Now we officially have it all planned: we will go back to Sweden.  My wife has been sorting out things with her work, I’ve talked with my boss about coming back, and now the real fun stuff begins: organizing the move.

We of course must ship some things back home, and for this that means we have had a bunch of companies come give us quotes all week.  It is surprising how much it can cost to ship some items, because it all goes on cubic foot instead of weight.  There are a lot of concerns about mold because your stuff is in a dark, humid container for 6-10 weeks, but the companies all have things they do to block against any problems, for example by having silica gel packs in the boxes, asking us to keep our air conditioners on (but not too cold) before they pack our stuff, and so on.

Next up is also selling the apartment in Stockholm and buying a new one that can fit the family.  I have rented out my place this last year and now in the next month, we will take possession, decorate it for selling, and put it on the market.  And then we have to find a new place to buy and live in.

It is kind of exciting thinking about buying a new place.  Partially because it is new and fun to have a new place, but also because my apartment currently is “mine.”  I bought it, my wife is not on the loan, etc.  So now we will buy our next home together.

There are a lot of things going on as we walk forward into the next phase of our lives.  I think this next few months will absolutely fly by – I will blink my eyes and wonder what happened to that time when I was on Pappa Leave.