The First Night

We landed in Berlin at 6:30 p.m. local time, but that was only 10:30 a.m. back home. Even so, no one had eaten much or slept much. We arrived at the apartment and looked around. Jason had some "welcome" presents on the coffee table for the kids. He'd found some deals on a couple of Skylanders and Disney Infinity Elsa and Anna plus a German colored lei for World Cup support, I believe.

And with that, we headed down to dinner.



J had planned to take us to this little café on our block called Endlos. They had vegan and vegetarian options and offered smaller versions of their dishes for the kids. We sat outside.



Sporting her new lei:



Jason asked for an English menu and I had to hold back my eye roll and snort as I hear Germans can spot us Americans without us ever opening our mouth. And sure enough, he already had English menus in his hands. :)

The restaurant had a blanket at each outside table. I've noticed this at other outdoor cafes as well. They all match. My impression was that it was very very quiet. Hardly any cars drove by and it was nothing like the hustle and bustle at an outdoor café in, say, Denver. There was a small Junge (boy) with his parents at a nearby café. He was a toddler and kept wandering down to our table and when our kids would get up to greet him he'd squeal and run back to his parents.

It was definitely more laid back, Easton was afraid they'd forgotten about us because our food took awhile to arrive. Even our waters took a bit. You have to ask for Wasser (water, and "w"s are pronounced like "v"s) and then they ask you if you want "still" or "gas" which is obviously carbonated. Autumn most definitely wanted to try the bubbles. We called it fuzzy water, I think, when I was little Kristin. Mom? Jess? Fizzy water? Funny water? Anyway . . .



I had the sautéed spätzle of rocket and cheese with spring onions, Alpine cheese and fried onions. I have no idea what rocket is nor could the waiter explain it to me. :) Jason had the pan fried Mediterranean vegetables. We let the boys eat chicken. Autumn ate fries. They brought out ketchup and mayo both for the fries. I think that's fairly standard but we shall see over time.

We went to the park across the street after dinner.



We played for a bit then walked home.

Riding up in the elevator:



I was pretty tired. I had J wash the airport, airplanes, and sand off the kids while I checked in online finally. We gave them melatonin again to help with adjusting to the new time zone and they were all asleep fairly quickly. I wasn't too far behind.

In the night I got up because I thought I heard the kids calling, turns out it was noise floating up from the café downstairs. Hmpfh. We don't have our usual sound machines here because of the plugs, and as they're not rated for 220V, and the voltage converters aren't cheap so Jason downloaded some apps with white noise. We put his tablet in the kids' room with a big clock showing as a white noise machine and we used the app on his phone in our room. I'm ready for some more plug adapters, however. And to go shopping for stuff with a central European plug anyway!

Getting There is Only Half of the Journey

Last I left you in the airport, our flight was half an hour delayed. It ended up being okay, I guess, because there was quite the tail wind that night and we still landed at London Heathrow on schedule because of the extra help from behind.

For that plane, the seats were 3 groups of 3 across the plane. So, I had the kids in the far right 3 seats. My seat was across the aisle and slightly in front of them (as the rows are staggered). Dalton had the window, Easton in the middle and the Goose right across from me.

Each seat had it's own TV in the headrest which we knew about from Jason and knew they'd get to choose their own programming as well. So thankful for those. After the flight instructions and such, and even though it was, like, 9:30 at night, each kid got into their own show. Dalton chose The Lego Movie, Easton picked Muppets Most Wanted, and Autumn settled for Alvin and the Chipmunks. She had wanted Frozen which was an option when Jason flew last week but I warned them the choices might change and apparently they did. As the kids were doing well on their own, I started Divergent with the ear bud in only one ear. :)

After we reached cruising altitude, the beverage service came through. Beer, wine, and spirits were free as well, but I passed because of my big job ahead of me. My adorable children spoke for themselves and ordered juices from the flight attendant. I got the ol' airplane standby of ginger ale.

Not too long after that, the kids took their melatonin. Easton takes a half tablet every single night but for flying I gave him a whole one and the other two had halves. And, because we were "special meals", our food came before everyone else. The kids had child meals and I got vegetarian. Dalton didn't touch a single thing on his tray other than his water. Easton ate his Greek Honey Vanilla yogurt and Autumn had a few bites of the same. It came with a pack of Ruffles, a tiny Twix, and bottles of water which I shoved in a backpack in case we needed it later, but my kids don't typically eat that "junk". It also came with a bowl of grapes, celery and carrot sticks with ranch, and a roll. The "main" dish was soggy broccoli, chicken nuggets or fish sticks (one can't be too sure) and some shells and cheese looking business. For the typical kid, this would have been great! I ate Autumn's grapes and picked at her macaroni and broccoli. It was making her gag to even look at her tray (she especially hates looking at big grapes) so I had to snatch it off of there real fast and put it next to mine.

My vegetarian tray had some sort of raviolis on it, they didn't taste too good. Also a salad which I ate, some lemony dessert which I did not, and a roll for me too. They didn't give real butter, of course, so I didn't eat it. :) We were long finished before the people around us even began to get their "vegetarian lasagna or chicken curry with rice". So then it took FOR-EV-ER for them to come back through and collect the trays. Autumn was getting snoozy and eventually fell asleep with the small blanket we had packed and mini ladybug pillow pet, Easton also gave it a go but had a hard time with it being so light in the cabin and the man behind him asking him to put his seat upright (I think he was still eating?), but Dalton was wide awake and into his movie.



Dalton had already started on some TV programming as well by the time they turned off the lights in the cabin. It was after 12:30 a.m. before I forced Dalton to try and get some sleep. He was like, "But my show's not over" and I said, "It'll save your place, you need to try to sleep". So he did. Once he was finally asleep, I felt like I could safely shut my eyes a bit as well. I had not slept well the night before with so much to think about and do, so I was tired.

I didn't get more than about an hour and a half of sleep before Easton was awake again. :( He tried to go back to sleep, but couldn't. Autumn wasn't far behind and was also having troubles. So, after awhile they both turned movies on again. With them up, I stayed up. Even though I hadn't finished Divergent, I turned on Anchorman 2. I also liked to watch "Your Journey" display with maps and times and temps and speeds and such just scrolling through. It was weird to see so many adults asleep throughout the seats and my small children wide awake. I took Autumn potty once, Easton took himself a while later. Dalton actually stayed asleep.

The sun had already come up outside as we were flying east but they keep the shades shut tight for the travelers, but Easton slid D's open for a split second (with my permission) and blinded himself. :)

As the end of flying time came around, they turned the lights on and came through with what they called "a continental breakfast". Again, our "special meals" got served first. The kids all got a gluten free blueberry muffin and I got a very small bowl of fruit. I ate it up, minus the honeydew, and also ate Easton's muffin. He loves blueberries, but not blueberry muffins. Autumn ate up her muffin, and once Dalton woke, he had a few bites of his. He was NOT in a good mood. Not at all. He was snapping at me and weepy. When the flight attendants came through for water or juice with "breakfast" my cute girl was all, "Do you have any chocolate milk?" as she starts every day with chocolate milk. :) But, of course, they didn't. So she asked for orange juice and they gave her apple. The boys passed and stuck with their waters. I got a coffee but they didn't include creamer in my breakfast pack like they did in everyone else's. And it's not like they come through all the time to check in but I was gonna need that coffee so I just drank it anyway.

Autumn got super motion sick as we were landing. I truly thought she was gonna lose her muffin. We had her barf bag out and she was whimpering and pale like she gets. I was stretched across the aisle trying to "be there" for her. But she held it together. As soon as the seatbelt sign was off, she was in my lap. We were nearly in the back row of the plane, maybe 3 rows behind us so we had a very long sit. We let everyone go in front of us anyway. I got several compliments on my "perfect children" or "they were so good!" from fellow passengers. As the 4 of us made our way off the plane, we learned we had landed out on the tarmac and had a flight of stairs to get down and a bus to catch over to the terminal. Oy! The woman in front of Autumn offered to help so I just told her to walk and Autumn would follow her. A male employee of some sort held Autumn's hand down the metal stairs, Easton carried a carry on suitcase and I carried the other three. Yes, three! Impressed with me yet? ;) We were the very last people to get on the bus and squished all in. Autumn still wasn't 100% so she leaned on Dalton and some strange man who was very nice about it. We got to the terminal and stopped in a handicap accessible bathroom so the four of us could be together. Then we didn't have boarding passes for our next leg. I didn't misplace them, I just never had them. So, we had to get those and then we had to go through security again. I had the kids throw away our waters from the plane and we made our way through. Autumn's bag got held aside. I had forgotten about the waters I stuck in there with the chips and Twix. My bad! But they just took them out and threw them "in the bin" and we were able to pack the rest back up and move on. Right then, Easton went, "Mom, have you had your coffee yet?" and I thought it was a joke at my forgetfulness about the waters but it was really because there was a Starbucks right behind us. So, we went to stand in a very long line for coffee. The kids parked themselves in some seats with their phones while I waited and waited. I got them a bottled strawberry banana smoothie like they drink at home all the time, only this one was lumpy and pulpy and one sip told Easton he wasn't gonna be able to drink it. So I drank that and my coffee. All the kids had iffy tummies anyway and didn't want anything to eat or drink. After I finished my coffee, we made our way over to the play area we knew was there. I looked back and reminded the kids to "follow me". Autumn said, "I'm not following you, I'm following my dreams!" I must've given her a look because then she said, "And my dream is you!" ;)



There was also a free charging station near the play area! Hooray! My phone battery was super low and I was worried about getting in touch with J when we landed in Berlin later. The kids played up until they announced the gate where our flight would be and then we made our way over. Autumn was feeling "goopy" again so we stopped for a water which grossed her out after her first sip and then we got on the plane. I had told Easton back in Denver that he could have the window for that flight because it would be light but at this point I had to warn him that if Autumn was feeling sick again, he'd have to switch so she could see out the window. He agreed. This time I had Easton in the window, Autumn in the middle and me on the aisle with Dalton sitting across the aisle from me. He did great and the man next to him was helpful if he dropped something or needed help with his tray table. He colored and folded up some Minecraft paper crafts I had surprised them with. Autumn also did well but we kept making sure she was looking out the window and not at a screen the whole time. There were no TVs in the headrests this time but the flight from London to Berlin was only about an hour and a half. They came through with drinks and things like "biscuits" or "crisps" which we like to say in our British accents about cookies and chips. Dalton opted for the crisps but the rest of us had the shortbread biscuits. They were all "real" ingredients only, so I was happy to see that for my kids' tummies.

Soon we were on the ground in Germany!

We got out at the tiny airport and produced our passports right off the bat. The people were not speaking English to me at all. But we got our stamps and went to wait at the baggage carousel immediately behind. I knew we'd need a cart for our 8 suitcases but didn't know what to do about it. I saw some, had no clue how to get one. A little angel noticed and asked her significant other for something and then she said, "excuse me" and gave me the cart! I was like, "How did you do that?! Thank you!" They said, "it's just a Euro coin" (which I did not have anyway). I thanked them again and again but they said not to worry about it. I pushed it over to the carousel and we began the long wait for our bags.



Once I had them all, I loaded them onto my cart stacked super high like something out of Dr. Seuss. We maneuvered around the carousel heading for customs. As soon as the sliding doors opened, Jason was standing there snapping our picture. No one from customs gave us even a second glance . . . we were through! We all stopped at the potties again and then headed outside where Jason was going to rent us a taxi van. They radioed for a bigger one that even had car seats for Autumn and Dalton!!! Wow! We loaded up our bazillion bags and Jason spoke a little German to the driver with directions to our flat and we were off! It felt like I could've been in Texas, it wasn't feeling very "foreign" just yet. We told tales of our journey, heard about Jason's first day at work that day, and before long we were at the curb of our building. Together again!

The Flat

We rented a temporary furnished flat in Berlin for our first 3 months or so.  Temporary in part because our stuff from the boat won't get here for some time yet, temporary because we'll have to prove 3 months of income in order to rent a more permanent place, and temporary because we don't know exactly where in this gigantic city we might want to end up.


We found a few English language (able) sites online and someone from Jason's new company also helped us to find a place.  Some were in areas we weren't super excited about, many had only sofa beds for the kids, some wouldn't even take our kids. 


After awhile, we found the one we're in.  The price went up because we have children and it's most definitely not a place we can afford long term but it's in a great, trendy area (from what I understand) called Prenzlauer Berg and it's certainly making for a softer "landing" as we jump into this new environment. 


As so many have asked, here are pictures of the place.  Most are from the "Coming Home" website we used to find this place as we rented it site unseen. 

To the right covered by the foliage on the ground floor is a little cafe. The doorway in the middle is where we go in. Last night, after we came home from dinner, Autumn sat down on the floor as soon as we got in the building to remove her shoes . . . she's used to doing that when we get "home" from somewhere and forgot we still needed to go upstairs before we were ready to take off our shoes. :)

Our front door is the one on the left. We are on the 4th floor of the building.



This is just after you walk in the front door:
The "powder room" is that tiled area you see to the left and to the right would be the living room. So, this is the living room.


Through that hallway on the right is the front door. That table with the Lucite chairs is oriented differently now that we're here in person and there is a second orange couch along the windows on the left as you can sort of see here:

What you can't see in that pic is the leak in the ceiling and the Tupperware J had to put on the floor:



Another view of the living room:



Yet another view of the living room:



Again, that doorway leads into the main hall. The front door is what you see through the doorway. To the right, where you can't see in this picture but you can in a top one (where you seen an orange couch) is the kids' room. It is a huge room. With quite a lot of storage, actually. Instead of the orange couch in the picture, you have this:



That is our own travel cot Autumn is on down there on the floor.

Right away those littles made it look like home:


This is what the kids room looked like on the ad:


The desk *is* actually in the room (and is where I'm sitting at this very moment):


So those double doors that are opened will lead back into the living room, the closed on one the other side of the dresser leads into the hallway and is directly across from the kitchen.

Speaking of . . .








That glass door is to the teeny balcony:

The stove is nifty. Seems all futuristic:



To get to the "knob" you push it in and the dial pops out:



That was fun to discover this morning when I went to boil a pot of water for my coffee.

The light switches are also kind of different and are usually outside the room:


And here is from over by the stove:


But the table isn't there in reality, that is where the fridge and freezer are as well as some open shelving we're having to use as a pantry. The table is in the room, it's just presently on the other side of the doorway on that wall instead.

More across from the living room and between the kitchen and front door is the half bath:


The flush is that rectangle thing above the toilet. Autumn had to be instructed in it. :) And there has been a toilet paper holder installed since this picture was taken as well.

This is back at the end of the hall looking towards the front door:


That little IKEA table you see there is actually further down the hall closer to the front door. We have taken to putting our shoes under it.

There is a dresser at the end of the hall and if you go to the right, first you'll hit the bathroom:


It has a combo washer/dryer in it as well that we have yet to figure out:


That open shelving is now full of all our crap which is the reason I hate open shelving. Like I'm going to just have decorative towels and nothing else. :)

It doesn't have that shower curtain anymore. Now it has this, like, 1/3 length glass partition thingie:


And next to that bathroom at the very end of the hall is our bedroom.  The green bedding is on the kids beds now, actually, ours is different:






It is two twin beds pushed together and then, from what I've learned before we got here, people here don't use a flat sheet. Just a fitted sheet over the mattress and then the duvet. And even in a shared bed, each person will have their own duvet. Which we do.

And, just for fun, a casual tour from this morning with all our stuff everywhere and suitcases unpacked and all that.

Let's Do This Thing!

My mom and baby sister escorted us to the airport this evening. They took all 8 suitcases in my mom's car and I drove J's FJ cruiser full of me, the kids, and our backpacks.



We stopped in to see my Grandpa John at his "memory care" facility :( and then followed my mom to the airport. We had to pull over because Autumn was feeling car sick but we nipped it in the bud.

We parked and my mom and Lauren helped us drag in all our suitcases. Easton was a trooper with his carry on, the little two managed only their backpacks.

The ticketing agent was lovely and all our suitcases were underweight. One just barely made it, though. :/

After that we had to say our very tearful goodbyes. My mom knows there's no denying Berlin is where we're being led, but ot doesn't make this move any easier. As I've mentioned before, I've never lived more than an hour away from her in all my nearly 36 years. Tough. :'(

We made it through security, everyone was patient with us and super sweet, the "explosives specialist" coached Easton through sending all our things along through the xray machine. When it was our body's turn, Autumn went first and made a loud "whoop whoop" with a double fist pumping move. Definitely gave a few people smiles and chuckles.



Easton nearly lost his balance as the train to the terminal took a curve but a helpful man snagged him by the backpack and rescued him.

We first stopped for a bite to eat, not sure what dinner on the plane will entail but we grabbed a little Pizza Hut and pray that it won't upset their sensitive systems too much. We have been eating a lot more junk during this time of transition, but they're still not used to it.

Next stop was the potties where boys and girls took turns standing with the suitcases or in the restrooms.

Now we're sitting here at the gate, flight already delayed by half an hour but the devices are charged, our spirits are good.





We're gonna rock this! (But pray for us?) 

Please Be Seated

One of the things I was slightly "worried" about was seating on the airplane.  I was concerned they'd have us all far apart or that poor Easton would be off on his own somewhere next to some sketchy stranger.


British Airways doesn't let you choose seats (for free, anyway) until 24 hours before departure.  So, you can bet, at 8:45 tonight I was more than ready to get going on my seat preference choices.  My mom even set a timer for me. 


Well, 8:45 came and went.  And more important things were happening like our big goodbye with my sister, her partner, and my nephews.  So I wanted to do things like take pictures of all the cousins . . . only my boys were needing to put on pajamas because the superhero costumes they had been wearing were going home with their cousins.  But it was making me yell as if such wardrobe changes should've happened instantly and not off in the privacy of bedrooms or something. :( 


Once all the kids had said their goodbyes and my sister's family was heading to their car.  So I went too, but with firm instructions to my kids to 'stay inside'.  Well then Autumn goes, "I have an idea!" and starts heading to the door all underfoot like a blind dog or something.  I assume she's heading outside despite my explicit instructions not to, plus she's all up in my way because the path through the living room is completely crowded with many of our belongings we're still needing to move to store or sell.  So, in my haste to get things moving so I can get on with choosing my seats on the plane I yelled at her for not listening and picked her up and moved her back out of my way.  :(  Turns out the poor sweet thing just wanted to "tell them something in German" from the door.  Terrible, mean, Mommy.  I felt awful.  Still do.  She was crying and crying but eventually we could convince her to say a quiet "Auf Wiedersehen" from my hip.  She forgave me, but I still feel awful for my yelling.  It's a stressful time and I was certainly feeling pressure to get checked in online ASAP for the best choices of seats, but still....I shouldn't be yelling at my babies.  This is hard on them too!


Eventually I got online and got things squared away.  There was only one possible "4 in a row" combination for our first leg from Denver to London so I snatched it up.  The three kiddos will be on one side of an aisle and I'll be on the aisle directly across from them.
 


I also chose all our seats for the London to Berlin flight but, um, that ones not 24 hours out just yet so it didn't take.  I'll need to figure out just when that will occur tomorrow and get on that again. 

Not like there's not enough to do tomorrow already!  Night!

Sugar Pie Honey Bunch

In the spirit of God working everything out for us to head to Germany, we had 4 pets that we were needing to re-home.  And once again, God provided.

Initially we thought we were going to bring the cat with us.  Unlike the UK, it's no problem at all to bring pets into the country of Germany (as long as you don't have a layover in the UK).  Basically they just need a microchip and a rabies shot.  We thought with all the changes, keeping the kids from having to say goodbye to yet another loved one would help Berlin feel a little more like home. 


The kids were already going to have to get rid of their fish, which I felt terrible about, but the cat too?  Too much.  But then I got to thinking about logistics: I'd be travelling by myself with all 3 kids, all our suitcases and carry-ons . . . and a skittish cat?  With long white fur?  Who's been known to get explosive diarrhea in times of high stress? 


Then there were the issues once we arrived in Berlin as now we'd need to find a temporary place that would accept cats and then a long term place that would take her as well.  From some initial research, it sounds like Berlin is much more dog-friendly than it is cats.  In fact, I hear it's so dog friendly that sometimes they prefer dogs to kids!  Like, I've heard of restaurants that don't allow children but they do allow your dog! Ha! 


Anyway, as we were moving through May and trying to decide about whether Sugar was coming or not, I had a friend reach out to me about our cat Sugar.  She said she had a friend that was a single gal in Denver looking for a female companion for her adult male cat.  That sounded like a definite possibility but I wasn't ready to jump on it.  Sugar's certainly lives up to her name as a super sweet kitty.  I really didn't want to let her go.


Well also in there, perhaps May 23rd, I think, Autumn's pet fish died.  Bless her heart.  But there was suddenly one less pet to re-home. ;)  In talking about that on Facebook I had a friend from high school offer to let Sugar live with them. 


It was truly the perfect set- up.  This friend of mine is a vet tech!  She is already who I turned to when we first got Sugar and she had such a sensitive tummy.  She has a baby and two kitties already and said that Sugar could come live with them . . . but that we could visit her and get her back whenever we came back!  It was nearly a done deal as far as I was concerned. 


The kids had already come around to the idea of having to leave Sugar behind.  We talked about how it was selfish of us to make her that stressed with travelling and moving just so we could have her.  But this situation convinced them.  Autumn was glad to hear that "Baby Lainey" could live with Sugar for awhile and the boys were happy to know that, whenever we are ready, we can get her back.  Or at least visit.  I don't think that could've happened with any other situation.


Perhaps on a future trip home we'll have found a more permanent flat in Berlin that accepts cats (and children!) and we won't have as many suitcases and we can somehow more easily manage transporting Sugar over there?  Or we'll just get her back when we move home in however many years or whatever. 


So today, Sugar went to live with her new family. 


We left my mom's this morning to head back up to the house to get some more stuff done over there.  Autumn played with Sugar a final time:




The boys played more Xbox. ;)


And right around rush hour we headed down to her new home.  Sugar has never once been in the pet carrier we have.  So, Jason carried her out to the car saying his goodbyes (he had rehearsal for his last church worship service) and the kids, Sugar, and I headed out.  Sugar on the front seat.


Riding in the car makes her super nervous.  She stayed exactly where she was and shed like crazy.


We got into Baby Lainey's house and I kept Sugar on the floor with me.  Baby Lainey scooted and squealed around and poor Sugar was on high alert but we just sat there a bit and talked about things.  Eventually I went to the car to get her food and dishes and stuff and Sugar found a corner to hide in.  And she stayed there.  The home's two other cats were brought out to "meet" her and one cat was just fine and the other cat, a feral cat, hissed and hissed at her and everyone else.  I guess that's his norm, though, and eventually he'd warm up. 


Eventually it was time to say our final goodbyes.  The little two were definitely having more fun with Baby Lainey and weren't too troubled by their farewells.







But after Easton's, he went over to stand and stare out their front door for a bit and I was like, "Dude, chill, we're not leaving just yet" but then I noticed he was trying to keep us from noticing the 'emotion' in his eyes.  And that got me.  I teared all up.  :(  And then I felt rather stupid crying in front them: my high school friend and her husband who I only know from him being the manager of our Vitamin Cottage. But they were sweet and understanding of our saying goodbye to a member of our family . . . for now.


We know she's in good hands, so we left and got some groceries as we headed back over to Gramoo's for the night.

Anchors Aweigh!

We loaded up our shipping container today. 

Initially when we realized we'd be moving to Germany, we weren't quite sure the best way to do it.  J's company gave us a "removal fee" budget as part of their relocation package but we didn't have a clue as to what that covered.  Would that be 40 boxes?  Could we send our bikes? 

Eventually we looked into estimates for example: shipping 40 boxes and a crate of bikes would cost x amount of dollars . . . and then we looked into a shipping container which was only slightly more.  But we could send sooooo much more stuff.  And we wouldn't have to buy that stuff when we got over there!  Savings (especially because the company paid for the shipping) and they wouldn't have paid for all new "stuff". 


We still sold off quite a bit of things.  We also opted to store a few special things as well.  Both in a mini storage unit and then we'll store some things at my mom's and my grandma's. 


But the shipping container itself was 8' x 8' x 20' . . . basically a one car garage.  That's not too shabby.  The fun part was that we had two hours to load it in (or pay financial penalties) AND . . . best part:  it was 4.5 feet off the ground!  Without a ramp! 


As today was a Monday, everyone was at work.  It was just me and J on our own.  All 3 kids at home. 

I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. Phil 4:13

I can tell you it was absolutely not through our own strength that we were able to get that accomplished this morning.  2 hours?  4.5 feet off the ground?  Just me and J?  But we did it.  In exactly the 2 hour window. 

When I heard myself telling people what was in store it sounded ridiculous to my ears.  And clearly to theirs as well based on the looks on their faces.  But God saw us through . . . like soooo very many other things on this here journey, there is nothing but green light, green light, green light with Him clearly working behind the scenes. 


We did do our part:  we marked off the area of the container in our garage and then staged the area:

We kept the Xbox hooked up for the kids to keep them occupied and hopefully a little more out of the way. We picked up breakfast for them. And then we got to work!

We would carry something to the edge...hoist it up to our shoulders. One of us would then balance it from the ground while the other climbed up the step ladder, then that person would balance it while the other climbed the step ladder and then we'd locate the heavy item in the container. For two hours.

The guy that drove the truck just sat in his truck. Mostly. We heard him on his phone. He spot cleaned a few areas on the outside of the truck, used our bathroom, that sort of thing.

But we got it all loaded...this was with 2 minutes to spare:

And this was after the guy (who couldn't actually help) mentioned how much it's all gonna slide around so we moved the mattress for a better buffer and added a couple of bungies and hoped for the best.

He locked it up at 11:00 on the nose and drove it all away!

And so it's 37 day journey begins. First the truck is taking "her" to a train, then the train is taking her somewhere that makes very little sense (like L.A. when, um, I think we're heading east), then she'll get loaded onto a boat and begins her overseas voyage. Jason's got a guitar on there and I think this oversea journey has got him a little nervous. :)

The fun is going to be when we receive the container in Berlin. Our first temporary apartment (3 months) is only about 1000 square feet and it's already furnished. Where's it all gonna go!?!?

With our furniture either on it's way to Germany or sold off to fund buying new stuff in Berlin, we moved in with my mom starting tonight. Jason and I miss sleeping in a bed! The kids all had mattresses till this morning, at least, but Jason and I spent the previous two nights like this after selling our bed frame earlier this month and our mattresses on Saturday:


There is still a ton to do up at the house but I know it'll happen. I'm not even stressing about it. Well, not really. ;)

But there we go! A major hurdle out of the way and divine intervention getting us through once again!