Day One

Greetings from England! It's Day One, and I'm happy to report that we survived. Before I start, I have to say that Baby Bear was unbelievably well-behaved during the whole ordeal. He is a serious travel trooper. He fussed (he is 10 months old after all) when things got to be too much, but he never cried or caused a scene causing the entire plane to shoot looks of death in our direction (which is what I was anticipating would happen). He took a nap on the first flight and two naps on the second flight. Everybody commented on what a wonderful baby he is, and I have to agree. The pilot even gave him his first wing pin for being such a champ.

Our marathon travel session started Saturday afternnon. After spending a week directing three different moving companies to clear out certain parts of our house (long term storage, general moving and expedited moving), readying the house for our renters and wrapping up our general affairs, we said our goodbyes and drove out to San Francisco. He woke at 4:30 AM Sunday to get to the airport and flew from SF to Atlanta (about 4.5 hours). After a breif layover in Atlanta (it was just enough time to get lost, get found, eat some lunch and feed the baby) we boarded for our flight from Atlanta to Manchester, UK. This was an 8 hour flight. Ouch! We were so so exhausted. The flight showed three movies and served us 2 meals. When you get served multiple meals on the same flight, that is how you know you've been flying for way too long.

Luckily it all turned out to be a smooth (and LONG) day of travel all in all. No delays. No issues with baggage. No smelly/rude/obnoxious people seated anywhere near us during either flight. We cleared customs where we got to show off our brand new passports and visas (the ones that arrived three days before we left the country), and were on our way. A couple of Brian's co-workers picked us up and drove us to Harrogate, we made it despite  road construction. By this point, our nerves were pretty frayed and Daddy Bear and I considered it a major victory that we didn't go postal on anyone.

We got set up in a temporary, furnished apartment in downtown Harrogate called the Ashness. We'll be here for a month or so until our stuff arrives and we can find a place to live. It is a small but liveable two bedroom with a full kitchen and bath. And it is exactly what I imagined cute little British apartment would be like. There are fleur de lys on all the wrought iron door handles. The bathroom light turns on by pulling a handle on a string. In our bedroom there are big wood bureaus and colored glass in the windows.

The 8 hour time difference is going to take a little getting used to. All three of us were up at 2AM this morning eating our dinner and watching bits of the Giants game online. Daddy Bear had to go in to work this morning to get the mounds of paperwork started and Baby Bear and I are taking it easy today. It is 3PM here and he is just waking up with a huge smile on his face. I didn't have the heart to wake him up myself after the ordeal we put him through yesterday.

Sorry no pictures. The camera is still MIA, and I'm afraid to turn my phone on to take a photo and accidently incur some outrageous international useage fee.  Baby Bear is finally awake and pawing at the computer so that ends my blogging session for now. Hoping to have Skype set up soon so we can see everyone.

Losing my merry old marbles

Somehow it is already October 7. Time could not be ticking away faster. It feels like we have an insurmountable amount of work to do before we can get on a plane and ride it into our future. The stress of this GIANT looming deadline of October 21 has morphed from pull-our-hair-out insanity to almost comedic levels. In addition to many, many other things I'm absolutely sure I'm forgetting, we still have to work out our visas (yep- kind of a huge one), switch the car titles, find a way to get our car to the Bay Area so it can meet us in England, get Brian's other car back to IL, finish sorting our entire house into six piles (trash, give aways, storage, shipment, expedited shipment and pack for plane), clean house, prep for renters...

In addition to all this, I just found out a few days ago that we will not be able to take our sweet little dog with us like I thought we would. I was extremely upset about this for a few days and now I'm just trying not to think about it too much. I wallowed and now I'm in denial.

And, on top of all of that, I could not be more nervous about taking an extremely active (and recently vocal) 10 month old baby on an airplane for 12 hours (it's 16 hours of travel if you include the layover and car ride, but who's counting?!). AHHHH!

I just want to fast forward the next two months and be there with my family, starting our new lives together.I couldn't be more excited about being in England soon, but it is going to be a freaking miracle if we all don't lose our merry old marbles getting there.