Got through the gate and had a painless custom’s experience. Since I didn’t know what to expect it was amazingly easy.

Okay, today I realized I might as well get ready to keep a daily travel log of my first trip out of the country. I’ve never travelled out of the U.S. and will now be going to the place that has been my blog background since the beginning of this blog, in the next two days.

Thailand. My dad is actually living there right now and my husband and I are going to spend some time trekking on our own and then visiting with him.

I’m scared to say the least. I realized that it probably would have been better to spend some time with people that know the lay of the land before jetting off on my own. So . . . I don’t think I’m at all prepared and am relying on my trusty iphone app – Learn Thai to get me through my struggles with the language.

So far, packing has been interesting. We’re trying to keep it light although we’ll be gone for three weeks. I’ve been checking websites on packing for Thailand (link 1, link 2, and link 3) and we’re looking at being wired for international.

My husband is waiting till the last day to pack and I’m getting nervous because we’re looking at one small suitcase, one duffle, backpack and briefcase. We just may have to add another small suitcase. Sigh . . . .

5/13/11 – It’s been a rocky road. True mourning has had to go on the back burner. But here are some more notes on some things that you might want to take care of before something unexpected happens and someone else has to take care of all the things that you use to. Again, I wouldn’t consider any of this legal advice but just some things I’ve been learning as we’ve been dealing with for the past month.

Have an advanced directive for your health and your finances (both directives are used when you are alive but unable to make daily health and financial decisions for yourself – coma, incapable of communicating, stroke, and etc.)

Create a will and even a Revocable Living Trust to protect assets from collectors and having to go through probate court. And for the person you name as the executor of your will and the successor to your trust, know that the two are different and both need good financial records to be kept as long as the monies have not been disseminated (then it’s the inheritors responsibility to know the ramifications for their own tax purposes).

Get many copies of the death certificate. Depending on how many financial institutions, insurance plans, supplemental retirement savings plans, and etc., the person had, everyone of them will more than likely want a certified copy of the death certificate for their company records, in our situation (and I think in most) the mortuary is the one that takes care of the death certificate dispersal to the family (each copy has a nominal fee attached to it). It’s not unlikely that a normal person may need up to 15 copies to give out at will.

4/21/11 – My father-in-law passed away a week ago. It wasn’t anticipated and all of it ended within the span of a week’s time. We even put him to rest before the end of that week. Things have gone fast and we’ve been doing a lot of “investigating” to find out how he dealt with the business of living as a single man with a mortgage and many accounts.

But it reminds me of some pretty important things that one should do in life to make sure that the people that love and care for you are not overly stressed on top of trying to grieve the painful passing of a loved one. I’m not a legal professional by any means but as we’re going through this “process” I find that there are quite a few normal everyday things we can all do to simplify the aftermath.

Things to remember when you live your life, all the things you do in your life that deal with money are the things that you need to make sure people can find and take care of when you die. Unfortunately that means a couple of things to make it easier for those around you to take care of the most important day-to-day things that you do and don’t think others may have to deal with after you die. So things like creating a list of all the bills/debts you pay out, like your phone bill, cable, netflix, credit cards, loans . . . you name it, if it’s a bill you want to make sure someone can trace it for you. If it’s something you take care of on-line make sure that you also put your passwords and usernames in a place that people you trust will be able to find or access, so not on your password-protected computer.

For your accounts, make sure you know what accounts you have and if they allow you to designate a beneficiary, do so. If you’ve already done so years ago, make sure that you remember who that person is and if you still want that person to be your beneficiary. If you had an account twenty years ago and can’t remember who the beneficiary is, chances are you should check on who that beneficiary was and if the relationship you have with that person is still the same.