Re-Americanizing

Ahoy, fair readers!  Greetings from the good ole US of A.  Our trip back went quite smoothly.  The flight went well, and Jackaroo was a champ.  She was a clean, happy (if somewhat exhausted and panty) dog when we picked her up in Chicago.  Her biggest adjustment right now is that we're living in a downtown apartment on the 8th floor. I think she misses her yard a bit. But it's pretty fun to have this view of Grand Rapids for a month...

And we're right along the river as well, complete with lots of fisherman every day of the week:

This past week we've had a good mix of fun and business.  Todd had most of the week off, so we were able to check a lot of things off our list.  We took care of a lot of administrative stuff, bought a car, got cell phones, and started our house hunting.  On the fun side, we've had lots of dinners and outings with friends and family, which has been great.

Shopping for groceries was an interesting experience we had the other day.  The store was huge.  Seriously, just check out this shot.

And Todd was pretty pumped about the hot sauce section.

Excuse me?

We've been enjoying lots of food as well.  Exhibit A: Chipotle.

Happy boy at Chipotle.

Exhibit B: Sugary grocery store cupcakes, that I ate way too many of in one sitting.

In my defense, they are mini cupcakes.

In bump news, I've already had my first doctor's appointment here.  The nurse was a bit thrown by the fact that my records are in Dutch. And she didn't even seem too convinced of her ability to read the translated copies I provided.  I'm just glad the pregnancy has been smooth so far, so that I don't have to be worried about that.  The belly is continuing to grow, and the kid is kicking like a maniac, so good progress is being made.

25 Weeks.

Todd started work last Friday and I'll begin tomorrow.   I must admit that I'm looking forward to having a "go to work" job again.  I missed the interaction that came with that, it will be fun to have co-workers around.  There are many aspects of life we're getting adjusted to here, but I think we're doing a pretty good job so far.  We've been so busy that there hasn't been too much time to reflect yet, but the times that I do, I start to feels pangs of missing our life and friends in the Netherlands.  I emotionally feel a bit split between places.  I guess being an expat will do that to you.  More to come soon!