Arrivederci US of A

If you aren't on facebook or just flat out missed the memo, Rosalie and I are back in Italy. It was a week earlier than originally planned, but it was time for us to come home. On Monday, i got the schedule and saw that there was a plane going out on Friday and decided to start packing. I had TONS of boxes to mail back (around 15 or so) and i had bow orders to fill. I spent Monday and Tuesday doing bow orders and packin up boxes. On Wednesday I got another pretty big order. I called Wednesday morning to see if by chance they posted the time that the plane was leaving on Friday to find out the flight was changed and was leaving THURSDAY. I was stressing at that point! I spent the day doing bows and packing and packing and packing.

We arrived at BWI around 7pm and check in was at 8. I was nervous because there were a ton of people there, and most were families. If you are traveling with your military member, you are a Cat 3. If you are traveling without your military member, you are a Cat 5. If you are a spouse of deployed service member, you are a Cat 4 (which would be me!). I wouldn't have been so nervous if it would have been a ton of spouses, but mostly everyone there was Cat 3. Thank goodness we made it on! I was pretty flustered by the time I got to my gate because they wouldn't take my carseat to the plane like they do at Aviano, so I had to take Rosalie, her car seat, and 2 carry on bags through security. Luckily there was a nice gentleman at the gate that offered to help me get my carseat on the plane. I'm not going to lie, I was EXTREMELY nervous and dreading the flight home. Coming to the states, the flight was exhausting. Rosalie wouldn't sleep in her carseat for more than 20 minutes at a time and it was a redeye flight so she should have been tired. She wanted entertained the entire time. By the time we touched down in BWI and I was spent.

We boarded and left around 10 pm. We weren't up in the air very long and I pulled Rosalie out of her carseat and onto my lap. She snuggled in and went to sleep and slept the ENTIRE flight. Granted, I had to hold her for her to sleep, but I didn't mind one bit! I at least got a lil shut eye here and there.

We landed in Germany around noon local time. We got off the plane and Rosalie got dressed and fresh and I slapped some fresh make up. We had to reclaim our bags and get them rechecked for customs reasons.. then it was off to security again. We got to our gate and we were suppose to start boarding at like 1:30. Well it wasn't until after 2 til they started boarding. We got on the plane and waited and waited and waited. They dilly-dallied around ending losing their spot for take off, so we had to wait til they gave us clearance to take off. We ended up sitting in the plane for over an hour. That's a LONG time with a restless toddler. We watched cartoons and I kept switching it up to keep her attention. Finally we took off and were in the air for about 15 minutes when Rosalie crashed. By the time we landed in Aviano and got our baggage it around 6pm.

We had to go to the commissary because there was absolutely no food in my house and we got takeout for dinner because there was no way I was cooking. We got home, ate, watched some Spongebob, then headed over to pick up Budders. Boy did I miss him! He was so excited when he got in the jeep and saw Rosalie! Rosalie ended up passing out before we got to the dog sitters. We got home and I put her in bed and went to bed myself. At 11 she was up crying and crying. I got her back to sleep and she was up again at 2 WIDE awake wanting to play. Finally at 2:30 I got her to bed and she went back to sleep for good. Buddy got me up at 8, which is still more sleep than I have gotten in the past month. I woke up feeling hungover and like crap. I got a shower and started unpacking. Rosalie ended up sleeping til 9:30. After Rosalie got bathed and we got ready and got some clothes ironed to wear, we went to the base to run some errands.

We hit up the post office and we had a STACK of mail. I claimed my packages, which was like 10 lol. There's still a lot more coming. I had 4 random strangers all volunteer to take my stuff to my jeep. Proof that there are some good, kind hearted people out there! We went to the BX and I bought myself a steam cleaner, something I have been wanting for months! We hit up the commissary again to get some cleaning stuff and things I forgot the night before. When we got home I fixed Rosalie lunch and started cleaning downstairs. I cleaned before I left, but my floors were disgusting. Apparently there were spots where Rosalie dripped juice the morning that we left and they were so sticky. I swept up and steam cleaned all the tile. They look AMAZING. I worked on my ironing, but seriously, I haven't even come close to putting a dent in it. I'm probably going to be ironing for the next week. After Rosalie went to bed I scrubbed my carpets and boy they look soooo good! Our carpets were starting to look so terrible just because Rosalie's old sippy cups use to leak something fierce. My carpets look brand new now!

I went to bed around 10 and finally started to fall asleep at 11, when Rosalie woke up and started her whining. I got her back to bed and she was up again at 12 wanting to play. I got her back to bed and she ended up sleeping til 7:30. Budders got me up at 6:30 of course. I think today we are going to def take it easy. We have SO much to do but we still have a couple of weeks before Daddy gets home so we have tons of time to do everything and that way we have stuff to keep us busy and make the time go faster.

And since I haven't updated in awhile, I thought I would add that I am now down FIFTEEN lbs! WOOT! My ultimate goal is 20 lbs, but I at least wanted to hit 15 before Kevin got home and I did that! Maybe I can hit 20 before he gets home!

Well it's almost time to skype with Daddy.. Ciao!