Slowly getting back into the swing….

Happy new year. We have been back in Maplewood for a week after two weeks of winding our way back here, including 8 days in Hawaii and another six in Southern California. We spent three nights with the Camerons in San Diego and I’m happy to report that they seem to be doing really well. Super Moverz is moving ahead. We all enjoyed our reunion and the kids, of course, had a blast.

All of our children were thrilled to get back to Maplewood and it really made me appreciate how fortunate we are to have a home like this. It should ease our transition. Its difficult for me to say how that is going because right now we are still in getting settled and surviving mode.

I was surprised when we left how little I ever thought about our house and how much of an absolute non event it was to come back and see it occupied by others. Yet now that we are back it feels like.. home. Very comfortable and it looks good, with the floors redone and most rooms repainted, mostly new colors.

Not that we are living there. Our shipment won’t be here until the first week fo February. In the meantime, we are living across the street with my aunt and uncle, which is fun but cramped. The boys are discovering the beauty of an empty house, with some truly epic Nerf gun battles. They are also making good use of the new and improved Zabers, which Wyatt sent us home with. Their latest invention is the Zabers as Nerf gun shields.

I am working on a column chronicling all of this, transition, which should be up this Friday. I will do my best to forward to you. I will also start updating my blog gain this week if you care to stay tuned. It is www.alanpaulichina.blogspot.com… at least for now. Maybe it’s time for me to change the name and start over.

Alanpaulbackinjoisey.com
Alanpaulinamerica.com

Who knows… Right now I am not taking my gaze too far off of my shoes.

Anna started school today at the JCC. She was screaming and hanging on to our legs when we left, which is the first time she has ever done anything remotely like that. But by the time we were out the room looking back in she was already ok. Her teacher is Donna Cohen, who is my aunt and uncle’s sister in law and a veritable aunt, whom we see at all kinds of family functions.

Jacob and Eli are registered and in the system and will start school tomorrow. We went over this morning and met with the principal’s assistant and decided that it was best to let the teacher have a day to prepare to digest them instead of insisting they may be tossed in today. It’s a big old stone elementary school.. the same kind I went to and probably many of you as well. We will miss a lot of things about Dulwich and the level of service and facilities may be a shock for the kids. I will not miss gritting my teeth through Jesus songs every Christmas however.

Becky went off to work at her new job after that and the guys are enjoying their rare weekday goof of time with me…having one of those epic Nerf battles while I write this and work on my column, which I am doing standing up at a kitchen island because I have nowhere to sit in the house.