Home

We are back in Baton Rouge, in our house, our home. Home is where my girls and Shawn are, but it's nice to be back with all our stuff. Jane is especially looking forward to seeing her friends and church family again. She actually said she's READY for school to start again, so maybe the short, two-month summer break isn't a bad thing after all.

Things I Missed While In Minneapolis:

• Our bed -- an iComfort with high thread count sheets
• Separate space for Livia to sleep
• Our laundry -- full size and fully vented so clothes are washed and dried in a SNAP
• My desk -- a dedicated place for my computer to live, with a comfortable chair and space for my accoutrements
• Covered parking right at my kitchen door -- in Minneapolis we parked on the opposite side of the building and one floor up, so door to car was an elevator ride and a block width away. Not ideal for toting groceries (or toddlers)
• My full range of kitchen utensils and appliances. I had to make a 2nd birthday cake without a mixer, and we only had small skillets that were hard to clean

Things I Did NOT Miss While In Minneapolis

• This stinky, steamy weather. There was a bit of warmth and humidity in MN, but it would dissipate after a few days, leading back to tolerably warm temps and lower humidity. The local weather there always talked about the humidity levels -- they don't even bother to mention that in the BR weather reports.
• The monotony/smallness of Baton Rouge and how weird I feel here.
• The lack of pools in Baton Rouge -- we are scheming to get invited to pools and deciding where we want to join to go to a pool. In the Twin Cities metro area we had our choice of splash pads and affordable pools/mini water parks to cool off (even when it wasn't THAT hot).
• Most of our STUFF -- I missed a few pieces of clothes and shoes, but I definitely didn't miss all the books and papers and TOYS that clutter our house. Of course we acquired a lot of things while in Minnesota, so it's a losing battle no matter where I am living.

This is just a quick, off-the-top-of-my-head list. And I'm sure I'll think of others!