Monday Progress Report: Let the Countdown Begin

Last week was definitely our most productive since getting the assignment in Aberdeen. We ended up both selling our house and also lining up great housing in Aberdeen. Two of our biggest to-do items are now behind us and it feels great.

 We put our house on the market last Wednesday and on Thursday we received an offer for over asking price. Later in that day we received two other strong offers, one for full asking price, but nothing as strong as the original offer. I honestly felt bad for all those people who couldn’t buy our house. Since we were on the other end of the process in Scotland, I could empathize with really wanting a property and being spooked that someone else might scoop it up.

Our house in Houston really is lovely and I’m glad that so many others appreciated her charm. Now our beloved bungalow is officially off the market.

The most convenient part about it selling while we were out of the country is that now we don’t have to worry about maintaining the illusion for prospective buyers that nobody lives in our house. Staging is super stressful. I’m grateful that we can finally be messy and disorganized, which is mandatory when trying to pack up all of your belongings.

Overall I feel oddly calm, but with definite moments of freaking out. The most stressful thing is fretting over the dogs. To ease that anxiety, I’m going to discuss the paperwork with the Veterinarian tomorrow and then fax it to the USDA to check for errors. Next Monday, the dogs will have to have their tapeworm treatment before we can send the EU health certificate to the USDA office for final endorsement. Then we cross our fingers and pray like crazy that they get the paperwork back to us in time for them to fly out next Friday afternoon.

Since it’s such a short time window, there is no room for error. I’ll be using this week to annoy the hell out of my Vet, the transport company, and the USDA to ensure that all my bases are covered. Wow, just thinking it about it makes my heart rate go through the roof. I will be so relieved when my babies are delivered to me in Aberdeen.  They’ll likely be fine with the trip, whereas I will surely need to be sedated from the time they leave my sight Friday morning until they are safely returned to me Saturday afternoon.

We have their travel kennels set up in order to get the pups acclimated before the flight and they’ve really taken to them. Of course, Samson instantly claimed the large kennel while Bailey tried to squeeze into the smaller one. They finally decided that Bailey's kennel was big enough to share.

So now the countdown begins. Only twelve more days until we’ll be boarding our final flight to the European Union. Everything feels like it’s moving at warped speed. More than anything, do you know what made this impending move seem real to me? The gallon of milk I bought at Kroger yesterday doesn’t expire until after we move.

It doesn’t seem possible that life can change so drastically in the time that it takes milk to spoil.