What?

I'll be honest, I'm not the best at waiting for people. I've always been that way (ask my mother, LOL). So when did the movers show up? 1:18 pm, no joke. They had our items packed up in boxes, on the truck and were driving down the road by 2 pm. The woman (who was 7 months pregnant) was cramming as much stuff as possible in those boxes, she did not wrap any of our shoes up with packing paper, nor did she wrap any of my purses (yes I brought purses and shoes in this prepack- need to have "going out" clothes ready for when I get there). Now the other person she was with, we estimate his age to be about 75. That's right we have a pregnant women and an elderly man- seems about right for the people who come to do our prepack. This old guy starts spouting off about things that the moving company he works for will not allow military folks to pack (by the way, those kinds of items were not in this shipment).

So he's yammering on about how they will not pack up cosmetics, especially Mary Kay Cosmetics. His next tirade was about spices- how they will not pack up spices, then he goes on about food and how they won't pack any food.

Alright here's the skinny from the Air Force- of course they don't/won't pack your business- that's your responsibility. So if you have a home based business you will have to arrange to have that stuff shipped over on your own dime.

Food items, of course there are limits and we have to understand why they are in place. No meat products can be shipped, this also means pet foods (if you didn't realize it, it's all about mad cow disease and keeping it out of the UK by any means possible). All I want to take with me are my spices and extracts- nothing else. I've already arranged with my friend who is the director for our local women's shelter to donate all of the food in my pantry and I will be giving her all of the condiments from my refrigerator for her and her family's personal use. I hate to see good things go to waste and she's right there with me. Okay let me get back on track...my husband gives me this 6 page outline of items that we can bring/have packed and what can't be brought/packed. NOWHERE on it did it say that spices were not allowed and it actually said that cosmetics ARE allowed. Food items have to be listed and packed in the very first box tagged in our household goods shipment. Now I totally understand the no meat and dairy products thing. Now with the fact that I'm not bringing any food stuffs...I'm going to order a box of my country gravy mix direct from the company and have them ship it to me at the APO address- HA!

Now I did find out that they WILL allow me to have my fabric in clear Rubbermaid totes, woohoo!!! I plan on getting quite a few more in the next coming months as I want our clothes to be packed in them as well! I brought the woman down to My Scrapbook Nook and asked her what I can do to prepare my crafting stash for the move. As we were coming down the stairs she says that the best thing is to be organized, then she steps in and said "WOW, you have nothing to worry about, you ARE ready now". She proceeds to tell me that this was the most organized craft room she ever saw and that packing it up will not be an issue. She said that she wished that more people would take the time to be as organized as I am. So that was a big plus! I've already started organizing things in my sewing/quilting corner- all of my thread is now stored in clear containers as are some other sewing related items. Sure I'll need to get a few more clear boxes for packing up items that are in the drawers of the sewing cabinet and in drawers in my craft room and at the end of the our move (the unpacking part), it will pay off big time for me to have been so well organized in the first part of the move (the packing part).

So I'm going to do some more investigating about the spice issue. I did not see that outlines as something that I could not have packed. I suppose if push got to shove that I could always ship them to myself.