A Homebody at Heart

We're home!

We're home, we're home, we're home, we're home, we're home!!!!

Can you tell I'm excited to be home? Visiting with family is fun and all, but home is just, well, HOME! We had a great time seeing everyone, but I'm so ready to sleep in my own bed - not one with a super soft mattress that causes me to roll into Hubby all night, have my own bathroom - rather than sharing one with seven other people (nothing says closeness like having someone walk in on you in the bathroom, and nothing is more embarrassing than being the one who does the walking in), and just sit quietly for a bit tonight.

We drove home today, the worst day of the year to travel - the Sunday after Thanksgiving, via the great travelling parking lots that are the interstates. Thankfully we left early enough this morning that we were in front of the worst of the backups that usually happen later in the afternoon, though it took us about 2 hours longer than usual. One year when driving back to school at UF on the Sunday after Thanksgiving, I didn't leave Mom & Dad's house until later afternoon. The trip usually was about 2 and a half hours, but when I got off the FL Turnpike onto I-75, I hit a wall of brake lights with no end in sight. After stop and go traffic for an hour to the next exit and a painful hip due to my foot hovering over the brake for that long, I pulled off and called Mom & Dad in tears asking them to please look at a map and direct me to some back roads to Gainesville. I got a map for Christmas that year.

Back to today, though, we had thought about going to our old church this morning, but when we saw the huge, Purpose-Driven, seeker friendly largeness it has become, and when we thought about what a long drive we had ahead of us with 3 children who, although well-behaved this weekend, were extremely exhausted, we decided to just leave early. After driving around the town, where we lived for almost 8 years of our married life, we've decided you just cannot go home again, and that's ok. When we first left there 4 years ago, I cried for the longest time, but now I don't think I'd want to be back there. First of all, the church has changed. Alot. And I've heard enough from friends that are still there to know that it's not what we remember. Also, we drove by our old house and I felt so claustrophobic. No way was the yard that small back when we lived there! I guess I've gotten spoiled with my yard here and my front porch. And the traffic. Wow. Granted, it's been built up a great deal, but even though I complain about the slowcountry slowpokes here, at least there aren't 60,000 of them here.

The dog was quite welcoming when we came home, too. We sort of forgot that he would need to be placed in a kennel for the weekend until the Monday before Thanksgiving. Oops. So, of course, there was no more room for him "at camp." But Hubby found the teenage son of a co-worker who was glad to come and let him out and feed him for us. So Oliver got to stay home this time. Considering that the last time he was at camp he got attacked by another, larger dog and lost his bark for about 2 months afterward, you'd think he'd be glad of these arrangements, but I think he was lonely. He's been begging for bones all evening.

It was a nice trip, but the bittersweet side to it is that I am now totally done nursing little Boo. Since she is (probably) our last little one, this is a sad thing for me and was really hard for me to give up, but this is the second day in a row that she hasn't nursed at all. But, we made it to 6 months - that was the goal - and I don't think this trip would have been doable otherwise. And she's so much happier now. The boys are really bummed because one of them stepped on the DVD player getting out of the car and now it is broken. No more movies in the car. They were quite well-behaved even still, though they got a little squirrely when we hit Interstate brake lights, and I'm so glad I don't have to hear, "How much farther to home?" one more time tonight.

Oh, and remember those two pounds whose loss I was celebrating, lo, these many days ago? Well, they're baaaack. And they brought a couple of friends with them. So, starting RIGHT NOW, I'm back to eating healthy. Again. And walking more. If Boo will cooperate.

So, though we had fun, we're glad to be HOME. Hubby's family is sweet, loving, gracious, hospitable......but exhausting. And we love them all.