Last blog from the States

The time has finally come.  We start our trek towards Chicago tomorrow at 7am in hopes of getting there early enough for my mom to get her seat next to Abbie and me on the flight to Germany.

I’ve shipped 33 boxes of stuff home.  I’m taking 4 large suitcases, 3 carry-on suitcases, 2 book bags, a bag with the pack n play and a mattress in it, the car seat in a bag, a small stroller, and 2 dog crates with the dogs in them on the plane home with me.  We’re going to look like the Beverly Hillbillies, but what do you do?  I’m honestly more worried about the checking in process than the actual flights themselves.  If we can get everything checked in and not be charged and arm and a leg for excess baggage, I’ll be pretty happy.  And I’m REALLY hoping my mom can get a seat next to us.  That will help immensely if we can tag team keeping Abbie occupied.  Plus Abbie absolutely loves playing with my mom so Abbie will be happier if she can sit by both of us also.  I’m not too worried about Abbie on the flight though.  I know she won’t sleep much, if at all.  She never sleeps anywhere but in her bed.  On our flight to the States she slept for MAYBE 20 mins while she was laying on my chest.  She likes to lay on her back to sleep, so maybe if my mom and I can have her in between us with her legs on one of us and her head on the other of us, she’ll be able to get comfortable enough to sleep a bit.  Otherwise she’ll just have to sleep when we get home and I’ll pray she doesn’t get too crabby on the flight.

I’m not sure how long it’ll take me to get my internet up and running once we get back to Italy.  Italians don’t do anything quickly and I’ve been working with someone over there for the past month trying to get it set up so they can install it shortly after I get back, but there’s a good chance I’ll be without internet for a week or so.  If I have time, I’ll be writing blogs still when I get back, I just won’t be able to post them until I get back online.  Although I have a LOT of stuff to do before Mark gets home when we get back to Italy and a fairly short amount of time to get it all done.  So I’m not sure how much time or energy I’ll have to devote to blogging, but I promise once I settled and in to a routine and get over the jet lag, and get the internet hooked up, I’ll be back!

It’s hard to believe that the end is already here.  The first half of this deployment seemed to last about a year and a half and the 2nd half has seemed to fly by.  This is the beginning of the end for me and I’m so excited that we’ll get to see Mark soon!