Home At Last!!!

7 days! I just spent 7 days in Sonora, California for work. I've never been gone from my family for so long - away from any type of family. I've never stayed in a hotel by myself. It was deffionately a different type of week for myself and because I worked 56 hours while there I didnt have alot of time to feel lonely.

I helped train new employees for 7 days. I had a nice hotel room and all my meals were paid for.

in my hotel room

I went there with a sinus problem and didnt feel 100% the whole time I was there. I also ate all my meals in restaurants....which means.. I'll start my diet tomorrow....My stomach didnt feel good for a couple days. I'm not used to restaurant food.

Everyone I met was super nice except for one old guy who reminded me of a smoking, mean old version of Mr. Bean+Gomer Pile. He was not welcoming at all. (He might have been threatened because I'm younger and a female)...He told me been with the company for 5 years and "didnt know why I was sent"----even though he did not follow company policy on too many things-he could have learned a few things from me if he wasnt such a ####! I ignored him and worked with the other new employees who seemed very happy to have me there to train them all to learn our system/computer. I did as much as possible, in the 7 days I had.

Last Tuesday I drove the kids to stay(and get spoiled) for 5 days with their Grandparents. I dropped them off and visited Lena, my friend since age 7?... She has 2 babies now so I got to meet the newest one, Emily. I LOVE the sweetness of new babies...they smell so good and they cuddle and look so adorable..this one is especially sweet. To me she looks just like her mommy Sam and Emily
Her toddler, Sammy, is at the funnest age! I had total fun playing with him. He has endless energy..he ran around in circles and was soooo busy. My kids havent been toddlers for awhile so I was reminded how much time it takes for little ones. It's totally all about them(not you). Your life is not your life. It is now their life, for a while. Everything you do is for their needs, usually sacrificing or delaying your own needs for them... Then they grow up and you get a little of yourself back...

So I stayed at the Aladdin hotel Wednesday through Tuesday.
The aladdin inn website says they have wifi and HBO. I asked at the desk and the girl said they havent had HBO since she's worked their(5 mo).
She did give me a wifi passwork and it worked in the lobby and some of the hallway but not in my room... I was dissapointed about that BUT the room was clean and comfortable so I was able to do with out wifi for a week. The room also had a microwave, fridge and a mini coffee maker.
The day I drove up to Sonora it rained durring the day. By 10pm the water on the roads (from the rains) froze over. It froze so fast it looked like water still on the road - it was solid ice. I almost slipped in the parking lot twice that night. (it was 11 degrees at the lowest that night) Everything was frozen solid. People were driving super slow. A couple days later we heard about cars hitting black ice and spinning out and going off the road.
I, unfortunately, noticed that night that my right headlight was out..so I was driving icy roads, barely able to see(I went very slow and always tried to stay behind another car)
William had planned on come up Saturday after work and stay one night with me before he went to pick up the kids. It was nice because seeing him in the middle of my stay helped not get homesick. And we had dinner together and he fixed my headlight. We drove around the old part of Sonora..it's a very cute mountain town.

I spent New Years Eve alone in my room sewing. I cut out a pattern for another bag..this one will be bigger than the two I made for Christmas presents. I ironed on the fuseable.. I had to buy a new pair of scissors and pins at the store(I for got mine at home). I brought my iron, sewing machine and everything else except for pins and a pin cushion(I rolled up a pair of socks to make a pin cushion)


My last day in Sonora started out with lots of frost and ice on my car. By 8am the sun was up and the whole day was bright and cheery. -Of course the last day there would be nice. If the whole week had been like that I would have gotten out and walked for exercise...frost on my car

oh well ..Im just so happy to be home with my family now and sleeping in my own bed. Having a computer and working wifi and good cable tv and ... netflix and dvds...people that I love to talk to and hug and smile and laugh with.
I first got home and saw some drawings that my daughter made of snow covered mountains..and a person standing..I think she was imagining where I had been.
I missed seeing her drawings. Liam showed me his lego creations that he's been doing..
I spent today with my husband, took a nap, made homemade Turkey Meatballs for dinner...helped the kids with homework. A perfect evening.
Im home now back to my life and a pile(mountain) of laundry and valley fog(no sun here)and a couple days off until I go back to my real job.
:)