Worth It

I haven't posted in almost a month.  I know, it's despicable.  The reason is because I've been moving 2000+ miles across the country, so hopefully you can find it in your heart to forgive me.

I hate moving.  I HATE it.  I have to pack up everything I own, carry it out to a trailer, carry it out of the trailer again once I get to my new place, then unpack it and see how many things broke.  Oh, and then I inevitably have to spend a bunch of money to replace the stuff that I couldn't bring with me and/or the things that didn't make it.  Then I have to figure out a way to decorate my new place and make it look nice on a budget because everyone looks at me as the hostess girl who should have a nice house.  :-/

Today, however, it was worth it.  It was worth the hours I spent wrapping and boxing literally thousands of items.  It was worth the headache of unpacking them again.  It was even worth the bath salts that spilled all over my copies of The Elsie Files and ruined some of them.  It was worth the money I spent to make our new house feel like a home.  Do you want to know why?

Because I am home.  I didn't really realize it until today.  I've been a little (okay, a lot) sad to leave Las Vegas and the friends and job I love there.  I have been dreading the blizzards and ice that will arrive here in a few short months.  Today, though, I realized that I don't really belong anywhere else.

Rex's aunt had the family over for a Sunday night dessert party.  This is the kind of thing his family does all the time, but I've been missing out because I've been gone.  All of the aunts and uncles and cousins came over to eat ice cream and treats (my cookie-brownies were a hit!), and then we played a family game of softball.

The family has a make-shift softball field in their back yard, and they even renovated a tree house to be a score board.  We picked teams and started playing.  It was like one of those two-page spread ads in Good Housekeeping where the family is all laughing and enjoying a nice summer evening. You don't think those people actually exist in the world, but they do.  They're my in-laws. People were making jokes like "move in - this one's going nowhere!" (that was for me, lol) or "How can she run in that June Cleaver dress?"  (That was for Aunt Sarah, whose dress was very June Cleaver.  I loved it).  My brother-in-law was on the other team and ran by second (where I was fielding), gave me a hug and said "Love ya, sis!" before he kept running.  Everyone was joking and laughing and having a great time.  I suddenly came to the realization that this was worth coming back for.  I'm not going to miss any more of these family events.  Family isn't about flying into town for a wedding or funeral and then flying back out to our everyday lives.  It's about being there for each other's everyday lives.  It's being able to play a goofy softball game on a Sunday night.  It's having people to call when you're trying a new recipe and you want someone to try it.  It's telling your little cousin that "Sure, you can come sleepover at my house and do nails!"  It's asking your brother-in-law what kind of birthday cake he wants, since you're finally here to make one for him.  It's being able to shop with your sister when she needs a new outfit to look nice for a date.  I'm not going to miss that stuff anymore, because I'm here, and it was worth every headache it took to get here.  It feels good to be back.

Rich for a Day

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to be fabulously wealthy?  I know I have. Well, I got a little taste of it this week, and I want to tell you about it.

Rex and I planned an extravagant overnight date to celebrate our third wedding anniversary.  It was a combination of an anniversary celebration as well as a final "hurrah" before we move to Michigan next week. (I don't know whether to write "boo" or "yay" after that statement).  Since we live in Las Vegas, we decided to have a fun night out on the strip.  We reserved a suite at Mandalay Bay Hotel, and we got ready to have a fun night out.  Because we reserved the suite for a Wednesday night, it was only $112.  The same suite on the weekend is well over three times that expensive.  Vegas is a very "weekend" city, so weekdays are super affordable.

We got to the hotel, and I was blown away.  For my friends in the Kalamazoo area - you know the Radisson Hotel?  Well, this hotel made the Radisson look like a Motel 6.  I couldn't believe the extravagance.  There is no way that people should have spent that much money on building a hotel.  I bet the chandeliers alone were $50,000 or more each.  We went to ride the elevator up to our hotel, and a security guard checked our room keys and showed us to the right elevator.  They have multiple elevators to go to different floors - cool!  When we got in the elevator, there was a television screen showing video clips for us to watch on our ascent to our floor (we were on floor 30).  We finally got to our floor, and we went into our room.

The room was jaw-droppingly gorgeous.  I wish I would have thought to take pictures, but I didn't.  The entire side wall was floor to ceiling windows with a beautiful view of the strip.  An entire wall of glass - how awesome.  There was a dining room (which we had no use for...but it was still cool), a bedroom, a living area, and the most ultimately cool bathroom that you ever saw in your life.  It had a huge jacuzzi next to a window that overlooked another part of the room, and across from the jacuzzi was a flat screen TV.

Wait, you don't look completely shocked.  Perhaps you didn't read that slowly enough.  I will repeat: ACROSS FROM THE JACUZZI WAS A FLAT SCREEN TV.  IN THE BATHROOM.  Whaaaaaaaaaat?!?!?  I couldn't believe it.  I tried telling Rex that watching Duck Dynasty from the five star hotel jacuzzi was a bit contradictory, but he didn't care.  That's what he wanted to watch.  Ha ha.

After we checked in to the hotel and looked around our room, it was time to go out for dinner.  A parent in my classroom had given me a gift card to "brio," a fancy Italian restaurant downtown.  We figured this would be a good time to use it.  I had never been there, but I heard it was fancy so Rex and I got dressed up.  It's a good thing we did, because this was the fanciest restaurant I had ever been to in my life.  We walked in and Rex said, "Umm...I don't think I belong here.  They're going to sense that I'm not sophisticated enough and kick me out."  He looked sophisticated, though (he left his cowboy hat at home - THANK GOODNESS), so we got a table.  We tried to read the menu, but I didn't understand anything on it.  It was all fancy Italian sounding words that I didn't know.  Where were normal items like "spaghetti"?  I went out on a limb and ordered "campanelle diavolo."  Do you have any clue what that is?  I didn't either.  It was described as spicy, so I figured it might be good.  Ummm...it was.  It was an absolute explosion of flavor with every bite.  It ended up being a trumpet shaped pasta in a spicy tomato cream sauce with smoked chicken and green onions.  Mmmmmm...  it makes me hungry just remembering it.  Rex got some sort of seafood thing, so I didn't try it.  He said it was good though.  

You know how waiters come around while you're eating and refill your water?  Our waiter did that, but he also did other stuff too.  For example, Rex ate some bread and accidentally dropped some crumbs on the table, so our waiter came and said, "Let me get those crumbs out of your way, sir."  He then proceeded to use a special crumb-removing brush to wipe the crumbs from the table.  My eyes just about popped out of my head.  He wiped the crumbs off of our table with a special brush?  Did he mistake us for the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge or something?!  I've never had anyone do that!  And he kept calling us "sir" and "ma'am," even though Rex was right - we are sooooo not sophisticated enough for that.  We're more "Howdy y'all" kind of people, but let me tell you - brio is not a "Howdy y'all" kind of place.  It was fun to experience a candle-lit romantic fancy schmanz gourmet dinner, but I don't think we're going to make it our go-to date spot or anything.  Even with the gift card, it ended up being pretty expensive.  

Back at the hotel, we had fun night in our luxury accommodations.  The next morning, I was kind of sad to be checking out.  We'd had so much fun acting like we belonged in a five-star world.  As we got in line to check out, I was disappointed to see that there was a line.  I don't like waiting in lines (who does?), but I figured it wouldn't take too long because the line was moving pretty quickly.  As soon as I got into line, a man in a tuxedo came up to me and held out a silver tray with Mandalay Bay water bottles on it.  He said, "So sorry for the wait; can I interest you in a water bottle?"  Yes, please!  The wait was only about five minutes, but I got offered three water bottles during that time.  Fancy!  Where are those guys when I'm at Cedar Point?

After check-out, Rex and I spent the day at the pool.  "Mandalay Bay Beach" is 11 acres of sandy "beach" with tons of pools.  Rex and I particularly liked the wave pool and the lazy river.  What kind of crazy hotel has that as their hotel pool??  Vegas hotels, apparently.

All in all, it was a really fun "staycation" to celebrate our anniversary as well as our last few days of being Vegas locals.  I'm really going to miss living here, but I'm sure new adventures await in Michigan.