Our Serendipitous Journey

Counting the weeks can no longer be a thing because I have now lost track. We are settling in to our life out here and it feels like home. We are busy during the weeks and exhausted at night and the weekends seem to always be full of more than we can fit in. The only complaint Andy has is that he's not home enough. Andy has been traveling back and forth to MN and when he's not there, people from MN are traveling out here. That makes for a lot of happy hours and dinners with friends. I get to tag along with the boys, which I love. We generally are just having fun. A couple weekends ago we went to Wisconsin/Michigan to spend time with Andy's family as we said our final goodbye to his grandfather. While it's not the ideal reason that we like planning trips, it was really a great weekend with family. It was peaceful and relaxing and absolutely beautiful. It is always great to see Andy's side of the family, especially since many of them have made their homes i...

So I'm two weeks into the school year which makes it feel like I am officially into the swing of things. This week I've really been thinking about how grateful I am to have a job teaching in an elementary school. Coming out here I wasn't sure what I was going to do. My PA license is 4-8, so that limited my elementary school options to 4th or 5th grade. I obviously would teach in the middle school but that change would have been a lot to handle. There were hardly any job postings so I just assumed I'd end up subbing for a year and I was really okay with that. I wasn't sure that I wanted the stress of working full time with a move to a new place. Now that I am doing it, I am so incredibly happy. I can not even imagine how bored or lonely I would have been without a group of people that I interact with on a regular basis. I love having a schedule and I can not even explain how happy I am at this school. I know I keep saying it, but it is an absolutely perfect ...

It was one month ago yesterday that we got the keys to our new apartment and one month ago today that we moved in. I celebrated today by baking in the kitchen for the first time. I have a banana cream pie currently cooling in the fridge. Andy is celebrating by cooking in the kitchen for the first time. We also got our living room couch delivered today so we are going to celebrate by eating a meal that we cooked in our new kitchen at our new dining room table (delivered a few weeks ago) and then sitting on our new couch. I feel like such a grown up. This was my first week of school and it was absolutely wonderful. The kids are great, the school is great, the staff is great, and I left every day with a huge smile on my face. I am really looking forward to this year. There are more staff members offering more help than I could ever imagine. Every single morning someone pops their head in my room and asks me if I'm ok and if she can help me do anything. She puts up bulletin...