I Quit My Job, and in 100 Days, We Will Fly One-Way to Belize!
It has been ten years in the making, which felt like it took forever.
And now, our departure date is coming in HOT!
At my last work event in Las Vegas, I opened the above fortune, and it was all I had in me to not burst into laughter!
I have resigned from my position as the Director of Sales & Marketing for a General Contractor in Phoenix, Arizona, with 100 days until we move.
It quickly became apparent that I could not continue to work full-time and coordinate an international move. In the next 100 days, we have to:
-Have a Moving Sale of epic proportions
-Clean out/prepare our home for sale
-List, show and sell our home
-Purchase a container
-Pack said container, with each box or bin numbered, and matched to an inventory sheet in a binder for Customs
-Arrange for pickup and shipping of the container to Houston, to go onto a ship, received by our Customs Broker in Belize
-Have our pinball machine professionally packed up
-Schedule vet appointments for our cats to get their vaccines and documents for immigration
-Figure out which bank accounts to keep/close/consolidate
-Do all of the annual health screenings (mammogram, eyes, physical, dental)
-Sell off coins/jewelry we have collected
-Figure out how to port our numbers to GoogleFi
-Sell the car (I sold mine back in February, we are down to one!)
-Complete my continuing education for real estate - 24 hours of classes - I'll keep my AZ License *just in case*
-Put an estate plan together
-Determine where to forward our mail to - there isn't delivery in Belize - we don't even have an address!
-Sell and/or donate any remaining furniture - we are hoping whomever buys our home wants our furniture!
-Potentially move into a short-term rental if our home sells and closes before our move date.
The home sale is our biggest "wild card", as it will trigger all kinds of other activities. Getting it market-ready is the top item on my list of priorities.
We have missed the tradional "Spring Selling Season" but are hopeful since our home is unique, it won't take long to sell it. It's in Uptown Phoenix on a large, irrigated lot, but the owners before us tore down the existing home to build this one. It has 2022 features and design, but in a highly coveted older neighborhood.
I am trying to map out deadlines, as some are very specific; for example, the cats must have their rabies vaccine at least 1 month before we move, but also need a veterinary clearance certificate not more than 14 days prior to our arrival. That means two super-fun car trips to the vet and back. To see all of the pet import requirements for Belize, follow this link: Importing your pet to Belize.
We have three cats, and on planes you can only have one pet per passenger. To accomplish getting them down, we are bringing our adult sons Ethan (23) and Zachary (19) with us as cat-mules.
As I booked our flights, I went back into American Airlines to add the cats; my heart sank as I saw that I would have to call into AA to do so. I feared something was wrong...
Although it doesn't say so online, American is only allowing two pets per cabin. We have three, and we're not leaving ANY behind!
Speaking with the agent on the phone, she informed us that two cats can ride in one carrier, which didn't make sense - they will allow two carriers, but three pets...? The agent assured me this is correct.
I didn't sleep that night, as I had no proof of this conversation occuring, and had nightmare visions of rolling up for our 6AM flight to be turned away at the gate. It's not like one of us could just go back home with one cat and try again the next day, our home should be sold/closed by then, all of our goods packed up, car sold...plus we're working with those BAHA guidelines for pet importation.
The next day, I hopped on AA's chat, and had another agent (who was not certain at first, which continues to make me nervous) confirm that we can, in fact, put two pets in one carrier, provided they are the same species. I then screen-shotted that entire conversation, and printed it out. I hope that if it does become an issue at the airport, my backup might sway the gate agent into feeling some pity on us.
I am sure there are more activities to come, that's the list I am currently working off of. I do feel like I'm in, "hurry up and wait" mode because a lot of the activities have to happen in the last few weeks we are in the U.S., or can't be put into play until our home is sold.
Then we have everyone and their brother coming out of the woodwork, wanting to see us before we leave.
We want to take one more trip to Vegas, and have a weekend trip up north booked with my mom and her boyfriend before we go, too. Nathan and I have thought of anything we want to do, see, or go to before we move, and we knocked out seeing the wildflowers bloom in April. We were hoping to see a Suns Playoff Game, but they were out pretty quickly this year...
Stay tuned, I'll continue with updates as the days tick down and we accomplish items from the list!