters, found the 1-quart plastic bags for getting 3-oz. liquids through security, made sure everyone had a copy of everyone's phone numbers at every location, made sure the suitcases had luggage tags, found some fresh batteries, and a few other things.

Tomorrow we'll do some more laundry and make sure they pack some warm clothes--the weather looks like it will be cold and rainy.

Rachel and Gary will be helping our friend Anita, who teaches 2nd grade in Grand Prairie, with her kids' Flat Stanley project. They carry a laminated cartoon cutout of Flat Stanley with them,and photography him in front of interesting things they see in Germany.

We had lunch with our old Kimball group and heard that EVERYONE EXCEPT ME is traveling: The Martins to Portugal, the Fairbankses to Spain, the Barnetts to Switerland, and Gary and Rachel to Germany. My fun will be going to jury duty on Wednesday!