This is what packing looks like...

Me, my mom, and sister watching my last Washington Capitals Hockey game at home

So it's the night before I leave Maryland. Tomorrow, my mom, sister, and I will drive up to Philadelphia. We are going to spend the night in Phili and then staging is set for Monday at noon. Staging is a series of sessions and then we spend Monday night in Phili and our plane leaves from JFK on Tuesday. 

I was bracing for impact today emotionally. Packing is not my strong suit. So across the past months at home I have been slowly setting things aside and taking over my sisters room as my packing staging area. I am so thankful to both of my parents for being so supportive and helping me get prepared. Lots of shopping trips meant that I had a lot of equipment and clothes to pack. My mom has ninja packing skills and managed so squeeze all of my belongings into two duffels and a carry on. We all made it through the packing process but once it was all cleaned up, we all started crying. We knew this day was coming but it is still pretty unreal to imagine me leaving for 27 months. 

So how did we cope? Wine and dinner of course! Then home for a hockey game, so lets go Caps!