So it all started last April (07).. well  a little before that actually..

Hubby and I had felt life had become a little stale.. but I had just begun working in a coffee shop after far too many years at home with the kids. For me life had started to become a little more exciting.. but still.. we had lived in our house for 12 years and things needed changing.  Hubby especially had reached a time in his life/career when he was questioning what to do next. His company was merging with a US company and we weren't sure what that really meant.  Next thing we know, Darrells boss had turned down a job in the US and Darrell put himself forward!   We discussed it a little and just thought well go for the interview and see what happens.  He left for the interview within about 2 weeks of the initial discussions.  The interview was in St. Louis.  At the time I remember thinking "sod it.. yeah go and see what happens"   Well he came back and was very successful at the interview.. the job was virtually his! WOW!    Then we started really talking about it.    The pros the cons etc..  But I remember feeling that we should just do it.. there really wasn't alot of hesitation.. no feeling of what-ifs or buts..  obviously we spoke to the kids and surprisingly they too were up for it, especially Cheslea (17 then) our eldest because it was always her dream to live in America!  Amber (12) and Sam (10) also were excited by it.  We had talked only briefly in past years about France with Daz's job but I would never entertain it.. but this just seemed the right time and the right place.

We were lucky in the fact that Daz could choose between St Louis, Rhode Island or California.  I knew where I wanted to go, but called my sister who has lived in the states for 25 years and asked what she thought. Straight away she said California.. no doubts... she thought it had so much more to offer us than the other options.  So that was that.. decision was made and the ball started to roll..

The Company did all the paperwork for the Visa.. we just supplied the relevant paperwork.. and we began making arrangements for a Recce trip in May.  I researched as much as I could possibly areas within a certain radius of Daz's office.. but to be honest hadn't a scooby doo what I was looking at.. Mostly looking at crime statistics if completely honest.  I got intouch with a couple of Real Estate agents and also spent hours looking at websites for rentals.  Its very difficult though if you have never been to any of the areas!  

Well May came very quickly and I met Daz at LAX (he was there on a business meeting already).  We had 5 days to find an area.. a home and decent schools.  We had been intouch with a great fella called Mark and he had 7 viewing set up for us on the Saturday, all in different areas.

Well what a day that was..  The houses were smaller and dirtier than i could ever of imagined.. i had a dream of a big house and pool.. well you do don't you!!  By the 4th or 5th house I was getting more & more upset... I was losing all hope.  Then we drove to Mission Viejo.. we loved the look of it straight away.. very green and hilly.  The house was on a Gated  Community which for me was great because the need to feel safe was paramount.  Well the house was totally fabulous... twice as big as anything we'd seen.. great view down to the lake and a much much bigger back yard than anything else.  PHEWEEEE!!

We got back to the hotel.. to the Bar of course and discussed our findings over copious amounts of wine!  There really was no doubt that the Mission Viejo house was the one.  But we had one problem, Mark out realtor had gone away that evening and wasn't back til the monday/tuesday.  We wanted THAT house and we wanted to secure it before we left on the Tuesday!!   We left lots of messages for him but no reply.  The next day we drove to Mission Viejo and had a good look around everything.. we were even more impressed!  Mark eventually got back to us and was going to contact the landlord.  On the Monday we went to the local School and College to register our interest and get all the nessercary forms etc.  We had a very tense couple of days waiting to hear from the landlord.. to the extent that I wrote almost a pleading email to him saying we loved his house and we would be great tenants etc etc.  Well it must of worked because 10pm the night before we flew out we got the call to say it was ours!!!   I think what worked in our favour was that the current tenants were also English and they had been very good Tenants... Praise the Lord!!!

So that was the beginning of all that... I'm off to lunch with Hubby now.. back later to continue..... 

I'm Back!... So that was that.. we got on the plane home, with House secured and schools and college picked out.. We had lots of pics of the house and area to show the kids.. and anyone else that was interested frankly!!

I should add at this point peoples reactions to this move.  We started telling people almost immediately about what we were planning.. Mostly because once the decision was made we knew that things would move quickly.. we had a date in July to work towards.. so really from start to finish it was about 3 very short months!!  On the whole I think we got positive feedback.. the normal 'oh your soo lucky.. go for it.. UK is shite'  blah blah blah... Daz's parents were ok about it I guess.. a reasonable response from them.. they were going to miss the kids enormously.. especially my FIL.. he has a great relationship with our son.  My folks were good too, although my Step Mum was a little upset and didn't know how she was going to cope.. but on the whole she has coped!  The worst reaction by far was my best mate.. she was terribly upset, and infact very angry with Daz about it.. I think she still is to a certain degree.  It was a family decision but I think she saw it as a career decision for Daz and we were tagging along so to speak.  Her and my family are very close.. our daughters are bestest friends and have been since they were 5 months old... Her hubby and mine went to nursery school together etc etc... so a long long standing friendship.  She did say that she knew she was being selfish, but was finding it hard to come to terms with.

The next month or so was just all the planning and arranging... most of which I have to say the company did.. I just did the normal household organising and preparations.  Not to make light of that... Jaysus its hard work... I had always dreaded moving house, we had 2 kids since we moved to that house.. 13 years of 'stuff'.. I had to leave work earlier than hoped just to keep on top of the organisation.  Shippers were booked, house was getting packed up, things being cancelled and addresses changed.. it was just list after list after list...!!

We decided to stay in the house once the packers had left with everything... it was ok.. we couldn't take any electrical stuff with us anyway and had bits and bobs of matresses and furniture we weren't taking.  I think we lived like that for 2 weeks.. craziness really!   We had organised a party for the Saturday nite before we left. BIG BIG mistake... we had the party in our house... what on earth were we thinking!?!   Well I think we thought that cos house was virtually empty anyway it wouldn't matter.... got up on the sunday with the most blinding hangover imaginable.. and spent the day clearing up!!!   There was lots of tears at the party but lots of positiveness too.. all in all i'm glad we did it.

Daz's parents were away that weekend which was an absolute blessing.. we could stay there whilst getting the house ready for our new tenants.  Oh I hadn't mentioned that before... we decided not to sell the house - we rented it out.  Luckily we got tenants interested fairly quickly so that was one less worry. I had booked for the house to have a professional clean on the Monday as the tenants were arriving on the Tuesday. We had booked into a hotel for the Monday and Tuesday and our flight was for Wednesday Morning.

Well Monday morning came.. we had the usual last minute dashing around to do.  I got to the house by 9 to meet the cleaners. Well by 9,30 they still weren't there, by 10 they weren't there.. ARRRGGHHHHHH...  I called the company and he said they had broken down and would be there by 11.  All I could think was thank god there coming!  I met them there at 11 and said I'd be back by 1 to see how they were getting on.  The company had told be it was a 5 hour job for a proper professional clean.  When I got back at 1 they were sitting outside having a fag all ready for the off..!!  I went inside and just couldn;t believe my eyes.. my wooden floors actually looked DIRTIER!!  Blinds hadn't been cleaned.. and when I asked her why the downstairs toilet hadn't been done she said 'oh I didn't know that was there'!!!!   WTF??  I then explained that this was a professional house clean.. we were emigrating etc etc... They say they didn't know that.. so I left them with a list of stuff that still needed doing...... I'm somewhat stressed at this point, as you can inagine!!       So off Daz and I go to check into the Hotel.. Laiden with 12 suitcases we arrived at a local hotel... well when they showed us the rooms (needed 2) I swear to god I could have punched someone... they were awful.. infact so small that u couldn't open the doors properly.  So this is where we will spend our last 2 nites..??   I was beside myself.  Bless Daz;s heart though, he took me by the hand and took me to the bar for a drink... He called Hanbury Manor, which is a VERY expensive hotel 2 mins from our house and got us booked in there.  He said he'd put it on expenses.. there was no way we could stay at the other hotel.

So I go back to the house to again check on the progress of pikey's i'd left in charge of cleaning my house.  SHITE,  total and utter SHITE.  Told 'em to bugger off.  So for the next 3 hours i spent on my hands and knees cleaning.  Mostly in tears I have to say... it was awful. And I might add not ONE bugger came to my rescue!!!  My best friend stayed well away... I think she was dealing with her own emotional crisis but still.....   Anyway.. got it done and handed over the keys to the agent.  It was tough closing the door on that house... but i think because i knew we hadn't sold it, made it easier. (btw.. I didn't pay the cleaning company!!)

We spent a wonderful night at Hanbury.. was just the Tonic i needed.. oh no wait that was a Vodka Tonic!!!   The kids were still going to school... they wanted to see their friends right up to the end... so they actually finished on the Tuesday. That worked well actually.. meant that we could run around and get stuff done.

Our last night was awful.. our best friends and daz's parents came up.  We just sat and had a drink in the bar, knowing that the time was fast approaching to say good bye.  Which ofcourse it did... lots and lots of tears.. but to be honest for us it was filled with excitement and trepidation... for them it was just emptiness.

Had a mega sleep that night and was up silly early for the taxi.. I say Taxi i really mean VAN that turned up for us.. 5 of us, 12 cases and oh I didn't mention Freddie.. the dog!

Everything went smoothly.. got Freddie checked in.. got us checked in... and off we flew to LAX and our new lives.....