Cheers and salutations,

Welcome to our blog! Amber and I are getting very excited for this upcoming life change and we thought a blog would be a nice way to keep friends and family updated on how things are going in England!

This Fall has been busy as we’ve been preparing for the 3,767 mile move, visiting many family and friends, and working to close out the year strong at our jobs. Since we were offered our expat positions in August we’ve been to Michigan twice, Arizona, Germany/Italy/Oregon (Amber), England, Iowa, and all over Wisconsin. We’ve been so glad to get together with friends and family between work travels. Thanks to everyone who has made an effort to see us before we’re a little less convenient to visit! And to those we haven’t seen, first pint is on us if you make it out to England (🍻 cheers).

When December decided to show up this week, we realized how many more things we have to close out on our big list! A bit overwhelming, but scrolling down our list I’m happy to see how much we’ve already accomplished. Amber is the greatest teammate to make this move happen smoothly. Her organization is killer.

If you ever need advice on moving to the UK with a dog, Amber and I have that process down to a T (almost). We’ve only had to visit our vet clinic 4x the past two weeks to correct Brindle’s rabies certificate to meet the UK customs requirements… The vet was thrilled to redo the paperwork and sign in blue ink. I think they are glad we won’t be coming back for a few years haha. Other Brindle news – she has her giant crate ready for her first class flight to London (no joke her travels are more expensive than Amber and I combined).

Exciting news and a weight off our shoulders is the lease for our home started yesterday. Right before Thanksgiving, Amber and I spent four busy days driving all over Cheshire to find our new home. We landed in Tarporley – in a cute house with sheep across the street. The housing/rental market moves incredibly quick over there and we were very thankful that Husco sent us to find something in person before the move. Husco also put down a deposit for us which helped immensely as we don’t have money converted to GBPs or a UK bank account yet. Funny thing – you can’t open a UK bank until you have an address, but also can’t pay for a lease until you have a UK bank account. We did have a bit of time to explore the area as well – see below for some pictures from our trip.

This week was a bit sad as Amber will no longer be Vibing and we’ll no longer be Trekking together. Hopefully the new owners will have some lovely adventures in those favorite vehicles of ours. Speaking of cars, driving on the other side of the road is quite the experience after 10 hrs of overnight travel. I only dented one wheel on our <2 month old rental car. Hoping for smoother rides ahead — and to pass our UK driver’s test on our first attempts (before the end of 2023 when our US license won’t be legal to drive on any longer). We’ll make sure to give an update on taking drivers ed 2.0.

Our flights are booked for January 8th and we’re planning on beginning work on the 16th. Pray for us to have a smooth flight — Brindle will be in the climate controlled cargo hold below us, so I’m sure any bit turbulence we experience will make us even more anxious than we’ll already be (thank goodness for the beer and wine that we’ll be consuming on board).

Hoping to see many of your faces somewhere in Europe over the next 2 years. Whether you would like to come check out our area or meet us in Italy for some pasta, feel free to reach out and we’ll look forward to your visit. If you’re interested in visiting us where we are, check out Google Flights for routes to Dublin or London and then a hour flight from there to Manchester (closest international airport).

If you’d like to be notified when we have a new blog post, feel free to add your email to the below signup. The posts won’t all be this detailed, but we’ll include some photos and keep you in the loop.

Thanks for checking this out and we’re wishing you all a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

– J