Final USA post and return to UK

So moving out of the house on the Wednesday and living on the Woodruff Road for 9 days was not how we wanted to spend our last few days in America.  I wanted to go to the beach.  We initially booked Hilton Head, but this was very expensive.  So we cancelled and got a Groupon to Myrtle Beach instead.

By the time our container was packed on the Friday, we didn't end up leaving Simpsonville till 4 pm, much later than we would normally for a weekend away.  We still hit the coast by 8pm, had a quick snack and went to bed.

Our resort was not the most upmarket.  In fact, I would say it was a dump in places.  But it was right on the beach, with 5+ pools.....

                                   

The beach was awesome.  Yes, it was busy, but not as busy as it would have been on the main area (we were south of the main strip).  We spent 2 days just lounging around the beach, the pools and the hotels.  We only left the resort to go and play mini golf.

       

We did get the joyous news from the vet on the Saturday morning that the cats documents to be counter signed by the state vet needed to be hand delivered.  I thought they would fax a copy to the state vet, and I could pick them upon the way back from Myrtle beach.  But no.  Our vets signature needed to be in blue ink.  Ball ache.  We decided to just leave super early on Monday, so I could pick up the documents and drive down to Columbia.

On with the vacation! More time in the pool, on the beach and more cocktails

                                   

I was able to carry out Monday's day of driving with no issue.  Documents all ready and correct for the border patrol and customs.

Tuesday paul went out with some work mates for drinks.  The boys and I went for dinner at Christys house.  The boys had not seen Edmund in about 9 months. They played beautifully for 4 hours.  They ate dinner.  Then we had to say 'see you later', but they knew it would be a long time till they saw each other again.  Both Isaac and Edmund were in tears, which really did not help Christy and I (welling up as I write this)

                                  

Thursday morning, paul and I both dropped a small fortune at Krispy Kreme donuts.  Paul for work colleagues, me for Sebastian's daycare.  Saying good bye to that school was very hard.  They have done such great things for Sebastian, and listened to me rant when something else has happened.  They are amazingly accommodating.  One of the staff from Oliver's school has started working there recently, so the older 2 got to say goodbye to her also.  Hard, hard goodbyes......

Friday morning.  We left the hotel by 4.30, and said our good byes to Greenville.  We got to the cargo area to drop the cat at about 5.45.  Good job too.  Her crate was too small by United's standards.  Luckily they had one I could purchase. Processing her paper work took nearly an hour!.

Then it was off to drop the car hire, then check in.  As we were traveling business class, we were able to check in with a person rather than a machine, and they took the luggage through.  Then on to security.  Friday before 4th July.  Airport was really busy.  Through security in under 30 minutes, even with me having a pat down.  Amazingly efficient service (as always) at Charlotte airport.

See that box in the photo?

        

That's the cat........ Making it on to our first airplane.  Bother our planes sat on Tarmac for a while.  At our layover in Chicago we made good use of the business lounge.  It was just easier than sitting out in the terminal with the boys.  We did make sure that they had some food at the terminal, as we thought they would not eat on the plane (we were right).

The second plane sat on Tarmac for about 45 minutes.  At least this pilot communicated to us what was happening: technical issues.  By now the boys were safely in their seats, and comfortable as anything.

       

Once we were on the air, it was a pretty uneventful flight, other than the staff rushing through the dinner service.  It wasn't very nice, but at least I had an unlimited, free, supply of craft beer.  We even managed to get some sleep, and it was some good sleep for once.  The lie down seats seem to have improved in business class since the last time we flew.

The pilot took us around London as he was taxiing to land.  Absolutely stunning views.  We landed 30 minutes late. Rounding up our luggage was easy, another perk of flying business class.

                                     

We got through customs very quick.  And Paul's dad was there to greet us.  It was great to see him, and a huge help.  Paul went off to get the hire car, his dad and I went for a coffee then took the boys out side to play in the huge pedestrian area at the bottom of Heathrow Terminal 2.

It wasn't even a hire car, more of a hire van.  We loaded the van, and headed to get the cat.  The animal collection area was just a short drive from the terminal.  And she was already there.  They let the animals out, offer them food, water and use of toilet.  I had to wait and out 20 minutes for her paperwork to be checked, and she was released to me.  An amazingly efficient service, with awesome staff.  Then we were on the road, down to Chichester.  

Nothing like the M25 on a Saturday morning......

 

A few photos

Here are a few photos to show what we have been up to this week....

Wednesday, Paul had to take a car from work on a long drive to test it (hard life, I know).  He decided to drive to Charlotte, and while he was there popped into the ikea.  We needed some boxes to go in a storage system we already have, its the Trofast system, so you can either get the boxes for $3 at Ikea, or $12 on Amazon.  I spotted a few other things we needed online, so he ended up with quite a bit....

 Thursday, Oliver and Isaac did lots of activities while Seb slept.  First up water balloon phonics.  Few things to note:  it is tricky to fill water balloons if you have long nails, use electrical tape (duct tape) not Sellotape when sticking them to the fence.   That being said, the boys had a blast.  Oliver tried really hard to match the endings to the letters stuck on the fence.  Isaac was more intent on throwing the balloons with full vigor.  And they even helped pick up all the little bits of balloon when they were finished

Next up was glitter pictures.  Our peppers come from the supermarket in packs of 4 in little black styrofoam trays.  I had 2 in the cupboard.  The boys had fun squeezing out the glitter pens, but the glue was a bit trickier.  They did enjoy sprinkling the glitter (making a mess).  I think these are awesome, I almost want to make them into Christmas/greetings cards somehow.

Next up was coffee filters art work.  I adapted this craft slightly.  We have a large amount of coffee filters, having bought them from Costco ages ago.  So I got the boys to colour them, then they sprayed them.  They liked this a lot too, and did about 12.  Paul came up with the idea of making a daisy chain out of them.

As we now have the storage boxes for arranging the Lego exactly how we want it, I spent yesterday afternoon sorting it back into colors, and Paul finished it off when he came home.  This is my 'helper'.....

So the learning room is nearly finished, just the cats litter tray to be removed.  Hopefully Paul will finish the box for it this weekend.  I will post more photos once it is done. I love it in there.  I am kinda looking forward to when I only have one child at a time, so I can make full use of the settings, with age appropriate activities.  The reading corner has been set up in the office room, I need to wash the pillow cases from the spare room to add to the comfiness of the corner.  Paul will eventually make a shelf for in there too.  For now the books will go on the desk area, once I have cleared the Lego from it on to the Lego table in the learning room (thats this afternoons job....).

I have also been rearranging my Pinterest this week.  I have made a new board for kids learning.  I was finding so many pins that were so appropriate for Isaac, but not for Seb.  Once Oliver goes back to school, I will have the afternoons with Isaac, and want to use my time wisely, and not just let him watch TV the whole time.  I also rearranged my life style board into separate boards for raising children, organization and hair and beauty.  I felt slightly cleansed after this..... 

Are you on Pinterest?

We're in.....

As the title suggests, we are in the new house.  So much has gone on since I last posted, I don't even know where to begin.....

The house.....its great!!!  We have most major furnishings.  The office room has the same unit we had previously, only bigger.  We are going to attach a second desk for the boys, they will have the UK computer, as long as we can find enough adapters....  We have a mac.  We initially tried to buy this from the Apple store, but because we have temporary bank cards, they would not accept them, so back to Best Buy we went.  This is my first time using the mac, will take a bit of getting used to....
The boys play room has a storage unit, a tv plus unit, and a star wars xbox, its well cool, makes c3po noises when you turn it off/on.  It has a kinect, so they are having fun getting to grips with it.  It also has a lego table and some lego storage boxes.
The living area has a big smart tv.  We have been Skype-ing with the Goslings this morning, well cool....if anyone has a Skype address send me a message either by email or Facebook, and we can have a chat!  The sofa is well comfy, not the best quality, but very cool.  The dining room table is gorgeous, really rustic looking.  The boys have a bench, and we have 4 chairs.  The kitchen has so many cupboards, i think it will take all our time here to fill them....  We have a coffee machine, love it.  The new washer and tumble dryer are awesome.  How did I ever get by without a tumble dryer before????
We still have one room downstairs which is empty....not sure what we are going to do with it yet.
Upstairs, our bedroom is great, we only have a bed so far, but it is really comfy.  We have unpacked all our clothes into our walk in wardrobe, spend a fortune on hangers....
Olivers room has a bed, bedside table and a storage unit.  We didn't bring many toys from the UK, and it will take quite a few birthdays/christmases to fill all the storage we have.
Isaac and Sebastians room has a bed, a bedside table and a cot.  It also has a Cars 2 storage unit.  Both the boys have closets, with ample hanging space.  There is another bedroom, which is empty, the closet has all the empty suitcase etc in it.  We are keeping this room locked, as we have no use for it at the moment.  The house feels a bit like it is sponsored by Ikea, but that is cos we needed furniture quickly.  As time goes on we will add more, but we are seeing what we need at the moment and getting it as and when required.  We are going to try and do a 'Cribs' style video soon, so that should be entertaining.

The cat is fine, we have not let her out yet.  Unfortunately Seb discovered her food on the floor yesterday, so we have had to move that on to the side.  We are going to let her out in the next few days, once we get a tag for her.

Oliver is due to start school on Wednesday.  His uniform has not arrived yet though, and will not arrive till at least the end of the week.  I need to call them tomorrow to see if he can go into school in un-logo uniform.

Isaac is due to go into school on tuesday to meet his teacher, while I meet with the Head.  I think Isaac is going to thrive, I just hope his behaviour is going to be ok.  He is very strong willed at the moment, and is not afraid to use his fists/feet, especially against Oliver and unfortunately Seb...

Seb is fitting in ok, think he sometimes feels a bit lost in the house.  He is having major tantrums when he does not get what he wants, which is quite a lot.....  He is still sleeping in the mornings, thank goodness, but come 6pm, he is knackered.

Paul went in to work on Friday.  He really likes his team, there is good banter already.  We are both very tired from trying to get things sorted.  We will get there, it is just going to take time.  Once the boys are in school, I can start getting out and about a bit more, especially once Paul starts work.  I have joined a local meet up group online (thanks Faye), they seem to meet almost daily, so I will give that a whirl, see how it goes.

Think we are going to Walmart today to do a big shop.  I have done a meal plan for the week, not sure I will cook every night, but we will see how it goes....  My car is awesome, I love it!  The Sat Nav is great, will be very much required to start with...

2 days in 1.....

Yesterday, Seb woke us all at 5.30, so we were able to go down for breakfast together before Paul had to go to his meeting.  I took the boys back to the room where they watched Disney channel and played iPods for most of the morning.  Paul was late getting back as he couldnt find the car place, but he arrived back with my new car.  It is lovely. Will post photos when I get access to a proper computer.

We headed to Best Buy, where paul placed his order for the telly, and Oliver played Star Wars on the kinect.  From there we went on to World Market where we picked up the table and got some other bits to the house.  I drove the Flex, fully loaded with the table, while Paul took the BMW fully loaded with boys.  We headed to the house where paul continued making beds and then the table.  Again it is beautiful.  A little different, but very nice (pictures to follow).  By now it was quite late, so we took the boys for a McDonald's for dinner. We still had to do Walmart, so off we plodded.  Took 2 trolleys, and filled them with stuff for the house.  By the time we got through the check out it was 9.10pm, so we headed back to the hotel, knowing we had to be up at 6am the next morning.

Seb made sure we were up in time.  He awoke at 5.50 this morning.  Such a kind boy....  We got the boys up and were on the road to the house at 6.35am.  We got there by 6.55am, and let the cat out.  We decided to bring her with us, as we are hoping to be in by Friday.  She seems quite happy.  Hope she realises she won't be going anywhere for a while.   We all sat down to breakfast, round our lovely big table.  Finished breakfast and the boys got down to playing, which was lovely.  They were on iPods by 9am though!  Our airfreight turned up at 10.20am, seb by now was getting very tired, so I put him up for a sleep.  Paul took it upon himself to head to ikea in the Flex, in the hope of getting everything we needed in. So that left me with the boys.  They were playing nicely, so I got on with unpacking boxes.  I got 6 out of 8 boxes done before lunch. Luckily for me Seb slept till 1.30,  after that we played a bit, and waited for more deliveries.  The washer and dryer arrived at 3.15, the delivery guys set it up and put it on a test wash.  The sofa arrived at 4.30, it is lush.... Again photos to finish.

In the meantime, paul was having a mare at ikea.  He had got everything we needed and more, but could not get the mattress in the car.  He enquirer about delivery, to be told next Wednesday for $160!  He decided to strap it to the top of the car.  After driving about 3 miles, he called me to tell me it could not be done, it was taking off.....  He managed, with some brute force to fold the mattress is half and get it in the back of the car.  He arrived home, very worn out and sweaty at about 6pm.  We had a quick cup of tea ( that will be Yorkshire Gold tea, purchased from World Market), unloaded all the boxes from the car, and left the house to get some dinner and head back to the hotel.  We have left the cat there, hope she is ok and is not destroying our sofa.    We stopped at Taco Bell on the way home, yummy!!! Think we will be back there again.  All the boys are knackered, the joys of early morning wake ups.

Tomorrow we have to go to the visa office in Greer.  It would appear that when we crossed the border, Sebastian and isaac's passports got stamped with a valid till January 2012 stamp instead of a January 2014 (when Paul's passport expires) stamp.  Then we are off to buy a Mac, paul is very excited about this.  Then off to get a Hoover, yay, and some storage units.  Now we are spending more time at the house, we are able to see what we need.  We will head to the house for lunch, paul is really looking forward to his afternoon of putting together furniture....

Will try and update tomorrow, if anything interesting happens.  We are hoping to be at the house on friday night,and do not have internet till Saturday at the earliest.

Oh, and I even managed to do some reading for my exam today.....

Taxis, airports and noise

The boys were ace getting up at 3.45 on Friday morning.  The porter at the hotel arrived with a trolley that was too small, he had to go and get the big one.  We headed downstairs to discover a ford galaxy as our taxi.  Not big enough.  We ended up with 2 taxis.  We got to the airport at 4.30 and went to check the bags in.  Took an age.... Thanks to the cat.  We got checked in by 5.10, then had to walk to the other end of the terminal to drop off the cat and the car seats.  Again took ages, as the cat had to have here box screened, and they couldn't get the machine to work....   Eventually got it screened and said goodbye to the cat, not knowing if we were going to see her again.  We got through security quickly (thank god for business class, and priority boarding) and were in the business lounge having breakfast by 6am.  Our flight started boarding very soon after, so we headed to the departure gate.  The sun was just coming up as the flight to Munich took off.  It was nice to have a bit more space on a small flight.

We landed in Munich, and had to get a bus from the airplane to the airport terminal.  A bit of hassle, but not too bad.  We went and checked in and went to the next departure gate.  By now it was 10.20, and we had been awake for 6 hours.  The boys were starting to feel it now.  We boarded the plane to find all the Lufthansa flight attends in traditional German dress.  I think it was because it was Oktoberfest in Munich this weekend.  We had a good clump of business class seats together which was nice,  paul sat with Isaac and I had seb on my lap and Oliver next to me.  Both seb and Isaac fell asleep during take off.  Isaac slept for at least an hour, Seb was more like 20minutes.  The boy still was not well.  The stewardesses on this flight were absolutely fantastic, attentive, but not in your face, and a good mix of German and American.  Seb was an absolute nightmare on this flight, he cried a lot.  There was an older couple in business class who obviously didn't believe in children being allowed in business class.  Everytime seb made a noise( and he made a lot), they looked over and glared.  Oliver and Isaac however were super.  I think Oliver played iPods for at least 8 hours on this flight.  Isaac played iPod, watched tv, and was generally really good.  That boy is made for flying.  It was a very long flight, nearly 10 hours, and we were very glad to see the back of that plane.  It was so nice to get off in Charlotte.  It was 3.25pm local time.  We had been travelling for 16 hours....

We joined the queue for boarder crossing.  Somehow we ended up near the front, thank goodness.  Boys were still very impatient.  The lady on immigration was very good, quick and with a bit of a sense of humour.  We got through with no problems (other than grumpy children), and went and awaited our luggage.  Got all the bags, then went on the hunt for the car seat and the cat.  They were waiting at the edge of the carousel.  Again, I cannot fault lufthansa for their service, a lady was waiting there with the car seats and the cat.  Lucy smelt a bit, not surprising after being in a small box for 16 hours.  Again we had 2 trolleys and Oliver had the buggy.  We went out of the terminal into the heat to await the bus to take us to get our car.  The boys were still very excited.....  Got to the car rental place, and paul got the biggest minivan he could.  We loaded all the suitcases and other paraphernalia into the car and set off on the journey to Greenville.  I think all the boys were asleep with in 20 minutes of being in the car.  It was a very pleasant journey down the I85 to Greenville.  I popped into the pet store then the supermarket to get seem essential supplies.  By now, Isaac had hit the wall, and was so overtired, it wasn't even funny anymore.  We got to the hotel and checked in as quickly as possible.  We got the boys to bed, and tried to fathom our new life in America........

What a week....

After awakening at lunchtime on Monday, Paul called the US Embassy appointment line to arrange our visa interviews.  The earliest they said they had was 3rd OCTOBER!!!! Cue some mild panic. The gentleman on the phone did say that we could send an email direct to the Embassy requesting an earlier appointment if they had one and we would receive an email within 5 days.... Spent the rest of the day doing washing, unpacking and generally trying to sort our lives out....  Our neighbours sister came round in the evening to scope out what furnitiure we had that she may like in her new house, was nice for a chat, and to begin clearing the house

Tuesday, I had my wonderful friend Faye round in the morning.  I had to wake the boys at 9.30am, even after hoovering!  Isaac and Seb went downstairs fine, but Oliver looked ill and didn't get out of bed till nearly 11am.  Was good to catch up with Faye, the long holidays can be hard for everyone.  Once Oli got up, I got Faye to look at his finger (shes a nurse).  She said it was definatly infected, so I called the docotrs, she gave me a call back and requested we went to see her.  We trooped to the doctors that afternoon, she reckons he has an infection, not sure if its his finger, his ear or his respiratory tract, so gave us a generic antibiotic to cover all of the above. 
Luckily in this time, Paul had received an email from the Embassy telling him that an appointment had become available on Monday 10th September, 8.30am.  So we grabbed it with both hands, and did a hop, skip and jump around the room.

Wednesday was Isaac back to preschool, Oliver had an inset day.  Had to wake them all at 8.30am. As they have been sleeping so long in the morning, Seb has not been napping till after lunch, which I am sooo not used to. Isaac went in a bit wary, but when I picked him up he was fine.  We spent the afternoon vegging round the house.

Thursday was Oliver back to school.  Isaac and Seb both woke before 7, Seb was shouting the house down.  Again I had to wake Oliver, but he was much brighter and more himself.  Got out of the house and to school just before the bell went.  Oliver got a bit upset going in as 1) he didn't want to go and 2) he didnt know what to do with his drink/snack.  He got very tearful.  Made me feel awful, especially as he is still under the weather.  Took Isaac to preschool, by now he was fine going in.  Came home, played with Seb/did some housework.  Put him down to sleep (finally a morning nap), and I was able to get on with some Uni work.  My next assignment is due on 6th October, and given our current time frame, I am concerned about getting it done.  Isaac had a massive smile on his face when I picked him up, seems to have one everyday!  I had a bit of a wobble this day.  We are 3 weeks from going and haven't been contacted by the shipping company, have no idea whats going on with the cat, and don't know our travel plans.  Oh yes, I was feeling a little on edge and stressed out on Thursday

But Friday was a new day.... Dropped the boys at school/preschool and headed to see my good friend Laura and her 3 week old baby Lana.  She is lovely.....  Then after collecting Isaac, my 2 fabulous South African friends came round to see me, and brought their kids for a play.  Lovely company, thank you ladies.  After school Oliver decided to watch Kung Fu Panda 2, he is still not quite well.  Paul came home early, with an email from the relocation company regarding the cat.  Basically their usual preferred airline is a pain in the a**e when it comes to transfering pets, all sorts of rules and regulations.  So they proposed a different route of travel, Heathrow to Munich, Munich to Charlotte. This is a good option, as we would not have to chance in the States, so would not have to pick the cat up then drop her off again.  In theory, they should board her on the first plane, then transfer her to the second, as it is the same carrier. 
Then we got our propsed itinery for our travel to the States.  Visa permitting, we should be flying on Friday 28th September from London Heathrow at 6.40am (we will be put up in a hotel the night before), landing in Munich at 9.25am, flying from Munich at 11.25 into Charlotte, NC (about 1 1/2 hours from Greenville).  Landing 3.15pm local time.  Pick up the rental car, and drive to the same hotel in Greenville.  In theory it should work well.  We should not have to transfer our bags like we would have to by doing a direct flight to the States then changing, especially as it is with the same carrier.  Plus we get to go to Germany, albeit just Munich airport....

So thats it.... We are going.... Visa interview permitting..... I need to call the airline and check their policy with taking car seats, as we want to take our own, rather than buy new ones. I also have to be sure of all the paperwork we need for the cat, so again this is another call to the airline.

We are off to the Goslings in Stanford in the Vale this weekend for our big family good bye ....  Hoping for not too many tears....

Killing time

Hiiiiiiiiii

Its been a while since I posted, almost a whole 2 weeks!!!! I have been busy....

Did the yard sale at Laura's.  Made some money, but it was such a stinking hot day that everyone was down the beach (who can blame them!!!!).  After the yard sale we went to the Gosling's in Stamford-in-the-Vale to start depositing "stuff".  Stopped at grandads bike shop on the way, boys love a good ride, and got rid of my bike.  They will be selling it as second hand, so if you fancy a very cool Schwinn Cruiser at a reduced price, pop to Cycle King, Oxford!!!!  Was nice to catch up with the Goslings, it was very hot so we took the paddling pool.  Had a BBQ.  The boys decided after the BBQ to go in the paddling pool naked, then run round the garden with the water pistols trying to get daddy and uncle Tony.  Very humourous.....

Me and the boys went to see my dad yesterday.  We had a brief coffee and biscuits at dads, then took them to Aldershot Military Museum.  They loved it!!!  Then on for Grandad's favourite food, McDonalds!  Was nice to see him, yet hard to think there are not going to be many more times when i can drive an hour up the road to see my mum or dad....

My boys like tanks!!!!

Also had a night out with the school mums.  Was good to get some yummy food, that I didn't cook, and have a nice natter and catch up with the ladies....

Got the cat to the vets last week.  He was very helpful, scanned her microchip, and offered a bit of advice about the move.  Passed the microchip details on to Worthing Cat Welfare Trust, and they have already sorted out changing her microchip to our address.  Thanks Geoff!

Finally had the boy hepatitis B jabs done last week.  They were really good, and didn't cry.  Next one is 12th September....

My residential school assignment is done, just need to print it when I come home.  Got my results for my last psychology assignment.  I am happy to say, with one assignment to go, that I have already passed the continuous assesment part, just need to ace the exam.  That would be my first exam in the States then on the 16th October.....

We have officially booked our leaving do for the 15th September.  Dropped a bit of a clanger though, as it is the Goodwood Revival that weekend!  Realy looking forward to it, hopefully lots of people will come to say good bye and enjoy a few drinks with us.

We are off on our look and see on Saturday.  It has come around soooooo quickly.  We are nearly all packed.  Seems strange to be packing everything into closed bags, I am so used to just flinging things into the car, and unloading them at the other end.  We are pretty much done, just need to add some things tomorrow night.  We need to be up about 5am on Saturday morning, so we are going to wake up, pack the car, put the boys in the car in their pyjamas, and hope they keep sleeping most of the way to the airport!!!  It is exciting, yet slightly nerve wracking at the same time.  How are the boys going to be content on a plane for 8 hours, especially Seb!!!!

The provisional house list arrived in Pauls inbox last night at about 9.45pm.  Cue staying up late, and drinking too much whilst "researching" the list.  There are 3 that look good, one is particularly good, just need to check the garden.  I am very excited!!!!  Have 3 preschools to look at next week, Oli has a test to do, a school visit, we need to go to the bank, Paul has to have a meeting at BMW, there is so much on.  We are going out for lunch on Sunday with some of Pauls work collegues who have recently moved out there.  Really looking forward to having an insiders view BEFORE we do anything official.

Tomorrow might drag, I hope not.  We have a Netmums picnic, if the weather holds, so that will help the time pass.  I will bath the boys in the morning all ready to go, then Picnic, then dinner, then bed for boys, Zumba for me (my 3rd one this week, I love it!!!!), finish off packing, and off we go.....

Will try and post from the stated, depends on internet connection.  We have so much to learn....

Much Love xxxxx

Thursday night flows...

I know it has only been two days since I posted, but it feels like a lot has happened....

I emailed Oli's school (CCES), to say thanks for the correspondence and to ask questions about preschools for Isaac, testing for Oliver and their requirement for Oliver's report cards. They were very prompt in their response. They can advise on preschool, but wish to see the list we have given. Once they receive Oliver's admission form, they will arrange for the CLARITY testing to be on our look and see trip. I spoke to Oliver's teacher, Mr Ancell, this morning and have arranged to go for a chat with him next Thursday after school. He was able to tell me that Oliver's next report will be out next Friday.

I spoke to isaac's preschool this morning. They are more than happy for us to take his learning journal with us to the States in August. They were a bit surprised by our planned move, but wished us well. Think I may give them details of the blog nearer the time.....

Got a response from Worthing Cat Protection regarding the cat. They can find no record of her (typical!). They suggest we take her to the vet, get her microchip scanned, then get back in contact with them. They can then begin reregistering her chip to us. Think I will take her to the vets in between France and America.

Paul received an email from company B yesterday regarding our flights for our look and see. We fly on 25th August from heathrow with Delta Airlines. Did someone say business class??? Yes we are flying transatlantic business class, with lie down seats!!!! I was jumping around the room with excitement when he told me this. I have never flown business class. Will be interesting with 3 small children though. At least they will have space to walk around. All the seats seem to be enclosed, so at least everyone else won't have to see them (just hear them....). The boys can even have kids meals. Although we have since heard that we can order pretty much anything we like to eat. Sebastian even gets his own seat, the Federation American Aviation recommends a child restraint for children under 2. Typically they only allow one, and it is not cheap. It will be an investment though. We fly into Atlanta, have a 1h 45min lay over, which is perfect. Once we arrive in Greenville, we will be getting a 'minivan' (people carrier). seb needs a car seat, Isaac only needs a booster, and Oliver doesn't need anything. We then drive from the airport for about 6 miles to our hotel, which also looks wonderful. Each room has a mini kitchen, and breakfast is complimentary. There is also a complimentary happy hour and a pool. The boys are gonna love it.

He have a bit of an idea of our itinery, at least with regards to house hunting. 3-4 days before we fly. Company b will send us a list of 10-12 houses which they intend to show us over about 3 days. Soooo can't wait to get that list. We also have to view school/preschools and sort out bank accounts. Flying back, we board the plane in Greenville about 5.30pm, fly to Atlanta, have a 3 1/2 hour layover till we hop back into business class to fly back to the UK. We arrive back in the UK at about 11.15 on the Sunday morning. Almost perfect flights for us. Really need to get the blog press app, really want to start putting photos on here.

We have been making a point of taking more photos, so the boys can remember the UK and all their friends/family here. Paul has tomorrow off work, hurrah. It is Olivers sports day, the last one he will have here. We have my mum and Paul's parent coming down. Feel the need for lots more photos.....

The beginning of the paperwork

So today.....

We sat down at the computer and started going through the emails properly. We began gathering the documents we need for the visas. I dug out our marriage certificate, the boys birth certificates, Paul's university degree. It states he needs details of his thesis/final year project but he only has his course module results. We hope that this will be sufficient. All these documents need to be scanned along with EVERY page of all 5 passports! Paul also needs to gather work info ( job descriptions, organisation structures etc). Will hopefully be able to send all these details on Monday or Tuesday to start the visa process.

We filled in an online questionnaire for the relocation company. We have put in our requests for dates of our look and see trip (25 August - 1st September). We had to fill in details about required property - 4 bedrooms, fenced in back yard, furnished, near other ex-pats and with access to a pool and facilities. We also had to fill in details about the cat, looks like she may be travelling with us (as if having 3 children is not enough), really hope the relocation company use a pet shipper, otherwise it will just add to our hassle.

We filled in details of the school we want Oliver to go to. We also rearranged our holiday to France from the beginning of August to 24th July-7th August. Cost us £10! Our visa interview will hopefully be the week after. It is quite sad in a way though, as grandad Lee is not due to fly out to France until 8th August, which means he probably will not holiday with us. He will be sorely missed. Hoping he might be able to change his dates, but we will see...

We then took a trip to Tesco to look at the suitcases they have on offer. We thought they would not be big enough. We got home and had a look online as to sizes and prices. Turns out the Tesco deal is actually very cheap, and bigger than it looks, so I think we will be investing in at least one of these, to go with the big suitcase we have upstairs. Would also like to get some kind of take on cases for the boys. Not sure we want to go down the trunki route, but will investigate nearer the time. I was also looking at flights for our look see today. The company likes to use Delta, but the details we have are for flights out of Munich. Delta do fly out of Heathrow on the days we require, with a very short stop over in Detroit. We will see what the relocation company comes back to us with. Last thing we need is a long lay over. Paul is quite keep for us to fly with American Airlines as they fly out of Gatwick directly to Charlotte. From there it is only about a 2 hour drive to Greenville.

I am seeing my good friend Philippa on monday night to tell her the news. Have not seen her properly for a while so that will be nice. Must decide when I am going to link this blog to my Facebook, might wait till after my next Netmums night out.... Enjoying the music of the Isle of Wight festival and Radio 1's Hackney weekend. Not sure we will get this kind of coverage in the states.....