Thanksgiving

My family went to my mom's brother's house in Houston, TX for Thanksgiving this year. We haven't been down there since I was 6, so it's been a while. Since then, they've built a new house, gotten 2 dogs who are now pretty old, and gotten wealthy. I haven't seen my cousins in a couple of years either, so I finally got to see one since he started college and I hadn't seen another since she started driving. It was crazy!
Houston was pretty fun. My dad and I ran a 5K on Thanksgiving morning. It was a fun one. There were 7,000 people running this one- a far cry from my last one. I did much better- a 26:50. The amazing weather in the high 60s probably did a lot for my running. After the race, Dad and I lost the car completely. We went to the parking lot where we thought that we had parked and it wasn't there. We were at the point of thinking that it had been stolen when we remembered a couple details about the lot that weren't right, but we wandered around forever downtown trying to find the car. In the wandering around we saw some cool stuff- the best of which was a magenta PT cruiser modified to look like a hippo. It's front was a nose and the mirrors were shaped like ears and the trunk was a butt complete with a tail. It was crazy looking. And this was definately someone's personal car- not a commercial advertising vehicle or anything.
For most of the week, everyone sat around, played cards, took walks around the neighborhood- nothing too exciting but nice anyway. I was amazed by the weather. That made the whole trip worth it. It's a shock to get back to Jackson. I went from highs in the 70s to where it might snow tomorrow night.

5K

I ran the Awesome Autumn 5K this morning in Jackson. It was the smallest, least organized run I had ever been in. I give the weather partial credit for making it so small- the wind chill was in the upper 30s and it was sprinkling for part of the morning. The woman in charge had decided not to put up the arrows showing everyone where to run, so she handed out direction sheets that told you streets to turn on. We all had to run with our directions. Only 14 people had shown up to run or walk. Of the 14, 3 had planned on walking and decided not to before the run began; one quit about 15 feet past the starting line; and 2 quit halfway through the run when a car drove around to check on everyone. That left only 8 people finishing. At least with such a small group, I was able to finish top in my age group. I ran a 31:03, which is not very good, but considering the weather and how much I have been running lately (hardly at all), I guess that's better than I could have expected.

New Home

I moved into my very own apartment about a week and a half ago. I'm still getting settled in, but I'm liking it really well. Its in the Oaks (across from TJ Max and all that stuff). It was a little sad to leave the whole family in Medina and even sadder to leave Norm up there, but I think it was the best thing to do right now. I really haven't been bored at all since I moved in by myself, which is a little bit surprising. The apartment is really nice. It's a one bedroom loft and it happens to be right behind Jenny and Renno's apartment. It's nice still living so close to someone I know, that makes it a little less shocking to move away from Norm.

Another animal story

Man, all of my stories either have an animal or a kid! Well- this one has an animal. Several actually.

Because I work in a lab with soybeans, mice are always an issue. They love soybeans and once they start nibbling on our stuff, they can cause some major damage to the research. Last week, our problems started with one mouse, first thing Monday morning. My crew came in and noticed some eaten beans. That was bad news, but we cleaned up and hoped we had solved the probem. Tuesday morning, right after she got there, Valeria started yelling about something. She'd found a mouse in their lab that jumped out from a box she was moving. Jason, Ben and I went into the lab with some insect nets and chased the mouse around. Eventually, we had it cornered, but it escaped the nets. It made the mistake of trying to escape under Ben's foot. Ben happened to move his foot at the same time and the mouse was done for.

Later the same day, Valeria found another mouse in their lab (which is connected to ours by a door). We went in to catch it and chased it around with nets for a while, but he got away.

Even later the same day, we saw a mouse scurry across our lab. We grabbed some nets and tried to catch it, but the little guy was too fast for us. He escaped, but he led us right to where they were coming in. Mice had crawled up some pipes to our safety shower and knowed a hole in the drywall, so they could come up from under the building right into the lab.

The next day, I was moving a box on the lab counter and a mouse ran out right by my stomach. He went and hid under some junk on our counter. We kept scaring it out and eventually it ended up under a box that was partially propped up. We were trying to decide whether to just throw something heavy in the box and be done with the mouse or whether that was just too gross and inhumane when he made the choice for us and took a leap off the counter. Valeria and Ashley from the other lab came in and we chased the mouse around with nets for a while. I got my net on him once, but he jumped out straight toward Valeria. She jumped, which scared the mouse, who tried to run up the side of the metal counter. This sent the mouse flying through the air, which in turn, sent Valeria flying through the air to get away from him. It was pretty hilarious. Once the mouse was back on the ground, I got my net back on him and Ashley backed me up. We carried the mouse across a creek from the lab hoping that he would never find the way back.

Since that one, we put out some poison that seems to have taken care of the rodent problem. I kinda wish we wouldn't have because the mouse hunts were a nice break from the normal day.

Kobie Stories: the fecal edition

Most of the best Kobie stories have a lot to do with poop. Here are a few of my personal favorites:
One night, I came home after the kids were in bed and started getting ready to go to bed myself. I went in the bathroom and glanced into the shower where there were pieces of poop in the tub. I have yet to figure out exactly how that happened because Jackie had given Kaylee a bath, and I assume that she helped Kobie a little, then Kross took a shower. I'd like to think that 10 year olds don't poop in the shower, but I'd also like to think that no one would take a shower with poop on the floor either. Anyway, the next day, Candice and I were both in the bathroom for Kobie to start his bath. He was putting some toys in the tub and we were having a talk about whether he had pooed in the tub and how even if it wasn't him, that pooping in any public place is completely unacceptble. He got in and was playing with one of his dinosaurs, then made a comment about one of the dinos being dirty. He put it up on the side and asked if I would "get the mud off it." It certainly did not end up being mud! Candice did a sniff check (she's so brave- she's my hero around here). All of us in the bathroom came to a mutual decision that the dinosaur was too gross to clean and should go in the trash. Kobie kept sticking to his story that he didn't leave the dump, but he did have a kinda guilty face. I guess we'll never know.
In the last couple of weeks, Kobie has started pooping in his pants. It started with the skidmark checks on his underwear a couple months ago. I've done a couple of those since I blogged about that last time. A few weeks ago, Norm and I were left alone with the kids for a week. One night, as he was getting into his bath, he told Candice that he'd "forgotten to tell her something"- that he'd pooped in his pants while he was playing outside. He just hadn't felt like coming in, so he'd carried the load around with him for an hour or more. About a week after that, I was at home fixing dinner while the kids were at soccer practice. The came in about 3o minutes early and Kobie came in first saying "you aren't gonna woop me are you?!?" Jackie followed him with "No but you better get in that bathtub now" and Kross followed them in with the story. Kobie had pooped himself during practice and then had run around the park telling everyone. He gone in the underwear at least one more time since then. Jackie throws out his underwear every time this happens and the poor kid didn't have that many pairs to begin with. I'm kind of interested to see what happens in a few more weeks if he doesn't cut it out. Kobie might be goin' commando!
I'm going to let Candice take the story from here-

crazy day

I can't believe I haven't posted a Kobie story in so long. I guess they're not as funny once they're part of your everyday life. I'll try to post a good one soon.
Today, the boys were playing outside so I decided to sit outside and read. Candice came out to hang out and Kobie decided to come through the house and play a funny trick. He locked all of the doors in the house, then walked out and closed the door behind him. This would have been really bad news any day but especially now- his mom, the only other person with a key, is in California until the end of the week. I'll admit we freaked out a little bit. I was figuring we'd have to break a window. Then we found one window that was unlocked, but I was going to have to somehow bust the screen frame out before we could get in. We ended up not having to destroy anything though. I am very thankful that among other things I learned in college, I got pretty good at picking locks. Thank you LU- I am using my college education! I broke back into the house using some trash from the garage. I think it was a price tag off some clothes. I'll admit I was pretty proud of myself.

Lindsay and the bird

Today, the highlight of my day was that I got to hold a hummingbird. There was one that got stuck in a big equipment garage and just kept flying into the ceiling. It was pretty sad. When I was walking through the garage, it apparently got tired and plopped down on the ground right in front of me. It couldn't even stand on its feet. Maybe hummingbirds just can't support themselves on their feet or maybe this one was just too exhausted. The bird let me pick it up; it was so light. I took it to some guys in the garage to see if they knew what to do, and after a minute, it started flapping its wings. It calmed down so I took the hummingbird outside and was trying to show it to Ben and Jason in the truck. Right as I put my hand in the truck, it started flying. It flew around inside the cab of the truck for a minute and then tired out again. I set it out by a bush with some flowers hoping it would perk up and be okay. We came back in a few hours and the bird was gone so it looks like it was okay. Animal rescue is pretty fun- I wish I got the chance to do it more often.

harvesting

So, I haven't really blogged lately and thought I'd just put up something random. Today, I got to ride in the combine while we were harvesting. That involves being in charge of the seed bags and pretty much being the one to blame if you mess up (which I did twice today- yikes!). I don't think I got to ride in the combine any last year so I'd kind of forgotten how cool it was. In the cab, you're about 8 feet in the air in what looks like a cockpit. There are tons of buttons and levers plus two seats. When the header starts running to harvest beans, there's this flashing light and a buzzer that goes off inside and then the whole thing feels just like a plane taking off. The whole time today, I couldn't get over how I felt like I was in a plane. It was so weird. I feel like I got to get on a plane today even if I didn't get to go anywhere.

Kobie story #1

So, stories like this are something you get to look forward to once Norm and I move in with the Jackson family-
Sunday night, I babysat the Jackson family Kross (10 yrs old), Kobie (4), and Kaylee (2). Kobie came from playing outside, came up to me and said "Miss Wins (my name in Kobie language), would you check my butt?" Then he pulled down his pants. (The whole story is way better if you say all the K parts in a huge southern accent.)
L- "Your butt's fine Kobie. It's clean."
K- "Then check my underwear."
I checked and there were definately some skid marks. I told him this and we had to find him some more underwear. Then-
K- "Would you wipe me?"
L- "No, you're big. You should wipe yourself."
He went in to do his thing in the bathroom.
K- "Miss Wins come here, I'm going to need a wet one."
Then he wets some tp in the sink and wipes his butt with it.
K- "This isn't working! I'm going to take a bath."
He gets in the tub and starts splashing his butt with water.
L- "I'm going to go downstairs. You look like you can handle this yourself."
K- "No wait!! I need you to check it."
Finally, the two of us agreed that his butt was clean enough, so he got dressed again and went outside.
Within 5 minutes Kobie came in hollering for me to follow him outside. He proudly showed me a hole he had dug in their yard (in the middle of the apartment complex) that he had filled with pee. What a little freak. He is so funny, and I know it's weird, but I'm kind of excited about seeing him every day.

Water ballons

Today was such a good day at work, if you could even call it that today. We got to work and went about business as usual for the first 2 hours. Then we had morning break- Ben brought a watermelon he had grown. It was the biggest I have ever seen! We hung out and spit seeds for a while. After morning break, my crew was driving to another building and as we passed another crew one of the guys waved at us to come over. Thinking he needed help, we drove our truck toward him and the best aimed water balloon I have ever seen flew in our truck window (while we were still moving), bounced off my arm and busted on Jason's neck. We both ended up soaked! We spent the next hour trying to figure out how to get this guy back. We tested different types of latex gloves to see which ones busted best and how to fill them. After all this we found out that there was a huge stockpile of balloons, we just had to sneak around and get some. We found a way and iced a few down, especially for our attacker (Ray). We had a big lunch for everyone who worked at the station followed by an afternoon of the Hillbilly Olympics. It was a ton of fun. At some point while Ray was way into the dodgeball game, Jason and I pelted him with our freezing cold water balloons. It was pretty great. The rest of the day, I played volleyball and was part of a few water fights.
Later at night, a few of us got together and went to a movie, then to Perkins and then to Wal-Mart. The day really made me think of being at LU- having so much fun with the people I was with, being attacked with water, Perkins and a late-night Wal-mart run.
This was one of those days where I realized that I really do like Jackson. I've had a couple of those recently. Not that I plan on staying any longer than I was planning on before, but I'm starting to see that I might actually miss this place a lot once I'm gone!

Lunchtime attack

Yesterday, I had a weird schedule at work so i got an hour for lunch ( I usually only get 30 minutes.) Since I had an hour, I got to go to Cyprus Grove Nature Park with some friends who work for UT. Right after we started eating, a raccoon walked up out of the woods to come see us and our food. She got right up on the bench by one guy who was holding a sandwich. The raccoon put her head up under the guy's arm and tried to take his sandwich right out of his hand. For a minute, the raccoon just sat by the guy trying for the sandwich, but he elbowed her away. Then the raccoon thought I was an easier target, so she hopped up in the table and stole my sandwich container and ran a few yard with it. I retrieved that and put it in my lunchbox; then the raccoon tried to drag my lunchbox away. I got my cheez-its out and started eating them. That's when the raccoon got really interested. Apparently, cheez-its are the food of the wild. The raccoon got up right by me and grabbed the hand that my cheez-its were in. It was so strange. I'm pretty sure the thing tried to bite me and that's when I ended up dropping the crackers, but I'm not too sure. I feel like the story is a whole lot more dramatic in my head than it actually was. It was funny. After that, she started going for my water bottle- trying to climb an arm or a leg or get into my lap to get the water bottle. Insane! I never thought I'd be that close to a raccoon. I've touched one now or really more like it, a raccoon touched me. I can't believe that that raccoon was once a wild animal and now it is just like a persistent dog trying to get people food.

Movin' to Medina

So, I talked to Jackie. The problem was that she bought a 3 bedroom house instead of a 5 bedroom like we'd talked about. That is good for her, but not so good for us. With 3 bedrooms, that leaves me and Norm rooming with a 2 year old. Yikes. We are going to stay with her for a while at least until we can figure out what we should do. She said we are "like family, so she doesn't care if we stay forever, even if that means that we'll live in cardboard boxes in the garage." We'll see how the whole situation pans out. At the very least, get ready for some interesting blogs!

Big Stuff

So I found out a couple of minutes ago that Norm and I are moving to Medina! Jackie just called and said that she bought a house. She didn't sound overly excited which makes me a little nervous and plus she called it a "water with lemon" thing. She wants us to come over as soon as Norm gets off of work so she can tell us about it. I'm a little nervous about the "lemon" part. Hopefully the worst part is that it is in Medina, not that there is some much more major issue- like theres no room for Norm & me, or the two of us will be rooming with the baby permanently, or the house is falling down, or I'm going to have to take the kids to school in Jackson every morning. I'm nervous to hear about it! If she got the house already though, that means we might be able to move straight there instead of us all living in her townhouse for a while. That will be nice. I'm sure I'll update soon enough on what the deal is going to be.

More of the same +

This week at work was good. This Thursday we had Milan No-Till, which is a big field day they have every other year at the Milan Ag. Station. Everyone who works for UT for miles around has to work for the field day- including me. It was a pretty good day actually. I had to be in Milan by 6:30, which meant getting to work @ 5:45- ugh! I had been assigned to the "Tent Cleanup" crew, which ended up meaning trash person. It was good. The older guy in charge of us said, "You ain't got to work real hard, just drive around and make sure the trash don't get too bad. I just don't want my butt to get bitten off, but you don't really got to do much." So pretty much, me and another girl just got an ATV and drove around, stopped and hung out with people & occasionally changed trash bags. The ATV we had most of the day was rediculous. It was pretty old and just not working too well anymore. There were no shocks left, so we were bouncing and squeaking around everywhere. And if you let the ATV idle at all, it would turn off and to get it back on, you had to slam on the gas and turn the key and then put it in drive before the gas got back down in the idling range again resulting in a loud squealy noise. It was funny having to drive around with thousands of people walking around you trying not to hit anyone while also trying not to let the ATV slow down too much- much funnier if you had been there.
Yesterday, I went out with some people from work. It was a group I had never hung out with before, but it was fun. It kind of stinks that the summer is almost over and the guys in the group will be gone within a few weeks. I am trying to get the other girl to apply for a job with Dr. Al. We worked together at Milan No-Till and had a good time. (She went to LU- Christie Peterson. I didn't know her before so I don't think anyone else probably will) Last night we went to Logans and hung out for a couple hours. We were supposed to go swimming in somebody's creek, but it was lightninig like crazy outside so that got postponed.

The weekend

This weekend was pretty good- more eventful than most. Friday night, I went with a group we got together from work and we went to see the new Batman movie. It was a good movie and most people brought someone with them, so it was fun to meet the friends everyone talks about while we're at work. (Norm came with me.) Saturday, Norm and I went to the Farmer's Market, then Jenny asked us to go to Wal-Mart with her while her car was getting fixed. When that was done, we came back to the apartment and had a grandma night. We cooked a big dinner, acted like old people, sat around talking and Jenny fell asleep by 10:30. Sunday, Norm and I went to eat Chineese with Jackie, the lady in our complex we babysit for sometimes. It looks like we'll be moving in with her as soon as our lease runs out. We'll take care of her kids and live rent free. By then she is even hoping to have a house. She is putting an offer in on one either today or yesterday. I hope it gets accepted for her sake and for ours! Other than that, it's been work as usual so far this week except that I haven't hoed at all yet!!!

Not too much has happened in the last week or so. Katie, my friend from Smyrna came up to visit. It was pretty fun. We went to Milan and did the traditional things- Chow Wagon, park and movie, except we did them all without a camera. How tragic!
It has rained so much here. I tried to go running at Cyprus Groves park today but I couldn't go that far because a lot of the boardwalks are under water and even when I ran on some of the boardwalk that wasn't underwater water would slosh when I stepped on it. I got to see some cool stuff- lots of turtles and a raccoon trying to get into a tree hole (no raccoons tried to stalk me this time) and a heron. I like that place.
Right now, I'm sitting at Jackie's house while Norm is babysitting. The middle child is having a rough night. Norm has been trying for 45 minutes to get him to stop crying and go to bed. She's rearranged sleeping places, made up stories about guard faries keeping him safe, she's told him about a huge toilet that will flush little boys if they don't quit crying, she's threatened to call his mom. He's a DRAMATIC kid. I think he's funny but I think it's about time for him to go to sleep! Poor Norm.

Big news

These are pictures of the tractor I learned how to use today!

Right now I'm hanging out at work just killing time before I head to the soup kitchen. I just thought I'd post on the exciting news in my life. Today, I learned how to drive a tractor! It is so easy. It's got a lot more knobs and levers than a car but really I think its easier, especially since I've spent the last couple of years watching people driving tractors trying to memorize everything so that once my chance came I would know what to do. I'm just pretty pumped that I know how to drive a tractor now. Jason and Ben said I did a good job especially for the first time.

makeup post

This is a draft from Good Friday that didn't post...

I decided to go home this weekend, so I'm watching "Enchanted" with Kayla right now. I only worked a half day today. It was great. We did normal stuff for the morning and then our crew drove out to a clearing and had a picnic for lunch. After the picnic, I just left-- a great day.

I've been going to the Episcopal church in Jackson and they had a Maunday Thursday service this Thursday. It was so cool. I really like that church.
It was like a regular church service and they went through the story of the last supper. At the end of the service, they completely stripped the church of all decorations. It really felt like the church was closing down forever. All the Maunday Thursday servces I have ever been to were all about the last supper and none about the betrayal. At the end of the night, it really made me think about how it must have been for the disciples to be left behind while Jesus was led away... like it was all over.
I've always thought that I would always be Methodist, but the more I go to the Episcopal church I think that one day I could be episcopal. The liturgy and all the traditions are just really good.

...

This week, Norm got back from the Bahamas. It's nice to have a roommate again. Yesterday, we rented a movie and ate bad for you food for dinner. That was fun. We watched "Into the Wild." It was about a middle class regular guy who graduated college and then just left all that he had and started traveling across the US and eventually to Alaska. I was pretty excited about that movie coming out. I liked it and Norm loved it so much she fell asleep 3 times! This week at work so far I've spent harvesting and counting these little fungus spores about the size of blood cells. I just finished that today and I'm so excited. Tomorrow, we have another field work day. Work is so much more fun when we get to do it outside.

Posting again already!

Not too much happened in the past day. Really I'm just posting because I finally figured out what happens to socks that disappear in the washing machine, and there is no one here to celebrate with me. What a nerd! But the socks- I was doing laundry and one of my socks was stuck almost all the way under the agitator. I had to fight the machine for it, but I got my sock back. That must be what happens: the agitator sucks up your sock and takes it to the deep reaches of the washer. Just a theory, but it doesn't take much to excite me.
It's been so nice here. Today, it was in the mid-70s. At work, we did our first bit of field work. We really just measured a field, but it was a great excuse to go to Milan and hang out outside. We even took our lunches and ate by a pond on the experiment station up there.

Tennessee's getting warmer

This last week... not too much happened really. At work, we're finally getting to a point where we can slow down and not go 90 miles and hour every day. That's nice and a whole new experience for me. We haven't had a time like this since I have worked for Dr. Al- almost 2 years. We've gotten to clean the lab, which doesn' sound like much, but we could honestly hardly walk before and now it's much better. I even got sent out Friday to go sit in a greenhouse and keep somebody company while they worked just because there wasn't anything more important to do. Friday was really the only day that anything exceptional happened. It was a nice day considering work was nothing. Our crew took a 2 hour long lunch and went to Sakura for sushi. It was good. Friday was Kayla's birthday and even though I gave her the option of us going somewhere else, she elected to try sushi with my work crew. I think she had a good time and even liked sushi (it was her first time trying it). After lunch, it didn't take it long to start snowing. Once it started, it went hard. They told everyone to leave the ag center at 3:30 and I'm glad they did because by the time I got home, it was starting to get slick. It snowed and SNOWED. There were at least 3 inches if not more. In the morning, Jenny, Renno and I went laundry basket sledding at Muse Park. That was lots of fun!
On Sunday, I got to church (St. Lukes) what I thought was pretty early and the sanctuary doors were already closed and something that sounded a lot like the end of the communion liturgy was going on inside. I was SO CONFUSED. I kept looking through the bullitein, still confused. I couldn't imagine what was happening... I was early! I started back out to my car thinking that I would have to call Mike in a few minutes to see what had happened. I checked my cell phone clock-- 11:32??!?? Then I realized I had completely forgotten daylight savings started. Then I was sad to have missed all of church, but now I'm glad to have light till 6:30 so I'm not complaining.
This week I'm all alone at the apartment. Norm is in the Bahamas and Val is going to Disneyland in a couple days. She's only been here about 30 minutes since last Thursday anyway. It's kind of nice having a whole place to myself but I can imagine I'll be pretty bored and starved for human contact by Sunday.

Reunion & other stuff

This weekend, I went back to Nashville to a reunion of the team that went to Sierra Leone for the first 2 weeks I was there. Only 6 of the 14 people who went ended up coming to the reunion, but it was good to see the people that did show up (even if some of them were/are a little nuts). We got to hear about how the people who didn't show up for the reunion were doing and talked some about what needs to be done on future teams. I think that the whole team experience has taught me a lot. Mainly that God can use completely unqualified and imperfect people to do some amazing things. Most of us that went were completely unqualified for the jobs we were undertaking but somehow it worked. Just being with some of the team again and hearing the stories of things each member did in Sierra Leone makes me realize that even if these people were completely crazy (in my own too-judgemental opinion) they did make a difference and their hearts were in the right place. I feel like I kind of underestimated them. I'm glad I got to go see them again.
I went to all-sing tonight to see Kayla do her thing. All-sing didn't really seem as put together this year as in the past. It went well though. Chels and Leia, you'll be releived to know that Phi Mu got first place!!!!!!!! Anyway, Kayla was pumped so I'm glad I got to go see her.

Calming back down

Life has definately calmed back down since I got back from Sierra Leone. Not really that much has happened. The tornados came through, but nothing really happened out here. We lost power for about 8 hours and ended up sleeping at a downstairs apartment with another family. Norm and I kept eachother entertained though, even without power- (see pics)

Parkston got to stay at our apartment the day after the storm (see pics) because Renno and Jenny lost power. We had lots of fun until the power at their house came back on and Parkston's parents made him go home- what a bummer.

Since then, I've gone home to go shopping for a bridesmaid's dress for my friend Katie's wedding. I'll be wearing a fuscia & black dress. I'm not really a big fan of pink, but at least the dress itself is cute, if not the color. The next weekend, Norm and I took Jenny to Milan for the first time. We made her try Chow Wagon and then we saw "Bucket List." That's my whole past since I posted last. It's been a LONG time.

I'm not really sure what I used to do all the time before, unless I really did spend several hours every day on grad school stuff. Who knows, but it never seemed like that long! Oh well, I'm getting to read more and my room is cleaner than it used to be- a great triumph in my world. I've been trying to be more in shape, plus exercising gives me something to do. I'm starting to walk with some people at work and I've been running some. I also tried yoga this weekend. I liked it more than I thought I would. (I used your DVD Norm, I hope you don't mind.) It was actually kind of hard.

I babysat a lot this weekend. That's what happens when Candice leaves town. I watched kids Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights. All 3 nights were really good. Two of the nights I never even saw the kids awake, all I had to do was sleep on someone else's couch for most of the night.

I really am going to try to be better about blogging, so keep me accountable and harass me if I go too long without posting again.

I'm Back

I'm back in the US. It's nice to be home with hot showers and carpet and my heater. Not to say that I don't miss Sierra Leone, because if I could sell my heater for $3,000 I'd be making a trip back to see Chelsea really soon. [If anyone is interested in a $3,000 heater just let me know. It's an awesome heater!]
I started back at work today. It was great to see everybody. For the first 2.5 hours at work I got to be a completely useless human being and just talk to everybody. Dr. Al even called me up to his office to "have a discussion" which meant talk about the trip. He has even decided that now I should go somewhere in Africa to work- not that I haven't been thinking about it but I didn't even say anything about it. He just started talking about me sending letters to NGOs to see if they need staff and how if you get enough people involved it souldn't be that hard. I think he wants to get rid of me! We even had a party with ice cream and peanut butter cookies and chips & salsa for me coming back. But for my office, we really have parties for EVERY occasion possible. We're having another tomorrow for super/ fat tuesday. It's a fun place to work (but not a good place to be on a diet).
Last weekend, Norm and I went to Milan to the Chow Wagon and the Ritz-3 theatre of course. We saw 27 Dresses. It was pretty good. On Sunday, Norm and I made dinner. She got a cookbook for Christmas that shows you how to sneak veggies into food using pretty much baby food in the recepies. We made chicken nuggets with carrots and sweet potatoes. They were pretty good, but I'm still not so sure what I think about the whole idea of cooking with baby food.