Saturday, September 7, 2013
Salem Day!
Thursday, September 5, 2013
Moving Day
It seems like we had been talking about moving day for months! When we finally saw the moving truck headed down the road to our house it was totally surreal. Actually it made everything about this experience seem much more real. To be honest, those two days were extremely hard. Leaving my house and what had been home for 9 years was much more difficult that I thought it would be. It was made easier by a constant stream of visitors. I wish I had thought to take pictures with everyone who came to see us, but I probably would have been too emotional. I miss Star Valley and I probably always will. We had such good friends and neighbors there.
Lesson learned: Sometimes even when you have the most exciting things in your future it is HARD and SCARY and EMOTIONAL to leave you current place.
Saturday, August 31, 2013
Playing Catch Up!
Well... We are here and we are LOVING it! We arrived about 2 weeks ago and it has been a bit of an adventure getting settled but life is finally starting to seem normal. Today is the kids first day of school, tomorrow we have swimming lessons after school, Tuesday the kids and I have medical appts at 7:30 in the morning. Normal life has resumed and occasionally I have to remind myself that we are living outside of the United States. I am going to try and get caught up with all that has happening for us in the last month or so!
I took this picture from the bus last Saturday (which is why you can see a bit of a reflection). We live in the desert! :) More posts coming soon!
Saturday, July 27, 2013
Still No Visas
So, here we are three weeks before we are supposed to be on our way to Saudi Arabia and we still do not have visas. Ick. Josh has been communicating with our relocation advisor in Houston every day in hopes of keeping the process moving along. This is what we know for now:
* The visa application was denied because of how his position was listed. It said "language arts" and for some reason that wasn't acceptable.
* The visa application was re-submitted sometime last week with the position changed to "teacher".
* If we don't have visas by August 7 we will most definitely be delayed. There is a muslim holiday called Eid that begins August 7 and ends August 13. The country pretty much shuts down for those days so getting a visa during that time won't happen.
* Our movers are coming August 7 and we will be out of our house on the 9th. We do have family that we will be staying with in Utah and we are grateful for that.
* We are frustrated! Especially Josh. Being delayed has the most impact on him. School starts on September 1 and every day that we are delayed is one less prep day for him.
So, yeah, we are really hoping we hear in the next week or so that we have the visas! It is crazy that next week is our last full week here in WY. I try hard not to think about leaving here because once I think about it I get too sad. I have such great friends here and my kids have good friends. We have really loved living here for the last nine years.
The kids and I had a really great time in Utah. On Sunday Brigham started coughing a bit and had a fever. By Monday morning he had gotten a little bit worse so I decided it would be best to get him seen by a doctor. Callie had also been coughing and had a sore throat so I made an appointment for both of them. The appointment was at 2:30 in the afternoon, by 12:30 I was counting down the time to get Brigham there. He seemed to be getting worse and worse by the minute. His fever would not go down and he was getting lethargic. Poor baby! Turns out he had pneumonia, bronchitis, and ear infections in both ears. Ugh. It was a rough couple of days but we were very blessed to avoid the hospital. Breathing treatments have helped keep his saturation levels high enough and I was able to keep him hydrated. It was nice being down in Salem because my parents were so helpful so the other kids were still able to have a good time. He is doing quite a bit better now and I think by tomorrow he will mostly be back to normal.
So anyway... That's where we are at! Praying we get those darn visas quick!
EDIT: So I really don't know that much about Saudi Arabia or Muslim holidays. After I posted I got thinking that I needed to check and see what Eid actually is. Turns out it's the break the fast holiday that is held after Ramadan and just lasts until the evening of August 8. Because of the way the work week is though it does kind of still put us at almost a week of not being able to do anything.
* The visa application was denied because of how his position was listed. It said "language arts" and for some reason that wasn't acceptable.
* The visa application was re-submitted sometime last week with the position changed to "teacher".
* If we don't have visas by August 7 we will most definitely be delayed. There is a muslim holiday called Eid that begins August 7 and ends August 13. The country pretty much shuts down for those days so getting a visa during that time won't happen.
* Our movers are coming August 7 and we will be out of our house on the 9th. We do have family that we will be staying with in Utah and we are grateful for that.
* We are frustrated! Especially Josh. Being delayed has the most impact on him. School starts on September 1 and every day that we are delayed is one less prep day for him.
So, yeah, we are really hoping we hear in the next week or so that we have the visas! It is crazy that next week is our last full week here in WY. I try hard not to think about leaving here because once I think about it I get too sad. I have such great friends here and my kids have good friends. We have really loved living here for the last nine years.
The kids and I had a really great time in Utah. On Sunday Brigham started coughing a bit and had a fever. By Monday morning he had gotten a little bit worse so I decided it would be best to get him seen by a doctor. Callie had also been coughing and had a sore throat so I made an appointment for both of them. The appointment was at 2:30 in the afternoon, by 12:30 I was counting down the time to get Brigham there. He seemed to be getting worse and worse by the minute. His fever would not go down and he was getting lethargic. Poor baby! Turns out he had pneumonia, bronchitis, and ear infections in both ears. Ugh. It was a rough couple of days but we were very blessed to avoid the hospital. Breathing treatments have helped keep his saturation levels high enough and I was able to keep him hydrated. It was nice being down in Salem because my parents were so helpful so the other kids were still able to have a good time. He is doing quite a bit better now and I think by tomorrow he will mostly be back to normal.
So anyway... That's where we are at! Praying we get those darn visas quick!
EDIT: So I really don't know that much about Saudi Arabia or Muslim holidays. After I posted I got thinking that I needed to check and see what Eid actually is. Turns out it's the break the fast holiday that is held after Ramadan and just lasts until the evening of August 8. Because of the way the work week is though it does kind of still put us at almost a week of not being able to do anything.
Friday, July 19, 2013
One day closer
So nothing really too exciting has been happening.
Still waiting for our visas....STILL. I've been emailing with my friend Cindy, who is headed for Abqaiq the same time as us and they are having the same kind of problems. The did actually hear back from the relocation advisor that she has their visas, so I have hope that ours will actually get back too!
On Tuesday the Tolmans stopped by! It was SO MUCH FUN to talk to them. Josh of course knows Kelly really well but I had only met Geniel once I think, and it was several years ago. She and I have been texting for so long but it was nice to finally see them. They will head back to Saudi the week before we get there and can I just say I am SO relieved that they will be there!!! I hope we don't drive them crazy! :)
Yesterday we called the moving company with a couple of question and had actually just been discussing our move and decided to bump it up a day. So now the movers will be here August 7 and 8, and if they aren't finished yet then possibly the 9 too. Josh has been spending some time getting things packed and arranged in our luggage, and sorting things into what goes where. He is getting really antsy to get things done!
We closed on our house so we officially don't own a home any more (we are renting from the new owners until we move). Kind of a strange feeling but I also feel very relieved that it sold and that things have worked out as well as they have. Today I spent hours on the phone and computer canceling home owners insurance, making sure all of our bills will come to me electronically, switching auto pay accounts around. It really shouldn't have taken so long but every time I called somewhere they wanted to hear the whole story of why we are moving to Saudi Arabia. It's fun to talk about though, so I don't really mind.
Tomorrow the kids and I are headed down to SLC so I can spend some time with my friends. On Sunday we will go to Salem to spend a few days at my parents house. It's one of my most favorite weeks of the year because my family all gets together to celebrate the 24th of July (a state holiday in Utah called Pioneer Days). Poor Josh gets to miss out on the fun because he has to work (he has 4 more days of Swim/Read). It's a good chance for him to get lots of stuff done here though.
Still waiting for our visas....STILL. I've been emailing with my friend Cindy, who is headed for Abqaiq the same time as us and they are having the same kind of problems. The did actually hear back from the relocation advisor that she has their visas, so I have hope that ours will actually get back too!
On Tuesday the Tolmans stopped by! It was SO MUCH FUN to talk to them. Josh of course knows Kelly really well but I had only met Geniel once I think, and it was several years ago. She and I have been texting for so long but it was nice to finally see them. They will head back to Saudi the week before we get there and can I just say I am SO relieved that they will be there!!! I hope we don't drive them crazy! :)
Yesterday we called the moving company with a couple of question and had actually just been discussing our move and decided to bump it up a day. So now the movers will be here August 7 and 8, and if they aren't finished yet then possibly the 9 too. Josh has been spending some time getting things packed and arranged in our luggage, and sorting things into what goes where. He is getting really antsy to get things done!
We closed on our house so we officially don't own a home any more (we are renting from the new owners until we move). Kind of a strange feeling but I also feel very relieved that it sold and that things have worked out as well as they have. Today I spent hours on the phone and computer canceling home owners insurance, making sure all of our bills will come to me electronically, switching auto pay accounts around. It really shouldn't have taken so long but every time I called somewhere they wanted to hear the whole story of why we are moving to Saudi Arabia. It's fun to talk about though, so I don't really mind.
Tomorrow the kids and I are headed down to SLC so I can spend some time with my friends. On Sunday we will go to Salem to spend a few days at my parents house. It's one of my most favorite weeks of the year because my family all gets together to celebrate the 24th of July (a state holiday in Utah called Pioneer Days). Poor Josh gets to miss out on the fun because he has to work (he has 4 more days of Swim/Read). It's a good chance for him to get lots of stuff done here though.
Monday, July 15, 2013
One Month To Go!
It's hard to believe we only have one more month before we leave the US. We don't have our travel agenda yet but we are assuming we will leave Salt Lake City on August 15 and then leave from New York or Washington DC on August 16. I do know that they expect us to arrive in Saudi Arabia in the evening of August 17. We will be arriving at the same time as the other new hire teachers so I assume that means we will be will all be on the same flight to Dammam. Talk about an interesting way to get to know your new neighbors and colleagues.
One question that I get asked a lot is if we know about our house yet. The answer is no. We most likely will not know anything about our house until we pull up in front of it. At there airport there will be a group of other teachers (including the principal) waiting for us. They will help us get through customs and then we will all get on a big bus and head to Abqaiq (about an hour from Dammam). Once we are in Abqaiq the bus will take us to our new home. We have seen several pictures of houses in Abqaiq so I have a general idea but we all still feel quite a bit of excitement and anxiousness about what our house will be like.
As for the house we own here in Afton... We will only own it for the next few days. We sold it to some friends of ours and we will close by the end of this week. We won't actually move out until August. The movers will be here on August 8 and 9. It is coming so fast!!!
Things are mostly going quite smoothly. We are STILL waiting for our visas. We thought our relocation adviser was working on them for the last few weeks but just a few days ago we discovered that she hasn't even submitted the application for them. It's frustrating but it seems like some of the other new hires are dealing with the same sort of problems. Hopefully we will hear from her by the end of today to verify that the process has been started.
More soon!
One question that I get asked a lot is if we know about our house yet. The answer is no. We most likely will not know anything about our house until we pull up in front of it. At there airport there will be a group of other teachers (including the principal) waiting for us. They will help us get through customs and then we will all get on a big bus and head to Abqaiq (about an hour from Dammam). Once we are in Abqaiq the bus will take us to our new home. We have seen several pictures of houses in Abqaiq so I have a general idea but we all still feel quite a bit of excitement and anxiousness about what our house will be like.
As for the house we own here in Afton... We will only own it for the next few days. We sold it to some friends of ours and we will close by the end of this week. We won't actually move out until August. The movers will be here on August 8 and 9. It is coming so fast!!!
Things are mostly going quite smoothly. We are STILL waiting for our visas. We thought our relocation adviser was working on them for the last few weeks but just a few days ago we discovered that she hasn't even submitted the application for them. It's frustrating but it seems like some of the other new hires are dealing with the same sort of problems. Hopefully we will hear from her by the end of today to verify that the process has been started.
More soon!
Wednesday, July 10, 2013
Shopping!
Shopping for this move has been quite the task. We have been in contact with several people who are living in KSA and of course they all have different opinions of what needs to be brought over from the states and what items you can get there. We have just kind of pulled from all of the suggestions we have gotten and made a list of what we thought would work for us.
A couple Saturdays ago we hired a babysitter and Josh and I spent a good chunk of the day in Idaho Falls doing getting a lot of shopping done.
A couple Saturdays ago we hired a babysitter and Josh and I spent a good chunk of the day in Idaho Falls doing getting a lot of shopping done.
Spending all that money had Josh feeling a little panicky. I thought it was super fun though! We went to Sam's Club and Target and then we pretty much didn't feel like ever shopping again so we came home and made a whole bunch of online purchases.
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