Our First Visitor

It's unbelievable that we've been back for five months now. Exactly two years ago, Nate and I were spending our first weekend exploring Dublin and desperately searching for housing. It was so daunting and exhilarating at the same time! Oh, the memories.

This weekend afforded us plenty of opportunities to reminisce over our previous European home as we hosted our first visitor from Dublin! Nate's coworker Margaret has been working in Atlanta for the last six weeks, and managed to carve some time out for a quick weekend visit to St. Louis. Margaret made good use of her short time here by visiting the Anheuser Busch Brewery and perusing downtown sights like the Arch, the old Courthouse and Busch Stadium. We tried to provide a few classic American culinary experiences too - we went to a great cajun restaurant for dinner, complete with a live bluegrass band adding to the fun, casual ambiance. We also took her to Ted Drewes for some quintessential St. Louis ice cream. It was great to catch up with her, to hear about some old friends in Dublin, and to share a little of our own life here. Both Nate and I enjoyed the excuse to take a break from our insane work lives as well.

With fall approaching, we look forward to the distractions that the season holds - mostly in the form of American football. Since Nate has returned to his homeland, he is now fully devoted to nurturing his obsession with full force. If I ever get pictures running on this blog again, I'll have to post a few of the sojourns we've been taking to compensate for the time Nate had to spend away from his favorite sport! Until next time!

Life all Grown Up

I've seriously got to get my blog updates back on track! It's a little hard to transition from writing about trips to Spain or Germany to waxing poetic on the mundane details of a life that's shifted back to more ordinary.

My life and free time as I knew it during the two years we were in transition has for all intents and purposes come to an end. I'm back to waking up at 5:15 am and spendng my weekends grading and planning. I won't lie, it's not all roses, but I am enjoying the challenges and rewards of working again. The vast majority of my students are awesome - my first class of the day has been an absolute joy to work with. And while my life is beyond frenetic, it's still much easier than my first year of teaching. Plus, I now have a host of wonderful memories from Europe to calm me when I'm feeling overwhelmed.

We've come a long way since touching down in the US in late April. We now have couches for our basement and living room, and a full grown up dining room set!! I've never had a china cabinet before - four years after our wedding, and I'm finally able to display our pretty plates! We still have a long way to go - the living room's still a bit sparse - but it's a good start. In any case, we have virtually no free time, so we'll have to live with it probably until at least Christmastime.

With grown up furniture came grown up birthdays for both of us - Nate and I have now transitioned out of the world of 20-somethings - aahhhh!! On the other hand, I suppose if our next thirty years are as unbelievably blessed as the first have been, we have have some incredible experiences yet to look forward to.