Going to the dogs?

Well, my blog is a bit odd at times, but it isn't going to the dogs just yet. :P When you work 14 hours in one day, you start to think funny. But speaking of dogs, my friend's dog - a schnauzer, like Monty (his little girlfriend) - treed a coon... all by herself. All 19 pounds of her, barking madly; daintiness forgotten. That'll teach the coon to tear up the flower beds. My dog just trees squirrels -- and then gets frustrated when they don't come back down.

For all you Packer fans...

In light of the recent signing on of Tim Couch on the Packers team, there are negotiations being made with Randy Moss of the Minnesota Vikings to also join the packers. The reason? They already have a Davenport, now they have a Couch -- they just need a Lazy Boy...

Okay, here's where you laugh. Nick didn't see the joke, just was disgusted that the packers wanted Randy Moss. For all you diehard fans -- It's a joke. A joke.

Don't laugh - its not funny...

So last night, I go to get my credit card, right? The manager at Wendy's has it safely locked in the office. The only problem is... she also has the keys to the office safely locked in the office. An accident, of course, but I still can't get my card back til the next day. They don't offer me a free hamburger or anything for my harrowing experience. :P

I call my mom (who is at my sister's house) to ask her when she's coming home (she's helping out), and find out that a.) she's coming home on Friday, b.) and that whatever she was watching on America's Funniest Home Videos was uproariously funny. Apparently, it was hilarious. I told her that my friend's husband lost her job. Instead of sounding sympathetic, she roared with laughter.

"I'm sorry, honey, but this dog just jumped on the counter, opened the BREAD BOX with his PAWS, and ran off with the BREAD!!!"

I roll my eyes. I don't think she's listening. I discover that my brother in law just plain odd -- he told my sister that he had a surprise for her, that he was going to get at Wal-Mart (yay!), and got her all psyched up. She finally got him to tell her what it was -- and it turns out he was going to buy her...

a box of butter. They were out of butter, so he thought she would just be so amazed by his thoughtfulness. How did I end up in a family like this? Nick's family is going to think America is one weird place when they come for the wedding.

I think we should start a t.v. show. I bet we'd get more ratings than King of the Hill, the Osbournes, or even the Simpsons. We put the fun in "dysfunctional".

Except that on the Osbournes you pretty much have to guess what they are saying, because they have so artfully woven profanity into their speech that half the show is bleeped out.

Okay, I don't have MTV (I don't even have cable), so I've never actually seen it. I've just heard about it...

And you hear about them... and the show a lot.

Okay... so at first it doesn't look like we have a lot in common. My dad doesn't have a heavy metal band. My mom has never thrown a ham over the fence at the neighbors for having an annoying sing-a-long. However I still think we could have a successful show, just like the Osbournes... some similarities:
Jack (the son) makes the news because he goes into rehab -- my brother (the son) makes the news because he SHOULD be in rehab.

Their pets wreak havoc in the house -- our pets wreak havoc in the house.

Jack also thinks the "F" word is an adjective... my brother thinks the "f" word is an adjective...

...and a positive thing:

Sharon (the mom) holds the family together(even though she's rude to the neighbors) -- my mom holds our family together (even though she watches t.v. when I'm talking to her).

Am I related to Amelia Badelia?

So last night I had to get gas (petrol) for the truck; it was wavering in the orange zone, but I managed to get to the gas station. Only to find that after I had filled up with $20 worth of gas that my check card was no where to be found. Thankfully, I had checks. Being that it was after 11pm, and it was at a dimly lit gas station, and I just wanted to go home, I didn't stick around. This morning, I tore the truck apart, but to no avail. Check card was nowhere. Where did I last use the card? Can you guess? IF you said... Wendy's (where I lost it last time), you got it. I called them -- they had it. They really have to stop hanging on to that thing when I order my food. Okay, to be fair, I should remember that they didn't give it back, but come on! You shouldn't have to prompt the cashier to give you your credit card back. :P Luckily, they have it locked in their safe, but the girl I talked to said she'd called the number on the back of the card, and they said to cut it in half!!! :O Oh, my!!! Luckily, she thought that would be a poopy thing to do, and put it in the safe. So, I'm not out a card.

life's other perplexities...

I was talking to a friend today, and she informed me that her 3 year old (!!!) liked to "help" mow the lawn, by helping her dad push the lawnmower. I went on a tirade of how unsafe that was, and she blew me off -- "Oh, its all right!! My goodness!!!"
I told her that when her kid got her toes chopped off because the mower slipped, not to come crying to me. Okay, so that didn't go over so well.
So when did I turn into a worry-wort? I mean, the kid thinks its great fun. Of course she does! I thought it was fun to sit on top of Tonka dump trucks and ride them down a very high hill on a highway by my friend's house. Did I mention that was on a hill? I'm suprised I'm still alive. Had I fallen, all my skin would have been left on the road, in a not so neat little trail. By the time we got halfway down the hill, we were going quite fast. Fun? Undeniably. I still like to go fast. Stupid? More Undeniable. However, had my mother had ever found out, I would have been spanked into the next week and grounded until I was 18.

Oh well... I survived my childhood... I suppose she will too.

Ah, the joys of simple life

I was gonna sleep in today... but alas, it was not to happen. My alarm clock (that I had thought I had turned off), went off shrilly, and then the dog decided he should get up. NOW. I ignored him and rolled over... but the phone rang. It was a telemarketer. I hung up on her. Then work called and wanted to know where the grocery list was -- that I had said I would do. Well, I'd done inventory til 3am -- so it was here, I'd typed it up on the computer. So I told her what we needed, only to have her tell me that she wasn't ordering it -- until it was on the menu. *sigh*

Now I have to get up, and the dog gets up, and starts barking at the neighborhood. I tell him to come inside. He sits down at the end of the yard and I have to go out in my pajamas to go get him. I don't realize how stupid I look until I'm halfway out to where the dog is -- in plain veiw of all.

I was wearing big baggy p.j. pants, with little chickies on them. But, the pants legs kept hiking up at night, so I tucked them into my socks. I look like a left over product of the late 80's. Or was it the 90's? Anyway, pants billowing in the wind, then all the sudden tight at my ankles as they are jammed into my socks (I look like the Cracker Jack box version of that princess on Alladin -- those pants thingies they wore -- except she looked cool; I do not), I'm trying to get the dog in. The dog wants to play. My feet feel wet and cold and I realize I've forgotten to put shoes on. The grass is of course still wet. Right about this time I realize the dog's paws will be wet... but I'm too late for the dog. Muddy paw prints now decorate the floor from the kitchen door to the front door on the other side of the house. The dog is ecstatic, and seems to think that muddy paw prints are great.

And... we're out of coffee, so I stumble around the kitchen, looking for a caffine source. The dark circles under my eyes make me look like that bald dude on the Adams family -- what was his name? Uncle Fester?

Oh well... I'll remember later. Can I go back to bed yet?

England's big game with Portugal left Portugal the winner...

unfortunately, but England can hold their heads high. The played spectacularly -- a 2-2 match at the end of 90 minutes, they went over into extra time. Two fifteen minute periods, so total of 120 minutes of hard playing; still a draw. We'ere all biting our nails at this point and in total agony. They have a goal kick off -- 5 kicks for each team. Five kicks -- each team has 4. So they go on to 6. Its still a draw. At the seventh and final agonizing kick, Portugal got in and James (england's goalie who was kicking) missed getting it in the net and it was over.

However, Rooney was out just 25 minutes into the game with an injury (we can all wonder how accidental that was) and England scored a kick that the Swiss referee chose not to allow in because the kicker's hand was touching the goalie's shoulder. It was quite a letdown, but it couldn't be helped. HOpefully, we'll see them in the World Cup in two years, along with our American players. :D Nick says we'll go back home to England during the match, since soccer hype is higher there, and we'd have more fun. :D

Wish I was there now; not that I don't miss/didn't miss everyone here... I just miss him. I know we have to do this for now, to make things easier later... but its not easy now... that's for sure.

velcro shoes... nooooooooooo!!!

I went to the doctor today to get the foot looked at. She took the bandages off and now I only have to wear a much smaller (and less fatter) wrap on it, and I can take regular showers again!!!!! I was getting really sick of putting a big old plastic bag on my foot every time.

But they gave me another shoe to wear on foot; one that would stay on better, and it has *gasp* velcro straps. Oh, the Horror!!!!

I used to tease my dad mercilessly about his velcro strap shoes as a teenager; I was sooo embarrassed by them. I tried to tell him how hopelessly out of date they were. He finally bought cool shoes -- and so the irony is especially painful.

Other than that, my day went rather uneventfully. I survived my double shift, fueled up on loads of coffee, went to bed for a few hours before I went back to work (and kept waking up thinking I had to get up now because I was thinking it was England time and I was late).

I think I'll sleep til about noon tomrrow and perhaps I'll be recovered. :P

never knew missing someone could hurt so much

This time, its been alot harder to go back home and be apart. I feel like part of my heart has been ripped out of me; like part of me is missing. I never used to understand those stories where girls would pine for the man they loved... I thought it was silly. Well... now I'm doing it, and I can't help it.

The good thing is -- is that when we are down, God is there for us, and He can fill the void with his presence. And... three months isn't that long. I'll survive, and we'll be together soon.

sugar and spice... and everything nice?

Okay, spice is great, but it does things to your body that ain't nice a'tall. Like burning a hole in your esophogas, for one. Okay, okay, maybe not that drastic, but I swear the chipotle sauce I just had (although it tasted great) burnt off several layers of my esophogas. Like I said, it was good, and it made the food tons better, but now I have to take some pepto bismol like some little old lady.

I feel like a little old lady... I'm tired still, and have to work at my other job yet tonight, so no chance of sleeping there. Will sleep in on Wednesday. Nothing will stop me -- not even heartburn. :P

Speaking of work, I can't have personal phone calls anymore, so now some of you know why I haven't called since I got back.

Some of you may be surprised to learn I was gone. hehehehhe :P Maybe I work too much. I've been kinda scarce lately. :P

Well, toodles for now. I've got to find an antacid somewhere -- there's smoke coming out of my ears from that chipotle sauce...

Gooooo Rooney!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

And England's hero Rooney wins the game again with two scores to beat Croatia in today's game. That boy is amazing!!! Wooo hooo!! This means that England is still in the game. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that they emerge the European champs!!! :) Check out the game here:
England vs. Croatia game

I'm back...

I'm back home... but I wish I was still in England. Not to say I didn't miss you all and won't be glad to see you again -- but I feel like my place is there -- with Nick. Soon, though -- he'll be here in America, and we'll finally be together without having to say goodbye again.

London was quite cool, but it is a HUGE city. I didn't realize how huge it was when we were driving around last time, but wow -- we were walking this time and it was totally crazy. We found out, after getting all the way down to Trafalger sqaure, that the game was NOT being shown on the big screen. There was a big screen there, all right, but it was ballet. Nick was quite irritated and thought that was the dumbest thing -- to show ballet instead of the Euro 2004 finals. Poor Nick. Poor all of us -- we'd walked quite a distance to get to the square... :P OH well, we walked back and spotted a restaraunt that was showing the game live and managed, by complete luck, to get inside. IT was Hollywood Planet, the prices would have been totally outrageous, but luckily the restaraunt was packed; and the hostess told us we could wait in the bar til there was an opening. The bar was packed. Literally -- every seat was taken and there wasn't very much standing room, either -- we were packed liked sardines. At that point we didn't care where we were, we just wanted to see the game (even thought it was halftime when we got there, and the score was England 1, Switzerland 0), and that's all that mattered. To make a long story short, Rooney (Englands youngest player at only 18) hit two spectacular shots in and England secured a win at 3 - 0. I was screaming along with everyone else. Nick and I wore our England jerseys -- I bought one before the game, and that was fun. Soccer, I've found, is alot easier to follow than football. :) Hopefully, England will keep up with the good plays. :) Whoo hooo!!!!

Of course, we did tour London, and I even rode on the subway for the very first time in my life. This small town chick is stepping up. :P I got tons of souveneirs from all over, and now I'm basically totally broke -- with just enough money for gas until pay day. But, what's important is that I had the time of my life and I was with Nick for 9 wonderful days. :)

I already totally miss him, and if I hadn't had bills here, I really would have stayed. IT was all I could do, not to turn around and run back to him and not go back until he came with his visa. Life's complicated that way, though. I knew I had to keep my jobs and pay off the bills, or we'd have it much harder later. In the end though, it will be worth it, I know.

A word of caution when traveling...

Just avoid traveling with Continental and whatever you do, do NOT, I repeat, NOT go through the New Jersey Liberty Intl. airport. They totally do not have their act together.

We at least didn't miss our flight -- this time, but when I went to check in to return, I was informed that my flight had been cancelled. I was then informed that when people miss a flight, they cancel all other recurring flights that were booked for that person. That's nice. Especially when its the aiport's fault that the connecting flight was delayed (how I missed my flight the first time). So, even though I spent an hour trying to work things out at the Continental desk (only to be told that they couldn't really help me), my flight was still cancelled, even though they knew that I had missed my flight because of delays.

Then... you guessed it, Continental (at the Jersey airport of course lost my luggage -- again!!!!

At this point, it was about 5:30 pm, and I was supposed to have been off the plane at 4:10 and out of there (hopefully) by 4:30. No such luck. They'll send my bags to me. Hopefully they find them. I have a lot of souveniers in there. I hope customs didn't rip some stuff off. Grrrrrrr... I totally hate travelling. I like it once I'm THERE, but getting there -- that's totally crap.
So, we got stuck in Chicago rush hour traffic, but my sister drove and I tried to sleep. I was totally shattered though, by the time we'd arrived at her house around 9:30 pm. In England, it would have been 3:30 am, and I would have been up for almost 24 hours (we got up at 5:30 to get to the airport). So, I crashed at my sisters for 3 hours. Deanna was freaking out, because she wanted to get home and do laundry so she'd have clean clothes to hang out with her friends the next day. But she can't drive, so I have to do all the driving, and I couldn't drive on no sleep when I'd been up that long. And... there was no way we could spend the night at my sisters -- because I had to work the next day (well, today). She slept most of the way home, but I called my sister and she talked to me and called my mom for a 3 way phone convo for 4 hours so I wouldn't fall aleep.
I got home at 5 am this morning -- I had to drop Deanna off first. I totally fell into bed and I don't think I've ever slept that hard. Woke up at 9:15 this morning and took about a half hour shower to get the travel grime off and it felt sooo good. I felt human again. :P

Monty was glad to see me. I thought he was gonna have a heart attack, the way he was dancing around. I guess he really missed me while I was away. Poor baby. Mom said he moped around the whole time. Awwwww.

Will try to catch up with all of you soon. Having trouble with yahoo mail, so dont' know if i'll get replies to any emails right away.

Cheers!!!!

Nora

Wow, I haven't updated since Saturday!!

I met his parents, they are really cool, and very nice. His mom is a good cook; we were stuffed after eating dinner at their house. I did most of the talking; Nick and his dad watched football (soccer). :P After dinner, we went back to Nick's house and watched the Euro 2004 (European football championships) England vs. France soccer/football match and England looooooooooooooooooooost!!! :( But... they have a chance to bounce back at the England vs. Switzerland game on Thursday. We'll be in London on that day -- and they are going to have a big screen up in Trafalger square for the game, so that will be cool. :) I got a David Beckham (# 7) jersey, so I'll be wearing that Thursday. Goooo England!!! :)

Monday I learned how to play "snooker", a game like pool, except the table is bigger and its a bit more complicated. We also went to the mall, and I got my David Beckham jersey there, as well, as some other cool stuff. :)

I finally got my surprise!!!

Tuesday was an awesome day - we started out on the Scotland trip, and I knew about that, but then Nick stopped at this castle in Alnwick, and we got to go there. It was very cool, and he thought I would like it. It was actually used as the setting in the Harry Potter movies (yes, I liked the movies) and he thought I would think that seeing the castle would be fun, so he searched online till he found out where it was for me. :) It was a cool surprise.

So we were walking around the grounds, and I was taking pictures of stuff, and then he waited for me. When I came back up to him, he took my camera and told me to close my eyes. I did, and I felt him slip something on my finger. It was the ring!!!! :) It is sooo pretty -- I can't wait to show you all. :) It was sooo romantic. Getting a ring on the grounds of an old castle. I could have been a girl from hundreds of years ago, standing in the same courtyard, surrounded by the same walls in the same beautiful countryside.

Scotland is great, its sooo beautiful; I don't know if all the pics I took will do the Highland justice. It was such a great country. It sounds corny, but it felt like I was in the movie Braveheart. No wonder the people love their country; its sooo beautiful and peaceful there; untouched, if you will, by the hustle and bustle of modernization. I've never been to a place that tranquil and laid back. Dogs sitting in the lobbies of the hotels and the bed and breakfast owner had dogs herself. We got to pet them all and feed them toast this morning. :D The biggest dog (a Labrador retriever) was named Bruno, and he was huge -- but he liked his toast. Kept looking at us with his big brown eyes, and it was impossible to resist.

Got some good pics of everything tho -- went to Loch Ness of course but didn't see Nessie (the Loch Ness monster)... Maybe next time. :) I saw highland cows, too -- big, shaggy brutes they were, they had horns and long shaggy hair -- but they were cows!!!

Also had some good Scottish cooking; steak and ale pie, and some smoked salmon. The steak and ale pie was quite good, I couldn't eat everything on my plate, I was so stuffed.

Will try to update more... have to get to bed now though.

Love,

Nora

back again for a quick update

I forgot to tell a rather funny story about an airport experience once we finally got to Heathrow. A couple ahead of us (obviously foreign) got on the moving walkway, but the woman panicked; she'd most likely never been on one before. Anyway, she tried to go back, and grabbed on to the rail (which was also moving) and fell on her bum. Her husband was knocked over by her fall, and there they both sat. The attendant who was pushing my wheelchair (we were behind them) tried to help her but she waved him off like an angry hen and spoke angrily at him (in some different language). Her husband still just sat there. In fact, when they got off the walkway, which they rode right onto the floor, they just sat there -- blocking the people behind them from getting off. Of course, my wheelchair is right behind them, so I had to jump up to avoid hitting her, and then, since her husband still was ignoring her, the attendant and I tried to help her up while Deanna wrestled with all the bags. We are all trying not to laugh. Finally, we helped the lady up, and the attendant tells me that he's worked at that airport for a year and has NEVER seen anything like that happen before -- and he's seen a lot of weird things at the airport. I told him he'd have something interesting to tell his friends, at any rate.

We've been quite busy -- we visited the Black Country Living museum -- a place dedicated to showing the way of life in the "Black Country" - a place thus named for the coal mining industry during the Industrial Revolution that literally turned the country black. We were able to explore an old mine (okay, so it was a guided tour...), and rode in a canal boat in some underground caverns -- which was how the coal was transported through the mountains.

Today we visited Dudly Zoo and castle and Nick and I played bumper cars. It was quite fun. Then we went grocery shopping; I read the cookbook AFTER we got home and realized I should have bought a few more things. *sigh* Oh well, at least I bought some Diet Coke -- Nick isn't a pop drinker. :P And, I got to meet Nick's sister and her husband and their little boys. The boys are sooo cute. ;)

Oh, and last but not least.... I finally got to ride his bike today. I was all hip in his leather jacket on the back of a sleek black sports bike, the wind whipping at us as we flew down the road. It was great -- so free and exciting.

And... since its 1:30 am... or rather, Nick informs me, almost 2am now that I've finished my "book", I'm off to bed. Tomorrow is the big day -- I meet his parents!!!

Adventures in Nora land...

And so the fun began Tuesday night. Deanna and I went shopping for some last minute things (where I bought 15 rolls of film - I hope its enough), and were on our way home at about 1am, when a begraggled white animal walked out in the road and just stood there. After peering through the rain specked windshield, I saw that it was a little dog with a collar on, shaking and shivering in the cold rain. Of course, we had to rescue him. No one answered the phone when we called the number on his tags, so... we took him home. This was a problem, as we had to leave for Chicago in about 4 hours -- at 5 a.m. So, since we couldn't do anything else, I called anmimal control and they picked up the dog. We finally fell, exhausted, into bed about 2a.m. We set the alarm for 4:30 am, but I joked to Deanna that knowing my dad, he'd wake us up at 4am to make sure we were up/ready on time. *sigh* My joke proved to be prophetic. Dad woke us up right at 4am, of course.

We did get ready -- mostly on time, got out of the house at 5:15 am. The ice maker wasn't working, so we had to go to the store quick and get ice for my foot. Dad wasn't happy, he was sure we'd be late. We finally left town at 5:30, though, and once on our way, I called Mom (who was at my sister's) to tell her and sis that we were on the way to Chicago.

About 20 miles down the road, I realized that I had forgotten to put my ring back on after showering -- and it was still at the house!!!!!! Dad did not want to turn back, but after much convincing (begging), I was able to get him to go back. It put him in a foul mood though; he was sure we were gonna be late. Turns out he thought my flight was at 12:30 -- I told him I wanted to be there by 12:30 -- my flight actually left at 3:30.

I switched off and drove after Madison, and I actually drove to the airport. I survived Chicago traffic!!!! CHICAGO TRAFFIC!!!!!!!!!
Wow... and I'm still alive -- we all are. That in itself is a miracle. Driving in Chicago is horrid; I had to idiots try toc cut me off. Oh well. That was the easiest part of the trip. :P

We got on plane to Jersey (where we would connect to London flight), and found out that our flight would be delayed, due to "bad weather". We sat on runway for 2 hours, before we were finally able to take off. Being so late of course, guaranteed that we'd miss our connecting flight which was supposed to leave at 8:30pm. We got to the airport at 9.

We ran out of the terminal, had to take the airtrain to another terminal (which we couldn't find), and then when we did find it, one did 't come for a bit. Because of my foot, when we'd gotten off the plane, I had asked for a wheelchair, but the guy with the wheelchair just stared at me and gave us vague directions on how to find the air train. So, hobbling off towards the general direction of the shuttle/air train, we attempted to catch another flight to London.

We had some hope -- they'd moved the flight take off to 9:15 -- but, we still didn't make it before the plane the gate. Now.... not only did we have to switch planes, we had to switch airlines (thus the different terminals). This wouldn't have been a problem, had we been on time -- but, being that we were late it was not fun at all. Then, since it was American Airlines that actually flew us into Jersy, and Continental that we were supposed to to fly to London with, we didn't know who to talk to. Continental told us the next flight they could give us would be the next day (!!!!), and said it was not their problem. Take it or leave it, was what I got told by the gaudily dressed woman behind the counter with bright pink lipstick. She said if we had a problem, go to American Airlines.

We did. We stood waiting to get helped with American Airlines for at least 45 mins.... There was a HUGE line of people there, already -- with the same problem. Missed flight to London because of the huge delay.

Since continental had given me a tentative booking for the next day flight, my goal was to get one that night yet -- but it wasn't going to happen. There were no other flights (with room) going out that night. Deanna and I did get hotel vouchers and a meal voucher, and that was all AA wanted to do -- said I was lucky to get a flight from Continental. Then she gave me a lunch voucher, but I thought this was odd, since the lady at the Continental desk had made it sound like it was a morning flight I'd be going on.

So, I looked closer at the ticket -- and saw that it said it was leaving at 6ish the next EVENING!!!! This was soooo not happening. I asked if there was anything sooner, and she said sorry -- there wasn't. I felt like crying. There were other people though, in the same boat, so it wasn't just me.

As i was leaving, thinking I'd miss almost 2 days with Nick, a guy who was still working some things out asked me how it went. I told him I couldn't get anything but a 6pm flight that night. He told met that British Airways had JUST opened up a flight at 8am the next morning, so I ran back to the counter and told the lady, and Deanna and I were able to get the 8am flight.

Well, then we went to get our luggage, and found out that went to Gatwick already. Okay, we'd pick it up when we arrived in London -- but then I realized ticket was for Heathrow. :P Oh boy... so, we got about 4 -5 hours of sleep at hotel, and then it was back to the airport. We finally made it in to Heathrow at about 8pm. Yay!!!!!!!!!!!!!

There, they were most helpful, and I got a ride in the wheelchair all the way through the terminals, thru customs (we got right up to the front cuz of the wheelchair!!), and baggage claim, and then to lobby. It was all very nice.

And then finally, finally -- I saw him. :) So I'm happy. Half my luggage is lost, and we don't know were it is, but I'm finally with Nick, so that's all that matters. :)

And now we go off in seach of more adventure. :)

on a more serious... but much more important... note

My friend Travis is being shipped out (to Iraq) tomorrow -- he actually trains first, and then he'll go out. He and his wife Paula are being pretty brave about the whole thing, but really pray for them right now. It's hard to be apart from Nick, and he's in a safe country!!!!

I know in the broad spectrum of things, he's only one soldier of many, but this soldier is important to me. I know him, and it all hits closer to home when someone you care about is there, or has orders to go there.

He -- and his buddies, and all the soldiers before and after him, probably dont' think of themselves as heroes. They probably just see themselves as serving their country. But they are heroes, and I hope we never forget the sacrifices they make.

There is the ultimate sacrifice -- one's life -- a high cost of freedom. But there are other things that we take for granted back home that our men and women don't have over there. A nice bed to sleep in, a warm shower, an ice cold pop, a simple phone call to a friend, clean and dry socks, and slippers for tired aching feet... and many other things. Things that they have sacrificed, without complaint, because they believe that freedom is worth protecting, no matter what the cost. No matter how badly the media portrays them, or makes the enemy look like the victim of a school-yard bully -- instead of the other way around.

I'm pround of Travis -- and I'm proud of all our soldiers.

My prayers will be with him and his unit every day -- for safety and courage and strength -- no matter how dark it gets over there.

Two days, 8 more hours and 33 more minutes!!!

Hmmm, I don't think I can stand the suspense. But I guess I'll have to. Am actually all packed -- which is a small miracle, seeing how busy I am. Managed to stay off the foot for a reasonable amount of time -- I should be good to go. I'm even icing it now, like a good girl. :P Okay, being good has nothing to do with it, its a bit sore... but I've been walking around ALOT. Last night I had to work 12 hours and also had to do my monthly checks. Okay, so the good thing is they're done; the bad thing is, my foot was throbbing by the time they were done. *sigh* Oh well... I guess that's life.

Right now I'm mentally going over my list of things I've packed and need to bring; I've already written a list, but I'm trying to think if I've forgotten anything. I've got a nagging feelign that I'll remember something important halfway across the ocean... Be a bit late then. :P

Can't wait to see my honey, though, its been soooo long. :) It will be an awesome ten days.

I am gonna miss my family... and Monty and the cats - but I think they'll survive without my delightful presence until I return. :P

Well!!! I'm off!!! I'll try to keep you all updated as the trip progresses -- lol, last time I did a poor job of it, will try harder this time, honestly!!!!


Love,

Nora

oodles and noodles of fun...

Had foot surgury today, and the last thing I remembered was the anesthesioligist telling me that it would take about 30 seconds for the knock-out drug to take effect. I was thinking to myself that I was still wide awake, and didn't think I'd be out in 30 seconds. Then, they were shaking me awake, telling me the surgury was done. Hmmmmm...

So now I have a prescription for Vicadin, an ice pac, and instructions not to walk. Nice when I've got two jobs -- and I work tomrrow.

Oh well...

It's all good, I'm making good money. I know why I'm so tired, heheheh -- I put in 50 hours just at the "part-time" job last week. And then I had 40 hours with the regular job. Wow. But its cool; I'll have lots of money for souveniers on my UK trip.

Am almost ready for that -- still need to pack, but have almost everything I need. Just need to stock up on film. :D

I'm so excited -- FIVE MORE DAYS!!! -- That will be oodles and noodles of fun. Lots of oodles, I'm thinking. :D

I was even able to find some miniature (very little) travel games for on the long plane ride, since I have a friend going with me (Dee is coming, too). I found a little 4x4 inch "Trouble" game board, as well as a tiny "Connect Four" game that is about 3x3". It's soooo cute!!!!!! :)

Well... more news to come.

Love!!

Nora