Back to Britain!

Who woulda thunk?! We're moving back to England this summer. Talk about a surprise. This is how it all went down. 

The day we returned to school and work after our great spring break trip to Italy, the husband found out there was a good chance he'd have the opportunity to move back to the London office as president of Europe. Lo and behold, that's exactly what happened. We've been sitting on this HUGE news for about six weeks.

As always, leaving family, friends and all things familiar will be bittersweet. It's England, so of course we're thrilled at the thought of living abroad and seeing lots more of the world while we're on that side of the pond. But I had landed my dream job for next year, teaching 6th gr history at the middle school. And the 8th grader made JV cheerleader. So yeah, it's hard to leave when you're really happy with where you're at and what you're doing. But the closing of this chapter means another door has been opened wide for us and we plan to take advantage of this second-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

Needless to say, the travel bucket list will be getting some additions. It will be a fast and furious summer once school ends for me and the almost high schooler that first week of June. Mimi will be moving out of the MIL guesthouse to a new freestanding home we're purchasing for her, just six doors down from my sister and her family. Gotta keep that in-state residency in place for the coed at a major Texas college, as well as for the one we still have to launch to university in four years. 

Then the whole house has to be sorted - put on the ship to England, put into storage here in Texas or put into the dumpster. I do some of my best purging when the husband and daughters with their hoarding tendencies are otherwise occupied. This sorting also includes my classroom things. We're putting our house up for sale, getting rid of our vehicles, and figuring out how to get our British born Cairn terrier Ollie back to his homeland. 

Lord have mercy - makes me tired just thinking about everything that has to get done by the third week in July when me, the daughter and dog will board the big BA bird to hop the pond once again. It's exciting to contemplate, beginning with a house hunting trip to our old stomping grounds in Surrey later this month. This blog, which had been put on the back burner with my return to teaching a couple years ago, will once again be filled with expat antics. And I think that's kinda cool.