Normal and Surreal.

Two weeks since we arrived home. A lot has changed. Friends were pregnant and had babies while we were away. Kids got taller. The trees are visibly larger. It is a bit surreal. A friend who was just about due now has a one year old. I missed the whole baby thing with her. Somehow I see how my kids have grown as well. There has been the expected and the unexpected. What is normal to us is surreal to others. Today my daughter told the dental hygienist that all out furniture and stuff was on a boat somehwere. Normal to us but surreal to others. My son asked for directions in our house to the bathroom. Once to the downstairs bathroom and then to the downstairs bathroom. We didn't realize how much he had forgotten about our life here. The day we arrived our friend Scott picked us up in his Dodge 3500 truck (we had a lot of luggage) which has a big full size cap and is raised. My son's eyes almost fell out of his head when we climbed up in it. I asked him what he thought. He said quietly, "I like it." Everything is big, the cars, the roads, the people and the lifestyles. I got dizzy in Target the first day. The lights were so bright and the selection of EVERYTHING so overwhelming. My daughter was so tired she kept sitting down everywhere. I couldn't concentrate at all. I am glad to be back where people you don't know are chatty with you and super courteous, but at the same time notice how loud the stores are. Not loud actually, just not dead silent. We drive so much more and walk so little here. That is sad. We have been busy doing all the things that is usually done in the course of a year. Just because you move doesn't mean life slows down to accommodate. School activities go on as normal. The pace is back to the normal million miles an hour instead of the slower (and saner?) Swedish pace. The first week I hardly had time to come up for air. Cars with dead batteries, no insurance licensing, emission testing etc, houses with no heat, telephones, and full of 1.5 year old stuff, schools and jobs that need to be attended to...it can do it to you. Probably didn't help that Brynn had a double ear infection that week as well. Today I cleaned the refrigerator and did bills. Yesterday I cleaned the garage. Boring and normal. But I like it. It is bringing me closer to a place where I can find peace. I am starting to tread water instead of just drown. This is a good thing as my panic attacks were quite stressful.
My kids have a global perspective that is really fun to see. I am so appreciative for that. It is nice to be able to say, " your dad is in London" and have them still be connected to him. We talked about Big Ben and the musicals we saw there. He isn't just gone, he is somewhere now. We are all missing certain things about Sweden though. Mostly our friends. My littlest asked if he could just go back to his school. "The one where all the friends he loves so much". He misses the stimulation of going to school 5 days a week. He misses his teachers. My oldest misses her friends as well. I miss the travel. While I am glad to be back, the excitement of the last 6 months was pretty spectacular. Now it is a little more grounded. Weekend plans include things like trip to Costco, instead of trip to Norway. I think the kids really like having a more stable life. People ask how it was and it is too overwhelming to even begin to describe. Sometimes I start in but it is hard to describe in a very short bit of conversation before your audience starts to glaze over. It just isn't something people can really relate to. I have grown and learned a lot this year as well. About myself, about my marriage, about my family, and about sacrifice. I can't say I fully appreciated the sacrifice that my husband made before our year. Now I have a better idea. So enough of my boring chatter here. Next time I will post about the trips we took.