Hey guys!
Sometimes I sit down to update, thinking I have so much to say, and then my mind goes blank. Gaah. Bear with me while I gather my thoughts. :)
Dustin and I just got back this past week from a wonderful, wonderful trip to NY! It was just so good to see home and family and friends. We left on Thursday morning and arrived late afternoon. The greeting gang was Mom, Gina, Kaylie, and Logan and Alli. It was so precious, Logan had a huge sign that said something like "Welcome back, Aunt Gi and Uncle Dustin! We missed you!". I almost cried. :) Afterwards Logan told me that I could put it on my fridge if I want to! Haha!
We left for my cousin's wedding Friday, went to rehearsal (Dustin, Austin, and I sang two songs at the wedding! Fun!), and then were busy with the wedding on Saturday (ABSOLUTELY beautiful wedding, Matt & Nicole!).We drove home after the wedding though, so we could be home in time for church. The rest of the time was just full of a lot of family time, seeing friends, a campfire, breakfast get togethers with friends, a shopping outing with just us girls, family suppers, AND! I even gave blood with Kaylie (It was actually pretty fun!)! It was so good to be home again for a little.
And there is a small problem I need to work through. I take even less pictures with my camera now that I have an IPhone. Oopsies. So this is just a write-y post. Not a picture-y one. :)
A lot of people, both in NY and here in CA, asked if I was ready to come back. I actually was. For one, I had mentally prepared myself that I'd be there 9 days, so when 9 days were up, I knew I was headed home. That sounds too simple, but basically I was mentally prepared. For another, Dustin came home Tuesday and I came the following Saturday, so I was REALLY ready to see him! I'm telling you, it's just different (in a good way) now with a husband involved! :) I was thankful for that extra time in NY though.
Another questions was, "Does New York still feel like home to you?". Um yes. Because everything is still so familiar there to me. I mean that's where I grew up. I don't think being gone for almost six months will automatically change things for me. My dear friend, Teresa, posted this perfect post recently, http://www.createdtopraisehim.blogspot.com/2014/05/note-to-self-when-moving-to-new.html . In her post, she mentioned that she read somewhere that it can take 7 years to adjust to a new community. Seven. SEVEN. I freaked out a little. I know, that might be average, and I also know that I don't want to hold myself to that and THEN accept home after 7 years. That's just silly. But reading that also felt like it gave me some..."breathing" room. I'm not saying I feel pressure to adjust here, I don't think I would say that I do. But even if it's not from other people, it can come from myself, too. I can pressure myself. Basically, yes, NY is still home to me, but there's "home" things about CA, too. For example, my house feels like my home now. CA as a whole still seems pretty... "out there" to me. But I think that's ok. Just so that I don't hold my home area so high that everything else is "way down there" and I never give another place a chance to become home for me. That's not right either.
Which brings me to another topic. I got this idea from another precious friend who I had so SO much fun catching up with in New York: Patty (http://downsouthyankee.blogspot.com/). Also linking to two blogs in one post could lead to some assumptions, but I will let the amount of my posts and space between them squash that assumption of me being a blog junkie. :) Hey, I have to read my friends blogs. :) Anyways. The inspiration.
I don't know how I'll do it exactly. Or even if I will for sure. But just giving some pros and cons of life here. Dare I call it a series? :) Patty, maybe you'd better explain it to me some more.
But for example, this. Spanish.
I didn't realize how much I like Spanish. I still try to do a lesson or two about 4 times a week. The last milestone (test) I took, I got a 100%! I was so shocked! Basically this is where I am at with Spanish. In English, I'd say, "Oh! Fun! Are you making a chocolate cake?!!" In Spanish, I'd probably sound something like this, "?(Except an upside down question mark haha!) Un torte chocolate (said chah-co-LATTE)?". Or another example. "? Vivo Nuevo York?" That basically means, "Do you live in New York?". I don't know if I'm making sense, but basically I can get key words right, but the whole sentence structure and una's and un's is where I get a little stumped. So when I switch that around to when my neighbor is talking to me in English and is soooo close to saying the whole sentence perfectly and I can see how badly she wants to rattle off in Spanish, I realize secretly she's smarter than I am because at least she's speaking my language. And I just HOPE I am a fast listener and read between the lines even if she may not get all the little in between words. Actually my bigger hope is knocking her socks off someday by rattling off to her in Spanish, haha!
But I heard Spanish zero times in NY, which is fine. I mean it's normal. But I think I heard it in the airport on the way back to California and I was like awwww I miss hearing and seeing Spanish everywhere! It's a fun language and I guess gave me hope to keep pushing at it!
So that's just a tiny example of what I might be doing in the next few blog posts. Might! There are other things like the weather, food, culture, distance from home, scenic view comparisons. I don't want to compare everything to how New York had it, as in New York is the best. I want to see the positives in both and really, be content with where God has me!
