Home Again, Home Again, Jiggity-Jig

It is so very odd to cross the American border and think that I'm now "home." Particularly when I'm in the immediate stages of withdrawal from "the-country-formerly-known-as-home."

But we had a fabulous time back in Canada - thanks to all who made it so lovely. And apologies to those with whom we were not able to connect; we'll catch you next time.

Our trip home was uneventful once I had fixed the tire that was rapidly flattening thanks to the nail embedded in it. Fortunately, my dad noticed its lacklustre swelling while the car was parked on his driveway and I was able to deal with it before I became one of those unfortunate souls stranded on the side of a highway that is just busy enough that people breeze by and assure themselves that someone else will be the Good Samaritan this time.

(A short digression: am I the only one who struggles this much with all things vehicular? I feel like I walk around with a "kick me" sign on my back when it comes to maintaining a roadworthy car.)

As nice as it was to return to our current residence, it underscored our current sense of being in limbo. We are officially between, in transition, experiencing change, etc. We are the visitors, not the visited. Life moves on for those back home (and thank goodness for it!) and slowly the hole we left behind begins to close over. But that's moving away, right?

We spent our weekend re-setting our house and our kids. Grandma's house is a fabulous place where treats abound and rules are relaxed. That's as it should be, of course, but it's always a bit of a shock (for all of us) when the kids come back to reality. Saturday was sunny (finally - what happened to all that Manitoba sunshine!?) and we went to the "other" zoo - the one that is smaller and less exciting, but also free.

The decades-old carousel we rode


If you kiss him, he'd probably just turn into a Ninja Turtle

Checking out the koi

Yesterday it was The Husband's turn to be the church-sampler. He tried churches number 3 and 4. Number 3 was a Mennonite church whose odd lack of Internet presence was explained when he got there and found a building, one car and no people - guess they folded. He got home in time to get to Number 4, which was a very small church (30 people). He was told that about half the congregation was missing for some reason and to come back in November. But, he was warned, there has been a fair amount of conflict recently (hence the lower numbers) and they are looking for a pastor. Apparently there is a severe pastor shortage around here - almost every church is in the interim-pastor phase.

So we continue our search for fertile ground into which we can plant some roots. And I continue my job search. I lack patience and follow-through (if you hadn't already realized that), so it's quite depressing to me that I don't have a job after 7 days of searching and 3 resumes sent out. Ah well, that just means more stay-at-home fun with The Boy. We're off to IKEA today and to the new Super Target that just opened - nothing says comfort like retail therapy!