Manic Monday

Last Friday was the big Movie Night for all of us ladies for 3rd Combat Engineering Battalion. We watched Julie and Julia and tried out the giant popcorn machine.

The machine worked great and the popcorn was just like you get at the movie theater. I was almost ready to invite more friends over the weekend to try it out again (just to be really sure it works...) but when I went to clean the thing... I decided it would be best to just pack it up and ship it out. The main body of it isn't too hard to wipe down, but combine that with the kettle and the tools and the seed-collecting tray it's a bit of a chore.

Last night Elijah came down with something. He developed a fever and puked all over his sheets, all over his carpet, all over himself, all over me. Neither of us slept well last night. In fact it's hard to believe it was only last night that it started. It feels more like several days ago.

So I was exhausted and emotionally strained when I got up this morning and started packing up the popcorn popper to take to the post office. That took several hours to do. Elijah was still not feeling well and was being quite clingy. He wouldn't go down for a long nap like he usually does so I'm sure he was tired on top of feeling icky. So I worked in short little spurts whenever I got a minute or two reprieve from him.

It was about three in the afternoon when we finally got to the post office. I had a sick baby in a stroller, a very large 50 lb box, and a smaller but still heavy 20 lb. box of popcorn packets. I wasn't sure how I was going to get it all into the post office from my car at the same time but I was sure going to try.

Fortunately for us a very kind First Lieutenant saw me struggling with it all by my car and carried the big box in for me.

Everyone in the post office was in awe at the size of my box.

"Wow! Is that really a popcorn machine?" The lady in front of me asked. (There's a picture of it on the side of the box.)

"Yeah, I'm shipping it to my husband in Afghanistan. He's going to use it to make popcorn for all the guys for movie nights."

"Wow, that's awesome! I'm just sending my husband a toaster oven."

Meanwhile the postal worker behind the counter eyed me critically when I mentioned Afghanistan.
When I got the chance to request some customs forms he eyed the box and told me that there were size restrictions for sending things overseas via airmail and my box was too big.

My heart sank. I was crushed. After all that... After finding the perfect popper, spending an enormous amount of money on it, buying popcorn for it, waiting for it to arrive, arranging a movie night with all the ladies, cleaning and re-packing it, hauling it all the way to the post office with my sick baby, and now they weren't going to be able to send it!

"Really? I mean, isn't there some way? There has to be some way to send it, right?"

"Well, miss. It could possibly go via ground shipping. But that could take months to get it there and it would be very expensive."

"Really? How much are we talking about here?"

"We're talking about a lot of money. I can't imagine you would be willing to spend that much to send it."

I think he was underestimating how much I really didn't want to walk back out those doors with that box. At that point I was seriously thinking that I would spend a thousand dollars if it would just get that darn machine to Afghanistan.

He seemed to see the resolve in my expression and we started filling out paperwork and taking measurements. In the end it wasn't so bad. Yes it will take a couple months (possibly longer) for the popcorn popper to make it to my husband. But that's not much different than half the boxes that I've sent him so far. I sent him a care package a month ago via Priority Mail and that still hasn't gotten to him. It actually cost significantly less than the postal worker was expecting because for FPO APO addresses there is a discount. I don't remember exactly how much it was now, but I think it was around $60.

The packets of popcorn seeds and oil I'm going to re-package in free flat-rate boxes. It will be much cheaper to send them that way. Possibly free if I get them packed up quickly enough and send them tomorrow through our community Care Package Day event.

So that's (hopefully) the end of the popcorn machine story. I hope that I can soon report that it made it safely to the troops and is providing them with loads of tasty popcorn to munch on while they watch their manly movies.

Another great thing that happened today, the previews of Elijah's first birthday photo shoot are up on the photographer's website! They're wonderful and I can't wait to see them all!

Here's the site. Just scroll down to see some of Elijah's pictures.
Shannon Velloza Photography Blog