The Burbs

Tom Hanks starred in a movie several years ago called the Burbs. I actually liked that movie. Yesterday we made the haul with 8 suitcases and three backpacks from the city to San Antonio de Benegebar, a suburb of Valencia. It’s fairly close to the girls schools, a short drive for Mitch to get to work and not too far from a competitive swim team that we are checking out tonight. The head coach, David, is an American and said there are a few other American kids on the team. So hoping it’s a good fit. 

From the pictures the house is everything we would have wanted and more. The yard is spectacular with a pool, gorgeous patio and plenty of space. We have 5 bedrooms and 3 bathrooms, so we’re all good there. But it’s filled with really old decor…like antiques. There are no screens on the windows, so when you have them open you get mosquitos in the house. And it only has air conditioning in the bedrooms. The girls don’t love it and have already asked for this to not be our permanent house. I don’t mind the house. There is no dryer for laundry, and keeping up with the washing for 5 may become problematic with one small line to dry in the back. Especially with school uniforms but we’ll make do. I think long term I’d rather be closer to the girls schools. But we’ll see. We’re all really missing our apartment in the city but we know ut wouldn’t have been ideal with the dogs.

Soeaking if which, the dogs finally arrived last night…what an ordeal that was!!! Originally they were meant to fly on Sunday and arrive on Monday but when they were delivered to the airport by Worldcare Pet Travel they weren’t allowed on the flight. They were able to rebook them for Tuesday, arriving on Wednesday. When Mitch and I went to bed Monday evening we had been told the dogs were checked in. I was watching their flight status Monday evening late and the plane wasn’t leaving. It didn’t say delayed, there was just no info. Next thing you know we got an email that there was something wrong with temperature control something or other and they were being sent back to board with Worldcare Pet. I was so upset. I cried…and that woke Mitch up. He called our coordinator and she said she really didn’t know what was going on. She said there was miscommunication somewhere but that when they went to collect the dogs they were told they were on the plane ready to depart. She said she was trying to figure out what was going on and would get back to us. Two hours later we saw in flightstats that the plane departed but we didn’t know if our dogs were on it for sure. When we woke in the morning we had an email that they were en route. They landed in Madrid around 9:30am, it took 4 hours to get to customs, they were picked up and delivered to us at our house around 9pm last night. They were anxious and a little scared but that passed pretty quickly. And Piper wasted no time finding the pool. The girls will never forget the soaking wet dog running around. We’re so happy to have them with us. Now it feels like home. 

Today the girls and I ventured out a bit. We found a park with a zip line. They were thrilled and we got our WiFi hooked up. Going to drive by the schools this evening and tomorrow we get a mini-van. Slowly but surely it’s all coming together!