Sorry about the lack of updates, life is complete chaos. I’ll give a very brief update now, but we should be back on track next week.

At our farewell party (which was a BLAST thanks to everyone who hung out with us) Michelle sprained her knee which put her on crutches for just about a week.

The pickup for our shipped goods arrived unexpectedly while Michelle couldn’t walk. We were expecting at least 24 hours notice… I think I’m still exhausted from that afternoon/evening.

Our vet had called last month on the 31st to say they forgot to give our lovely French Bulldog her rabies shot after microchipping her as we requested in November. They (and the USDA helpline) thought she would be good to go when we arrive in Portugal on the 20th. A few days ago we found out she is NOT cleared to enter Portugal until after the 22nd.

Good news is that Michelle’s parents had just arrived for a visit and VERY graciously offered to take her back to MN for a couple weeks. Zoe will have a couple weeks of Minnesota summer camp! Michelle will have to return to pick her up…

But that isn’t a huge issue since our visas are still delayed until around the 23rd. I could write a full post (and we probably will) about the chaos of getting duplicate passports. The major thing was that this last Sunday we had to drive to Seattle (bringing Michelle’s very road-weary parents along). On Monday we went through a 2 hour administrative nightmare then immediately drove the 7.5 hours back home.

As we talked about before, we’ll both have to return to the USA and then fly back to Portugal after our visa approval date to get stamps in the right passport books. This just changes which of us returns first since M has to pick up Zoe.

Of course the passports didn’t have a same day turnaround so Michelle is flying BACK to Seattle tomorrow. I’ll meet her in Portland the following night after I finish emptying and cleaning the house.

Yesterday we closed on our house and got paid for our near-new RAV4 (the dealer bought it back, we ended up spending more on a one week car rental then we did owning that vehicle since last June). Yay! Our pet certificates for the other three pets should arrive by UPS tomorrow night.

I’m sure I’m leaving things out, like when I freaked out about two missed calls from Portugal (Michelle Googled the number, it was our internet/cable provider trying to schedule the hookup); or when I freaked out because a cat was lost (she was sitting inside the couch and totally fine); or a million other things.

But, we are days away from getting to Portugal! After an initial setup period I plan on sitting down and getting this blog into tip top shape. Wish us luck, and I’ll try not to freak out for a few days.