Back in the Polar North

I have returned from the sunshine state to the land of 1000 lakes successfully. We woke at 4 a.m., I had a 6 a.m. flight, and after taking a shuttle from Minneapolis to Rochester, successfully arrived in Mayo-land around 1:30 today. I had to immediately go get blood drawn for our IVF cycle and then put in a few hours at Mayo before returning home.

Kelsey is here with me! Such a relief to know that the next two weeks I will have some company. I do plan to get together with some of the other ladies in my life (they know I am definitely free when JB is away!), but just having Kelsey here is a comfort. I am not sure if I told my blog faithfuls that Kelsey will be moving to Colorado in the next month or so. Her older brother lives there and is a third-assistant for the University of Colorado's mens basketball team. She decided that Boulder would be a nice change of pace in preparation for the start of law school in the fall of '07. I am sad to see her go but definitely know that this is the right decision for her. It's time for her to leave Rochester. Everything is for a season and the "Rochester" season has passed. As I write this, we are getting prepared to watch the season debut of Prison Break. Yay!

As for me, it will be weird being here in the Polar North while JB continues to soak in the rays at Eglin. Leaving Eglin was also very weird for me. I had so many conflicting emotions while I was there, and maybe, at some point in the next week, I'll feel at peace with sharing all of them. It's hard to vocalize (or should it be "editorialize"?) that deciding to go to Eglin means saying good bye to so many things we have come to love so much. In the same breath, it's hard to know that deciding to stay at Mayo means saying good bye, again, to the chance at seeing family and having a tan. (Thanks for noticing Aunt Linda!)

I was amazed at how quickly I reverted to being a beach-chick. I truly, somehow, in the last ten years, had deceived myself into thinking that I was no longer a beach girl at heart. Oh my what I liar I was. I had my flip flops on and hair pulled up and tank tops on every single day. Suddenly going to Tahiti for a graduation trip does not seem like such a priority if we are going to practically live in Tahiti!

There are so many good things about staying at Mayo and so many good things about going to Florida. In the end, in mid-September, JB will rank his choices, and we will go to whichever choice that we get. What's difficult is that we feel the ranking is fairly indicative of where we will be especially if we rank Eglin first. Alas, seasons of life, right? This is just another one of those seasons.

Most people are still emailing, asking what we have decided. Our decision has not been made, however, the financial/weather/family gains of Florida have begun to seem too mighty for the Mighty Mayo in our feeble minds. We are continuing to discuss, pray, and seek wise counsel, however, putting Eglin down first, does seem like the likely choice.

We spent some time looking at houses and debating as to what we would do if we did move to Eglin? Buy? Live on base? Rent off base? As of this moment, I think that we are leaning toward living on base if we did move there. We could afford to live off base, but would we want to when living on base offers so much convenience and would not cost us an extra penny. If we bought, it is not likely that our housing allowance would cover all avenues of buying (hurricane insurances, taxes etc.) meaning that we would end up dipping into JB's pay for a mortgage that would be free if we lived on base. In exchange, our place will most likely be smaller, and not as new, but it's just a place to live.

Okay, so I ended up bearing more of my soul that I originally intended. Sorry for that. Any decision I tell you we have made stands to be changed at a moment's notice. Only when we find out December 15th where we are going will either of us really know.

Waiting. Also waiting for my September 7th transfer. Keep that in your prayers too.