Packing

Kasey here:

I'm not sure what the internet situation at the Calgary airport is like, so I thought I'd give you a last-minute update.

First off,

Praise:

• My birthday was awesome. There was Star Trek and much lululemon involved and I squealed a lot.
• The U.S. Consulate called yesterday to let me know that my passport was in. Jon and I picked it up this morning. The government now agrees that I am a Hark---! (I expect much clumsiness to ensue)
• Packing is pretty much done.
• I had a computer/ipod disaster that wasted hours of my life and made me super frustrated and sick. The disaster has been resolved, and there is fresh music on my ipod for the trip! Yey!

Personally I'm too stressed about packing and making sure I bring all the correct things that I haven't been able to get excited. I plan to let it take over once I'm through security at the airport and I know that all my baggage is getting where it's supposed to go. I'm literally brain-dead at this point.

Jon has been wandering around shirtless because packing is such hard work -- I plan to have him put a shirt back on when we go out in public. Oh, and supposedly there are power outlets on our plane, or so the web says! That means we can plug in our computers and charge our ipods and whatnot, so they don't run out a quarter way through our trip.

I love flying. Even though trying to sleep on a plane is painful, I think traveling is awesome :) There's that excitement I was waiting for!

We head to the airport at 7 (Calgary time). Our flight takes off at 10 (which is 5am London time -- this is tricky, I know, but keep with me) and gets into London at 1:50pm. We're going to take the train into London to see Big Ben and to get some dinner, then we're trekking back to Heathrow to catch our last flight, which leaves at 9:50pm London time (11:50pm Israel time).

It's all very complicated.

Packing has been a nightmare. We're about 50lbs overweight over all our bags. Adding another bag is $225Cad. An overweight bag (which can only go up to 20lbs overweight, not 50) is $100. And I don't know how much more I can take out without losing important things.

So.

Prayer requests:

• Please pray for the packing nightmare, as I either try to throw out a lot of stuff, or we try to distribute so it'll be cheaper.
• This trip could easily go bad. Please pray for safety and a smooth trip.
• Please pray for our attitudes during the trip (mine in particular). I get stressed easily and this is a huge trip. So please pray that this trip will just be easy.
• Pray that customs goes well!!

My Day

Kasey here:

I suppose I'll work on a proper first entry tomorrow, but just thought I'd throw this out there tonight to get us started...

My Day just popped up on my computer (it being an hour into August 11th here in Calgary) to inform me that I am going to Jerusalem tomorrow. I honestly hadn't thought of it as being that close yet. Scared the crap out of me just a little bit.

Guess I should get off MSN and go to bed so I can wake up at a decent time on my birthday. Courtland even switched his shift so he could be around. Wonder what we shall do...

Prayer requests:

• I had yet to change my passport from being Kasey Mc--- to Kasey Hark---, so we went to the U.S. consulate last week. They said they could definitely do me a new passport before we leave, but we didn't hear back from them today about going to pick it up. This whole going-to-Israel thing has been a bundle of at-the-last-minutes, but it'd be nice for once to have something come in ahead of time so we can avoid some stress. Please pray that we hear back about the passport tomorrow (Tuesday).
• We're trying to fit 2 tons of stuff in 4 checked bags than can be 50 lbs each. So far each bag we've weighed has come to an average of about 60 lbs, and I'm not quite sure where else we can cut corners. Please pray that tomorrow (Tuesday again) and Wednesday morning, we get it all sorted out.
• Please pray that we have a safe trip! We have a 9-hour layover in London and want to go into the city for dinner before we have to board our next flight, so please pray that we get into the city and back with plenty of time to spare.
• Please also pray that going through customs in Tel Aviv will go smoothly. We have heard some horror stories, and personally I'm a little nervous. ... although now that I think about it, Jon's more likely to try and joke with them and then get impounded than I am to let it slip that I'm coming to defeat the Jews.

... that's okay to post on my blog, though, right? ;)

P.S. Can anyone explain to me why my bullet points show up as little flowers??