April 24: Home at last!!!

The drive today - about 350 miles, from Somerset, PA, where we spent the night at a hotel with a pool - seemed VERY long. The first thing we notice as we get close is that they don't seem to have made a lot of progress on the roadwork in the 8 months we were gone.

Nearer our house, though, we note that the sound wall for the new parkway has gone up - and very unsightly it is, too.

Home again, home again, jiggety jig. The car was very happy to be done with this trip!

Life resumed almost immediately. When I went out to bring in the first load, that other car pulled up: Kim and her son Shawn, who had been doing our yard. Our old neighbor Dwain (who moved out while we were gone - the nerve!) showed up as well. Just like old times!

The not-so-good news was that Lin came down with some sort of bug (probably explains why the drive today felt so long), and we ended up spending 3 hours that evening at the emergency room. I'm fine now; but Henry is coughing away. As a result of that, Lauren got to spend the night at Nana and Pop-pop's. Thank goodness for family! And as I said, the dogs keep getting smaller. Here is Nana's new miniature greyhound, Max (10 pounds?).

The amazing news is that Lauren grew 2.75 inches in the 8 months we were gone. No wonder she got a whole new wardrobe!