Did we swallow the hook?

And just like that...we have a house! It's not our first time owning one, but it's been a while since we've lived in one or furnished one. 

Our little home in the country.

We had NOTHING on the first day!

Let me back up just a smidge. See, we always expected that we would stay put for a few years (perhaps on the boat!) while the kids did a little normal schooling. Frank planned to go back to work during that time while the other adult tended house and tried to figure out what she wants to do when she grows up. While we were in South America Frank set to out to find a job and we all chimed in on where we prefered to end up. There were many options considered (the blessing and curse of having no constraints), with most being back with his former employer. But something unexpected happened...an opportunity aligned with the right time and place to be near family and after a good bit of discussion, we have settled in northeast North Carolina in the county Frank grew up in! This was definitely NOT on our radar when we first talked about setting our anchor for a few years, but we are near family, friends, the boat, and the "normal" the kids were anxious to experience. And we are all experiencing something we haven't been able to as a military or traveling family--routine dinners with grandma! 

So there you have it. We have dirt. Ironically we have the same number of beds and baths as we had on the boat, but there is definitely more room here! The boat will still be in our lives, just an hour away in Norfolk. And as we are right between the AICW and the Dismal Swamp Canal and near the "Harbor of Hospitality" of Elizabeth City, NC we hope to still see and interact with the cruising community.

In our first month Frank has started work, he bought a great old truck, we have bought three beds, the kids have started to attend driver's ed, we've learned about our well pump, we've learned how to take care of a pool, we've somehow acquired enough seats to sit on and plates to eat off of, we have mowed grass, Katreina somehow talked us into getting a cat, and paint has begun to coat every surface of the home (and about a million other little things). 

Did we swallow the hook? I don't think so. I prefer to think that we have just dropped the anchor in a very secure anchorage for a bit...

~Jo