This, That and My New Wheels

On Monday morning I took Natalie to her soccer camp. Our lives are REALLY getting back to normal. Natalie had been worried about whether or not she would be able to jump back into her soccer routine. While we were in Poland she did not play on a team. Girls do not play soccer, or at least on soccer teams, there. When I looked for a team for her in Gdansk last fall I learned that she COULD play on a boys' team. I was not thrilled with the idea of my 13 year old daughter being the only girl on a team where she does not speak the language or know the culture. She was not too thrilled about that idea either. So she juggled the ball in the backyard when the weather was somewhat decent. She had PE at the British School on Mondays. She used that as her sporty outlet. Her PE teacher commented on her end of year report about how happy Natalie was playing sports.

I watched her for about 20 minutes at the end of camp today. She looked right at home on the soccer field in the goalie box, and I know she was so happy to be back on the field again. Note the skinned up knee that happened when she dove for the ball at camp this morning and the big smile on her face! She has played on the same soccer team since first grade, and will be rejoining them for the fall season in August. She can't wait!

I have had so much fun this past week running into people we know everywhere we go. I ran into Monica at Walmart, Tricia at Quiktrip and so many friends at church. I saw Karen cruising next to me as I was driving down Pflumm yesterday, and Wendy at Target this morning. There have been times this past week where I've had the Cheers theme song running through my head: "Where everybody knows your name..." It is nice to be home!

We have a new phone number. Since we were unwilling to pay the silly monthly fee to keep our old number for nine months, we ran the risk of our old number being unavailable, and that happened. We are adapting and have learned the new number. What I was not expecting was the deluge of sales calls! We had our old number registered with the attorney general in Kansas on the Do Not Call list. After this past week of countless telemarketing calls, I registered our new number this morning. But the telemarketers do not have to comply for 31 days. We will be doing some serious screening of calls in our house until August 1st!

Our trees are growing in the backyard. They are getting big and providing some much needed shade back there as the backyard gets the summer, southwest sun. Our peach tree is producing lots of fruit, but I think we will not be able to enjoy any of it. There seems to be a serious peach theft problem in our backyard. I caught one of the criminals red handed this morning.

And it looks like this was his second helping. The pit from his first course is right by his tail.

We have been running crazy and time has been flying! I cannot believe we have already been home for over a week. When we were in Poland I had promised Ben that he could get his driving permit when we came home. Well, we have not quite gotten around to that yet, but he did have his very first driving lesson. It is a very strange feeling to let my firstborn sit in the driver's seat. It's downright terrifying to allow him to operate the vehicle!

We went to a nearby parking lot and he navigated around curbs at very slow speeds. He was surprised to realize how many things one has to think about while driving a car. He is studying the manual and we will head to the DMV later this week for his permit. He has many more instructional hours in his future before he is allowed to venture off on his own.

Ben's lesson was given in Myles' car, not my BRAND NEW (to me--it's a 2009) minivan!

We picked it up yesterday, and I love it.

One of my requirements for a new car is that it NOT look like every other vehicle out there. I have a tendency to forget where I park in big parking lots, and it is very helpful to have a unique looking vehicle. My old, mint green Ford Windstar was awesome, and I never lost it. If that thing didn't die, I would still be driving it. When it did give out, I had a light blue Town & Country for a while. It happened more than once that I tried to get into a car that wasn't mine when we owned that van! We sold it right before we left for Poland. This new van is navy blue and has a little bit different body shape to it than all the others. In addition, I will slap my "I Love Gdansk," sticker on it to help it stand out.

All of our immediate coming home chores have been accomplished. I still have an attic full of plastic tubs to empty and sort. But we are functional. I'm not complaining!

Here, Kitty, Kitty

Our cat, Miranda, is home! When we first welcomed Miranda into our family as a nine month old kitten back in 2002, she was terrified and hid behind a big dresser for several days. She was very slow to accept her new surroundings. Then for the next seven years she never left the house except for a yearly (more or less) trip to the vet. Miranda does not care for the vet or to leave the house. Whenever we went out of town we would always have a neighbor come in and check on her and make sure she had enough food and water. When we would return home she would make sure we knew she was annoyed with us for leaving her. But she would not be able to resist our charms for very long.

When we went to Poland, Miranda spent those 10 months with our friends who live here in Olathe. Ginny is a cat lover, sometimes referred to by her family as the "cat whisperer."

Her family has two cats and a dog of their own. She graciously volunteered to foster Miranda while we were bouncing all over Europe. It was so wonderful for us to know that Miranda was loved and well taken care of while we were gone. Ginny emailed pictures of Miranda to us from time to time while we were gone. We can't thank Ginny and her family enough for taking such good care of our kitty.

When we dropped Miranda off at their house last August she was very stressed. She hid behind their bed for about a day before she ventured out. Miranda is a ponderer. She observes for a long time before she even considers engaging. According to Ginny, she eventually adapted and enjoyed, even sometimes initiated play with the other cats. One of her new friends, Olive, was a bit standoffish to Miranda. So Miranda interacted with and played mostly with the other cat, Thor. I understand that they each took turns instigating mischief. Thor was very curious and concerned as we put Miranda in the pet carrier and took her away.

Ginny told me that Miranda tolerated Snowball the dog, but that's about it. That is the same way that I would describe the relationship Miranda used to have with our dog, Ginger. We put Ginger up for adoption last summer and she is permanently living with a family in Memphis, Tennessee.

I did not know how Miranda would react to seeing us. Myles was so jet lagged that he stayed home. Ben wanted to go with me to visit with Ginny's son, Ross. Ben and Ross played together on the same baseball team for a couple of years. Miranda did not come downstairs to greet us. Ginny brought her down and Miranda let me hold her. She is not a cat who likes to be held much so I was very pleasantly surprised about that. She did not seem nervous or worried, so I think she remembered us. On our way to our home from Miranda's temporary home last night, she had a lot to say. She was not one bit pleased to be in a pet carrier and made ugly and insulting comments to us during the entire ride.

When we arrived home I let her out of the carrier. Myles picked her up and reminded her where we keep her food and litter box. She did not fight him when he picked her up. She was most definitely mad, and she spent about 30 minutes hiding between the sofa and a table.

But after a very short time she started walking around just like she normally does. She seems to remember this home and very quickly started acting like she was comfortable here. I'm sure she will miss her animal buddies that she made this past year. And no, we will not be adding any new pets to our family anytime in the foreseeable future.

Step by step we are returning to the life we left. Next we are going to pick up the new van!

The Reunion that Brought Tears to My Eyes

I left the house at about 1:00 Saturday afternoon. I stopped by Target for what seems like the 12th time this week. From there I headed up toward the airport. I stopped by the Embassy Suites and picked up Natalie's backpack that we had inadvertently left there last weekend. Then I went to the airport to pick up Myles.

His flight from Chicago was scheduled to arrive at 2:50. I was there at 2:30. As I was waiting, I noticed a couple who were waiting for the same flight. They were probably early to mid 50s. The husband was nervously pacing back and forth. The wife was anxiously looking around, checking her watch, scanning the arrival board and watching out the window for the plane. She was telling her husband, "fix your shirt," "it's time for the plane to be here," "are you sure this is the door they will come out?" I was very curious to see which passenger on this plane had this couple so out of sorts.

The plane pulled up to the gate. A few minutes later the exit door to the main area was opened by an airport employee. Then people started coming off the plane. The wife drew in a big breath and started to cry as the second person walked through the jetway. It was a young US soldier in his army fatigues. His parents ran to him as he exited the gate, and there were quiet tears among spectators who happened to be standing nearby. The young man and his dad headed off to the restroom. I asked the mom how long he had been away. She said he had been in Iraq for a year this time and that now he is home for good. I'm glad I was a witness to this today.

Myles exited the plane several minutes later. He has been gone for 10 months, though we just left him in Gdansk a week ago. His homecoming trip was quite an adventure. http://mylesgartland.blogspot.com/2010/06/only-22-hours-late.html We both agree that international travel stinks. We also agree that the right sets of mishaps happened to the right people. I would not have had the patience to haul all the kids and all of our stuff from terminal to terminal trying to resolve the flightmare he endured. I would have shut it all down much sooner, rented a minivan and driven to Kansas from New Jersey.

But all's well that ends well. We are all home now. We have found a minivan to buy. We will be picking it up tomorrow. In the meantime we are making do with Myles' car that seats five people.

Next we need to go pick up our cat and bring her home.

The Best Laid Plans

This morning I took Myles' car to the shop to have it looked at again. They could not look at it right away so I walked home. It was as if I had never left Poland! Except for the blistering heat. I just checked online and the high in Gdansk was 67 today. After I had been home for about an hour I received a call from the shop. They retested the alternator and it is testing fine. They can't find any problem with it. Well, looks like I just saved $650. The alternator surely won't last forever, but I'm not getting a new one today. Abbie and I walked back up to the shop to get the car. She mentioned that maybe Olathe should consider getting some trams. That would have been helpful this morning and our Gdansk passes are paid up through July 4th!

Today I went through a huge stack of mail that had accumulated while we were gone. It was kind of fun looking at all the Christmas cards we received on this hot June day! The kids were invited to swim with some friends at their neighborhood pool.

They were happy to get away from me and hang out with their friends.

Myles was scheduled to arrive in KC at 4:40 this afternoon. Well...there's been a change. I am not sure what has happened because it was overnight here when he sent the email. I'm sure he's working up his blog right now. But I received an email from him saying that he did not make his flight in Copenhagen to Brussels. So that meant that he was scheduled to fly from Copenhagen to Newark, New Jersey, then to Chicago, then to KC. If all went according to the revised plan, he would be arriving in Kansas City at 9:34 tonight. Well, all did not go according to that plan.

I saw online that the flight from Newark to Chicago had been cancelled. When I arrived in the US last weekend, my Polish cell phone did not work. I assumed that his would not work either. I hoped he would be able to find his way to an internet connection. I emailed him and gave him all of our new phone numbers. I did not think he had them and the numbers are so new they are not even listed with directory assistance yet. Shortly later, I received a call from him while I was standing in line at Walmart. We had a terrible connection. I assume he was using the cell phone of some kind stranger because of the Washington DC area code on my caller ID. He is staying the night in Newark tonight, and will be flying into KC tomorrow afternoon. I guess I will get the full story later this evening.

I know he must be completely frustrated, but he is on the ground in the US. Most of the "process" is behind him now. I have no idea if he has a change of clothes in his carry on bag...I'm thinking not. We are anxious for him to be home. When I head to the airport tomorrow I need to remember to stop by the Embassy Suites by the airport and pick up one of our backpacks that we left there. I somehow left it when we packed up after the first night we were back in KC. It is Natalie's backpack with her books from school in it. Those first few days are pretty foggy in my head.

I am sitting by the phone waiting for Myles to call so I can get all the details.

Progress and Fun

Monday was a very busy day! I started out pulling gigantic weeds from my garden in the front yard. I planted a few flowers and in no time it looked much better. At 8:30 the air conditioning guy came and checked out the unit on the side of the house. Everything was ok with it so that was great news. A short time later a delivery truck pulls up with my new mattress. Then the AT&T guy came and activated the phone lines, the internet and television service. A crew of cleaning ladies showed up and made the house sparkle from top to bottom. In the afternoon, the washer and dryer showed up on yet another delivery truck. Those folks were summoned back out because the washer water hoses were hooked up backwards. When I was washing my clothes with cold water, hot water was coming out. That's no good. They have come and gone today and the problem is fixed.

I have been to Walmart and Target, each more than once. I stopped by the Hen House and was even able to produce my Hen House card when prompted to do so! While we were away in Poland, all of my kitchen drawers and cabinets here at home were rearranged. I have remedied that and things are back to normal. I took Myles' car to have the oil changed and to check and make sure it is in good running order. It seems that there may be a problem with the battery. They tested the battery yesterday and said it needed to be charged, probably because the car had not been driven much while we were gone. Well today I noticed that it was slow to turn over. So when I drove the girls out to Stanley for an outing with the youth group, I stopped by the tire and battery store across the street. The guy told me that the alternator is bad and it is going to cost $650 to fix. I told him that I would have my husband take care of it! He said he was worried about whether or not the car would make it home.

Well I took my chances and he needn't have worried. I called the shop that worked on it yesterday to ask if they checked the alternator. I was able to speak to the guy who worked on it and he said he did. He said that sometimes alternator problems can be intermittent so it is possible that there is a problem, but that it tested fine yesterday. I am taking it back in to have them retest it tomorrow morning. I picked up the girls from Incredibowl and drove all the way home. I then dropped them off and headed over to the car dealership to begin the process of buying a new minivan (well, not new--new to me). I test drove one but did not love it. It was ok. I talked to Myles and we are going to wait until Saturday morning and go over to the dealership together. I hate car shopping!

One of the school moms hosted a lovely coffee get together this morning at her home. It was so nice to see friends that I have not seen since September. People came and went as their schedules allowed.

It was a very nice welcome home, though I was unable to get a picture with everyone who attended! Pictures will be added to some of my very recent posts as soon as Myles gets home with the photo uploader thing.

Today is the first day that we have all felt like we were on somewhat of a normal schedule. I woke up at 5:00 this morning which is a great improvement! I have been surprised at how long it has taken me to acclimate to the time difference. Yesterday was the worst day and today has been the best day. Myles is coming home late tomorrow afternoon. I'm glad we will all be under one roof in our real home!

What Fanny Pack?

My poor friend Sarah, had to sit down and take some deep breaths on Sunday when she heard a rumor that I had been traipsing all over Europe with a fanny pack attached to me!

I am admitting nothing.

Now some reasons why one MIGHT think it MAY be a good idea to have a fanny pack as a mother of four children who is on a nine month jaunt around Europe are as follows:

*Passports. They are vitally important while traveling. We used them every time we traveled. If one or all of them had been lost or stolen we would have seen Polish red tape that would stretch to eternity. We would have been stuck in Poland and then thrown in jail for being there illegally! I really had no desire to have to contact the US Embassy in Warsaw. Right now as I sit in my own home, I am not even sure which bag the passports are stashed in. In Poland I always knew exactly where they were at all times.

*Credit cards. While we were in Poland, one of our credit cards expired in March. We did not ever receive the new one over there. In fact I think I will call them today to get that taken care of. Then my debit card was canceled because of some breach of security here in the US (some general thing with hundreds of cards--not my card specifically). I still don't know what happened exactly. They did send a replacement card. But since our mail was being forwarded, and credit cards usually are not forwarded, it was sent back to the bank. That left us with ONE credit/debit card that had to be protected at all costs. Myles and I each had one, and keeping them secure was high priority.

*Public Transportation. We did not have a car in Poland. So we took trams and buses or walked everywhere we went. These modes of transportation are frequently crowded. There is a lot of jostling around. There are often reports of purses being stolen and/or things being stolen out of purses. Also, we had public transportation passes. When a transportation checker boards the bus or tram, people have to show their passes. It might be a big pain to have to search through a purse for them while holding on for dear life as the Polish drivers take us for a ride.

*Groceries. Since we did not have a car, we walked to the grocery store almost every day. Carrying bags of groceries 3/4 of a mile is heavy work. Having to carry a purse in addition to our groceries just might be the straw that sends the camel into a complete meltdown.

I brought home four super cute purses, so even IF I might have had a fanny pack in my wardrobe in Poland, I sure don't need it anymore! Again, I'm not admitting anything, I'm just saying it MIGHT have been the smartest option given the circumstances. And I'm sure my girls Ivija and Claudia will never tell! Oh, no! Proof...

Oh, and by the way, I've put the tennis shoes away, too!

The Long Trip Home

A few evenings ago we were sitting in our backyard in Gdansk having grilled hamburgers with our wonderful neighbors. We packed up their minivan and SUV with all of our luggage before we went to bed.

The next morning, they all (Mariusz, Basia, Karol, Karolina, Anita and Wojtek piled in three cars at 4:40 a.m. to take us to the airport. It is shockingly light at that hour in Poland in June. The sun starts rising at 3:30 a.m. As we were driving to the airport, I was surprised to see so many people out walking around. It sure did not look or seem like it was still nighttime. I guess they take advantage of all that light since they sure don't have it in the winter time!

We arrived at the airport and there was work to be done. I was so thankful to have so many willing helpers. The five of us each had two suitcases to check and we each had two carry on bags, too. I had to go to the LOT (Polish airline that we flew) business office to pay for our excess baggage. When we came over in September we were allowed to check two bags for free. Going home we were only allowed to check one for free. It ended up costing $325 to check the extra bags. Big bummer, but still less than shipping. It took a long time to get that done because the process is not streamlined. The lady entered all the information individually, having to enter my credit card number five times (once for each bag). I also received cards that I was to turn in at each airport so that they could see that we paid for the extra baggage.

While I was doing that, our friends were hanging out with the kids and all of our carry on baggage. Once I was finished getting the bags taken care of, I checked in. They gave me boarding passes for the flight to Warsaw and the flight to Chicago. The lady told me that we would have to get our boarding passes for the Kansas City flight in Chicago. When I was all checked in, we said our good byes. That was the first hard part of the day.

Our flight to Warsaw took off at 6:45. It is a 45 minute flight to Warsaw. Easy and blissfully uneventful. We arrived in Warsaw and made our way to the international flight area. It was about 7:45 when we made it to the security area and we were the only ones there! We were not rushed with anyone behind us. If there is such a thing as a pleasant security check, that was it. We then went to Passport Control. Here is where they check passports and you get a stamp as you are leaving the country.

I had been a little worried about this point. We were perfectly legal in Poland. In fact, the kids and I are still temporary residents of Poland until June 30th. We received official decision letters back in December when we were approved. We were supposed to receive photo identification cards within four months of getting that letter. We paid for them, we had our pictures taken (with the requirement of the left ear showing -- yep, seriously!), but we never received them. We were mostly certain that the decision letters would suffice, but sometimes Polish bureaucracy can be merciless.

I bravely walked up to the window and handed our five passports to the man and the woman who were checking them. They were friendly and made sure that all of our faces matched the pictures on the passports. They laughed at Trey who was making faces at himself in a two way mirror (where people were working on the other side). Then they did not even look at the stamps to indicate when we arrived. They did not question anything and stamped our passports. While I was so glad to get my "you may now leave Poland" stamp, they sure didn't do what they were supposed to do. I did not have to get my decision letters out or justify anything.

Next we had to wait. And wait. And wait. Our flight from Warsaw to Chicago was scheduled to take off at 12:10 so we had time to kill. We sat and did Mad Libs. That's always fun. After a little while a toddler (maybe 15 months or so) and his mother came to the area we were in. The mother did not speak any English, but the kids loved playing with the little boy. Now here's a cultural difference. After about 30 minutes, the mother comes over to me and says "toaleta" and points to her little boy. She wanted me to watch her baby while she went to the bathroom. I agreed, immediately thinking that there is no way in a million years that I would EVER leave my baby with a stranger who is clearly a foreigner in an airport. I know that I am no threat to that baby and would not run off with him, but how on earth would she know that? It's a different world over there. They stayed a while longer, then left for their flight to Kiev.

At 11:20, we went to our gate and I turned in my first set of cards so our luggage would get on the Warsaw to Chicago flight. We boarded the plane and found our seats in row 24. Trey was by the window and I was right next to him. Then across the aisle was Ben with an aisle seat, then Natalie in the middle, then Abbie on the other aisle seat. The flight ended up leaving 30 minutes late. It is a 9 hour, 40 minute flight. It started out fine and then was fairly bumpy for a long time. The kids were so tired and I tried to get them to sleep. But international flights are so crammed and uncomfortable, and the bumpy ride did not allow for sleep. Trey did doze off a little bit.

After about three hours, I did not think Trey looked like he felt well. He said he felt fine, but his eyes looked sick to me. He kept saying he was ok, so I believed him after a while. We switched seats around from time to time. Ben and I had switched seats so I was sitting by the girls and he was by Trey. All of a sudden, nearly six hours into the painfully slow flight, Ben says, "Mom! Trey is sick!" I look over, grab an "air discomfort" bag from the seat pocket in front of me and in a flash I am holding it to his mouth. Unfortunately, he had already thrown up all over his jacket, pants and seat.

I had Abbie flag down a flight attendant. The flight attendant brought a trash bag. I took Trey's jacket off him and threw it right into the trash. I sent Ben to take Trey to the bathroom to help him get cleaned up, and I worked on cleaning up the seat. The flight attendant brought me hot rags to clean up the seat and then I headed back to the bathroom to see how the boys were doing. Ben did a great job cleaning Trey up, but the damage was more than I had hoped. I knew we had few clothing options in our carry on bags. I quickly looked through what we had and found a German soccer goalie shirt of Natalie's and a pair of her red, shiny, long basketball shorts. I changed him out of his clothes and tossed them into the trash. He looked like a little gangster in the way too big and odd looking outfit. There would be a picture to document this, but the batteries were dead in my camera, so the image is left to the imagination.

I asked the flight attendant for an extra blanket and put that down on the still wet seat. Poor Trey did finally sleep for a couple of hours, but had a fever. I was really worried and wondered how I was going to pull off the rest of the trip. I just told myself that I would make a decision in Chicago as to what to do. If he was too sick to continue, at least we would be in the US. He seemed better when he woke up and there was only 30 minutes left in the flight.

We had a very bumpy landing. There was a thunderstorm approaching Chicago and we bounced all over the place before we ended up safely on the ground. The plane was about 15 minutes late. So this meant we had one hour and 45 minutes before our flight to KC. We got off the plane and walked and walked and walked to the customs area. The line was very long. They have lots of Passport control people working, but the line was still slow. Trey was lying on the floor when the line was not moving. It was so sad. When we finally reached the front of the line, about 35 minutes later, a very nice customs agent asked me a bunch of questions about the time we spent in Poland and what we were bringing into the country. As he stamped our passports, he cheerfully said, "Welcome home to the United States." Music to my ears!

The next step was to get all of our checked luggage from the baggage area. In Chicago, on international flights you have to get your checked luggage yourself and take it to be rescreened in an area about 100 feet away. Well, we rounded up four luggage carts and waited for our baggage. When we collected all 10 pieces, we rolled our carts to the rescreening area. At that point I had to stop at the ticket counter and get our boarding passes for our flight to Kansas City. They lady printed them and told me that we were going to have to take a train to terminal 1 (international is in terminal 5) and we were going to be lucky to make our flight.

Poor Trey was still not feeling great, but was holding his own, so off we went, hurrying to the train. I noticed while waiting for the train that it was pouring rain, and there was lightning everywhere. The flags were blowing like crazy. I was actually relieved because I knew no flights could be taking off in that weather so we had some time. We reached our gate (C-29) at about 5:10 p.m., and the board said that our flight had been delayed until 6:43 p.m. (from 5:15 originally). Ok, so I get the kids situated on the floor by a big pillar and get some sandwiches for dinner. Trey just wanted to drink some root beer, but he did perk up a little bit. At 5:30, I went to check the board to see if our flight had been delayed any further and saw that it had been changed. It had been moved UP to 6:00 and the gate had changed to C-28. I hurried back to where the kids were and we loaded up all of our carry ons and went to the other gate.

They started boarding right when we got there and we made it on the plane and found our seats. I was still questioning whether or not I should push Trey but he seemed ok and the flight was only scheduled to be 90 minutes. We pushed back from the gate a little after six. Then we sat for a long time. Then after about 40 minutes we finally started moving. I thought, "Ok, here we go." Wrong!

We taxied to the runway and got in line behind a whole bunch of planes waiting to take off. The captain came on and announced that they were getting all the planes that had been flying down on the ground because many had been circling due to the thunderstorm and were low on fuel. So we sat. And we sat. And we sat. But they were not letting people get up because every few minutes we would inch forward. Finally, after another hour, we took off. And a little over an hour later, we were on the ground in Kansas City!

At this point we had been awake for more than 24 hours straight. We went to baggage claim and nine out of our 10 bags showed up. I knew that we had all of them in Chicago, but somehow one did not make it on our flight. The lost luggage lady told me that I could call United the next day to make a claim if I didn't want to do it right then. I had decided back in March when we bought our tickets that we would stay at the Embassy Suites by the airport upon our arrival. I knew back then that we would be tired from our trip. I was so glad that I opted for that because we were beyond exhausted and it took only a few minutes to reach the hotel. The hotel stored all of our bags for us so we would not have to take them all to our room. We went right to bed. And when we woke up at about 4 a.m. (that's 11 a.m. by our clocks), we waited for the breakfast buffet to open at 7:00 and enjoyed the fabulous breakfast they have!

It's a long, long way from Gdansk, Poland to Olathe, Kansas.