1 more day

So tomorrow we leave to Dublin, Ireland!!! Can't believe it's already here. This last week haas been incredibly busy which surprised me but I guess makes sense since we are moving our whole life over to Ireland. We had a few hiccups like both Connor and myself getting sick. I'm turning my phone and computer today and our Internet already shut off so I'll have no contact to the outside world until we arrive in Dublin. That part scares me the most I think! I do feel like this process has been that much harder doing it with a 1 year old. Excited but also a little scared. Can't wait to see what my new life will be like. But definitely will miss the people that have made Tampa special for me.

7 more days

Our flight is now only a week away.

My last real week of work in the US was yesterday. I haven't really had time to savor that as today was a very busy day. We had to rush a box of things to another colleague of my husband who is also going to Dublin to be shipped with her things, then rushed to breakfast with some friends, then had to let my husband's family in for them to take the rest of our furniture, and then had dinner with some close friends. Our apartment looks very empty now as you can see in the picture. We have our tv, two camping chairs, and an air mattress. Connor has been running around the apartment to his heart's delight. It will definitely be a hard week for us.

We have a pile of left over things to go through and make a decision of whether to store or not.

I haven't yet received approval of my green card which is frustrating for me. Thankfully I am covered under my husband's green card to pass through immigration. But I would like to get my green card finalized as I need that to get my Irish SS number and a bank account. I have a call with my Irish HR on Monday so hopefully some good news then!

Future August trip

My husband and I booked our first trip in Europe last night!  We will be traveling to Edinburgh, Scotland during the August Irish Bank holiday!  I can't wait. It looks beautiful. We went online and searched for the cheapest flights we could get at that time and Edinburgh was one of them.  Not the cheapest, but a pretty good price.  Definitely much less than if I was taking a trip there from the USA.

Common questions

A lot of people ask me the following questions about the move:

1. What are we doing with our house?

2. What are we doing with our car?

3. What are we doing with our pets?

Luckily, for #1, we had already moved out of our house and rented it out a year before we found out about the transfer. We had found some great renters - a family with 4 kids that loved our house and neighborhood and want to stay for a while.

For #2, I had posted before about my car as my lease ended in April (good timing) and we had turned it in. Our current car's lease won't end for a few years but my in laws are going to take over the lease from us, which is really awesome.

For #3, since our cats would have been quarantined upon arrival, we didn't think they would survive. My in laws are also going to care for them while we are gone.

We are definitely lucky to have family that will help us.

11 more days

My place is feeling very empty since the shippers took our stuff. It has been a struggle trying to manage without our baby gates and high chair. Connor is definitely loving it and running around like a crazy baby. We already had a complaint from our neighbors below us to keep the noise down. I guess they can hear him thudding around, screaming and throwing his toys on the tile. I can't believe we are going to Dublin in 11 more days!!! I am starting to freak out a little in my head as the magnitude of what we are doing is hitting me. We are pretty settled here in Tampa with our jobs, house, and having a baby. Now we are getting rid of all our possessions and moving to a foreign country!!!! I have also recently had a few going away parties in my honor and it is sad leaving my friends behind. Scared and excited at the same time!! I have to keep reminding myself this is an adventure of a lifetime and you only live once.

Shippers are here

The shippers are here and wrapping our boxes with brown padding. It's finally happening! I am glad to get the boxes out of here. Now I can't wait until we go to Dublin. I am starting to count down the days.

Here are some pictures of Connor watching the movers:

Packing

The shippers are coming tomorrow! The pressure is on! My husband and I both took pto today to go through all our rooms and things so we can pack everything. We put Connor in daycare as its hard to do all this with Connor trying to "help". Wow, This is really happening!

Looking forward

So I have started somewhat obsessively looking at daft.ie, a rental website in Ireland, for available housing in Dublin. While it is too early to settle on an apartment now as turnover is too fast, it gives me a good idea of what to expect and what we can get in our price range. There are a few that seem really nice and I hope there will be similar places available when we get there. We are looking for a 2 bedroom in the city center of Dublin. Our goal is to find an apartment the first two weeks there. Thankfully my husband's company will put us in corporate housing when we get there, but would be nice to get settled in our own place. The crazy part is that our daycare will be almost as much as our rent.

Countdown

The shippers came last week to look at what we generally want to ship to determine if it could go by air or sea. We are going by sea. If we were only shipping a few things it could go by air. I am already embarrassed how many clothes boxes I am shipping over. But it includes both professional business clothes and casual clothes. I made a list of other areas that I need to sort through and it's a lot. I am taking some pto next week to do that. The shippers are coming next Friday to package and take our items.
I can't believe I am leaving in 27 days. Thankfully I have a full month in Dublin to get settled and get used to the area before starting work!
I also need to start coming with a list of places we would like to visit. My husband and I will probably go visit Paris as our first continent visit. We went there for our first anniversary for 10 days and loved it there. I also want to tour Ireland as it looks beautiful and UK after that.

Getting excited! Although I don't think it will fully hit me until we get over there.