A little Treat

Friday afternoon my dear husband and I took our first trip to the Chicago temple. It never fails that anything we do winds up being more difficult than it's supposed to be. Knowing that it took 2 hours to get there we planned plenty of time (we left at 2 in the afternoon) for our little excursion. Knowing that traffic would start building up the closer we got to Chicago and also hearing reports that there was a big accident on the freeway we opted to take the more scenic route, and scenic it was indeed. I have never felt more like I was on a wild goose chase then I did that day. I think we probably took 20 different roads and dealt with everything from closed roads and road construction to just plain ol' nasty traffic. The strangest thing was the difference that ensued upon crossing the border to Illinois. As soon as we crossed that line it was like mayhem. Thank goodness I do not live there. I think I would go insane with all the craziness and traffic.

Three hours later we finally arrived at the temple. I was already exhausted from all the driving and was not looking forward to the drive back. Is going to the temple supposed to be this stressful? I don't think it is. I have certainly been spoiled my whole life never living more than an hour from the temple. This is going to take some getting used to. Being in the temple was wonderful but as soon as it was over I started to feel stressed out about getting back especially since I realized we told our babysitter we'd be back around 10 and I had forgotten to leave her with a phone (doh!). At the rate we were going we were going to be at least an hour later and we were starving so that would take more time.

We decided to take the freeway on the way home in hopes of it taking less time. We knew that the freeway was a toll road all the way to the Wisconsin border. We did not however know how the tollway system in Chicago works. So we take the ramp onto the freeway and notice that we have to stop to pay the toll BEFORE we get on, OK, fine, we've got cash. Nope, you have to pay with coins since it is not a manned toll booth. What the??? So there we are scrambling to find some change and cars behind us honking and finally we give up and just go knowing that we have just been the stars of a photo session courtesy of the Illinois highway patrol. Needless to say that we were stressed out even more from that moment on. I started frantically calling people I knew would know the Chicago freeway system and luckily found out that we could just pay the toll online. Phew! Like seriously, how is anyone who has never driven in Chicago supposed to know that?

Thankfully we made it home in one peace even though we were both a little on the tense side. (We drove home through road construction, rain and some serious fog) After I got back from taking our babysitter home I went upstairs to bed. I went to lay down but noticed a piece of paper in my spot. It was a sweet note from my even sweeter husband and under my pillow was this:





What a sweet little surprise that made all the stresses of the day seem to melt away. My dear husband who I love more than anything was so thoughtful and did something so sweet (no pun intended ) for me. Thank you my dear Ivan for thinking of me and for being so thoughtful.