Home Sweet Home

It's so great to be home for spring break! Sorry it took me a few days to catch up on my blog. I'm usually glued to my computer 24/7 for school, and since I'm on vacation for the time being, I just haven't been at the computer as much :-) My internal clock is a little messed up because I arrived in Utah on Friday and was on mountain standard time for a day and a half before switching to daylight savings time on Saturday night, so now I'm back on what used to be central time--but then when I go back to Illinois I'll be on what used to be eastern time. Very confusing. If Ben Franklin invented daylight savings time to help people be able to get more work done in the evenings before their candles burned out (because there was no electricity yet), and since we don't have to work by candle light anymore, why do we still have daylight savings?

Well, as far as catch up goes, let's start on Friday. I had to wake up at 4:00 on Friday morning (Greg had to get up quite a bit earlier than that to drive down from Sullivan to pick me up!), and Greg took me to the train station in Mattoon to catch the 5:23 a.m. City of New Orleans train (just like in the Willie Nelson song!). That was very nice of Greg to take me--after going on the tour at the train depot and learning about all of the homeless people that hang out there, I didn't really want to leave my car there or be there by myself early in the morning. On the train I sat by a goat farmer from Tennessee named Spencer. He had caught the train in Memphis and was on his way up to Michigan because his father had just passed away. He was really nice. I tried to sleep on the train, but for some reason, even though the City of New Orleans has really cushy seats, I couldn't sleep very well. I realized that I didn't know for sure which airport I was flying home from (Mom had made my travel reservations, and I was so caught up in school, packing, etc., that I hadn't totally paid attention), so I double-checked with Mom on the phone. :-) It's always good to know which airport to go to!! Then when we got to Union Station in Chicago, I took off for the CTA train station. On the way there I passed a Starbuck's, so I stopped for a breakfast sandwich and some hot chocolate. Then I went and caught the train to O'Hare. There was this strange guy on the train that kept asking me questions about Mormons--but luckily he got off after a couple of stops. When I got to O'Hare, I found myself in Terminal 1 (the United Airlines terminal), but I thought I was flying American, so I was trying to figure out how to get to Terminal 3. All of the escalators that connect the terminals were being repaired, so I walked outside for a while, then finally found a train to take me over to Terminal 3. Then, I went to the American kiosk and tried to check-in, but the computer couldn't find me. Luckily when I called Mom, she told me that I was flying Delta, so then I was able to go check-in :-) It was a good flight to SLC, and I was able to sleep for a bit. I love flying in to Utah and seeing the mountains and downtown Salt Lake! When I landed, I went out to the baggage claim area to meet Mom, but she was nowhere to be found. I waited for a few minutes, then tried calling her phone, but there was no answer. After a few minutes, Mom called back and wondered where I was. I said, "I'm standing by the On the Fly Grill." She said, "Okay, I'm walking over there right now." Then, after a minute she said, "Wait, where are you?" Then, we realized that we were in different terminals!! Ha ha ha. I was so confused all day. Luckily we found each other.

It was great to be home and to see everyone! Mom and I stopped at the Barrett's house where Dad was staying with the girls while Nate and Lindy went to a movie. They are soooooooo cute, and I can't believe how big they're getting! Sidney wasn't as scared of me this time as she was when I came home for Christmas break. Maybe since it wasn't all that long ago that I was home, she kind of remembers me. We took the girls over to our house for the much-anticipated sleepover! We had spaghetti o's and played hide and seek, then Lindy and Nate came and picked Sidney up. Then, the rest of us got in our pj's, watched "Hairspray," and went to bed. I went to bed at about 9:00 (it's been a long time since I got to do that!). There were a few instances of needing to go potty, having nightmares, and being anxious for morning during the night, but all-in-all the girls slept really well. We had our traditional sing-along to the "Meet Me in St. Louis" soundtrack in the morning, and then Dad made some tasty pancakes. Then, Mom and I took the girls home, took Rich to work, and went up to Salt Lake to meet Aunt Karalie for lunch at the Left Fork Grill. It was great to see Karalie, and even though she's in the middle of her chemo treatments, she's in very good spirits, and she looks really great. I had some tasty meatloaf for lunch, and then Aunt Karalie recommended that we try some pie--which was really, really delicious. My early day the day before was starting to catch up with me, so I slept all the way home and then for about two-and-a-half hours after we got home. That evening Mom, Dad, and I watched the BYU vs. Pepperdine men's v-ball game, which was great, and I got to hang out with Rich for a while, so it was a super fun day.

On Sunday Mom, Rich, and I went to church (Dad was at the MTC), and it was really fun to see everyone. The ladies in Relief Society were quite excited to see me--especially because they haven't seen me since the engagement. They were a little disappointed when I told them that I wouldn't be getting married until December (because of internship obligations), but they were excited to think that I will be living at home while I do my internship (hopefully at Camp Floyd State Park!) for six months. Then, I took another nap (I'm trying to catch up for the last couple of months), and then the Barretts came over for dinner. The girls liked talking to Greg on the computer with the web cam, and Sidney was making everyone laugh as usual. We played more hide and seek, colored a lot of pictures, and had a great evening. It's so wonderful to have a break! It is the calm before the storm--the storm of putting together a museum exhibit in four weeks with Mr. Riccio in charge and only $2,000 to spend.