A few highlights from the weekend! I was able to go to Iowa to see my family this weekend, yay! The list below is truly just little highlights. Overall, it was so nice to spend time together!

Friday

• Breakfast sandwiches by Steven.
• Getting more packages mailed on my lunch break. I mailed out so many rocks last week. USPS prices to Europe have really increased, whoa! It used to be $20 to send a package under 2 lbs and now it’s closer to $30.
• My friend Meagan posting pictures of a package I sent her and people going crazy for the earrings! I got her these litter box scoop earrings.  Lots of people asked where they were from (I got them at a store, but they are from Layers by Design on Etsy) and I saw that 9 people had them in their cart on Etsy. I hope the artist got a lot of sales from that exposure! It’s really neat to think that her sharing another artist’s product made so many others want to buy it! I’m glad to be a part of that.
• A speedy run followed by Starbucks and a hot bath.
• Packing for my Iowa trip.

Saturday

• Mailing one last European package on my way out of town.
• A safe drive to Iowa. The reason I left Saturday morning is because Iowa got so much snow on Friday. Luckily my drive was mostly clear, with only a few instances of snow covered left passing lanes.
• Listening to a podcast while I drove. I’m so behind on podcasts, all the time, since I run so much less!
• Trying the vegan burritos from Aldi. They’re pretty good!
• Playing really wildly with William and Leo. Maybe a bit too wild. Ha ha.
• Painting a Tigger rock and learning that my sister-in-law Alyssa loves Tigger.
• The birthday party for William and Leo. It was a pool party at a hotel and they had a lot of fun! I got to chat with one of my snister’s friends, my paternal Grandma, my older brother, and my aunt a bit. And my snister got me vegan cupcakes! Yum!
• Sleeping really hard in a dark room without any cats.

Sunday

• A walk with Dad. It was in the low teens but felt fine out since it wasn’t windy!
• Starting my washi/sticker book while listening to Encanto. William made his own sticker page, too.
• Everyone coming over for lunch. I sat with the kids and they were being so silly. I asked our nephew James what his favorite movie was and he said he had to come whisper it in my ear because it had a naughty word. It was Ernest Scared Stupid. Ha ha ha ha ha.
• Getting vegan cookies at Insomnia Cookies. I didn’t realize they’ve had vegan cookies for a while!
• Playing four-player Mario in the theater with Will, Christina, and Anthony, and with the kids watching (and holding controllers so they could pretend they were playing). We played a collaborative Mario game where we were all working together, and it was such a hoot. We were being really loud and yelling at each other and the kids were super into it.
• Will helping me reconfigure some of the dumb Windows 11 stuff on my new computer. Gah. It’s been a struggle. What we can’t fix? That the Ctrl key is in the wrong spot. It’s in the lower left on every computer I’ve ever used, but on this one, it’s one over from the lower left – Fn is there instead.

Monday

• Breakfast with Dad and my snis on the way out of town. I don’t think the three of us have ever gone out, and that was really nice.
• Another safe drive home and catching up on more podcasts.
• Getting home around 3:00 and having enough time to do laundry, walk on the treadmill, and put all my stuff away, etc.
• Hanging out with the cats (and Steven when he got home)!

Lowlights

• Overdoing it with my hot bath. I felt so sick and dizzy I couldn’t eat much of dinner.
• The chlorine at the hotel hurting my eyes so badly. They were red most of the day after the pool party.