Relaxed
03-09-2003, 7:48 p.m.

Well the weekend is over, and I am back home, and while I am glad to be home with Stephen, I have to say that this weekend was exactly what I needed. I felt the stress falling away the minute my parents picked me up from work on Friday. They had a surprise for me and for my gram.. they had called and rented us a room at the Holiday Inn that is pretty close to my grams house.. and not just any room, but a room with a jacuzzi in it. The hotel also had a large pool, and a fitness center, which was really nice.

We stopped at the mall to get some books for our weekend, and then my parents had quick doctor appointments, but we were on our way to Indiana shortly, and we got there pretty quickly, even stopping to have dinner. We considered going to pick up my gram, but instead we went straight to the hotel and checked in. The hotel is fairly new (having been built just last summer), so everything is really new and clean and beautiful. Our room was huge, and the jacuzzi was awesome. As soon as we got there, we called my gram and told her to pack a bag and get over to the hotel... and then mom and I went and got in the pool while my dad headed over to spend the night with my grandfathers. My gram came and met us in the pool, and we had a great time swimming and talking. After about an hour, I decided to go walk on the treadmill in the fitness center for a while, I was so glad to have that there. I really had expected not to have an opportunity to get in much exercise this weekend, and instead, I got in tons. Of course my eating wasn't so great, but really we exercised a lot so that was okay.

After we got done, we went back to the room, and mom and gram got into the jacuzzi. I took a few pictures of them, and then I said.. you know what... sometimes I get so tired of taking pictures... and I put the camera away, and never took it out for the whole rest of the weekend. On the downside, I have about 4 pictures from the weekend.. hehe, but on the upside, for once it just felt great not worrying about getting the perfect picture. I am sure that when I get to this point in my scrapbook that I will be really sorry, but right now, it just felt really good not to worry about pictures. I guess when I said I needed a break, I really meant it.

Eventually we all got dressed, and decided we were hungry.. but we are talking small town USA so nothing was open, since it was a Thursday night.. so we headed over to the grocery store and loaded up on tons of yummys for our fridge and went back to the room and pigged out. We were laughing the whole time, and just really had a great time. It was an awesome night.

Friday we got up and swam again, and then got dressed and went shopping for the day. It was fun, and relaxing and I really enjoyed being with mom and gram. When we finally got back to the hotel, we swam some more, and I walked on the treadmill again. Then we went back to the room, and spent forever reading in the jacuzzi. Talk about relaxing.

Saturday we did some more shopping, swimming and a whole lot more relaxing. I think we spent hours laying in bed just reading, watching lifetime movies and talking and laughing. Oh and napping too, can't forget the napping. We never did go do anything big the whole weekend, and it was okay. I think that it was perfect as it was.. so laid back. My Uncle and his girlfriend came to visit and that was nice, and we did get up eventually and went back out to walk around some stores, but that was about the extent of our activities for the day. Oh, expect that when we went shopping, I took them to bath and body works, which neither of them had ever really been too, and they went nuts. I think they both spent about 100 bucks each in there, so we had tons of lotions and creams, and body sprays and bubble baths and the works to play with all day. I tell you, that room ended up smelling like very bath and body works scent you could imagine. It was fun.

Then last night, my dad came back to spend some time with us, and he and I went to get ice cream together. My mom and gram wanted to read, so it was just him and I, and we had a really nice time doing that. I am glad that we went.

My cell phone wasn't getting service to it, and I didn't want to run up the phone bill at the hotel so I didn't get to talk to my friends all weekend and I really missed them so much, but they all left me messages which meant so much to me. Sometimes it just means so much to be missed.

I was sorry when today came and we had to pack up to leave. But I really missed Stephen so much and I couldn't wait to get home. First though, we went to my grandparents house and hung out for a bit with my other uncle, who is living in China for 5 years. He was here for a visit, and it was really nice to see him. He had nice gifts for us from China, and I got this beautiful thing from him. Maybe I will take a picture of it. I did consider getting out my cameras to get some pictures since he was in, but they were buried under all the stuff we bought all weekend, and I just didn't feel like going to search for them in the car. He is coming back for another visit in July though, so that will be really nice. Eventually he headed out and we were not far behind. The ride home was uneventful, and I was happy to get here and see Stephen, and my kitties. I have had a nice afternoon/evening hanging out with them, and I am about to go do that some more. I am really glad that I went though, and I am glad to be home. I feel better too, and I am actually ready to go back to work tomorrow.

The only bad thing at all about this weekend is that I had to miss out on Cory's first few days of happiness with her pregnancy. I knew she was pregnant before I left so at least I didn't have to miss that, but I feel like I missed out on something at least. I am just so happy for her and Jim. They worked so hard to get to this point, and they deserve it so much. I just know that they are going to have the cutest baby and I already love him/her... it's going to be a fun 9 months.