Back home in Colorado....

My silence is long overdue. I will try not to bore you with too many details but a lot happened in the last week after landing back in the States. While sitting at the airport in Houston during my layover, I sat next to an older gentlemen who told me that he was a lawyer from New Orleans. He asked me what I did. I explained that I was just arriving back in the States after teaching in Central America for the past year. He being incredibly complimentary and kind, offered to buy me a drink as a way of saying thank you, for the time I spent the last year with my kids. As grateful as I was for the gesture, I told him that my last year, filled with adventure is just a small story compared to millions of people who daily invest in the lives of others just where they are......... I was just grateful that I got the opportunity.

Saturday morning I drove into the mountains with my college friend Rachel to restart my car in Winter Park (it was in storage.... by the way it started on first try). Driving into the mountains was one of the best feelings. You forget how beautiful they are.... Home sweet Colorado.

Saturday afternoon I  went to the airport to pick up my mom. (Yes you read this correctly) She flew in to help me get moved in and spend sometime together. We spent the afternoon at IKEA looking for a bed frame and ate dinner for the first of three times during the week, at Hacienda Colorado (best margaritas and Colorado Mexican food).

Sunday morning we started bright and early with a moving truck, three of my dear friends and my storage unit. I threw away bags of clothes, lamps and picture frames..... Another one of my 20 Things I can check off. It felt so nice to get rid of things and throw things out.

The rest of my week was spent between doctors appointments and a few trips to Target.

In addition to just soaking up, down time while not working, I have managed to eat at many of my favorite spots,  go on walks at Washington Park (not nearly enough times). Take my bike on a handful of rides and begin shopping around for Yoga Studios. It feels so nice to be back in an actual yoga studio with new teachers and new challenges. As well I joined a Cross fit gym. A former coworker of mine, after some encouraging told me it is something I would enjoy and that I should try it out. Well..... I did and now I am hooked. It should be interesting trying train for the half marathon in between trying to recover from crossfit. (if you are unsure of what cross fit is..... it is intense weight training/interval/pyscho workouts :))

I am back into my old college house (different room, same house). Back in the neighborhood near the Park, near some of my favorite restaurants and bike ride able to the farmers market.

While drinking coffee on the front porch Thursday morning a little girl came by selling wands. Magical wands she proceeded to tell me. For just one dollar, I can now turn anything into rainbows.... (awesome).

Life back in the States is bittersweet. Only small things have changed......there are new restaurants open, the highway is now eight lanes wide, more people are married, and others are now expecting their first babies. But for the most part it is just as I left it.......Life here is busy. Everyone seems to be in a hurry.

Sitting in church this morning I felt my heart begin to pull. It feels so strange. So stuffy. Commercialized. I was overwhelmed by the fancy coffee I was greeted with and healthy young people filling the pews. I overheard one couple sharing about last night at the Rockies game in their victory over the Cubs, and a little boy with crocs on and a Patagonia shirt climbing on his mom's lap. I found myself asking  myself..... what it meant to believe in the God of the whole world. I realized this morning of how quickly we place God in the West. In America. We put him in our music, our songs, around our necks, thank him for our new car, new house and our things....... but I couldn't stop asking myself, but what does it look like to believe in a God that reveals himself not in stuff or in America, but a God that loves the whole world. (I have no idea)

In all honesty I am feeling a bit like I do not belong. Like I have seen things and experienced things that just cannot be explained. I cannot articulate it, otherwise I would. All I can say is that my heart is a bit torn. Spread a bit further...... when looking in the eyes of a small boy I swelled up with tears. In his eyes I saw my entire class of twenty two and missed them dearly.....

So while I have enjoyed drinking Bloody Marys at the Cherry Cricket (one of my very favorite spots), working on my sun burnt Colorado shoulders, wearing heals again (I did not fall), getting lost in the liquor store overwhelmed by the microbrew options, laughing with my old roommate as we made laps around the farmers market sampling everything local and organic, rubbing on my best friends belly as we try and get her baby girl to kick my hand or curling up in my big comfy bed in my old house ..........

I still miss it. Honduras. Central America.

But, I think I better get used to missing it...... because for now I am home. Back home in Colorado.

Below are some pictures that I have taken this week. Hope all is well wherever you are.