We took an amazing trip to South Africa and Dubai on the way back to Texas. I need to write about it soon or I'm going to forget the details because that vacation also feels like it occurred several years ago.
We arrived at DFW Airport the morning of Monday, June 25. Roughly 6 hours after landing, we bought a new vehicle for the family. I opted to let Brian drive the new car home from the dealer as I didn't feel good about my first "right hand side" driving experience in a year occurring in my brand new car. I did just fine driving it to the nearby Starbucks the following morning though.
On Wednesday, June 27, our air shipment from SG and the contents of our TX home that had been in storage for the past couple years were all delivered to our home. It was an overwhelming amount of stuff. The air shipment movers unpacked the 20 boxes and removed all the cardboard and paper. The local movers (paid on our own dime) didn't do the same with the 200+ boxes.
Thursday morning I set out to get the kitchen unpacked because it's the most essential room for a functioning household. The first six boxes I opened contained essentials like reindeer mugs and snowmen platters. I found the toaster oven and coffee maker in the last box I opened at the end of the day. But I'm totally ready for Christmas now!
The toys we unpacked from local storage told the truth about how long we were away from the US. Nearly all the toys were geared towards babies and toddlers and have been placed in the garage sale pile.
Considering it had been rented out, our house was in very good condition. Except that half the yard was dead (funny how we were still billed in full by the landscaping company) and all the bushes along the back window of our house were gone. And the ivy that used to be out of control on the front of the house had turned brown and crispy. If I acted like a Singaporean landlord and charged our tenants $30 per non-working light bulb, I would keep most of their deposit.
My first impressions of being back in the US? Honestly I have found very little joy in most aspects of it. Stores and restaurants I longed to visit during summer visits don't seem like such a priority when I know I can go there FOREVER. I have been so busy trying to get as much done as possible while my husband was here that I haven't really stopped to enjoy anything. On the bright side, everything feels like it's on sale. From the grocery store prices to the insanely low interest rate on the car loan to the equally ridiculous low rate we are getting when we refinance our home loan. No, I didn't have all that much to do when we got back so I decided to go ahead and shop around for mortgages as well.
If I'm going to shop around our town, I will need to wear some kind of athletic attire, preferably tennis outfits, to fit in with the local scene. I don't like wearing my sweaty running gear to a store, but I don't believe these ladies have actually participated in any sport. I think they're just wearing the clothes.
And speaking of shopping, I had my typical maiden Wal-Mart shopping experience. I had no idea the sight of a woman in running gear (in my defense, I had just run a race!) with a cart overflowing with groceries could be such a conversation starter. For someone who is accustomed to grocery shopping in a place where the clerk doesn't even acknowledge me at the checkout, it's going to take me some time to adjust to random strangers commenting on my attire and the contents in my shopping cart.
I have also noticed the customer service at any given store is either wonderful or awful. Nothing in between.
While Megan and Elizabeth were away at camp, my mom helped me with Emily and I was able to paint their bedrooms and Brian replaced their ceiling fans. Thankfully they both liked the results and it felt good to complete a project that will help make the house feel more like our home again.
I intend to find someone to help me keep the house clean but in the meantime, I haven't really minded the routine cleaning and I especially like having a dishwasher so conveniently located in the kitchen. Cooking hasn't been too much of a chore yet either but it also helps that I haven't been cooking big dinners for the entire family much. I guess I'm easing back into that job.
Knowing that Brian would only be home for a few weeks before returning to Singapore, I had hoped we could enjoy a date night to one of the restaurants we used to enjoy. It never happened and that's depressing.
Brian's gone now. He'll come home in mid-September when he finishes his project. The girls and I will spend the rest of the summer getting reacquainted with Texas life. The older girls seem to be doing well but it's been harder for Emily who hasn't had as many activities yet. She has told me a few times that she misses her friends and has inquired about when she will make new ones. Emily includes Joyce in her prayers every night.
I was unprepared for how challenging it would be to get settled into our house. I was excited to return to our home but in the first few days of complete disarray, I could only see everything that was outdated or broken. And I grew frustrated with how long it took to get the place in working order again. I got so tired of having no answer when the girls needed basic items like scissors or pencils. Looking back, I would have been much happier if I could have had about 5 days alone in the house before it actually needed to function for a family of five again.
The house is coming along but it doesn't feel complete. Maybe it will help when we get our sea shipment next month and the girls have everything from their Singapore life with them again. I know I'll feel at home again here but it definitely hasn't happened yet.
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