American Again for a Week and School's Out!

Today is the first day I can breathe... My semester ended last night and I have Maeby over here with me, the company I'm interning for is no longer trying to pull a MAJOR event this week... things are good :)

Andrew suggested I take advantage of not working while I am, not working SO two months ago, I planned a trip home to see my family and to get the dog since her quarantine period was up as of May 3rd. Well, May 3rd came up REALLY quickly and before I knew it, I was home!!

I checked in REALLY late online for the flight so I was seated in the VERY middle of the middle row of 5 seats in economy. I did some work on the plane, my company had been teaming up with a French based Event planning company to host an Event at the Cannes film festival. I ended up designing the invites!! BUT I guess I didn't realize just how demanding a task this was going to be as when I didn't work on MOTHER'S DAY, I got a very stern email... But other than the work stuff, being home was great!!

My mom picked me up from the airport and was crying. It was like a movie where the person walks through the arrival gate and there is someone waiting for them on the other side and it's a dramatic reunion...my mom and I were crying in the middle of the airport! 

Then we got home and went right to Jack's game. I tried calling Jesse on the way there but he didn't answer. So my mom and I are sitting in the bleacher's and this guy starts walking towards us clearly wearing a platinum mullet wig and I thought to myself "that's totally something Jesse would do.." and the closer this guy got and the more I could see his features, I realized that it was Jesse!! He had conspired with Cousin Mikey to make this happen, to surprise us all!! He stayed for a whole week with us!! It was great :) 

My mom also took me to the gym with her a few times. We did this total body gym class taught by this super intense lady on that Thursday I was there and I will say, I don't think I walked normally again until Sunday. 

I spent Saturday with my Baltimore friends :) I met Ashley and MB at Arundel Mills for a little shopping (I miss discount shopping and paying in dollars!!) and then we went out to dinner at RA! John Simonetti surprised me and came up from DC to hang out too! It was a such a great evening! I love my friends :) 

I feel really guilty because I had a lot of work things to do while I was home so I feel like I didn't get enough quality time with the fam as I would've liked, but hopefully I'll get to go home again soon. I feel really homesick again now!! I really  miss being away from them like that! 

But I got home Thursday night around 10:30PM UK time. Again I forgot to check in online, and when I got to the airport they had no more economy seats left and I got upgraded to Economy plus! And the first row of Economy Plus so the extra leg room was fantastic, but definitely not worth the difference you pay to sit in there vs economy. Anyway, I got back and Andrew was waiting for me at the arrival gate! I missed him.

To get Maeby here was quite the process. I tried booking her on the United flight I was on BUT a week before I was supposed to fly with her, I found out that NO dogs going to the UK can fly in the cabin of the plane. Nope, AND United doesn't participate in the Pet Scheme program so if she flew on my flight she'd have to go in to the 6 month quarantine thing here!! So after talking to 4 different airlines, BA was the best way to go. After all the stress and planning and running around the state of MD, the picking her up in the UK part was really easy!! We arrived at the Animal Reception Center, checked in and not even 45 minutes later I had my pup!! She rode on the tube with us back and LOVES the park across the street from our house. 

It's been really nice to have Maeby... the flat feels more like home now and I like having the company. We went to a really great park today for a walk. She doesn't know what to do with herself with all the dogs and new smells and such. Took FOREVER to get through it all. ha. 

Finally, I finished my semester last night (I will feel even better when I have my grades!!) I seriously spent 12 hours+ on my final project yesterday alone and it was 99% done but one little thing was off. One teeny tiny negative sign that took me 4 hours to find in the code... and actually, it was Andrew that saw it in the end... ugh, SO glad that's over!! 

Ok, this is the longest post ever, BUT it's my little catch up... more normal posts to come! 

Andrew's taking me out to a celebratory dinner tonight for being done with school... need to research where I want to pick!  

picture highlight from the last week or so: 

Family Minute to win it Tourney..