A month later...

Not sure if anybody checks our blog anymore, but just in case I thought I'd give a quick update on our lives in the US.

We've been back a little over a month (it was exactly a month on Sunday, but who's counting) and are just now starting to get settled in. We stuck around in Billings for a few weeks for my class reunion, Mary's 50th birthday, and my cousin's wedding. Then we drove to Tacoma, stopping in Missoula to see Michael's house (my little brother has a way bigger house than I do and it's in a great spot) and spend a night with Saggy, Rachel, Garrett, and the rest of the Cleveland clan. When we got to Tacoma, we drove straight to our house, but then decided to visit the neighbors before even going in. Usually I'm against the drop-in thing, but I figure'd they wouldn't mind and I was right (we really couldn't ask for better neighbors). They were just throwing some food on the grill, so they invited us to stay for dinner. We had a great meal, played with the kids a bit (boy are they cute and getting big), and then went to Cara and Nick's. We spent three nights with Cara and Nick, which was great. It gave us a chance to take care of stuff during the day, and then return to an established house for the evening. Plus, we got to catch up with our best friends!

Anyway, Mark was chomping at the bit to stay at our house, sit on our couch, and sleep in our bed (who can blame him after a month with everybody else's stuff), so we spent Friday night at our house before heading out of town Saturday morning. It was a bit hectic leaving so soon after arriving, but it was well worth it. We met up with Saggy, Rachel, and Garrett in Spokane, walked through Riverfront Park, and then checked into a hotel for an evening of food, wine, and good company. Sunday morning I rode to Missoula with the Clevelands, while Mark backtracked to Yakima for a conference. My dad, Renee, Michael, Matthew, and his girlfriend, Brooke, picked me up at Saggy and Rachel's and then we drove to Columbia Falls to spend the week at the timeshare in Meadow Lake (Mark drove up after his conference). After a week of golf (and a fair bit of relaxing), Mark and I drove back to Tacoma to finish what we had started.

We've been back four nights and are finally starting to feel at home again. We've unpacked most of our boxes (at least the one's that are going to get unpacked), made most of our big purchases (I hope so anyways), hung quite a few pictures, and hooked up cable and the internet. Our goal is to be pretty much settled in by the end of the week so that we can spend next week getting ready for school. At this point I'm still teaching 8th grade math at Lakeridge Middle School, though I do have an interview at the high school tomorrow morning for a math position. Although it's tough not knowing for sure where I'll be and what I'll be teaching, I guess it's kind of the nature of our lives right now :)

PS- To say a little about our experience in Australia, well right now it seems like it was so long ago or even a dream, which is pretty sad. However, there are moments when I'm reminded that we just spent a year there. For example, we've unpacked all sorts of things that now seem oversized or unnecessary (most of which we either repacked or set aside to be taken to Goodwill). We also did our first major grocery trip and didn't even come close to filling the cart (remember we didn't have any food, spices, or things like sandwich bags and saran wrap). Needless to say we still don't have a lot of those things and we need to go grocery shopping again tonight if we want to eat dinner. I also stopped by the produce stand that I used to go to from time to time and, well, it's not nearly as good as I remember (after a year of the Queen Vic market though, my standards are pretty high).