We made it!

It feels like forever since I last posted. I'm missing reading your blogs and staying caught up on keeping my own updated.

I am posting from the hotel lobby and I will not complain because I'm glad I have access to a computer period.

Our flight from England to Chicago was really smooth. That is until we attempted to get our connecting flight to Kalamazoo. Flights were being cancelled due to low visibility and rain. We opted to rent the two cars we would have been renting in Michigan at O'Hare instead. By the time we did all of the that, we arrived at the hotel at around the same time we would have if the flight hadn't been cancelled. I guess the downside was that we had to drive for 3 hours after an already long day. And clearly the upside was that we were forced to drive on the American side of the car and roads. That made us get good at driving here once again.

We closed on the house on Monday and since then we've been going over to the house to clean it and get it ready for move in. All of their 4 doggy's stuff was left all over the lawn. I could not believe that.

I've been doing things like:
~setting up a land line
~changing over the electric to our name
~buying a new cell phone because I flushed my pay-as-you-go phone down the toilet
(Crazy!... I know)
~picking out paint colors because literally every room needs to be painted
~etc, etc, etc.

It's all good. We miss our friends in the U.K. and are happy to reconnect with the old ones here. Jet lag has not been a problem which is a major bonus.

Gotta run! I will try and blog more and read yours. Blessings to you!

Carol

Wordless Wednesday! ~ Boxes!

The movers are well underway with the packing.

My computer will be packed up in a few hours. Oh, how I will miss the convenience!

On Friday, they'll load the container,

and we'll be off on a plane on Saturday.

For more Wordless Wednesday posts, visit "5 Minutes for Mom".

Buried in Boxes

Is it weird that I am in a sea of boxes, in the middle of a transatlantic move and, yet, I think of my blog friends and blogging?

I think not.

It's a hobby, a passion, a joy, and a place we're I have met some wonderful, God-fearing people that I wouldn't mind meeting IRL. A place to pen my thoughts and post many pictures of our family and blessed adventures.

I haven't exactly been consistent on posting and/or commenting. It's understandable. I just look forward to some normalcy, but that will not happen for some time.

My computer will be snatched from me, packed, and safely put in a box, never to return to me, or at least it will feel that way, and I will be even less consistent in my posting. Don't worry, though. I will be back and my blog title will be the same. Our "Joy in the Journey" will take place in America and I will continue to share God's blessings and the adventures we experience.

Have a blessed week!

I'm saying goodbye one appliance at a time

My husband has been selling things on K-bay lately. That's the place where he works making corn flakes and there is a place where he can list items for sale, thus the K-bay name. Anyway, it's been quite lucrative. He's thinking he can do that full time.

So tonight he comes home and tells me he sold the coffee maker, to which I smiled and asked what he sold it for. He proceeded to tell me and then asked if he could take it to work tomorrow.

What? Not my coffee maker! I love brewing my morning coffee in it. He did remind me of how we just used our coffee press over the weekend and how very enjoyable the coffee was.

It's just another small reminder of what real goodbyes will feel like in the very near future. 11 days to be exact. Yep, we board our plane to Michigan on the 13th.

This beauty didn't cost a lot, and I never owned one back in the States, but what a convenient little item this is! It boils water in about 2.2 seconds, or perhaps just a little longer, and you have a nice cuppa tea in a very short amount of time. Another trick I learned is that you can boil water for your pasta and not wait a half hour for it to heat up.

So guess what. My dear hubs might be selling this thing, but I most assuredly will be purchasing one almost as soon as I land.

My blow dryer just reminds me of how inconvenient the voltage difference is from the U.K. to the U.S. ~ 220 volts vs. 110. And what is absolutely NOT allowed here is a power supply in bathrooms. They feel it's too dangerous, and I would agree that it can be, but that means I have to do my hair somewhere else.

And the thing about renting is that if there is not a mirror in my bedroom, I can't hang one up because of the nail holes I would have to put in the wall. I suppose there was the option of me buying a vanity with mirror or one of those cheval mirrors, but I never did. I have one in storage back in Michigan.

That means that on a daily basis I do my hair at the window with a tiny mirror stacked on stackable boxes with passersby looking up to see what I'm doing. I can't help it that people walk by constantly to walk their pups at the dam.

So, go ahead, Honey, sell the blow dryer. I'm ok with that.

I think we used this coffee grinder twice and my hubby is getting half the value for it. I didn't think that was too bad actually.

Toast is a good thing. Toast for the English is a staple. That with a nice cup of tea. With beans on top... not on top of the tea, silly.

On a more serious note, I have been reminded twice by my blog friend, Joyce, to remember to "breathe".

Wow!

This move has been draining all of us. It's bound to happen, right? There are hundreds of decisions to be made, and countless things to do like: lunches and dinners out with friends, list making, grocery eating, appliance selling, school to teach, papers to grade, church going, car washing, sorting of belongings to be sent via air or sea, 14 suitcases to pack, passports to remember, and one other thing...

Breathe.

Thanks for listening.

I'll be back with pictures of London next, I hope.