Meet me in St. Louis....

We had a good trip home to St. Louis. It was so nice to spend some quality time with friends and Steve and I were both a little sad to have to come home to Madison. I feel like I'll be recuperating for weeks from all the late nights that I'm no longer used to.

I was super happy that we got to spend so much time with Missy, Dale and the kids. I have missed them so much and love that we have the kind of friendship that can pick up right where we left off. I always get a little nervous about seeing the kids when we go home because I wonder if they'll remember me since it's so rare that we get to see them now, but I was very happy to see them waiting to give me a hug outside the bathroom door at 6 am on Thursday morning just after I had gotten up. They were very excited to see Steve as well and kept asking me when he would wake up.
I actually ended up staying awake until 1:30 to bring in the New Year, I might have been a little bit half asleep, but I was still functioning nonetheless! We ended up going to the Blues game with Nate & Moyer and then headed over to Chasers to hang out with Jamie, Jerry and Phyllis.Go Blues!As always, we enjoyed our time back in St. Louis and soaked up every minute that we got to spend with friends, but every time we go home it just leaves us feeling so sad that we live so far away from all of the people that we love the most. We always can't help but feel a little bit lonely once we get back to life and reality in Madison. It's been especially hard since I've been pregnant, because I get so sad that our kids won't grow up knowing all the people that are so dear to our hearts because of the 6 hour drive that separates us.

Being further away really does help me treasure the moments that we have with these dear friends though and not take a single second for granted. Now we're back to life here. Steve started puking almost immediately once we got home and has been sick ever since. He ended up going back to work today, but now I'm starting to feel like I might be coming down with what he had - so not fun! I'm just glad we weren't sick while we were away. Now it's time to get back to the daily grind. After having 3 day work weeks these last 2 weeks I'm really not looking forward to putting in a full 40 hours, but then again, I'm just happy to have a job!