WHEW...........

OK. Wow. We can relax. Made it from hotel to airport - checked in; of course dog paperwork was non issue. Through security. Sadly said bye to dog as she cried and tried to get out. Now sitting at lunch and all we need to do is sit and wait. We are overlooking the tarmac at terminal 1 and I can help but scan the gates looking for a springer spaniel running out there. Oh well - maybe relax tomorrow. Kids did Awesome.

End of December

We are done!  Well, at least the majority of the stuff is done.  We are currently in the hotel, our stuff is with us, and we are moved out of the house.  The airship has come and gone, and so the planning phase is done.  If I work hard, I think I might be able to have the house up and running (well) in Germany in a couple of weeks!  Up and running (not so well) on the 4^th, when our ocean ship arrives.  I feel like I just took a final exam and it is now time to relax for a bit.  And then the grades (i.e. our stuff in the ocean shipment) come.  I’ll see how we did!  Let’s hope all the planning paid off.  I’m sure that there will be a couple of trips to IKEA in the future.  That doesn’t sound like a hardship, though.

Chris was in Germany for the first 2 and a half weeks of December, which always changes the mix.  He was able to do several things over there to help make sure that we are in the house fairly quickly.  Fieder should have the keys for us, basically when we land.  And the beds are being put together right now.  Chris  has applied for our residency visas so that we can get the stuff on the 4^th, and we have a car.  We name our cars, and this one is Rosalee.  She is bright red and I am hoping that she is not a magnet for tickets.

December was busy for everyone.  Back in Michigan we had band concerts, elementary school concerts, and all the getting ready for Christmas. We sold our cars. And we were getting the dog settled to go.  This is just one sentence, but boy it involved a lot.  The dog needs to be up to date on shots, as you would expect, but there are also special microchips, special paperwork, special tags, special timing on  when it will all be done, special everything.  While Chris was arriving in Germany, he saw an American that was bringing in her dog.  He caught up with her and found out that not only do we need special everything, we need it certified by the USDA.  And so Kerrie and I were off to the USDA right before Christmas to get it all done.   We won’t know if we did everything right until we get to the plane tomorrow.  If that dog gets accepted as luggage, we did it right. 

December also began the season of good-byes.  We will miss you all, but I am ready to start saying hello to people.  Good-byes are rough.  Nuf said.

So today we are on our way to Chicago with Mom and Dad Cadwell.  WE were concerned that the weather might be a bit scary- you never know what Michigan might hold.  We are totally thankful that it is in the 30’s and there barely is any snow!  We can see the grass through.  Did I tell you that we had been praying for that?  Wa hoo!  Let’s hope that the snows around the country won’t affect our leaving.

So there is one last big piece of the puzzle that is not in place.  Please pray that Chris’s work visa comes through soon.  He has applied, JCI has moved us without it, but it was also supposed to be in place by the middle of December.  Legally, he can’t work in Germany without it.  There is a small grace period, but it needs to be in place.  Thanks!

Mail Forwarding

We wanted to let everyone know about our mailing address while we are in Germany.  If you send us mail, you can send it to Johnson Controls and they will forward it to us once a week.

Our address is

Chris Norton
Johnson Controls IAS

5757 N. Green Bay Avenue( X34A)

Milwaukee, Wi 53209

USA

We would love to hear from you. 

New Car

I got back from Germany this week - last time before we move over.   I got a few things done; biggest was finding a car for Maureen.  woo hoo .

Flowers

                Tuesday was the last day of the women’s bible study.  The women surprised me with roses and a spiritual bouquet.  What a thoughtful gift!  I was totally blown away by it.  Since I am coming back (and for those of you reading this, I AM coming back!) I didn’t think that they would do anything special other than pray over me.  It was so touching.  And so it begins.  Closing chapters, saying good-bye, and moving on.  This is not easy. 

                 I love the roses.  Chris and I prayed a novena (9 day prayer) asking St. Therese of the little flower to help us pray for discernment before we went house/school hunting in October.  Each place had roses- the school had a bowl full and the house had some planted on the property.  A sure sign that we were on the right path.  Now there are some from the group.  Love it!  That along with the knowledge that these women are praying for us is just fantastic.

Meeting some of the team

Today is the Monday before Thanksgiving.  I just have to write that because I can hardly believe that November is almost over.  Thanksgiving!  A week from today Chris will be in Germany for 2 1/2 weeks.  When he comes back it will be almost Christmas, and then it will be time to go.  Just like that.  Wow.  Note to self; live in the moment.  

This last weekend, we met some of the members of Chris’ team.  On Saturday we had 4 families over for a buffet here at the house to get to know each other a bit, share wisdom/trials about moving, and for me to have the kids meet other kids that are in the same boat.  Here are a few of the people that came- Adam and Sheryl (no kids), Joette and Russ with their kids Chloe and Jonah,  Jon and Kerrie with kids Cody and Anna, Sandra and Sinisha with their kids Vanessa and Stephan.  All are about the same ages as ours.  The kids played super well together downstairs, basically wrestling the whole time.  (Will’s idea.)  Only one came up crying- Maggie.  She was the youngest, and it was basically late in the evening.  And that’s kind of the way Maggie is right now.  So all in all a pretty good evening!  It was fantastic for the kids to meet other kids that they won’t be saying good-bye too. 

For me there were several highlights- one of my favorites and one I’m going to keep an eye on- Sandra can read Russian.  Wow!  Wouldn’t that be something to have a girl’s weekend in Russia??  Another great highlight- several of the families took 50 pounds of bread flour.  In general I make all the bread for the family.  I wanted to bring over 200 pounds of flour, but the moving company said that it was remarkable similar to “another substance” and that our shipment would get caught in customs.  Don’t want that!  We pulled most of it out and gave it to a church.  Ah, but my smart husband asked if we could stash a bit in other people’s shipment.  We bought more and away we go.  Yahoo!  More than one way around a problem.  Yes, flour is different.  Everything is different.

Of course we had a captive audience to share our stories from the first assignment.  I only hope I was a help. And as it always is, we had way too much food.  We will be eating tacos for awhile, I think!

Creativity

A couple of weeks ago I asked my friend, Karen, who  lives in Dusseldorf to help me get in touch with the current occupants of our future house.  I wanted to ask them about possibly buying their light fixtures.  We learned from the first time moving to Dusseldorf that light fixtures aren’t a given.  For about the first month we had one lamp that we moved from room to room until we could get someone to come and help us put the lights up in the cinder block house.  (Another thing we learned- they don’t make the houses out of wood.  The weather is too wet, and the wood rots.  i.e. bigger drill needed)  I wanted to avoid that mistake and see if the current occupants would sell and then leave the light fixtures.  This has been one of my better ideas!  Not only are they leaving the lights and making sure that the owner doesn’t take them, they are going to sell us lots of their stuff- like a washer and dryer!  An extra Fridge!  A bed!  And lots of shelves, portable lights, and fans.  The best part is that we don’t have to haul it/have it delivered to the house; it can stay in the correct spot, all hooked up and ready to go.  The current family is excited for the same reason.  We are also going to look into possibly taking over their internet service, so that would be good to go from day one.  This requires a lot more effort.  However, football is on the line, and that is a big motivation for Chris and the boys.

We have a Move Date!

Just to let everyone know, looks like we will be moving to Germany December 30.   We will do Christmas here and then get ready to go. 

Maureen Here!

                After taking a few days off after the shipment has gone, we have now begun to work on the last details.  Right now the dog is front and center.  Since the leaves have been falling from the trees, Autumn can see more of the yard and has begun to run- anywhere at any opportunity.  Time to look into identification tags and micro chips and might as well look into all the red tape that Germany wants for, well, just about everything.  I called our Vet yesterday and she seems to have some experience with this.  Woo hoo!  We have ordered the 15 digit chip and have an appointment during the 10 day window before we leave the country.  Chris has done lots of research in this area as well.   I think that we have a good handle on it.  Now if we can keep Autumn in yard….. that would be helpful too.

Shipment has left

OK - our household goods have shipped and are on their way to Germany - woo hoo!.  

Clarification on previous post  and the house pictures.   We have HALF of the house.  It is a duplex. 

Things are rolling

Update on the move. 

Chris here - I am back in Germany for 10 days as we continue to work on the project.   Good flight last night - but the jet lag is setting in.   We won't have much free time but I am hoping to do a few things over the weekend.   First and foremost is to go see the house that Maureen picked out in her house hunting trip.  I love the pictures on line and can't wait to go see.  I also hope to check a few things off the "to do" list in what we need to in order to move over Christmas - like open a bank account, figure out furniture, look for a car, etc.

One bit of good news today.  We booked the movers to come over to our house next week.  None too soon as it is getting a little confusing on what we ship, what we keep back at the house, and what we take in suitcases.   Maureen is doing a great job with her "lists"   She was the first to play the "if you don't need it for 2 years - do you need it at all" card.    Something tells me I have more Goodwill runs in my future.   

Here is a few pics of the house - I like the fact we have a garage.   

Am Muehlenacker 16a

Love the winter garden

Our First Post

Welcome to the Norton Family Blog. 

We are once again embarking on another international assignment.  We thought it would be a great idea to document our time in Germany through a Blog