And now back to your regularly scheduled program

We arrived back in the U.S. safe and sound, though a little tired, on Tuesday. We went straight from the airport to Chuy's. From there we made our way to Jeff's parents' house at Lake Buchanan. The first order of business was to dig around in our boxes in their barn for some winter clothes. The second order of business was a trip to the grocery store for a few necessities. On Wednesday morning Jeff and I made our way to Kingwood--leaving an extremely large mess and our children behind--to look at houses. On our way, Jeff was pulled over for an out-of-date inspection sticker but managed, as usual, to drive away with only a warning. We saw nine houses on Wednesday afternoon, but none that we just loved. (At least no one that we both loved). We spent Wednesday evening having dinner with our good friends and discussing the houses we had seen. On Thursday, we had lunch with Jeff's brother and then saw four more houses in the afternoon. We were more pleased with those choices, and even found one we wanted to make an offer on. We spent the evening--and into the early morning hours--with our friends. This morning we bought birthday presents for Max and then met with the realtor, only to find out that we have to wait to make our offer until our tax return can be filed, which can't be done until we receive the paperwork from Jeff's last place of employment, which the company doesn't have to send out until the end of January. On our way home, we received one of those phone calls. It was Jeff's parents calling from the clinic to report a traumatic event involving a swing and our middle child. Apparently, the swing decided to let go of the tree to which it was affixed just as Weston reached the apex of his swing. Weston held on for a while but was unable to stop himself from doing a face plant on the gravel driveway, where he seems to have left half of his face. His lip was cut wide open and required three stiches. In fact, his entire face--especially the right side--is in pretty bad shape, and he (along with his grandparents and mother) was understandably traumatized by the whole event, though he still manages to be as cute as can be. So, our return has not been uneventful, for sure. But I'm sure none of you thought even for a moment that it would be. All in all we are glad to be back. We are just hoping things settle down a bit here in the next few days, so we can get all our bags unpacked.