Home Again, Home Again, Jiggity Jog

It has been a crazy couple of weeks since I last wrote. Things are going better for us and we are settling down into a sort of routine and familiarity with this place. We know where we grocery shop and that rush "hour" starts at 3:30pm.

On September 22, my sister Jen had her adorable baby girl, Hallie Ann (I am sure she gets her middle name from me, no matter what Jen says).

Alexander is doing well in school. He has already aced one exam and fired off two papers, lots more to come before Christmas though.

I went to a staffing agency a couple weeks ago. The woman was not very friendly and was sort of exasperated when I explained that I wanted a job as an event coordinator, telling me that there aren't any jobs in that field. I nearly stormed out, but decided to at least try to get my foot in the door somewhere. I grudgingly consented to take the skills tests that they force on you, though I was a bit too prideful to not be offended.

The first test was a typing test, but my hands were really cold and I was a tad nervous (it's been years since I've taking a typing test). My fingers shook the entire 5 minute test, so I assumed I didn't do too well. The next three tests were for Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. Each test had 20 questions (i.e. password protect this document in two clicks or less) and 25 minutes for each one. I finished the entire thing in less than 30 and I think I shocked the lady when I came out so early. She was visibly impressed though when she saw my scores, 63 wpm with a 99% accuracy rate, and expert levels in Word and PowerPoint. My Excel score was Intermediate, but she said that the test was geared for those with a strong background in accounting, which I have no experience in, and that I did better on it than expected.

Surprisingly, after my test this lady was much nicer to me, and told me that "lots of people want a job as an event coordinator, but now that I look at your resume, I see that you actually have the experience for it". Duh... didn't you look at my resume before? Anyway, she was very confident that with my skill set they would be able to find a good place for me. We shall see...

I guess it's no surprise that I had been having an emotionally difficult time out here the past few weeks. My family constantly talking about the tiny, cute baby just threw me over the edge. I spontaneously bought a plane ticket home and didn't tell anyone but my friend Melissa who agreed to pick me up at the airport. My sweet Alexander was so wonderful to let me go off and leave him alone for 5 days.

I arrived on Thursday morning and spent a couple of hours with Melissa before we went over to Jen's house. She was shocked speechless (which is saying a lot) and I had a fun time holding the darling baby.



While I was there, Melanie called Jen and asked if she could come over. When she arrived I answered the door. Melanie stood on the porch, mouth hanging open for a full 5 seconds before she suddenly threw her arms around me in a huge hug. I LOVE SURPRISES!!!

Later, Melanie drove me down to my parent's house. Apparently, my dad was on the phone with my mom when he looked out the window and saw me outside. He asked my mom why I was walking down the driveway, my mom replied that I wasn't. When I opened the door, Natalie, Denise, and my dad were standing there with wide eyes. Dad handed me the phone and told me to tell mom who I was. She didn't believe me, but she must have driven home fast because pretty soon she was home, running from the car to the house. You would have thought I'd been gone two years instead of two months.

The rest of the night consisted of hilarious greetings whenever someone else came home. McKay walked in the door looked at me, dropped his bag, and yelled "What the freak?!" It was fairly awesome.

I had so much fun with my family and friends and they were so nice to me, letting me use their cars and mess up their weekend schedules. I arrived at VitalSmarts on Friday just in time to go out with all the girls for Tara's birthday lunch, so I was pretty excited about that. Melanie had an extra ticket to the Saturday afternoon session of conference so I went up there with her and Denise and enjoyed the perfect weather. Sunday I cooked a huge meal of BBQ pork and beef with potato salad and baked beans. On Monday I was able to meet up with Jaclyn for lunch and see her gorgeous new house. Later Melissa and I broke all our previous records on the X-box game Lips and got #1 in the world singing the song "Kiss Me" by Sixpence None the Richer. YAY!!! The blood, sweat, and tears finally paid off there. ;)

It was hard leaving Tuesday morning, I already felt like I was home, but I knew that Alexander was waiting for me and I did miss him, so I sadly walked the plank, err, terminal to my fate and back to Missouri.

I have felt better since returning, like the visit refilled my spirits. I have so many blessings and am so grateful for all those people who love me enough to want to spend time with me. :)