Chi Town

Sniffle sniffle. Yep, its started again. But what can you expect when you take your body from 5 degrees to 70 degrees in one day. Our Chicago trip turned out GREAT on both sides. Our sailor looks amazing and is loving the Navy and getting all kinds of awards. Yes, I will brag. She won a marksmanship ribbon and she's an E2. She leaves for Pensacola to become an ABF - aviation boatswain fuels - she'll be pumping gas into jets. How exciting (yes, and dangerous but we're ignoring that part right now). She will see the world and for a talented mechanical girl, this will be great for her. We had a nice day and a fun visit and even made a little video for my hubby and the rest of the family. It was fun to hear all about her day and the people in her division and what she's liked so far. (firefighting school). And then the REAL fun started...

On Friday FIVE of the best peeps in Chicago braved the elements to go to Hannah's and Paper Source and partake in a yummy meal at the Lake House. Total fun with Cathy, Nan, Shelley, Jeanne (my roomie) and Kathleen (soon to be mama). Hannah's is a great craft store in Antioch, not fancy and lots of good stuff to choose from - sewing, beading, general crafts and of course, our fav - scrapbooking. Good Tim Holtz selection. And who doesn't love a good Paper Source. Expensive yes, but great envelopes and its interesting to see what they have going on as far as colors and styles. It was such a fun time to compare notes and jabber about what we made for Christmas or Silver Bella. I told Jeanne she is so lucky to have a great group of people around her and that they get together often. Note to self - make better effort to get together with my local peeps. The weather was so interesting and amazing. I spent an hour at 4 am watching a pick up truck try to get out of a snow drift (from my hotel window). The snow is gorgeous, especially out in the burbs where we were. It wasn't really cold to me at all - I found it refreshing. Of course, I only went from hotel to taxi so its not like I was out in it. But we did walk through the Navy RTC to pick up Rachel and it really wasn't that bad, with coat, scarf and gloves.

But like everyone else, I'm happy to close the chapter on Christmas and look ahead to 2009. 2008 was a great year with alot of good things happening. My hubby is home and life is going back to normal - a new good normal and I can't complain. Nope. Not for one minute. Bring it on.