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10 April 2010

We have been home for a week now and we are loving being around our friends and family every day. We are of course reveling in the small things in life and enjoying everything that we missed while we were gone. Things like reliable electricity, brushing our teeth with tap water, not having to boil all our water, sleeping with our dog, not sweating through our clothes every day, smelling good (or just not smelling bad!), eating cereal for breakfast, driving wherever we want whenever we want, and catching up on the latest news since we've been back. I also have overcompensated a bit in the "self grooming" department--wearing make-up everyday, did my nails, and have been doing my hair nice every day. I am just making up for 6 months straight of having practically no personal-hygiene. I'm sure I'll calm down soon enough :)

On Easter my cousins Anne & Levi came up from Denver with her two new little twin girls that arrived while we were gone. My dad's sister Jane and her husband Jack were also visiting from Montana to see the new little babies, and my Grandma Esther came up from Fort Collins; we had a kind of emotional reunion, but we have been anxious to get back and see her almost since we left, so it was kind of expected. Grandma reminisced of her time in Africa 50 years ago and Zach and I talked about what it is like today.

My birthday was on Wednesday and my Grandmas Jean and Shirl were in Cheyenne on their way home to Wisconsin from Texas. They are always such and pleasure and so much fun it was a great welcome home/birthday present to have them around for a couple of days. We all went out to dinner at my favorite Mexican restaurant in Cheyenne and Zach surprised me by inviting Lindsay and Nate to come over from Laramie. I have been desperate to see her since we got home so that was the perfect present :).

Now we are up in Buffalo visiting Zach's parents a week. They were very patient while we were in Cheyenne and were very anxious to see us. We are going to relax a bit while we are up here, but we also need to get busy on some job applications. There are actually quite a few jobs available in Cheyenne that we are interested in, so we are trying not to let the opportunities pass us by. Once we get jobs then we can start looking for our own place where we can unpack our storage unit and live with Mala full time. Grandma & Grandpa Sukie and Joel have been so great to keep her for us (and have enjoyed it a little too :) ), but they might appreciate the quietness of their house when the puppy is gone :). Then this summer Zach will apply for medical school, which we should find out where we are going around this time next year. Once we know that, I can start applying for school also. I am going back and forth between Public Health and Social Work right now, but hopefully over the next year it will become clear to me what direction I want to take with my future life/work.

Well, for those who are wondering, we are planning to keep blogging in the future. It may not be as interesting or crazy, but over the next few years we will be going through some pretty big life changes and would like to be able to keep writing about them. We found it very therapeutic and helpful to journal/blog while we were in Tanzania, so we are going to continue to do the same and hope that it gets us through the next phase of our life, which might be a stressful one.

(I am planning to post a picture here of Zach and I at our going away party for work at the CWCD, but I am having trouble locating the camera right now (surprise, surprise...our stuff is everywhere! right now), but I will get it up soon.)

Written by Whitney