Friday, August 29, 2008

Quick Praise

I just got my passport in the mail!

I was sort of expecting it to come back fairly quick - it was just getting renewed. But to be back 5 days after they received it is just amazing. Thank the Lord for all the small steps that are taking place.

Now with Pictures

Here are some things Ohlen has been up to since we have moved into Mom and Dad's.

We went to the park almost every day the first couple weeks. This was on the Ark.



Another day at the park. Here he is playing on the same slide and swing that were there when Nate and I were little. :) In the picture on the swings he was probably telling me to get on the swing next to him.



My little helper sweeping the floor. Actually he was more interested in terrorizing the wiener dogs. :)


Helping Papa fix the car. Ohlen is currently obsessed with Papa. Every morning he asks, "Where Papa?" *edit* I have always thought that Ohlen looks more like me(Nate and dad), but when I looked at the large version of this picture I couldn't help but think that he looks so much like Jonathan. :)

The first week was a little rough for Ohlen. He would wake up in the middle of the night and need some comforting, which has not happened in a really long time. Then we moved him to a different room and that got him out of sorts again. But now he is used to it. The only issue is that some mornings he is sleeping on the floor because he likes to get out of bed. I have a bunch of comforters on the floor (it's linoleum) in case he falls off, so sometimes he just climbs down and crashes there. Overall, he has been a real trooper. And he of course loves that he gets to see his grandparents all the time. :)

Saturday, August 23, 2008

One Step Closer

Today Ohlen's passport came in the mail!! I couldn't believe it, we just applied for it maybe a week and a half ago. Crazy! We were all worried because we had heard stories about some people having to wait months.

I haven't got mine back yet; I needed to get mine renewed, but it had to be mailed in and they got it Monday, so hopefully I will get that back soon.

Also, the truck is officially gone. :( The tractor is very close to being gone. The bike might be gone. And we have put the house up through Help-U-Sell. So things are moving along.

Saturday, August 16, 2008

Small Steps

Well we have made a few steps towards moving.

- The truck is sold.

- We have a potential buyer for the tractor!! We should find for sure by the end of the weekend. And if that doesn't go through we got a call from someone else today, so there is a back up.

- We applied for Ohlen's passport and also sent in mine to be renewed.

We haven't had much interest in the house, but we are started to form plans to get things moving along. We really feel that this is where we are supposed to go right now, and we feel like we just need to take a leap of faith and dive in. The only reason we would keep waiting is to hold out for more profit, and we just don't feel that is what we are supposed to do. So, as we see it, we will be in Ireland before the end of the year. Crazy, but exciting too. And of course, it really matters on how quickly Jonathan can get a job too. For whatever reason, neither of us is really worried about that part of the process.

Well, that's all the news for today. I hope to get some pictures up in some posts soon. I've got some good ones of Ohlen adapting to living at Mom and Dad's, and some of the things we've been doing now that I'm not babysitting anymore.

Hope everyone is having a great weekend.

Monday, August 11, 2008

The Waiting Game

Well, not much has been going on in the moving business. We are settled into Mom and Dad's basement again. Nothing much has been going on.

We had one family come and look at the house. Hopefully they will give us a call, but we haven't heard anything yet. He also haven't heard much from anyone on the bike or tractor which is a little frustrating, but we are just trying to be patient. (You all probably know how hard that can be for us.)

And still trying to convince Jonathan to blog... :)

Monday, August 4, 2008

What about the Wieners?

Before I answer the question about the dogs, another question that has come up alot has to do with the time frame for everything. We really have no idea. It all depends on when we sell the house. And then how soon Jonathan can find a job. So simply speaking, about a month after we sell the house, we will probably be off. It's really uncertain as far as specifics.

The dogs have been quite the topic of discussion between Jonathan and I. We are horribly attached to them and can't imagine being without them. On the other hand, it would be so much easier to move and live over there without them. We haven't come to a concrete decision yet. If we leave them, we would want to leave them with someone who wouldn't mind giving them back up when we are back. Also, we would want to keep them together, so that makes it even harder to find someone who would want BOTH wieners. So we have started the process to get them over there. There is a long list of things and lots of paper work that has to be done before they can go over. OR you can just take them, but then they have to be quarantined for 6 months, which would cost about 2,500 Euros per dog. So, probably about $7,000, plus 6 months separation. Not ideal in any sense of the word. So we are looking at OptionB.

The other options involves:
Getting them microchipped - check
Rabies vaccines - check
Blood test a month later to check for rabies antibodies
PAPERWORK
Wait 6 months
24-48 hours before lift off - tapeworm, tick, flea prevention

And there are many different regulations about what, when, where they can fly in. Crate size, Temperature of take off city. When they get over they have to go directly to a vet in Dublin to get checked out before they are finally released and then are happy Irish wieners.

Such a crazy set of stuff to go through. But Ireland - well all of the UK - have been rabies free for 100 years, and they aren't crazy about bringing it back. I just wish they would let you count the rabies vaccinations that they got before being microchipped, but that's not how it works. Oh well. This route should still be tons cheaper than the quarantine route.

Saturday, August 2, 2008

Ireland Blog Take 1

Welcome to the new shiny blog. :) I hope to keep everyone updated on our plans and then later, news from Ireland. The plan is to load the blog up with pictures and videos. Maybe I'll even be able to convince Jonathan to do some posting as well... Ryan, you might have to do some convincing too.

So, I figure the most appropriate start to this blog would be to explain a little about this adventure we are about to take part in. I'll try to make it a short story, but it really isn't a quick tale, but I'll try.

Basically ever since Jonathan and I started dating we talked about so many different places that would be cool to live. We even talked seriously about moving to some different places. Some of them were Canada, Montana, Florida, Germany, Scotland, North Ohio, and now Ireland. Some of those weren't very serious discussions, well most weren't, obviously, since we didn't move. So I guess the idea of moving out of the area hasn't been far from our mind. Not that we don't like it here, we really do, but we just have a pull/call to go elsewhere. Which leads to this particular idea which culminated into a plan.

In June we went to Florida. While we were there Jonathan had zero allergies, which he has been battling pretty bad up here in Ohio. So he started thinking about moving. He was so miserable when we got back. The first thing he mentioned to me was a link about moving to Germany. I was against that, simply because I am afraid of the language barrier. I speak close to no German. So we started talking about some English speaking countries and we decided on Ireland. At this point I was pretty sure that this was just like all the other times and after a few days the talk would fizzle and we would just keep going in our little comfort bubble that we have formed. But that wasn't to be. Jonathan really started praying about it all. He fasted. And after several days, was more excited about it than before, which is a huge sign. Usually his excitement fizzles in a few days. He very much felt that God was leading us to Ireland. We don't know why, but He is. It's really hard sometimes to tell people that, especially since we aren't going for missions; it feels like we should have more of an explanation. But really the biggest reason we are going is that we have discerned that this is God's will for us right now.

I am excited. The first couple days I was pretty overwhelmed, now I'm excited. I think it has been opposite for Jonathan; he's still excited, but I think it is starting to get a little overwhelming for him. I'm glad we don't feel too overwhelmed at the same time, that would be rough. :)

So where are we in our plans?

This weekend we had a huge garage sale. We didn't have too much business, but we sold alot of our bigger items, which is great.

We sold our refrigerator, so we are now living at my parent's house again.

The house has been on the market for a week. We have had a little interest, but not a whole lot.

All our plans hinge on the sale of the house. After that, we can move forward full force. I actually hope it will be a couple months, because Ohlen still needs a passport, and I need to renew mine. Who knows how long that will take.

Well this post is already too long, so I will go. I will post soon about other pressing questions, like, What about the wieners??? :) Also, we still have the older couch/chair/ottomon, piano, and stove for sale if anyone is interested. :) Oh and the truck, van, bike, and tractor. Feel free to leave questions to answer. :)