There's no place like home!

We are GLAD to be back home with our kiddos!  Four days away was a loooong time!

Wednesday, I had an OB appointment complete with the delightful glucose test.  Hopefully, I passed.  Then, we left straight from there to head up to our new town in Nebraska.  We had dropped of the kids, the kid couch/bed, and a ton of stuff at my parents' house before my appointment.  After the 9-hour plus stops drive, we made it about 10:20ish that night, checked into our hotel, and I crashed.  I slept horribly that night and was not overly refreshed when I got out of bed at 7:30 after tossing and turning most of the night.  What is up with that?  I had no kids and I couldn't sleep.  Stupid hotel beds and FREEZING air conditioner.

We love our new little town.  There is a ton of charm and you can sense the pride of the people in their multitude of parks, playgrounds, the fountain that is over 100 years old that was recently restored, the shops, and just the way people help you out.  It is DEFINITELY not like anything either of us has ever experienced in our entire lives, but we're excited anyway.  The majority of the houses were built in the 1920s with another round built when the railroad boomed in the 1970s.  There are very few newer homes than that.  There WERE, however, about 7 or so retirement/assisted living centers.  We kept thinking that they were nice looking apartment complexes, only to find out that no, they were senior centers.  The apartment buildings are mostly the OLD retirement centers converted.  Apparently, they take good care of their seniors.

We had a great realtor that toured the city for us.  She has lived there her entire life and was full of great info and tips for us. 

We finally, our last day there, found a suitable, though somewhat expensive, 1-bedroom apartment for Mark to rent while he's there by himself, but we came up empty-handed in terms of a place for the family.  We hope and pray that somewhere opens up between the time he gets there and the time we need to join him. 

So, he leaves the 30th.  We're dreading it.  We have so much to do between now and then.  Do you even realize how many things a person needs to live for 3-4 months?  I'm talking things like cooking equipment to a trashcan to cleaning supplies.  We want to send him with as much as possible, as things are more expensive there.  For example, he wanted some watermelon one evening so we went to the grocery store.  A bowl of watermelon (already cut up, obviously) was $8!!!!!  I'm not sure how much it actually was, but I'd say that the same size would be more like $3-4 here.  The only whole watermelons that they had were the teeny tiny kind and they were $4.99.  Oh my!  Produce is apparently a rare thing to have there.  We might have to start up gardening.  :)

Well, that's the excitement for now.  Keep the prayers a-comin' and we'll keep you updated!