Home again, home again! Again, again!

My apologies for our long absence from blogging. Access to the internet was limited this summer and I just never got the chance to update anything.
I have posted a ride story and several photos of our summer on Facebook and will try to post some here as well. I will try to touch on the highlights of our summer in this post:
We flew to Paris and spent 2 days there at the beginning of the summer to break up the long flight. Paris was fantastic and 2 days is NOT enough time. We will return when we can spend more time (and more money).

A great deal of our summer was spent working on the trailer house fixing the well pump, water pipes, septic, moving our stuff out of storage...that kind of stuff.

Nelson's mom fell and went into the hospital 2 days after we arrived before we could even get to see her! We spent a fair amount of time going to Midland to visit her in the hospital and then later when she went to the nursing home. She ended up back in the hospital with double pneumonia and MRSA before we left. It was hard to see her so frail, but she was looking/feeling better, getting more feisty and eating well just before we left.

The horses were a big part of our summer....plans for Jenny to take Malik and Murash fell through, but later in the summer we were able to trade Murash and get Max back. That led to the wonderful photos and ride story I posted on Facebook and will also post here separately. It still wasn't enough time...the weather in Michigan was horrible, the coldest on record, or so I have been told. Chilly and wet, rainy. Not very many sunny, hot days. Even the hot days only got into the 80s. We only made Esch Road Beach at Lake Michigan once. That was a bummer. We managed another day in Traverse City at the State Park, but it was cloudy, not too warm and just not the same, although we had a good time!

Basically, most of our time was spent going back and forth to the hospital, Carrie's house, Jenny's house, the storage unit....we just didn't get to every place and everybody we wanted to this summer. Hopefully, next summer will be less busy (except for horseback riding and visiting friends and family!).

Our flight home was uneventful and we made all connections even though we only had an hour or so to catch our plane in London. We arrived home on Wednesday, September 2nd. Nelson promptly came down with a cold and has been miserable, though he seems better today. I met my mentee, Deborah, who arrived a couple of weeks ago. Nettie graciously had us to dinner last night with our friend, John and another new teacher, Tamera. I do love our neighbors and friends. I have missed them. I am looking forward to a new semester, a new year, a new start. We should know soon what is happening with that job for Nelson and if it doesn't happen, it just means God wants us to wait or has something better in store for him. We still haven't finished unpacking and are a bit jetlagged yet. I have to try NOT to take long afternoon naps until I get adjusted to the time again. I hate being awake in the middle of the night. It won't take long. I start back to work Sunday, mostly helping Deb get oriented, showing her around campus, teaching her how to use the technology, get acquainted with everything and everyone. We are already such great friends. And we teach the same level, same shift (if that doesn't change), which will make our lives so much easier!

Please stay in touch. Do call and visit with us! Since returning, we've discovered that the internet signal for the Magic Jack number works best for us in the evenings, after 8:00 or so (1:00 EDST). I will try to keep up more regularly now that we are home. Stay tuned for stories and photos from our summer as separate and independent posts.