In Alaska, we helped Sarah and Cody pack up, met Cody’s parents, kept Teresa entertained, took a couple turns changing diapers (a first for Ryan!) and spent hours just catching up. We spent a little time being tourists: we took a day trip to Seward, where we went to the Sea Life Center and ate great food at a cute little restaurant right on the inlet. Ryan and Cody also got to take Teresa to the zoo (I’m a tad jealous). Ryan and Alistair tied for most comedic moments in Alaska: Ryan gave himself a giant hickey on the middle of his forehead (the size of a golf ball) by using a Ziploc vacuum sealer pump on his forehead, while Alistair performed big with a perfectly timed blowout. Ryan and Cody were reading a “talking” card in Target for Father’s Day with Peter Griffith trying decide whether or not it was safe to fart. Right as Peter lets it loose in the card, Alistair blows out his diaper.

While getting through the airport to get to Colorado was a big challenge (fussy toddler), we made it safe and had some great time with the kids before the boys arrived safely. Teresa had her best comedic moment as we loaded up the rental car. As we were getting ready to go, poor little Teresa starts freaking out (but not crying) in the back seat saying, “Sticky! Sticky! Sticky!  Sticky Mommy! Wash Hands! Sticky! Sticky! Sticky!” We look at the back seat to find Teresa strapped into her car seat with her legs straight up in the air, spread-eagle above her head and waving her strawberry cereal bar covered hands around with her legs. She managed to get the nutrigrain bar we gave her all over the inside of her legs, all over her diaper and all over her hands. Best I can figure is that she dropped the cereal bar in her lap and then mashed it into her legs in an attempt to pick it up with her little fingers. I laughed so hard I cried when I cleaned her up!

The Denver portion of our trip involved a lot of hanging out at the hotel, some time at the pool, moving them into their (GREAT) apartment and (PERFECT) neighborhood. Sarah and I took the kids to the Children’s Museum (I think Teresa has an OCD level obsession with carrots from the play garden) and Ryan and I spent a day wandering Downtown. Overall, it was an amazing two weeks.

Even more than the fun, the trip gave me a lot to reflect on. While I really enjoyed playing with Teresa (I miss her already! I love being Auntie Rachel!), I’m not ready to be a mom myself. I enjoy being just a couple. Sarah is an amazing mother. Her daughter is incredibly intelligent (at two!) and her son is so sweet. I think she could give her husband a bit of a break, he’s doing just fine, and he’s still learning to be a dad. His instincts may not be as strong as hers, but I think he’s doing his best, and that makes him a great dad. He clearly loves his kids (and her). I wish they fought less, but I know they still love each other and that circumstances are a bit tough right now. He’s gone so much, and they have a lot to worry about with a new baby and a two-year old. We definitely saw the good and the bad of having kids, but we still think they’re doing great.

I also know Ryan will be a great dad. He was so involved with Teresa, and he loved every second. He also enjoyed the peacefulness of holding a sleeping baby (and he didn’t freak out immediately when Alistair made a fussy face). It was endearing to see him with the kids, and knowing that he was enjoying their time together just as much as they were.

It was also great to have a girlfriend, talk about life, feel close and have someone who calls just to chat. It’s nice to have “close” girlfriends. (I’m beginning to think two seems to be my consistent, magic number of close girlfriends–not to say that I wouldn’t mind having more!)

Summary:

Flight out: landed early, easy trip. No problems.

Saturday: Ellis Island (Amazing) and the Statue of Liberty (Cool, but like most monument attractions, it isn’t on my must see for a second trip)

Sunday: Midtown NYC: Times Square, Madison Square Gardens, Fashion Avenue, Broadway, Madison Avenue, the Harley Davidson Store (for Jay), Radio City Music Hall, M & M World, the World’s largest toy store (Toys R Us), Hershey Store, Rockefeller Center (and a trip to the “Top of the Rock”, which was very cool!), Ed Sullivan Theater, the theater that RENT played in for many years (now Guys and Dolls), Central Park, Empire State Building, ESPN Zone for Jay’s birthday dinner and LOTS AND LOTS of walking.

Monday: recouperate, celebrate Robin’s birthday, meet some of their friends, cookout, wander Westfield, games in the yard, etc.

Tuesday: WTC site and nearby church, Gucci purse purchase in Chinatown (from the secret backroom collection), Little Italy, Greenwich Village, SoHo and celeb sightings (didn’t know who any of them were, I fail. Robin was super excited about getting her picture with two characters from “Gossip Girl”.)

Wednesday: Head home. Plane delayed slightly. Landed safely, all is well.

I think I’m going to ask Ryan to take it. Just to see how we compare. Maybe it will help us better understand each other. Either way, it’s very cool.

• Got in a half hour late due to traffic issues from a dusting of snow, detours and classic MN construction. Gross.
• Missed morning meeting where new Senior VP of Sales/Services introduced herself. Bummer. I’m curious.
• Super urgent project that has to be done start to finish (all me) in less than two days (I finished something that normally takes two weeks in one day. Go me!)
• Found out that the one person in our dept. who’s job most directly impacts mine was let go. (Although we all saw it coming, the timing for this was paticularly bad for me)
• Had to mad scramble to figure out everything above person was working on and re-assign it to myself, an intern or an outside company (for the things the intern and I couldn’t or didn’t know how to do)
• Ate lunch at my desk due to above issues.
• Got a call from dad telling me about his exciting news: he has new hearing aides. He’s WAY excited about this. Suddenly he can hear his shoes squeak and keys jingle. Noises he didn’t realize he was annoying people with on a daily basis. (He apparently hates the sound of tires on the road though!)
• Came home and had a drink and made the husband cook dinner!

WHEW!

It’s also filled with amusing twists and turns.

This weekend was great. Sarah was staying at our apartment for the weekend since the high school girls basketball team was in the state tourney. Augsburg has some stupid rule about students being checked out over spring break, so she couldn’t go back to the dorms. The girls basketball team went nearly undefeated the entire season. They finally lost on Friday, but still ended up coming 3rd in the tournament with a 32-1 record. Pretty amazing.

Friday night, Sarah and I stayed up late talking. It still amazes me how close we’ve become in the last two years. Our relationship has definitely changed for the better.

Saturday morning, Ryan and I decided to go home for the weekend. I’ve really been missing Mom, so it was time to make a trip. We spent some time with her just hanging out. I made taco salads for dinner, and then Ryan and I went to play bar bingo with Dad. I won $17.50! It was a half jackpot… stupid other guy with my lucky number 13!

Sunday was even more fun. We went up to Duluth to go shopping. Mom bought Ryan and I “Easter Basket” presents and Ryan some birthday presents (clothes). I swear she’ll find any excuse to spoil her kids, but I wish she wouldn’t. I would rather have her spend the money on herself! We’re fine!

So the twist?

On the way up to Duluth, we stopped at the gas station. As we were checking out, Ryan got a funny look on his face and said “Look who just walked in.” I glanced back to see one of my high school friends and her bf ducking into the back of the store. Seriously, she ran and hid! Who hides from someone like that? I’m totally amused by this. Is this normal? I’d love an opinion here, because it seems childish to me. I’m not saying she has to strike up a friendly conversation, but RUN AND HIDE??? Can’t we just walk into a store and walk by like grown-ups?

I assumed that it would take longer than it did. Normally you wait in the waiting room for 30-45 minutes, then wait in the exam room for another 20, right? Well, lucky me, I was about a half hour early and already had my paperwork filled out, so I hunkered down for what I thought was going to be a long wait. I was in and out of the office in less than an hour! I’m impressed. Especially because that included all the bloodwork and that crap. And the bonus part? I may not have to be violated again for 3 years if all comes back normal. Sweet! But that’s not the best part for me: I found a doctor that I really like. This is huge for me, since I’ve had some pretty rotten doctors over the years. She was  a few years older than me, married w/no kids (like me) and was generally sweet, informative and even cracked a few jokes here and there. Anyway, I think I’m going to look for the sites that give doctor reviews and give her a really good one, because she realy made an unpleasant chore not so bad.

In other news, I have the rest of the day off, since I figured it would take my entire morning to do all this. The question is, what do I do now? Hmmm… first order of business will have to be a great breakfast, since I couldn’t eat anything before my appt.

On Monday, I woke up determined to have a great day (especially after reading The Secret the night before). I was so cheerful that it really freaked people out (Mondays aren’t usually paticularly cheerful days at the office).

Tuesday, despite my efforts, was the total opposite. Work was stressful and irritating at times, but I got through it and had a really great evening networking at a partner event.

Work was work on Wednesday, but after work, I spent some quality time at Barrio sending off Liz, one of the members of our partnership team, off on her next great adventure. She’s taking a job in Southern CA! I’d love the warm and sunny right about now!

And today? Mostly good, but some awful news too. I had a pretty productive day, and was even able to leave early due to the “snowmageddon” snow storm (that’s the term they’re using on Twitter.) I was able to accomplish some things that I was having trouble concentrating on at the office, so it was great to finish out the day at home.

After finishing up my work stuff, I called home and got some bad news: the father of a family I’m really close to from home has a malignant tumor in his liver. Everyone in that family has always been wonderful to ours. They gave my mom the bed she sleeps in every night. Gave it to her… she didn’t pay a penny for it. Not to mention other furniture they’ve just given to her. They were always my favorite family to babysit, and the mom has always been one of my “second mothers.” Their oldest son is one of my sisters closer friends. I just can’t imagine this family having to go through something so horrible. They’re saying he’ll probably be on a transplant list by the end of the week. Please keep this family in your prayers. They’re definitely in mine.

It’s families and struggles like this that make me know–without a doubt–that I want my organs donated someday.

I’ve updated my 2009 goals, and I’m really proud! I’m doing much better than I expected this early on! And I’ve finally accomplished one of my biggest goals of the last 2-3 years: we’ve finally paid off all credit card debt! It’s such a relief!

Our next financial goals: Get a “safety net” savings fund established and pay down the two smaller student loan payments so we only have to make one payment every month (3 seperate payments is REALLY annoying.)

Yay for accomplishments!

We celebrated my birthday on Saturday with a day of crossing off a few things on my “must see in Minneapolis” list. We ate at Loon Cafe for lunch–decent chili. Then we toured through about half (SO MUCH TO SEE!!!) of the Minneapolis Institute of Arts. I think we’ll go back and see the rest when the Louvre exhibit comes, because I definitely want to see the rest of the museum, and the Louvre exhibit would be a great special exhibit to check out.

After touring MIA, Ryan and I went home to freshen up, and then drove down to Chanhassen Dinner Theater. We saw a show called The Producers. If you’re a fan of Family Guy, you’ll absolutely love this show. If not, forget your morals and you can still have a good time. I’ve seen shows that I’ve enjoyed more, but it was a pretty good laugh. Satirical humor can be great if you’re in the right mood. The food was delicious and we were sitting with some pretty fun people, so it made the show that much better.

I must admit, I had a good birthday–even for a Monday. I came into work and there were a couple streamers on my cube. It wasn’t outrageous like last year, but just enough to say “we didn’t forget.” Then Pat brought us muffins. Banana chocolate chip and almond poppy seed–both of which rank pretty high in my book. Everyone signed a card for me and I had a nice bouquet of colorful gerber daisies. The work day went by pretty fast, and when we got home, Ryan made a delicious dinner and did dishes. I even had a classic Mom/Sarah card that was ridiculous and silly and wonderful.

Overall, 22 was a CRAZY year, full of lots of life-changing, wonderful events. I’ve got big hopes for 23, but then again, if you want to make God laugh, tell him your plans, right?