The Barton Blog!: I wrote this very early one morning in a big hurry, then didn't reread it. Then saved it with the intent to reread it, but then didn't.

I wrote this a few days ago and I'm pretty sure it's probably just word vomit, but it is the goings on of our little household, and the thought of rewriting it makes me want actually vomit because my brain has literally just stopped working, and rewriting this would be too hard, so here you go, I hope it makes sense or something.

I feel like so much has happened since I last posted, but I just do not have the energy or the time to go into great detail! About two months ago I was starting to get really really homesick, so I talked to Justin, my wonderful wonderful husband, and he figured out a way for me to be able to buy a ticket home! Justin is helping on a study at Penn and he hooked me up with a job entering surveys into their database. I feel like I've sold my soul because the only time I can do the surveys is when Justin is not home (because he hogs the computer when he is) and when Haddy is napping, so the only little time I had to myself was dedicated to the surveys (I am still working on them.....I have a long way to go). But it was worth it! I went home on November 6th for a week and a half! I got to see the whole family! Even my sister who is in Arizona!! It was so much fun and just what I needed.....except for a couple of not fun things like getting sick. And the plane rides alone with Haddy were awful! Especially coming back because she had gotten my cold!! Talk about the longest flight of my entire life. It's a 4 1/2 hour flight, and she cried the ENTIRE first half, and I had a window seat so I was kind of caged in. About halfway through the flight an angel of a lady offered her seat to me, she had an aisle seat with an empty one next to her. I started crying I was so thankful!!! I was very embarassed about crying though....but having the extra seat next to me made a huge difference. Haddy was still miserable but she did manage to fall asleep a couple of times for a short time. Needless to say I was SOOO excited to get home! But to my surprise, I came home to a very sick husband (I hadn't known he was sick until he picked us up). So everyone was sick. But we all eventually got better! (although I STILL have a residual cough)
The next week was Thanksgiving and Justin pretty much got the whole week off, it was sooo nice!!! He has been working like a mad man (why I think he got so sick) trying to do homework AND do his PhD applications, I had just gotten used to not ever really spending much time with him, but he was towards the end of the application process and had finished all of his homework so I pretty much got him all week!! Oh how I had missed him. We did some really fun things! Thanksgiving Day we woke up and watched the Macy's Day parade, cooked some food, and ate dinner with some friends and then met up with some other ones later, we stuffed ourselves full! And the next day we went downtown to go to the Reading Terminal Market, then stopped at this old department store called Wanamaker's (now converted into a Macy's) which is in a beautiful old building! They had a light show that went with the music of an organ player and it was amazing!!!! We were so happy we got to see that! And we wanted to stop at Love Park because it was all Christmas'd out but Haddy wanted to go to bed.... The next day we went to Valley Forge (pictures below) then stopped at this huge mall in King of Prussia to get our annual Christmas scented candle and got to enjoy the Christmas decorations there as well. That day was finished off by a fun trip to the emergency room! Boy that was scary... We were at home and Justin had just sat down to start working on the computer when he started to feel a pain in his lower back. I got him some Ibuprofen and within a matter of ten minutes it had worsened to the point where Justin was writing in pain on the couch so we woke up Haddy and sped to the ER! All his muscles started contracting and he kept saying he couldn't feel his face or his legs or his hands. He was totally freaking out which made me freak out! We finally got to the emergency room and he had to be carried in while I went and parked the car. I called some wonderful friends who came and saved us by giving Justin a blessing and taking Haddy, and just lending their support. When they got there and I went to the waiting room to meet them I can't even tell you how good it felt to see friends out there. They had an immediate calming effect on me and I just felt so so grateful for all of them. Moving away from home is scary, especially when there's no family to help you in a time of need, so to know that we had friends who would help us out or just be there for us really made us feel more at home here in Philadelphia.
Well it turned out Justin had kidney stones and he was feeling pretty much normal by the time we left at 1 AM. We went to pick up Haddy, then we all went home and slept very well!
The next day we went to Church and watched a movie, then on Monday Justin took Haddy for 3 hours just so that I could get stuff done. It really meant so much to me!! Since I'd gotten back from Utah I haven't had time to do any surveys, so I was able to do some of those, plus some other things I'd been wanting to get done. Justin was in the best mood the entire week and I think it's because he got a taste of an actual break. I really felt like I got my husband back and it felt amazing. I have missed spending time with him because I love him so much.
Family is so so so important. I love mine so much, I feel so blessed to have such a wonderful husband and daughter. They are the world to me! And I'm so thankful for our family members too, they make life worth living.
Ok pictures, and they did not upload in order....

This is at the Washington Memorial Chapel. THE most beautiful church I have ever seen. Ever. This was in the courtyard area.

Georgy boy.

It was cool being in an American-themed old church because the it reminded us of the ones we saw in Italy, just with American stuff!

Ok this was at the visitor's center, not the chapel.

Some memorial we can't remember the name of.

Beautiful view! That house on the top right of the picture was General George Washington's official headquarters at Valley Forge!

Back of HQ.

Front of HQ. Not too shabby....

A room.

This lead from the house to the kitchen. I wish we got a picture of the kitchen, it was cool.

This is inside one of the replicas of the little cabins the Continental Army built while at Valley Forge. They were said to be much warmer than Washington's HQ, which I believe, because these are just small rooms with a fireplace, Washington's was big with windows and it was drafty in there.