We’ve been officially back in Phoenix for several weeks now. It’s been, in many ways, really nice to be back “home”. The weather is amazing this time of year, and after the cold in Oregon, we have been soaking it up.
I haven’t had much time or inclination to write since being back home. There has been a lot to do. We left Phoenix in such a flurry that there are a lot of things I’m needing to straighten up, organize and rid ourselves of. Yes, "operation de-accumulation" is still in full swing. The condo is working out nicely, and I would say my main complaint yet again would be the noise level that comes with two small children, two dogs, a husband and one guinea pig in a small space (surprise... we got Fudge back!). I think I’m going to have to impose some sort of hours of silence or something. Good luck, right? Also, we both have jumped back into work. Before I even got back, I was getting text messages asking when I was teaching dance. (I have to admit I loved that). We had a Dance Recital coming up and both kids had classes they slid back into.
I’ve been trying to get the condo in shape. My husband is on a no spending kick, which means I'm limited with what I can do. He’s a numbers guy, so he is getting excited about saving money right now. I jokingly (not so jokingly?) say that my husband is like a pendulum swinging from one extreme to another. He’s either going one hundred miles an hour, or he’s sleeping. Rarely is there an in between. It’s the same concept with money…either we are doing great, or we are broke. This means extremely different things to each of us. When we were newly married and he would say we were broke, I would get really nervous, and start wondering if we needed to sell things, go on a 'beans only' diet, or start thinking about living in a van down by the river, when he just meant that we wouldn’t be able to eat out on a Tuesday night for a while. It took me a while to figure out what he meant. His definition is definitely different than mine. I think people have different comfort levels when it comes to money. He’s always saying that he has a lot of cats drinking out of his bowl of milk. In this case, he’s right though, and I agree with his current moratorium on spending. We both know that the upcoming portion of our trip is going to require a bit more "fundage" due to travelling, so evidently we are going to live without closet doors here in the condo for a while. One nice thing about that is that I can lay in bed, stare at the closet and decide what to wear for the day.
In addition to organizing the condo, working, homeschool and what not, we are planning the next portion of our journey. This has been very exciting! We have our tickets to Europe booked. My husband has recently become a big fan of flying Business class on longer flights. This is a trend I am not going to complain about! We are all very on board with this, just ask the kids...and since he seriously loves diving into the black hole of points, it’s a win for all of us. While my eyes might glaze over when he drones on about points, I definitely appreciate the perks. We are now having to plan forwards and backwards from our departure date. Atlanta is booked, which is where we are departing the U.S.A from, and we are working on Croatia.
I am so excited. Beyond excited really…. so much that I’m worried that I am too excited. Stupid right? I told my husband early on that that going to Europe would make all the hassle worthwhile. He has always wanted to live in France, and I have always wanted to live in a foreign country, so going to Europe for 3 months is like a sneak peak of fulfilling that dream. When I was a small child I remember wanting to be a missionary just so I could live in another country. Probably the wrong motivation for that career path, but my love of travel and other countries was there. In fact, my dolls all had passports, and would occasionally go on trips. Of course this meant they were stowed away in the closet for whatever length of time their journey was, but it was very fun to research the exotic places they were travelling to. Now I no longer have to live vicariously through my dolls, and this part of our journey will really be a litmus test as to whether or not this is something we feasibly could do in the future on a more permanent basis. Needless to say, I’m really looking forward to that portion of our trip....and we have family and friends who are planning on visiting while we are there!! Did I mention I am excited??
Meanwhile I’m trying to get us through the first semester of homeschool (still in process), plan costumes for opening night of the upcoming Star Wars movie(check) (yes, we are super cool like that), and meal plan all the excess non-perishable food we have here at the condo (requiring super skills). In other words, it’s a fun, hot mess right now, but that's pretty typical for us and for the most part I am loving it.
