If you were wondering...

First of all, thank you everyone for your encouraging comments about our move! It means a lot to me, and I know especially when I am away from all of our family and friends, I will appreciate your comments even more!

These are questions that I get asked a lot, and I just want to lay them out there for y'all in case you were wondering the same things.

1. Why are you moving? We are moving for my husband's job. He works in oil and gas as a trading systems analyst.

2. What will you do? As of now, I will be able to work while we are in London if I want to. I do not want to do anything full time. Daniel will have a lot more vacation time while we are there, and I don't want a job to hold me back from being able to travel (usually if you start a new job, you do not get your vacation time until after a year). Ideally, I would love to substitute teach, work at a boutique, or at a yoga/ health club. A lot of people have jokingly suggested becoming a nanny- after looking into it, I've realized this job isn't ideal, since usually the hours are in the afternoon. If I find a job, I want it to be at normal working hours! If I am unable to find a job, then I will volunteer, do lots of yoga, be our own travel agent, and tour the city!

3. What about your pets? This is honestly the hardest part. Anyone that knows us, knows that our dogs and cat are our babies. They are such a huge part of our lives. Well, we can't bring them. First of all, Cole has pit mixed in her. This breed is not allowed in the UK and she would be euthanized.  Can't bring Dakota and leave Cole- they are best friends and they won't even go to a different room than the other...I don't think they can handle being half a world away. Even if we could bring our dogs, they would hate it. They need a backyard, places to run off their leashes- they would be so unhappy being confined to a small, crowded, backyard-less flat all day. So, Daniel's parents have graciously agreed to  adopt them while we are away. People who don't have pets will think that this is absolutely ridiculous, but we almost said no to London because we couldn't bring our pets. Then we figured that (please pet lovers don't hate me) that we really can't let our pets hold Daniel back in his career.

4. Where will you live? We don't know this yet. When we move, we will be placed in temporary housing while we try to figure this out. Daniel will work in Canary Wharf (yuck), which is East London. We have several different areas on our radar to live- Clapham, London Bridge, Chelsea...but we really won't know until we look. We need to live somewhere that is a short tube ride to Daniel's work. I, of course, want something old and with good character. What can I say, I love old homes!

5. Have you been there before? Daniel lived in Canary Wharf from October 2009-December 2009. I foolishly stayed in Houston to work. I guess I shouldn't say foolishly- I knew Daniel was going to be there for a short while and I just starting teaching and didn't want to quit midyear. During that time, I went and visited for about a week. Gotta say, I didn't love it. It was cold, windy, gray, and wet. Hopefully others that have been to London will get this: I felt like my feet were constantly cold and wet because it didn't matter what kind of shoes I wore...after being outside for awhile, I always came back with soaked through socks and shoes. BUT I think living there will be different than just visiting, and being in a nicer neighborhood will make a huge difference!

6. When will you come back?Who knows? If we love it, then I want to stay. And if we miss Houston too badly, we will come back after a year.

7. What about your house? We are going to rent our home out furnished. It's too meaningful to us for us to sell it!

OK...I think that's it. But please, if you have any other questions, ASK!