Supergirl!

Frankie's new haircut

Sassy!

Good morning, Baltimore!

This is me, dressed up like Tracy Turnblad from Hairspray. I love, love, love Halloween costumes.

Happy Halloween!

Settling in, squeezing in

It was one thing to haul nine suitcases through the airport. Unpacking them and finding a place for all of the stuff has been another thing entirely. Even before we walked through the door with all of the suitcases, the house was totally at capacity. Stuffed to the gills. Every shelf, every surface, every drawer is absolutely full. The only closet in the house, the one in the master bedroom, is so full that the closet rod literally snapped when I started putting the packed clothes back on it.


So, I’ve spent the last few days trying to get everything put away and organized. I cleaned out as many of the spaces as possible, and took a carfull of stuff to Goodwill. Almost all of the suitcases are unpacked now, and things are about as organized as they can possibly be at this point. As long as nobody gets anything out of a drawer or cabinet and Frankie doesn't haul out any of her toys, it looks pretty good in here. Still, one thing has become absolutely clear:

We need a new house. Immediately.

I’ve been really attached to our Colorado house, and have always felt that it would be hard to let it go. After living in the huge, wonderfully spacious, closet-filled Kirkborough House, it’s been really hard to transition back to living in this teeny tiny house. This house is about a third as big as the Kirkborough House, and Matt and I are both really feeling the difference. He misses his study. I miss the stairs and the second level. I don’t think we’re going to be able to live in our Colorado house for much longer. We need more space, not just for our stuff, but for ourselves. It's getting pretty claustrophobic in here.

So, here’s the plan:

We’re going to get a storage pod, box all of the unnecessary things up and put them in the pod. We’ll get rid of some of the clutter, clear out the garage/bunker, and get the house ready to go on the market. I’m going to talk to a realtor next week, and get the ball rolling. Hopefully, we can sell our house by the spring. Hopefully.

The process of moving *again* is a little overwhelming, but it’s definitely the right thing to do. And I’m actually really excited about finding a new house. I just wish I could snap my fingers and have it all happen instantly, like magic.

Future of the blog

When I started up This Transplanted Life, I was thinking that it would be a great way to chronicle our UK adventure and keep in touch with far away friends and family. I’ve really loved writing the blog, and it has given me a really great creative outlet during the roller coaster ride of the last few months.


Now that we’re home and not technically “transplanted” anymore, I’ve been thinking a lot about what to do with the blog. Do I finish it up, or keep going? Day-to-day life here is so much more settled, I don’t think that the posts will be as interesting as they were in the UK. I mean, who wants to hear about my errands to the post office? Hearing about trips to Ireland and Scotland is so much more interesting.

Still, I don’t like the thought of ending the blog. Even here, home, I think it will be good to have a place to keep track of my thoughts. And heck… when isn’t life at least a little “transplanted”? We have lots of big changes coming up, and this will be a good place to talk about them.

So, the blog stays. Hope you’ll stay, too.

We're home!

We made it home last night around 10pm. I was exhausted, cranky, and sick to death of being shoehorned into a teeny tiny airplane seat.

After a good night's sleep and a shower, I feel much better. Still, I really hope it’s a good long time before I have to take another flight.

The amount of luggage we hauled home with us was massive. In total, we traveled with:

8 big suitcases

3 backpacks

2 carry-ons

2 laptops

1 carseat

It was almost an embarrassing amount of luggage. Thank goodness we had help dragging it all through the airport. In Manchester our taxi driver gave us a hand, and in Denver Matt's parents were a huge help. (Not only did they meet us at baggage claim, but they also drove a load of our suitcases all the way back to Fort Collins for us. Saints, they are.)

My least favorite part of the trip was when we landed in Philadelphia. For some reason, they have it set up in Philly so that all international arrivals have to pick up their checked luggage off the carousel and re-check it again for the domestic flight. This means having to go through the whole circus from scratch a second time: security checks, body scans, x-rays, the works.

I was so not excited to be reunited with all 8+ suitcases again in Philly, only to have to check them in yet again. Fortunately we got a skycap to help us maneuver through the airport, but it was still a massive pain in the arse.

When finally got home, all I wanted to do was flop down in my warm and comfy bed. The bed was comfy all right, but warm... Not so much. While we were gone, something in our furnace died. So, no heat for us. The furnace guy is down there right now, working up an $800 fix. Not exactly an ideal Welcome Home, but what can you do?

Frankie is napping right now, and I'm torn between:

a) hoping that she wakes up soon so that we can try to get back on a reasonable schedule

and

b) hoping that she stays asleep for a long time so I can get a moment to myself

She's been a little nutty today. She woke up at 3am, wide awake and demanding breakfast. Fortunately, Matt was ready to wake up too, so the two of them had a little nocturnal hang-out session. Like a couple of raccoons. Matt even took Frankie to the all-night grocery store at 4am to stock up on supplies. Matt said that he was getting the stink eye from passers-by, like he was the worst dad in the world for dragging a 5-year-old out in the middle of the night to go grocery shopping. He had to explain to the checkout clerk that Frankie was jetlagged, not forced awake against her will. Kind of cracks me up, though, what other people must have thought of him having her out that late.

At the moment, I'm doing a pretty good job getting us acclimated back to the US. I had the cable set up this morning, the furnace is being fixed at the moment, I got my cell phone turned back on, the mail service restarted, the garbage service set up, and a whole load of worn-out and outgrown clothes bagged up and loaded in the car for a Goodwill run.

So far, so good! (Well, except for the furnace thing. That really sucks.)

The sun sets on our UK trip

...and in a fitting tribute, the sunset was absolutely beautiful this evening.