International Move Director

That title came into its own today.

Sometimes I describe my job with that name. I feel justified today.

Here are a few of the things I did since I got up this morning:

- showed the moving company rep around the house (what took 1.5 days to pack and load in France will take an unbelievable, ludicrous, amusing 5 days here due to a UK law limiting the volume each team can pack per day; it's so enlightening living in different countries. I am sure some people would find it very interesting that out of UK, France, and U.S., the French packers win the highest award for efficiency and hard-working character! But they are apparently not hampered by such restrictive laws - either that or they just ignored them; plus they didn't even do inventory stickers)

- learned what we can and can't bring in our shipment (except you can't really call it a shipment when it goes by road the whole way, can you?), and which insurance and inventory and customs forms I'll have to fill out (they want to know how many of every item we are bringing - how many pairs of shoes, how many shirts, how many pairs of trousers, how many ties, etc etc!!! Crazy. That's a new one on us)

- investigated the closing of a UK bank account (visited the bank, got a form, verified D has to sign too, checked up on stuff online)

- notified most utilities of our move date (water service, gas & electric, telephone, the Royal Borough of Windsor & Maidenhead - local government for taxes) and cancelled some "standing orders" and direct debits on our bank account so they won't keep going beyond our departure from the country

- confirmed with the car place the appointment next week for the last servicing of the car before sale (it is due for the 3-year MOT emissions testing & general check-up; they had us down for two different dates mistakenly)

- found the title to our car (how nice), and read up on what we need to do upon the sale (e.g. mail a certificate in to the DVLA - the U.K. equivalent of the DMV in the U.S.)

- let our current home's future tenants in to measure rooms

- confirmed with the kids' current school that they will be sending the kids' records to the new schools in Switzerland

- corrected the date for a proposed appointment at the U.S. Consulate in Zürich where we have to get an affidavit as to our clean criminal record for registering in our new village in Switzerland (the consulate mistakenly wrote about June instead of July in their prior email)

- talked with the car insurance company to see if they can insure us in our new country (not really), and let them know we'll be selling the car (I have to call them back when we've actually done it)

- conversed multiple times with our property management company about various end-of-tenancy issues

- booked a local hotel for the last few days of our English stay, when our house will be packed up

- asked the relocation company some questions

- topped up the credit on my prepaid mobile phone and Jason's at the cash machine (that's a common way to do it here in England)

And some more things I did that don't have to do with moving:

- read Proverbs chapter 1

- prayed with David and Jason for Steven Curtis Chapman's family who are going through a very difficult time

- went grocery shopping and planned a weekend meal

- ran the dishwasher, emptied the dish rack, vacuumed up the particularly dirty entrance area from the garage

- picked up Emily from her field trip when they arrived early, took a friend of hers home, then later picked up Jason, then later picked up Emily's forgotten medicine from the field trip (with the morning's school run, that makes 4 trips to the school and back today)

- helped call some of the other parents in Emily's class to let them know of the early return time of the field trip bus (the room mom did most of the calls)

- listened to Emily's impressions from her 3-night field trip and asked questions

- looked at Jason's newly distributed yearbook (and especially admired the double page about the play he was in in the fall; the yearbook editor emailed me a few months ago asking for photos from the play, so rather a lot of the featured photos feature Jason! :-)

- did all the laundry (including Emily's very wet & dirty clothes from her field trip: caving, walking up waterfalls, building shelters in the woods, pond-dipping, etc)

NO WONDER I'M TIRED and slightly headachy! My mother keeps telling me not to overdo. I think I'll take the weekend off (with a Motrin send-off).

Thank you, my God of Hope and Every Resource, for answering my prayers today to help me get things done! Wow.