“Ohio, the heart of it all” is a state slogan. Ohio is often called the heart of the midwest {it is rather heart-shaped}. Well, it’s definitely where my heart is because it’s where my family lives. Earlier this month Lucy and I took a little trip to surprise my mom for her birthday.
Boy, was she surprised!
My step-dad told her he had to drop a friend off at the airport so he could come pick us up. When he got home he told her “you’ll never guess who I ran into at the airport!” Then he called out “come on in!” And in I walked, Lucy in my arms. I think it took my mom a minute to register what she was seeing. But she seemed thrilled. It was awesome! Best. surprise. ever.
It took Lucy a while to warm up to Grandma {and she never quite fully got over her fear of Grandpa} but I think she enjoyed herself. She certainly enjoyed harassing the dogs and cat.

Hello!

Sooooo...I'm in Ohio.

Wait, what?!

Yeah, I'm totally in Ohio. I couldn't tell you beforehand because my mom reads my blog {hi, Mom!} and the trip was a birthday surprise for her. Lucy and I flew in on Tuesday and will fly back to Alberta on Wednesday. So there will be no Good News/Bad News this week. I didn't bring my laptop with me and I don't have access to the files I need. But I'll be back soon and I'll tell you all about my trip!

Carry on!

While I was in Ohio I got to visit an old classmate whom I’ve reconnected and become friends through our blogs. In fact, she was one of my guest bloggers. I met up with Sarah and her adorable little girl at Bill’s Donuts {aka the best donut shop EVER}.

It also just so happened to be that we were staying at a hotel seven minutes from client, and bloggy friend, Katie. So we also met up with her and her oh-so-cute daughter for ice cream.

I just gotta say, actually meeting your bloggy friends really rocks.

You can commence being jealous now.

Have you met any bloggy friends in real life?

You know you miss someone when you have a dream about how much you miss them.

My best friend lives in Utah, where we met. I haven't seen her in over a year (Happy Canadaversary to us, by the way)! I'm particularly bummed about being so far away right now because I missed her baby shower/missed out on helping her paint her baby's room/won't get to meet her "Ninja baby"/haven't been able to show off Baby Lucy to her/etc. I've had two dreams about her in the past week, one of which was actually about not getting to help paint and how much I miss her. And she bought all her friends who helped paint ice cream (in the dream) and it made me jealous...partly because I miss her and partly because I haven't had ice cream in weeks and weeks.

So, today I think I'm going to wallow in self pity and eat ice cream.

Other things/people I miss (from Utah and Ohio):

• Target
• the dollar theater
• mountains
• the UTA
• $400 a month rent
• Spencer
• Rachel (who is also having a baby soon)
  
• Nora
• my family, especially my mom!!!
• Dodger and Elly (and Harrigan too)
• Harrigan's (especially the pizza and the chicken fingers)
• Bill's Donuts (best donuts EVER)
• lots of birds and critters running around everywhere
• the Provo library's magazine selection
• the USPS
• my grandpa's yard/garden
• Windmill Farm
• the nearby museums
• high school (not that I could go back even if I was physically close enough)
• humidity (can't believe I'd ever miss that, but the dry air is doing a number on my skin)
• regular thunderstorms
• Goodwill
• and, again, MY FAMILY

If only I was allowed to leave the country. What things do you miss from places you used to live?

How could I not miss this?

1. Enough with the snow and cold and bad roads already!.

2. The Middle East conflict causes me to be conflicted.

3. I've been craving chocolate milk.

4. Jen makes me laugh.

5. I wish I could go to Ohio next week.

6. Motherhood has been on my mind lately.

7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to having Adam home all day, tomorrow my plans include being a hermit and Sunday, I want to remember to call my friend Nora like I promised so I'm not a total flake!