Home Sweet Home

It feels so good to finally be home again! After spending a total of 13 months away from our home, I am happy to finally have my own things and my own bed and not have to worry about packing and unpacking to go somewhere (well, at least until we go to Arizona for Christmas), which is basically all we've done this year. It's been a fun year, but I'm ready for a break.

(this is where we live, picture obviously taken in the summer)

Last week we spent 6 days in the car with going to El Paso and back to Albuquerque, then to Temple, TX and on to Chicago. Owen got quite used to hotel rooms and fast food restaurants! Whenever we arrived to a new hotel he got super excited and knew all the things to check out (bathroom, drawers, AC/heater unit, TV remote, and he made sure to jump on the bed).

We ended up not visiting Memphis like we had planned because it took us longer to get there than we thought and we would've had to spend an extra night and day driving. By that time we were so done with being in the car and we just wanted to get home! Owen did REALLY well in the car and rarely fussed, way better than us! We didn't even have a DVD player to entertain him, just toys and books. He just resigned to the fact that he was stuck there, I guess.

Now that we're back in Chicago I look forward to giving him more stability and routine. Right now his sleep schedule is still a bit thrown off and he's fighting his afternoon nap at this very moment.

It felt really strange driving into Chicago this time. It felt different and almost new all over again, I don't know why. Perhaps spending a couple months in spread out, urban-sprawl cities then driving through the wide open spaces of the midwest made Chicago seem overly big and crowded. But I was quickly reminded that this is home and I like it here, even though it's been gray and cloudy and rainy.

This is the view from my living room window. Now that the leaves have fallen we can see a lot more of downtown! Before, we could only see the tip of the Sears Tower (oops, I mean Willis Tower), the Trump Tower, and maybe one other building.

Oh ya, I celebrated my 28th birthday as well. This year it felt more like an afterthought rather than a big day. I guess that's what happens when you get older. Plus, mother nature decided to give me the gift of a mean cold this year. It's no fun to wake up to aches and pains the morning of your birthday! So Josh's plans to take me out to dinner were put on hold til a future date, hopefully sooner than later. He did manage to give me a rose and nice card. And Owen surprised me with two good naps! Yay! Too bad he doesn't seem to want to do the same today...