Bon voyage

Happy Monday morning! It’s a bit of a dreary day here in Des Moines but that’s ok.  It is March for goodness sake.  I had such an excellent time at home this weekend with the family.  I couldn’t have asked for anything more.  Well, I could’ve done without that $168 speeding ticket on the way back to Des Moines but alas, I digress. Friday I got to spend time with Miranda and my Jake-man.  He and Sissy gave me a beautiful topaz necklace to wear while I’m gone.  Topaz symbolizes strength, courage and wisdom.  It’s perfect and I will cherish it always.  Friday night fish fry at Uncle Mark’s with the awesome people of Hesper.  Saturday was wedding stuff with my sister and Saturday night my parents hosted almost 70 people at their house to say goodbye to me.  It was perfect.  I even received a few surprise visitors that made long drives to bid me farewell and made me weep like a willow.  So much love and support surrounding me.  I will pack it with me and take it along to BLR for the days I’m getting my butt kicked all over the place.  There was so much food at Mom’s it was ridiculous! Yeah, I took pictures to show you.  The pictures are from later in the night when some stuff had been polished off or put away but you can still see that there were copious amounts of goodies.  I did really well resisting most of the temptations and was proud of myself.  It was a good test to see that I can continue doing that when I return. This week will be busy with packing, wrapping up projects at work and saying my goodbyes. I have a feeling the next six days are going to fly by.  But I can’t wait!! It’s go time and I’m so ready.