A Move Like No Other - Part 1

I've moved many times in my life.

In middle school, our family moved from Northwest Crossing to Braun Heights...just a few neighborhoods over. In college, I moved all up and down the I-35 corridor...Austin to San Marcos, San Marcos to San Antonio, and San Antonio to Schertz. Shortly after getting married, Arthur and I moved from Schertz to Denton...the furthest away from home either of us had ever moved. At the time, it seemed like moving 5.5 hours away was such a colossal effort.

But this time we made a LEGIT move!

Crazy how your perspective changes with experience, huh!?

Hey Arthur...remember that one time we said it would be so cool to move to Norway, and we were given the opportunity, and we jumped at it? Yeah, isn't it cute how naive we were!? We had no clue just how many details are involved in moving abroad (you'll just have to trust me on that one. I started to list them off and it was a loooooooong list...ain't nobody got time for that!)

After the garage sale, our house was relatively empty of big furniture items. My lovely parents drove up to Denton to pick up my car (which we sold to my Mom) and our bedroom set. Once they were gone, all that was left was what the movers had to pack. Arthur's sister, Charlotte, also came up for a few days to help. I don't know how we would have done it without her! So thankful for her giving spirit and "can do" attitude during such a stressful time!

This is how you take a break from packing in a house with no furniture.

We were warned to be prepared for the movers as much as possible. We tried to have our sea shipment and air shipment items separated. Charlotte did an excellent job packing all our "sneaky items" (medicines, liquids, and nail polish) so the movers wouldn't question them. Arthur bought breakfast tacos the morning of the movers arrival so they would be more likely to oblige any requests we had (see "sneaky items" above.)

Ohmagosh those tacos were good!

Ha! Nothing prepares you for the tornado that is international movers. They were literally grabbing anything and everything laying around and throwing it into a box. I fully expect to be unpacking boxes and find full trash bags, used paper towels, and dirty socks. Lucky for us, they were kind enough to write the contents on each box. For example, a box full of baby clothes was labeled "bags", a box with kitchen items was labeled "magazines, pot" (pot???), and another box of baby clothes was labeled "baby cards, paper bags". If it didn't fit in a box, no problem, just wrap a bunch of brown paper around it, slap some packing tape on the edges and call it a day.

To be fair, they were a nice bunch and it was wonderful not to have to do the packing ourselves. It took them two days to pack up the last of our earthly belongings and load them into a massive semi. I think our stuff barely filled a quarter of that truck.

We took what was left of our stuff and shoved it into 7 suitcases and moved into a hotel down the street. We tried but there wasn't enough room for the dogs in the suitcases...

...so we had to bring them with us to the hotel. This is how they roll...living the good life.

Then we waited for company approval to book our one-way tickets for Thursday to Stavanger!

Monday goes by...nothing.

Tuesday passes...not a word.

Wednesday...STILL waiting!!! What the heck!?

Thursday morning, still nothing, no approval, and it looks like we are NOT leaving Thursday as planned...