TOUCHDOWN!

We touched down in London around 8:00 AM. The flight went very smooth, but unfortunately due to my damn inner ear, I was sick.  Luckily we had a car pick us up at the airport because there is no way we could have manoeuvred seven huge bags on the tube. I slept the whole way into town and when I woke up, we were home! 

Still not feeling well, I continued to rest while James went out to explore the area. Once I was feeling better we went out to do some more exploring. We are in an area called Islington, which is considered to be North Central London. I was very pleased to find out that we have several grocery stores, fresh markets, shops, restaurants and pubs right outside our door! It’s wonderful! We spent the remainder of the day meandering around and we found ourselves at this adorable pub called “The Castle”, which has a friendly staff, good selection of beers and a lovely rooftop terrace.  

Our Flat & Castle Rooftop Terrace

We hung out there for a few drinks and then headed back to continue to unpack and settle in. It was definitely a low-key night for us, without any TV or Internet at the flat, we took advantage of the quiet and caught up on our sleep-- We definitely want to be fresh for our first weekend in London!

SIX WEEKS

The next six weeks were a blur. We had six weeks to figure out what we wanted our first year of marriage to look like and we were not taking it lightly. We had all the hard decisions to make: Do I stay or do I go? Do we keep the house or do we rent the house? How do you rent a house? Are we really not going to try to bring Winston anymore? Who's going to keep Winston? Do I tell my job early and try to stay with the company or do I quit with just two weeks notice? These were just a few of the questions we needed to answer… When I said blur, I meant BLURRRR.

Obviously, I decided to move with my husband to London. (Was there ever really a choice? I mean, come on!) We decided to buckle down and find/sign with a property management company to take over the house and fill with a tenant. We decided to leave our beloved dog in the States because the cost to fly him to London for just one year was just too high…(I will go into this topic deeper, but I can’t get into it now or I will never finish this post.)

At many times, I felt completely overwhelmed—as if there was absolutely no way that we could get done everything that we needed to get done—but somehow it all came together.

James and I basically worked all the way up until the end. My last day was Thursday, September 19^th and James’ was Friday, September 20^th. We were luckily enough to spend our last Saturday in Charlotte with all of our closest friends and family celebrating our “Going Away/Housewarming Party” (ironic, we know). Our parents stayed the weekend to help us clean and get the house in order. Let me just say, seriously, a HUGE thank you to our parents and friends that helped us with yard work, cleaning and packing. Thank you, a million!

Before we knew it, it was the Monday before our travel day (Wednesday) and we were packing up the Uhaul and saying our goodbyes. It was really, really hard to say goodbye to my dog. Even though I know he would be cared for, my life will truly not be the same without him.  He is the sweetest animal and he brings so much joy into my life, it just breaks my heart to even think back to that day. I am saved by the fact that no matter what, we will all be together in one years’ time and of course, he will love London!

As I stood with my mom waving goodbye to James’ parents and Winston and watching James as he drove away with our life packed into one 20ft truck, I realized, “this is happening.” There were obviously lots of tears and when my mom left to give me some privacy and run some errands, there was definitely a warm bath and a half bottle of red that helped me pull it together.

My mom and I basically had two whole, heavy stressful days of cleaning. I tell ya, that woman, can clean! I couldn't have done it without her, she was a huge help.

Tuesday night arrived and my dad drove back to see us off. Cheap Mexican and an early night’s sleep was all that any of us had enough energy for.

TRAVEL DAY

Ultimately, everything got done. The house looked amazing and we left it in better shape than we bought it; it felt good to hand the keys over. We spent the remainder of the day finishing up last minute errands, showering and repacking our suitcases.

At this point, all the stress and anxiety of the past six weeks had faded away and we were both in good spirits. WE ARE MOVING TO LONDON!!! I know that I was excited and eager to get to the airport, get that customary glass of wine and wash my hands of the responsibilities of the past. 

Getting on the airplane was surreal. I can't believe this is happening, I wonder where this adventure will take us? It is such a liberating feeling; getting on an airplane and leaving to start a new life. I'm glad that I have such an amazing partner to share this experience with. There are so many incredible people and memories back in Charlotte that will always keep us coming back, but I can’t help thinking that the best has yet to come!

Getting ready for take-off!

CURVEBALL

James and I had only been back to work for a few days when we got the email.
"James, Interested in an opportunity to be the CEO’s assistant for 1 year assignment based in London? You would... etc, etc..."

James forwards the message to me with only one word in the body of the email. 

"Interested?"

At this point, even though James called me to "talk" about this potential opportunity, he had already given consent for his name to be considered for this position. He referred to it as a "no brainer." We got off the phone and I immediately shrugged off all work responsibilities to start Googling “dog transportation to UK”, “Large dogs in London”, “Pet friendly real estate in London”, etc, etc...

The rest of the day was worthless and we reconvened at the house to talk about our new life in London, planning European vacations, and talking about our future British babies... Gotcha! Just kidding! We were high on the unknown, just daydreaming about what this opportunity means for our family. I mean just to be considered for a role like this is a huge honor and James definitely earned the right to at least be considered! This excitement lasted through the weekend and then things basically went back to normal.

It had been over a month since the initial excitement and we hadn't heard anything else... I was in full blown nesting mode (picking out the right shade of white can be a full time job in itself) and James was actively working on approximately 8 huge projects for the Charlotte office, so basically, life as usual.

GOOD NEWS!
James got a promotion! Hard work pays off! Woohoo! Let’s spend it on paint! 

We felt pretty good. Life was good. Got married, got this great new house, gonna fix it up real nice, gotta raise, gettin’ back into a routine, all the wedding craziness is over… BREATHE! We didn't feel bad that we hadn't heard anything back about the London position because things were good and they would only get better. Can’t win 'em all.

NEXT DAY.
Congratulations, James! You've been shortlisted for the advisor role, and now you’ll interview with Director of HR.

We are like WHAT??! Are you serious? Talk about everything happening all at once!

James proceeded with a telephone interview with the Director of HR. He felt pretty good about it. A week or so went by and then he received an email stating that he was chosen to interview with the CEO of the company and this would be the last interview.

Totally shocked, this is at the point where James started to get nervous. This would be the biggest, most important interview that James could possibility do in his entire life and it would be, DUN DUN DUN- - - via FACETIME! James would Facetime with the CEO of his company and he would have to make it a memorable one.

I was of course terrified and anxious to get an update. I am glad that James had the brains to turn his cell phone completely off, because I am pretty sure I tried to call him during the middle of his interview.. STUPID! James called me and told me that the interview went well and that it would take approximately 10 days to make a decision. I think James’ interview was on a Thursday, so that gave us to the end of the following week to find out. Life went back to normal; nesting, loving on Winston, James working all day, every day.

TUESDAY.

Big fight in the Starnes house that morning. I can't remember the exact reason for our fight, but it was early and I was out for blood. We both went to work raw and irritated.

I started my day; turned on, tuned in, dropped out, etc. I got a call. Caller ID said that it was James. Normally on a day where we had been fighting, I would have just ignored it, but he must have caught me at a weak moment.

James started the conversation by apologizing and taking full responsibility for the fight this morning. (Lord knows how many times this man has taken responsibility for my own personal craziness.)

I listened in agreement and then he paused, and in a hushed tone he said, “Allie, I was chosen. I’m going to be the Executive Advisor to the CEO.”

Silence on the phone. Static in my brain our brains. “Oh my god, are you serious? Let me call you from my cell.” I went outside and talked to James briefly about what he knew, which was very little. We had no information except that this was happening and it was a big deal.

CHARLOTTE

A LOT has happened to James and me in the past 10 months so I will start with a bit of that background. James and I met on a cruise coming back from the Bahamas in 2007 and from the first time we spoke, I knew I liked this guy. A bunch of people from school went on this cruise for Spring Break and it turned out that we actually knew a lot of the same people; we had just never met before. (to read how we first met, click here!) We started dating shortly after and before we knew it, we were like 5 years into this thing!

James and Allie: The Early Years!

Alright, so Flash Forward to Fall 2012.  At that point, James and I were living in an apartment in South Charlotte with our beloved English Mastiff ‘Sir Winston’ and I was in full-fledged marriage mode. ie: “Babe, I'm ready to get married", “When are we going to get married?”, “James, it’s been 5 years, what the hell?”, “Seriously, if this doesn't happen soon…” etc, etc…  AT LAST! My time came and we got engaged! YAY! (Cue: smug face). November 17th, 2012, exactly one month before James' birthday!

First Family Photo

Okay, so this is where things start to get busy... Oh wait, I guess I forgot to mention that during the heat of my wedding craze, James was completing about 21 hours of graduate classes to finish his Master's degree that he started 5 years ago, on top of working his always-time-consuming job. 

Between November 2012 - June 2013 we: got engaged, planned a wedding, finished grad school, turned 30, bought a house, moved into our new house, changed jobs and got married. Whew! Not to mention a slew of showers, bachelor/bachelorette parties, vacations and everyday messes that comes with planning a wedding and working full-time, we were pretty exhausted and ready to come back from our amazing honeymoon and get back to normal…

Life in Charlotte xo

CATCHING UP

Hey All!

Alright, well I'm trying to figure out how to begin so I guess I will just dive right in…  We have been in London for over three weeks now and we f-i-n-a-l-l-y got the flat connected to the internet, so I am going to try to get caught up. I will start with a few posts to get us up to speed.

#1: Where were we pre-London. (Charlotte)
#2: How we got to London. (Curve-ball)
#3: What we've been doing in London up-to-date. (London)

I hope you all enjoy reading how we got where we are today!