We have been living quite a whirlwind for at least a month and a half. From packing up our home on Sarah Way where we lived for 17 years, to saying our goodbyes to the familiar and trading it for the unknown, to getting our furry friends ready for a lengthy journey. Days blended, time flew by and we are finally here in Portugal! We definitely couldn’t have made it without a magnificent group of family and friends behind us, encouraging us every step of the way.

We had SO much fun at our “Farewell Finazzo Friends” party on June 5th. We spent time in Ashland with new friends and old. We shared old stories and new plans and had the very best time. We are so appreciative of everyone who made time to join us. In the wee hours of the night, after a mini dance party, my knee failed to cooperate and I ended up with a decent sprain. I wasn’t doing a crazy dance move, I was merely stepping down from a stage and my knee buckled. It wouldn’t bear weight and I have to give a special thanks to my lovely friends Suzie and Suzette who hung in with me through limping, complaining, fretting, and harassing “The Beard” bartender at O’Ryans. Those two girls were real troopers in escorting me around town. An extra loud shout out to Suzette who managed to join us for the celebration at about noon and made it all the way until 2 am (GIRL, that was a marathon!)

We found time between packing boxes and hobbling around on crutches to attend a dinner at Porters with the Lewis family. Although Andrew was quite delayed because the shipping company showed up unannounced mid afternoon and took hours to load our many, many boxes into their truck, I had such a nice visit with Laurel, Adam, and Marin. I have to admit I was a bit teary eyed at the end of our meal, especially when Miss Marin made a cute little heart shape with her hands during goodbye hug time. We hope to see the three of you in Europe for a Lewis Family Vacation.

We are so VERY lucky that my parents offered to take our Frenchie to MN for a couple of weeks due to a vet error with vaccinations back in November. They were on the way to Oregon to visit when we received confirmation from the USDA that Zoe would be unable to fly with the rest of us on 6/19. We had entertained the idea of having her boarded on the East Coast and then retrieving her in a couple of weeks, but Andrew had reservations about leaving her at an unfamiliar place, especially because she has Addisons disease and if there was a problem we would be in another country and hours away from being able to resolve the issue. Fortunately my parents are animal lovers and I knew she would be in good care. So far she is throwing her weight around and trying to be the boss of much bigger, more menacing dogs and being her normal clownish self. My parents were absolute life savers in taking her on. Although our initial motto was “no pet left behind” we felt confident leaving our baby in the Novotny’s care.

Due to the logistical challenges of our move, the delay in receiving our visas/original passports, and the need to pick up our secondary replacement passports in Seattle so that we could keep our original flights with 3 out of 4 pets, Andrew and I were forced to divide and conquer.

Although I was no longer on crutches, my knee was unstable at best. I was still elevating, icing, and Ace bandaging it, so heavy lifting and moving furniture was a definite “no go” for me. My assignment was to travel to Seattle on 6/16 to pick up our passports and Andrew was left to contend with finalizing the exit from our house. He still had quite a bit to do when I got on a plane at the Medford airport on Thursday morning. I didn’t think he had enough time to get everything done by 5 pm on Friday when we had to turn over ownership of the house. Little did I know, Andrew had loyal, hardworking friends lined up to help with deconstructing furniture, making dump runs, loading items in storage for sale, and making deliveries of property we had sold.

Andrew here, giving my two cents about my very long day. While dropping Michelle off at the airport I texted Tommy to say I was grabbing a U-Haul and heading home. Little did I know that Tommy would end up being with me almost the whole day! I also thought that finishing all my tasks would be nigh impossible before we had to hand off our house to new owners. I got home and Tommy arrived just after me and started disassembling furniture. We quickly filled the 10 foot truck with a full load and headed to Goodwill. Goodwill took everything but bedding (which irritated me a bit because slightly yellowed top of the line pillows should NOT be going to the dump!) and we headed back to the house.

George arrived on the scene and helped Tommy and I absolutely STUFF the U-Haul for a dump run. I can’t say how much I appreciated the two of them helping sort through various parts of the house to find everything that had to be tossed. I wish I could have donated more but we were limited by what Goodwill and local charities would take. We easily accomplished my goal of leaving less than a small trash bin of rubbish behind.

Tommy had to return to his family for a couple of hours (THANKS Avalos fam for giving him up the rest of the day!) so George and I did the drop at the dump. Next up we loaded the truck for the third time with items George was buying including our dining room set which Tommy sold by saying “it’s sure a bummer that all the memories we made at this table during Extra Life will be sold off to a stranger”. George – I hope you play some games and make some amazing memories going forward!!

After the drop at George’s we were rejoined by Tommy and Joshy for our final run of the day. We dropped off a bunch of things at one of Tommy’s many reseller storage units and our washer and dryer at Andrea’s house. I know that some of this nitty gritty is mundane but I really need to illustrate the amount of work Tommy, George, and Joshy did to help me empty the house (and ALL THREE OF THEM bought items from our household!). After sentimental goodbyes to George and Joshy I was left with just Tommy to close out the group effort.

Tommy was a trooper running a last couple errands with me and has also taken on the task of trying to sell various household items that appeared to be too valuable to donate directly. After jamming Tommy’s car full of stuff (including a bazillion plastic hangers he is going to use to help transition his girls to organizing their own closets), I said my final sad goodbye.

It was about 9:00 p.m. and I had a completely empty house, three freaked out pets, and a lot of cleaning and packing left to do. I talked to Michelle briefly and told her that I was crazy and intended to leave for Portland a day early IF I could tidy the house in an hour. I SMASHED. I got on the road right around 10:00 p.m.

Stay tuned for our next post to find out all about traveling with three pets to Portugal.