Wed and Thurs

Wednesday

Wednesday morning I tutored Ginnie.  We worked forever on hybrid plants and genetic recessive and dominant alleles.  I know way more than I ever wanted to know on the subject!  Apparently she thinks I am a math AND science expert...

At Papa's Pantry that afternoon, there were only two appointments scheduled.  I've never quite had a person come through like the first person did.  This woman, who lives with three daughters, took the most food I've ever seen anyone take ever.  She took more food than families of 8 have taken.  These people are only supposed to take one week's worth of food for their families.  This woman almost wiped out every shelf of every thing we offer.  She was clearly stock piling, and taking way more food than she could possibly use within one week.  I didn't quite know what to do about it, so I let it slide.  For all I know, maybe this woman's shelves are completely bare at home. 

For the next hour, I did something at Papa's Pantry that I've never done before.  Usually when I go there, I simply replenish the pantry that the people "shop" from, with items from the pantry that only staff have access too.  Today though, I got to take donations from the outside, and stock it in the pantry that only staff have access to.  There is a very organized way of doing this, that includes:

1. weighing how much food was donated, 
2. checking expiration dates (we keep anything within 6 months expired except for baby food - that we do not give out expired), 
3. then you cross out the bar code with a specific color sharpie marker.  The color of the marker is a coding system denoting what month Papa's Pantry received the food,
4. Finally stock the items on the shelves.  

All the shelves are named alphabetically and most things fall under their label.  When we get an item that doesn't have a specific place for it, we put that on the partner family shelf and offer those special things to families that partner up with Papa's Pantry.  I'm going to be doing a lot more food intake and stocking since the Thanksgiving season is quickly approaching and we will being running out of room for all the donations we will be receiving!

After Papa's I went back to the Halloween store that Ryan and I went to the previous day.   I tried on 4 costumes and took the one I liked the best, which I really don't like all that much.  But I figure I'm desperate at this point... I need a costume within 48 hours!  I got a bee costume, but it's not as hot as the one I tried to get from the other store.  The tutu on the costume covers about half of my gluteous maximus, so then I walked over to Marshall's to buy some black leggings.  When I was trying on the leggings with my costume at Marshall's, I realize the costume place didn't give me my accessories that go with it - the wings, antennae, etc.  By now it is pouring down rain, and the costume place is filled with people.  I wait, no joke, 30 minutes in line, soaking wet, to get my accessories for a costume I'm not all that excited about.  Ugh.

Thursday

I was supposed to tutor Ginnie this morning at 10am.  I was running a little late, due to hitting my snooze button for literally one hour, when I got a phone call from her mom at 9:09am.  Normally I would've already been on the road by then, but this morning I wasn't.  Ginnie wasn't feeling well, and the mom asked me to come Friday morning instead.  That's fine - I was scheduled to be there Friday morning already.  Then the mom asked if I could come Saturday too.  I told her I would have to check my schedule and let her know.  She seemed shocked that I didn't have an immediate "yes" for her.  I went back to bed, and when I woke up I went to the website and charged her half price for the time I was supposed to be there since she canceled within less than one hour before the appointed time.  I have a strict three hour cancellation policy!!!  =)

Tonight, I met my newest student name Lindsey.  She takes all advanced classes (can you say PAAL student?) but is struggling with math.  The mom was super nice, friendly, and talkative.  They hail from Wisconsin and have been in GA for about two years now.  She liked that I am a mid-westerner.  The daughter was much more quiet and reserved than mom.  She wore a TON of purple eye liner that surprised me to see.  I worked with her for an hour on polynomials and then left.

Ryan found out yesterday that he got the promotion he interviewed for, so I got him a present.  Apparently every year for his birthday, his mom would buy him a Baskin Robbins turtle pie, instead of a cake.  So I ordered one for him that said "Congrats Sugar Daddy"

Square dancing was horrendous this evening.  I danced with an angel, and so did Ryan, but we were in the same square with a geriatric student, and couple who thinks they are amazing but really don't know much more than we do.   Even the angels were old and about as slow moving as they come.  Our square got called out for always messing up and we got moved to the front of the room, right in front of the caller.  Embarrassing!

Tuesday

I got the opportunity to tutor Ginnie Lee this morning.  She is back in town for this week only, before her tour starts next week.

After tutoring I stopped at a Halloween store in Roswell to do some preliminary exploring.  Ryan and I are invited to a costume party this coming Friday night.  The party has a pirate theme, so Ryan wanted to be pirates.  I looked at pirate costumes and some other costumes.  I want to be Dog the Bounty Hunter and Beth, but can't convince Ryan of that.  I found a bee costume I really liked, and a pirate costume I only kind of liked.  I had them both put on hold until the store closed that night.  Ryan has friends that are going as the Situation and Snooki, and another couple who are going as Tiger Woods and Elin.  Clearly, you do not have to be a pirate to attend the party.  Once Ryan understood that, we went to a costume store and he got something totally different.  Which means I was off the hook of being a pirate, and could go get my bumble bee outfit.  So at 8:00 at night I drive all the way back to Roswell and they didn't have my costume on hold!!!  It was the only one in my size... all the rest were extra smalls so those didn't work. I tried on a few more outfits, but I didn't like any of them either.  So now I'm back to the drawing board!

Today I also received a new tutoring client from a new company..  The company is called Club Z Tutoring and I will be tutoring an 8th grade girl named Lindsey in math. 

It rained all day here in GA, so tennis was canceled for tonight.  BOO.

BUGS... Nasty, Nasty Bugs!!!

Although there are many reasons why I love this basement apartment I've been living in, there is one major thing I am not so fond of.  There are so many bugs!  Bugs I've never even seen before and they are so gross!  I invite you to share what I have been putting up with:

Yuck!!!!!!

Jack-o-lanterns

On Friday night Ryan and I carved the pumpkins we got form Dahlonega earlier in the week.  

The before shot:

Works in progress:

The final results:

Later that night I also made cupcakes for Ryan's last tennis game of the season

Wednesday

Papa's Pantry

I was supposed to have a one-on-one computer session today at Papa's Pantry but that got canceled.  So instead I went in at my regularly scheduled time at 1:00 and we only had one appointment scheduled.  Before that appointment started, I had to vacuum the pantry.  But before I could vacuum, I had to sweep up all the dog food.  People donate bags of dog food opened, unopened, bagged in plastic zip-locks, etc.  The dog food dominates this one corner of the pantry and it's a complete mess and there are random scraps of food everywhere.  It's totally unorganized and very different from how the rest of the pantry looks and operates.  There were some pastors coming in later that day, whom Papa's Pantry wanted to impress, so it was my job to clean it all up and organize it before they arrived.  Mission accomplished. 

I helped the one lady shop for her food.  She was on the verge of tears the entire time, and she ended up taking a lot of food (and neatly arranged dog food!).  It amazes me how some people claim to be so desperate for food, yet they only take name brand items.  We offer both, and I would expect someone in dire straights to take anything offered.  But instead of grabbing 4 boxes of mac and cheese, some will only select the one box we have of actual Kraft Macaroni and Cheese.  Just an observation...

Lynn, the founder of Papa's Pantry, then asked me to do a partnered family through the pantry.  If someone is not partnered with Papa's Pantry yet, then they are allowed to shop for one week's worth of groceries for their entire house hold.  These are the only kinds of appointments I have ever done.  If someone is partnered with Papa's Pantry, then they get to shop for two weeks worth of groceries for their entire family, and they have additional access to non-perishables such as produce, milk, eggs, cheese, etc. They also have access to more name brand items and toiletries than un-partnered families do. 

It was kind of neat to do a partnered person.  I figured they would have access to basic perishables like I listed above.  Turns out, there is a lot they get to select from!  This woman got to take home yogurt, sour cream, butter, cheese, eggs, frozen pizzas, ground beef, ground turkey, milk, orange juice, chocolate milk, broccoli, apples, bananas, tomatoes, burritos, rib tips, turkey legs, breakfast sausages, cream cheese, and Salisbury steaks.  It is obvious that partnered families are desperate enough to partner up with Papa's Pantry, as this women also took razors, tin foil, shaving cream, tampons, mouth wash, tooth paste, soap and deodorant. 

Square Dancing

Square dancing is usually on Thursday nights but this week it got moved to Wednesday night.  Since it was on an alternate night, it was just going to be a review class with no new moves introduced.  Since Ryan and I haven't been to class in the last 2 weeks due to being in MC and then Birmingham, I was grateful for the review class.  Ryan did not go though, as he has tennis practice on Wednesday nights.  He is convinced he is the ultimate square dancer, and that it's not a big deal.  After being at that review class last night though, I can assure you, he's screwed.  They had learned things called do paso, thar family, shoot the star, slip the clutch, box the gnat, ocean wave family, alamo ring, pass the ocean, swing thru family, run family, and trade family. 

It was kind of cool being there without Ryan.  Usually we only dance with each other, but last night I was forced to dance with an "angel".  A square dance angel is someone who actually knows what they're doing and has been doing it for years.  This man must've been around 65 years old and his name was Harold, or Harvey, or Arnold or something.  He smelled atrociously but luckily you move around so much that the whiffs only come and go.  It was cool dancing with him though, since I didn't know what I was doing on all the new stuff.  I think from now on Ryan and I should both dance with angels!

Tennis

So I had my first tennis lesson tonight from 6:30-7:30pm in Kennesaw with their Parks and Rec program.  The class is one night a week for 4 weeks.  There was only me, and this kid named Cameron, in the class.  Cameron is 16 and, for all of you JYMS folks, he reminds me of Travis Mesaros:  over weight, light skinned, hair verging on an afro, and all smiles but won't say a word. 

I used to take tennis lessons for a couple summers when I was around 8 or so.  It was a good thing, too, since we didn't go over any basics like the proper way to hold a racket, scoring, or rules, etc.  I do miss the dumb dumb suckers you could win for picking up the most balls on the court, though.

The coach was a guy named Joe, with a thick accent hailing from the Czech Republic.  His daughter Natalie also accompanied him.  She is 10 years old and has been playing since she was 5.  She was a little superstar!  Apparently Joe and Natalie are not the regular coaches of this class; they were filling in for Mark, who is with his girlfriend in the hospital. 

My backhand was smoking!  My forehand needs more practice.  My serves, which are wimpy and meager, always land in-bounds.  Joe was so impressed he asked me to be on a women's tennis team that practices on Monday nights but has  matches on Thursday nights.  I told Joe I square dance on Thursday nights (even though I haven't been in two weeks)! Then he suggested I play on his mixed doubles team...

Anyway, it was good exercise and nice to be outdoors (82 degrees and sunny at the start of the lesson!).  I'm looking forward to continuing the lessons, and maybe even being on a team someday =)

GA Mountains

Ryan and I had a trip planned for several weeks go to Dahlonega, GA Sunday through Monday.  It just happened to fall two days after spending 3-4 days in Birmingham together. 

Dahlonega was having their Gold Rush Festival on Saturday and Sunday.  We figured we'd go up early Sunday morning, stay the night, and do things there all day Monday. We attempted to leave Sunday at 11:00am.  Two pit stops within 5 miles of leaving Ryan's house caused us to turn around and go back to his place.  My stomach was NOT happy with me.  So we ate, (I) took a bunch of Tums, and took a nap before we re-grouped and headed out again. 

We ended up arriving in Dahlonega around 5:00pm.  The festival ended at 6:00pm, which actually worked out quite nicely since the traffic was a breeze, the crowd was minimal, and it was later in the day so the temperature was a bit cooler. 

 Ryan often came to Dahlonega with his parents while growing up, so he said we MUST eat at the Smith House. 

The Smith House is similar to Das Essenhaus in Middlebury, or  the Blue Gate in Shipshewana, minus all the Amish folk.  It's good home cooking with refills on whatever is needed.  Two main differences:  It does NOT have a million pies for sale or any desserts for that matter, and you sit at tables of 10 making strangers into friends over the course of your meal.  This is Ryan and I with full bellies at the end of dinner =)

After dinner I got a teeny tiny little pumpkin and we got two big ones for carving later.  Then we went to our Bed and Breakfast called the Cedar House Inn and Yurts.  What is a yurt?  It's kind of like a big tent, except there is electricity that runs though it, but no running water.  It's glamping.  We did not stay in a yurt, but we got our picture taken like we did!

This B&B prides itself on being GREEN.  It recycles everything, all left over food goes into a compost pile, lights and water are discouraged from being wasted, and there are no TVs or hairdryers.  They even created some lawn art out of wine and beer bottles their guests have left behind:

Monday morning we had a delicious breakfast with the hosts, Fred and Mary Ann, and two older female guests from Florida.  Then we went up to another of Ryan's old stomping grounds called Blood Mountain.  There is a little store at the top where the view is gorgeous.

We had a picture taken of the both of us here, but that must be on Ryan's camera.  This location also marks the spot of the beginning of the Appalachian Trail. I though the AT logo was pretty cool.

After we left Blood Mountain we went into down town Dahlonega and explored the little shops on the square.  I don't want to brag, but I now have 3 out of 5 little one's Christmas presents done!  Next I wanted to go panning for gold.  There was a Gold Museum on the square but I wanted to actually do the panning, not read about it!

So we left the square and actually went panning for gold.  Not only did I find gold, but I also found some gems that were the neatest shades of purple, green, and pink ever. They put it all into a little vial for you take home as a souvenir. Ryan has pictures of us actually panning, but this is the only one I took:

The next stop on our journey was to Amicalola Falls.  Unfortunately you couldn't really see the waterfall in all it's glory, but here is the view from the top of it, looking down.  It's so steep you can't even see it.

THE END =)

B-Ham continued

Two nights in Birmingham turned into three nights in Birmingham.  Wednesday night Ryan and I had our first fight.  Well, it wasn't actually a fight... the was no blood drawn, nor any insults flying.  Plus, if it was a fight, I would've won.  It was more of a mutual "I'm sick of being around you and I'm not going to talk to you anymore." We went out to dinner at the Cheesecake Factory; Ryan had never been to one before.  I claim he was being the stick in the mud, he claims it was me =)

Anyhow Thursday was a whole new day and everything was fine.  I spent the day at the mall.  Those of you who know me really well, know that I do not like to shop.  I don't like to browse, I don't like to try on clothes, I don't like to offer my opinion to others who are shopping with me.  If I am shopping alone, it's because I am going into a store for something specific, with the goal of directly locating the item, purchasing it, and then leaving.  If I'm being forced to go shopping with someone, I am happiest sitting in the nearest chair.  My mom got off so easily having me as a daughter!  So it was quite unusual for me to spend the day at the mall, but it was too windy to go to the pool that day and my work out clothes were wadded up from being sweaty the day before.  I only made it through half the mall but I did do some damage.  I bought mostly clearance items, which means i can't even wear them until next year when it warms up again.  And they were clothes for a job... more dressy than casual.  So next year, at my undetermined new job, I will be looking HOT!

Friday Ryan didn't have to work so he took me to the Birmingham

To get there, we walked through this park that had several adult men hanging out in it.  On our way out, one guy had even fallen asleep at a picnic table.  Here is what the building looked like

:
You start off in a room watching an 8 minute video about how Birmingham became a city prior to the 1930s.  Then the screen lifts up, and everyone gets up and walks behind where it was and that is the start of the museum.  It's a go-at-your-own-pace type of place.  There are statues, replicas of things such as classrooms and buses, copies of newspaper articles, videos playing throughout various parts of the building, quotes, etc.  As you can imagine, the area is very crowded at first, until people disperse at their own rate.  Unfortunately, or perhaps fortunately, there were no pictures allowed to be taken inside.

It was sickening.  

There was live footage of black people being held back with fire hydrant hoses spraying water, examples of "whites" vs "colored" drinking fountains, photographs of grown men being hung with white people all around watching and cheering, and images of slaves' backs' horrifically scarred.  There was an official klu klux klan uniform, positioned in front of a burnt cross.  There was an example of the difference in type of classrooms in black schools vs white schools; black teachers had an average of 42 students per classroom whereas white teachers only had an average classroom size of 23. 

I was one of the last people to make it through the winding museum.  Close to the end, on a large projection screen, is Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. giving his "I Have a Dream" speech.  I wept.  I was glad that somehow I managed to arrive at this part alone.  It wasn't an ugly hysterical cry, but the tears streamed down, constant and uncontrollably.  And I stood there watching this man, with so much power and millions of people following him.  He could have easily promoted violence as his vehicle to achieve basic human rights, but instead he had the foresight, wisdom, and love of being a Christian to preach non violence.  And I wept.

Across the street from the Institute is the 16th Street Baptist Church.  This is the church that was bombed and four innocent little girls lost their lives at the hands of scared white men.  Men who chose violence as their response to non-violence. 

The Institute was featuring a set of photograhs for this season titled "Let your Motto be Resistance" which featured successful and famous black people and their various accomplishments to American society.

To wrap this up, I encourage everyone to live your life in a way that judges people by the content of their character, rather than by someone's accomplishments or lack there of.   Base nothing on how one's body looks whether it is obese or anorexic, a different color, short or tall, male or female, gay or straight, disabled, scarred, dirty or clean, rich or poor, strong or weak.  I also encourage you to remember that no matter what your problems are, there are people who have problems that far exceed yours.  Try to view your life in its true perspective, and follow the path of doing what's right even when you perceive everyone else to be bringing you down. Much love ~ Courtney

BAMA baby

On Monday night Ryan told me that he was going to be in Birmingham Wednesday day and stay the night there.  He ends up going to Birmingham about once every three weeks or so.  He usually doesn't stay the night but there is no estimator in the Birmingham branch so whenever they get jobs to bid, Ryan comes down for that.  Apparently they have enough jobs for him to bid to warrant him staying the night.  Being the non-employed, fun loving traveler that I am, I invited myself to come along.  And then I had an even better idea - that we should go Tuesday night also.  So he called the office and had it all set up for both nights.  We are staying at the

We arrived last night just after 9:00pm local time.  We are staying on the 15th floor, which requires a special key to access that floor via the elevator.  This floor only offers a free breakfast from 6:00am-9:00am, and free appetizers and drinks from 5:00pm-9:00pm.  Needless to say, we missed the free food that night.  This hotel connects to the Riverchase Galleria, which is a huge mall named one of the top 25 malls in the country.  The mall was closed for the night too.

This morning I spent time at the pool. It is on the roof of the 4th floor.  I was the only one there.

Now I'm going to go work out in the little gym here at the hotel, and later I plan on going to the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute.  I can't be here and not pay homage to our roots!

Not the best Monday I ever had...dumped, complaints, and brussel sprouts

I got dumped.  Via text message.  My most utilized method of dumping people is via text message or email, however, now I am on the receiving end of it.  My latest tutoring client, dumped me.  She said while I was gone for a week she started working with another tutor.  Please send your condolences =)

Then my property manager called me about some issues the renters are having.  1.  Something snapped with the garage door.  They can't open it manually or electronically.  2.  The hot water in the bamboo bathroom shower is trickling out instead of fully coming out.  Gosh darn it I knew I should've sold it while I was in South Bend :) !!!

It was good to be back into my basement apartment.  I got all unpacked and settled in.  Played on the computer, went and worked out (gotta keep that Jazzercise work going!), and I went to the grocery store.  Ryan invited me over for dinner later that night and he made grilled red potatoes, pork tenderloin, and brussel sprouts.  Have you ever eaten a brussel sprout?  Disgusting!!!!!  It tricked me at first because all I could taste was the garlic and butter.  All that was left after that though was the nastiness of the actual vegetable! 

Did anyone notice the time of this post?  I’m trying something new today… getting up and working out in the MORNING.  In one hour I will be taking my body pump class.  We’ll see how this goes!

Back to GA

Ok, the people have spoken!  I'm going to make a sincere effort to write on this blog more frequently. 

Kelly drove me to the airport Sunday.  It was kind of strange.... I flew into O'Hare but flew out of Midway.  While waiting in the security line, I found someone's boarding pass at my feet. 

I have experienced getting through security, but by the time I'm at the gate, have lost the boarding pass.  This happened to Jeff and I on our hellish exile from Bolivia.  All we wanted to do was get home, but we seemed to run into one problem after another.  We tried explaining that we couldn't have possibly gotten through security without a boarding pass, but no one would listen.  The plane was boarding and Jeff is running around the airport like a crazy person trying to find our boarding passes.  At the very last minute possible, Jeff went all the way back to security and someone had turned them in.

So when I saw someone's boarding pass at my feet, I knew I should pick it up and turn it in.  Turns out it was a family of four.  The Chicago Marathon was this weekend and I suspect both the mom and dad ran in it. I saw them looking around and asked them if they were missing a boarding pass.  At the same time I asked this, a TSA agent was telling them she'd be happy to print them a duplicate copy.   Apparently things have changed since 2005!  Jeff and I couldn't get anyone to print us duplicate copies for anything!  It was the little daughter's boarding pass in that family, and the mom had the little girl Isabelle come thank me. 

At boarding time, there was still no plane at my gate.  So we had a little bit late of a take off, but I slept the whole flight. 

Ryan was waiting at the airport for me when I arrived.  Good thing too - I needed someone to be able to lift my 49.5 pound suitcase!  He also had a dozen roses waiting for me too.  He's the best!!!

Trip to Indiana

One of my bff's Kelly picked me up from the O'Hare airport on Sunday afternoon.  She came with another good friend of mine named Christy.  Christy is my former workout buddy, and a fellow math teacher.  She's also someone who I can talk to about hard issues, and we've been sounding boards and support systems for one another throughout various times in the last couple years.  It was so good to see Kelly and Christy.  Kelly has the scoop on all the office drama at my former school since she is the secretary, and Christy has access to more detailed drama being a front line classroom teacher.  They filled me in on how things have been going at JYMS this year.  I learned:

1. As a teacher we can no longer write students up for gum, being tardy, not having supplies, or cheating.
2. Students are now allowed to bring bags into the classroom, and coincidentally there have already been 2 knives brought to school this year.  Each kid only got suspended for 5 days.
3. One kid said to a teacher "I'm a hit you in your fucking face if you don't back up" and only got suspended for 3 days.  This same teacher filed a police report on the incident, which is supported by the union, however was discouraged by the wonderful administration.
4. Since we went from 6 academic teams down to 5, class sizes are maxed out and one specific teacher has one class with more students than desks, so one child has to sit on the floor for class.
5. We went from 3 secretaries down to 2, so now whenever a teacher needs to call down to the office, it is nearly impossible to get a hold of anyone.
6. On a positive note, I learned the 8th grade math scores went up 14 points from last year, vs the 7th grade scores which only went up 1. 
7. Certain teachers are still getting away with dressing ghetto fab, coming in late daily, double dipping on getting paid, and getting paid to hardly work instead of working hard.
8. Lunches got shortened from 39 minutes down to 30 minutes.

The list could go on and on but I will stop it there.  OH and while I was in town a Mishawaka teacher made the news for duct taping a special needs student's mouth shut.  But hey, Mishawaka has a winning football team so everything else can slide....

Monday I actually went to the school to visit my former co-workers.  It was REALLY good to see everyone.  I'm kind of a celebrity there... so everyone was really happy to see me too.  Everyone kept commenting on how happy I seem now!  Some fools asked if I miss it (teaching), and my response was an adamant ABSOLUTELY NOT!!!  One of the best parts about being back at JYMS was getting to eat a cafeteria lunch.  It was pasta bar day so I was stoked =)

I went to visit my old classroom.  Room 603 - it still says Miss Bulger outside of it.  But my room has been turned into a computer lab, with laptops on each desk.  The door was locked but I took a picture through the window.

The very first friend I made at JYMS 7 years ago was Michelle McCoige.  We were both coaching volleyball at the time before the school year even started.  She had me over for dinner on Monday night with her family.  Back when I first met her she was a newly wed, and now she has 2 little girls.  I was grateful for the offer, and super grateful for the food and catching up.

I stayed at Kelly's house for a couple days in Mishawaka.  I love love love love her kids and they seem to love me too.

I met up with an old friend from Michigan City, who now lives in South Bend, for lunch on Tuesday.  Tuesday night Kelly, Haley, and I went out to eat at Bar Louie.  The three of us used to get together once a week to vent, share, laugh, problem solve, and cry.  It was good reminiscing... we were there for 5 hours!  I know one of the guys who rents my house out works at Bar Louie so I was going to introduce my self and feel him out for how serious he is about buying my residence, but he was not working that night.

Wednesday morning my mom came to get me from Mishawaka to take me to Michigan City.  I dropped her off at work and then went and visited an old friend from high school, who just had a baby about 5 months ago.  I probably haven't seen her in 3 years so it was good to catch up.

Later that night my mom and I went to Jazzercise.  When the class was over I told her I thought it was really hokey and a joke of a workout.  My inner thighs received the karma of that comment the next day - they were burning! 

Thursday my mom and I went to Jazzercise again, around noon, and again, I thought "what a joke".  My obliques hurt so bad still 2 days later that I have learned my lesson about complaining about Jazzercise!!!  That afternoon I FINALLY got to meet Miss Kennedy Elise Baker.  She is the newest addition to my family and the only girl!

That night I went out to eat with my bff cousin Hillary.  We got kicked out of the place we were there so long talking!  It's nice to be able to get one on one time with her since she has a husband and 2 kids of her own.  It is a rare opportunity, and one I gladly took advantage of!  Same thing with my other bff cousin Leslie.  She now has 3 kids and a husband but just the two of us got to go out for lunch on Friday.

I spent the rest of the day Friday night and Saturday over at Doug and Leslie's and Hillary and Troy's.  Overall I got to spend a ton of time with my family... my mom, cousins, aunt and uncle, cousins' kids, and CC.  Brian even made a brief appearance!  It's easy to take advantage of, or not appreciate, the relationships you have when they are so close by.  Being gone has made me value their importance in my life and how lucky I am to have such a great family.

In fact, there is nothing more heartwarming than my Godson Jack jumping up and down the first time he saw me, running up to me yelling, "Welcome home, Courtney!  Welcome home!"  And he ended my trip with "Bye Courtney.  See you at Christmas.  I love you!"  That greeting and farewell alone made my trip!!!