Well, isn’t that just nice.

Not 30 minutes after I posted my Sally Sunshine post, the flowers blooming, the sun shining, not a care in the world, the car shop called.

I promise, we are all grateful. We have friends and family who love us. We are healthy. Life is good.

BUT COME ON!

The minivan’s transmission died. It needs a new one. Oh, and a new computer to go with the new transmission.

Total cost: $6,000.

This potty training family of four who has spent most of their money moving and moving and moving again is now without washer and dryer AND family-mobile.

That’s what I get for being optimistic.

I miss my giagia every single day. I wore a pair of shoes today. At one point this morning, I looked down at them and realized she had bought them for me, one of the many surprise just because’s that she would send through the mail.

When we were considering leaving, I felt like I was deserting Pappou. Leaving him alone in the city, running away. It was just so hard, financially impossible, and without question, not how we wanted to raise our children. Giagia always dreamed of a house and backyard, and I know she would not have wanted us to stay. She would have wanted us to go home. So we did. I miss Pappou and talk to him daily, hoping that he understands.

The heart-wrenching decision to leave made me come up with my famous Pros and Cons list (and yes, there is an App for that). I won’t go into that here, but I want to say a few things that make me realize that yes, we did do the right thing by moving back.

1. When I called Rachel or Shab or whoever and told them, what I was thinking, of coming back…again…to Nashville, asking what would people think. The answer was always a resounding, “Come home! We want you here, your friends want you here. If someone says otherwise, who cares?”

2. When we did move back, people opened their hearts and homes to us. We had a place to stay until the truck arrived. We had help via extra hands and activities for the kids on moving day. We had visits, and phone calls, and texts. It was as if someone put up a welcome banner for the Hansens.

3. Well, actually, someone did put up a Welcome banner, in the form of a welcome back dinner party with a few friends this upcoming weekend.

4. Jay’s old company took him back, arms open, big smiles, and it feels like he never missed a day.

5. Every time the kids see old friends for the first time, they get smiles and hugs, immediately working back into the groove. Seeing Travis give Thane a huge bear hug that lasted long enough to click off multiple pictures made my heart melt.

6. Friends that, even in a personal crisis of their own, come to our aid and say, “You’re Family.”

And the most telling indication that this move was the right and the final move…these last few days.

Sunday night, Mara got a high fever, 103.6. This of course happens 3 days into our medical insurance coverage lapsing (we can get COBRA later if need be) and 27 days before the new insurance kicks in.

I take Monday as a work from home day…it is my second week on the job…and take Mara to the pediatrician. They ooh and ahh over the tired but happy little girl, giving her hugs and high fives. She tests positive for the flu. Fun fun fun.

I make some calls and in no time at all have an awesome nanny on loan to stay with her on Tuesday so we can both go to work. In the meantime, I have emails of support and offers of help throughout the day. Then a tornado touches down about 6 miles away and I gather everyone in the bathroom with bicycle helmets while we take pictures.

On my way home today, my check engine light appears on the Odyssey and it starts making some not fun stumbles. I get it home, call AAA and update my facebook status (in that order-because isn’t that what you do?). In less than 30 minutes I have 2 calls to see what they can do to help, including from Tiffany, the nanny who had just left, offering to pick up Thane for me at school.

It is not the actions alone that make me so happy to be here, so welcome to be back. It is that in NY, had I been faced with half of this, I would have broken down crying, it would just be yet another saga, yet another drama. Instead, until I decided to write this post, I was sitting on the couch, with my snuggle bug on my lap, reading a book and brushing her hair, laughing at “What could happen next?!?!?!”

Thanks, Nashville. It is good to be home.

The Yocum’s invited us to a Sunday Morning of cheap family bowling in Franklin. The kids have never been bowling before so we thought this would be a great first time. My Aunt Sue was a professional bowler. In her hay day, she travelled, once making it from Ottawa, Canada to Knoxville, Tennessee for a tournament. Bowling does not run in my family though, and I have not acquired that skill…by any means. Jay mocks my style, I surge up to the line, and promptly stop, drop, and roll the ball, fists clenched in anticipation (that the ball does not go in the gutter and manages to knock down a pin or two. A very good bowling game is coming on this side of 100. An awesome game at bowling for me is breaking 100.

On the way out, I told Jay that at least I would score higher than the kids.

When we arrived, the Yocums were already there….with their bowling shoes and bowling ball. I told them I suddenly felt ill and needed to go home. They assured me that the bowling accessories were indicative of money savings, not skill. WHATEVER!

In typical Thane fashion, Thane did not want to bowl at first. Then he saw all of the colorful balls and decided this would be fun. He grabbed the first one he saw, lifted it, and dropped. Thirteen pounds came crashing down, narrowly escaping his tiny four year old toes. We quickly ushered him to the child-size balls that would only stub toes, not break them in two.

Mara got in too and the four of us set up shop in one lane next to our 2 friends’ families. The kids loved it. Mara did great. Thane did great, although he dropped the ball one more time, again escaping injury.

Thane was very possessive of which were his

Thane's bowling ball was named after him

In the end, maybe I should have asked for the bumpers…