An account of my homeless month.

So I've finally gotten back to the blog!

It's like walking away from a novel and then deciding I just have to get back to my writing again. I mean, sure, I have all sorts of good excuses for not writing for over a month (driving 3000 miles across the country, visiting Paul's family in California and my family in Utah, moving into our new apartment, and dealing with the endless bureaucratic mumbo jumbo of transferring to a new school, etc.) but the fact is that I wanted to have something to say before I started writing, and I just couldn't bring myself to sit down until I could think of something to say.

I'm sure this is one of my chief problems as a writer. It's like I want it to be fantastic whenever I put a pen to paper (metaphorically here). I want the words to be brilliant, to reflect the genius I know is in there somewhere, and really I just want to be impressive.

But let's throw "impressive" out the door right now. Really, it's ridiculous. Writing is quite simply work, especially for me now that I'm trying to establish myself as a free lancer. I'm sure I'll have something to say many times in the future, so now I'll just report about my life in whatever prose come rolling out of me.

It was nice to visit family. Our parents love us so much, and I loved being able to spend time with them. I loved seeing my rapidly-growing nephews and bonding with my sisters (encompassing Sara and all the many sister-in-laws). I've decided that having sisters is one of the best and sweetest things in life. They really are a gift from God!

It was also fun visiting friends. We got to visit our old landlord Lance in Laguna Beach. It was beautiful to stand looking at the sun set over the ocean while we caught up with him about our lives. When we were passing through St. George, my friend Melanie called and said she was in Salt Lake on her way down to Cedar City. We met in the middle in Fillmore at an Arby's and I loved, loved, loved seeing her!

We spent one day in Provo and were able to visit some of our dear friends there, the Camaras and the Heftels. All of their kids have grown impressively since August. It's exciting to see, but I'm ambivalent about the whole thing. Kids grow too fast!

Which reminds me, of course. We also had fun staying with friends on the way from Georgia to California. The Royles took care of us when we were sick and we stopped in Alabama to visit my cousin Charsty. We hadn't seen each other in years, so it was a wonderful time and I was persuaded to stay another day at her house. Paul got along great with her husband and their little girl Akira was one of the most amazing children I have had the pleasure to meet. Charsty was two weeks from having a baby and I've just been looking at pictures of little Aurora on Facebook. I guess that means the birth went well! The Galbraiths were wonderful in Missouri, although we only got to see two of their boys. In Denver we stayed with Lindsay and Nick again, and I was happy to have some time to talk with them. Then we spent one night in Sigurd, Utah with Paul's great Aunt and Uncle on their farm.

This post is long enough already, but I did want to mention a couple of highlights. In California, Paul's brother Jonathon and his wife Candice took us to see Avatar, and it became one of my favorite movies! In Vernal, my parents gave Paul a board game called Ticket to Ride and we played that game quite a bit. Mom loved it especially! We also got to go ice fishing with my mom and dad, which was awesome.

So considering that it was a "homeless" month, it was not bad at all. People are the most important things we have in life and being able to build relationships is really the great task of life, I think. Writing about all these people who I love so much makes me want to be a better friend to them all.

I'm so happy to be here in Kansas, and I feel like this is going to be a good place for us!