Hello from windy Chicago! I'm actually not there anymore, but I did travel out for work this week. We had an all in the office week, and the timing couldn't have been better with the big freeze happening around the south and icing up all the roads. It was definitely colder in Chicago though, but I still have enough winter clothing I was able to get by just fine. AND on my way to the train to the airport to head home, it was SNOWING! This is the first snow storm I've been in since we moved to Texas I do believe. We did have to drive in the snow to the airport once in UT, but I wasn't actually out in the snow at all.
Our salt experiment was a huge success last weekend. I found this lovely face waiting on the sidewalk when I went out to the car to go to the airport. The kids, especially Winry, were pretty worried about me driving in the snow all the way down to the airport, so they all came out to watch me drive off. I had to do my very best to not slide or make it look dangerous, but watching the video I really wish I'd just floored it once I was in the street to spin out the wheels. Maybe next time.
The roads just got better and better through the drive. I gave myself 2 hours to get to the airport (it's usually ~45 minutes without traffic) and it only took me a little over an hour, so I had a bit of time to stretch my legs before my flight. In fact, my flight was delayed so I had a solid 5-6 hours to kill. I walked end to end in the airport several times, and I stopped to get a picture on Grayson's favorite pink hand chair that I sent back to everyone at home.
Speaking of everyone back at home, they were all huddled together for warmth! Not really, but school got cancelled for much of the week due to the ice, and I managed to lock Monica's keys in the van on my way out the door, and the inside of the house was being painted! So they were all stuck at home in one room until they could find a locksmith to brave the icy roads and open the car! It looks like they're all still in good spirits though, so that's a good sign.
Since everyone from Austin and New York was heading to Chicago, we made a whole week of it. On Tuesday evening the team went out axe throwing. It was my first time, and it's quite a lot of fun. Getting an axe to stick into the wood took a few throws, but aiming... yeah right. After a little while they also had knives you could throw too, and I spent the second half of our time there working on that. If I were to give someone tips from my experience, they'd be to first, find a consistent way to do the throw, and then second, change how close/far you are until it's the right number of rotations to stick.
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Back in Austin everyone was eventually able to get into the car, and off to the park they went. This is the park we lovingly have nick-named "Dirty Ditch." I believe it's really called Devine Lake, and it started to freeze over! That's pretty impressive for Texas.
Brooke, ever the opportunist, took my spot in bed while I was gone. Jelly was delighted though, she didn't even have to find a new location to sleep at night.
Back in Chicago on Wednesday night, we had an event with people outside of our team, and on Thursday we had a team dinner. I typically didn't get back to my hotel room until 8-9 at night, and so each day was a pretty full day. On Friday I headed back home, and the dinosaur in the airport was wearing a hockey jersey!
The snow continued to fall the whole morning, and it caused my flight to be delayed with the de-icing and all that they have to do. Once we were all on, there were delays again because of de-icing, and the planes water pipes freezing when they de-iced the plane, and finally because the line of planes waiting to take off was backed up to right behind us, so we couldn't back away from the gate! We did eventually take off though, and thank goodness because things were not looking good on the runway as we went down, and in the middle of the flight they told us that flights out of O'Hare had started getting cancelled! So I made it out just in time.
It was nice to be back with my family, and I was really excited to see everyone again! The week in the office was really draining, and I'm not 100% sure why. It felt like I never had a moment to myself all week, and when I'd get back to my hotel room I was always so tired and just fell right asleep every night. Usually traveling gives me a bit more energy.
On Saturday I got to take Grayson to a birthday party for one of the kids he goes to preschool with. Elsa came to her party, and the kids got to sing along with songs and color and all sorts of fun things. Grayson wasn't star struck by Elsa, which I guess isn't too surprising, but he did have a good time, and everyone was super nice. Also, there was totally a dad crew. I think most of the kids were brought by their dads, so I wasn't alone in a corner either!
That afternoon,Grayson and I were working on his Lego donut truck, and decided to just build our own creations. It was so much fun! I made a little space ship, and he made a cool new donut car. He has been REALLY into Legos lately, and it's one of the few things he can just disappear and do for hours at a time.
On Saturday night we got invited to Cocoa-oke (hot chocolate and karaoke) at the Week's house. It was a lot of fun, but it's a little too bad I'm not as confident in my singing as everyone else was. It was fun watching everyone, and there were some really great performances up there by both kids and adults. I did make my karaoke debut singing Angel by Shaggy, and if you don't know, I can talk just like Shaggy, and he pretty much just talks in the song, so that's why it was the natural choice.
On Sunday I found out that fake mustaches are about the exact same size as it takes to wrap around a plastic fog, and that a fuzzy frog looks really funny. This amazing creation was put together by Grayson, and I absolutely love it!
Also, Monica saw an idea where someone took all the books they owned but hadn't read yet, and wrapped them all in paper with a number on them, and would pick one at random to read next. So we went through our board game collection and wrapped a bunch in paper. Some of these we've never played, some only I've played, and some it's been 10+ years since we played. I'm pretty excited to draw some numbers and see what we've got, but I also know that whenever we draw BattleTech, well... let's just say I was going to post a link to the rules, but there were so many rules sheets on the website I couldn't even figure out which one was for the game I have! But hey, I'm excited to finally get to play them all.
And that's a wrap on this week. It's good to be back home again, and I missed everyone terribly so much! Oh, I ended up calling home every morning. Winry and I would talk while she was riding in the car to school, and then I'd call the other kids after I had breakfast. It was nice to get to chat with everyone every day, and I'm glad we were able to figure out a way to make it work with me not getting back to the hotel until after bedtime. Anyway, we're all looking forward to a more relaxed, normal week ahead.
