Long overdue update

Ok, I know this has been a long time coming and I am probably one of the worst bloggers ever, but things have been moving on apace and my brain has stopped working to the extent that writing anything over 140 characters is a strain...

So here's where we are now:
House is still not sold;
D's car has been sold;
Half the house is in storage;
Most of what's left has been packed into cardboard boxes;
The girls have had a going away disco for their friends;
We've been and visited most of our family, and had our leaving party for our friends;
D and R set off on Monday in my car with all the clothes and bits & pieces we'll need for the first few months;
Me, F and G fly out on Wednesday.

Yes, leaving date is finally almost upon us! Buying one way tickets was such a strange feeling, and the first step towards it actually seeming real. Now that we are less than a week away, a slight sense of panic is beginning to set in, with all the accompanying doubts and second thoughts. However it's too late for all that now, and all I can do is carry on sorting things out and putting them into cardboard boxes - a chore that I'm fast tiring of.

I'm also struggling with the fact that I have to relinquish my computer on Sunday for 4 days... thank goodness for my Blackberry which will at least give me the illusion of still being connected to the wider world ;)
Monday and Tuesday will be an interesting couple of days, as I will be car-less with a 3 year old and 4 year old in a house that contains no toys, no tv and no computer. Hoping for some good weather so we can play out in the garden and perhaps catch the bus somewhere. Fortunately I have lovely friends and invitations to dinner on each day so that's one less thing to worry about.

Although the whole thing still doesn't really seem real, right now the emotions I'm feeling are panic, stress, nerves and excitement in roughly equal measures. And speaking of those, I ought to get on with my jobs.

Most likely the next entry here will be made from Sweden. When that will be, I don't know; it depends mostly whether the promised internet access really exists and works.

Hej så länge!

Things moving on....

Apologies for the delay in updates, but as you can guess we've been busy!
So here's where we are at the moment:
House is decluttered - over 40 boxes and a couple of pieces of large furniture have gone into storage. Unfortunately there's still quite a lot of stuff left but less packing to do when the time comes.
And we're sort of on the market; the estate agent has taken his photos and measurements, the details have been approved, and we're just waiting for the HIP to be finished. The energy assessor has been so hopefully that won't take too much longer.
School place is booked and confirmed for the eldest, just need to make some decisions on daycare/kindergarten for the other two and then we can get ourselves on the (4 month) waiting list.
Actual moving date is really dependant on selling the house. D will definitely be going out there at the beginning of July to settle into his new office and the apartment, but not sure about the rest of us. He's going to do a first run at some point with a car load of stuff that we want to have when we first arrive, and the rest of the stuff will be shipped over when we find a house.
We've mostly cleared out the garage and successfully got rid of some things on freecycle - that was an experience in itself!
Now it's just a case of waiting and trying to sell the house. There are various trips we need to make to visit people before we go, but the hard work is temporarily finished. Phew!
I'm not desperately looking forward to living in a 4th floor apartment with 3 girls, so hoping that we'll be able to find the house that we want soon after we arrive. I do keep looking on the Swedish version of Rightmove though and keep being disappointed that we're not ready to buy now! It's not a big worry though, as it will be better to let the girls learn Swedish (mostly so they can translate for me of course) before we move them again.
I think that's all for now....

Quick update

Busy busy packing...

Contract has been signed - official start date is July 1st, which gives us 3 months to pack up and sell the house. Hmm.

Speaking to the estate agent today, just hope he's a miracle worker!

Back to my boxes, more later.

Departure date

For all those asking, don't worry we're not going just yet! The ideal time that we'd like to go is July/August so that RP can start at the beginning of the new school year, but whether or not that will happen depends on whether we're ready and if we can sell the house (not too easy of course in the current climate). If by some miracle the house does get sold quickly then we will go earlier, but at the moment it's not going to be till the summer.

Lists, lists and more lists

Have started making lists of things we need to do and find out before we go. And as Mr.B is always taking the mickey out of my list making habit, I've even created a master list of lists... and it's interactive! 
Barely started with the things to do though, and they're already quite sizeable, which doesn't exactly fill me with joy :(