I hope you haven't held your breath!

Goodness!   When your life gets turned upside down, it takes you a while to
'right' yourself.   Let's see if I can backtrack to tell you some of the wonderful happenings of our last week in England.

We had so many wonderful times for hugs, laughter and tears with all our friends.

And then, too soon, Elder Meese was filling up the Meriva for the last time.   I can say, the price of petrol at almost $9 a gallon will not be one of the things we miss!

On our last evening in our bungalow, with an empty fridge, Bernard came to make us the most fabulous dinner we've had in England - Beef Wellington.

Our own private, professional chef creating for us this last luxury dinner was the perfect cap to our time here.   And the extravagance of this meal on a student's income wasn't lost on us.   Thank you, Bernard.

The next day we were off to the mission home for dinner and a night's stay before our flight.   As you can see, we arrived a little worse for wear; Elder Meese decided he had to have a souvenir rock from the River Ribble before we left.   We were probably fortunate he just sacrificed the shoes and not the whole suit in the attempt!
But he was happy.

President and Sister Ulrich could not have been more gracious during our stay.   The President even 'resurrected' Elder Meese's shoes for him so he was missionary-fit to travel!  

You know, with our minds filled with thoughts of family we were leaving in England as well as those we'd soon see in Boston, the flight passed quickly.  

And soon the Boston skyline came into view.   And then the sweet home of our Boston kids, decked out for our arrival.  

And so the next six days flew by, filled with sights and sounds like these:

You're just there enough days that you're finally not a stranger....and then it's time to pack up!  
But it was wonderful all the same.  



Below, Grandpa's little (Bob the Builder) helper was in 'hog heaven' helping paint Becky and Tim's entry and stairway.  

This is one of my favourite family shots. Totally the personality of each person in their group...especially Grandpa's little namesake on the right.  
Hey, here is a side benefit of the Eastern stopover:   we got to adjust to a five-hour difference in time zones first!  

Okay, so the final return?   Here are some shots.   It was a sweet, sweet vision to see all these wonderful faces at the bottom of the escalator.

Our house was immaculate, our yard beautiful, and they had put our favorite 'mints' on our pillows!   What a grand welcome home.   We fell gratefully into bed that night.  

 
Enough for now.   More musings on the 'transition' later.   Our kids said once we had all hugged around, it felt like we'd never left.   Us too, except for all the dearly loved people we left in England.