This week is flying by!

Part of me feels like the days in this week are dragging on, but then I realize that it's Wednesday night and then I think great-2 more days of work then another weekend!  The bonus for this weekend is that I have Monday off for MLK Day!  Peter should have off but is working so that he can have Presidents Day off when we go to Chicago.   

I'm totally pumped about our trip out to Chicago to see Andrew.  I've always enjoyed traveling around, but now I've actually taken a liking to flying.  At first I was terrified of it and my first flying trip to CA was awful, but now that I've flown a couple more times, I actually like it.  I've also been able to gage how to pack my carry-on luggage better.  At first I only checked my biggest bag, but now I check everything except for my purse and tote with a book, etc in it.  It's so nice to not have to lug around my weekend bag that I usually have with our shampoos, shoes, and all extras like that in.  I don't know why I didn't just check that one before too?  Oh well, you live and learn. :)  I have 2 Karen Kingsbury books to bring with me for our trip.  One I just started this week and the other one I haven't started yet.  They are books 2 and 3 in the "Forever Faithful" series.  I read book 1 while on our anniversary trip to Naples.  

Besides planning for our long weekend in February, we've made plans to visit with aunt Paula either this weekend or next and also to go out on February 9th to dinner and a movie with the Schindel's.  My birthday and Steph's are both the first week of Feb so it'll be a bit of a birthday celebration.  We're going to the Waterfront to see "29 Dresses" (my choice haha) and to eat at PF Chang's.  I've never eaten there but have always been curious and after being informed from Emily that it's amazing, I've gotta try it haha.  Who knows what else we'll do, but I'm really looking forward to it.

Aside from our calendar filling up, we've been watching more of 24's Season 6.  I love coming home after work and throwing on sweats, making dinner, and being a couch potato with Peter.  I think I'm especially enjoying it this week because I'm still taking it a bit slow and Peter's having an extra hectic week of work so it's nice to just relax and veg out.  

A very welcomed weekend.

When I woke up this morning and saw 6:41 on the clock, my first thought was "oh great, only 20 more minutes of sleep...I need more."  Then I realized it was Saturday and a smile crept its way across my face as I drifted back into a sweet slumber.  The next time I woke up it was nearly 10 AM.  :)  

This week at work has been particularly exhausting for me just because my energy levels are still low from this dumb cold....that I still have....it's been 2 weeks.  Yuck.  Last week I was barely able to move and only worked 1 full day.  This week I worked the entire week as usual and it's been tiring.  Just showering and getting ready in the morning proves to be trouble because I get tired haha...and the day hasn't even started.  Luckily I can sit while at work and pace myself.  Nothing too pressing was going on this week, but still time sensitive things were taking place.  We're hiring for a bunch of spots so I was swamped with resumes and phone calls to make interviews, etc.  Early on in the week the VP of our company asked if I was allergic to work or if I was ever going to get better haha.  Two days later he told his wife (the CEO haha) to leave me alone because I was dying and deserved to expire in peace.  

It's just such a drag to be sick for so long and the energy thing is driving me nuts!  I feel like I can do things and then I get up to doing them and feel like death haha.  Oh well....hopefully I'll get better soon!

In other news, we saw Barney this week which was fun.  He has a sweet new apt and is working at the Hampton Inn.  It seems like a cool job because he can swim/work out/eat breakfast for free if he feels like it.  We ordered pizza and watched "3:10 to Yuma".  It's a cowboy movie with Russell Crowe in it.  I love him as an actor and it was overall a good movie.  It was the first movie I've seen with RC playing the bad guy.  It was good to see him kind of turn around at the end.  I also found it interesting how he and "Dan" connected on the issue of pride....I think it's a guy thing haha...jk. 

I'm extremely happy that it's the weekend and we can relax.  Last night we booked our flight, rental car, and hotel for February when we fly to Chicago to see Andrew!  We are getting such an incredible deal on the rental car because Enterprise does 50% off weekends...it's going to be $51 for the entire weekend for an intermediate sized car.  We're staying at a Marriott for $129 for all 3 nights because we have a $100 cheque from Marriott through the rewards program with our bank, National City....just for using our debit card we rack up points and can cash them in for all kinds of things.  So we saved $100 without going out of our normal routine of purchasing things, etc.  Flights to Chicago are only $49 one way so that's really the most expensive part, but still not bad.  Overall it will be about $500 for a 4 day/3 night trip to see him.  We're excited to see his campus, apt, etc.  

We have plans to meet up with Jeff and Steph tonight which will be fun. :)  The only downside to the weekend...to any weekend...is that we wait so long for it to be Friday after work and in what seems to be the blink of any eye...it's Monday morning again.  I hate that haha.

Pictures from NJ

Well I finally got around to importing the last bit of pictures from our digital camera and found the ones from our trip to Madison, NJ.  Instead of coming home on Friday after Christmas, we drove up there to visit Aunt Grace, Uncle Michael, John-Paul and Laura.  We stayed overnight and left Saturday morning.  It was a fun trip and we were glad to have seen them for more than just Christmas day.  

This is a self-shot that I actually took.  It turned out pretty well....usually I'm not too good at the self-shots.  

We got to see their (GORGEOUS) new home and got the grand tour from Aunt Grace.  The house was huge and absolutely beautiful.  

Friday night they took us out to eat at Park Ave Club.  It was cool to see an old barn converted, but still having original architectural elements to it.  Dinner was also fantastic.  I had salmon :)  I even had some wine that I liked!  Usually I'm not a big fan of wine, but whatever we had was good.  I'm still a frozen margarita girl at heart haha.  I think it's hereditary.  

Us before we left the house for dinner...I look exhausted haha.  But it's a great picture of Peter :)  

Uncle Michael was so funny with his bib....especially when he ripped it off and the back part stayed on.  I don't think I've seen Aunt Grace laugh that hard before! :)  Uncle Michael really wined and dined us and we had a great time visiting with all of them.  They've been so kind and generous to us...it's really been a blessing.  I'm glad we got to spend some quality time with them.  And I finally got to meet Uncle Michael!  (And all this time I thought he was made up... :P)