Starting Up Again

So, considering I have not written in almost 6 months, I am back to blogging once again. It is one of my New Year's resolutions!

To start, I am just going to give a quick account of life so far:
The past 6 months have been pretty crazy. I love my job as an admission counselor. The summer was slow, since there were no students on campus, and I didn't have recruits to work with yet. But once fall came...whew!! I was busier than all get out! My travel territory is the Michigan, Ohio, and Indiana. I have the largest travel territory of all the counselors and did lots of driving and flying throughout September, October, and November. I went to 3 different college fairs throughout the state and got to see much of Ohio through the windshield of my rental car. It was a little scary at first, traveling around, trying to figure out what I was supposed to be doing and where I was supposed to be going. But I got the hang of it pretty quick and gained the independent confidence I needed. My favorite parts of the trip included shopping (Ashland doesn't offer much), hitting up good restaurants, hot-tubing at the hotels and visiting staying in Logan,OH. I randomly booked a hotel in Logan. It was a smaller town, so the hotel cost was cheaper, plus I heard it had a great state park to visit. Unfortunatly, the park road was closed for construction. But, I did drive along Lake Logan, which was gorgeous. One morning I grabbed my camera and went out to watch the fog roll across the lake, herons and ducks were all over. There was even a gorgeous old sleepy Bed and Breakfast right on the lake with Weeping Willows in front.
Throughout my travels I was able to see both sets of my grandparents, spend time with my cousin, and stay with my brother a few times which was great! My grandparents live more than 10 hours away from here, so getting to see them while I was working was awesome! I also got to head home to the U.P. to see my family on 3 different occassions for work too! That was so fun!
Travel season ended the first weekend of November. It was then time to catch up back at the office and work with the students I met on the road. The weeks went by, and before I knew it Thanksgiving was here! It was so nice to go home for the holiday (last year I was in Alaska for it). I love Thanksgiving! My parents invited some Michigan Tech students over since they weren't able to make it home for Thanksgiving. It was really fun!
So, now I am up to December. The first weekend, I got to see my college roomates in the Twin Cities, for our "Roomate Christmas". We caught up, laughed, shopped at the Mall of America, ate at Benni Hanna's (a cool Japanese restaurant where they cook your food right at the table). It was so great to see everyone.
December was pretty slow at work and I found myself counting down the days until break. I had one week off and went home to be with my family. It was weird without my sister there this year (she is in Colorado), but it was still great to be home. We baked, played cards, laughed, and relaxed. I even got a sewing machine for Christmas, which I can't wait to use!!
I was back in the office this week, but had New Year's Day off. I spent New Years Eve evening with some friends playing games all night. It was great!

So, there, pretty much caught up!