That seems to be the predominant question from friends and colleagues as I bump into people I haven't seen in a while. The answer is usually...'still digging through the boxes and stuff.' But, upon reflection, yeah, I think we are getting settled in.
This past week saw the Tai-Tai furiously organizing bathrooms, kitchen, living room and bedroom (still waiting for the kids to follow suit). So much so, that at one point last week, during a massive cleaning of the house, she exclaimed, 'I want my aiyee!' Well...
Myself, its been about learning of my role and the expectations of those around me...they seem to be somewhat in line, thankfully. I've been working on various organizing projects to help me learn whats going on and get a sense of what has been missed in the past. Slow progress, I guess.
At home, I have tried to organize what I could, but also try and take the time to relax and enjoy the new surroundings. The weekends seem to be filled with a day of getting the kid to soccer and popping in someplace for lunch. Nothings changed there...just like in GZ.
Last Saturday, we experienced a rainstorm of GZ magnitude. The sound outside was deafening as the water poured out of the rain gutters and on to the door step and garden. 'Did anyone ever clean the gutters when they lived here??' Sunday morning it was up on the ladder to check it out...and the answer was a definite, NO. After struggling climbing up and down the ladder, scooping out black goop with my hands and washing it down...then down the ladder to move it over a few feet and do it again, I decided to brave my fears and crawl up on the mighty rooftop to get a better vantage point of it all. A couple hours later, it was done.
I've also been working on the garden too...trying to get it back to a respectable green color. We've been watering everyday since the renters moved out and that had really seemed to bring it back after about a month...then I applied the fertilizer and BOOM...it began growing like crazy. It's almost back to where I would like to see it...but we still have plenty of work to do with plants, shrubs and the like.
Last night we hooked up with some old friends as they played in a hockey game. While I couldn't be there immediately due to a conference call at work, I arrived after the game was over (arrghgh). But, we had a wonderful dinner with all after everyone got cleaned up from their big game. The hard sell was placed on my to join in the league and start playing, which is incredibly tempting.
Tonight, I am hoping my schedule will allow expat daughter and I to head into town to see a favorite band play. I've admired them from afar for quite a few years and this is my first opportunity to get to hear them live...
So, yeah, things are becoming very domestic...we are getting settled in, slowly. We still have a mountain of stuff to go through in the basement and garage, but I think its managable at this time.
It's good to be home...
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