I guess repatriation is always odd, but trying to do it over the Christmas holidays presents some extra challenges and opportunities. On the plus side, there are tons of sales! On the minus side, stores are crowded, lines are long, and then places are just plain closed.
But we have done okay. We have yet to find a car, let alone two, and that remains to be our biggest challenge yet. Boo! We're still trying to find the best price on a washer and dryer. (We got really spoiled at Kohl's and now we want good discounts from everyone- we opened a Kohl's account so we could save 20% all day on the day we opened it. 20% plus the big after Christmas sales meant a lot of savings, so we brought our list and our budget and really went for it! But our initial charge only had a certain limit, so we would shop, load up the car, come back and pay off the balance of the account in cash, then shop some more to get the 20% off. We did these 4 times! Yes, that was really fun with the boys! (Sarcasm here.) But it was worth it to save the money, especially on appliances for the kitchen, towels for the bathrooms and the massively-expensive-but-worth-it Dyson vacuum. And don't worry- the account is paid off. I still remember my money blog entry from this summer!)
And of course- going to the grocery store is a real treat! After living in Singapore I will never again complain about the price of food here!
Today J and the boys and I toured a fabulous nursery. We cannot afford full-time until I go back to work in the fall, but the boys really need it so we are going to try for 3 days a week. I was really impressed with the center, and as part of the tuition they will bus D to and from school when he starts in August. It was a huge relief to find it, and it is 5 minutes from our house. Yay! I also got to see some samples of work from D's age group and he seems to fall right in line with the other kids which was reassuring.
So our repatriation is in full swing. Now I need to start catching up with friends, getting back to the gym (grrr...) and busting out the CV/resume and looking for Teaching Job Fairs! But the gym is sort of on the back burner as I have managed to get myself really, really sick. Darn! Let's just say that loooong days packing and sorting and cleaning and moving in the jungle meant a lot of skipped meals and too little fluids, then a long haul flight to Japan followed by a whirlwind trip to Tokyo where I know I did not drink enough because I was constantly worried about finding a suitable public toilet, then another long haul flight, a long wait at the airport, another flight and... you get the picture. Let's just say that all that drama is not all that pretty for the bladder! Ew.
But our health insurance does not kick in until next week, so I tried to wait it out, which was really dumb, and I got really sick.
So I went to our doctor that we always go to when we are home and she was amazing. I felt like a scrunge asking for generic everything and the least of amount of tests possible, but I promised we'd all come back as a family when our insurance kicked in and she could review us with all the bells and whistles. She is a fabulous doctor!
And now I am on antibiotics which are literally kicking my ass. For two days I was not human. Seriously. And my Dad really helped out so I am grateful. Finally I am feeling like a person again! Note to self- don't let that happen again!!
So here is Grandpa with the boys. They love going on walks to look for pinecones with him!
And here they are gobbling up the Snickerdoodles Aunt Meg sent us from California.
On this night we decided to take a drive to look at Christmas lights in the neighborhood... the boys were pretty sleepy starting out (and still a bit jet lagged!)
... and needing a blanket to take with them only meant more sleepiness...
... and then we got started....
and the boys were out in 2 minutes. Oh well, J and I got to see some lights!
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