Wednesday:

• Awake at 3:30 to drive to the airport in Charleston.  Drink 30 oz of coffee and get VERY WIRED.
• Fly from Charleston to Chicago.
• Fly from Chicago to Milwaukee.
• Sit in Milwaukee for a long time because our flight was delayed.
• Find a used bookstore in the airport.

Bookstore where?

Renaissance Books

• Fly to Minneapolis.
• Collect our rental car and call Nathan and Co.
• Meet Nathan & Co. and Erica & Ltd. at Erica’s house and have a fun-filled picnic dinner.
• Play with nieces and nephews and lots and lots of balls.  Play in the park.

Fun with plastic balls

• Eat s’mores with Erica.
• Go to bed after being awake for about 20 hours.

Thursday:

• Get up to go running with Erica and plod my way through 2.5 miles for the first time in many, many months.
• Ache for the next 2 days.
• Shower, dress, and drive away.
• Chat with Erica and pass things to Chloe until we get to Eau Claire.

Chloe, show me your teeth!

• Have a delightful lunch with Mom and Dad.
• Go to Goodwill to find shoes for Chloe and buy a hat and purse.
• Drive to Grandma’s house.

Grandma's house

• Have a delightful dinner with Grandma and Dee and stay up late chatting.

Friday:

• Get up and have a big breakfast with Grandma and Dee.
• Sit around chatting and working out genealogy and enjoying company.
• Shower.
• Take Chloe to the park and have fun running around.

Chloe on the playground

• Eat lunch.
• Go through my wedding book with Grandma, pointing out people she didn’t know.
• Say good-byes and drive away.

Group shot with Grandma and Dee

• Drive to Knoxville, IA.
• Get lost.
• Get un-lost.
• Hug Grandpa Doug and other people in the dark and not know who they are.
• Get settled into the camper trailer and meet Justin’s aunt, uncle, and cousin.
• Sleep on a mattress covered in plastic, with heads lower than our feet and get a sore throat.

Saturday:

• Get up and chat with people in the trailer while breakfasting and getting ready.
• Wander down to the pond and meet a couple more people.
• Wander down to the barn and say good morning to Grandpa Doug and Great-uncle Bob and a few other people.

Barnett's barn

• Wander down to the tent and meet Great-uncle Jerry and help him wipe down chairs for lunch.

Reunion tent

• Meet a couple more people.
• Run into town to grab some things from Walmart (a pillow, throat drops, hot dogs, a fan)
• Make it back to the farm in time to meet a whole bunch more people, grab a few sodas, and stand around chatting for a little bit before lunch.
• Have an unfortunate run-in with a gust of wind in a billowy top and face questions about whether I’m pregnant.  Quelch that rumor as quickly as possible.
• Eat lunch.
• Sit around chatting with people.
• Sneak off to take a nap.
• Wander around the property of a distant cousin who raises lilies and hostas.

Randy's hostas

Randy's flowers

Purple flowers

Stone stairs

Grass driveway

Lily

• Jump in the pond for a swim before dinner.
• Meet a couple more people while swimming.
• Go to dinner in a different outfit than at lunch.  No billowing.
• Meet even more people.
• Cheer for the talent show.

Grandpa Doug on harmonica

• Cook s’mores.
• Chat with people until dark.
• Watch the men clear up chairs and tables in preparation for inclement weather.
• Move trash bags to the side so they wouldn’t wash away.
• Walk back to the trailer in awe of all the lightning bugs.
• Die of heat while trying to sleep, even with the fan blowing, with a sore throat and feet higher than our heads and a loud plastic wrapper on the mattress.

Sunday:

• Wake up, breakfast, shower, dress.  Feel very groggy, head-stuffy, throat-achy.
• Go to the high school for lunch because of the expectation of rain.
• Cram 130+ people into the high school cafeteria.

Barnetts in the high school cafeteria

• Meet a few more people.
• Eat delicious lunch.
• Release a microphone to the masses.
• Hide in the bathroom for a little bit.
• Walk around the school with Justin a little bit.
• Leave messages on Gillian’s phone.
• Drive back to the farm.

Barnett rock

• Go sit at the barn out of the rain and talk with people.
• Walk back to the pond and watch Justin go swimming while I sit on the dock under an umbrella.
• Change into dry clothes.  Call Gillian.
• Chat with people for a little longer.
• Go see Gillian.
• Chat with Gillian and play with her children for a while.  Forget to take a picture.
• Leave so the kids can get to sleep.  Go out for dinner.
• Watch fireworks as we drive home.
• Go to sleep with sound of rain and cool air blowing.

Monday:

• Wake up, breakfast, shower, dress, pack.
• Throw everything into car.
• Wander up to the barn to chat with people.
• Wander around old homestead house and take pictures.

Git offa my lawn

Outside his childhood bedroom window

Outhouse

Wooden steps

Water wheel

The reason we made the trip

• Sit back down and chat some more.
• Finally say good-byes and drive off.
• Stop for lunch and move our luggage into the back seat.
• Repack everything so it fits into one suitcase while Justin drives.
• Meet Sara at Cheesecake Factory, but walk across the street to Barnes and Noble to work up an appetite.
• Catch up with Sara and wander around the store.
• Go back and have a delicious dinner.
• Wander around the mall a little bit before saying good-byes.

Tickle shot

• Drive to Erica’s house and keep her up late while we finish packing and getting ready.  She braids my hair.

Tuesday:

• Get up a little before 5:00 to pack up, put up the beds, and head to the airport.
• Arrive on time, return the car, check in, make it through security, and only sit a little while before boarding.
• Fly to Chicago.
• Get adopted by an 80-year old woman looking for help getting to her gate.
• Stay more calm about the shuttle bus to another concourse and the time crunch of our layover because of that angelic woman.
• Get to the gate just as they finish boarding and get right on the airplane.
• Fly to Charleston.
• Collect our luggage, find the car, and drive home.
• Pile everything inside the house.
• Shower and curl up to relax.
• Fall asleep and sleep for about 15 hours.

And as a bonus! Wednesday:

• Relax all morning.
• Go to our financial advisor appointment and start making good plans.
• Go to the grocery store.
• Get a flat tire leaving the grocery store.
• Watch Justin put on spare tire.
• Go home and unload the groceries and tidy the kitchen while Justin sorts the luggage into dirty laundry hampers.
• Eat a late lunch.
• Take the car to Tire Kingdom.
• Buy a new tire.
• Go home.
• Find out that Justin’s old boss and coworker had shown up AT THE HOUSE to ask why he hadn’t been answering his cell phone.
• Laugh delightedly that he no longer works there.
• Relax for the rest of the evening.

I’m back on the diet again after taking about a month off to handle with stress and not logging while we had company in town.  But I’ve been logging again for 15 days now and my scale at home (that’s not terribly accurate) gave me a whole long line of 0’s on Saturday that made me very excited.  It’s gone back up a couple pounds, but that’s what happens when I sit down with a bag of M&Ms on one day and a big plate of Kung Pao chicken the next.  But I thoroughly intend for it to be back down again by Saturday.  I might not make it down the full 50 pounds before my doctor appointment at the beginning of September, but I’m going to be pretty darn close!

I don’t know exactly how much weight I’m going to end up losing in the end, but my goal right now is to get my body fat percentage down around 25%.  Wherever I land poundage-wise is where I’ll end up, but I want to get that percentage down there.  I started at 42.2%.  Right now I’m at 38.2%.  Once I get under 32%, I’ll no longer be considered “obese” and THAT will be a very happy day. 

The car thing is an end as far as I know.  I finally called the claims department on Friday to ask what the progress was on the file and they told me that they had denied the claim.  Wohoo!!  I mean, the woman didn’t have a leg to stand on but it’s still nice to have things work out the way that they’re SUPPOSED to work.  I didn’t hit her, I shouldn’t have to pay for it.  And I’m not!

As far as I’m concerned, the matter is now closed.  She can try to appeal the decision or take me to small claims court, but the insurance is going to back me up if she does that.  I’m going to assume that she’s not going to be quite that desperate and just stop thinking about the whole thing.  And now I can finally try to get the paint off my car, since I’ve been waiting until everything was resolved to try to work on that.  Before I was just being lazy.  But now I have more motivation to get it off.

There are things happening in the job front that I’m not comfortable talking about right now.  You know that feeling like if you talk about it, you might jinx the whole thing?  THAT.  But hopefully I’ll have news for you there in a while.

I am still going to be briefly unemployed while the whole place shuts down for a couple weeks, but I’m looking forward to the time away from work.  It’ll be nice.  I’m hoping to get a bunch of projects done around the house.  Because, you know, there’s nothing like a vacation to get some work done around the house.  What?  Relax?  I don’t have time to relax!

In more trivial news, I’ve developed an allergy to my face lotion.  I’ve been using it for a while and I’m about halfway through this bottle, but the last few times I tried to use it, I broke out in hives.  It wasn’t pleasant.  My only hypothesis is that there’s almond oil in the lotion.  Of my nut allergies, almonds were pretty low on the list of reactions, so I picked up a box of cranberry-pomegranate granola bars (with almonds) and was eating one of those a day.  And then I broke out in hives from my lotion.  So I’m not eating the bars any more and I’m using aloe vera to moisturize my face, since we didn’t have anything else in the house that would work.  Avoidance is effective and I’m doing just fine.  But it’s kind of a bummer because I was fond of that lotion.

And to end on a more UP tone, I have a trip coming up to visit several people and I’m SO EXCITED about it!  I’ve mentioned it here before, but I’m still just beyond thrilled to get to take this trip.  I didn’t expect to be able to spend time with my siblings and it’s going to be so much fun!  Lots of people know about it, too, because I can’t stop talking about it.  I’ve already started my packing list—I’ve been trying to figure out how to pack everything in a carry-on so we don’t have to check our luggage.

But mostly, I just think, “I get to see the kidlets!”  “I get to see my siblings!”  “I get to see Grandma!”  “I get to see the Barnetts!”  And try to figure out how I could fit seeing more people into the tiny amount of time that we’ll be in each place.  Like Sara!  And Gillian!  And Mom and Dad!!

But before that, I’ve got 3 projects that need to be completely finished up before the end of this week and 3 other documents that need to be released and mailed off for approval before next Tuesday, at the absolute latest.  I have a lot of work to finish up.

I’m really excited for both of these encounters.  My exposure to the Barnett family has been pretty limited so far.  It’s been notable, to be sure—Grandpa Doug cut in on our first dance at our wedding, something that makes me laugh every time I think about it.  I guess after you’ve lived long enough, there are some social situations that simply don’t seem to apply anymore.  But most of my time spent with Justin’s family has been with people from his mother’s side of the family.  I’m really looking forward to seeing what it’s like on the other side of the tree.  My understanding is that we’re going to be spending the weekend at the family farm, sleeping in a trailer that’s been brought on site for a handful of us, while several other people sleep in the barn on cots.  It’s going to be interesting!

The other part of the trip is going to be spent with my paternal grandmother, and my maternal grandmother if she’ll see us.  I haven’t seen my paternal grandma since, I think, 2004, when she came up for my sister’s graduation.  I haven’t seen my other grandma since . . . I’m not even sure.  It’s probably been more than 10 years.

I started writing about memories that I have of each of my grandmas and, well, when I hit the third page of writing, I thought that maybe I shouldn’t put all of that up in one post.  So, if I can manage it, I’m going to write about some memories that I have of my grandparents over the next couple days.  Which makes this a post about a post that’s not up yet, and those are always frustrating.  “You’re telling me you’re going to tell me something but you’re not actually telling me anything?!”

So . . . um . . .well, the weather’s been pleasant.  It’s hot during the day, but the mornings are nice.  Last night, I got home from work and Justin and I went grocery shopping to replace things like bread and milk that were emptied out while his family was in town.  He went home to put the food away and I went to Zumba and had a blast shaking my booty.  And then I came home, showered, and went downstairs to make banana bread out of the bananas going bad on the counter.  I have no idea if it turned out because I put walnuts in there and they don’t cooperate with me.  And then I made sautéed apples with some of the many apples in bowls in the kitchen.  I used 8 of them (they’re really little) but I think we still have 8 left.  The ones I cooked turned out really yummy, though.  They’re like the apples you can get from Cracker Barrel.  Not great on calories, but ooooooh, so good.  And Justin made pancakes that nearly exploded with fluffiness.  Our only explanation is that he opened a new container of baking powder and the old one must have been really old.

And now I’m hungry.  Great.

Hey, does your calendar say “Juneteenth” on the 19th, too?  Apparently it’s actually a pretty significant holiday (in 36 states) but I’d never heard of it.  Have you?

Update to the update to the thing with my car
Friday morning, I came home from work early so I could meet an insurance assessor (or something like that) who wanted to look at my car and our mailbox.  She was a lovely woman, very pleasant to work with, and she took measurements and photographs of the damage on my car and the damage on my mailbox.  I pulled my car out of the driveway and lined it up with my mailbox and she took photographs of that, too, so it’s obvious that the marks on my car line up perfectly with the damage on my mailbox.

She wasn’t terribly forthcoming about her opinion on the matter, but I got the impression that she understood that the damage to my car was fairly obviously done by encounters with my mailbox.  I asked if she’d be the one to go look at the Tahoe, but she said that the insurance company would probably send someone from the Georgia side of things.

And now I’ve done everything possible for me to do.  I gave a copy of the Security officer’s report to the assessor when she was at the house and she was going to forward that to my claims officer.  I spoke with an agent from my local insurance office this morning and he’s checking around to make sure that there aren’t any loose threads out there.  But as far as I know, there’s nothing more for me to do other than wait for information while the insurance companies duke it out.

Trip to Toccoa
After dealing with the insurance and then running into town to get my oil changed and pick up some supplies from Target, I packed up for our trip to northeast Georgia to go see my family for a handful of hours.  We left later than anticipated (my fault because things took a lot longer than I anticipated that they would) and we arrived slightly after 9:00.  But we all sat and chatted for a little while before heading off to bed.

We got a nice and early start to the morning and helped finish up projects that Mom and Dad had been working on completing.  Holes in walls filled in or created.  Shelves built and moved.  A trip to the post office in town.  Tools sorted out and packed away.  I had a fun morning, mostly just following one or the other of my parents around and helping however I could.  I know there was a lack of structure that was frustrating to other people, but I was just so tickled to be around my family that nothing was going to bother me.  Not humid weather.  Not random project progress.  Not spiders.  Nothing.  I had a good morning.

Mom and Dad left slightly after noon to start their long drive back to Wisconsin and we waved them off.  Justin and I helped Luke and Krista build one more shelf before getting cleaned up and packed up ourselves and ready to head off.  We sat and chatted for a little while before letting them have the house to themselves again.  After a long, hectic week, I understand how wonderful it can be to have a quiet house again.

Trip to Atlanta
Justin and I had planned to hit a mall outside of Atlanta to buy me some new dress pants, since all the pairs in my closet right now either are too big or are from back when I was slender enough to wear them, meaning they’re threadbare and stretched out.  The mall didn’t turn out quite like expected, though, (I’ve never been in a mall that had so many different shoe stores!) and we decided we’d go see a movie.

We found a theatre that was showing Iron Man 2 in Imax and How to Train Your Dragon in 3D and we were going there, when we passed an Atlanta Bread Company directly across from a Barnes and Noble bookstore.  Well, they closed down our Atlanta Bread Company a handful of months ago and it’s one of our very favorite restaurants.  And we love Barnes and Noble.  So we scratched our movie plans and spent an hour wandering around in the bookstore before heading across for sandwiches.  And we enjoyed our time much more than we would have in a movie theatre.

After spending a relaxing evening and morning at a hotel and breakfast at Dunkin’ Donuts, we set off for the Georgia Renaissance Festival. We got there probably close to 10:30 and wandered our way all the way around the faire, looking at booths and admiring the crafts and the spectacle.  We watched the joust.  We saw the Flying Debris juggling show.  We saw the Washing Well Wenches.  We saw the Tortuga Twins.  We missed a few acts that aren’t at the fair this year, like Dexter Tripp’s high wire.  I got some flowers stained onto my leg with henna.  I got to eat a turkey leg. We picked up another item from Bronze Age Studios to match the fountain that we bought from them previously.

It was a whole lot of fun.  And I caked on the sunscreen and wore a light cotton shirt with sleeves and a hat and came home without any sunburn.  I’m a little sun-kissed, but not at all burned.  With my complexion, I call that a win.

Plus, it was just so much fun wandering around the faire, looking at all the different things to look at – people and artwork and everything else.  I laughed at the shows, held my breath at the joust, drooled over everything in the Casta Diva shop.  And we left close to 4:00 to start our trek home, arriving at our front door a little after 9:30, I think.  We unpacked, showered, and got ready for bed.

And now it’s Monday and I wish I had another day in my weekend to recover from my weekend.  But no such luck.  Back to work with me!

I’ll try to put up a few pictures from our weekend later tonight or tomorrow.

You know, right now it’s about 6 degrees colder in my hometown in Wisconsin than it is at my home in South Carolina.  That just isn’t right!  Especially because it’s an hour later here so the sun’s been up longer and it’s still this cold.  And just for the record, we’re talking about 27 degrees F. compared to 21 degrees F.  I’m cold!

If you don’t hear much from me here in the next couple of days, this is why:

This morning, I have a meeting.  And then I have a lunch with my department.  This afternoon I have a 1 minute presentation for a bunch of  VPs from corporate-level.  (Yeah, that’s ONE minute.  It’s a little odd.)  I’m leaving work early so I can make it to a dentist appointment.  After that I have a chiropractic appointment.  And then I have band practice from 7 – 9 o’clock.

Tomorrow I’ll work my usual Friday hours of 7:30 – 11:30 and then I’ll head onto the island to have lunch with Justin.  At 3:00 I’m meeting friends and we’re going on a women’s retreat with the church.  I’ll be there until very early Sunday morning when I’ll drive the 1.5 hour trip back home so I can be at music practic at 8:00 before the service.  (The rest of the ladies will be back in time for the 10:15 service.)

And Sunday afternoon will either be collapsing into a chair and not moving for the rest of the weekend, OR I’ll take care of all those things that I didn’t have time to do over the rest of the weekend.  Like send out checks for monthly bills and balance the checkbook and tidy the house and all those other things.

Sometime tonight, I need to pack.  I don’t know when I’m going to find time to do that, but it’s got to happen tonight.

So there’s a lot going on!  I’m not too stressed out about all of it, meaning I must be getting used to this sort of thing, and there are several things that are actually exciting (like getting to know a bunch more ladies from the church), but if you don’t hear from me, it’s because I’m off doing stuff.  You can feel free to call me, but you might want to wait until Sunday afternoon.

I hope you’re all having a fantastic week!

Cheers!

We very much appreciated Tim coming to the airport to collect us.  And lending us a truck with 4-wheel drive so we could get around independently and not worry about getting stuck in the snow.  And Erica and Tim for letting us stay on the floor of their house so many nights.

I finally got to see the properties my parents are working on in Wisconsin.  I’d seen one of them, but not since they’d taken down walls and put up new walls and redone the kitchen and so many other things.  It’s looking great!  I’d never seen the house they have out in the next town over, and that one is super cute.  There’s still a lot to be done there, but it’s come a long way since the pictures I saw of it, and it’s going to be amazing once they finish it.

Justin and I also went out and looked at the property where they’re hoping to build eventually.  Dad took us out there in the dark and drove us around, and then we came back the next morning to see it in the daylight.  It’s got some amazing views!  When you’re coming from the low country, where everything is flat, standing on the top of a hill and looking out across other hills and pastures and fields to the Blue Hills is really a beautiful sight.  It’s a great piece of property.

Of course, the snow kept us from staying in Wisconsin as long as I was hoping to stay.  We went back to Minnesota with Mom and Dad to avoid getting snowed in so far from everybody else.  It was a little strange how we ended up working the holiday around the snow – I’m not used to opening everything on Christmas Eve.  But it was so much fun sitting around and watching the kids open presents, and then opening presents for all the adults with the kids helping.  I’m so glad that Luke and Krista were able to make it, with all their airport troubles.  It wouldn’t have been at all the same without them there.

I wish we could have spent more time together as a whole family, but there just wasn’t space enough for that.  So Justin and I spent time with Nathan and Amy and their kids while Mom, Dad, Luke, and Krista spent time with Erica, Tim, and their daughter.  We all had a fun time at our respective homes, sitting out the storm and playing in the snow.  And we had a good time when we all got together on Saturday for the Christmas dinner we didn’t have on Christmas.

Again, we left earlier than originally anticipated.  Justin’s allergies were getting really worked up for some reason, traveling and staying in so many different places and the cold and who really knows why.  We checked into a hotel for the night to let his sinuses clear up a little bit.  It was a nice hotel; our room was so cute!  There was only one bed, and after so much traveling with groups of people, I’m still not used to the idea that a room could have only one bed instead of two.  I think this was the second room that I’ve ever stayed in that had only one bed.  And the water pressure in the shower was so strong!  And we both enjoyed taking long showers without worrying about using up all the hot water before everybody else got a shower.

The next day, we took Tim, Erica, their munchkin, Luke, and Krista to lunch at Five Guys.  We’re enamored with this restaurant right now.  Best.  Burgers.  Ever.  So yummy.  After lunch, we had to say good bye to Luke and Krista as they went back to the airport, and Justin, Erica, and I wandered around the Container Store for a while before she went home to put the munchkin to bed and Justin and I went to the Mall of America to meet up with my friend Sara.

That was so much fun!  We wandered around the whole mall.  Justin figured it took us an average of an hour per floor for the 3 lower floors.  There really isn’t anything much on the fourth floor unless you’re going to the theatre, restaurants, or exhibits.  And since the exhibit was closed by the time we got there, we left.  But we wandered for hours along the other three floors, picking up a few things here and there (Order of the Stick board game for him, stuffed cow for me).  We went through the mirror maze and I would have gotten completely lost and panicked if they’d left me behind.  We drooled over a Bose home theatre system.  We were in that mall for a long time.

And then we went to her house, which I’d never seen, and it’s so cute!  She and her dad have done some work on it tearing up the carpet and restoring the hardwood floors.  Its’ a delightful home and it reflects her perfectly.

And then we went out for Indian food and it was delicious!

I’ve fallen into the chronological thing that I was trying to avoid by writing about the trip in separate posts.  It just gets so long when I write this way!

So that was Sunday, we left early Wednesday morning.  In between Sunday and Wednesday, we spent time at Erica’s house, went back to the Container Store so I could wander for a long time, went to see Avatar at the IMAX, went to the Cheesecake Factory for lunch, and spent time with Erica, Tim, and their daughter.  Tim took us to the airport crazy early in the morning and we flew home without any problems at all, back to the warmer, more humid weather of South Carolina.

It was a great trip and I’m so glad that we were able to make it.  I’m already starting to think about how we can do it even better the next time we all get together.  Other than at Luke and Krista’s wedding, I mean.  That’s their party!  But next Thanksgiving or Christmas or whenever we’re together, how we can do this with less stress for people and better communication about plans and all those things.  We’re a family of planners!  This is what we do. 

I’ve hit the end of the second page on this document, so I’ve really got to stop.  And I think this will probably be the end of the posts about Christmas.  I’ve written a lot and it’s about as much as my attention span can handle.  I want to write about other things!  But I had such a wonderful time and it was so good to see all of you and I can’t wait until the wedding so I can see all of you again!

Love to you all!

Today is awful.  Today is the first day back at work and if there was anywhere I wanted to be today, work isn’t that place.  It’s never a good sign when I’m tempted to resort to violence toward my coworkers.

I should get a plant.  Plants are calming, right?

Plus, I bet they’re great and heavy for throwing.

Today I didn’t get up to go to the gym because I didn’t fall asleep until after 12:30 this morning.  4:45 is too early to get out of bed on a Monday on the first day back after vacation after only four hours of sleep.  No way was I getting out of bed.

Tonight I will go to Zumba and remember why I wasn’t supposed to have all that sugar when I was on vacation and why I was supposed to exercise every single day and I will sincerely regret the choices that I made.

Tonight I will sit and try to find pictures to put at my desk at work and try not to cry over how much I miss my family and how fat I look in pictures.

Today I will go to a meeting and try not to get too frustrated at the lack of progress that we’ve made over the last several meetings.  And I’ll brainstorm ideas how I plan to do it differently once I pry my way into control of that committee.

Today I will submit work that I’m not comfortable submitting just so management can maintain their precious schedule.

This afternoon I will sit and listen to music while trying to remind myself the importance of the work that I do and why I find it enjoyable on days that are not the first day back from a wonderful vacation.

Tonight I will go to sleep praying that tomorrow will be a much better day than today.

I definitely got the opportunity to do those things.  Justin and I spent several days at both of my MN sibling’s homes and we had an absolute BLAST playing with all the kids.  There was the initial “who are you and why are you so excited to see me?” thing for all of them, but they warmed up after a while.

My sister’s daughter (C.) is such a doll!  She’s still young, so she doesn’t talk much, but she’s got some words down and she’s rockin’ the baby sign language.  It’s really hard to say no when she’s signing “please” or “more” and looking so crazy cute!  I came down the stairs once and she was on the other side of the baby gate from her stuffed giraffes.  She pointed at them and signed “please” and I just about melted right there.  Justin and I watched her the last night we were there so her parents could go out on a date and I’m not sure who was more excited – us for the opportunity to play with her or my sister for the opportunity to go out with her husband.  It would have been better if they hadn’t been feeling sick that day, but I’m pretty sure they still had a good time.

C.’s such a funny kid.  She saw Justin playing with his Nintendo DS and wanted to play with it, too.  She sat there pushing buttons and drawing with the stylus for a while.  When Justin took it back and any time after that when he played with it, she was there, signing “more” and “please” and hoping to play with it again.

She got cardboard box blocks for Christmas and Justin was playing with her, drumming beats and clapping them together and chasing her around the house.  He got tired and sat down, and she went and got the same colored blocks and brought them back to him and asked for more.  And she did that again and again.

She loves to read, even though she doesn’t understand the writing yet.  She pulls out books and pages through them.  She sat on my lap and I read a book to her and then we had to read it again and go back again to look at the pictures.  It was great!

My brother’s children (E., A., and I.) are also such great kids!  E. is the oldest and he’s an energetic little boy.  Running!  From one side!  To the other side!  Of the house!  All day long!  Until Justin pulled out his DS and then E. was right there on his arm watching what was going on and asking if he could play with it.

His sister, A., is confident that she’s a princess and introduces herself as such.  It’s precious!  All the time we were there, she had trouble remembering our names.  So she was always asking, getting our name, and then telling us that she loves us.  And, often, following up with a kiss.  Sometimes it was the other way around.  Adorable!  Trouble for an adolescent, but adorable for a 3-year old!

E. and A.’s little brother, I., is really too little to do much.  I think he’s about 7 months, so he’s rolling over and drooling up a storm and smiling and sleeping and doing all those great baby things.  And all those not so great baby things.  “Exploding baby!”  And there’s baby puke all over the place.  But he’s got great chubby cheeks and chubby legs and he’s so great to hold.  His siblings are great with him, too.  I sat on the sofa for a while, propping him up with my legs so he could sit up and gum a toy and watch his siblings playing.

There was a snowstorm while we were up there, so Justin and I went to my brother’s house on Christmas Eve and stayed there a couple days.  On Christmas, we were in the basement sleeping and heard them through the floor as they ran around excited about Santa coming with presents.  Later in the morning, we took them out into the snow to play for a while.  It was great packing snow, but troublesome because when I stepped off the road to get into the yard, I sunk up to my mid-thigh.  I put A. on top of the drift and she sunk in, too, and couldn’t move.  She tried crawling over it, but with very little success.  We ended up pulling out shovels and piling up a snowbank to build a fort.  And then we dug a path to the pine tree heavy with snow and found a path to get underneath that.  And then my brother came by with the snow blower and dug out a path to the play set, so we went down there and found ways to get onto the swings (that were under snow) and the slide (completely covered in snow) and play for a while.  It was a lot of fun.

I think E.’s favorite thing is video games, so he tried to get people to play Lego Batman with him when everybody was there.  I didn’t do very well, but I’m pretty sure he got Dad, my sister, and my little brother all to play with him for a while.  And he got Justin to let him play with his DS a couple of times.  Sit on a man’s arm watching him play for long enough, and he’ll let you have a go, especially when you’re as charismatic as E. is.

A. loves to be tickled, and spun around in circles.  She kept coming up to Justin and asking him to play “the spinning game” again.  And she’d bring me things as gifts to play with or sit beside me.  The last night we were there, she fell asleep after dinner because she’d missed a nap and it had been a very full day with people all over the house and lots of craziness.  She woke up as people were starting to get ready to go, and I got to snuggle up with her on a chair while the truck was loaded up and everything was done.  She was so sweet, just curling up and snuggling into my shoulder with her blanket.  It was wonderful.

Seeing the rest of my family was great, and I’ll get to that eventually, but just getting to play with my nieces and nephews was so wonderful!  I’m so glad that we had the opportunity to spend a lot of time with the kids.

I think what I might end up doing is taking several days and just talking about one part at a time.  I’ll spread it out and take my time processing through the whole trip.  And that way I can ramble on and on and not spend pages and pages for one single post about it.

Justin and I are still in our post-travel resting stage.  The house is a wreck.  The bags are still packed and sitting next to the laundry.  We haven’t even made the bed today.  We did shower!  But that’s only because we had to go into town.

The traveling part of our traveling actually went very well.  We flew out of Charleston airport, connected through Chicago, and landed in Minneapolis/St. Paul, and took that same route back home.  Our flights were all on time.  Our connections weren’t too difficult – we did have to catch a shuttle at Chicago to another terminal on our way back, but we got in line just in time for the shuttle and got to go right across.  I even had time to hit the ladies room and then pick up a yogurt and be back right on time for loading.

All of our luggage made it through with us, security wasn’t difficult, flights were pretty easy on us.  All in all, the traveling went well.  It’s just tiring.  Which is why this post isn’t going to be very long.  But I’ll be sure to come back again soon and write more about the trip.

It really was a wonderful time.  We both enjoyed it a lot.  It had been a long time since I’d made it up that direction and it felt so good to get to see it all.  But it was especially nice to get to spend a bunch of time with my family.

I love you all!  And I miss you already.

I got sick.  Again.  I was just sick two weeks ago.  I think I’ve been sick more often in the last two months than I have the whole rest of the year.  It’s getting really annoying.

Anyway.  I got sick.  So I went to bed at 8:30 on Tuesday.  Half an hour later, my little brother woke me up from a dead sleep to tell me that he was engaged!  Yea!!  We chatted about it a little bit, I congratulated them several times, and then I went to tell Justin about it before collapsing back into bed.

The next morning, I had to check my phone to make sure I hadn’t dreamed the whole thing because I just wasn’t completely sure I hadn’t had a really vivid dream.  But nope!  Call from my brother.  He’s engaged!   Yea!

Wednesday, I stayed home from work.  I didn’t go to the gym.  I called my lead to tell him that I was even more sick than the day before and I was staying home.  At least for the morning.  I might make it in for the afternoon.  But I wasn’t sure.  And then I passed out again for several more hours.

The whole day was spent in my pajamas, wandering from bed, to computer, to couch, back to bed, back to computer, back to bed . . . .  I didn’t go in to work after lunch.  I missed a meeting, an appreciation event where I could have won prizes, a chiropractic appointment, a church meeting, and a gym class.  I was not happy to be sick yesterday, but I had trouble climbing the steps.  I had trouble breathing through all the phlegm.  I was overwhelmingly tired.  I stayed home.  So did Justin because this time I’m the giver and he’s caught my cold, too.

We bought tickets for our Christmas plans to visit my family!  Justin found us a great deal for us to fly out of Charleston for half the price it would have cost to fly out of Jacksonville.  It’s such a huge relief to have that taken care of.  It feels really good.

And that’s good because I still feel really awful.  I’m at work today, but I might not stay all day.  I’m so tired!  This cold started at the back of my sinuses, drained down to my throat, and has now settled into my chest.  It hurts.  I don’t really want to go to the doctor about it, but if it doesn’t go away soon, then I might.

I have 11 days left of work for the year and I have at least 4 regular projects to finish and a couple of other miscellaneous projects to finish all before the end of that time.  I have a lot to get done.

I should probably get to work on that.