I arrived back in the states August 28. I spent the first few weeks resting and relaxing at my grandparents. It felt like a nice vacation. My days consisted of working out, running errands for my grandma, reading, and overdosing on Diet Dr. Pepper. It was lovely! The only thing missing was Jay was still across the pond! He was due back September 27, and I was going to just chill in Iowa until then. Unfortunately, Jay's sweet grandmother passed away in September, so I headed to Texas for her services. Jay was unable to make it, which was hard on everyone. I ended up staying in Texas until Jay's arrival.
Jay graduated on his birthday, September 23, and he arrived in Denver September 27 a little before midnight. It was so great to see him! He had been traveling for over 24 hours at this point, and he was exhausted. We drove back to the hotel, and by the time he showered, his jet lag kicked in, and he was up. We spent the next couple days in the hotel room trying to get over jet lag all the while catching him up on things he'd missed while in the Netherlands...like Mexican food!
After a couple days of R&R we headed back to Iowa. We drove across country, and Jay and Junie were reunited. She was very nice at first, and then not so nice when he woke up in the middle of that first night to Junie hissing at him in his sleep. I think it was a power play on her part....they were friends again by morning. We spent the next two weeks doing a "little flowerbed work" for my grandma. Those are my grandma's words. The job was in no way little! She wanted new pavers around all her flowerbeds, and the job included removing old liner, digging trenches, packing sand into the trenches, placing brings, packing in more sand, and then rocks behind the pavers. It was hard work, but it actually felt good to be doing some physical labor!
This isn't our actual work, but ours looked just as awesome (and about 20 times as long!).
Last Friday we drove to Oklahoma City to see Jay's family. We've been hanging out here this week and are heading for a weekend getaway to Red River, New Mexico with his parents and his brother, Josh, and our sister-in-law, Amanda. We are looking forward to getting back to the cool, crisp mountain air. We are both a little homesick for the mountains! Of course, getting ready for the trip involved getting some warm clothes for the cooler weather.
Okay, mostly caught up for now. Hopefully I will get some pictures from this weekend!