Monday Progress Report: Crisis Management

I hope everyone had a blessed Easter celebration. We celebrated with our church at Jones Plaza in downtown Houston. It’s always a surreal experience to hear praise music echoing off the skyscrapers of this city.

Easter turned out to be quite the romantic day for us. After church, Jon took me on a cheeseburger date to Wendy’s, complete with a frostee. Then he took me to look at Volvo station-wagons, which I’ve determined to be my new dream car. He tried showing me Audi station wagons, but I explained that my new fetish is somehow Volvo specific.  

After a few hours of lazing around the house, we went for a rare bike ride through The Heights before ending the night with the latest episode of The Amazing Race, which added Tanzania to our “Absolutely must go there” list.

The fact that we haven’t received our visas yet combined with last week’s flea fiasco has brought several of our relocation efforts to a standstill. The good news is that the flea situation is under control. We’re still having the pros come to spray our yard tomorrow just as a precaution but Samson is doing 1000% better. That means my mind is free to refocus on the backlogged items on my to-do list.

Logistics: We decided on a realtor and have all of our housing paperwork ready to go so that when we do get our visas back, we can list our house to sell.

We also received a cost estimate for shipping the dogs (roughly $5,000) and put down a 50% deposit. Jon’s company reimburses us for the shipping costs of one dog so we’re hoping that only $2,000 will be coming out of our pocket.  

Another big accomplishment has been setting up our UK bank account. As an American, when setting up banking in Aberdeen you basically have 3 options: HSBC, Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) or CitiBank. We decided to go with HSBC due to the fact that we could open an account now through their New York Branch. We’ve already transferred a large sum into the account so that when we get to Scotland we have the funds to buy cars a volvo station wagon and any major appliances that we need.

We had heard from other expats in Scotland that this is the easiest bank from which to transfer money back and forth from the US. CitiBank sounded ideal because they have branches in both the US and the UK. However, we discovered that they only have branches in England and there is essentially no relationship between the US and UK branches.

I’m sure there’s more to it than that, but banking really falls under Jonathan’s household duties. I just know how to swipe the credit card. If you’re moving to Scotland and want more specific information, you can email me at: theaberdeenwife at gmail dot com.

Shipment: We got our Restoration Hardware furniture! It was delivered Saturday and we are so happy with our choices. I gave the comfy chair and ottoman a test drive on Saturday and it is the perfect reading spot! The challenge is teaching Bailey that it is not the perfect dog bed.

shhh...don't tell Jonathan

I’m currently blogging from my new desk and its turning into quite the perfect space as well. One thing I will surely miss about the US is Restoration Hardware. I’m crossing my fingers that they start delivering to the UK soon.

We were able to donate our old desk and bookcase to Goodwill along with 8 trash bags full of clothes. With the delivery of our new furniture, I feel like the house is officially ready to stage. All it needs is one final deep clean, so as soon as our visas are approved I’ll start manically dusting, sweeping, mopping, and vacuuming. Or I’ll just call the housekeeper. What Jonathan doesn’t know won’t hurt him, right?

This Week's Goals: This week my biggest priorities are to buy the airplane approved kennels for the dogs, start filling out their paperwork with the assistance of the pet transport company, have Samson shaved, have the yard sprayed for fleas…yes the first 4 things on my list are dog related…Other than that, I’m continuing to get the house in showing order: reorganizing closets, pantries, cabinets, fridge, etc.

Hopefully I’ll be able to scratch some of the miscellaneous items off of my big list like getting Jon’s cowboys repaired (major priority when moving to Aberdeen, right?) and getting some art prints framed.

We’re dealing more and more with the possibility that we may not get a pre-assignment visit to line up our housing. But we’re also leaning more and more towards a house in the country which will give us more space for our American sized furniture and a bigger yard for our beloved flea bags.

Monday Progress Report: Low Self Esteem

Last week was pretty productive and I feel like we’ve done just about everything we can do until we know what kind of house we’ll be moving into. For now we’re in a holding pattern until we get our visas approved.

Logistics: We completed our Ex-Pat Orientation and our Psychological Interview. I barely passed my psychological evaluation which Jonathan found hilarious. According to the mental health assessment questionnaire we had to fill out, I’m intolerant, insensitive, and offensive. Seriously. Jonathan was giggling the entire time the therapist was reviewing the results. I on the other hand was fighting back tears, probably because I’m so darn insensitive.

Jonathan passed with flying colors because apparently he is uber empathetic, open minded, and full of positive energy. My husband has many endearing qualities, but to say that empathy is one of them is quite a stretch. I’m seriously questioning the validity of this questionnaire. I’d like to move on, but I doubt Jonathan will ever let me live this one down.

We received two market analyses on our home and will be choosing our realtor today. It’s a tough call since Jon and I met with opposite realtors.  We both love our home and feel like it should sell itself pretty easily, but I still feel bad about choosing one realtor over the other. I really have to stop being so insensitive.

Shipment: Our shipment company came by last week to assess how much we’d be taking with us. The good news is, they said a few cans of Rotel (and other less important food products) would be fine to bring in our shipment.

The bad news is, they weren’t too confident that our beloved King Sized bed would fit into a Scottish bedroom. We won’t know for sure until we line up our rental property. Luckily we still have our old Master bedroom set which is Queen-sized. We’ll just have to find a replacement guest bedroom set if our King furniture won’t fit in the house. Sleeping in a smaller bed is a sacrifice we can make for this adventure. Plus, it’s so cold in those stone houses, we’ll want to be snuggled up close anyway.

"Moving is such hard work."

We decided to use a pet transport company to ship our fur babies and plan to go with World Care Pet Transport. My parents used them to transport their golden retriever from the US to Aberdeen and had nothing but great things to say. I know it will help to ease my mind even though it will eat up our moving bonus. That’s what it’s there for, right?

Miscellaneous: We painted the guest room. Well actually, Jonathan painted the guest room, but I did a swell job of taping off those electrical outlets!

In other news, I waited for an hour at Plato’s Closet to try to sell all of my gorgeous summer attire. I had two huge bags full off BCBG dresses and tops from JCREW and Urban Outfitters. In the end, I earned 5 bucks for 2 T-shirts. The rest of my clothes were unacceptable because of “pit stains”.

Seriously, that’s what the teenager making the assessment said to me. Not only am I intolerant and offensive, but apparently I also have problems with body odor. It was a tough week for my self-esteem guys. A very tough week. And this might sound bitter, but after spending an hour in the store, I know exactly why my BCBG dresses weren’t acceptable and it had more to do with too much body coverage than too much body odor.

So, snotty teenager working at noon on a Thursday when you should be in school, please tell me straight up that my clothes are too classy for your clientele rather than insult my hygiene. Sorry, I had to get that one off my chest. So if you’d like to buy some gorgeous, barely worn dresses with absolutely ZERO stains, check out your Houston area Goodwill branches.  Moving on….

This week’s goals: Hire our realtor, sign a pet transport contract, and hopefully get our visas. If we do get the visas back this week then we will amend this list with both house hunting and listing our house to sell. Other than that, my main goal this week is to salvage my self-esteem. Please feel free to leave various compliments in the comment section of this post in order to aid with this process. Thank you!

Monday Progress Report: I'm a PC

I’m a little late posting today, but I have a valid excuse. Say hello to my new best friend:

For the past 4 years I have tried desperately to be something I’m not: A Mac person. With ever fiber of my hipster-wannabe heart, I have tried to understand the unique and beautiful creature that was my i-Mac, but I finally had to admit that it just wasn’t working out between us. Yes, the prodigal daughter has returned to her PC roots and I couldn’t be more relieved. Last week was the first week that I had access exclusively to my i-Mac with no supplemental PC usage and Jonathan received several text messages about the various ways I was going to murder that computer. After extracting our files from it last night, he concluded that the best thing to do was just to hurl it over the balcony. The fact that a friend had agreed to buy it from us for $500 was the only thing protecting it from a gruesome end.

Just like there are cat people and there are dog people; there are PC people and there are lunatics Mac people. I will proudly shout it from the rooftops: I AM A PC PERSON! That being said, I have several friends who swear by the Mac operating system and say it’s more user friendly. Let’s just agree to disagree. I’m just that glad I can right-click again.

So my excuse for posting this late is that transferring all my files from a Mac to a PC took the better part of Sunday afternoon, and a few hours to decompress after the homicidal urge that Jon and I felt towards the old computer. The last thing I felt like was hopping on the new computer to blog. You can understand that, can’t you? Sounds like a solid excuse to me. So now, let’s get back to relocation related information because quite a lot has happened in the past week.

Logistics: We have officially applied for a Visa. In total this process consisted of receiving work visa sponsorship from Jonathan’s company, applying online for a UK visa (hint: answer no when asked about any prior terrorist activity), taking passport photos, and getting fingerprinted. We sent all of that information along with our passports to the UK embassy on Friday afternoon. It could take anywhere from 5-30 days to receive approval. From what I understand, the UK government has a fairly rapid turnaround time, but the Scottish branch of Jon’s company might hold up the process. We’ve been assured that his approval will be at the top of the list so we are optimistically expecting to have our Visas within the next two weeks. Once we receive our passport back, we will take a house-hunting/business trip to Aberdeen.

We also can’t officially put our house on the market until we are granted work visas. According to relocation policy, we have to interview two realtors to market our house. We’ve already met with the first one and I’ll meet with the second later this week. Hopefully everything will be in place so that we can put our house on the market as soon as we receive our visa approval. Last week we started fixing things around the house that we’d been putting off, including landscaping. Jon got me purple and gold flowers for our patio, which in my book makes him the sweetest husband in the whole wide world. I’m a simple girl: buy me something purple and I’ll love you for life.

The biggest thing we need to do before putting our house on the market is paint our guest room. The previous owners used the room as a nursery and some of the wall decals peeled off the underlying paint. We thought it would be easy to match since they had left the information of all the paint colors in the house. However, when we patched up and painted the walls, the color didn’t match exactly, so now we have to repaint the entire room. One of the good things about living in a teeny-tiny cottage: teeny-tiny rooms. We plan to tackle this task this afternoon. Of course, I said that yesterday afternoon as well, but sometimes it’s more important to take a nap instead.  

Another big accomplishment last week is that our dogs have been micro-chipped and vaccinated against rabies which are steps 1 and 2 of a 5 step importation process. It sounds simple, yet it’s anything but. I’ll start calling pet transport company’s this week to get cost estimates and hopefully they’ll be able to help me navigate the process.

Shipment: We joined Costco last week and started buying a few things to go into our shipment. As with a lot of things in this process, I feel like its one step forward, 2 steps back. When I got home with $200 worth of Rotel, Taco Seasoning, Oatmeal, etc we found out that the policy has changed to where no food, medicine, or appliances can be shipped to the UK. Our strategy now is to bring some of it over in our suitcases when we go for our initial trip and leave it with a friend until we move. We’ll bring the rest in our suitcases when we make our permanent flight.

We’ve also become more comfortable with the idea that we will survive if we can't find American items. Part of the experience of an international assignment is eating locally. We’ll just have to be resourceful and creative when adapting recipes with Scottish ingredients. But Rotel is non-negotiable, even if I have to smuggle it in. I can see it now: Locked up Abroad: young woman caught with a kilo of tomatoes with green chilies stuffed into lining of Vera Bradley suitcase.  It’s a calculated risk, but one that I must take for the sake of Taco Soup.

Unlike food, something that is encouraged when moving to Scotland is a good pair of hiking boots. Luckily my mom had a pair of gently used boots from her stint in Aberdeen that she has given to me. One more item to scratch of my list!

Miscellaneous: I decided not to lug my library of books around the world with us, and so I took a loaded box over to Half Price Books to sell. I made 14 smackers! It was kind of sad to see the last 4 years of my reading life reduced to 14 dollars, but what’s important is that they all find good homes.

This week: We already completed our Ex-Pat Orientation required by Jon’s company (I’ll write a separate post on the information). I’ll meet with our second realtor on Wednesday and hopefully we’ll have chosen our real estate agent by next week. We also have a psychological assessment Wednesday morning to make sure we’re stable enough to handle living in the most beautiful country on the planet. Mainly this week will just be centered on getting the house ready and securing our pet transport company. I’m feeling much less overwhelmed now that the process is rolling along and I feel good about what we’ve accomplished so far. I also feel real good about right-clicking.

Stress Management

It’s mighty convenient that this time of upheaval in my life happens to coincide with the seasonal distribution of Abita Strawberry Lager. When the going gets tough, the tough sit down with an ice cold beer that tastes remarkably like strawberry shortcake. It’s so good that I think that rather than timing our home visits for the Christmas holidays, we’re going to plan them for Louisiana’s strawberry season.  In my opinion, the overlapping of crawfish, strawberry, and baseball seasons trumps Christmas for the title of “The Most Wonderful Time of the Year”. But that’s just me. 

In relocation news, things are moving along quickly. Yesterday was mega-productive with us joining Costco, buying several necessities for our shipment, and filing our taxes. The amount of federal taxes we paid last year was more than my entire salary. Can I vent about that for a moment? Yikes!!!!

This morning the dogs got their rabies vaccinations. Next step is to get them treated for tapeworms within 5 days of arriving in the UK and then expedite the paperwork to the USDA for official signatures before loading them onto a plane. That gives me about the next 30 days to try to figure out how the heck to fill out all of their paperwork. You can hire transport companys to handle it all for you, but it costs in the range of $4,500. Worth it? Quite possibly. Every time I look at the forms I get an instant migraine headache, which is only curable with a Strawberry Abita. Lucky for me, I have 3 cases in the fridge, so maybe I can push through the pain and save us 5 grand.

Next week we start meeting with realtors and attend our 2-day Ex-Pat orientation. Then hopefully, we’ll be able to arrange our house hunting trip to Scotland! I actually feel much less overwhelmed now that I’ve been able to cross a few big items off of the to-do list. Of course, Strawberry Abita nightcaps help with the stress management as well.    

Costco

Yesterday was a hard day for me. I felt more frustrated and overwhelmed than I have at any point during this process. It was exacerbated by the fact that my morning started off with 4 immunization shots and the sacrificing of a lot of blood for various lab tests. Hunger + Shots + Blood Sacrifice = very grumpy Laine. At least I can scratch Medical Exam off the to-do list. But that’s about all I accomplished yesterday due to a freakish storm that blanketed Houston for the entire day. 

I’m guessing my Mom sensed my panicky state of mind yesterday because she is graciously volunteering her time to help me today and tomorrow which means it’s time to get my game face on. We’re headed to Costco this morning so that I can become a member and start stocking up on food stuff for our shipment. Also, Aberdeen has a Costco so I’ll be able to use my membership there as well. 

Well, it’s hopefully going to be a productive day so I guess I’ll get out of my pajama pants now. Though, come to think of it, I doubt the dress code at Costco requires real pants. Hmmm....decisions, decisions. 

Monday Progress Report

Last week was not very productive, but it was a whole lotta fun. We spent two nights at the Houston Rodeo, one night out with family, and a whirlwind weekend in Louisiana. Here’s a summary of what was accomplished last week and what’s on deck for the next 7 days.

Logistics: Jonathan sent in his relocation paperwork last Tuesday, but there was an “issue” so he has to resubmit it today. We were bummed about this since there seems to be about a 4 day turnaround on processing paperwork. We can put our house on the market and schedule a house hunting trip as soon as we have the paperwork approved and obtain medical clearance. Our medial exam is scheduled for tomorrow morning. I just found out the it involves fasting, and there is nothing in this world that I hate more than fasting. Makes me hungry just thinking about it. Of course, after my weekend spent eating my way through south Louisiana, I could probably use a little abstinence from food. 

Jonathan completed his mandatory “Financial Advising” Orientation where they review all of the tax intricacies of living in another country. I’m free to attend this same orientation if I’d like to on Thursday. No thanks.

The biggest accomplishment on my list so far is having the dogs microchipped this morning. That’s the first step to a long and arduous process. Tomorrow they get their Rabies vaccinations. Lucky dogs get to visit the vet two days in a row. They’ll be so excited. I know getting shots is their absolute favorite thing on Earth. Not at all. Luckily they have an overindulgent mom who has been showering them with cheesy rice cakes  all morning long so they are getting close to forgiving me. 

Shipment: I got nothing. Really slacked off last week. 

This Week’s Goals: My biggest goal is to get the dogs’ paperwork filled out and mailed to the USDA for “official” approval. I’m more anxious about filling out their paperwork correctly than I am with my own. I’ll definitely be doing a lot of emailing to DEFRA in the UK to make sure everything is picture perfect before my pets get onto a plane. I’ve already emailed them a few times to make sure I’ve got my facts straight. I can already tell that they are going to love me by the time this ordeal is over with. 

Another big goal is to get the house staged and ready to sell. Biggies on that particular to do list are to clean our carpet (to get rid of any dog smell that we may not notice anymore), fix some broken slate tiles on our porch, and landscape the backyard. Its a bit ambitious, but in my ideal world, the dog paperwork will be in the mail and my house will be ready to sell by Sunday.   

My first day as a House Wife started out with a 7 mile run. My goal is to be promoted to Trophy Wife soon. For now, it’s off to run errands and do some yard work. Yuck!

Red Beans and Rice

Though we will be able to buy most everything we need in Scotland, there are a few food staples that can be hard to find. In fact, when I asked my Mom what we need to put in our shipment, the first thing she listed was Rotel tomatoes. According to my mom, other weirdly scare items include chocolate chips, pre-packaged cake mix, and peanut butter.

When I spotted these Camellia Red Beans in Target, I loaded a few in my basket, figuring it’s a safe bet that if I can’t find chocolate chips in Aberdeen, I surely won’t be able to find these beans from Harahan, Louisiana. I have a hard enough time finding them in Texas and was actually planning on stopping by Albertson’s on our Louisiana trip this weekend to pick up a few packs. Well at least that’s one more thing I can go ahead and cross off my list. Now I just need to buy a year’s supply of Rotel and I’ll basically have all the fixings for Red Beans and Rice. Mmmmm….I bet some red beans and rice would taste mighty good on a chilly Scottish day.

As a bonus for reading the blog today, I’ll let you in on an authentic Louisiana family recipe for Crockpot Red Beans and Rice. I promise you it is the easiest recipe you have ever made. Like most of my favorites, it only contains 6 ingredients and requires minimal supervision. The beans do require 24 hours of soaking before cooking, so it requires just a teeny bit of foresight. Here’s what you’ll need:

Ingredients:

1 package of red kidney beans (I suggest Camellia if you can find them)

3 or 4 bay leaves

1 can Rotel tomatoes

Tony Chachere’s or other Cajun seasoning

Sausage

Rice

Directions:

1.       Soak red beans in water for 24 hours. You may have to keep adding a bit of water throughout the day.

2.       In the morning, add Tony’s seasoning (about 2 tsp initially and you can add more throughout the day if you think it needs more kick), a can of Rotel, and 3-4 crumpled up bay leaves.

3.       Cook in the crockpot on high for the next 6-8 hours, stirring occasionally. Add seasoning as preferred.

4.       An hour before serving, slice sausage and place in crock pot and continue cooking on high for 1 hour.

5.       Serve over rice.

6.       Thank the Lord for southern food. Amen.

It is so simple, truly delicious, and not unhealthy. What more could you want from a meal?

For extra credit, you could also make this super easy cornbread:

Ingredients:

1 package Jiffy Cornbread mix (milk and eggs required for prep)

1 can rotel

Directions: Prepare jiffy cornbread mixture as directed on box. Drain a can of Rotel and add tomatoes to jiffy mix. Bake as directed. I prefer making cornbread muffins so I bake mine in a cupcake pan. To each his own. No judgment from me if you prefer a loaf of cornbread to cornbread muffins (weirdo).  

To all of my friends who have been impressed by my authentic Red Beans and Rice before, now you know my secret that it’s actually embarrassingly easy to make. I hope you enjoy cooking like an authentically lazy Louisianan.

For now, I’m off to visit my homeland and enjoy friends, family and crawfish. I’ll be back Monday with the weekly progress report. Have a great weekend!

To Nest or Not to Nest?

Part of our relief of being assigned to Aberdeen is that Scotland would be a lovely place to start a family. The health care is top notch and Aberdeen is a small, family friendly city. We plan to be there for the next 2-4 years before shipping out to our next assignment which will likely be a bit more rough of a location. For instance, unlike other potential assignments, we don’t have to worry about malaria or yellow fever (and their questionable vaccinations) in Scotland. This might not be the case next time. Therefore, one of our goals is to have at least one child by the time we leave the UK.

My Mom is convinced that Jonathan and I should go ahead and buy our nursery furniture now to include in our shipment to Scotland. Rationally, this seems like a perfectly logical idea. Furniture is a lot more expensive in Scotland, they don’t have as much of a selection, and the style tends to be a bit more contemporary/modern while cottage/French country is more our flavor.

However, I can’t help but feel that it would be a bit unlucky to buy nursery furniture for a baby who hasn’t been conceived yet. I realize this is superstitious, but I’m still hesitant. I don’t want to jinx it. But at the same time, I do feel like God is calling us to be parents and I have faith that He will bring us a child whether that be through conception or adoption. Buying nursery furniture could be a testament of my faith; sort of a Noah building the ark type of thing. I just can’t decide and I need feedback. What do you think?

I have to say I’m leaning towards going for it. Especially after stumbling upon these exquisite nursery sets by Restoration Hardware.

Wowza. I think my uterus just skipped a beat.

Monday Progress Report

I’m a bit scatter-brained lately and I think it’s showing in my blogging. Now that we’re in the midst of the chaos that is relocating, I might be a little less apt to be posting everyday (I’ll still try!), but every Monday I’ll do my darndest to make sure to summarize where we are in the relocation process.

Logistics: The biggest breakthrough last week was getting Jonathan’s official job offer. Once he signed on the dotted line, we knew our relocation counselor would be contacting him within 48 hours with the next piece of the puzzle. Forty-Eight hours later (to the minute), our relocation counselor provided us with a step by step guide of the upcoming process. It’s truly a domino effect and one task must be completed before we can begin working on the next. It’s tough on my multi-tasking heart, but also helps keep panic attacks at bay. The comprehensive list is quite a beast so it’s nice to compartmentalize it.

The first few steps are for Jonathan alone. He needs to partake in an ex-pat orientation and fill out a few forms for his visa sponsorship. We both need to have medical exams, but that’s pretty easy-peasy to do- just show up and take deep breaths when instructed. For now, I can just focus on finishing my last week of work and keep on pretending that my entire life isn’t in a state of upheaval. Ah, denial.

Shipment: Our biggest stressor so far has been trying to figure out what to put in our shipment. The company pays for one unlimited shipment for the first assignment outside the US. Since we are planning on spending the next 10-20 years outside the States, we are trying to anticipate what we’ll need down the road and purchase it now. After this, we likely won’t be able to get anything substantial from the States for a while. Some of you might not realize this, but the US is cheap! Real cheap. And convenient. Online shopping and Target are just not the norm in other parts of the world.

Our biggest source of strife has been over furniture. Right now we live in a teeny-tiny 3 bedroom cottage and therefore only have a teeny-tiny 3 bedroom cottage’s worth of furniture. Since we only have 6 weeks until our move date, and most furniture takes 4-8 weeks to ship, we have to decide if we need more very soon, without knowing what our living situation will be in Aberdeen. Will we have 3 or 4 bedrooms? I don’t know. Will we have a conservatory (sunroom)? I don’t know. Will we have garage/attic/closet? Don’t know. Will we have a formal dining room? I don’t know. I don’t know. I don’t know. And we’ll continue to not know until about 4 weeks out from the move.

We went ahead and bought a secretary desk and two chairs from Restoration Hardware this weekend. These are functional and small so we have a lot of options on how to utilize them. I’m picturing using the chairs as a cozy reading area by the fireplace. Will we have a fireplace? I don’t know. But since we’ll be living in Scotland, I sure hope so.

In non-furniture shipment news, I also picked up 2 pairs of my favorite running shoes. I’ll definitely be getting my run on in Aberdeen, so I figured I should stock up on a pair that I really like. We also bought a rug for our living room. Why we didn’t do this 18 months ago when we moved to Houston, I have no clue. At least we have it now to help stage our house.

This week’s goals: Hopefully this week Jon will complete his orientation and receive preliminary visa approval. We’ll also try to complete our medical exam. This is my last week of work, so starting next week, we hope to start crossing a lot more off the to-do list including the biggies of putting our house on the market and taking our house hunting trip to Scotland.

Personal Note: Already, this move is teaching Jon and me things about each other and the existing dynamics in our marriage. This weekend we had our first move-related fight, and it stemmed directly from core differences in our personality. When Jon is faced with a stressful to-do list he starts immediately attacking any task in sight. At first, he accomplishes more than I do, but due to his hastiness and impulsivity, he will often need to re-do a task that he didn’t do correctly the first time.To me, it feels a bit schizophrenic which I think is why I’ve been so scatter brained lately. Jon is a natural born leader so I’ve just fallen in line with his way of doing things.  

On the other hand, I’m a much more careful and cautious person. I try to map out the whole picture of what needs to be done, prioritize tasks and come up with a strategy for how to most efficiently accomplish my list. Initially, I don’t accomplish as much, but once I get started, I’m pretty efficient.

I admit that for the past week and a half, I haven’t done much outwardly, but inwardly, I’ve been a researching and planning fool. Jonathan interpreted this lack of outward action as a lack of enthusiasm and unwillingness to take my fair share of the responsibility. I assured him that I am beyond thrilled to be going to Aberdeen (maybe he should read my blog) and showed him my detailed to-do list (in order of priority and anticipated date of completion). We had an amazing Bible study last night where we both admitted our failings as spouses and asked the other for forgiveness. Most importantly, we realized that we are both on the same team here and we could both be more patient in letting each other deal with stress in our own ways.

 I’m ready to get to working on my ever-growing list, but still have 4 days of full-time work to wrap up. Our nights this week will be full with two nights at the Houston Rodeo (Zac Brown Band and Jason Aldean. YeeHaw!) and spending time with my Dad before he heads back to Africa. This weekend, we will be making the rounds in South Louisiana to spend some quality time with friends and family before we ship off to the UK. It feels insane to be leaving town this weekend, but it’s absolutely necessary.  I’ll need a bit of relaxation and girl-friend time because come Monday, I’ll be officially unemployed, and will have to start facing down "The Beast" (aka: my to-do list):

Buying in Bulk

“There is no bad weather; only bad gear.”- Scottish proverb.

Well I don’t know if it’s officially a Scottish proverb, but it definitely became my dad’s go-to saying while he lived there. Scotland is hands-down one of the most beautiful places on earth, but if you aren’t dressed right, it can be downright miserable.

 I had my first semi-anxiety attack on Sunday when I realized that if we didn’t make it to the outlet mall soon, all of the Scotland appropriate gear would be replaced with Houston spring-wear. Since there won’t be much need for shorts and bathing suits in Scotland, we decided to spend our Sunday at the Houston Premier Outlets.

 One great thing about an assignment in Scotland is that we can ultimately get everything we need while we are there. (Seriously, they have a Wal-Mart.) Unfortunately, things are not only much more expensive there, but goods are taxed at a rate of 20%. Since Jon’s company provides us with an unlimited initial shipment from the U.S. we are trying to anticipate what we’ll need so that we can buy it here and just ship it to Scotland.  

One thing we’ve got to get used to when moving overseas is spending a lot of money upfront. We’ll get a moving bonus, but not until after we’ve arrived. I’ll be keeping a running tally of how much we spend on our shipment in my blog pages, which will include the shopping spree we incurred this weekend. It kind of makes me dizzy to add up the receipts, but I better get used to it.

Jonathan bought double what I did simply because he has to buy both casual and work-appropriate clothing. Since his entire professional career has been spent in Texas, his work wardrobe mainly consists of jeans, polos, and cowboy boots. They’re a bit more formal in Scotland which means we spent a lot of time and money in Banana Republic. And let me tell you, bypassing 40%-off sundresses while waiting 30 minutes for Jon to try on khaki pants was excruciating.

But there’s no need for new sundresses in my closest, no matter how much they are marked down. Same goes for sandals. And skirts. And beach bags. And shorts with cute little anchors embroidered on them. Nope it’s cable knit sweaters and hiking boots for me, at least for the next 2-4 years.

While Jon racked up at Banana, I hit the jackpot at JCrew. Jackpot of course meaning bulky cable knit sweaters, 50% off! I bought one in each color. Score!

I also scored some cold-weather running gear at Columbia and Reebok. I did pass on the Burberry Trench during this shopping trip, but as a substitute, Jon encouraged me to get these Cole Haan flats that are extremely comfortable and will be great for walking the cobblestone streets of Aberdeen.

I’m afraid that 4 inch heels may be an endangered species in my closet, so I’m looking to invest in cute boots and flats.

Unfortunately, we were already too late to score any good coats at the outlet mall, but we both have a few good jackets to get us through the Scottish summer. Jackets in summer; can you imagine? It will be such a welcome change from the scorcher we experienced in Houston this past year. Though I admit I am a bit sad about missing the opportunity to rock a pair of anchor embroidered shorts.