Highlights of the last 6+ months in MN

The end of "my summer" is over now, even though summer has been long over here in the Land of 10,000 Lakes. I no longer have months or weeks left here, I am down to days. It has been great to be home for such a long time. I haven't spent this much time in Minnesota since my final year of high school 4 years ago. It felt great to see and do the summertime things that I haven't done in a long time, to spend the entire fall here, and to have a nice Minnesota cold and snowy winter, but I think there is going to be a price to pay for all the happiness I have had these past months. I am dreading, really really dreading going back to Santiago. I miss my husband terribly, but I do not miss whatsoever the culture shock. I think its going to hit me again, and this time I think its going to be bad. I don't like to be a pessimist and I would like to fly off to Chile with my head held high thinking that everything is going to be great and peachy perfect, but I just can't seem to do it. Every time I leave my family the goodbyes get harder and harder. Every time I get on a plane I stop feeling the excitement I felt 6 flights ago. I will say that I am looking forward to flying this time because I fly business class for the first and possibly the only time in my life.
I said goodbye to my niece today. The next time I see her she will be walking, will hopefully have some long curly blond curls for me to play with, and maybe she will be talking a little bit.  I say goodbye to my little Yorkie tomorrow and my parents and my brothers. Before I start bawling my eyes out, I'll write my highlights. Maybe they will make me feel a little better.

June 2009
My family finally met my Ro.
We were reunited with our dog Zoe after being away for 5 months, she still remembered me!!
I finally got to meet my little niece Evalie.
My younger brother graduated from high school.
I turned 21 even though it was on a Monday I can now legally buy and drink alcohol in the United States!!
We went to a few family grad parties and Ro was introduced to my crazy family.

July
We took Rodrigo to Lake of the Woods for his first time and my first time in the summertime. We caught lots of fish and had fun celebrating the 4th of July.
We had fun with my friends and celebrated Holdingford Daze.

August
We went to my favorite childhood camping spot with all of the people that used to go with us back in the day. It was fun to take Ro tubing. He didn't like it. I love it.
We entered a fishing contest and didn't catch anything at all, but we still had fun anyways.

September
We stayed at my parents for the rest of Ro's stay.
My cousin was married and we went and had a lot of fun at the wedding.

October
I started working again and I actually enjoyed it. It gave me something to do to keep me from thinking about missing Ro.
We had a family gathering here and carved pumpkins and made skeletons out of milk jugs.

November
I worked a lot more.
Went out drinking with my aunts for the first weekend of deer hunting!
Went shopping with my aunts the second weekend of deer hunting and had a lot of fun!
My aunt had her baby girl!
Celebrated Thanksgiving with the family and ate a lot of delicious food.

December
There was a lot of snow here in Minnesota for Xmas.
I had fun at my mom's family Christmas and my dad's too.

January
I bought my plane ticket back to Chile.
I spent New Years at the cabin and didn't catch a lot of fish, but had a lot of fun hanging out with my mom, aunt, her friend Shannon, and my cousin Shannon. Yeah, 3 Shannons in one fish house :P only good things can come from that!! Hahaha!
Celebrated my aunt's bday and had a lot of fun partying one last time before I leave the country.

And now we are at today. Not a highlight at all.
Chile...sigh....