Wednesday, June 20, 2007

Volare...Oooooh oh!

Sorry I haven't posted in awhile--we're leaving for the U.S. (yay!) tomorrow, so getting ready has been a little crazy. We leave for Venice this afternoon, and we'll spend the night there and then fly out early Thursday morning.

I'm supposed to be packing right now...shhhhh! Here's my not-very-packed suitcase...But I did want to quickly post here to say that I'll still be blogging about life in Italy while I'm with my family this summer. We haven't been back to the U.S. in almost 3 years (!) so I'm sure I'll also blog about American things that I wasn't expecting, too. And I'll definitely post a photo of me hugging my mom's and/or sister's clothes dryer. Fluffy towels, here I come!

A request: Please send good thoughts/karma/chocolate my way, as I'll be traveling alone with my three kids (does it make sense to say "alone" and "with three kids"? Anyway, you know what I mean...). My husband can't take 2 months off of work (poor thing) so he'll join us next month, then we'll all fly back together in August.

I've done this trip before when my daughters were 2 1/2 and 5 1/2...now they're 5 and 8, and my son is 18-months--the age where you can't say: "Honey, you have to stay buckled up because we're taking off now," or "No, we can't run up and down the aisles because the food cart is coming." I could say these things, of course...but I doubt my son will hear me over the howling tantrum.

After my last trip, I bumped myself up to sainthood status. I called myself: Our Lady of the Skies-Who-Flies-Alone-With-Two-Kids-One-of-Whom-Doesn't-Sit-Still-for-Longer-Than-Two-Minutes. I'll let you know my new, super-duper saint name once I arrive in the U.S....

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Wishing you a safe and sane trip!

Danette

Anonymous said...

Oh, I sooooo feel for you! Last summer, we took our 10 year old, 6 year old and 18 month old home to the US (by way of Canada). Then I (singular) drove the younger two down to Georgia (from Michigan), then back from Georgia to Toronto.

It was . . . well, I'm sending lots of hugs, chocolate, virtual brownies fresh from the virtual oven . . .

and a big bottle of red wine. You'll need it.

rilla jaggia said...

Hey there Natalie,
I feel for you. I know what it means to be ALONE with three kids. OK, not personally, but I have seen that stopped in the headlights look mothers wear on the plane when they are travelling with young kids.
Well, what can you do but chalk it down to one of 'those' experiences and share it with the world on your blog so that we can laugh at, sorry with, you too ;)
By the way, since you have so much time on your hands right now with that unpacked suitcase and all, I am tagging you with a meme. It's called the First Memories meme. It was started by LindaBudz and she tagged me here Stuck in Memory Lane and now I'm tagging you. It's very simple, all you have to do is dig as far as you can go into your memories and blog about your earliest one. I actually enjoyed doing it, and so many other memories came whooshing along once the brain was somewhat unplugged. So here's hoping to hear what whooshes up for you. Do drink that bottle of wine first.
And I am looking forward to hearing all about your reactions to being home again after 3 years....3 years....wow!

rilla jaggia said...

P.S. Well you made it...wanted to be one of the first in cyberspace to say WELCOME HOME! What does it feel like? Sure hope you managed to get that suitcase packed after all.

Anonymous said...

Man, I hope you survived!! At least you have two months to repress it all before you have to do it again.

For the return trip, I suggest several boxes of bandaids, the more colorful the better, for cosmetic purposes. My girls loved covering themselves with stickers on a four-hour train ride last week, but bandaids stick to skin sooo much better!

Hug that dryer for me, too, will you?

CJ Omololu said...

Hope the trip went well. I've tagged you for the blog meme. I know you're busy so there is no time limit, but you're it when you get the chance.

africakidandtheworld said...

Enjoy your time in the good old US of A! Let us know how it goes with the kiddos and yourself after the plane ride...

Natalie said...

Thanks Danette! I'm not so sure about the sane part, but at least we arrived safely. :-)

Ooooh, Debi. You must have needed those brownies and the red wine as much as I did! Thanks for sending them. :-)

Hi Rilla and Cynjay,
I will definitely get to the meme's later this week...thanks for thinking of me. :-)

Yay Rose!
I love the band-aid idea--I'll definitely be slipping a few boxes into my carry-on bag on the return flight. At least my husband will be with us for that part of the trip, so I'm putting him in charge of all kid entertainment. He, he! :-)

Thanks, Africakid!
I've already got some ideas for posts after just being here for 2 days, so I'll let you know how everything goes. :-)