Just keep swimming...

Bella and I decided we were going SWIMMING!  So, we asked our neighbor and her daughter to join us and headed out to the Weiden Schwimmbad to spend a few hours in the pool. 

Here is what I LOVE about German swimming pools.

1.  Kids don't pay until they are 6 years old.

2.  There are always multiple pools (lap pool, kids pool, non-swimmer pool, wave pool, lazy river pool, pools with waterfalls, hottubs, etc.)

3. They have fun slides...like the enclosed tube slides as well as regular slides.

4.  They are just the right temperature.

5.  They have chairs deckside that you can lounge in and even tan under sunlights if you want.

6.  They are always connected to a spa.

Its like a bigAmerican waterpark only its not crowded beyond belief because just about every good sized town has one.  I love it so much that I think the USA should adopt the German schwimmbad plan.

Anywho...we took a few photos from our fun few hours at the pool that I can't resist posting...The other two in the photos are our neighbor, Kim and her daughter Alyssa. 

Alyssa just turned 4 and her and Bella have become good friends...In fact they regularly call each other "best friends" (which I love because these two girls are so cute together!)

    

Awww...Bella's first "best friend."

Oh blog...I've missed you!

Its true...I really have missed blogging for the past few weeks.  It has been such a whirlwind of "getting used to" things again with a man in the house that blogging was sadly, but necessarily put aside for a little bit. 

However, life at the Larson household did not get put on hold...It's highly focused and concentrated on the man in the house...as it should be.  We went a whole year without him and now we can barely get enough of this mug...

Or another favorite...we call this one the one-eyed snarl.  Except when he starts talking like a pirate...(its a little strange, but we are giving him some leeway since he just got back from a war zone.  ha ha ha)

Or the pouty one when he doesn't get his way...

 Or silly daddy when playing with the kids...both Maddie and Bella can copy this face perfectly.

And, of course, my favorite...the big smile...what I can never tire of seeing.

He's such a camera ham...

More Larson adventures on the way...dentist trips, castles, medieval towns, swimming, birthday parties...see...?  Aren't you excited now?

Just for you...

MWAH!

Coming Up For Air...

Its been one week and two days since John returned home.  The first day felt like six weeks.  The second day felt like two days and 4 hours.  The third day felt like a day because John had to start going back to reintegration that morning... 

Ha ha ha...anyone a fan of Steve Martin's The Jerk?  If so, you'll understand that little above reference..  If not...you should watch it.  :D

That being said...I figured it was time to come up for air and bring you up to date on the joyous reunion of the Larson family...

Last Thursday night I had chatted on Yahoo IM with John for a few minutes and was told that the earliest he would be flying in was probably Sunday evening.  So, I went to bed that night thinking I had two whole days to finish cleaning and organizing the house and getting everything ready for his return home.  Imagine my surprise when at 8AM on Friday morning I got a call from Sgt. Meyer telling me that John was on a plane and headed home.  She had confirmation from a "friend" that texted her.  WHAT!  I didn't fully believe her until 10:30AM when I got a call from Rear Detachment telling me that John was in the air and the welcome home ceremony would be at 18:00 hours.  (thats 6PM for all you non-24 hour clock peeps...)

EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEK! was my first reaction and then it was scramble time!

By 4PM we were pretty much ready to go and I had given the girls an early dinner and they were in their pretty dresses and we'd fixed their hair and we were all just sitting...waiting...anticipating...

At 5PM exactly we got in the car and drove the 4 minutes it takes to get to the Memorial Gym and snagged our front row seats.  We had an hour to wait.  One hour.  The first minute felt like 6 years...the second minute felt like 3 years and 3 months...the third minute...just kidding...ha ha ha...

And then it was nearly 6PM....and....they told us the busses were late and we had a whole 20 more minutes.

GAAAAAAAH....the longest 20 minutes of my life.  The first minute felt like....ha ha ha.  Still just kidding.  We took a "waiting for dad" snapshot...

And then all of a sudden it was time for the soldiers to come in...

Keep in mind that we'd been planning this coming home moment for a year!  I had planned on video taping and taking a bunch of photos but when the moment came I ended up with a partial video and just three photos.  I know... crazy

But...the partial video makes me cry every time.



The whole ceremony took about 3 minutes.  There was a prayer, the National Anthem played...John mouthed that he loved me and I melted into a puddle of tears...(thats my handsome soldier in the stetson..)

...General Salazar made a few comments and then released the soldiers.  And then it was madness.

Imagine grown women shoving small children aside as they race to their soldiers...  Maddie was one of the first to reach them so she managed to dart inbetween people and got to John quickly...Bella and I held back some to allow for the trampling to subside and then went and got our kisses.

Bella was a little apprehensive at first...

We took another photo with both of them...

Its so good to have him home.  Really good.  And now that I've come up for air I'm headed back down again. 

Welcome Home John.  We love you and missed you. 

Pokey

I was laying on my bed watching Kirstie Alley dance the cha cha on Dancing with the Stars when this little gem occured:

Bella (climbing over my legs and places her hand on my leg):  OUCH!  Mama you are pokey!

Ok...ok...I guess that means its time to shave.  :)

Space A Part 5 - The End.

Well, this was promised as the "good part" of our trip...and I think that is best shown in photos....so enjoy...

Jenna's gluten free chocolate muffins.  YUMMY.

She learned to PEDAL!!!

Cousin snuggles

Her first violin

Seeing Eric!

...and Xander's play...

Walks on Sunday before church...

Running around the National Mall...

Tongues Out!

FDR Memorial...(my favorite!)

Sunsets...

Cherry blossoms...

Baby ducks...

Hangin' out with George...(Mason, that is...)

...and Mr. Jefferson.

Refusing to take even one step closer to the Capitol

Dinner!  Day family style!

The Easter Bunny...

Easter dresses...

Awesome cousin pics...

And a REALLY comfortable airplane ride home.  :)

Space A Part 4 - Three things

So...you want the good news or the bad news first?  Bad news first?  Thats the way I like to do things...that means we end on a positive note!

While we were in Washington DC, my sister read an article about the top 10 ways to get motivated to spring clean your house.  Well, we managed to whittle the list down to three.

1.  Vomit.

2.  Diarrhea.

3.  Lice.

Part 4 is going to focus on the really awful part of my trip to DC and then I'll follow it up with Part 5 - and all the GOOD parts of our trip to DC.

Poor little Bellina.  During the two weeks that we were there she developed some kind of crazy stomach thing that caused incessant diarrhea and nighttime vomiting.  Of course it always had to happen in the middle of the night...all over the bed, floor, walls, frame, sheets....  Is this too much information?  HA!  Too bad.  This is for posterity...right?
So...after 4 days of her keeping down the equivalent of about 1/2 a banana we ended up in the emergency room...

Poor little girl.

Turns out that the emergency room docs have NOTHING on a motivated team of sisters who need sleep. 

We realized that the only thing that was different in Bella's diet were almonds.  Sure enough...eliminate the almonds and wahlaa!  Ok...so it didn't happen magically like that, but within a few days she was back to "normal" and now I need to have her fully tested for an almond allergy of some sort.  It may also be that she's just intollerant.  Those nuts are hard for her little mouth and teeth to chew.  Either way...we're off almonds completely and we've had no problems ever since.

In the midst of all this...and on the same day as the ER visit we discover that my sister's two little ones have lice.  Gaaaaah!  Neither she or I have ever had to deal with lice.  I don't even know what those little buggers look like...  Either way...Dad and the two older boys spent 4 hours and all the spare change in the house plus some at the laundromat cleaning all the sheets/pillows, cases, comforters, towels etc. in the house.  UGH.

Mayonnaise hair treatments!

Between the barf and the lice their laundry machines got quite a workout.

Needless to say...I think it was a relief when the lice was gone and everyone's tummy was back to normal.

Space A Part 3 - Walking 3 miles at 3AM

Sorry it took me longer than a day to get back to you.  Things got in the way...life started getting busy again...I'm occasionally stopped in my tracks with the knowledge that in less than THREE WEEKS my husband will be home for good. 

Yeah...I find myself wandering around in a daze thinking about it when I should have been doing more important stuff like...updating my blog!

But...let me just tell you the story of our 3AM stroll through Andrews Air Base...

It all started around 12:30AM when our flight arrived, taxied, parked and we all got off and went to find our bags.

I thought that just maybe someone would be there waiting...there was nobody there.

A nice man named Hugh, who was waiting until 7AM for a flight out to Indiana, offered me the use of his cell phone.

So, I called my sister, Jenna.

No one answered. 

I called her cell phone.

No one answered.

So I called her husband Jason's cell phone.

No one answered.

Hmmmm.....ok...so I thought *maybe* they just were sleeping or missed the calls and I'd call back in about 20 minutes.

1:00AM - I call again...all three phones.  No one answers.

1:30AM - I call again...all three phones.  No one answers.

2:00AM - I call again...all three phones and I leave the message that I'd try one more time in 1/2 hour and if I still didn't reach anyone we were going to bed down in the "children's room" for the night.  (They had these awesome bean bags that were calling my name.)

2:30AM - I call for the last time and the phone is answered...

Me:  "Who is this?"
Garrett: "Its Garrett."  (Garrett is 10 and should NOT have been answering the phone at 2:30AM!)
Me:  "What are you doing answering the phone at 2:30AM?!"  (I can't believe I scolded him!  He saved us some serious drama!)
Garrett:  "I just heard it ringing so I went to pick it up."
Me:  "You should be in bed!  But nevermind...go give the phone to your mom."
Garrett:  "I'm sorry, but she's asleep right now and I don't want to wake her up."
Me:  "Garrett - I promise she won't be mad...go give your mom the phone."
Garrett:  "No, really I can't do that.  She's sleeping really deeply."  (Love that kid for protecting his mom's sleep so vehemently.)
Me:  "GARRETT GIVE YOUR MOM THE PHONE.  I promise it will be ok."

Jenna comes on the line and informs me that Jason has been waiting for us since 12:30AM at the front gate because they wouldn't let him on post!

ARE  YOU KIDDING ME?  WE WERE 3 MILES APART FOR THE LAST 2.5 HOURS AND DIDN'T KNOW IT?

So starts the "how to get to the front gate" part of the trip...

My options: 
#1.  Call a taxi to come from off post (45 minute wait) - have the taxi drive us 3 miles to the front gate.
#2.  Wait until 4AM for the nice soldier manning the terminal help desk to get off work and he would drive us to the gate.
#3.  Walk.

"Pack it up girls!  We're headed out!" 

So, Maddie put on her backpack and grabbed a roller bag in each hand.  I strapped Bella in the stroller, threw on a duffel bag and my diaper bag over my shoulders and we started walking.

At 3AM.

To the front gate.

Oh what a sight we must have been.  I wish I had a photo.

We'd only gone about a mile when an MP pulled up next to us and asked, "Uhm...where are you going?"

He offered us a ride the rest of the way. (Thank you MP!!!!)

Poor Jason celebrated the first 4 hours of his birthday sitting in the visitor's center parking lot of Andrews Air Base.  I don't know if I was able to adequately explain our gratitude or my thanks!

Happy Birthday Jason! ( ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha...I'm sure he was laughing on the inside.  :)  )

Space A Part 2 - Flying with Dick Cheney's RV

 I last left off my last post with us being delayed 43 hours for our next flight.  Yeah.  I said 43 hours.  Like almost two full days.  It stunk.

But don't stress out because it all works out in the end.  I knew you were stressing out....especially after that whole "almost ran out of gas" thing on the autobahn.  I just wanted to make sure you knew it was all fine.

We arrived back at the terminal around 5PM the next day and signed in.  They have a kid's play area and the girls made some new friends there...one in particular, Madison, is a year older than Maddie and they were trying to get to the same place as us.

The two Maddie's became instant friends...although Madison-Maddie eventually asked to be called Brianna.  Ok.....she just "likes" that name.  She was a bit of a weird duck.

So, at around 6:45 they call our name.  WHAT!!!!!!!!  I go up to the desk and they tell me that I'm on the list and can leave for Andrews Air Force Base in the next hour if I want...or I can wait until around 11PM and fly into Baltimore. 

I jumped at the chance!  All I could think of  was that if we went to Andrews...  Its closer!  We'll leave sooner!  We'll get there faster!  We're closer to Jenna and Jason's house!  We leave in an HOUR!

Here's what I didn't think about...

The type of  plane we'd be flying on...

The hard backed jump seats with parachutes that we'd sit in... (let me tell you how different the safety briefing is when they explain how to open your parachute...instead of how to buckle your seatbelt.)

The incredible amount of noise made from the lack of any insulation from plane mechanical parts at all...

The earplugs we'd have to wear to make sure we weren't deaf by the time we arrived in Andrews.  (Have you ever tried to get a 2-year old to keep in earplugs?)

That the blankets had to be moth-proofed...! (PS...I'm not complaining...at least they HAD blankets.)

What it would be like for my girls to sleep on the floor of a cargo plane... (thats Maddie and Madison-Maddie-Brianna snuggled up together on the floor of the plane.)

How cold a plane with no insulation is.  Thank goodness I brought my own warm blanket that kept Bella snuggled all night.

And last, but not least...Dick Cheney's silver bullet RV.

Thats right.  I flew from Germany to the USA with Dick Cheney's RV about 4 feet in front of me.  Apparently our *esteemed* Ex-Vice President refused to sleep in a tent while visiting soldiers in Afghanistan.  He required more comfort like one might find in a silver bullet RV.  Lucky me that I got to travel with it.

I must say its a claim to fame that only about 50 other people in the WHOLE WORLD can make.

I wish I could have gotten a good picture of it.  It took up most of the space.  It was chained to the floor with massive chains.  And left just enough room for two 9-year old girls to fit on the floor between the seats and the RV.  And it really was precious when I found Bella snuggling with the massive chains...just curled up hugging them...I thought I'd taken a photo of it, but alas...its disappeared into that place where lost photos disappear to...

And if you can't tell I'm being a little sarcastic about the RV.  It just makes me shake my head that he required the transportation of an RV to Afghanistan...

But...I won't digress into any kind of political spiel or overspendingbudget in such wasteful ways/fist shaking soapbox.  I'll just let you make your own judgement call on that one...

I'll bet you think you've heard it all from me by now...but just wait.  Tomorrow's installment of "Space A Part 3 - Walking two miles at 3AM" finishes off our adventures in getting to Washington DC.

Space A Part 1 - The mad dash to Ramstein...

And so begins the Space A adventures of the Larson girls...  Space A stands for space available...meaning we can take a military aircraft flight for relatively very cheap or free to fly to the United States.  In our case we were flying into Washington DC to visit family.

I had been planning this adventure for a few months.  I had agreed to meet Maddie's mom, grandma and brother in Washington DC so she could spend a week with them.  Bella and I would be staying with my sister, Jenna's family.  However, the thing about Space A is that you aren't ever guaranteed a spot until the last minute.

And in order to fly Space A we had to drive 3.5 hours to Ramstein Air Base.  Oh...and did I mention you only have 48-72 hours notice that there *might* be a flight?

So, I call on Thursday and discover that Friday there is a flight to Baltimore.  EEEEEEEEK!  You know those Fred Flinstone cartoons where his feet would be running super fast, but he never went anywhere and then all of a sudden he would zoom away in his car?  Yeah...thats what I felt like that day...run in place......run run run run....and GO!

I managed to get all the packing done and the house cleaned and the anti-spider spray down (tis the season...) and set my alarm for 3:30AM. 

Wake up...shower...get ready to get the girls up and I thought to myself...hmmm...I should call to make sure that we have to be there still at 10AM.

Sure enough...times had changed since the night before.  New "roll call" is now at 12 noon!  Woohoo!  I leave the girls sleeping, reset my alarm and crawl into bed for another hour.  Its now around 6:40AM and both girls are up...dragging...tired...whiny...hungry....

I decide to call again.  And it was a good thing I did because roll call had been moved to 10:40AM!  EEEEEEEEEEEEK!  If we didn't leave by 7:00 we weren't going to make it...and if you don't make it...you don't fly.

For those that know me well..you would have been in awe at the speed I managed to pack, dress the girls, feed the girls, close down the house and get in the car...we were pulling out at 7:10AM. 

The drive went pretty fast.  It *might* have been due to the fact that the speedometer did not go below 80 MPH the entire way there.  It also did not go above 100 MPH.  The poor little "American car not built for the autobahn" shakes too bad.  Just sayin.

And then...right near the end of our drive it got really exciting.  Why? 

Because I almost ran out of gas on the autobahn. 

In my defense...I was only 7 kilometers from my exit.  (7 km = 4.4 miles) when the car started to lurch.  I'd been eyeing the red flashing light on the gas guage and was determined we would make it.  ( I like to live life on the wild side...) 

Lurching...almost stalling...lurching some more and I gunned it the last 2 km onto the exit just praying if the car stalled it wouldn't be on the autobahn.  And as we careened around the corner there in bright lights with angels shining around it was a SHELL station!

I literally wheezed into the shell station on fumes.  Yelled 10 Euro at the attendent and ran inside to pay.  Thats like saying - "Put in 3 dollars."  I'm sure he was pretty irritated with me...but we were only a mile from base and guess what the time was?  10:32AM.  We had one mile and 8 minutes to drive it, find the terminal parking, park the car and race to the check in.

We didn't make it. 

What a let down...right?  Here you are thinking we'd slide in just in the nick of time.  But, we didn't.

That was the bad news...the good news was this...

The flight had been delayed until 4AM the next morning.

My reaction in my head, "&^%$^*&^%*&" 

My reaction out of my mouth, "Oh cool, girls!  We get to hang out in Ramstein all day long!  I'm so glad I just drove like a crazy lady to get here by 10:40AM! (insert manic laughter)  Yay!  We get to do this again in the morning!"

We got a hotel room then went to the Mall.  Yes, they have a MALL at Ramstein.  Granted its like the smallest little mall you've ever seen, but it was the most "Americanized" mall I'd seen in over a year.  Then we found a park.  This is also where I finally got out my camera.  I *wish* I had photographic memories of the speed demon drive and nearly running out of gas and if only there were video of the guy telling us the flight was delayed 24 hours.  *sigh...*  Maybe next time.

HA!

Back to the park.  Best park we'd ever seen.  Spent the entire day there.  It was glorious.

We all went to our hotel room and went to bed at 7PM that night.  I wanted to make sure we were well rested for our 4AM flight the next day.

Its now 2AM and I get up and shower.  Wake up the girls at 3AM.  Get the car loaded and packed.  Check out of our hotel room and go back to the air terminal.

"I'm sorry ma'am.  We just cancelled the flight.  It will be leaving at 10PM TOMORROW NIGHT. 

I got myself and my girls up at THREE AM just to be told I had 43 hours to wait until the flight was actually going to leave.

Let me expand my reaction in my head, "*(*&^$@!#^&**^&*$&!@##$%^(&)^%#$%^$#"

We turned around and went BACK to the hotel reception where begged my key off them, checked back in the room and reserved it for another night.

And then I made the announcement to Maddie..."If the flight is delayed ONE MORE TIME we are going home."

Tune in tomorrow for what happened 43 hours later in  "Space A Part 2 - Flying with Dick Cheney's RV"