The "wind down"

Thanksgiving break is coming to an end. I'm currently laying in my bed at my parents' house, savoring my last few hours at home... it's back to Evansville after church tomorrow morning.

This break has been fabulous, in case you were wondering. It came at just the right time, too. Another day of classes and I would have had a mental breakdown for sure.

Thanks to my light class schedule on Tuesdays, I was able to get back to Columbus fairly early that day, even despite the 3-hour drive and the time change. I spent the evening playing with Kelly and Maddie and then drove out to Kirsten's house for awhile. I hadn't seen her since we met up in Louisville for the Luke Bryan concert back in August, so it was a nice best friend reunion. :)

I got home after midnight and spent the next three hours cleaning our entire house from top to bottom while the rest of my family slept. I figured it was a nice little "Yay, I'm home!" present.

Wednesday was spent with family and running errands. Both of my parents worked all day so I got to spend some extra quality time with the girls. It amazes me how much they change when I'm gone. Kelly is so witty and hilarious, and Madison speaks in full sentences now.

We didn't have a huge family dinner for Thanksgiving- it was just us kids and our parents. Granted, with seven kids, we still fill the house up pretty quickly. With Brandon and I not living at home anymore and everyone else so busy all the time, it's not often we get all of us together. So Thursday was nice.

Thanksgiving 2011 :)

My original plan was to take a nap after dinner to get energized before working all night. However, when I came upstairs to my room, I found that I wasn't tired at all. In the time that I could have taken a 4-hour nap, I cleaned my room, did laundry, played Fruit Ninja for about an hour, and blogged. When I was finally able to settle down and sleep, I did so for maybe 30 minutes. Oops?

Despite my lack of sleep, Black Friday wasn't bad at all. I went in at 8:30 and was super excited to see everyone. I really miss my job and awesome co-workers when I'm in Evansville. We opened at 9 that night and I ended up cashiering straight through from 9pm to 3am, when I was scheduled for an hour-long break. I was doing great, energy-wise, until break time. I went in the back room and stuffed my face with food (yay for pitch-ins!) and then just sat in a chair and thought about my bed for 20 minutes straight. At this point, I was so. freaking. tired.

I expected the last two and a half hours to drag on because I was so sleepy, but it actually flew by. Thankfully! I worked until 6:30 in the morning, got home a little after 7:00, fell right asleep, and stayed in bed until 5:00 Friday evening. I literally slept the entire day and I don't regret a single minute of it.

Friday night was spent at home, recuperating from work. Today followed in a similar fashion. I didn't have to work so I got to spend the day at home with my family. I spent the latter part of my evening at Erin's house, looking over an essay for her and swapping music on iTunes and getting caught up on each other's lives. Then I came home, stuck in a last-minute load of laundry, and...

...here I am. Winding down from yet another amazing break at home. Thinking about how blessed I am to have an incredible family, phenomenal friends, two wonderful cities that I can call home, a steady job in both of these cities, a car that works just fine, and a roof over my head, no matter where I am.

In the spirit of Thanksgiving, and to reiterate the importance of counting your blessings on a daily basis, no matter what holiday it is, I'll leave you guys with some quotes I found on Pinterest this weekend.