Dear Seattle…Yours Truly, The Guenthers

Dear Seattle,

It took us a little while to fall in love with you and now that we have, we’re leaving. 

Love, Mike & Jessi Guenther

4 years ago we made the decision to move from 33 years of Wisconsin familiarity to a place we’d never even visited.  It was, at the time, the biggest leap of faith we’d ever taken.  In August 2008 we took our final flight from Milwaukee to Seattle after heartfelt goodbyes to family and friends and the first 12 months was the whirlwind we expected it to be with some unexpected events (3 different houses!) to make it more interesting, i.e. stressful.  We had a hard time meeting people that year; at least meeting people we felt connected to.  I often wanted to “just go home”. We were together in our resolve, thank God, or we never would have stayed.

Fast (really fast)-forward almost 4 years and we are saying some heartfelt goodbyes once again to friends and “family” who filled the holes that were created when we moved; who filled holes we didn’t even know we had.  To our amazing friends the Johnsons who are kindred spirits in every sense; like-minds and a loving relationship with the added bonus of 2 amazing kids who, like their parents, wrote the book on what it means to be a true friend. We had the pleasure of spending our last few days with them and I couldn’t think of a more perfect way to close out our time in the neighborhood.

Happy Birthday, Angie!

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We said goodbye to the Pinskis and Herreras who have the shared belief that most adventures are better with friends.  To the Betos, Nichols, Shumakers and Reeds whose 3, then 4, then 5 year-old boys taught Greyson the power of friendship, sharing, Star Wars and Superheroes.   The Loves (is there a better name for our retired neighbors?) introduced our boys to their backyard in the summer and movie nights in the winter; Easter Egg hunts and bubbles bigger than balloons, homemade applesauce, salsa from their garden vegetables and whoopie pies. 

We will also miss:

Pike Place Market.  What more can we say?  It will not be possible to get better fish where we’re going. It’s a big deal.

Mt. Rainier. Majestic. Breathtaking. Unparalleled. (Honorable mention goes to the Olympic and Cascade mountain ranges)

Lake Washington. Our family had so much fun on this lake last summer. The River Thames won’t provide the same level of entertainment but there will be scenery worth photographing.

Downhill skiing. We’ll have to go to France and although it’s not difficult to get to France, a season pass and weekly visits will not be possible. We hope to make it once or twice a year.

Shopping. From groceries to clothes and shoes, shopping here is easy, the selection is great and believe it or not, MUCH cheaper than what we’re about to pay (and Seattle ‘aint cheap).

Appliances. We are going smaller, we are cooking in Celsius and our oven, range and refrigerator will require manuals that will be consulted on a daily basis until we have them memorized. The washer/dryer is small and inefficient and sits in the garage.

Our Church. We found a family at Eastlake and it will be very difficult to replace (especially in a secular England).

What we will gain is yet to be named but we know for sure that we will gain because our first adventure gave us the confidence to know that we can do it again.  We’re looking forward to making a new list.  But we will miss our friends…

So long, Seattle

PS. We sent change of address cards this week but if yours doesn’t make it, our new contact info is below ~

47 St. David’s Drive

Wentworth Gate

Englefield Green, Surrey TW20 0BA

Mike’s new cell: +44 (0) 7798 671643

Jessi’s new cell:  +44 (0) 7798 657463

Maui-licious

What would you do if you were moving to the UK in 10 days?  You go to Maui.



Our nephew Jake (on the right) turned 14 on March 16th.  Greyson (2nd from the left) turned 6 on March 21st and Mike’s dad Lee (see below on the left) turned 60 TODAY!  I can’t think of a better way to celebrate a handful of March birthdays than with a trip to Maui.  Mike’s parents made it their mission to ensure our time was amazing and “thank you” just isn’t enough.  It was perfect (and so was the weather).



Mike and I spent our mornings with a cup of coffee on the lanai watching the humpback whales and their babies play. I’ve never seen so many whales for such long periods of time. At 5am in the morning with the Pacific like glass it was by far the best part of each day.  Greyson chose to go whale watching on his actual birthday so he’s now an expert on all things humpback (and Orca, of course) and informed me that when they pop their heads out of the water it’s called a “Spy Hop”.
GREY*isms*

G: (on our way home from dinner) “I’m still hungry”
Mike: “We can heat up the pizza from dinner”
G: “You stole all of it?”

Have you ever seen sea turtles mating? It lasted more than 2 hours. They put on quite a show…


 

We obviously had a wonderful time. Carmen and Bria look more and more alike every day, Uncle Brian was Graham’s hero but best of all our families got to spend hours and hours laughing and relaxing.  Happy Birthday to the Guenther/Letarski boys. Happy Birthday indeed. Aloha, Maui. Until next time…

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47 St. Davids Drive, Wentworth Gate, Englefield Green, Surrey TW20 0BA

Big Ben…Parliament!

That we’re moving to London is no longer a secret so I’m sure it’s also not a secret that our lives are feeling a bit topsy turvy these days.  I’m blogging from a Sky Club in the Atlanta airport during a layover between our house-finding trip in the London area and our annual AGS trip to Cancun.  You might ask why we would consider staying away from the kids for 2 straight weeks when I just got back from a long trip away from them in January and it would be a fair question.  85 sunny degrees, turquoise ocean and free.  That’s my answer.
We flew from Seattle to Wausau a week ago to drop the boys off with my parents.  We spent Monday night together before our 2pm flight to London Heathrow the following day.  Unfortunately all did not go as planned.  Graham’s cat allergy (just recently discovered during an allergist appointment to check up on the peanut problem, which of course is in full effect) is worse than we thought and even though my mom dropped her cat off at my sister’s before we got there and laundered and cleaned the house top to bottom, Graham had trouble breathing in less than a day and after a visit to the ER, a steroid and breathing treatment, my parents and the boys are having fun/living in a hotel down the road from their house.  And when I say having fun, I’m not kidding.  They swim every day. Chuck E Cheese, the movie theater and light saber fights are the norm.  The boys will be in for a rude awakening when we pick them up as life at home isn’t nearly as exciting.  To say we are grateful to my mom and dad for their help doesn’t do it justice but THANK YOU!!
After a week in London, Mike is excited to make the move.  Our relocation agent on the UK side drove us around the areas we had researched and we’re happy to report that we found a house.  We were prepared for very small and very expensive and we got both of those but we are pleasantly surprised by the light and the space given our expectations.  We have a full guest suite plus a bit of extra room so we’re looking forward to hosting friends and family. (The below is a pic of the living room)

While in town, we also toured the schools that were recommended by friends and colleagues and aside from the expense (Ripon College tuition, anyone?), we are very confident that Greyson is going to be happy at ACS Egham International School.  We looked at the TASIS American school along with a couple of British schools and ACS Egham rose above.  They can also take Graham into their “Pre Scramblers” program for as many half days as we feel comfortable leaving him.  We can walk to the school from our house and Windor’s “Great Park” is nearly across the street with Windsor Castle and the famous Ascot race course just a short 5 minute drive away.  After crossing off the home and school to-dos off of our list, we spent the weekend touring the city of London and eating its amazing food (including a wonderful Gordon Ramsey restaurant).

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March means packing, marking large furniture for storage and selling a number of items including our cars before we head to Hawaii with Mike’s family- something everyone is very much looking forward to before we make the official move.
Please keep our family in your thoughts and prayers as we embark on this journey.  We are optimistic, a bit anxious and mostly excited about the next chapter.  Mike is planning to join the Facebook world and he tells me he may take a stab at blogging as well so stay tuned for that! 

“Hi Nana!”

“The first thing that came to mind…is how loved ones have a way of letting us know that they're still there, they never left to begin with.  What an awesome gift”  ~Nathan Kofler (my little brother), 1/31/2012

The craziest thing happened while I was in Copenhagen.

My mom sent me an email link with a note from my Uncle Ted. It said “read this right away and let me know what you think”.  The link was to an article in the Green Bay Press Gazette about a woman, Anne Gallagher, who was searching for a nurse named Maggie who worked in the Pediatrics ward at St. Vincent’s Hospital in the mid-1960s.  Ms. Gallagher, a writer, was doing research for her memoir.  When Anne was a 2-year old girl living in Green Bay she was badly burned in a house fire and the nurse, Maggie, took care of her for 3 months.  Maggie stroked her hair, read her stories and cried softly when she was in pain.  She writes about her connection with Maggie poignantly in ”Her name was Maggie and she was my nurse” from her blog. Finding Maggie was one of the final pieces of Anne’s story and the article in the Press Gazette made it happen.  Anne had a photo of the day she was discharged and standing to the right of her wheelchair, in her pressed white nursing uniform, is the nurse Anne’s been searching for.


Maggie is my grandmother.  My Nana.  In the swell of emotions I was feeling in the moments after reading the article and seeing the photo, I emailed her.  “You brought her back to life” I said.  I spent hours reading Anne’s blog- Anne on Fire- that chronicles her journey of discovery and I found a kindred spirit.
 
Anne will not have the pleasure of meeting her again on this Earth but she is laughing in Heaven at this destined encounter and is so wonderfully alive in our hearts that I feel like I could touch her.  She was German and I spent the day yesterday walking around Denmark; a country similar in so many ways, tasting the local foods and eating off of dishes that resembled her white and blue porcelain. I re-told this story to colleagues, clients and friends and am repeatedly filled with gratitude and amazing memories:  stockings stuffed full on Christmas mornings, the smell of her kitchen, her roses, black licorice candies, the Milwaukee Zoo, homemade birthday cakes, sleepovers on the “davenport”, her big glasses, beautifully intricate handmade Christmas ornaments and infectious laugh... she would have loved my husband and children.  That my boys call my own mom “Nana” is a source of pride for all of us.

Saying a simple ‘thank you’ to Ms. Gallagher doesn’t seem like enough. We will all follow her story and line up to read her book.  Her email response to me this morning summed it up for all of us:

“It never occurred to me that I would bring to life someone so loved. I spoke with Maggie’s son Ted and Aunt Shirley.  I told them that when I was burned, I was just a child of 2 (turned 3 in the hospital) and that one of the reasons I wanted to do this research was to understand if the images and memories in my head were real or if I had made them up.  It’s really beautiful to know that the memories are real.” ~Anne Gallagher, 2/2/2012

To my Nana, who touched our lives so profoundly, we miss you. We will see you again.  We will hear your laughter and listen to more stories of the children you loved and cared for, like little Anne on Fire.

Scandinavia, it’s been fun but…

14 days and nights. This is how long I will have been away from home by the time I land in Seattle on Saturday.  14 nights in 4 different hotel rooms, 14 mornings of waking up without the kids and by far the longest stretch Mike and I have been apart since the summer of 1995. 

On the not-so-negative side, I’ve managed to workout every day but one since I landed and aside from struggling to fall asleep at a reasonable hour, am adjusting to the various time zones quite well.  We are enjoying the local cuisines and the few sightseeing excursions we’ve managed to squeeze in.

We’ve experienced Norway trolls, a lot of cold fish, reindeer and veal.  Pea soup and pancakes (more like crepes) are served on Thursdays in Sweden and was so good that if you’re visiting Stockholm in the future, make sure it’s on a Thursday.  The “Rock Church” in Finland is the highlight there- a Christian church in the middle of the city that was built amongst the rocks. 

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We had dinner at Gondolen, a restaurant that “floats between the sky and the sea” in Stockholm; we asked our client to choose their favorite and later read that it’s the most expensive restaurant in the city (lesson learned, but it was good).

I depart tomorrow for my final stop- Copenhagen- and am looking forward to it not only because it’s the home stretch but also because in Finland it’s –15 degrees Celsius (5 degrees Fahrenheit)!

I typically don’t travel for more than one business week per trip...I’m definitely ready to come home.

The Rock Church- Helsinki, Finland

SNOW DAYS!!

Sorry, no time to post…6 inches fell on Sunday (enough for a snowman) and we’re expecting somewhere between 2in-16in tonight. Apparently the weather men out here suck worse than the ones in Wisconsin so that’s the best they could estimate.  School’s cancelled, work is cancelled (sorta) and we’re going to do our best to juggle and play.

2012, hang on, we’re coming!

We spent a wonderful week in Wisconsin with our families, New Year’s Eve with friends and neighbors back in Seattle and are, in true high speed fashion, back to work, school, ski lessons and travel. The year is off to a fast start and we’re not quite ready for it!

Our trip back home was a whirlwind but well worth it despite the fact that the flight home was a stressor so much so that we left our Nikon SLR on the plane.  Thankfully the airline found it and when FedEx brings it back, I’ll be able to post a handful of great photos from the holidays.

The boys embraced Christmas this year- the entire experience - Giggles’ daily visits, looking at the Christmas lights, opening gifts and laughing endlessly with their cousins was magical.

We went out to dinner on NYE for the first time in well over a decade.  Our “old” nanny Sara watched the boys (they miss her terribly) and although we had fun at dinner, I think they had more fun than we did.

It’s nearly 60 degrees and sunny today.  I’m thinking about upcoming trips to Cancun and Hawaii and wishing I could skip over the last 2 weeks of January when I’ll be in the Nordics where it will be freezing cold and dark!  If you’re reading my blog and have some suggestions for places to see in Finland, Norway, Sweden or Denmark, let me know.  Though it will be cold and dark I will as always embrace the experience.

GREY*isms*

• G: “The guy in Tin Tin had a drink problem”

We wish you a magnificent 2012 and hope to blog more often this year!

An Anniversary and a Party (but not an Anniversary Party)

We celebrated our 12th wedding anniversary a week ago Saturday. Unfortunately December 3rd was the only date that worked to host the annual Allegis Christmas party so our 'celebration' consisted of a houseful of employees and their spouses, a fully catered gourmet meal, a fully stocked bar and a bartender...when I put it that way, maybe it wasn't all that unfortunate!  It was a very late night and we did have a few overnighters but all in all, everyone had a great time and we budgeted a house and carpet cleaning just a day later so the mess was handled for the most part.

The past 12 years have flown by.  The speed started feeling twice as fast after Greyson was born and I expect the next 12 will in retrospect feel just as, if not more than, fast.  We aren't a couple to make a huge deal out of an anniversary. We talk about return trips to Lake Tahoe where we tied the knot but an anniversary in early December precedes what is usually a whirlwind celebration of many things anyway so we usually choose something simple, quiet and relaxed.  I'll admit a big party doesn't necessarily fit that criteria but I didn't have to plan it; I didn't even choose the menu.  I provided the venue and the team took care of the rest.  

We leave as a family for Wisconsin in just over a week.  I should feel a little anxious given the experience with Graham on our last flight, the fact that I've done almost zero Christmas shopping, my Christmas cards haven't been mailed yet (though they arrived well over a week ago) and our work schedules are packed until our flight on the 20th.  What I feel instead is peace, gratitude and a sense of calm.  Tonight while Mike and I sat in front of the tree, Graham danced to the musical ornaments and Greyson sang 3 Christmas carols.  There's nothing to be anxious about after that.

Getting ready for the party!

Our cocktail server insisted on taking a picture of the anniversary couple

Greyson's "Christmas party girlfriend" and his Badger fan sidekick

The Badgers are headed to the Rose Bowl!

The party attendees

The Allegis Group Services Seattle team

GRAHAM*isms*

• M: "Graham, what's in your mouth?"
• G:  "Tongue"

It’s not much, but it’s better than nothing

Greyson and Graham got a new nanny this week.  Sara was with our family for 3 years but it was time for a change.  Our new nanny Heather has a 1 year old son and was born and raised in Green Bay. She hasn’t lost her accent and Midwest values and she’s going to be a great fit for our family.  Graham loves the “baby” and so far the 3 boys are getting along great.

• G:  “Daddy has longer nipples than me and Graham”

November was family month for us.  My mom and brother visited me and the boys for an extended weekend (see video below for a snapshot of how we spent our time).  Mike had a blast in Costa Rica but is not recommending it as a future family vacation spot.  I received a few texts from him over the course of his short visit but this one took the cake, “Just got done signing autographs- I’ll explain later”.  Ask him- it’s a great story.

Mike’s parents spent Thanksgiving week with us. We ate, we shopped and we relaxed; not necessarily in that order.  It was a wonderful visit and after seeing both sides of our family for a bit, we’re as excited as ever to get home for Christmas (a white one!)

• G: “I’m going to sleep with Grandma because I only sleep with girls”

Our decorations are up, our first Christmas card arrived (yeah Hirsts!) and our own cards are waiting to be be addressed and stamped.  We’re preparing our house for the 2nd annual Allegis Seattle Christmas party. It’s tomorrow night. Wish us luck.

Halloween 2011- better late than never

What I really want to blog about right now is Thanksgiving preparation, upcoming visits from my family and Mike’s and an amazing “Fakesgiving” meal at a friends house but I still have this Halloween blog drafted from 2 weeks ago and need to publish it before I can move on.  This is not a technical glitch, it’s just the ‘who I am" that contributes to my inability to stop reading a book I hate because I started it which means I must finish it.  So, here’s the Halloween recap:

I cannot take credit for this work of art but I had to share because it’s cute, creative and fun and upped my appreciation for Halloween.  Graham appreciated it too!

We enjoyed dinner with friends the night before Halloween and my friend, a Halloween lover, went all out for the kids as you can see.  She served monkey brains (spaghetti) and eyeballs (meatballs), fangs (fruit wedges) and bones (breadsticks).  The highlight was the witch cupcake.  After the kids finished, the adults had a wonderful meal as well followed by an impromptu performance by the 8 kids hopped up on sugar and decked out in a combination of costumes. They came to the ‘party’ as one character, they morphed into different variations (one Spiderman hand, one Transformer face, a cowboy boot etc.)

Trick or treat was in fact a real treat. Graham was into it and I’m a particularly proud mom this year because Greyson chose to donate his candy to his dentist for cash.  It was coincidence that his dentist appointment happened to fall the week before Halloween so the idea was fresh on his mind.  He followed through and used his cash to buy a   Dr. Thomas sends the candy to troops overseas (sorry about that cavity, soldier!)  We will be purposefully scheduling all future 1/2 year dentist appointments the week before Halloween.

In the 2 weeks since Halloween ended I:

• Composted the pumpkins
• Pulled out some additional harvest-themed deco
• Took a quick trip to Paris and Copenhagen for work
• Hosted a dinner party
• Attended 2 dinner parties
• Started the menu planning for Thanksgiving
• Started a weekend with my mom and brother (Uncle Nate)
• Said ‘so long’ to Mike who is leaving for Costa Rica to see PEARL JAM