Grazi, Jami!

We spent this past weekend in Ames celebrating Grandma's birthday and Mother's Day. In addition to the swimming and family pictures, I was able to take a night off and have dinner with my best friend, Jami. We met our sophmore year and lived together through college and then moved to Minneapolis together after we graduated. We love to travel. We've enjoyed a cruise to Cayman Islands, a couple of weeks exploring Italy, and our most recent trip was Seattle and the Oregon Coast. Scott and I had to take a rain check on her most recent trip to celebrate her 30th birthday - to Fiji and New Zealand. Jim took good care of her though and brought her back an engaged woman - we're thrilled for them!

Jami has always been there for me - no matter what. This past weekend was no exception.

Friday night (aka night from hell) went like this... We got going a bit late on our trip from Rochester to Ames. Jacob woke up hungry about an hour from Ames. Of course he did...we've worked so hard at establishing his bedtime pattern! Why would he think it would be any different!? So, we pulled over. I fed him. He was so tired. He kept choking. Then he puked all over mom. He cried. We put him back in his carseat. Even more mad. We got to the hotel. We hauled all of our stuff to our room on the 2nd floor only to have to move everything to the 1st floor after cigarette smoke was wafting into our room from the wedding party next door. Not to mention the "suite" didn't have a door to close off the bedroom like we thought so Jacob could sleep/nap in peace. By this time Jacob just needed to go to bed. Now he was screaming. We got to our new room and Scott worked on calming him down while I made at least 5 trips up and down with our stuff. Then you can imagine my reaction when I opened up the cooler and found all of the milk that I had pumped spilled all over. They say you shouldn't cry over spilled milk, but when it is breastmilk, you definitely should! Jacob was still screaming. He cried for an hour and half before he was so exhausted he just fell asleep. Scott and I then sat wearily on the couch eating our cold pizza pit sandwiches that we had ordered almost 2 hours earlier. By this point, I have lost it. But Scott is so patient and calm - he doesn't dwell...he just agrees that this one of of the most exciting rose ceremonies ever. ;) We crawled into bed about midnight - knowing that we had to be bright eyed and bushy tailed for our family pictures the next morning.

Despite the fiasco Friday night, the rest of the weekend turned out to be a lot of fun. Jacob did great (despite being a little sleepy Saturday morning) and on Saturday night, Scott took over after his 5pm feeding and I went on my merry way with Jami.

We went out for dinner and spent 3 hours chatting about politics, our jobs, weddings, babies, friends, our travels, all while enjoying a fantastic dinner and great wine. At about 10pm, Scott sent me a text message that said "Take your time. Peanut cashed out about 10". How lucky am I to have such a great husband that knew I needed an evening out with my best friend!?

Although Jami and I aren't living in the same town anymore I know I can always count on her to bring back my sanity. We can go two months without talking and pick up at dinner like we saw each other yesterday. She knows me well and I feel so blessed to have her in my life. Thank you, Jami, for being there for me and spending Saturday night reminding me who Nikki is. :)