We're Moving!

No, not back to the States. We are moving about 15 minutes north of where we are now, into a house! Sentimental me is a little sad to leave our home of the past 4 years. It's the only home my kids have ever known! However, after reviewing the pros and cons list many times, we decided that this would be a great move for our family. Here are a few of the "pros" that won me over:

• My friend Emily and her family are moving 4 houses up the street! This is HUGE for me since for the last four years I've had to drive 45-60+ minutes to visit my friends. I'm so excited!!
• More space! We're moving out of our small 3 bedroom apartment into a 3 story, 4 bedroom house with a 2 car garage (or rather two single car garages). We now have more space for visitors too! (hint, hint)
• The neighbors. Besides the Cooks, there are several other Hilti families living in the neighborhood. My new neighbors just moved in for Sydney, Australia. Hooray for English speaking neighbors!!!
• The amazing view!
• Upgrades. The house is pretty old, but the owner is repainting and replacing all the nasty carpet with brand new hardwood floors.
• The house is closer to Danny's school, Matt's work, and my gym.
• A private backyard!!! I've wanted this for SO long!

So, we've decided to bid farewell to Azmoos, Switzerland and move...again...for the sixth time in six years.

Ours is the one on the bottom left.

Moving is a bit of an ordeal here. In our contract it says that in order to move out, we must give 3 months notice and we can ONLY move out in September and March. I don't understand this at all! My Swiss neighbor was trying to explain this to me and I could tell he thought it made perfect sense. He said that they do it this way so everyone isn't moving at the same time. Is this really a problem? I went off about the freeways being backed up with an endless line of moving trucks and chaos in the streets while everyone is attempting to move their personal belongings into their new homes. I don't think he appreciated my sarcasm:) Because we wanted to move out in December, it has been our responsibility to find someone new to rent the apartment. I was stressed about this since we would potentially have to pay double rent if we couldn't find someone quickly. My worry was, once again, for nothing. I received several calls the FIRST DAY the apartment was listed and the first person that came to check it out decided to sign! Whew!

Here is our "new" very Swiss looking house.