As I sit in an empty house, I can hardly believe the deed is done. The whole place is packed and we are really moving to Sweden. Tomorrow. I kid you not. We are moving to a new country where I do not know the language, there are no friends or family, and YIKES!!! WE ARE MOVING TO A NEW COUNTRY.
PHEW. Now that my panic is over, I have to say, I was going to make this post about how toddlers fit into moves; but I’ve decided to delay that and type this out while the sensations are fresh in my mind and body. Mind and body you question? Yes, both! I haven’t slept in 3 days! 3 days!! Just a couple hours here and there, probably no more than 5 altogether. Did you know I don’t drink caffeine? Yep, this is me running on carbs and water 😛
Last night I was frantic as I finally thought of all the things I’d forgotten. The carseat in the crawl space, the two boxes in the shed, the landlord’s document binder that she most definitely wants back…the list goes on. Anyway, I finally reminded myself that not everything is within my control. Then I took a moment to breath and made a list of those things that needed to be done. When my husband came home from his goodbye party, slightly tipsy, I set him on the things I couldn’t do and took care of the things I could (serenity prayer, anyone?). This meant a lot of last minute things got tossed into our luggage. Why is that? Well, when you are moving to a foreign country and staying in temporary housing, you want to bring everything you will need for 4 weeks. What does that look like? Check out the picture.
Before I get to the actual move, foremost on my mind has been what will happen with the cat. This morning, after dropping my son at his last day of nursery, I raced to the GP surgery to pick up his vaccination records then raced home so my husband could go to work. When I got here, the cat had been relegated to her new home…the bathroom. She was not pleased. I sat in there holding her for about a half hour and then left her to her own devices for another half hour. Right around 11am, PetAir UK arrived with the most awesome wooden crate ever. She popped right in and the nice gentleman whisked her off for a final medical check (they are a company of veterinarians). He called as soon as she was settled and will have her to the airport 4 hours prior to take off.
Now, remember that huge purge I just did, along with the stuff purge I’ve been doing for the past few months? Well thank goodness for that! The moving crew took from 9am until 2:40pm to load and pack our belongings. They skipped lunch… When everything was finally loaded, the truck was full! There were only two feet of space left at the back. No chance all the rest would have fit.
After they left, I checked over the house, picked up the trash, scrubbed the walls (more about all my scrubbing in a later blog), all those small things you need to do before leaving a home. Tomorrow, after our flight leaves, my awesome landlord will oversee the housekeepers and carpet cleaners (thank goodness for prepay!). Finally, I repacked our luggage, as the taxi comes in a couple hours to pick us up and take us to an airport hotel. 5am will come way too soon.
My husband just arrived with some Five Guys Burgers and Fries (thank goodness they have a Guildford location!) to stave off my hunger. Now we are off to pick up the boy and then return to catch our taxi.
That’s all for now. Stay tuned for part 2, Moving with Toddlers and part 3, Frantically Scrubbing. 😉