Home :)

Can I just say that it's amazing too be home and not traveling today? Hitting four time zones in two and a half weeks was exhausting! I don't know how my supervisors do it several times a month!

Chicago was much better than Las Vegas, let me just put it out there. Granted, the girls lost in Chicago... I guess that wasn't as good as Las Vegas. And Vegas was fun because I got to hang out with a bunch of my coworkers.  But city-wise, I like Chicago a lot better. Our hotel was even better, and we weren't accosted with smoke at every turn. :) (For the record, I really hate casinos and really hate that most hotels in Vegas are in casinos. Who wants to see people waste their hard-earned money on an arcade game? Seriously.)

I had my birthday in Vegas, which I thought would be kind of sad, but actually it turned out to be a pretty good day. I thought it would be sad because it was the first time Jeff and I were apart since we got married and of all weeks the tournament HAD to be during my birthday week. (Although, it's not the first birthday we've been apart, because I was in France for his birthday. That was the day we decided to get married. Sigh..... :) Happy day.) My first birthday present of the day came when the girls won the conference tournament!!!!!!!!! First time in 10 years. :) I almost cried. In fact, I admit to tearing up when Haley walked off the court and hugged Juddy. I just couldn't help it. :)

After the game, we started the long drive home. But my coworkers treated me to Outback along the way. I was the youngest of the group by about eight years, so that was kind of funny. In fact, three of my coworkers have kids older than I am. It seems like no matter how many birthdays I have, I'm always the youngest. lol. A couple of the guys kept reflecting on when they were my age. lol.

When we got back on the road, my supervisor was adamant that we get home before midnight so Jeff could give me a birthday kiss. lol. We did get back 10 minutes before midnight and my supervisor made sure he kissed me before the clock struck 12. ;)

Even though it was really late, Jeff had a mini party planned for just the two of us when we got home. And he wrote me the most romantic note he's ever written me in our little journal. I teared up for the second time that day. Major points for Jeffrey! Writing isn't exactly his strong point and he doesn't really like things to get too serious, so whenever he does something romantic it's in a silly, goofy way. But this time it wasn't. :) And I melted. It was probably the best present I got for my birthday this year, although the Cuisinart ice cream maker that showed up on our doorstep the next day was a pretty close second and I'm really excited for the invisible zipper sewing machine foot my mom told me she was getting me.

The next day Jeff took me out to Olive Garden, and this time we didn't stuff ourselves to the painful point. We didn't get our favorite waitress, but dinner was still fun.

The Chicago trip was awesome because we flew on a charter plane!!!! And that is now my official favorite way to travel. Very little security, you can leave when you want, you can sit wherever you want and take up an entire row if you want... Yeah. Me gusta. And on the flight back, I got to have a whole first class row to myself. President Samuelson sat across the aisle from me reading his murder mystery novel. lol. I guess now that he's an emeritus general authority he can read whatever he wants. ;)

Getting home was nice, but getting up for church the next morning was really hard. We didn't land until 1 a.m. and Jeff had a meeting at 8 a.m. Joie de vivre.

Returning to my regular schedule has been a little difficult. The tournaments have made it hard to get back to working out and working on all my non-work projects. When I get home from work, I just want to take a nap. But I hate naps, because then I'm just more tired afterwards. (Unless it's taking a nap with Jeff, because then I just talk the whole time and I don't actually sleep. lol. He doesn't like it when we nap together....)

Now I'm mostly back on schedule. Work has been interesting, because now most of what I'm doing is the tedious record keeping. It will be great to have it all done, but I have to take a lot of breaks or my eyes start getting heavy and my brain threatens to turn off.

Do you want to know the most terrifying part of my job? Writing a softball or baseball recap. I feel so clueless. I've watched both sports, I even played softball, but put a stat sheet in front of me and the only thing I could point out are RBIs and strikeouts. I have a feeling I'll be practicing my baseball and softball skills a lot this spring, though. Especially if we can't get employment extensions for our interns. It will be fun, because I actually really like the baseball atmosphere, but frightening too. lol.

Since coming home, I've starting a maxi dress. :) I'm so excited! I found this adorable fabric online. It's pale yellow with blue and white flowers. It kind of looks like an old fashioned flour sack print. So far I haven't made an mistakes (that I can see). Besides cutting out the pieces all skiddy wompous, because I can't cut out patterns to save my life. It seems like it will be pretty simple. But I can't finish it until I get the right length of zipper (should have checked the pattern before buying a 12-inch zipper for a 22-inch-zipper dress) and the invisible zipper foot from my mom.

I have a ton of plans for sewing projects. I saw a really expensive dress online that I'm going to recreate and I have some cute red and blue striped material for a summer skirt. I'm going to try my hand at pleats, so wish me luck! Then there are the fabric paper dolls I want to try out for my nieces (or maybe save them for whenever we have a girl...who knows?) among other things on my list. My problem is, I see something online and think, "Ha! I can make that!" and then I set to work drafting a pattern or getting together supplies until the next thing comes up. And I don't even have a Pinterest account! (However, I do admit to browsing the website several times a week...) I also have two writing projects that really need attention. Okay, only one of them really needs attention... But the other one I'd like to give attention to.

Today I watched my old roommate's baby. He's such a cutie. :) And always so good for me. For whatever reason, when her other friends watch him he cries a lot. He doesn't usually for me. I didn't watch him last week and it was crazy to see how much he'd grown in just a week! I'm pretty sure he's getting chubbier, which is just fine because he's pretty small. It's really cute. And his hair is so long! The best part is, it doesn't lay flat. It sticks straight up like someone is holding a balloon above his head. His little smiles are to die for, and my friend said he laughed for the first time the other day.

Well, that's about all that's been going on in my life right now. I think Jeff is taking me to a play on Saturday. :) Yay! We haven't been to a play in a long time. And this time it's a 1940s take on Shakespeare's Love's Labors Lost. For being as uncultured as he is (or so he likes to tell me when he dislikes certain classic, culturally valuable things) Jeff really likes Shakespeare. I'm delighted every time he reminds me of that. :)

In closing, I'm really glad to be getting back to a normal schedule at home, as much as I love traveling. Hopefully next time I go somewhere Jeff gets to go with me, because though he claims all the food I've left him to prevent junk food overload is really delicious, he's really tired of eating soup five days in a row. ;)