Thoughts on the Move

Heather has been the one updating things as I've been running around with the kids and trying to get some of the "business" items taken care of. So I thought I'd add some of my thoughts to the trip.

My parents had the foresight and were gracious enough to put us up in a hotel the night before we flew out. That way our crazy last minute packing and sorting was just before going to the hotel and not just before going to the airport. We got a restful night's sleep and my parents took the kids swimming that morning to wear them out bit so they would sleep well on the plane ride.

The trip over was pretty tiring since we (the adults at least) were awake for more than 24 hours straight with a couple of 1 hr naps. However, this worked to our advantage because we were essentially able to reset our clocks to GMT, which is 6 hours ahead of Dallas. So we have been relatively free from jet lag, except for spots of tiredness here and there. The only trouble the kids have shown is waking up in the morning since it is still 1 am Dallas time, but Elam woke up easily this morning. Very nice!

Driving on the left side of the road hasn't been as difficult as I expected. We flew into Edinburgh which is 150 miles from Durham. It looked to be all highway on the maps, but it alternated between 2 and 4 lanes. At any rate, doing a few hours on the highway without needing to do lots of turns helped me get acclimated to that side. Heather's only had to remind me only a couple of times to "Get over!".

We visted yesterday with a New Zealand couple with 3 kids. I met the husband on my earlier trip and he had been really helpful before the move. They advised us on schools for the kids and gave us some "adult" time while our boys played with theirs (5 & 3 and an infant girl). It turns out that they live only about a half mile from the house we applied to rent, and that their boys go to the school which is literally right across the street from the house we applied for.

There are no free parking spaces in the city centre (near the cathedral and castle). We're staying at St. John's, and it is a "Bailey" college, which means its on the Bailey peninsula that forms the city centre. The street it's on however is ultimately a deadend and it's near the end, so it doesn't get lots of traffic. It turns out however that there are 4 free parking spots about a block further down from our B&B (I have no idea why these are free and none others are), and every day but 1 that a spot was open every time we drove in.

So as things go, the transition and move has gone very well. There are a couple of items that will take longer than we had hoped but God has seen us through the move so far and has kept our spirits high. Good times!