As you have already read in my previous entry, Rob and I went home for Christmas and New Year’s. Our flights coming back into Germany wasn’t nearly as adventurous as the ones leaving! Actually, they were normal. Thankfully!
We left Ohio on Christmas eve and flew into Denver. It was a bit of a struggle leaving though, because Rob’s uniform was completely messed up and he had to change clothes at the last minute and our bags weren’t packed as well, so we had to dig through three bags to find clothes and shoes for him. Almost as soon as we landed in Denver (45 minutes early) we were greeted by my dad and brother. The drama had started weeks before, but I can always ask to talk to them later, if we’re talking on the phone.
I do love my family, but it’s not easy to get along with them. After getting our bags, I called my mother and she said she wanted to get together, but we wouldn’t be able to until Christmas Day. It snowed 8 inches. So, the next day we headed to the Western Slope to see her side of the family. We ended up spending an extra day there because the interstate was too bad to drive over. As soon as we got back to Denver, I called my mother and she ended up attacking me saying, “Everyone else is more important to you than me…and you don’t love me”. I responded to her saying that she was the first person that I called when I got into town and that I did love her. She told me that she decided not to keep the birthday gift that I got her and that she was going to return it. I called her ungrateful. She hung up on me. We haven’t talked since. I doubt I ever will again.
I love Rob’s family. They’re so easy. There’s no drama. I joked that I couldn’t divorce Rob because I loved his family so much. I wouldn’t anyway, but the wonderful family he has is a huge bonus. I didn’t like most of my ex’s family and they didn’t like me either. They quit pretending they liked me before we ever said our vows.
Anyway, we’ve made it back to Germany and we were both jet-lagged so bad this weekend that our days didn’t begin until the afternoon and we were up all night. Today has got to be hard on him. I’m doing okay, but I don’t have to work, so it’s been a little relaxing for me.
I’m headed over to the clinic to talk to the Community Health Nurse so I can quit smoking. No, it’s not my New Year’s resolution. I don’t believe in them. They are perfunctory for a week or so and I’ve never met anyone who is actually SUCCESSFUL at keeping them. I have wanted to quit for a while now and I did promise months ago that I would. I was successful for 1 and 1/2 days. I was going to wait until we moved in a few months, but I’ve never even tried, even though I’ve said that I would every time we’ve moved. My memory can be short, but I knew that if I did wait, it was never going to happen. Now seemed like a good time. I guess I’ll come up with a game plan this afternoon.
Well, nothing else going on. Need to go for now.

Well, we left our home at around 10 in the morning and we headed out to the airport. We ended up getting lost looking for the parking lot, so it took us an extra 30 minutes time. We finally made it to the check in counter and we got our boarding cards and everything seemed to be going so grand. We got on the plane and we had just flown over Scotland and we were 30 minute over the Atlantic ocean when the pilot gets on the speaker and says that there is a hydraulic problem with the plane and they are going to be making an emergency landing back in London. Many (not that many!) people were pretty upset that we were being diverted, but there was nothing that could be done to change the fact. Take it as it comes…you have to! So after we landed, we stood in line for 3 hours waiting to go through the Security point and to stand in another 2 hour line to get re-ticketed. We did all that just to wait in line to pick on the bus on the way to the hotel–where–you guessed it–to stand in ANOTHER line to get a key for our hotel room. They didn’t have enough rooms for everyone so they told the last of us to go stand in line to get some grub while they worked out the room situation. Rob went to get the key and we were FINALLY able to get some rest. We didn’t sleep too well, but it was definitely better than sleeping in the airport. We went down for breakfast, ate and waited for the bus to pick us up to go to the airport, but there weren’t enough buses and so we were in the last group of people to be left and we thought that they were sending another bus, but they didn’t. Someone from the group called the airline back and let them know that we were still stuck at the hotel and then they sent another bus for us.
After that we stood in line for our boarding passes for an hour and a half and we were late for getting to our flight–but they held it for us and we took off an hour late. When we did make it back to Chicago, we were supposed to catch another flight, but it was leaving 20 minutes after we landed and obviously missed it. They re-booked our flight for another hour later and we made it to the terminal only to find that they delayed our flight for almost 4 hours because there was mechanical problems with the plane. We ended up making it to Dayton a day and a half later.
We had a great visit. We headed up to Toledo to spend a day with his sister, her husband and their two kids. It was awesome! We got to go see the Toledo Zoo Lights and that was not at all disappointing. We didn’t see much snow in Ohio–except what was on the ground before we got there. It was disappointing at best.