there's no place like home

Dorothy was right when she said there's no place like home. After four - nearly five long, yet also short months, I made my first trip back to Ohio over the long Labor Day Weekend, and it was glorious. Not long enough, but it was a start. 

Out of photos I did manage to take, this is probably my favorite. Blurry and all. There's no better welcome than seeing your dog for the first time in almost five months. 

But before I get ahead of myself, let's go back to a few hours before that -

I'm home! How I've missed the patchwork green fields this summer.

After a nice wake up call at 5am I headed off to the airport and hopped on my hour long flight for home and proceeded to fangirl over the corn fields. I've really missed them. I now understand why people not from the Midwest can mistake Ohio and Iowa. 

My first stop home was to my old office to see my favorite work grandma, and then it was straight over to T.J. Chumps for their dill dip and kettle chips. If you live in Ohio near a T.J. Chumps and you haven't gone yet, you are seriously missing out on life. T.J. Chumps, if you can see this - PLEASE for the love of everything holy, find a way to sell the dill dip so it can be shipped to me. I need this in my life! 

And then it was home to see my Roxy. I've missed my dog more than anyone else (sorry mom). 

Even the next day she was so excited to be sporting her scarlet and gray for the first Ohio State game of the season. Too bad we couldn't watch the game at the house (thanks CBS Sports Network, ATT Uverse, and the Buckeye athletic association for making that deal). But it didn't matter, the Buckeyes pulled out the win anyway in the second half, and I got a haircut out of it. The things we do for a Buckeye win....

Outside of seeing Roxy and my family, I was most excited to see a sea of green and big open skies. I've missed that.

It wasn't a long visit home, but it was a much needed visit home. Now it's back to the grind here in steamy Virginia. How much longer until it's fall??

*all photos taken by me with my trusty iPhone