Back in the real world

I hope you all enjoyed JB's post about all the mammals we saw in South Africa. If you haven't read it, please scroll down. He put a lot of work into that post. As they say in Nigeria, "Well done JB."

As for me, I am having a harder time adjusting to our return to America then I did our departure to Nigeria. The last two nights I have been up from about 1 a.m. until 5 a.m.. Then, come mid-afternoon, I want to take a nap. JB let me take a nap yesterday, but then he made me get up two hours later. I was not a very willing getter-upper. The Rays also came by yesterday evening. It was wonderful to connect with them. I will really miss them when we move next month.

Both JB and I have also been having a lot of stomach issues. Our only guess is that we have returned to American food although quite honestly, other than my pancakes on Sunday morning, I have mostly been eating fruit and sandwiches. I actually lost about 12 pounds while I was out of the country. Since I didn't exercise at all while I was gone, this was very surprising to me. I thought that maybe, by the time I got back to the U.S., the weight would be back on, but sure enough, I stepped on the scale when we got home, and my weight was still way down. I felt like I was eating a lot of food in Nigeria, however, there were NO sweets to snack on whatsoever and the first week I was there, I had a sore in my mouth that made eating painful and slow. By tthe time we got to South Africa, I had some dessert, but I definitely wasn't craving them much anymore. Anyways, the question remains: will I be able to say no to desserts now that they are readily available again? So far, my stomach is being very picky which will work to my advantage.

I also returned to work at Mayo this morning. I am now back at home, figuring out how to jump back into the work at RLS. They came by and fixed our Internet which was good news! My inbox is currently trying to load the 95 messages that piled up while we were offline. We also got our parking spot returned to us.

One thing that I enjoyed in coming back to my condo was walking on our soft carpet with my bare feet. Carpet in Nigeria, if present, was the thin carpet like in church. All of our lodging in South Africa was hard floors if my memory serves me right. I do like our soft carpet. Another highlight: lots of green, green grass and trees. Everything was brown when we left! It also stays dark until sometime around 8 p.m. I love that! In Africa, sunset was 6 p.m., and when we left, it was close to that as well.

Otherwise, aside from carpet and greenery, I am a bit overwhelmed with my life here. There is a lot to do before we move in a month. We will be closing on our condo, doing an IVF transfer, celebrating JB's graduation, and moving across the country. But what is life without adventure.

I hope you aren't sick of me now that I am posting regularly again. If you are, please don't tell me. I haven't slept very much and I might start to cry. Just kidding.