Home Sweet Home

We made it safely home from London late Wednesday night after a long travel day, to say the least! We calculated it with the time change, and we were awake for almost 26 hours. Ugh! But it was definitely worth it for the feeling of finally being HOME.

My parents and my sister picked us up from the airport, and they brought Maggie along, which was a surprise. I have been so worried about her remembering us when we got back, but my fears were slightly resolved because when she saw us and we called her name she started piddling on the floor!! Okay, I know this is probably gross to most of you, and yes, I realize we were THOSE people whose dog was peeing on the floor at the airport. She used to do that as a puppy when she got too excited, but hasn't done it since. I know it sounds kind of gross, but I couldn't have hoped for a better reaction. :)

We came home to a spotless house -- Josh had cleaned it top to bottom! And Angie made us this cute sign that was hanging up in our living room.

Also, my Mom had planted flowers in our flower boxes outside, and she got Maggie groomed the day before we got back.

Everything was picture perfect for our return, which was so sweet and thoughtful. Although, we kind of ruined the picture perfectness in less than five minutes with our 250 pounds of luggage exploding everywhere. :) It has taken almost two days, but we are finally almost finished unpacking and moving back into our house!

In our defense of why it has taken so long, we hit the ground running the very next morning after we got back. Jordan started two of his summer classes that day, one of which started at 6:30am and was three hours long!! He is such a trooper. I would have skipped for sure! Right when he got back from class, he woke me up and we went car shopping. We sold my Beetle a couple months before we left for London, so we were down to one car, the 4Runner. We knew what we wanted, and Jordan had researched a lot online before we came home, so the process was actually pretty quick.

So yesterday morning we drove home our new car, a 2004 Nissan Xterra!

Okay, so this picture isn't our exact car, but I haven't been able to take a picture yet and I found this one online of the same year and model. :) Ours is silver, just like this one. We love it! I have always wanted an Xterra, and we were pretty set on getting something with 4-wheel drive after the last couple winters we've had in Spokane.

Other than that, we are just trying to transition back into our lives here. It's funny because on the flight home, Jordan and I both suddenly felt like the last five months almost didn't seem real, like maybe it didn't happen. :) The jet lag hasn't been too bad yet, except for the fact that we have both been waking up around 6:30am every day so far. There is so much we want to get done and get caught up on, and so many people we want to see... it's a little overwhelming, but it's nice to know we don't have to do it all today!

I'm having mixed feelings about the blog at this point. I've had a few people tell me I should keep it going even now that we're back, but I've always just thought that blogs work a lot better for people who are living abroad or for people who have kids. Obviously we won't fit into either of those categories any time soon! :)

At any rate, thank you to everyone who has followed our adventures on the blog the last five months. We both appreciated your comments and support more than you know!