the essence

I'm so thoroughly exhausted after orientation last night. I didn't really think they would keep us the full five hours but they did, plus an extra 15 minutes over. I'm not usually up until 11 at night so it was killing me being in a meeting that late. The best part is getting to be there with Ray. It made our first night at orientation much more comfortable & I think it will make the 7 weeks of training a bit more fun getting to do it together.

I'm still so tired - I didn't get to bed until around 12:30 - I don't think I'll be setting my alarm for 6 am during the training period, I need more than 5 hours of sleep!

At least it went well & Ray & I get to train together.

Yesterday morning I took the girls to story time at Barnes and Noble & met up with Rach & Ruth there. Ruth had a gift certificate from her birthday for Build-a-Bear so we walked over there together & Ray met up with us.

Ruthis kindly let Addison help with her dog - picking out the heart & brushing it.






Ray was really excited to get to try the machine to blow the extra fuzz off of the stuffed animal. He told me he'd walked into the store with Addison before & had wanted to see what the machine felt like but didn't because he felt stupid because he didn't have a stuffed animal to try it on.



See? He really was excited.

After Build-A-Bear we went outside & sat around one of the fountains talking. I'm seriously loving our new outdoor mall. The weather has just been gorgeous, too.

This evening I'm leaving for a very impromptu weekend in Orlando with the girls! Ray already has too many obligations here so he's staying in Tampa. I'm really looking forward to it but I know it'll probably be very busy trying to squeeze a lot of stuff into a little time.