Reasons Why

We had some friends over for dinner last night, we hadn't seen them in a while so it was fun to catch up a bit. They brought to my attention that I'd announced on here our move back at the end of this year, but never really talked about the reasons for that move or the timing for it. Thinking about it, I guess Zach and I talked about this issue so much that I must've assumed I already blogged about it, too.

There had always been a tentative move-back date of around the end of 2008, but before D was born we'd also always left open the possibility of trying to extend that out further. We're in a pretty great situation, living in a beautiful place, with a healthy expat package, and well, why wouldn't we want to try to take advantage of that as much as possible?

Then a few things happened. Once D was born and we had some of the grandparents come out to see him, it became clear how much all of us would love to have us all live closer together. Pictures and videos online and even instant messaging and cheap long distance phone calls don't make up for the ability to decide last-minute to hop on a plane and have a quick weekend visit, either they coming to us or us to them.

Also, it became clear that Zach's work position here in Geneva was going to require lots of travel- up to 40% or so. This year has been better than last year, as the travel has been shorter trips within Europe as opposed to 1-2 week benders in California, but the trial period of the past couple months of him traveling almost every other week has confirmed that this was not a situation we wanted to live with.

Lastly, we're kinda feeling ready to go back. Maybe me more so than Zach-- he's ready to go to a different position at his company so that he doesn't have to do the travel, but I think he still also struggles with the idea of leaving this place. I do, too, and I'm sure I'll miss so many things about it once we leave, but I've also found myself growing more frustrated with little things about living here that would be easier back in the states.

So for now, the tentative move-back date is set for November 1st, as that's what makes the most sense as far as timing of work projects that Zach's currently involved in and wanting to finish through. There's a possibility that it could be moved earlier as his company is looking to cut a few costs and expat packages is an easy one to make, but it's nearly impossible to tell yet what will happen with that. We have a vacation already set up with my mom and step-dad (and possibly my brother, too) in September so we're hoping to still stay here till the fall.