Pardon the interruption from the tales of our European adventure….

…….tick, tock, Tick, Tock, TICK, TOCK!

Okay - Frank and I want to be parents and this is no big surprise, but the thing is that I have always known we have awhile before we actually are parents. So, I’ve kept myself busy with school and being a wife. I’ve been totally satisfied by that and, honestly, enjoyed being able to be selfish. I mean half the time I still feel like a kid and get homesick here missing my own Mom. But….. It’s so strange when you realize that your biological clock has begun ticking. I mean, we’ve been researching the adoption and planning for sometime now so, I guess, you could say it was revolving at a slow pace already. Yet, somehow this week it feels like that sucker is spinning noticeably faster. I find myself looking at nurseries online, debating names with Frank and peaking at the waiting children photolisting. Not sure what the reason is for the change and I certainly hope it slows back down, because we have a ways to go before I can even start complaining or getting impatient.

(Before you get annoyed that I’m stringing you along about the luggage, I will post the second installment very soon…. )

I’ve finally found some time to start blogging about our trip to Europe. I’m going to start from the beginning and add posts until I get through the whole trip. My fingers might fall off if I had to type the entire thing, so I’m going to use the pictures to tell the story.

We found out we could check in the night before to save time, so we drove the whole 10 minutes to the airport and checked in. The next morning, we got through security and check in, in about 5 minutes. This was good because we weren’t stuck in a line, but bad because we had to sit around and wait. We weren’t the most patient people, because we were SO excited to go on our trip! We left out of Gate 5.

When we took off and felt the wheels leave the pavement, we could barely contain our excitement to experience something other than the Cayman culture for awhile. It didn’t last long, though. Once we were in the air, the steel drum music started playing and we were served caribbean style refreshments - platain chips and rum punch. We just couldn’t get away from it! We just had to laugh.

After a flight to Tampa, where we had a nightmare of a time being re-routed to a different terminal and being bumped onto a different, earlier flight, we finally made it to the gate. Once we got there, the flight was delayed. Our new, earlier flight ended up taking off 10 minutes past the time our original flight was supposed to leave. We were nervous that we might not make it to Newark in time to catch our flight to Rome.

Luckily, we found some things we had been missing. Starbucks! High speed internet! US Newspapers! US Weekly and People magazines! It kept us occupied while we waited.

The flight from Tampa was uneventful until we realized we would land with about 10 minutes until our flight left for Rome. The people on the plane were very nice and let us off the plane before they all unloaded. Once we got off the plane we had to RUN to the gate. I mean, full speed, sprinting! We made it in time with our carry ons and just prayed that our checked baggage made it on time, too. It took us awhile to breathe and relax in our seats, but by this time we were both looking pretty haggard.

Once we got on the plane, we were happy to find that it had similar flat screens and personal remotes to the British Airways flight we took to Scotland. It makes for a much nicer flight.

It was a very long flight! Eight hours in the same seat, flying through the night with people all around you snoring, coughing and drooling. However, when we got close to arrival - we were served breakfast. We both took turns cleaning up in the bathroom and decided to check out the views. It was breathtaking! We were flying over the French Alps. There were endless mountains, with snowcaps and clouds at the peaks.

Later on, we flew over the French Rivera coastline and we couldn’t wait to land in Italy!

Once we landed, things kind of went downhill. We waited for our luggaged for two hours and IT NEVER CAME! Not one piece out of the four. So, we drug ourselves over to the customer service desk - where they tried to speak English and we tried to speak English in an Italian accent - haha! We filed a claim and jumped on the last shuttle bus to the cruise docks. It took two hours and unfortunately, I can’t say much about the drive. We both were so exhausted and jet lagged that we slept the whole way. We tried to fight it. I keep trying to keep my head up, but regarless of my efforts it would fall to the side or straight back to the seat. Eventually I gave in and slept.

The ship was huge, but somewhat less impressive the our last cruise. Not because it wasn’t as big, rather - it was actually larger, but instead because we see cruise ships everyday. We were “desensitized” to it. Our room, however, was very impressive! We had been upgraded to a balcony suite!

So that night we got cleaned up, changed into the one other outfit each of us had with us, ate food at a little buffet, worried about our luggage, begged for help getting our luggage and SLEPT. The next morning, we arrived in Naples.

Before I get to the posts about our vacation, I thought it was time to return to the original reason for this blog. Adopting our Olive. Since we are still not officially in the midst of the adoption, I continue to discuss things we’re concerned about in the future or topics that I’m looking for your opinions and advice about.

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Why the title? Because this post is about making the big announcement… did you do anything special to officially announce your adoption? How did you tell your family and friends and at what point in the adoption process did you make the annoucement?

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coming soon - pictures and stories of our European vacation

Things have been so busy on this little island of ours. I’ve been trying to get used to being thrown back into the day to day pace of classes and studying. Frank has been working 16 hour days to get his clients’ taxes finished by the extension deadline. Plus, my Nana was visiting us for a week. Unfortunately, I have to report she did not have the ideal trip.** It rained everyday at one time or another. The pool is drained and being cleaned from all the ocean muck that washed in with Hurricane Dean. Everytime we went down to the docks, the fisherman were out of or had not caught any Yellow Fin Tuna (her fav). She couldn’t find the right gift for a gal pal of hers (turning 75 this week)…. apparently there was not one single touristy tshirt on this island that fits this woman’s style. I guess after 75 years, you have so many tshirts that you become extremely picky about new ones. I dunno. Anyways, now that she is gone, I’m back to the blogs. I think it’s going to take a day or two to catch up on all of your lovely lives, but I’m determined to do so. I actually miss you guys. Pathetic, I know.

**Edit: I wasn’t going to say this because I thought it’d be too depressing (and I know those of you who come here, don’t come here to feel blue - maybe green, olive green - okay bad joke) Anyways, I decided it was important to include for my “journal-ing” sake. My Nana’s trip was actually disappointing for a much more significant reason. My Uncle Chuck (great uncle) has been battling cancer for several years. This week hospice was brought in and he was put on a morphine drip. He is not expected to make it through the day. As a result, my Nana had to leave early, so that she could be with her sister. For obvious reasons, this put a damper on the trip for both of us and is probably more to blame then rain or empty pools.

So I haven’t had time to post pictures/stories from our trip, yet….. but, I have to tell you about one part of our journey.

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We spent a day in Messina, Sicily - the island off the west coast of Italy. Famous for Lemoncello, Cannolis and the Godfather. Well, it’s also famous for Mt. Etna, which is a massive and active volcano in the heart of the island. The day we were in Sicily, we decided we had had enough history and churches and took a break to do something a bit more adventurous. We climbed Mt. Etna. We went over 10,000 feet up. First we drove, then rode a Cable Car, then drove further in an offroad vehicle and finally climbed the rest of the way. While we were making this hike, the volcano exploded. (Not erupted - as in lava, rather exploded - as in black smoke, rocks and ashes) The guides were somewhat concerned that this meant an eruption was imminent. We were undeterred and continued our hike to the top of a peak. Here are some pictures from our climb.

Old Lava Flow

Lava Rocks and Ash - the grounds looked like the moon surface

Cable Cars

Climbing the peak

The road we drove while “offroading”

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Today it was reported that Mt. Etna has erupted - as in lava spewing. Luckily we weren’t there for it! haha.

From this picture you can tell that the same “black explosion” we witnessed is where the volcano erupted it’s lava…. pretty cool that we were there for the day the explosion broke through, preparing the hole that the lava is now streaming through.

“At its heart, every good marriage is an adventure.”

Frank and I enjoying the Almalfi Coast

It sure was nice to have some time away with my husband. We had an amazing time and a much needed break from the routine of this island. So many pictures and stories to share. For now, we need a few days to get rid of the jet lag, grocery shop, take down the hurricane boards and do way too much laundry. I can hardly wait to catch up on all the blogs!

Details of our adventures to come….