Yikes! Time to Catch up!

Hi all, and welcome to my annual blog catch-up! :) I feel a little overwhelmed as I haven't blogged since we arrived back to the US in July. Yowzers. I write mental blog posts daily, but the likelihood of me actually sitting down at a computer to write is close to zero these days. Or just zero. It's not that I don't want to, it's more that life is constantly going, and the longer I wait the more overwhelming it feels because there's just so much to catch up on. So here begins a possibly multi-post catch up of the past several months.

Well.... We spent the month of July in the Midwest, mostly around Chicago. This included a Fourth of July birthday party for Eland and his cousin Haylee, a sailboat ride on Lake Michigan, lots and lots of eating with family, trips to the splash park, a trip down to St. Louis to visit my extended family, and more. But mostly we ate and spent time with family. Oh, and I drank a lot of coffee to get over jet-lag thanks to Zack and Donna. :)

Cousins Eland, Auggie, and Haylee got to sit at their very own kids table!
(Things went downhill very quickly and they were often relocated to the grown-ups table. ;)
(Btw, newest cousin on the T-side, Olivia, was born on July 30!)

Fourth of July! Yay America!

Cousins in their red, white, and blues

Dan and his mom!

A sailboat ride on Lake Michigan! The boys were very excited

Gram and Auggie

Auggie at the helm with Gramps

Both boys were out cold by the time we got back into harbor

Cousins Auggie, Anna Grace, Ella Joy, and Andrew

My WHOLE family!
(Except for the new littlest, Evan, born on October 3)

Aunt Elaine took us to the Kids Garden at the Botanical Gardens in St. Louis

Aunt Elaine, Auggie, and Eland

The boys with Great Grandma L (my grandma)

We attempted to camp and climb in our old stomping grounds in southern Illinois, Jackson Falls...

It was a mild disaster. At 100+ degrees F, the rock was slippery, we were constantly sweating, and we ended up pulling a total of 7 ticks off of Auggie...

...Three of which we found two days after we aborted the mission and headed back to air conditioning in Chicago.

We saw several old friends including my college roommate for four years, Sylvia

Eland (and Auggie) driving a Land Rover at the Chicago Children's Museum

They got to make dog-ears, too. :)

A gorgeous family photo taken by the talented Christy Timms

More from Christy!

Culvers with the T-fam! YUM

Dan getting his weld on in Matt and Jenni's garage

Jenni, photo taken by Haylee. Olivia still in the oven--but less than a day from being born!

Dan and I also did a lot of stressing about how exactly we were going to move our things in storage from Chicago to Albuquerque, as this wasn't included in the relocation package from his company. This took a lot of energy to sort out, but eventually we packed a U-Haul U-pack container full of things and also bought a 5x10' trailer to pull there ourselves. We sold it after we arrived and actually made a little bit of money on the trailer. Brilliant thinking, Dan!

Before we left for South Africa we sold nearly all of our earthly possessions, so we were more or less starting from zero this July. Our families very generously gave us tons of furniture, including my grandma who will be downsizing soon and was pleased to help furnish our house while emptying hers. It was a pretty amazing thing to arrive home in Albuquerque and be able to fully stock the linen closet with sheets and towels right away. And I can't forget that Dan's parents gave us their car! AMAZING!!

I have to admit that the whole move was pretty stressful. We were either stressing about getting our things to Albuquerque, stressing about having enough money to survive before Dan's first paycheck, or who knows what else. Oh--I was pretty sick, too. A week before our move from SA I caught a nasty bronchial cough that lasted a good month. Apparently my body's immune system tends to get compromised due to the stress. I was pretty sick several times before our move there as well.

The boys and all their entertainment options

Yeah, baby!

Watching Curious George!!

Not so sure about Curious George..

Eland and Doggie Blanket

We're in New Mexico!!!!!

We saw a lot of this..

Holy Crap! Tramway Blvd!! ALBUQUERQUE!!!!!!

The most stressful thing of all, though, was a HUGE mistake I made. I can feel my blood pressure rising as I think about it. MY GOODNESS.. God is so good. ... Sooo, after we left Chicago, stopped in St. Louis for the night, spent the next night in Oklahoma City, and drove on towards Albuquerque, I called our property management company to see about getting the keys to our house. While in a park in Amarillo, TX, the PM company called back confused, saying that the lease wasn't up until the end of August, not the end of July like I thought. AHHHH!!!! PANIC!!!! Dan was understandably furious, while I was somewhere between panic, confusion, and fear--with lots of tears. The kids were confused because they thought we were going to play at the park, but after hearing this news we packed up immediately and carried on west.

It was a really interesting situation, and yet another test of faith, I think. Yes, after checking the lease again, it really was through the end of August. I don't know why I didn't check it earlier. I guess I've rented apartments enough times to know that you rent for one year--not 13 months. Our renters moved in on August 3, 2012, so I assumed that they'd be out around August 2, 2013. Makes sense, right? Obviously I didn't bother double-checking. I don't know why you'd rent a place through the whole last month, but who even knows? That's what our PM company set up with our renters and that's what we were dealing with.

About 20 minutes into our drive from Amarillo, I spoke to God and worked some things out. I found a significant amount of peace given the circumstances, decided that this would be the opportunity we had originally wanted to head out west to hike and climb during the transition, and that really, honestly, everything was going to be just fine. About a minute after I came to that conclusion the PM company called to say that our renters had already moved out! Whoa, amazing! Apparently they were just as confused as we were, and later our neighbors told us that they were up late on July 31 getting everything out of our house. So I guess we weren't the only ones making a wrong assumption. Seriously, this could only be God's great provision for us and my awful mistake! I guess I'm happy to fess-up. It's simply what happened, and I make mistakes sometimes. But most of the time I don't, and I'm happy to have grace for myself.

The rest of August was challenging, but good. Our house was absolutely filthy. The grout was black, a little boy had drawn with crayon, marker, or pen on multiple walls in nearly every room of our house, the landscaping was for the most part dead, a very expensive ceramic pot (that we bought very cheaply) was missing, and every part of the house needed a serious scrub. However, none of the damage was structural or permanent, and all our neighbors were so happy to have us back. We stayed in a hotel for three nights while we cleaned, and gradually got settled throughout the next few months. Our house feels like home again. Yay. :)

Yep, that's paint

Ummm.. Not safe AT ALL?!?!?!

Most walls looked like this

The grout should be white..
(And it is again. Soaking straight white vinegar for 10 minutes and then brushing off is a serious miracle.)

Auggie started school on the same day that Dan started work, August 19. (Btw, August 19 is also a very special friend's birthday. We love you, Sandrine!!) We have a great routine now, and while I don't think the level of intensity of life that we experienced during our move ever really let up, at least things are mostly predictable. We have an awesome church here, we've been climbing at all the places we used to go to, the boys have a back yard to run around in, our dentist appointments are scheduled, we've been back to the doctor, and life is very good.

More pictures to follow!