After a long and stressful weekend, I’ve decided to make my life more Zen. Thursday is not only my first holiday off in four years, but also my first holiday off with Adam in about as long. I work Wednesday night, so the plan is to come home, sleep for a while, then have a nice relaxing Thanksgiving dinner with Adam and his mom. There will be plenty of yummy food that I can eat, and an evening to relax and not be worried about work, or school, or whatever.
I’m going to try to make a conscious effort this year to enjoy the holiday season and not stress about everything so much. I already have a good chunk of my knitting done, and I plan to take an evening in the next few weeks and finish my shopping before my birthday, so I can send everything out in time and not have to deal with the mad rush the week before Christmas (like I usually do).
Today Adam and I went to Target and picked up our fake artificial tree, a few lights and some simple ornaments, and put it up when we got home!
It’s nothing fancy, but I was really craving some twinkly christmas lights. We got it set up then turned out the overhead lights and sat on the couch and watched a movie, and it was really nice and relaxing. I know it’s not even Thanksgiving yet, I’m looking forward to a enjoying it for an extended holiday season (something we could never do with a real tree down here – it would be dead in two weeks). It was fun to do everything on the spur of the moment too, rather than trying to find the time to get the tree up in the middle of the working/shopping frenzy. And I love our little tree 
School is also a big reason for my new Zen philosophy. Somehow, Potsdam either never sent my transcripts or CASPA (the PA application service) never received them…so the application deadline is in eleven days and my paperwork is still not in. I resent my transcript request last week and I’ll call them Wednesday to make sure they sent it out, but I’m getting really nervous that I may not even be able to apply (and it doesn’t help that I already paid the $160 application fee). I can always apply again next year if I don’t get in this year, and if I don’t get in I’m also going to apply for RN/Nurse Practitioner school. It probably wasn’t the best idea I’ve ever had to count on only getting into one program, and USF has a Pediatric Nurse Practitioner program that I want to look into.
I had a fantastic trip up to Rochester last weekend, just hadn’t had time to blog it yet! Mom picked me up at the airport and we hung out at Home Trends for a little while, then picked up Staffan and went to Mecca Wegmans.
I miss Wegmans so much! We went to the Pittsford store, and it was so much better than I remember. Best of all, they had a great gluten-free section.
Friday night we had a really nice dinner with the whole family (Mom, Paul, Sean, Staffan, and me) and watched old home movies. Saturday we went to Grandma’s for Heidi’s birthday, and it was wonderful to see everyone! (Missed you Holly, Alicia, and Shannon!) Definitely not enough time, but really really great. Sunday was Football Day, then dinner down in Avon with the Engstrom’s, and Farmor (in town from Sweden).
Alex, Staffan and I played cards.
Mikaela has gotten so big! She’s three now, and very smart and cute (and a little camera shy, I was lucky to get a couple pictures).
Then very very early Monday morning it was back to Florida. It was a great trip, even if it wasn’t as long as I would have liked. Mom, thank you so much for all the gluten-free baking mixes – I’ll be well fed this holiday season! I’m definitely not waiting another eleven months to get back up there. I’ll leave you with some beautiful fall colors (I miss those down here, although I have my share of raking leaves…)
