June 6th

Since the summer of 1944, millions the world over associate June 6^th as the beginning of the end of Hitler’s Nazi Germany.  For most of my life that’s exactly what I associated with this specific day. However, for my wife and I June 6, 2011 will take on a new and exciting meaning.  It serves as the beginning of our opportunity to truly see the world. Thanks to my wonderfully talented and exceptionally hard working wife, we have been afforded the opportunity to spend a few years in Bristol, England working, studying and traveling everywhere.

To say that we are excited about this opportunity doesn’t do our emotional state justice. This will be a truly exceptional time in our lives and we are looking forward to sharing as much of it as we can with all of you. In the coming weeks and months you can expect to find updates on planning for the move, things we anticipate experiencing, and some of the difficulties we may have as we transplant ourselves, our stuff and our pets overseas.

I also want to take a moment to thank all of you who have supported us over the years and who are sharing in our excitement as we turn the next page in our life. We love you all and will be looking forward to seeing you all in jolly ol’ England whenever you can make it out.

A little history

I’ve now realized that you might want some history. By you, I mean the three people who are currently interested enough (or bored enough) to actually spend time reading this. Only you know why you are fascinated by us. We have chosen to believe the former scenario is the truth.

So, history. The reaction we’ve gotten most often when telling people we’re moving is some variation of ‘how long have you been planning this?’ Well, not really. The first question is usually ‘when can I come visit?’ followed quickly by ‘what are you doing with your TV?’ The answers to those are ‘whenever you want. Please call first (at least from London – especially those of you in the Spencer family who have a tendency to just show on people’s doorstep).’ and ‘my Dad has dibs; Adam is currently drawing up legal paperwork to ensure safe care over the next two years and a return to our living room once we are back state side.’

On to the planning. We’ve actually talked about living overseas since we got married. I’ve had the opportunity to live in England twice before and really loved it both times. Adam has lived in Tucson, which is kind of like a foreign country, so we’re both well traveled. One of the reasons I liked PwC was their international presence and their program to have employees participate in rotations in other countries. What they fail to mention when they hire you at age 22 is that you have to be employed with PwC about 5-6 years before they’ll consider sending you anywhere. So they said no when I applied after about two months. Ah, to be young and naive.

Then, about two years ago I started seriously talking with some of the managers and partners at work about our desire to go overseas. The question was always ‘where do you want to go?’ My answer was always ‘first choice is anywhere in the UK, second choice is anywhere English speaking’. I figured lots of options would make the process go faster. Boy, was I wrong there! They considered the options and after a lot of paperwork and A LOT of waiting, they told me I was in the program.

After making it into the program, you then have to interview with the offices that have openings for international secondments. They also assigned me a “Global Mobility Advocate.” Do you know how many sentences I’ve started with, ‘My Global Mobility Advocate says…’. Trust me, it’s more than you can easily count. My Global Mobility Advocate asked what I would think of Bristol, England. I said yes. That’s really been my answer to most things lately, so if you’re wanting a favor, now is the time to ask! Back to my story, they set up a call with a director in Bristol. The interview went great. The job they had open was something I’m interested in (more on that later, you don’t need to be completely bored with accounting talk tonight). The timing of when they wanted someone also worked well with the commitments we had over here already. At the end of the interview, he told me that he was going to speak with my partner, but that he really thought it would work out. After the call, I called Adam to tell him it went well, then I sent an email to my partner to give her the heads up that she’d be getting a call. Come to find out, she’d already received a call from him. Apparently, he was excited too.

Within the week, we had an offer to move to Bristol. And the adventure begins.

It's Official

We're moving to Bristol! We've told parents, grandparents, siblings & cousins, so we can finally tell the rest of the internet. We are very excited. Adam will share more details soon.

Football or Rugby that is the question

Since the Texas Rangers don’t broadcast to the UK, I have decided to find a local league to follow. I started watching English Premier League football a few weeks ago to familiarize myself with the teams and sport in general. I played soccer a few times as a child so, I’m pretty much an expert in the sport. However, I’ve come to realize that there is significantly more strategy than I learned as a first grader so many millennia ago.


The first game I caught was between Everton and Man City and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I found myself quickly rooting for Everton in a match that saw them playing in the snow. Something the announcers assured us was a rare thing indeed. However, I have not had the chance to see the Toffee’s in another match and none of the other matches I have seen have been as riveting as that first one. There is also the issue of not having a local team to support. Most of the cities that we could be living in don’t have Premier League teams and being able to connect with locals through their local teams is something I am really hoping to accomplish.


Fortunately a soon to be in-law from England suggested I look into Rugby. I had always thought of Rugby as a bit odd and difficult to understand and wasn’t fully aware of its popularity within the UK. If you could compare sports in terms of popularity the English Premier League would seem to compare to the NFL and Rugby might be the MLB. The sports themselves are completely different, yet the size and number of followers appears to be similar. Since I prefer the MLB to the NFL, I have decided to give Rugby some serious consideration. In fact, tonight Amanda and I saw our first Aviva Premiership match between the Harlequin Quins and the London Irish Exiles. Again, it did not take me long to pick a team to root for and chose the Exiles. Somehow it just seemed fitting that an Expat from Texas would root for a team nicknamed the Exiles. I must admit that I am interested to learn more about London Welsh considering part of my families heritage derives from Wales. I will also admit that I know next to nothing about the different Rugby leagues throughout the UK and which teams they consist of.


Perhaps one of the things that I find most exciting about this adventure is the chance to be completely enveloped in a different lifestyle than we would find in the metroplex. Not a wholesale change for the rest of our lives, but a chance to see how other people around the world live and celebrate life. Watching and learning about Premier League Football or one of the many Rugby Leagues with locals at the neighborhood pub is certainly something that will provide me with that sense of belonging to our new lifestyle.

So a blog

Hmm. Yes. A blog.

It seemed like a good way to start 2011.

Adam & I have never thought we were that interesting, but now that we're looking at embarking on an international adventure, we wanted some sort of a record of our daily lives. We also have realized that we are absolutely terrible at staying in touch with our extended family and friends and we know ourselves well enough to know that we're not going to get any better when we move 5,000 miles away.

So, some thoughts I had while thinking of all of this tonight.

1. I envision this blog to be both a storybook of our travels and our day to day life for us to remember this special time in our marriage as well as something we can share with our loved ones (& to make them want to come visit us!!)

2. I tend to lose my train of thought easily. Often in the middle of a story, I'll forget what the point was and have to make up a new point on the fly…something my 8th grade Language Arts teacher told me was not allowed. Why, by the way, did we stop calling English, English & rename it Language Arts? I'll let you know when I live in England. Alas, I digress (see this is what I'm talking about!). Adam, however, is a great story teller. His narratives (usually) follow one thought process and most of the time you know why he told you the story when he's finished. Adam & I also see the world differently sometimes (okay, if you know us, it's more like all the time). I hope he will narrate much of this adventure as I think you'll love his version of what we're up to.

3. I think lists should be in threes. For example, if you go to the grocery store and you need two items, you should be able to remember them. If you need three, you need to write them down or else you'll forget one & come home without the tomato paste or you'll spend an hour at the grocery store walking every isle trying to remember tomato paste and end up buying $100 worth of non-tomato paste related items.

I'm signing off for the night. We're watching House Hunters International trying to out guess the people buying homes in the UK…not that I see purchasing real estate in a foreign country in my future!