Wednesday, July 12, 2006

Awesome Adventures begin...

First off - somewhere down the line, I actually hit 100 posts! From the way this blog originally started, I NEVER expected it to actually last more than a few months...but I'm going strong!

**************AWESOME ADVENTURES*****************


Well, we are officially back on US soil. After waking up at 3:00 a.m. on Saturday (the 8th), waking the kids and packing the last stuff up, we headed to Nürnberg Airport. Things went fairly smoothly, except that Hannah got a nervous stomach. (our Paris airport experience is burned into her brain). She ended up throwing up ("it was just some SPITTY stuff", she explained to Grandma) right before we boarded, but was fine after all that.

Scotty and Hannah were fantastic on the plane. We landed in Frankfurt in about 40 minutes, then had a LONG layover there. We ate a leisurely breakfast, wandered around, hit the USO and then went to the gate to wait. Boarded and settled in for the LONG (9 hours) flight. Hannah was INCREDIBLE. She listened to the kid radio station and then watched the Disney Channel on her little TV screen...she slept 3 hours! She shared some coloring with a girl across the aisle who was her age. Barely heard or saw her (even had a lady behind us saying that she didn't realize we had another child until 3 hours into the flight because Hannah had to go potty!). Scotty...well, he's 2, so what do you expect? He was pretty good for being just 2. He took 2 short naps (about 45 minutes each), he ate well, and he fussed a lot. But he didn't do much screaming and enjoyed playing with all the buttons on the seat for music/TV/Movie controls.

We arrived in DC around 2 p.m. and got all our luggage easily (YEAH!), headed to the car rental counter and picked up a Chevy Equinox. Then went to the Holiday Inn Holidrome, went swimming and had dinner...at Chick-Fil-A! (Yeah, Suzanne, my first meal was a CFA Chicken sandwich, lol....but it's SO kid friendly and both kids ate EVERYTHING). Headed to Walmart to get water and batteries (No, I did NOT go in, lol). By that time, it was after 7:00 p.m. and we were having a hard time keeping the kids up. Scotty crashed as soon as we took off, and he was DEAD to the world from that point on. Never woke up for a diaper change or anything! We were all in bed asleep before 8:00 p.m. (our bodies still thought it was 2 a.m. Germany time!). By 3:30 a.m. we were all up again, so we left early to head to Pittsburgh.

Of course, we ruined Grandma's surprise...she wanted to put balloons out for us, but we got there before she was ready (sorry Grandma!). We are leaving tomorrow (Thursday) to go to Riley....with a stop to get our van (which HAS arrived). We contacted the realtor and told her we want to see houses on Saturday...we have about 15 on our short list. This trip has been really blessed so far, and I'm praying that the house hunting goes as well, that we can find a home in short order and get settled right away so I can register Hannah for kindergarten and begin getting my home set up and ready for a few years of Kansas life!



**********************sad notes**********************

One of my uncles passed away last Wednesday from lung cancer. It's sad...he smoked so much all his life. Smoking kills...if someone you love is smoking, help them quit NOW.

Another uncle is awaiting a triple bypass - Canadian socialized medicine being what it is, he has about 35 days in the hospital before he can get the surgery. Sad fact about socialized medicine.

My friend Christy just told me that 3 soldiers from her husband's battalion died on Saturday (in Iraq), and a 4th is in critical condition. Keep these people and their families in your prayers. These are the first deaths that I can remember from Bamberg, which is where they were from (and where we just left) for this deployment cycle.

Tchüss!!! (See Ya!)

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

SOOOOOOOO glad that you're back! I am glad you're safe. I have such a peace about the house thing. I just KNOW the Lord will bless you. I KNOW IT.

Suzanne
who's tickled you're here!!

Sue said...

It is really nice to have you back on US soil. Now it seems that I just have to find a way to visit you :)

Christy said...

I am praying for a safe and easy trip to get the van and safe trip on into Kansas.I hope you'll enjoy your time in Kansas and that it'll feel like "home". Enjoy the slower pace of life! Oh and if you've never had Sonic, eat a Sonic Cheeseburger # 1 no onions! LOL :) for me with a Lemon Slushy! Sonic's Jacob's fast food joint! LOL


God Bless (oh btw this coming Saturday it's supposed to be in the mid 90's here! Sounds fun huh? Just think you'll be most likely in a home with Central Air, thinking of me sweating in the heat! :)

rennratt said...

Welcome home! I am glad that your return trip went so well!

Anonymous said...

SO happy the trip was reasonably uneventful and SO SO HAPPY you are now a Midwesternern!!!!! Do you have A/C and a basement???!!!!

Hugs - Susan