Hello, another US newbie here
We moved to Phoenix, Arizona about 10 weeks ago, so we're just coming to the end of the initial manic period of temporary accommodation/ SSN applying/ car buying/ bank account opening/ furniture arriving/ school starting/ etc etc etc... Oh, and hubby started work somewhere in all that.
Ours was an intra-company move on L1A/ L2 visas so quite straightforward, at least in retrospect. We moved from Switzerland, where we'd been living for 3.5 years, so will be facing the most horrifically complicated tax returns for 2011 in 2 countries (for which we luckily have assistance).
Our biggest worry about the move was schools - I have a boy of almost 12 (6th grade) and a girl of almost 8 (2nd grade), who'd both been in the local French-speaking school in Switzerland; I yanked them out in May when we found out about the move and homeschooled to drum some English skills into them. (DD couldn't even read in English, and I didn't want her new teacher to hate us on sight.)
I then spent ridiculous hours researching school districts (HOW did people do these moves pre-Internet?); Great Schools is marvellous, as is another site called Schooldigger. It was a bit complicated as my son could have gone into the first year of middle school or the final year of elementary depending on which district we ended up in, and I was angsting over which would be best - we went for elementary in the end as he's quite a 'young' 11 and the middle school felt like a social zoo. So now they both catch the big yellow bus together, and I get an unimaginable 7h 40m alone after having them home for lunch for 2.5 hours every day for the last 3.5 years.
They started school 3 weeks before the Christmas hols, which was perfect as they now think that US school is all parties, movies and themed craft :). So far they love it, naturally. We'll see what January brings... But I've high hopes - the other kids have been SO friendly, even the 6th grade class which I thought might be a bit awkward as they've all known each other for years and are approaching a 'difficult' age for friendships. But no, DS has tribes of enthusiastic kids following him around getting him to speak and telling him how much they adore his accent - he's quite the celebrity, and has even had his first sleepover already. I'm so relieved!
Looking forward to swapping info and stories on here - feel free to ask me anything about the moving over process whilst it's all still fresh in my mind!