Day 250.

Ahhh, home. And not my home in Chicago, which I love, but Champaign.

I am grateful for Champaign.

Champaign will always be my hometown, no matter how long I live away from here. It is a wonderful town of a wonderful size and a wonderful couple named Cindy and Clark live there. (They are my parents for those who don't know me so well). We haven't been to their house in a few months I realized - which is ridiculous. We only live 2.5 hours away. Dylan has been begging to come down here for the last month. So, we finally did it. It was spontaneous (well, planned at the end of last week which is about as spontaneous as I get with trips), and that made it more fun. I realized it was the last time we could go down for awhile during the week without missing preschool. That's weird for me - to be tied to home because of my child's school?! Where has time gone? But that's not at all what my post is about. That can be later.

For today, I'm grateful for Champaign. For the way the drive down 57 morphs from being urban scenery to vaste farmland. For the Prairie Gardens billboards I can count on seeing if I exit University Ave. For the familiar streets that I imagine driving down in high school in my ford escort wagon. For the happy faces on my children as I pull into the driveway and they run to meet their grandparents. This is why I come home. It will always be home.