There's no place like HOME!

I've been home for 24 days now according to my ticker, wow, where did time go? It's rained for most of the time I've been here.

Flight went well, left on time and arrived on time, pleasent flight. Made the flight connection to get an earlier flight to Boston but it didn't do much good since I had just missed the earlier bus to my sons. I made it to his house by 3PM.

I got home Tuesday afternoon, renewed my driver's license, picked up mail, went grocery shopping and got to my house by 3PM. It IS good to be home. DIL and DGS stayed with me for a few days.

I bought a brand new Jeep on Thursday, picked it up on Friday after I got home. I got to see my Daughter and oldest grandson for a couple days too. I got a 2008 Jeep Grand Cherokee, dark steel blue, with lots of nice plusses like satellite radio, a/c that works.

Went to the Dr and they are pleased with my progress and congratulated me. (WOO HOO!)

I haven't stitched but i have fondled my new stash.

My father had a heart attack a couple days after I got home but he is ok now. They still can't do anything for the bad arteries so he is now on oxygen 24/7 for the rest of his life. He is still planning on coming up to visit in September.

It's Bike Week here in New Hampshire, lots of nice bikes all over. I went up to one place today and looked around but I am going to the main event tomorrow just for the thrill!

House looks ok, garage is almost done, nothing leaks that I can tell.

It IS good to be home!

Bye,ciao,massalama, adiós, au revoir,Auf Wiedersehen, arrivederci

I'm flying across the Atlantic ocean tonight. I'll be HOME IN THE USA hopefully by 8:30AM New York Time Monday morning! YAY YAY YAY. It's a 13 hour, nonstop/direct flight and I hope to be hugging/kissing my grandson/son by supper time!
Then it's on to renewing my driver's license, buying a car, hugging my kids/grandkids!

Have a GREAT summer!

So excited today!

GOOD MORNING DORIS!

WOO HOO! I re-connected with a dear, sweet, long time friend who helped me through my darkest, painful days back in 98-99. I got her phone number and phoned her today and we talked for 45 mintues. It was so nice to talk again and I hope we can get to meet up before I go on vacation next month.


And speaking of vacation, we are going down tonight to talk to the travel agent and make some reservations. Sadly British Airways won't be flying back in until 31 May which is after I plan to be outta here so I'll have to decide what else to fly. So I'm thinking of maybe leaving here on Wednesday the 27th or Thursday the 28th, I would like to be home by Friday the 29th so I can try again to renew my already expired driver's license so I can go new car shopping. WOOOOOOOOO HOOOOOOOOO.


Now and the downside of this morning, DH called from work and wanted to double check my dr. appointments for next week because he MIGHT HAVE TO GO ON A BUSINESS TRIP, GRRRRRRRRRR.


The inside of my arm is a pretty brown & green today from where they took blood on Saturday. My tooth hole is healing I guess, so by the time I go back on Monday to get the other tooth pulled, this one I hope will be healed so I can eat.

Still no stitching.

I did a 2 mile Walk Away The Pounds video then re started it to do another mile walk. I need to get back upstairs and do the strength training, I'm slipping on that. And if my scales are right, I lost another 1.5-2 pounds. I'm not confirming that as a fact yet though.


Today's SparkPeople Day at a Glance Calendar note for today:
Swap whole for white--grains that is. White flour, bread, rice and pasta are highly processed and low in nutrients. Whole grain varieties are packed with nutrients, fiber and filling power.

TTFN

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TY!

Today is my oldest grandson's birthday, he is 9 years old! I can't believe he is 9! I was there when he was born, it was a bit traumatic, we almost lost him and his mom too but today he is a fine, sweet 9 year old! I have only been with him for 1 frikkin birthday and that really sucks. I hope he has a GREAT birthday! It's so depressing because I was HOME to celebrate his birthday 1 year ago today.



I don't know what happened when I logged in but it told me that my account didn't exist. No matter how many times I retyped my user name & password, it said the account didn't exist. I don't know if someone hacked it or what but I changed the password.

As much as I cry, bawl and hurt at this time of year for not being able to be home, I am glad I am not home right now. I would probably be sitting in the dark with no heat. A major ice storm hit New England and many are without power right now. I called my son in New Hampshire yesterday and they are fine. They have power but ALL the surrounding towns don't! Our daughter in Maine is fine too so that is a relief.

I finally got up the ambition to walk again yesterday. While DH was home for the holiday, I did't do much like I should have so now I have to make up for it. I found those 2 lbs I lost too so now I have to make them go away.

I have been stitching again, I am trying to finish up a 9 year old UFO Mill Hill bead kit. Hopefully I can finish before too much longer. This is what I did, starting picture is on the right, what I have done so far on the left:

Remember all those planes I talked about last month? The ones going over one after the other non stop? Well they are all back, picking up all those hajji's they dropped off last month. I hope they get every last one of them and get them the hell outta here so I can go out shopping.

Well, I'm off to do something creative.

Another update

My mom is home from the hospital. Her pneumonia is cleared up, her leg is ok but still needs to heal. She has a walker to use and has to keep her leg up. My sister was able to get her a form of "meals on wheels" for awhile but my mom didn't want it because they deliver the meals at noon and SHE doesn't eat until dinner. Sheesh, take them for crying out loud.
Dad is better and has the splint off his arm.

Well the latest blood test result of mine says my thyroid numbers are within the normal range but I am now being diagnosed as a diabetic. Like I really need this one now. So I have still another dr appt on Monday afternoon after office hours so they can give me yet another pill to take and show me how to use a blood glucose monitor. How fun.

I can't believe my vacation is over, I really could use another week to get things straightened out but my visa that allows me to get back into hell, rather the place I have to go will expire soon and I NEED to get my US passport renewed before January.

The fall colors are at their full, vibrant peak right now and so much MORE vibrant and pretty than last year. It's supposed to go down to 38F tonight. Looks like we will have a fire in the fireplace.

Our friend came up yesterday and spent the night. He is a great friend we know from that "hell" place. He came up from Boston and brough these WONDERFUL, heavenly cookies from a bakery down there.

Guess I better go and get things done.

A scary episode

I had a major scare the other night and ended up calling the police. I was sitting alone in a quiet house and heard a bump. Didn't think anything of it. Head another couple of bumps, went to my bedroom window to see if someone was over next door this weekend but they weren't there. A few minutes later I heard a distinct door rattling, as in something shaking the daylights out of a closed door. I went towards the noise and it sounded like someTHING or someONE was trying to get either IN or OUT of our basement door. There is only one way out or in and that is by that door. It was open earlier in the day so I closed it. I had been bouncing around the House up and down stairs all day so if there was anything or anyone down there they should have heard me. I just panicked when I felt the vibration of the shaking door, grabbed my purse, cell phone and ran to the car, got in and started driving. I don't know where I was going but I couldn't stop shaking. I ended up sitting in the beach parking lot (1/4 mile down the road) and called my DS. They found the number for the State police which is right down the road, 2 miles away. I didn't feel it was urgent enough to call 911. The state police took my statement and apparently transferred the call to the local police. The police chief called me and listened to me whine again and said he would be right out. I sat in my car with it running in front of my house. 25 MINUTES LATER he finally shows up! I told him I felt like a fool but I was all alone and someTHING or someONE was definitely shaking the door. He got his flashlight and his hand on his gun and looked around the side of the house but didn't find anything. No trace of anything trying to dig at the wooden door, no signs (that we could tell) of anything trying to dig out of the door. He did find where something had tried to dig it's way out at some point in time. Since he couldnl't find anything he left after about 30 minutes. I kept apologizing for making him come out but he said it was really ok. I guess that is what we pay taxes for. I have never felt that terrified before, I couldn't stop shaking, I locked all the doors & windows, turned all the outside lights on. I guess it was nothing because there haven't been any noises since. That was Saturday night. The call will probably be in the local police report in the paper this week. Thank goodness only 2 more days till DH gets home!

Happy 4th of July

HAPPY 4TH OF JULY TO ALL WHO CELEBRATE OR WOULD LIKE TO CELEBRATE!

It's just me today, my kids are grown adults with lives of their own and they don't need mama hanging on. I have a small rack of PIG ribs and a small chicken breast marinating that I will grill later, some corn on the cob, a green salad and mixed vegetables. I cant' have potato or macaroni salad anymore so I guess that will be it. I forgot the watermelon the other day.

I might venture into town later to see what's happening there but for the most part it will be quiet.

The Yankees lost to Boston last night, it was a horrible game, hopefully they'll do better today.

Have a GREAT day no matter what you do today!

Guess I forgot to re set the clock for EDT.

Long time no chat.

It's the start of the 4th of July Holiday here, I have nothing what so ever planned. The tourists have come and all the driveways on my road that are empty most of the year have cars in them now, so it will be a busy, noisy weekend.

I don't post as often as I should because not much happens when I'm on vacation. My olderst Grandson stayed with me for a few days last week we had fun doing things around the house. He will be back again next week for another week.

I made a 6 day trip to visit my parents in NY and got to see my friend Velda. We had a WONDERFUL TIME and she got her lamps. I was so excited to give her lamps to her and lots of other fun stuff too. I'll post pictures later.
I finally got to meet my Grand Nephew Ryan and he is a cutie! He looks exactly like his mommy and with some facial expressions looks like my daughter when she was a baby.
My other niece who had gastric bypass looks FANTASTIC! She looks like a whole other person. My sister is doing great too and we had a GREAT time together.

My DS got his drivers license back! I am SOOOOOOOO happy for him, it means so much. He is also off probation too so he is a free man! Sadly though he is now struggling with high blood pressure and is trying to keep it under control without having to go on medication. He has had to cut out a lot of food and beverages he loves and has lost so much weight that he really doesn't need to loose.

Our garage still isn't done but they said they would be here next week to finish it.
I had some mold remediation work done. Last summer I had tests done for mold in the house and the guy said it was high in the upstairs and he didn't like the way the wall looked downstairs so he came in and cleaned it up. He had to take part of the ceiling down around the fireplace in the living room and spray that down and part of the wall in the downstairs room and spray that. That cost more than we had anticipated but it's done and we're all clean here now.

It's been raining most every day here. A few days have been nice but it seems if it gets over 78 in the house I get so uncomfortable. I did get a new window a/c unit that does a much better job of keeping the place cool. I've tried to stimulate the economy here by shopping, LOL.

I haven't stitched that much, I finished up a Summer exchange piece, a Needleroll for an exchange, and Velda got her Pals project that I finished into a cube. (I need to post pictures of these things.) Now I need to finish one more project for an exchange and mail that off.

I miss my husband and my furbabies but it's nice not to have to cook every day.
The Yankees suck this year, they are not going very well. I did subscribe to MLB.TV so I can watch their games every day. This weekend they play Boston so I will get to watch the games live.

I have had a couple days where I just sit on the couch and channel surf all day. It's not fun to do much else when all it's doing outside is raining.

That's about all for this update. I'll post some things later.

Ick!

It finally warmed up, to 97 yesterday and I don't have a/c, or I didn't have a decent one until yesterday. My DS was here so I asked him to put in my tiny window unit. It only cools down this room about 5 degrees so it's not really all that great unless you sit right in front of it. So he said no he wouldn't put it in unless I went and got a new one that acutally was the right size for this room, then he would put it in. so off we went to WalMart and got a new 9,900 BTU a/c unit. He installed it and it does cool this place better than the old one. so now I don't have to suffer with this menopause hot flashes during the miserable heat here in the boonie mountains. We don't get much breeze up here when it's hot either.

I was browsing the What's New pages on a few ONS today and what a hoot these are, I love them. http://www.abcstitch.com/designers_php/designers.php?category=Jill%20Holmes

I finished up a needleroll that I need to mail and started another cute summer design.

I recieved a needleroll for an exchange: I LOVE it!

The hornets & wasps are back again and building nests all over the eaves of the house. The nests are way out of reach of me trying to spray them though. They are even building nests in the little porch lights we have.

I haven't cooked much at all now that I am home but the other day I made my Spinach Lasagna roll ups Friday night and I fixed some burritos last night. My "DIL" loves the way I fix my burritos & southwestern lasagna. I made some jello too, I love to eat jello in the summer.

Uh oh

I went to town on Wednesday, there is a new Christmas Tree Shoppe here, I could be in trouble in that shop. What neat stuff! There is also a new Starbucks.

I probably won't be on the boards & groups much for awhile. Too much stuff to do here and I'm just not interested right now.

Thursday was one of those days here that doesn't happen often. I know I am lucky to be able to do it but I did absoultely nothing. I laid/sat on the couch all day with the remote flipping around the 57+ ENGLISH channels. That's all I did.

It has rained and been grey & dark since Monday and will continue until the middle of next week. ICK! It hasn't been above 65 either, chilly to me.

Anyway, if you don't see me for while, I'm fine, just doing other things.

June 3

I got most of my bags unpacked and put away but there are still a few things to get done yet. I even went though 5 months of mail.
I went through my stash briefly just to check to see wht is there but I want to really fondle it all again and get it entered into my stash database.
I have been diligently stitching on a couple of exchange projects and need to mail them.

I found out the backporch is broke! One of the railings must have broken from the weight of the snow and the gutter over the back porch broke off too. Gotta figure out how to fix that.

Now that I'm home, I can watch the Yankees loose games on MLB TV. They are doing crappy this year.

I can't post any pictures right now because the memory card in my new camera doesn't fit in any of the computer card readers I have. I put it in too far on one of the card readers and had a hard time getting it back out.

Smell that fresh mountain air!

Ahhh, it smells good, for a minute anyway until the pollen fills my nose and I sneeze. It's so green and nice here. There is this wet stuff leaking from the sky though today.

I made it home to the USA with no problem. Not at all fond of Frankfurt airport. My luggage did make it on the same flight and not a thing was broken, I am excited! My friends lamps made it! No problems at immigration or customs either.

It was very nice when I stepped out of the airport in Boston and it was cool. It felt good.
The house is fine, not leaking that I can see and it doesn't smell either.

Lots of mail & stash to go through.
I stopped at Walmart, Joanne's, Borders & the grocery store yesterday on my way home so I boosted the economy a bit.

My grandson is so cute, he is 2 1/2 and talks up a storm, my grandson who is 8 is also excited to have me home and can't wait to come see me, I can't wait either.

Ok. well back to unpacking and digging through stuff. Been up since 5AM

Very soon!

I will be across the Atlantic ocean in 24 hours! Woo hoo.

Wouldn't you know it. 1 week shy of nothing for 6 months and I start spotting. Well of course, I'm traveling tonight, so why not bring extra junk along. Geeze this makes me SO mad! 6 months! I was getting excited here.

36C at 3PM. Looks like it will be around 90F when I get on the plane at 1AM. It will be in the 70's when I land in Boston. Still only in the 40's at night at home. Brrrr, but it will be a relief.

Ok so, have a great day, & week.

3, count 'em, 3 more wailing hours as of this writing, one is comming up real soon.

TTFN, TTYL & ALL THAT

Bounce, bounce, bounce, ping, ping, that is me bouncing off the walls. AS of this writing, 7 more wailing hours. In 48 hours I will be in the air somewhere over the Atlantic ocean on my way to the USA!

DH came home from work today and said he has to go on a business trip on Thursday, he was supposed to leave TONIGHT, TUESDAY NIGHT! He can't tell them "no, my wife is leaving tomorrow" so we're pretending he couldn't get a flight until Thursday so he's staying home with me on Wednesday.

Having a mish mosh for supper, whatever is left in the fridge.

Woo hoo, can't wait to see my stitching friends Mary, Margaret, Velda and maybe meet more friends this summer!

I am signing off for now, don't know when I'll post again, gotta clean house, finish packing, hug my furbabies & DH, I go to the airport on Wednesday.

Another Saturday in Paradise**

** explanation is at the bottom of this post

LOLOL NKOTB continued. Ok, so my Travel Agent niece who was also a huge NKOTB fan who was going to marry Joey 15 years ago is still a huge fan, I am rotflmao. She wants to to to NJ for their concert in Sept. That would be neat but I think that is the day my DH gets home on vacation. I was kidding about watching the today show yesterday, she wasn't, OMG!

No stitching yesterday, I have 2 weeks to get exchanges finished.
Speaking of exchanges, I am in a couple. A needleroll exchange and a Summer Sizzling exchange on Tranquil Stitchers, and 2 other personal exchanges. So far that is all I am doing this year.

1:00PM and it's 37C again. They did get the a/c fixed but now if we try to lower it, it breaks again so inside it is 23C, (74) and feels chilly. It only dips "down" to 80F at night.

I haven't been on my cross stitch boards lately, I read every couple days but I just don't post. A couple of them are almost dead quiet, hardly anything happening, a couple others, the new members are just way too whiny. Apparently that certain designer from a couple weeks ago has gone into hiding again and won't show her face. A LOT more orders are missing and she isn't responding, hmmmmmmm. More "family crisis"?

According to the guy who we have contracted to build our garage at our house, the snow finally all melted from our back yard only a couple weeks ago. I guess that is a draw back to living in a thick, tree covered mountain area. We couldn't get satellite tv if we had to, there is so space to point the dish that has a clear, unobstructed view of the sky, too many tall trees around.

I've been e-baying again. Several years ago, when I started to become a severe cross stitch addict, I was winning at least 5 items a week, all cross stitch items. I quit e-baying after a couple years because I found out I could buy all those items from online shops at just about the same prices. I sold a few items as well. I quit checking e-bay because every time I looked, it had changed and I was lost. So now that DH has been e-baying buying Harley parts I was browsing and won several Tupperware items that I need replacements for. Sheesh, need to stay away from there. That is what happens when you were a dealer 20+ years ago and the stuff is breaking now.

Last night was home made pizza and it was good! Tonight is pasta with fresh sauteed vegetables.

**-Saturday HERE is like a Monday in the real world, Saturday is the start of the work week here.
Speaking of here, some asshole pervert called my cellphone this morning. I answered, he spoke in his native language, I asked him to speak English, what did he want, who was he looking for. The asshole wanted to know my name and said he was looking for sexy love. I hung up, he called back 4 more times but I didn't answer. DH is always at work when this happens.

Another day in paradise

Both our kids were at our house yesterday. They didn't plan it, for some strange reason it just worked out that way. I just hope everyone was nice and got along.
Our son said the house was literally covered in snow. You had to bend down to get in the door because the snow/ice was that high. There was a continual pile that went from the deck floor to the roof of the house from where the snow slid off the roof onto the deck. you could stand on the couch that is in front of the window and not see the driveway. It took them 20 minutes to shovel their way into the house. The mail box was destroyed again by the town plow, the road is only 1 1/2 car widths and the snowbanks are at least 10 feet high on the road sides. It would not surprise me at all if there was a snowpile somewhere in my yard in June! And of course no one had a camera!
He also said a can of soda expoded in the fridge, it came apart at the seam of the can. That's just great.
I got to talk to both my grandsons too! That was fun. They were both so busy playing together though.
My DD also took her computer parts home so hopefully they will be back on line soon and we can chat again, I really miss chatting with my girl! We can also go stash shopping together too, I love doing that.

I don't think I do any stitching today, I did something to my middle finger on my right hand yesterday and it is like a huge burn blister. I dont' remember burning it though, but it stings like crazy.
It's almost noon here and I can feel a nap coming on but I can't take a nap because we have a friend coming over this evening to do some computer work so I have to clean up the house a bit.

Last night we had spaghetti for supper with sauce from a jar. Not much to fixing that.

Happy Birthday Sweet Baby James!

Today is my sweet baby grandson's 2 nd birthday! I can't believe he's 2 already! I miss him.

I will have to call him later and say Happy Birthday.

So much for feeling so good yesterday. I ended up going to bed early (for me) at 11PM. I had a horrible sinus headache and my neck hurt. I took 2 Tylenol PMs at 11:15 PM Monday night and finally got up at 11AM Tuesday. I did get up a couple of times to see why the cat was screeching so much, (she was just lost and didn't know if anyone was here) and to pee but I just couldn't wake up. At least the headache and sore neck was gone.

I got an e-mail back from my mail lady at HOME and there is at least 3 feet of snow on the roof of our house. I wish I knew someone who shoveled off roofs. It's a good thing we got a new roof this past summer!

Another exciting part to my day, the project I sent to NC arrived! I am so psyched about that, she said it got there yesterday! That is less than a week, I am so impressed! DH had just said yesterday that the guy from the office told him he mailed it out last week.

Last night I started my March Coloring book page from Tranquil stitchers, it's a St. Patrick's Theme so I am stitching it on a piece of Spring hand dyed fabric from Silkweaver with Needle Necessities threads.

Well it looks like I'm flying Luftansa this year, haven't flown them in ?? years. (Yes V, I'm going to Germany, LOL) Last time we went through Frankfurt it was a mess, so we'll see what happens this time. The flight orginates in Eritria or Addis Abbaba, someplace nasty like that, and it is usually full of foul smelling people, and that is NO lie, ever tried to hold your nose for 5 hours? Maybe I can find my cuckoo clock this time, LOLOL. I think I'm getting home on May 31 and leaving with DH again (UGH!) on Oct 10. We'll see how much changes between now and then.n Could have flown Swiss Air and gone to Zurich, haven't been there before but it was an 11 or 12 hour layover, I don't think so.

Last night's dinner was Spinach citrus salad. Spinach leaves with orange segments, walnuts & green onion slices. MMMMMMmmmm. Looks like the same thing again tonight.

Some pictures

These pictures were taken in the exact same spot, 2 months apart, looking one way up the road in front of our house

and the other way:

I don't have many pictures from CHRISTMAS I was busy watching my kids and grandsons and smiling but here are a couple from our house.

These are my 2 grandsons:
I wish I had a picture of AFTER the unwrapping was done but I don't.

Happy New Year!

Where to start?

It's been a month since I updated this. Let's see:

December 13- The flight from here to Rome was great! Friendly service, good food and I got to sleep some on the flight. Rome was a nightmare. Our passports were flaged with a RED ALERT on them when we went to check in on UNITED for our flight to Washington DC! They couldn't find our luggage in the system but finally said oh, yes it's here. Then some miserable bitch United person had to "complete" our check in details so we could get on the flight. She started asking the SAME questions over and over, just wording them differently and would NOT listen to the answers DH gave her! She insisted that we stayed in a hotel here and demanded a payment reciept for our stay, wanted to know where we were going, how long we were staying, WHY we were going to the USA, WHO we were going to see, etc, etc. Did we have checked bags? How many, where were they? She then said something in Italian to the check in clerks at the desk, next thing they were on the phone. Needless to say our luggage was NOT on the plane when we got off in Washington DC. The flight left 45 mintues late so we would miss our connection to New Hampshire since we had the bare minimum amount of time to make it The flight was booked full, the flight attendants were miserable and snotty and we had to pay for drinks! Now I remember why we fly international air carriers and NOT American air carriers.

We get to DC an hour late, our luggage is NOT there, there is NO airline personel around to talk to about our connecting flight nor is there a tote board with flights listed. So we go through security to find out where we are supposed to be and there is NO help anywhere. We find a bank of tv screens but NO flight listed for our destination but see other small commuter flights listed so we go to that terminal. We find the gate where our flight was supposed to leave from to find out the flight was CANCELLED due to a BLIZZARD in New England! GREATTTTT, welcome home, LOL. After several hours, phone calls etc. we did get on a flight on stand by and land in Manchester NH (in a snowstorm) around 11:30PM, well over 24 hours since we left. Got a rental car, drove to a hotel and went to sleep.
December 14-Wake up on Friday to more snow, this is the first time in 7 years we have seen this much snow in one place, LOL and been in this cold.
We hit the mall and shop a bit, got some Christmas presents since our LUGGAGE IS LOST! We went up to see our son, grandson and son's girlfriend. We tried to surprise him by being there when he got home but he came in the patio door so he could see us. WEnt out for dinner and headed HOME!
So we get home a day later than planned but our house was all decorated for Christmas, our son did the decorating and it looked so nice!

December 15-On Saturday we woke up at 5AM, got up at 6, went out at 7 to do grocery shopping and other shopping and were back home by 11! Our daughter and her family came up for the day so we could celebrate our grandson's 8th birthday with him. It was so nice to be able to do that. She brought my stash with her too, LOL. Our son in law was actually in a decent mood too!
December 16-Sunday it started to snow and we started calling about our luggage. We talked to someone named Sean in India, yeah right. All this person does is read back what is on the computer screen, which is our flight itinerary and the fact that our luggage was delivered to our house sometime Friday. Umm, I don't think so, that is why I am CALLING YOU, we DONT' have our luggage. Ok, they will look into it and please to call back in 4 hour. CAll back and they read what we can see on our computer screen too. I don't think they work for United at all but it's some central call center in India where all phone calls go to.

Snow, snow, ice and more snow all week, our plow guy came at least 5 or 6 times in 3 weeks and our contract is for 12 storms between November and the end of March. It's pretty and it covers the trees very nice but enough was enough!


This is a tree in our back yard. I wish I could show up just how pretty the snow was on the tree. Note the propane take in the lower left corner? These tanks are 4 feet tall, notice how buried in the snow they are?


Our car needed more major repairs that we didn't plan on so we had to rent a car for 3 weeks which was an expense we didn't really plan on. At least it works for awhile now. They started working on our garage, and have the foundation laid but it's covered with snow so we can't see it. The yard looks so different with the extra trees down but at least we can see that we have a yard.
Someone has rented the house next door, not sure if it has been sold but there are people living there.
We've called EVERY single day to India to find our luggage, we get the same story every time, they read word for word the exact same page every time we call. We have had to describe our luggage, what is in our luggage, our address, our flight itinerary, "what is NY Yankez? how to spell that?" that is my luggage tag, I'm sorry BUT IF I WAS CALLING ANYWHERE IN THE USA YOU WOULD KNOW WHAT NY YANKEES IS! This is now Wednesday night, they never offered to compensate us for no shampoo, deoderant, clothes etc. NOW they tell us we need to download and fill out MORE forms and FAX them to United. Complete description of luggage, contents and PRICE of contents. They should have told us this 3 days ago when they told DH he needed to send copies of the tickets, baggage claim tickets, boarding passes, and passports. It's a different story every time we call!

Friday Dec 21-we brave the snow, rain and crowds and go to Dover to the mall shopping. School got out early that day, traffic was bumper to bumper, backed up for an hour, almost every parking space was full, it was cold and NOT fun. 9PM the phone rings, it's for DH, United found our luggage and it will be delivered BEFORE Saturday morining! Wahoo. So we decide we have to sleep in the recliner & couch in the living room so we can hear the guy when he comes. Another phone call at 12:45AM, yep, we have your luggage right here, it will be delivered by 5AM, is there someplace safe we can leave it so we don't have to wake you up? I told him the sunporch/mudroom, how many pieces do you have? He has all 3. 4:50AM another phone call, do you live in a big red house? Yes I said, ok thank you, they werent' sure when I asked where the house was. DH gets up, dressed, walks out to the living room and the luggage is sitting in the sunporch, all 3 pieces. The guy must have been in the driveway when he called. YAY YAY We FINALLY got our luggage, over a week after we got here!
Sat. Dec. 22. Checked the luggage, it's really mangled and beat up. That bitch in Rome must have had the gorillas throw it around a bit. The locks were broken off, my NY Yankees luggage tag is missing. It had been opened by the TSA and they even left a note inside saying so, LOL. Not a thing was taken from inside but you could tell it was pawed over, we were just glad to have it. Even the candy was still there! So the kids will get their Christmas presents.

So to make a long story short, the rest of the vacation went fine and too fast. It kept snowing. BOTH our kids and grandsons were with us for Christmas and it felt so good to have my family together! I cooked almost all day on Christmas but we had HAM and not stinky turkey, LOL.
I got a Garmin GPS so I don't get lost now, a plug in coffee cup that plugs into my USB port on my computer, a digital picture frame, a couple of cute camel plant holders, a wall fountain (I love water fountains) a hat/scarf/glove set from my mother that came in REAL handy. I think we all had a very good Christmas.

New Year's Eve was quiet, just the two of us and we both did stay awake until midnight, which was amazing, LOL. We got to watch New Year's Eve from Times Square, I would LOVE to be there someday! I did say Happy New Year when it was midnight in this country too.

That is all for this part of the trip.

December 12

So much to do, so little time. I woke up starting at 6:45AM my time and every 10 minutes for the next 45 minutes so I finally got out of bed at 7:30AM, which makes that 11:30PM TUESDAY NIGHT Dec 11 HOME time. It's going to be a LOOOOOOOOONG 48 hours. I woke up with a sinus infection which makes my teeth hurt more than they already do, my fingers, hands and wrists, feet, ankles and calves are all puffed up and I have absoultely NO ambition to do anything that needs to be done before we leave tonight. DH wants to take the luggage out and check in/get boarding passes early, then we go to the airport around midnight/1AM local time for a 4AM flight. Passport control here does NOT always go smoothly so that is why we go early.
We are headed into snow/sleet/ice storms at home about the time we land and the evening that we will attempt to drive home to our house. We have also had to rent a SUV to get through the ice/snow since our car is not running now.

I did stitch a bit last night and got a couple things put in my bag to stitch if I can't sleep on these flights. The flight from Europe to USA is almost 10 hours, 4 hours longer than the usual vacation flights. I just hope there aren't any screaming, ill mannered, undiciplined brats on the flight.

I have my blinking Santa hat in the bottom of my purse so I can put it on when we get HOME!

If you are reading this, please send us safe, easy travel vibes or a prayer or two for no snow ice etc. I am absoultely terrified to land and drive in winter weather, I just want to get home to enjoy 3 short weeks with my family.

Ok, got the load of laundry done, swept & mopped the kitchen floor, re-organized carry on, got clothes out for flight, put stuff away, cleaned out fridge. I even purged my closet of clothes that I wore back in 1999 when I was SKINNY that I know I will never ever wear again.