Moving...Again!

When we moved to Saudi this summer we were very surprised to find out that we would not be moving to the main camp but to a small camp about 10 miles away. We didn't know before we came and it was a huge shock to us to find out we weren't going to be living where we originally planned to be. There were some really great things about living in the other camp - everyone was brand new to the company and so there were lots of people looking to make friends (kids and adults). We found we had a strong group of friends really quickly. Everything was also in very close proximity since the camp was only 1 square mile. The homes were nice, newly remodeled and bigger than the homes on main camp. However, it was super inconvenient for everyone to deal with the commute. 10 miles may not seem like a long distance but the commute time with traffic was 25-40 minutes to get to main camp. Allen's job is on main camp as is the school and all extra curricular activities. It was a huge hassle to come over here for everything and it complicated our lives a lot since I can't drive off the camps (women are allowed to drive on the company camps).

When we moved here we were told to be prepared to live in the outlying camp for 2-5 years. We weren't thrilled but dug in and made friends and were generally pretty happy. During our time in the US we found out that some houses became available on the main camp for people from our camp. We were so blessed to get one of those homes on main camp! After we returned for our whirlwind trip to the US we had 2 weeks to get completely packed up and moved over to our new house. It was really, really fast. I was so worried coming home that it was going to be a disaster dealing with jetlag and moving and prayed really hard that we would not have bad jetlag. It turned out to be a miracle that none of us suffered from any jetlag coming back to Saudi. Considering that it took us 2 weeks to adjust when we got here I really believe we were blessed because of the circumstance.

I spent my days packing and Allen drove a load of our stuff to our house everyday after work and unpacked it. It worked out pretty well and I wasn't super overwhelmed on either end since we moved stuff a little bit at a time. The company did provide movers to move our furniture but we took most of the smaller items over ourselves. The day before the pros showed up a big group of guys came and filled up their SUVs with our stuff and it was so helpful!

The day we moved in was stressful but we felt so loved as neighbors and friends came to help and brought tons of food. We had 3 complete meals but several treats and loaves of bread dropped off. We had a couple other meals dropped off during the week and I didn't have to cook for about 10 days. It was great!

The house was a disaster but I'm happy with how quickly it has come together. Our current house is only about 2200 sq feet but has great storage and that makes a huge difference. I'm so glad we pared down so much before we moved here and truly only have items that we use and love. It's very refreshing. This was the girls room as we were unpacking. We were also weeding out outgrown clothes and I'm in the process of redecorating their room so I was also getting rid of lots of decor items. It was a huge mess. We're pretty well settled now and our house is being painted next week and I'm ready to hang curtains and wall decor so hopefully we'll have some house pictures soon.

The kids have been TROOPERS. This has been a big deal for us all. It has been so nice to be close to school and work. The kids come home for lunch every day and Allen comes home for lunch several times a week. They can be back and forth between school and work in about 5 minutes. Allen no longer has a commute and is home a few minutes after 4 each day (still the very best part of living here!!!!) The downside is that we all miss our friends from the other compound but hopefully everyone will be here soon. Addie and Emery spent countless hours playing in boxes while we unpacked.

So that is the story of our most recent move. We have quite a bit of work we'd like to do to the house including a kitchen overhaul, updated bathrooms and an extension on the back of our house but those things will take time and happen slowly. For now we are really content with being here and enjoying even more time together.