Trip Home

I hope all is well. Well let’s see since last time I posted a lot has happened. I did do my trip to Chicago. It was great to see the family again! At the end though, I was more than ready to come back home. I think after Sheila blew through the toll booth she was ready too. Good news, she won’t be serving a lot of time for the mistake. Maybe just a year or two. We’ll miss her but since Jon is on the police force I’m sure will get to visit often.

Shannon & Mike’s kids are adorable. Not that I expected anything less but it was wonderful to see them. Elizabeth , Ryan and Jacob are all getting so big. It was fun to hang out with them and to see all of their different personalities.

Mom, Dad, Sheila and I all flew in on the same plane. Mom and dad were one row back on the other side. Poor mom got stuck in the middle and dad had the window. There was some lady sitting next to mom who looked like she was ready for bed. Oversized gray sweatpants, a huge t-shirt and a sweatshirt around her waist. And than, she had this blanket that throughout most of the trip was covering her head. She didn’t have it on her body and pulled it up over her head….no it was just over her head. Very weird. Sheila and I thought she was going to get sick. She did this while we took off and landed and a few times in between the flight. When she didn’t have the blanket over her head she was busy staring at us with these big big big big big eyes. Think runaway bride eyes. Yes, we felt very bad for mom who had to sit between sleeping dad and crazy blanket big eyes.

Sheila and I actually ended up on the side where there was only two seats so we didn’t have any one besides us. However, with our side being smaller that meant that our overhead bin was also smaller. So it should have come as no surprise when the flight attendant came by and said “Who’s bag is this?” When I looked up I saw that it was mine and told her so. She than proceeded to tell me that I needed to move it “somewhere” because it wouldn’t fit. I spent the next 10 minutes trying to find out where the heck to put it. Many people around us, saw my frustration. If they didn’t they heard it when I finally found a place and slammed the overhead bins. My question to Sheila was “What is the flight attendant’s job?” because apparently it wasn’t customer service (she was rude….in my opinion.) and did not offer to help me at all. Sheila said it’s “safety”. So those of you who don’t feel safe on planes let the flight attendant know. Apparently she’s good at that. So when our “safety” attendants finally came by with the beverage cart, I think we were only about 20 minutes from our destination. They must have been busy with safety issues. I asked for a cranberry juice and of course they were out. They were out and I was done.

We got to the airport, parted ways with mom and dad and proceeded to wait for our rental car company to pick us up. We called them at 11:00pm and did not get to the rental car place until 12:30am. Again, I was just done. Finally got to our hotel and into bed by 3:00am. We had to get a good night sleep because the following day we were going shopping at Woodfield Mall. We were up by 7:00am and got ready for the big day.

We search high and low for the perfect shoes to go with our new dresses. Now, I will spare you the whole elaborate scene but picture the perfect little shoes. They are all pink and on top the have a sequined flower and feathers. THEY WERE ADORABLE!!!!!! I will need to take a picture and post them. Once we were finished shopping we headed on over to Portillos. Anyone who knows me knows that is the first place I stop at to eat in Chicago. I had my all time favorite. Jumbo chili cheese dog (no onions), onion rings and a coke. It is the best!!!! As a matter of fact, I wish I could being eating one right now. The story goes on but I am tired. Perhaps I’ll talk more about it later.

On the home front, Chris and I are getting ready to move this weekend. Blah! I am in no mood to move and neither is he. Therefore you have the only two people who live in this place not ready to move. We did pack a little bit. Chris came up with an idea. He said screw the boxes we are going to pack milk crates. So he has brought home crates from work and we have been filling those. It actually was a great idea. We don’t need to worry about crushing anything because the crates stack on top of one another. Good idea.

Also, Chris’s birthday is this Saturday. He is going to be 28. Wow. And I’ll leave it at that. I can’t believe my parents are allowing me to date someone so older than me!!!!! J Maybe they just don’t know. What do you get someone who is going to be 28?

I have finally finished my communication class. I got an “A”. Whoo hoo!!!! I now start two more next week on the 31st. So that is a total of 5 classes. Chris and I found out that I have done 58 credit hours in one year. That is typically done in two….no wonder I’m tired. But I’m almost done.

Well that is it for now. If you have any birthday ideas let me know.

Love, Katie

Here we go again...

Hello Everyone ~

Well, here it is....Sunday evening which just means tomorrow starts another week. The weekends go by way too fast. I wish I could do 4 ten hour days and have 3 days off, but I'm sure those fly by as well. This week the hotel officially changes it's name. We will now be Radisson Hotel Phoenix Airport North. You try saying that on your voicemail. We didn't even stay a Prime Hotel for a full year. We are one month short. :-) Kind of funny if you think about it. So now I have yet another business card with a new name but same address. ha ha ha. I also only have something like 85 days left. Not sure on the exact number but that is close. I was reading some of my past blogs....at one point I was at 140 days!!! It doesn't seem that long ago. Time really does fly by....whether we want it to or not.

Next week, Sheila & I fly out to Chicago. It will be great seeing the family again. I'm sure my niece and nephews are really big now. I can't wait to see them!!!! That weekend is going to fly by so I'm going to have to make it all worth it. And I need to stop and eat at Portillos and Zippy's. It has been so long since I have had a jumbo chilli cheese dog, onion rings and a chocolate shake from Portillos. I am drooling just thinking about it. :o) I wonder what the weather is like...I'll have to check. It's amazing how quickly you forget things like that. Today, it was about 85 degrees around 6:30pm. Really nice out, so it's hard to think that every where isn't the same. Hopefully we'll get to see everyone. I don't know when the next time I'll get to leave Arizona will be. I determined just the other day that when I am finished with student teaching it will almost be my birthday. So there I will be 27 years old....no job, broke, no car, finished with school (which has been my life) and older. Hopefully I'll get a postion pretty quickly so I'm not sitting around with Ben & Jerry watching reruns of Sex & The City and wondering why my favorite jeans no longer fit. However, it would be great bonding time with the animals. But soon they would get sick of me.

As a matter of fact I am sure they are ready for me to go back to work. Today, Bella (the cat) got outside and hopped over to our neighbor's porch. There she decided that she no longer wanted white spots and rolled around in the dirt. By the time she came back home she was a dusty mess!!!!! I mean just distgusting. She knew what we were going to do and ran away the minute Chris went for her. Finally we go her and went up to the tub. You haven't heard a cat cry until you have heard Bella. She is extremely loud. I'm sure people thought we were killing her!!!!!! Cleaned her up and now she fit's her name - just Beautiful!!!! Of course, Mack (the dog) wasn't stupid and ran and hid but after taking him outside to brush him, he willingly came up for a bath. He is shedding like crazy. He looks absolutely handsome. But they have been giving me evil eyes since. Diego is the only one that loves me and that is only because I didn't have the strength to fit him. He comes complete with claws and isn't above using them. So we still have a wonderful relationship!!! Bella will soon be over it....once she wants me to feed her.

Ohhh, I do have good news...Well at least for me. Last semester when I was taking 6 classes I ended up getting straight A's. I am in the second part of the semester in four new classes. I'm hoping I can keep up the streak.

Well that is about it in the world of Katie. I should find out soon who my mentor teacher is and be finishing up at work. I hope you are all well.

Happy May Day!!!! Love, Katie