One Week In

I have to admit our time in the U.S. feels a bit like it was just a dream. It went by so fast! And now that we're home and getting into the routine of life in Argentina again, it all seems rather surreal.

Not sure if I mentioned on the blog that kids tried breaking into our place a couple months ago until the neighbor chased them off. They managed to really tear up the screen and break the kitchen window, but a friend had the window repaired by the time we returned (Ivan dropped off the screen last Thursday and we're still waiting on it).

Other than that the casita was intact, but very dirty. I immediately swept the main traffic areas so we wouldn't track too much dirt around, but waited until the next day to do a thorough cleaning... since we arrived about 7 p.m. on Wednesday, tired from a 30 hour trip that took us from Middlebury, Indiana, all the way to our humble abode in Carlos Paz, Argentina.

I'm a little embarrassed to admit that almost a week later, I still haven't put everything away and it might be another couple days before we are completely organized. In my defense, we have been rather busy. Here are a few of the things we've been up to since getting back:
~ took our friends Julio and Magdalena into Cordoba on Friday, for a doctor's appointment and other errands
~ Ivan had the windshield in the car replaced (there was another big crack in it when we got back), made sure we were all caught up on tramites, took our car for it's annual inspection and accompanying sticker that allows us to buy gas, and today is in Cordoba doing some shopping and getting our tickets for next year.
~ I've been cleaning, doing laundry, cooking, doing laundry, taking care of emails, doing laundry...
You get the idea I've had a little laundry to do? Well, that's because I put dust covers over most of the furniture in the casita while we were gone. Which by the way, was the best idea I've ever had! It cut down on cleaning time considerably -- BUT, it did mean I had to wash all those dusty dust covers (very appropriately named). And since my washer takes about 2 hours to do a load, it took me the better part of two days to get them all done.
~ Have had various friends stop by to welcome us back! That's been the fun part :)

It doesn't look like much when I get it down in print, but honestly, we've been on the go pretty much from the time we landed.

And last night after Ivan took Charlie home and I washed up the supper dishes, we just both sort of collapsed, like someone suddenly let the air out of our balloons. I've been fighting a head cold since last Tuesday, and not sleeping very well at night because of congestion and coughing, so I think it just all caught up with me, and I was done. I put my pajamas on and was in bed by 9 p.m.

This morning we got some shopping done locally. There's a place that sells mostly to other stores, but the public can shop there too and it's a little cheaper. That's where I get things like butter, lunchmeat, cheese, oatmeal... And I hit up my favorite vegetable stand, which doesn't have much variety at this point since it's early Spring. I bought very little at the local grocery store because they didn't have a lot of the things on my list, but Ivan was going to stop at Walmart while he's in Cordoba this afternoon and he should be able to pick up the remaining items there. It's not like starting completely from scratch, but there are a lot of things we have to stock back up on after being gone over four months.

Our yard is a sad sight. Brown and yellow crunchy dried grass is all that's left of our lawn, and almost all the plants died too. We did get some rain Friday and a little bit yesterday, but we need a LOT more! The lake, which we drove past this morning, is really low again. Not quite as low as it got in 2009/10 but still pretty low.

Once we get a little more settled I hope to get back to blogging on a more regular basis. Our neighbor's internet has worked at least a part of every day since we got back! If that continues, I should have no problems posting more often, but not sure if we can count on that continuing to be the case. Vamos a ver.