Love you!

I know, I know…I am getting coal, or reindeer poop, or snowman poop, or some other lame stocking stuffer because I have been very naughty, not updating the blog in so long. I apologize for that, but it is not as easy as it sounds working from home. Thalia and I headed home over a week ago to attend Chris’ great grandma’s 99th birthday party. After that, we had dinner with my godparents, then headed up north to spend time with my grandparents. Wednesday we had fakes-giving with Chris’ family, Thursday morning (at 430am) we left for San Diego to spend time with Aunt Nikki and Uncle Toby. Our flights got all messed up coming home, so Chris, Thalia and I didn’t get home until 1am Monday morning. Monday afternoon I flew back to Raleigh and this morning I flew to DC for a day of research. Anyone still want to complain that I haven’t had time to update the blog? I didn’t think so ;o)
I guess that’s what I get for taking my daughter and moving to North Carolina. I get to cram a year’s worth of stuff into one weekend. With all the craziness, I was glad that we got to go to Thalia’s great-great grandma’s birthday party. I have pictures from all of our visits but I didn’t get a chance to email them to my work computer. I will post them as soon as Chris emails them to me. The trip up north was definitely worth it too, although it was a harrowing experience. Michigan had some bad snow storms roll through so driving became a bit treacherous. Then, when we were only a couple miles from my grandparent’s house, we saw a car that had flipped over into the ditch. Chris pulled over and had to break the back hatch to get the guy out. Luckily the guy was okay! We waited for the police to show up then we finally made it to the house. What fun Thalia had playing with her great-grandma and great-grandpa!! They don’t call them “great” for nothing!
And we had a wonderful time with everyone in San Diego. YiaYia and Papou drove in, Aunt Steph and Uncle Barrett flew in, and our friends Alex and Eric drove down from LA to spend Thanksgiving together. What a good looking crowd! And they all had a blast playing with Thalia – though it took her a while to warm up to Alex…I think it’s the hair ;o) We taught Thalia how to wave…although she does it with her arm completely outstretched, and sometimes straight up in the air, like she is in a parade or something. It is the funniest thing you have ever seen! I think YiaYia got a picture of it when we got to the beach. Speaking of the beach, Thalia does NOT like feeling of sand on her hands or her feet. We put her on a towel and she crawled to the edge. Once her hands got on the sand, she looked back at us and put her hands out and started crying! It was so cute! I took her to the ocean to see the waves, but that was a little scary. But we did wave to the surfers. I put her down so she could get her feet wet but the water was really cold and she didn’t like that either. Luckily YiaYia was there to rescue her from her terrible mother and they snuggled on the beach as we watched Uncle Toby and Uncle Barrett surf. Well, Uncle Toby surfed…Uncle Barrett kind of paddled around. But he gave it a valiant effort. We were all very proud of him. After lunch at In-n-Out Burger, our trip to the beach was complete.
Thalia is now in Michigan with her dad until Friday when they fly back down to Raleigh and Chris gets to stay for over a week! It will be nice to get to spend so much time together the last few weeks of the year.
Work has been pretty crazy. There are a lot of projects going on and a lot of uncertainty with jobs and responsibilities heading into next year. I knew it was going to be busy working on the Advair team – it is the largest brand for our company. I don’t think I realized how involved I would be in the busyness. The way my interview went, it sounded like I would be doing a lot of grunt work the first part of the rotation and get to be part of some fun projects at the end, kind of like a reward. Instead, I was pretty much pushed into the middle of the deep end without any floaties. The nice thing is that there is a lifeguard – my team. They have been very cognizant of my workload and ensuring I am not left out on a limb by myself. I’m not really complaining…I would rather be in the thick of things than just watching everyone else work. I just don’t think I was quite prepared to be given so much responsibility so early on. I think the bigger issue is that all this travel is eventually going to kill me. It’s important to me that Thalia get to see her extended family and that they get to see her, but I think Chris and I are going to have to have a serious discussion about the travel arrangements for next year. Unfortunately, with the holidays here and trips already planned, it is not going to get any easier in the short-term. Wish us luck!
I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving and are staying warm. LOADS of pictures to come in the very near future.
Very much love and a bit more sleep,
c, c, and t