Thanksgiving

I have not posted in a long time. My week of work before vacation left me exhausted and almost completely void of energy. I went on my first "travel" trip; to Yale on Tuesday, to attend a presentation for hopeful Goldman Sachs interns. It wasn't far (2 hours by train), but it was fun despite getting home past midnight. The rest of my week involved a significant number of hours spent in a training course given by a British gentleman with a lovely habit of saying "jolly good then", every 3 1/2 minutes. I giggled every time.

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Saturday morning required a 4am alarm clock in order to catch our 8am flight to Minneapolis/St. Paul, then Spokane from JFK. We barely made our flight. Barely. For whatever reason, Northwest Airlines decided to lay off hundreds of employees the week before our trip, resulting in 2 employees checking in about 400 people. We made our flight with minutes to spare & were happy to finally make it to Spokane later that afternoon. The flight home is always depressing, actually. It's a painful reminder of how far away we live, & how long it takes to get home- not to mention how expensive it is. Sigh.

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Spokane. I was happy to have a chance to run errands- errands with a car! I'm not sure what is more stressful- crazy people on the subway, or crazy people who are allowed to drive. Anyway- I got my engagement ring repaired, bought a spring form pan (I made a pumpkin cheesecake on Thursday- Yum!), found the perfect throw pillow I'd been searching for over the past few weeks (I finally got new bedding) and had lunch with a good friend. I went to the dentist (thanks, Dad) and got my hair cut (for $100 less than it would have cost me in NYC). We went and saw my brother Christopher's house that he is building. It is beautiful, and he is so talented. I can't believe that my 30 year old brother is creating something so amazing. OH! And speaking of beautiful- we went to the lake, if only for a day and a half. I love Priest Lake. It is home. It was cold & rainy but I did not care. It was quiet. Absolutely quiet. I loved it. My sister in-law Erin brought up my nieces overnight. It was great and I was happy.

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On Tuesday we drove 6 hours with parents to Portland. We have spent the week with Tara & Kevin (with their children- Parker, Spencer, Ellie & Harrison). The first night we were here, I taught Ellie a song about the rain and she always wants to sing it with me. Harrison loves giving hugs. Parker is turning 8 in January and is getting BIG. He loves hearing stories about me "attempting" to babysit him when he was just a few months old (this resulted in the hotel security in San Francisco coming to my room, assuming that I was abusing him. Why else would he have been screaming for so long?). Spencer is Spiderman in the flesh. He can climb and jump and bend. Harrison is not even 2, and is already scaling the bookshelves in the playroom. I love these kids.

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Yesterday, Ellie said that she is thankful for princesses & Cinderella (she is an all-pink kind of girl). Spencer is thankful for pencils. Mike is thankful that he does not live in New Jersey (after going to the Portland Trailblazers game Wednesday night, where they subsequently beat NJ in the final few minutes). I am thankful for my family, for safety, for the gospel, for my friends and for my husband. I'm thankful for my favorite sheepskin slippers that are keeping my feet warm right now, and despite the ache I am feeling thinking about leaving my family, I am thankful that I get to go back to New York tomorrow. I work on Monday, FreshDirect is ordered and will be delivered Monday morning... Back to normal.

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I love vacation.