A lonely week ahead

This weekend was very fun. Travis and Dan and I drove to Michigan to attend my cousin's wedding, so Friday night started off with a nice 8-hour drive. Saturday was a relaxing day, though, spent chatting with lots of family. My parents were there, and my sister and her family only had a 90-min drive to get to the event so that was a nice change for them since the trip across Illinois is normally on their backs if they attend a family event. The weather was beautiful, and the bride and groom thought of everything. It was really impressive - a pinata for the (many) kids in attendance, cute bride/groom games, and sparklers to send off the newlyweds after the dance, which was actually quite rockin' for being booze-free. My family stayed up late afterwards, laughing and talking with my aunt and uncle who were relieved to have the wedding over (apparently, a bride who thinks of everything tends to be a Bridezilla from time to time). There were only two things that kept this weekend from being completely relaxing and enjoyable - the 16 hours in the backseat of the Jetta, and having to say goodbye to Travis for a week.

That's right, he's in Luxembourg as I write this. This time he's traveling for work, although the jetlag is the same no matter what the reason for travel. His plane left Grand Rapids at 7:30 Saturday, so he went to the ceremony with my family and then we took him to the airport on our way to the reception. I'm really sad to spend the week without him, and it was hard to have him go in the middle of the wedding activities like that. I pick him up from the Des Moines airport on Saturday late afternoon, and I am so looking forward to it that I have renewed respect for people live away from their spouses!!! Awful!!! :( In the meantime, I have decided to take this lonely opportunity to accomplish a list of things while he's gone (energy-permitting):

Go biking 3 times.
Unpack from the weekend
Send in contact lenses rebate
Mail another wedding gift
Clean the spare bedroom
Clean out the closet in what will be come the baby's room
Put all the baby stuff we've acquired into that closet
Start boxing stuff up that's scattered about the office in the basement due to the water issues we've had this spring.

I'm guessing I might get 6 of those 8 things done, but the items that fall into the "nesting" category are tricky. The reason stuff is scattered about the house is because I don't care to organize it and pack it away carefully in the first place. And that's really going to be necessary if I'm going to get these tasks done with any chance of ever being able to find anything in all this stuff. So again, i wonder: How did i get so much STUFF?? if I'm drowning in it now, what's it going to be like in 5 years??? Augh!!!

My whole body is aching from the trip: my back from leaning to the side in order to hear the front seat's conversation, my ribs and sides from the poor posture, and my head because I didn't drink enough water this weekend in attempt to avoid pitstops every 100 miles. I am actually so dehydrated that I feel hung over, it's very weird. But the trip was totally worth it because the wedding was beautiful and my extended family had such a great time together. I got in on some hilarious quotes from my nieces, a long chat in the car with my brother and my dad (on the way home), and I got to show off my belly to my mom and my sister, who got to feel kicks! And it was all such an easy stress-free weekend that we could really just enjoy laughing with everybody together. Awesome. :)

This fun weekend will be contrasted by the cruelty that is Work on Monday morning. But I made the list of stuff to do at home this week so that I wouldn't get the depressing mentality this week when 5:00 rolls around and "there's nobody at home to cook for or be with, so I might as well stay late..." That's a BAD Kristin! Don't think like that!! Go home and start nesting!!