Comin' to America

As I mentioned in the earlier blog, we spent 3 weeks in our home country.  This was some much-needed time to recharge our American batteries!  Every so often it’s good to come back and be reminded that you aren’t a weird foreigner.  We had a very full 3 weeks and traveled to Tennessee, Mississippi, and Kansas.  It’s hard to believe next time we make this journey we’ll have a third little person accompanying us.  Anyway, here’s a short recap of our trip o’ USA.

We started out in Morrison, TN (home to our parents).  This is a suburb of McMinnville, if that’s possible.  The first day we used as an opportunity to get business done.  This included getting brand new TN drivers’ licenses since our Texas ones were shredded upon receiving Austrian drivers’ licenses.  No biggie though…we got to register to vote and got some snazzy new pictures!  Then we headed to Wally World to buy an exorbitant amount of products to take with us back to Austria.  As the cashier was ringing up my 8th deodorant, she asked, “Is this going to be for a tax free organization?”  Maybe next time we should go to Sam’s instead!

The next several days we had a great time hanging out at Jeremy’s parent’s houseboat on Center Hill Lake.  We got to soak up some sun and thoroughly gorge ourselves on all the neighboring houseboats’ daily potluck dinners.  It was here I found out the baby really likes squash casserole.  We also had a Fourth of July miracle (well, really third of July) when the sweet Dani Sanders agreed to marry Jeremy’s brother, Jacob!  They’ll get married next July, and we couldn’t be more excited!

The next week Jeremy, my mom, and I headed down to Mississippi to see all my family.  We started out in Sardis, MS where my mom’s parents are located.  Granddaddy Wayne and Grandmama Joyce treated us to some good home cooking and relaxing napping and watching TV.   Another highlight was going to Cracker Barrel…happiness can truly be found with family, sweet tea, and cornbread!  We were also able to see some of my crazy family in Walnut where I was once again reminded I am the shy one of the group.  I know you don’t believe me, but next time I’ll get video!

The second half of Mississippi was spent in Holly Springs where my dad’s family lives.  These were the same grandparents that came to visit us not too long ago here in Austria.  My little brother and sister joined us too, so we got some quality time with them.  I think I sufficiently taught Tiffany that I always dominate in UNO, and I think Wesley taught Jeremy that he can beat the snot out of him at the ripe ol’ age of five!

On the way back to McVegas, we stopped in Nashville to spend the night with John and Lee Ann Roberts.  These are some good friends of ours from my days at Belmont, and we always have a great time watching movies and playing board games.  We also celebrated both my birthday and John’s birthday too!  They have the best dog in the world, Ella, and I think Jeremy was sorely tempted to steal her!

We came back to McMinnville for three days where we had some quality time with the parents, and I had my first baby shower!  It was a little weird thinking that something was growing in me that would wear these onesies, but it was great nonetheless.  A big thanks to the Bells, Bratchers, and Bewicks for helping with that!

My birthday was a couple days later, so we celebrated by driving to Nashville and Cookeville to shop for baby stuff.  Even though we don’t know the sex of the baby yet, we wanted to go ahead and decide on everything we wanted to register for.  So, we looked at boy’s and girl’s stuff alike.  I think we found some really cute things, and I can’t wait to know which way it will go!  (This should happen in about a week and a half, by the way)

The last three days of our trip was spent with our friends Adam and Becca Foster in Kansas City.  We had always hoped to go visit them in their new house and experience KS first hand.  We got to see the birthplace of Hallmark cards, watch the movie Wall-E, and eat at our favorite burrito place, Chipotle.  I was also convinced by Jeremy to buy a massive amount of maternity clothes.  I’m glad he did because I only came back to Austria with two shirts that still fit from the beginning of my trip.  Bellies grow quick! 

And being true to his new hobby, Jer-bear has made an American trip highlights video.  Watch it, and you just might see yourself!  :o)  Click here to view the masterpiece.

4 down, 5 to go!

Well, I am officially 4 months along now in my pregnancy, and I am pleased to announce that I’m finally starting to show!  I have never fully gotten over the meat aversions from the nausea months, but I have found some nice veggie meals to substitute.  Today I even bought some protein powder to start adding to my juice to hopefully make up what I’m lacking.  Here is a picture as of date…scroll down to a previous blog to see the difference 6 weeks makes!  And yes, I’m wearing maternity clothes now…  

I know we have been horrible at blogging, but we have been in America for the past 3 weeks soaking up family, friends, and of course, food.  We returned to Austria this past Tuesday, and I have to admit, it was an awful day(s)!  The day actually started on Monday when we drove to Atlanta to get on the plane to fly overnight.  I can never sleep on planes, so I just stare zombie-like into the void of darkness that everyone seems to be snoozing so soundly in.  I can’t get comfortable, and my knees start aching.  I get squirmy, and I finally find a comfy position.  This is interrupted after about 5 minutes when the baby seems to be doing jumping jacks on my bladder.  I get up, and the whole thing starts over again.  This lasts for around 11 hours.  We finally arrive in Vienna to basically have a couple of hours to nap, unpack, then re-pack to drive 2.5 hours to Salzburg where we will be living for the next 6 weeks.  Needless to say, when we made it to Salzburg Tuesday night, we were beyond exhausted.  It is now Friday, and I think we have finally made it over the jet lag hump. 

For those of you who don’t know, we are living in Salzburg because the Philharmonic/Opera stays here during the summer to play in the famous Salzburg Festival.  It happens every year, so Salzburg will in a sense be a second home to us.  We were able to find a decent, furnished apartment in one of the most beautiful parts of the city.  We are right across the street from Mirabell Gardens where I hope I can do some pregnancy walking!  Mirabell Gardens was where they filmed the “Do, a Deer” Medley in The Sound of Music, so it’s obviously beautiful.  I’ll let Jer do more blogging later on what exactly is happening at the Salzburg Festival, since he has the insider scoop!

Anyway, since we have been such bad bloggers, we are hoping to use the slow pace of Salzburg as an opportunity to catch up…that and play Wii, of course!  I promise there will be more to come in a very short amount of time!