Check another one off the list!

I can now say I’ve been to Wisconsin…that makes state number 42 that I’ve visited…and for those of you nay-sayers who say being in the Chicago airport doesn’t count for visiting Illinois, I have now spent the night in DeKalb, IL – so I’m official now.

B has been in Wisconsin for 2 weeks training for his new job, so I came up to visit for the weekend. He has one more week to go…and although there are great benefits working for the gov’t…flying home on the weekends isn’t one of them. I didn’t want to go 3 weeks without seeing my husband, so I booked a ticket and came up for my conjugal visit. LOL

We had an amazing weekend. I got in Friday night, and on Saturday morning after a GREAT and FREE breakfast in the hotel (the short order cook made me eggs just the way I wanted them), we jumped in the rental car and headed south to visit our good friends in Illinois. We met G & D right after we got married when we lived in Texas. D and hubby started with their company on the same day. Neither of us knew anyone in our little East Texas town, so we spent a lot of time together. They have twins who are now 10 (I can’t believe it!), and we love them to death! G & D left Texas a few months before we did, and since then they’ve lived in MI, UT, MN, and now IL…wow! In only 5 ½ years!

We’ve only seen them a handful of times since we all moved away, but whenever we get together it’s like no time has passed (except that the kids are almost as tall as me!). We spent the day doing what all northerners seem to spend their days doing – drinking and eating, oh yeah, and drinking some more! But, it was a blast. It was windy and cold, but we braved it all to hang out on the front porch (the deck was just TOO windy), telling stories, laughing hysterically and listening to Bryan Adams…how much better can it get?

Sunday morning, we woke up and ate breakfast with our buddies, and then we hit the road back to WI to spend the day with my brother and SIL. Brother has decided that he doesn’t need rehab (not entirely sure how I feel about that), and SIL has moved back in to their apartment. Brother turns 30 this week, so we told him to pick the place and we’d take him out for lunch. We ate at a local brewery on the river in Milwaukee (iced tea and sodas all around – no booze), and then brother toured us around Milwaukee. We walked by Lake Michigan, drove by all the cool architecture, hit a local hobby shop (for B!), and then went to see their apartment. It’s in the cutest little village, with their own village hall, and houses still standing from FDR’s New Deal plan.

Time was running out so we grabbed a coffee and headed back to the hotel, where I had to pack up and say goodbye to B…again. Thank God he only has 5 more days and then he’s home. I’m so glad I got to come up for the weekend, but I’m sad that B isn’t going home with me.

I’ll be boarding my plane soon to head home, and I pray that the thunderstorms of the weekend won’t affect my trip home. I get in late and then I have to make it in to work somehow tomorrow morning…the worst part about the whole weekend!

Update: I'm home now...back in the land of Oz. I'm sure all of you heard about the devestating tornado that hit Greensburg in Western Kansas on Friday night. The town has been demolished - they say the tornado was over 1 mile wide and was spinning at 200 mph. Families are homeless and there is a lot to do to recover from this. Please keep them in your prayers - the interviews on TV show people with amazing attitudes, but they also have some grieving to do. Thankfully, the 100+ tornados that were spotted on Saturday were not too close to the metro areas, but there are storms still predicted for the rest of the week.