Worldly Goods

Due to a lot of unforeseen circumstances, this has been the longest move ever.  And certainly the most challenging.  Let me explain.

Back in October, the girls and I packed up all of their clothing, a few pieces of mine and some random toys/games/craft items that we thought they would like to have for the next few months.  I threw in 6 plates, mugs and sets of utensils to use at the new house and off we headed to our new home in the U.S. while B stayed with the majority (all?) of our things back in Munich.  The idea was simple.  We needed to buy a lot of things anyway - new bedroom furniture for the girls and ourselves (ours was going in the guest room), new living room furniture as the stuff we had would be going in the loft, kitchen table because we didn't own one...you get the picture.  It would allow us to live in two houses until B joined us in Florida a few months later.

We set up home here and learned to live without a lot of things.  But it was getting old not having enough dishes to make it through more than two meals each day.  And the girls were really missing their things.  And I was hating having to rebuy things we already owned just because they were 5,000 miles away.  And the big kicker, B still didn't have a move date!  This was not the way it was supposed to work out.

Finally, we made the decision to send our things home and for B to move into a furnished apartment in Munich until his job was finished there and he could ultimately move home.  So, 7 months after we left everything behind, it was packed up, put in our container and shipped home.  Ironically, it was the fasted shipment we had ever received (a month from door to door).

Leaving Munich!

It's here!  They did have to remove it from the container because it was too big for our streets.

My helpers for the day.

We can't forget this one.  She was a trooper at getting things checked off an in the right spot inside.  I did have to take the job from her when we realized that the packers in Munich might have been the worst we have ever encountered.  From putting the box number on the tape (where is wore off) to not using any paper to pack anything, to having boxes have empty and crushed, it was almost like they let 3 year olds pack us up.  We have a HUGE list of broken and damaged items but at least our things are home.

Now if I could just get out from underneath these boxes (and keep the cats out of them).  Moving with a half-full house presents a whole new set of challenges but I wouldn't trade it!