Category Archives: Life in general

So far things are good on our way to Oz… Liam fell asleep during takeoff and Jack soon after.
Qantas is totally the way to go and I don’t just say that because they upgraded us to premium economy seats (which are nearly worth the actual upgrade cost were we to ever afford them). I’m currently enjoying a cup of Cadbury hot chocolate (best ever hot chocolate; I’ll be bringing some home and you’re welcome to come over and have some) and before that I had a cuppa (lipton yellow label, which we don’t have in the States, I’ll be bringing that back, as well – I first drank this in Kazakhstan and the first sip of it brings such happy memories to mind). I’m enjoying (but confused by) Midnight in Paris… Until the boys wake up, life is pretty good. And even then we can entertain them with their seasame street activity packs and feed them snack bags we were given for m

id-night cravings. I kinda love Qantas. That’s my story until further notice.

I would like to note we’ve only gotten the stink eye once on the plane. Shortly after we got on, Jack started coughing like a mad person and this little old lady kept glaring back at us with wide eyes and bent eyebrows and finally started wildly gesturing for him to cover his mouth; though by that stage Jack was forcing himself to cough so he could weedle some water out of us (we’d cut him off so he wouldn’t pee through his diaper as

he’d already done once on our trip). Simon, who was across the aisle from her,

was nicer than I would have been and made a good show of asking him to c

over his mouth because he is just 2.75 after all and faking it to boot. Thankfully she ended up moving one row up (she’d taken the wrong seat) and we didn’t have to see her disapproving face any longer.

So far so good (now I shall go find something wooden to knock on).

Thank you for your prayers, I know I have them to thank for the upgrade and the current state of affairs…

Here’s the benign retelling of our travels. Gotta love technology that lets you draft blog posts from the air!

We’re on our way, aboard the plane for the first let of our trip, GRR to DFW. There are two kids our flight that are not ours and two dogs. Along with two very grumpy business travelers who got stuck behind us while boarding (sorry guys, but it’s not like your waiting for us to get situated in our seats made the plane leave any later and your loud sighing did not make us move any faster).

I had a momentary fear that Jack pooped as we were backing away from the gate but he loudly announced, “I not pooping!” Whew. Bullet dodged.

We ran into my coworker in the airport, they were actually getting off the plane we were going to be getting it. It was strangely comforting  to see familiar faces in the airport. She alerted us that our flight attendant was fabulous and so far he is awesome, the friendliest flight attendant I’ve ever encountered. If you ever have Fritz on an American Eagle flight, you’ve lucked out.

Jack is a furious seat kicker, unentertained by everything. Liam declared it was a ling flight 30 minutes into the flight. We can only hope the drugs homeopathic alternative treatments will work.

Three hours until takeoff when we are stuck on a plane for 16 hours.

Trickily, we get to celebrate new year’s eve on the plane because we cross the international date line and our flight gets into Sydney at 10 am Jan. 1.

Happy New Year!

Last week we met up with family at the zoo in Lansing to take in the lights and fulfill Liam’s life-long dream of meeting Santa. Until now we’ve never gone to visit Santa, because I don’t know how much I want to push the whole Santa thing so we don’t actively pursue it (plus I hate standing in line, especially with children – if you are reading this after 4:00 EST, you should laugh because I’m currently at the airport where there are lots of lines WITH my children). But anywho… the zoo had a Santa and Mrs. Claus. It wasn’t until after we got home and I was looking at the photos that I realize Mrs. Claus was actually my cousin’s wife’s mother (follow that?) who is a long-time volunteer/worker at the zoo. Glad we didn’t recognize each other in the moment because that might have blown Santa’s cover. Another thing threatening the charade was Sandy’s beard that kept slipping down, causing him to hold his hand up to his face in a thoughtful gesture.

When asked what he wanted, Liam said he wanted a toy monkey (we were in the zoo gift shop after all – very smart thinking, zoo people). This was news to me and kind of a bummer since I had my Lego/Cars/Tag reader bases covered but hadn’t had the foresight to purchase a toy monkey.

But my husband saved the day during an early morning trip to Meijer on Christmas Eve, there he found the game “A Barrel of Monkeys” and that’s what Jack and Liam received as their joint gift from Santa. Sadly, my kids weren’t as impressed with Santa’s responsiveness to their desires but I hope someday they realize how that gesture showed how much their dad loved them. That is magical.

It’s too bad I put the blog address on my Christmas cards because since then I haven’t really had the time to write anything – but dear family and friends, if you are just visiting for the first time, please take a little tour of past posts. And dear friends and family who have been reading all along, sorry for ducking out on you – life and all. I had big aspirations for pre-writing and scheduling a bunch of posts for this busy time but the best of intentions don’t write the posts and alas…

I hope to recap the Christmas festivities and would love to post while we are in Australia but I’ll make no promises. It’s probably better that way. It’s too bad because so many things come to my mind and I think, that would make a great post or I should write about that… and well, instead you get this note of apology. I hope that doesn’t seem too arrogant, I know you aren’t waiting around to read my stream of conscience, it’s more that I miss the writing and spilling of guts. Gut-spilling does a girl some good.

I’ve done all I can at work to get ready to leave – projects are as wrapped up or on hold as they will get. The bills have been payed, the payrolls have been scheduled and the phone/internet is finally up and running (we were “borrowing” WiFi from another company in our building since we moved, thanks, neighbors).

Tonight we will pack, pack, pack… hoping we don’t forget anything. The only non-replacable item we’ve already purchased a just-in-case backup for (Jack’s pacifiers, because not just any will do and I don’t want to chance a return flight without them) but everything else can be taken care of once we get to Australia (NOT that I’m asking for our luggage to get lost, I’m just noting that I’m not stressing overly about stuff).

Numerous friends have offered to help and I am so very blessed by those people who love us. Sweet friends are taking us to the airport and another sweet friend is letting us borrow an iPad, really, the bases are covered.

And after the craziness, comes the hard part… not the travel but the being there and saying hello and goodbye in three short weeks. There is no way to figure out how that works.

So just pray for us. For safe travels. Calm children. Endless patience. Peace. And beautiful memories to be made.