Today was just an all around disgusting and annoying day. It started off with Maisie waking me up every couple hours to eat. Then while she is eating, she decides it is her life mission to pick off one of my moles (which hurts pretty bad with that little pincher grasp of hers). We got a bit of packing done, then headed out to have dinner with a friend (Ursula) before she leaves for Mongolia. While at the delicious sushi restaurant, Maisie chokes on a biscuit (freaking me out a bit) and begins throwing up everywhere, all over herself, Justin, and myself. Then the food is served and I smell vomit for the remainder of our time at the restaurant. I wanted to take a shower and burn my clothes as soon as I got home. Sick. I topped the night off by adjusting my hair (while using the toilette)…

You know you all do it. The French do it in public. Americans do it in private. My family does it for fun in public and for real in private. My little sister sent me this picture of all of us a few years back. I love my family and can’t wait to see them in just a week! It is sad to leave Paris, but I am totally looking forward to our time catching up with family and friends! YAY! So the picture! Oh how things have changed! Blond hair and tan? Who do I think I am? From left to right: me, my nephew Ethan, my older sister Amy, and my little sister Kylie.

Staff conference (now called Connect) was really great this year! Here are some little tidbits about the trip that you should know about! We stayed at an amazing hotel that had swimming pools and beautiful woods and nice rooms and good food and a spa! I didn’t get a massage though because I am still not so comfortable with a man giving me a massage and the woman at the front counter of the spa told me, “Man or Nothing!” So nothing it was. Oh well. Maybe next year. I am glad I chose nothing because another woman got the man and he had her undress in front of him and then didn’t cover her with a towel! This would have been devastating for me (even after all the nudity and exposure of having a baby in France). I had some amazing conversations with new and old friends. We work…

We are having a great time at staff conference! We are having lots of talks catching up with friends that we haven’t seen for a year. Today we went into Vienna and did a “Serve the City” type thing (basically where we do lots of service projects around the city). I made balloon animals with a group of people. I actually made balloon animals for a living (well, my first job) when I was fifteen. Somehow, I remembered how to create almost all of the things I could once do. Yes, I was proud of myself. Lame. Anyways, it was really fun. Maisie had a couple meltdowns throughout the day, but did pretty well for the most part. She isn’t used to so many people being around her all the time. Oh wait, she lives in Paris. At least she isn’t used to so many people talking to her all…

We are leaving to Hungary tomorrow for our annual staff conference. It is always really fun. Well, sort of. Not really, actually. Last year was pretty great! This is our fourth staff conference and I hope that the trend of getting better and better continues! Let me just share what the first two looked like. First staff conference. It was the first time Justin and I had ever been to Europe and on the way over, they gave us free wine. So I had a glass of wine with my dinner. Maybe you don’t think this is a big deal, but it is! I didn’t know that my legs had a tendency to swell on long plane rides (especially with alcohol in the system). So when we arrived at staff conference, my legs were so swollen, that I could press in with my thumb and the indent wouldn’t go away…