1,082

1,082 miles of love, laughter, (some) tears, and a lot of growing.  1,082 miles of cuddles, hand holding, firsts, and kisses.  1,082 miles of families, friends, food, and holidays.


There are roughly 1,082 miles from Nevada, Missouri to Bossier City, Louisiana, back to Nevada, Missouri, then to Ankeny, Iowa and back to Nevada, Missouri.  Over the past 10 days, that is (very simply) what Mo and I have done. 


I could give you a play by play of each day, telling you about the exciting things we did in each place.  Or I could save that for a later post and  just tell you that I feel more in love with Mo each and every single day of that trip. 


Seriously.


That man is amazing.

It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year

I love the holidays.  All the food and family at Thanksgiving.  All the happiness, Christmas music, traveling, smells, and gifts around Christmas.  The excitement and romanticness of New Year's Eve.  The last 6 weeks of the year might be my favorite of all. 

For Thanksgiving, I got to pick up one of my best friends as she surprised her family for Thanksgiving.  She lives in Texas and had them convinced she wouldn't see them until August and then she showed up on their doorstep!  It was so fun being part of her surprise and knowing about it all along :)

Then I headed even farther north to Cedar Rapids, and got to meet my brand new nephew, Frank Richard.  And I learned I'm not good at sharing.  I could've held that little bundle of joy every second he was around us and still not gotten enough.  He was such a trooper as we played "Pass the Baby" every 20 minutes, and kept him up way late.  He was so fun to watch as he took in all the new faces and smells around him.  The dogs weren't too sure about this crying thing that smelled human that everyone was holding, but they did great, too!  I can't wait to see him again at Christmas!

Having Thanksgiving in a hotel room isn't the most ideal setting, but it worked well for one reason: we were together.  That's all that mattered.  We could've been in a cardboard box with oatmeal and we would've had fun.  Cold, but happy.  We had a lot of fun playing games, doing puzzles, watching football, cutting lamination (this teacher needed some help!), and just enjoying each other. 

Saturday afternoon, I headed back home to KC after seeing one of my dear friends since elementary school.  On Sunday, my Steelers were playing Greg's Saints and we'd had a bet on the game since July so there was no way I wasn't going to be there to rub it in his face when we won. Except, we didn't.  So now I'll have to buy a Saints jersey and at least pretend to like wearing it :(

I've FINALLY added photos from our NOLA trip for your viewing pleasure!!