Holding on the runway

Jud went to Abu Dhabi several weeks ago and had his interview and his medical exam.  The interview was a smashing success with his Emirati interviewer zipping down the hall after it was over saying "Hire Him!"  But there were some concerns on his medical exam.  But after careful consideration, the doctor signed off on it.

But those concerns raised some red flags for an individual in the human resources department and he has put this entire process on hold as he considers the exceptions they have made to Jud's coming on and our move to Abu Dhabi.  The delay has been so frustrating for us and frustrating for the team wanting to bring Jud over that one of Jud's "big bosses" has flown over to Abu Dhabi to motivate this process along.

Jud has taken a few days of vacation this week to take a deep breath and walk away from the stress of the last several weeks.  But if all goes well with this big boss's visit over there, we should have much more information and can resume all the processes of visas, home improvements/sale by the end of this week.

The complete LACK of information has been more frustrating than anything we have experienced so far and to know that there is forward motion on some of these things has been a huge relief.

I'll keep you posted when we hear more.
~~Joan

Good neighbors are hard to find

Since our announcement of our move, we have often found ourselves sitting outside in the evenings with our current next door neighbors.  We've lived next door to them all the years we have lived in Texas and previously, from time to time, we'd sit outside and "shoot the breeze" and share memories of our kids and our own childhoods.  But those times were few and far between until now.

As we sat together this evening enjoying each other's company, I thought about the other neighbor's that we've had over the years.  A good neighbor is such a treasure.  There are a few of them that I still keep in contact with who have become lifelong friends.  I hope that after we leave, I can still keep in touch with these neighbor's.

I'm going to miss them.
~~Joan

Garage sale SUCCESS!

After weeks and weeks of cleaning closets and clearing out cabinets, we had our big and FINAL garage sale today and made **drumroll** over $700!  And we were priced very, very low.  We got rid of so much stuff.  It feels so incredibly liberating to have it all GONE!  The little bit that is left is going to go to Katy Christian Ministries for their resale shop.

It was a great day!

~~Joan

Wordless Wednesday

It's Ground Hog Day!

You know the movie "Groundhog Day" where Bill Murray's character awakes every morning and discovers Groundhog Day is repeating?  We've had a few days like that lately.  Every day is more of the same sorting, cleaning and pitching of stuff in preparation of the move.  It's very difficult to find motivation, let alone find motivation in 3 kids who are not big fans of the whole process.  It's been tough.

Today we learned that our loan was approved and a representative from one of the flooring stores we will shop came and measured the upstairs for the carpet.  Other than that, I don't feel like I accomplished very much.

Selling a house is hard.

We have never sold a house. We are still in our "starter" house that we bought when Jethro was just 3. So this is a completely new process for us.

This evening we had a husband and wife team of appraiser/realtor (a family from our church) come and give us a complimentary walkthrough and verbal appraisal that we can use as a jumping off point. It went better than we had expected. We still have a lot of cosmetic work to do, but altogether we are not doing to badly. Of course, we also have the option of contracting with this realtor for selling the house. But it's so overwhelming. We are not even sure how to go about choosing a realtor in the first place. We have a few other names that have been referred to us. But we do have a good jumping off point thanks to this realtor and we are grateful for that. Halfway through the appraisal walkthrough the power went out due to the transformer blowing up next door to us. Made it fun to check out the closets with no lights.

Other than that, the day was busy with spending lunch with my friend and her sweet little baby girl, going to the bank on my own to inquire about a loan, looking at carpet and then the appraisal.

I'll be much happier when this part is over.

And so it begins...

It was just two short months ago that my husband made himself a stiff drink and then sat me down on our bed to tell me he was being considered for an assignment in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.  There were a lot of questions up in the air since then but now it's official, we're moving to Abu Dhabi.

Moving to such a beautiful place as Abu Dhabi is... well... it's just nothing that my husband and I ever saw that we might do.  We had a very simple start and both of us come from small town America.  Thus, the name Hillbillies.  For security reasons, we've decided to keep this blog private.  I know it's going to jump start with people who know us, so just know that "Dad" is Jud.  Mom is Joan.  Our kids are Jethro, Ellie and Mae.

For those who do not know us, welcome to our Grand Adventure!

Here's what is going on...

We have to sell our house, sell most of our stuff and then proceed onto Abu Dhabi.  The kids and I are going to go on to my parents for the summer while Jud heads on to Abu Dhabi.

This week, we have a complimentary home appraisal from a friend from church.  He's going to give us a number we can start with so we can go into our realtor appraisals with an educated number on the value of our home.  I also need to pick out some carpet to replace the 15 year old carpet upstairs.  Another friend is going to help me with staging our home to sell.  We will also finish up weeding through each room and all of our stuff to our final garage sale.  This week also means that we need to get the passports for the kids finished up this week.

More dates for when and what is going on are still unknown yet.  I'll keep ya posted.

Enjoy the ride...

Joan