Airlines!! - kim's version

Let me begin with an apology... We won't generally go this long without posting... i shall now tell the tale of our adventure. We first didn't have a computer power cord (explained with the lost luggage), then Jared's mom's house didn't have internet, then... we don't have internet here in Ames yet.
SO There will be many parts to this because there is much to catch up on but... for Now I shall share the outline of our Travels. Then we'll update you on our move-in progress and other things...

so so.
here we go go..

If you recall, we got the keys to our humble home December 18th 4pm-ish. Then the moving began. We left December 20th at 8am for Good 'ol Illinois where we dropped off Luda. (don't let the sad eyes fool you - they SPOILED him.)

2pm we took off, in an ice storm, to the Moline airport where our flight was to depart at 6pm. Due to the ice storm, it was delayed until 8:30. The issue...Our flight from Detroit was to take off at 8:30.
When arriving to the Detroit airport, it was 11:50pm or so (time change) and apparently the employees all were off work at midnight. So they took seven of us and gave us hotel vouchers, one room each unless we were 'together' (...me and jared, and one older couple). When we shuffled ourselves down to the shuttle area and called the Embassy where we were to stay... there was only One room left there. hmmm. Jared had taken off through the airport to find someone for help - while the rest of the group decided to call other hotels. They decided on a Best Western...and gave the poor pregnant college kids the free room.

Our shuttle bus driver guy was Great. He didn't get there until 2:30am or so... And we asked him for food recommendations that late (we hadn't eaten since noon...). He gave us a few numbers and told us he had just ordered a pizza and if we couldn't find food we could have some of his... which seemed awkward at the time.... but come 2:45 when the pizza place we called said "sorry, we ran out of food" ...that shuttle driver's pizza wasn't half bad. Thanks Mr. Guy. .....Sorry Mom, i know I told you I wouldn't take food from strangers, but.....and then, on top of that, we managed to order pizza from some Other place that did have food because we were sooooo hungry.

ANYWAY. we ended up with a sweet room. Two flat screen tv's, a Huge bed...so we layed down on the couch and fell asleep watching tv until the pizza guy knocked at our door with our gigantic pizza feast (salad, cheese stix, And pizza - what can I say, we were hungry) at 3:30 AM or some such obnoxious time...So we stuffed our faces for 15 minutes (consuming a miniscule amount of salad and stix, but half a pizza....at least there were green peppers on it - that's almost healthy) and crashed, but ohhhhhh in the morning, we had the breakfast of champions!!! Omeletes. Oatmeal, Tons of fresh fruit, ...there was anything Breakfast you could come up with, we even swiped some muffins.

Off we were to our next flight - we redirected ourselves to Harrisburg Airport instead of Baltimore. We arrived and our entire flight...well we didn't have our luggage. Hmmmm. So with one person working the computer, they had us give them our phone number and address and swore that our luggage was at "state college" and would be there in the morning, then delivered.

The next day we called Northwest...

their ...their customer service line is ...hit and/or miss. You either get the kindest soul (1 in 20 tries) or you get some lazy oaf who hates his/her life and feels that your life too must then be made miserable.
For the next 3 days, we called... 3 times a day, at least. But we needed some "baggage claim" number which...we never got, because they didn't file "claims" they just had us write our stuff down. So some customer service people wouldn't help us at All! rarrrh. We were told our luggage was in detroit. Then that it was in Moline. Then that it was in detroit. Then... come Christmas Eve, BALTIMORE airport called... THEY HAD OUR LUGGAGE! and it had been there a few days. ....Our next obstacle was that we were leaving Pennsyltucky and heading to Ohio the Next Day.
Fortunately, They put our stuff in an overnight red Ford Pick-up. And on Christmas morning, Santa came ...with our luggage.
I'd like to add that... in the meantime, Jared and I had both bought ...new pants and shirts and under-roos... but now we had no where for it to fit. ...Let alone any presents we'd have to stuff here, there and everywhere (like... still in Ohio...)



Ready for our return flight?????
We are at the airport, a healthy 2+ hours early. But the check-in line was a mile long because the 6:30am flight was cancelled, so they were rebooking the world of angry passengers. Sooo we stood...and stood...and waited. And when we get to the counter, the lady tells us our reservations were cancelled because they...well they do that when you don't complete your earlier reservation (remember, we switched connecting flights from detroit to baltimore to ...detroit to harrisburg). Sooo we called customer service again, waited on hold again, talked to an asshole again until we hung up, called again, waited on hold again, talked to a nice person who gave us some number. We gave that to the lady at the counter. She said she found us. But our flight hasn't been paid for. Sooooo she calls around, we wait some more.... Then we ...survived and our flight back was nice.

:)

Happy Travels. (btw, that was...just ...a SUMMARY......)

Special Thanks To:

Jared's Dad and Rhonda who are very talented at being aggressive on the phone; and for giving us pajamas to sleep in.
Shuttle Driver who kindly shared his food - sorry we didn't have more cash for a tip.
Bobby-Jo from the Harrisburg airport who was the nicest to us on the phone and is helping us with luggage reimbursement stuff.
The Kind folks who gave us the free hotel room
Santa...for bringing us our luggage on Christmas

Jared's version may be on its way.

MOVE IN!!! - by jared

Well, folks, we finally did it!!! Thar she be!



After many long hours of intense physical labor (mostly perform by a host of slaves we got from this guy I know down by the docks).


Well...I was one of the slaves. We had to smile or we would be punished - fifty lashes for poor morale.


We also have tons of food. Check out our fridge. Mmmmmm...cheese and diet Dr. Pepper...Now, I'm no certified expert, but in my professional opinion, that's some high quality nutrition we got there.


AND...we managed to avoid the toe-numbing weather. We had everything moved in well before mother nature decided to use Iowa as her personal toilet to expel of her unappeasing freezing leavings.


And this morning it was all over our driveway. I would like to think that she held it in for as long as she did...just because we were moving.

And now that we've moved, unpacking must be done. Now...unpacking...that's a whole new beast to battle...but if playing video games has taught me anything, it's that you tend to be rewarded with gold and experience points for every beast defeated...and occasionally some sort of item. To be honest though, if moving has taught me anything - I have way more than enough items - just wait till you see my random nick nacks, paddy whacks, trinkets, and whatchakajiggerbobs.

Speaking of unpacking, I nigh plum forgot - we still have to pack so's we can leave tomorrow. We'll have to finish the beast upon the glorious return from our homelands, laden with foreign tradestuffs attained from holiday festivities...and raiding...raiding always gets you the best stuff...

We'll try to keep in touch over the holidays. For now - Merry Christmas to you all, may your journeys be mild and your parties wild!

no no, yes yes

Last weekend I went to MN with Kris to visit some friends (amy and nick) of hers/mine. It was Great! We hung out almost the Entire Friday in our pajamas!! Amy and Nick were wonderful, and so was baby Jack!




We read books together...One of my favorites was the "no no, yes yes" book



The "yummy yucky" book wasn't there, but i think it would be quite good, too...

but I must say...I ...I like mud pie.

-------

stay tuned for our day of moving in the...

(expletive) (expletive) iowa.

What do you Call it?

A friend of mine recommended BabyCenter a while ago as a good "source" if you will.... It really has been a helpful and useful site. We've tracked what's "happening" by week, and it even has neat pictures of what things supposedly look like (although I think its all a lie...).



My butt Totally doesn't look like that. But, anyway! 15 weeks along, and this week it is apparently the size of an apple.

It has maybe been the most fun part, looking up what size it is, compared to some ... tangible object. In fact, in class, and around town, when talking about it, we refer to it as "apple" or as "lime" ...one week it was "shrimp" .......before those we dubbed it "parasite.".... that was when it was making me throw up, and stealing all of my energy. :)

I suppose the only Weird thing about naming it after food is that....well ...i Love apples. I eat a lot of apples. ....That seems weird.

A Favorite Quote

Even before all of this... One of my FAVORITE movie quotes of All time came from the movie "The Waitress"

Dear Baby, I hope someday somebody wants to hold you for 20 minutes straight and that's all they do. They don't pull away. They don't look at your face. They don't try to kiss you. All they do is wrap you up in their arms and hold on tight, without an ounce of selfishness in it.

And I must say that... now, it is Especially my favorite quote. :)


Also...
The first kid thing we've purchased:


You know its the cutest thing you've seen since... since... ever.
Thanks

In the beginning...

As I sit here and pull at my beard (an obvious catalyst to thinking), I take a look at the past year, and I want to say that, well, a lot of things have changed...just one short year. To think that human civilization has spanned somewhere around ten thousand times that amount makes you feel quite miniscule indeed, but in the end, it's really the small things that count...even stars are made of the tiniest atoms. And it's the small things that someone does for someone else that often build the foundation of any relationship. And so, accumulations of any number of these fleeting events (some with bigger consequences than others) have led to the development of the current, rather exciting (occassionally hectic) situation. For those of you who don't know, Kim and I are going to be parents, mother and father, maw and paw, mere et pere, madre y padre, mom n pop, mutter und vater, well....you get the point.

So...I ponder...what does this really mean? Where will this take me? Where will this take Kim? Will she be able to put up with my incessant nagging? What challenges must we face, what kind of madness lies around the corner for us? Stay tuned next week...

Madness...well...it's what you make of it...some of the happiest people are completely out of their ghourd. At any rate, it's going to be difficult to explain how the situation is affecting me (let alone Kim) and what it all means in such ephemeral discourse, but I'll do my best...it's enough to drive you up a wall at times, but, in reality, it is simply a challenge, inexorable and invigorating. Life comes at you and if you're not careful, you're going to get hit - so make sure you're ready - pull it in close and spin around with it (I like to spin). When life throws poop at you, then fertilize your garden! Poop is the best fertilizer...all natural and whatnot.

Really though, the initial shock has worn off, and the garden has been fertilized...so to speak...and now we wait...and what an adventure that is! I use the term waiting loosely, because it is more of findaplacetoliveandgeteverythingreadystilltryingtogetworkdonetryingtogetachancetobreathing ... which reminds me of taekwondo practice. Sometimes Master Pak lets you breathe, but it is juuuuuust long enough so that you don't pass out in the next few rounds up and down the floor, and the more you do it, the better you get at catching your breath. It is happy, and it is scary, it is stressful, yet relieving...especially to know that I am not alone. It is exhausting at times and exhilarating at others. Yet, still, I don't think it has sunk in all the way.

Some days I can barely hold it in. Kim (for all the times I am driven to meaningless hair pulling by her unrelenting swarms of homework) is such an amazing person. As happy as I would be to point them out, I won't go into the myriad reasons she is such a fantastic person (and lover ;))...if you know her, then you know already how great she is, and if you don't, well, then, you're missing out. Besides, this thing is going to be long enough as it is. You all are lucky I don't go off on a tirade about robots and aliens and lasers or something anyway, so ha! Honestly, though, I couldn't ask for more. She's a different breed of nerd than I am, but, then, you can't build a picture puzzle with just one type of piece, we just happen to be two right next to each other...probably an edge and a corner...because those are the tastiest ones... and again...it's the small things she does that let me know...ugh...sorry to get all sappy on you, the reader that is reading this blog at this very moment. How are you by the way? Doing all right, there? Did I just break the fourth wall...or is that the wrong terminology?...so much for staying on topic.

Where was I? Kim? Baby? Life? Family? Friends? I am grateful that everyone has shown so much support for us...to those people, I offer my sincere gratitude...you all are like the rest of the puzzle. I cannot put into words my appreciation, so, I will most likely put it into beer and snacks, and maybe a few rounds of brawl for those who need it the most (Jesse).

This is the beginning of the rest of our lives, this is the start of a family - everything from extraordinary to mundane - holidays and traditions, vacations, taking trips to the park, making breakfast in the morning, bedtime at night, doing chores, having unexpected adventures (hopefully not too many requiring the cleansing of any number of the diverse array of bodily emissions), craft projects, taking pictures, smiling, wondering, a whole lotta love, and the compulsory frustration, joy, and exuberance that comes with it all, ultimately harboring some of life's most valuable experiences. All the small things...everything we do...it all adds up...and right now, if I am any good at math, I'd say it comes out to be pretty well priceless.

If you stuck around to read this whole thing, then this is for you - Robots are the way of the future...or telekinetic/telepathic humans - sensitives. I'm not sure which. Right now it's leaning more towards robots, but aliens could come at any time and disrupt anything...something to think about. I think being telekinetic would be pretty freakin' awesome, personally. I would get a sword...and use it to deflect bullets...with my mind...yes! That would kick ass!

Well, I think that's everything. As a final note, I would like to welcome you, the reader, to the chronicles of our adventure. Think of it as a work in progress, that...really never quite gets finished, and has minimal editing... So...get ready...for non-stop excitement...unbelievable sights...incredibly realistic special effects...dynamic lighting...featuring an eighty eight-time award-winning director...five hundred and seventy two oscar winning actors and actresses...IN...the lowest budget...production ever producted! We proudly present...for your twisted, morbid, and understandably human curiosity, a Kim and Jared production.

Thankyougoodnightweloveyouall!!!!!!

...I am really going to need to figure out how to post more than text in these things...KIM!...help!!