Woo hoo! Non medical stuff...well, mostly.

While the whole trying-to-get-pregnant/do-I-have-diabetes thing has been consuming a lot of time and energy, there ARE other things going on in our lives.

Chief among them is that my husband and I are now in the same geographic location. For a while there, we weren't. We were more like nomads - moving around the country until we could find our home. Finally, we did.

A little history... I used to be a travel nurse. Before that, I was pretty well-settled (well, except for moving nearly every year in college). But with travel nursing, you move every three or so months. So after I finished with the traveling and got a job with the federal government, I had to list all of my addresses for the past 10 years. I had 12 residences. Now, that included my parents' house a couple of times (you had to account for every...single...place that you lived, whether it was for 4 weeks or 40...), but really? 12 residences?

And then I moved out to flyover country to start grad school...bought a condo, settled in, met my future husband...we were really happy. And I had a permanent address for the first time in a long time. But then...life intervened again. I got a fellowship that required that I (at least) relocate for the time it would take me to complete my dissertation. For a while, we tried the long distance thing. Me in the DC area, my husband in flyover land. That lasted about...8 months, I think. Then we just couldn't take it anymore. We were getting married in about 6 months, we were tired of being apart, and quite frankly....living 1000 miles apart is not a good way to work on building a life together! So he moved out to DC for me...requiring lots of sacrifice on his part.

We were out there (together) for two and a half years. It was wonderful to be together...but so, so hard to be in a place that we knew wasn't for us. That was probably the hardest part of those few years. Yeah, the dissertation wasn't the easiest thing in the world, and I hit what seemed to be a lot of roadblocks. But living in a place where you are not happy? Not something I would wish on anyone. I know that different things make different people happy....let's just say that we are NOT city people, and we are not really East coast people. Even though I grew up there, and my parents and brother still live there...I definitely identify as a midwesterner now.

ANYway, I digress again. So last spring, we decided where we wanted to live after (yay!!!) I finished the dissertation. We decided to return to flyover land, to the same town where we lived before, and for me to return to the same university where I will -shortly - be receiving my degree. It was definitely the right decision for us, as far as living situations go. We bought a house - a real house! with its own walls! and a yard! and garage! (boy, do we feel grown-up). And my husband got a job with his old company....although it's not nearly as challenging as he would like. And we settled in. Except for the minor fact that, well, I had to be back East for a few months, finishing things up. And the person I was working with was, let's just say, not being very flexible about the fact that my LIFE was in flyover land, while I was stuck in DC. Not. Very. Fun. At all.

We made it through - although I was very, very happy to see DC in my rearview mirror. And now I've been out here full time for a month. And I have to say, I don't know if I have ever been happier than in the last month.

It's not that I don't have demands on my time - I do. I'm working on publications and getting ready to start my post doc and seeing friends who I haven't seen for a long time. But I'm also getting to do the things that I never seemed to have time for when we lived out east...cooking dinner! baking! laundry and cleaning - during the week! I feel like I am more relaxed and happy, and I hope that is spilling over into our home life.

I also feel kind of like a 50's housewife, to be honest. I'm taking care of everything at home because well, honestly, I'm not working right now and my husband is. And even when I AM back at it and working hard, I am never (please, please) going to have the type of commute or working life that I had while we were out East. I love being able to cook dinner almost every night. I love trying out new things. I love that the house is clean, and the laundry is washed, and I'm not running around trying to get everything done on a weekend.

Life is good. It's really, really good - even though we haven't yet covered our master bedroom window. Well, hm. See, they're just now building the house on that side. And so no one has been able to see anything...and, well. Let's just say we can both be remarkably indecisive about these sorts of things.

But life is good - we are spending time together, and eating dinner together (at the TABLE!) most nights. And so despite all of the medical crap, things are pretty darn good right now. It helps me to realize that we are going to get through this, no matter what, and we are going to come out the other side.

Next time...more on life as we know it now, and my husband's job issues.