(no subject)

When Lance gets home from work this evening, I just need him to help me move a couple of pieces of furniture back into the den, and it will be a room again. I'm so excited. The painting is finally done! The tarp has been removed. All the painting stuff has been put back in the garage. The carpet has been thoroughly vacuumed. The kitchen/dining area has been swept and mopped. The new dining set goes in tonight.

YAY!!!! First major project completed! Of course, we still have new flooring to put in and possibly new countertops, as well as cabinet refacing, but those all come later. At least for now, the rooms are functional again and look much nicer than they did when we first moved in.

I'll take pictures at some point, but probably after I get the finishing touches put in the rooms. That includes something hanging over the fireplace mantel, the breakfast bar stools, and window treatments. It will be awhile yet.

The edge where the wall and ceiling meet isn't the neatest it could be, but we had a lot of difficulty with that. And there is a lot of paint on the baseboards, despite the fact that we taped it with painters tape. I'm not really sure how to get it off. My efforts with the paint remover only managed to rub some of the paint off the wall by the baseboard, rather than take the paint off the baseboard itself.

Anyway, today is a day of domestic stuff. Now that that's all done, I've got our painting clothes in the washer (Lance channeled the spirit of Bob Ross by wearing his "Happy Little Trees" t-shirt, although it did nothing for him as far as doing a neat paint job). I've got more vacuuming and mopping to do. But right now, I am thawing out some chili to have for my lunch. It's been in the freezer since right after Christmas...I made a big pot of it on Christmas Eve.

Also, as usual, looking at job listings. I'm just taking my job search in a different direction now, since nothing I've been doing has obviously worked.

I'm trying to think of something really fun that Lance and I can do a week from Saturday, which is the day before he leaves for OKC. I think I want to visit the Seattle Aquarium.

Missing Germany and Friends...

Last week, I got an email from Andrea telling me that she had lunch with Ruth and Christine, and that I was missed.

That almost made me cry.

Today, I got an email from Ruth telling me about lunch at Cafe Madrid with Andrea, Christine and Dawn (a woman from my former book club). This email struck my funny bone, and I ended up having a nice long laugh. She certainly has a way with words.

I needed that.

I realize that I've been living here now for nearly 3 months, but honestly, it doesn't feel like it's been that long. In many ways, it seems like almost yesterday that I left Germany. I still read the blogs of some of my friends there, and their travels - even their daily jaunts around the local area - fill me with such wistfulness.

I mean, I *knew* while I was there that I was living this incredible experience, but it never quite hit me until I came back here how truly amazing it was. I know I complained about it a lot at the end...there was a lot about it that was difficult and trying. But there isn't anything about my life right now that isn't difficult and trying too, but in completely different ways.

Keeping myself busy lets me focus on my life right now. It's times like this, when I'm not doing much, that I reflect back on the last chapter of my life. And I feel melancholy for what I'm missing, and not looking forward to what is to come.