As the proud auntie of five nephews, I am happy to announce that I have my first niece! Cicely Calista. I've been hearing how beautiful she is, and the proof is in the pictures. I was planning to go to see her this weekend, but I ended up changing my mind at the last minute. Which leads me to my ventilation of the day...
Mark and I live in Minneapolis, which means whenever we go back to visit family it's a three to four+ hour drive north (depending on destination and traffic). With the economy as it is and gas prices right now, the time and money we spend driving back nearly every weekend for something has gotten ridiculous. To put icing on the cake, I also drive 80 miles per day to-and-from work. I feel like I spend all my time in my car, and all my money on my car.
The issue for me is that we live far enough away that it's a big ordeal for us to go back to visit, but we live close enough that it's still kind of unspoken and assumed that we will come back for everything... at least that's how it feels to me.
If anyone has any ideas of how to help me with this internal struggle of mine, feel free to pass along your words of wisdom. I can't help but feel guilt-ridden when we decide to skip something. I've tried to encourage people to come and visit us, but it's pretty rare that we have company.
I finished a painting this week! It was a little unusual for me, because it's actually three pieces and bigger than average.
Some new puppy pics...
