Anxiety and Stress......3 weeks to go

As my wife is describing the 2 houses that she like (thankfully she found houses instead of an apartment). Oone is really posh, but outside of where we would like so that kids might have other kids around and the other is only 1/2 mile from the school they will be attending though still nice, just not as nice. I start trying to think about these houses, I start to freak out knowing I know nothing about the city. I can close my eyes envision where everything is from Galveston to Huntsville and Beaumont to Victoria, but I am afraid I won't know where everything is. Then my wife describes how a piece of steak the size of my palm in the grocery store was 45 Euro ($50) for a single piece of meat (she said all meat was expensive). Is the entire country vegetarians?

As I continue to digest this, I now am officially unemployed (well at least in 2 more weeks). Everyone I tell (that didn't know or just found out) thinks it is the coolest thing? Is it wrong to think that here in America we do it in such a way that things are easy and accessible? Am I making to much of this and it is actually going to be a breeze? I have gotten some great advise from Jennifer Reeves (currently in Singapore) and she is on her 2nd overseas assignment and has managed to do this and have a kid while in Singapore. I feel like I am going to be this American Redneck Idiot that doesn't know nothin'.

On a side note, Liz visited the American School in Paris and found out that the cafeteria offers sushi (katherine was sold on that alone). She said the school is incredible and the kids will absolutely love it. Well, as we move to the final stages of leaving, I need to suck it up and make it work. I don't know how else I can accomplish it any other way.

Look out Paris.....Bubba is comin'

Stuff and more stuff.....

They say that your stuff defines who you are.... If that is true, I am junk. We have moved a few times, but all those times we just moved everything with us. Now we are actually going through stuff, having to make inventories and log everything. So the theme right now in our life is "purge." How much unused, worthless junk can one family amass? Sad thing is that I haven't even started in the attic or garage or shed. I love all the people that invited us to the latest "party" to buy stuff, but I have an attic of scrapbooking, southern living stuff that has never been opened. Why do people do that? Buy stuff they never use. I found our wedding silverware that we never opened. Who does that? I have decided we are a society of "collecting." Just filing up spaces because there is space, or getting something because you might need it in the future.

What I have liked about this upcoming move is understanding that we need much less stuff and to be way more streamlined. This move is going to be humbling from the standpoint of living with less and being happy at the same time. To know that we as Amercian's tend to have more "stuff" than most other people in other countries.

New Kreuger mantra....Live with Less and be happy.

A redneck beginning

Okay, here we are, 44 days from take-off and I have no idea where we are. As I think about the enormity of what it takes to move our family, I get lost in all the uncertainty. See, you have to fit your life into a 6'x6'x6' box (each person) and that is all you get to take. You are going to take it from a 3200sf house to a 3 bedroom 900sf apartment, or if you are lucky, you might find a 1000+sf house, but all only have 1 bathroom. Amercian's seem to be the only ones who seem to pay homage to having 2 bathrooms. Now, that may sound snobbish, but it is more what has become a way of life and what you are used to. Some would say that there are those in this world who don't even have one bathroom and with that, it brings me back to the real world, that we will survive with just one bathroom. Bathroms aside, my kids attitude toward moving have changed. Katherine, who was psyched about living in the home of Gucci, Prada, Chanel etc decided to have a meltdown today. After spending a lot of time with her friends this summer, she got upset that she was leaving such great friends. Now Jackson, who what initially my meltdown child, has been walking around the house saying, "more mac-n-cheese sil vous plait!" So, as I drink my American Beer, driving my Amercian Car (not at the same time), I can't wait for the adventure that awaits, learning about a culture whose buildings can be more than 800 years old, free from WiFi, and steeped in tradition.

Au revoir Texas, Bonjour Paris'