Back!

Well, it’s been one full month since the last blog and we have lots to report. We are back in our house and getting settled in. We’re slowly unpacking the random things that got tossed in the basement and shed when we arrived back here, and also trying to sort through all the crap that we threw into our attic two years ago. The twins love coming up to the attic with me and finding all sorts of treasures as I dig through unlabeled boxes looking for such things as a lampshade, a Polish pottery creamer, shoes that look halfway decent for my first day of work (more on that below), and our answering machine. That’s right folks, Erica is thrilled to have a home phone once again, which means the return of our vintage 1994 answering machine (if we can find it . . . keep your fingers crossed). I know how much you all have missed our creative messages and the contraptions’ extensive beeping.

To go along with unpacking, we have of course been rearranging furniture on a near daily basis. Last week we decided that the old couch still sitting in our living room would be a great reading couch in Collin’s bedroom, and last night in the middle of getting the twins ready for bed I suggested that we quickly bring it up. Three hours, one plaster wall, two couch legs, one Dr. Pepper, seventy-three f bombs and lots of spousal spatting later, we now have a lovely legless ripped reading couch in Collin’s room. The couch was a little bit too wide to fit up our staircase, a fact we did not realize until it was wedged in tight at the top. But that’s OK – bring out the jigsaw, handsaw, hatchet and hammer, and voila, any couch can be made to fit up the stairs! I think Erica may forgive me by November

. . . 2011.

In other good news, I got a job and started on Monday. This is why I actually have time to write this long blog. I’m a research area specialist at the Kidney Epidemiology and Cost Center, in the U of M School of Public Health. Basically what that means is that I’m going to be doing statistics to prepare annual reports on all the dialysis facilities in the US, along with statistics for other (as yet unknown to me) kidney disease/dialysis-related projects. It’s been a little boring so far, but I’m pretty sure it’ll liven up as they give me data to work with. It’s a 10 minute walk from home, the people seem really nice, I was overdressed for my first day (just ponder that for a moment and you’ll realize how notable that really is), and it’s about the last employer in Michigan still offering health insurance to domestic partners (of course they can’t call them domestic partners any more, now Erica is my “other qualified person”), so I’m pleased about it. I’m also working part time for a consultant doing some cool food-related stuff with the food bank I worked with last year, so it’s nice to feel like I’m still involved with that too.

The twins were ecstatic to be home. I’m not sure they cared too much about Ann Arbor vs. Boston on many levels, but they definitely appreciate the proximity to grandparents and the house with yard. Their parents are also quite pleased to have house with yard again, and have been more than happy to shoo the twins out the front door with only the instructions to not cross any streets. We are playing soccer once a week like last year, and the twins are taking swimming lessons. Collin was promoted to level two after two days. We also have frequent (daily?) conversations about kindergarten – I don’t know how we are all going to contain our excitement for the next two and half months.

We will be getting internet at home in the next week or so, so hopefully Erica will be back in full force soon. I know many of you have been having a hard time coping with this lack of onebeaglehouse blogging, but please continue to persevere – the end is in sight!