Almost Paradise

I am writing from a hotel room in Schaumburg. I am a very happy woman. My very caring and thoughtful husband is home with the little ones so I could get away for a few nights. ALONE. He rocks. This is also a little bit of an effort to wean Chloe, but judging by how acutely my (ahem) chest is aching I'm not convinced that will be a successful endeavor. I am:

Singing loudly in the car to adult music (and learning which songs to never, ever, under any circumstances sing karaoke)

Going where I want, when I want. ALONE!

Sleeping until 10:30am and finally getting out at 1pm

Watching ice-dancing uninterrupted (it's sad how much I miss DVR service- I maintain it's one of the best inventions of my lifetime)

Watching Intervention episodes on my computer (I recently discovered this show and I can't get enough- even though I really don't have much sympathy for addicts. The families are what get me.)

Eating Cheesecake Factory take-out (probably more than once)

NOT working out (even though there is a perfectly good treadmill available)

Shopping- I'm not generally a fan of shopping, but when I can plan what I need and do it alone it isn't too bad I guess. I picked Schaumburg because they have a decent mall with some stores that I like (that we don't have in Madison) and an Ikea (again, not in Madison). I'm also hoping to find a few decent thrift shops and maybe an art supply store.

Missing my family. Much more than I anticipated. I am thoroughly enjoying this solitude, but I'm so filled with gratitude for my family and looking forward to getting home to them refreshed and recharged. And nursing Chloe- ouch:)

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I'm not sure why some of the pictures I post aren't showing up- on the last post I had a few pictures of the German pairs figure skating team. The man is biracial and resembles Barack Obama- an adult would never confuse the two (I would hope) but my three year old did.

A few posts back I posted a picture of Valerie Bertinelli as my inspiration for finally getting a gym membership. Have you seen her? Amazing.

I thought I would clarify since I'm obviously not good at sharing pictures from the web!