April Travels

I've been a little quiet on here for a few weeks, but April has been a little crazy.  My birthday is in the beginning of April, which was fun!  I'm one of those people who love everyone's birthdays, and my own is no exception.  Jake got me a sewing machine for my birthday, and I'm working on some curtains right now!  My best friend sent me a personalized sewing machine cover for my birthday present, which was a wonderful surprise!  Jake and I ate at a lovely local Italian restaurant that I'd been wanting to try for months, and it was yummy!

After my birthday I started gearing up for my trip back home.  I hadn't been home in 14 months, which is a REALLY long time!  My family back home just joined the modern times and got fast internet, so for all that time I didn't even get to see their faces via skype!  Theoretically, now we can skype :).  Before I actually flew back East, I spent 2 days in San Jose with a family that I lived with for a month while I was taking care of their children.  It was wonderful to get to see the family again, and to spend some time with them!

On my third day with my San Jose friends, I went to the airport and flew 3,000 miles back East.  I spent the second half of the day flying, getting in just after midnight.  The next ten days were spent visiting as many people as I possibly could!  By the end of my trip, I was feeling ill from allergies/exhaustion/running around like a madwoman!  I tried to take it easy and spend as much time as possible with my sisters and family.  I went to a wedding of friend from my middle school days, and luckily I was able to run into other middle school friends from when I was a home-schooler!  Certainly the best part of being back home was seeing SO MANY PEOPLE!  Like I said, I hadn't been home in almost a year and a half, which is just far too long!    I didn't get to see everyone, but I'll be home again in a few months and make sure to see them then.

The other special thing that happened while I was home was that my eldest cousin had her baby...the first new baby in our family!  I got to see the baby and was happy.

The day I flew back West, I woke up at 4 am with some stomach issues.  I was sick, and sick, and sick.  Flying was something I was not sure I could accomplish.  At that point I'd been up for hours, felt terrible, and the last thing I wanted was to be crammed in a plane with 150 strangers!  My solution was to cry about it (of course!) and when that didn't make me feel better, I set to make it through, even if that meant puking on a plane (the horror!!)

After about hour one (of seven) on the plane, I started to feel better.  I had taken two Dramamine and tried to sleep as much as possible.  My Mama got me some Saltines, and I drank ginger ale and prayed I would make it!

I did.  Getting home took twice as long as usual, which you can imagine was wonderful as a sickie.  Saturday  was a stomach bug day, Sunday was stomach and throat (bad enough to spend two + hours in the urgent care because I was convinced it was Strep throat), Monday was throat and cold symptoms, and since then it's been just cold symptoms.  I am hoping that I finally kick this virus by the weekend, because I am tired of being ill!

Some pics from my trip home:

Pretty Dogwood Trees

GREEN

One of our new chicks, Pecan