A week from now I'll be back at work. I'm pretty excited about it, especially since I spent a lot of time this weekend with my co-workers; that got me all jazzed up to get back to it. We just started a new clinical trial for type 1 diabetes, and our clinical team hosted a training meeting for all of the doctors and staff involved in the trial from the US, Mexico, and India. It was a rare opportunity for me to go to one of these meetings, so I made the effort to go although I'm still out on leave. I went to the welcome dinner Friday night and then to the all day meeting on Saturday. Pat and Duane were in town, so Jay had help in managing the kids. All went smoothly; I heard that bedtime for Eric on Friday was rough, but then all day Saturday was fine (and I do mean all day - I left at 7:15am and got home a little before 10pm). I had a great time getting dressed up, seeing my friends, meeting new people, thinking about work, and just not worrying about children for a bit! Saturday night I went out for dinner with Sarah, my former manager, and that was fabulous. I'm really going to miss her as both my manager and as a friend - she's moving to San Fran on the 23rd - so it was great to have a last opportunity to see her.

So, the last week before I go back is filled with last minute things to do. Most of them are things that I intended to do before going back and aren't actually needed before I go back. I took the kids to the mall this morning to get some fall clothes - Eric is pretty well covered with the gifts he's received, but Kate was lacking enough stuff for the cool weather (we're still in shorts and short sleeves, but the cool down is underway).  I found her a cute dress and two tops/skirt outfits, so that worked out well. Tomorrow is Eric's two month checkup, Wednesday we're going to get together with Molly and Claire one last time, Thursday is storytime at the library...mixed in with those things are tasks like packing up all of my maternity clothes, giving the house a good cleaning, finishing up a few projects in Kate's room and the kitchen - all of which is very doable in a normal life, but with a two month old...we'll see. I'll do what I can!