Well here goes.

I figured I would get our moving/traveling/just anything blog going. I wanted to have somewhere to keep everyone up to date on things we are doing. Perhaps even someday info that might help someone else that is moving overseas to our new location. I know that for me, it would be very helpful to have somewhere to check in and learn any info that I could about moving overseas. In England, people do speak English, but there is definitely still going to be a bit of a language barrier for us to overcome.
Luckily a friend found a nifty website where a guy from England has set up a long list of translations. What is even better is that he is IN Texas. Perfect place for a Texan to check in and make sure they don't sound completely and utterly stupid. A little is okay, but man - between Texans and Brits, we could either one be easily offended in some cases I think.

This is where we will post tidbits and photos of the long long road of PCS'ing with the military with two very small children and one fat lazy dog. Basically a bit of a personal blog, but hopefully helpful as well.
We have great plans for travels while we are overseas, so hopefully there will be TONS of photos of amazing locations that we visit plastered all over this blog.

Now that the official announcement has been made with my business, its time to really start the count down. Garage sale #1 is done and over with (thank goodness!). Not too bad, but I'd been so insanely busy with work the few weeks leading up to garage sale time, I'm constantly walking around finding things I forgot to put in it.
We will definitely have to do another mini-sale whenever they come to get our things. I just couldn't fathom going w/out all of our TV's, my desk, microwave and Co's toddler bed. I just got him moved to it a month or so ago. I think he'll have enough crazy stuff going on in his young little life over the next few months, we'll leave him in his bed as long as we possibly can. (Same thing w/ that darn binky. As badly as I would like it totally gone, I caved to let him have it at sleepy time b/c who knows, I might need one too before this is all over with). Good news is that he will hand it to you when he gets up in the morning or from his nap and won't touch it at any other time.

Currently we are waiting for the LAST step in our hard copy orders coming in. We had so little notice we've honestly been going insane trying to get things ready to go. We should have all of that mid-week this week though. FINALLY we will be able to begin scheduling the shipping of my car (yay one vehicle is gonna be loads of fun.) the selling of Mike's truck (so so sad about that) the shipments of our household goods etc... Many many things to come very soon. Not that life hasn't been more insane than usual lately. Work literally covering me up, very very few hours of sleep, garage sales, two small kids, no childcare, appt's and briefings, and to top it off, the landlord putting our house on the market, so the realtors wanting to show our house while we are here and in the midst of complete and total chaos. I have nearly pulled my own hair out a time or two quite literally. Overall I think I'm doing good w/ the stress about moving, some other things...maybe not so much, but I'm just rolling along.
Now I'm trying to find out exactly what the best route to take for shipment of our pooch is going to be. She'll be staying behind with my Mother in Law for a couple of months after we leave. Honestly, as sad as Mike is about it, I'm not so much. No, that's not even me being mean like I'm often accused of being to the goofy dog. Just that we'll have SO much going on and the kids are going to be so insanely out of whack with schedules and just the whole thing about not being at our home, living in our house, our things leaving little by little, then living in temporary quarters, then the hellish day of flying and getting to the base to live in more temporary quarters while looking for a new home and then moving to a new home and then having temporary furniture until our things FINALLY arrive. Anyway - all of that and not having the dog to drag along with us will at least be a little bit better. Not to mention, it'll be late July and just likely way too hot for a doggie to cruise in the baggage compartment.
I just pray she doesn't ravage Granny's yard while she's a guest as she's been known to do.
Phew. Dang I'm tired already.

Anyway - the serious countdown has begun. We're just under the 2 month mark now and the weeks leading up to this point, have absolutely FLOWN by. Hoping to get the very last of my business finished up completely so that I can really redirect my focus and spend every moment we can relaxing when we get a chance and soaking up every ounce of Texas that we can and while in the midst of all that, we'll be doing that in the company of our great friends and family. I really miss that in day to day life, feeling like I can make the TIME to just sit and BE with these great folks. I want to get every moment that we can.

We'll be missing some pretty big stuff with the timing of this move and while that is sad, we're so very excited to be going. Of COURSE, overall we'll just miss everyone and miss Texas. We'll be missing Mike's cousin's wedding (which we are SO ecstatic he FINALLY settled down and FINALLY asked that adorable girl to marry him) hate to miss that. We are missing the wedding of my cousin as well, she's upset with me b/c I was supposed to be shooting the wedding, but she's lucked out and gotten someone else lined up, so I am so glad for that. I will be shooting her engagements next weekend though, so at least I get to do that. I will miss the birth of my other cousin's new baby, the new baby she's been wanting so bad and has finally been blessed with (so excited for her!).
This summer I was going to be a bit of a jet-setter in the South and visiting TN to photograph a dear friends maternity and then back again to shoot the birth. Another friend in GA is also pregnant, as a surrogate and I was supposed to be heading her direction to shoot an awesome maternity session with her and the baby mama/daddy. ;) Back there again for the birth (hopefully - if I could catch a really fast flight). Good friends of ours are FINALLY tying the knot in GA as well and we hate to miss that.
Some other sad things that I'm unfortunately sure will happen for some of my very dear friends, that it will be so hard not to be here with them to hold their hands through it.

At any rate, I know that my little family of Payne's will get to see and do so many things that would, honestly, not ever have been possible otherwise. We are so happy that we are going to be able to expose our kids to so much culture and history. We are thrilled at the thought of all the friends and family that will get to visit us, which likely would have never been possible for them to visit overseas either. This door is opening up many opportunities for many people - at the same time it is hard to just let go of my business that I have worked so hard for. It is hard to know all of the things that are so important that we will miss, whether it is a large event or just an ordinary day hanging out. I'm pretty sure that everyone will survive without us though, happens everyday and honestly as little time as I have been able to invest in the people that I am so worried about leaving, maybe it won't really be all that different? I don't know. I loathe talking on the phone anyway and email and IM will be the cheapest and easiest way to communicate (don't forget the 7 hour time difference!). Wouldn't it suck if I forgot or did bad math (like that would be a shocker) and called and woke up the entire house at 4am just to chit chat?

Soooo this is quite long enough. Chatty me this evening.

Anyway I will set up an email notification as well so you can sign up to be notified automatically when this blog is updated. I PROMISE I will not be this long winded. I will just try to blog more often than I do these days.

Looking forward to having a few months off work to get us situated in our new home in a new country and just hanging out and giving Betty Crocker and Suzy Homeaker a run for their money. I will definitely be back to work before too terribly long though b/c I'm an addict. I will also be venturing into a few new things as well, which I'm pretty excited about. Until then though...I'm determined to learn how to be Super Mom. Wonder if a big "S" tattooed on my chest might work? hehe

Who knows.

so.
for now.
Cheerio Y'all!