Growing Pains

Growing Pains….

Keith has been at his new job for three months now and I have been back for a little over two months. Some things are getting easier, but I am certainly experiencing many growing pains with this transition. Some days are much easier than others. It’s funny, the entire time I was in college and lived in NJ, I never called it my home, Iowa was always my home. Even those first few years in Minnesota, I lived there, Iowa was still home. When we went back about a month ago, I felt such a great feeling of comfort and caught myself thinking a few times, it feels so good to be home! Here are some of the things I’m missing:
COMFORT! I’m adjusting to the new job, but sometimes I really miss the comforts of my old job- knowing what to expect day-to-day (even though it was always unpredictable), working with such a fun group and there was always somebody who could be convinced to go to lunch. Working downtown is nice because it is a shorter DSM commute, but it takes a little too long to get to Target or the store and I enjoyed being able to run a few of those errands over lunch.
ALL THIS DRIVING…is driving me a little crazy. We will never again live so close to so many things I realize, but I sure miss it. Even when you are in Des Moines, everything is so spread out. An example, we have a pet plan with Stella and she needs some shots and the only location is in DSM, so on Sunday, it will be a 2-3 hour adventure to get her shots, before that would have taken 30 minutes tops. I won’t even get into the hour and a half journey to get the boys to daycare, then me to work. Some of this will get better once we are back in our home. Then last night I was in Ankeny with Carter, stuck at a stop light when he started throwing up, about five minutes later I made it to a gas station to get him somewhat cleaned up, then the poor guy had to sit there for another thirty minutes to get home.

HAVING ALL YOUR GO-TO PEOPLE LINED UP….This is getting better, but we have had to find all new people and places for everything- doctors, daycare, haircuts, dog things, banks, taxes, etc. Of course we are always doing these things last minute so then we are hunting for somebody and then you have to fill out all the new paper work – It was so nice having all these things figured out before.
DAYCARE…The boys are adjusting and doing somewhat well! They cry so hard when we leave in the morning and I absolutely hate this! They cried at times before, but never like this and I can’t blame them. Before they grew up at their daycare, so they weren’t scared when we left. However, they seem to eat their lunch, nap pretty well and seem to be having fun when we pick them up, so I think they are doing OK. I just hate leaving them in the morning as the grab on and hold me as tight as they possibly can. The last couple days Carter has done much better, so hopefully it continues to improve, but completely breaks my heart in the meantime.
ORGANIZATION….We are about as organized as we can be without having a home, but I never feel like I can get everything put away.  Then there are the things you never find and are clueless where to search.  Last night we were going to neb Carter.  I was proud of myself for quickly finding the neb bag at my third search spot, only to find the portion that steams was missing.  NO CLUE!! I looked everywhere and don't even remember packing it.  I need to find a new one I guess, again, not sure where to even search. 
I’M MISSING MY NEIGHBORS!!! I asked Carter and Dylan if they remembered Hunter and Mason and Carter said “fun”.
I don’t know, I guess somewhere along the way with all the changes you start to feel like you have lost your identity and have had to completely start over. There are certainly many things I enjoy about being back in Iowa and there are a lot of great conveniences being here as well, but I have some days where I really miss home.