Sunshine is Free

So the trip has been good so far. Kate and I were able to visit all of Jeremy's family in Salt Lake City and also able to visit my old stomping grounds at Shriner's and the Burn Unit. Man, I miss it there and it feels like I'm at home and never left when I visit. We stayed with my sister, Ann who was such a help with Kate for me while I was trying to coordinate things with our realtor over the phone and Internet. And she was willing to get up before 5am to make my mom and I cinnamon roles before she dropped us off at the airport. Kate was a real trooper for that super long flight. It was a little over 3 hours to Detroit, with an hour layover, then about another 2 hours to Manchester, NH with an hour and a half drive after that. We made it safe and sound to our friend's house and they have been so kind, generous, and helpful. Especially since Kate got pretty sick (we think she might have the croup) and I'm currently trying not to be, but not doing the best job. My mom is also such a saint to help out with everything out here, especially loving and caring for sick Kate while we're looking at different houses.
House hunting alone has been quite the adventure. You can find a great home here if you have around $300k. Having the loans we do and living off the income of a resident's stipend, we're quite a bit below that. Fortunately, we found a house still available just a few houses down from the friends we're staying with that may work out for us, if he's willing to come down on the price a bit. We're hoping and praying and seeing how things go.
It is beautiful out here. Kate had me up one morning from 4am-5:30 and since I couldn't go back to sleep and it was getting light outside I went for a run down a dead end street close by. I got to watch the sun come up over the tree covered mini-mountains and the Connecticut River and I'm in love with this place! We'll definitely need some DEET in the summer (I already have 3 mosquito bites), and it'll take some time to figure out how to get everywhere, but I really like it here.
Since we're staying with a family that's in the anesthesia program I'm getting a taste of what it'll be like and it's so nice. All of the residents and their families form a really tight, supportive group and EVERYONE here is so active! They either run or bike all the time, there is a ton of hiking, and when it gets warm enough people are out on the lakes, ponds, and rivers all the time. Sounds like their winters are as insane as our last one in Spokane was, so it's a good thing we have the vehicles we do. If they stop working maybe Pele can pull Jeremy into work on a dog sled.
So here's to hoping we get our house and that Kate and I don't have the little piggy flu. In the meantime I sure miss my husband and our dog. Since Jeremy's in the ICU right now, Pele's pretty lonely. Thank goodness for the friends that are checking in on her everyday. I hope my husband gets checked in on by people as well. He's one amazing man and I'm glad he trusts me to do all this. Sometimes I look at these homes, how much they're asking, then I picture how people live in Argentina and it's overwhelming. We don't know how good we have it here. We are a very blessed people and we should be counting our blessings long before we start complaining. I don't think that's being falsely optimistic about things, I think it just helps you put things into perspective.
I'll post pictures of this trip when I get home. I don't know how we could have pulled this trip off without the friends and family we have that have been so helpful. Thank you all of you!