volcano's blow

(please don't mind how crappy and unorganized this post looks! i've keep going back and back trying to fix things but it wont save what ive done! ugh.)

ARG! getting here to anchorage was a pain in the #$$. we left on wednesday from germany and were supposed to get to anchorage the following evening. well, we got stuck in minneapolis till monday! not cool when you just want to get to where you're suppose to be so you move on with your life and try and get settled. beware, this post is going to be long and lame, so feel free to skip ahead as this is more for me anyways. i want to remember that i DID survive this to better prep myself for future moves.

wednesday the 25th:

left spangdahlem tlf in the snow (not cool!) in a shuttle to ramstein. we found out the night before we were supposed to leave that they changed our call time, so we needed to get to the aiport 2 hours earlier. this SUCKED as we had to get up at 5am on wednesday and wait to see if we could catch an earlier shuttle. not what we had planned so this added to the stress. luckily, we were able to catch an earlier shuttle but they failed to tell the guy that we had a butt load of stuff (6 HEAVY suitcases, 3 carry on's, a cat in a medium sized kennel, a huge britax car seat, along with a bunch of personal items) so it was a little bit of a pain to fit all of our stuff in the small van. but, we made it and mango didn't howl too much for the 70 minute ride.

i had never been to the ramstein terminal before so i was pleasantly surprised at how huge and accommodating it was. they had an awesome USO upstairs complete with a family room with toys and books, so brynn and i hung out in there as steve dealt with mango and getting her situated. i wasn't able to find ANY dramamine anywhere on base, and was pretty mad about this. i had planned to give brynn something to ease my pain as she is not one who likes to sit for very long and the flight was 8+ hours. luckily, a lady behind us had some chewable melatonin tablets from gnc that she brought for her 2 young boys, so i grabbed a few of those for brynn. we gave brynn one as soon as we got inside the plane, and she was out as soon as the plane took off. but of corse, she awoke 30 minutes later and didn't sleep at all after that. not cool. it also didn't help that the arm rests in our row didnt go up, so anyone would find that trying to sleep in a 13'x15' space to be difficult. i bought a leapster for brynn a few weeks before we left off of ebay, and showed her this on the place. thank goodness for that as it kept her busy and pretty happy for the most part.
the flight attendants were AWESOME and were always hooking us up with drinks and snacks. definitely the best in flight crew that i had ever had. most of the people on our plane were coming back from iraq and afghanistan, so that was cool to talk to them and thank them for serving.

when we arrive in baltimore, we were greeted by a good 100+ people outside of the baggage area waving flags, cheering, and clapping for those returning home. man, it was awesome. living in germany, you don't always feel like people support the troops (as the news coverage is pretty negative) so this was fabulous to witness first hand. i actually started crying (and i was so embarrassed by it!) as it made me feel so grateful and happy that there are people out there who are supportive. there were a ton of cute boy and girl scouts with a group of older people (and if any of you know me, you know how i love old people. sort of came with working in a rehab at a nursing home for 3 years) handing out goody bags and waters. it was awesome! brynn kept clapping along with them and smiling thinking it was all for her. pretty hilarious.

we had a hotel for the night there in baltimore, so we called the hotel shuttle and waited outside forever. it was so weird being back in the states and seeing small license plates, huge trucks, and understanding what people are saying around me!

thursday the 26th:

brynn decided to wake up at 4 in the morning refusing to go back to sleep, so we had plenty of time to get ready. we then loaded all our crap again on the shuttle, and made our way back to the airport with a pissed off cat stuck once again in her kennel.

the flight was super crowded to baltimore and again, brynn decided to finally fall asleep at the worst time...right when we were landing! so we waited to get off the plane until everyone else was off to give her a few more minutes as she was so sleep deprived (as we were too and were embracing the fact that she was asleep finally!). the plan was to switch planes, and continue on our journey to anchorage.
as we got all our stuff together, we headed to our gate and discovered that it had been delayed 3 hours due to another eruption by mt redoubt. not cool. luckily, the minneapolis airport is

MASSIVE and had a indoor play area for kids. so we ate lunch, and hung out there praying that brynn would get all her energy out and pass out on the plane for us. steve and i were so exhausted and didn't get much sleep the 3 previous nights so we were really looking forward to that.

well, we waited and waited at the gate with a good 150 people watching as the flight continued to get delayed again, and again, and again. eventually, the volcano erupted again and the ash cloud was heading towards anchorage, so they decided to cancel the flight. we were so mad! so northwest gave us a phone number to call to get a discounted hotel for the night (like that's supposed to make me feel better) and we found one near the mall of america. we also got plane tickets to go out the following day in the morning, so we were hoping that would work.
we then had to go to the baggage claim, describe all of our bags, release mango from the pet holding area, and wait the 2 hours to get our luggage. those 2 hours seemed like FOREVER as by this time, brynn was delirious and refusing to fall asleep. so steve and i took turns pushing her around the airport as she bawled hoping she would pass out. but no, she kept up her horrible tantrums and that left us in a real great mood. ugh...
when we got our crap, we again waited for another shuttle to take us to our hotel. like i said, we had a TON of stuff so we got the dirtiest looks from people as we were trying to cram it all in the back. nice people, we are MOVING! back off...angry white pregnant woman here.
we weren't planning on making an additional trip, so i had already thrown away the disposable litter box, litter, and cat food for mango in baltimore. i had no way to get to a store and buy these things for her (as we were right off a highway and there were no nearby stores that i could walk to). so steve and i thought of a way to hook mango up with a place to do her business and it was so white trash. luckily, i had a few litter box liners in one of our suitcases, so we grabbed the smallest drawer in the room, laid down the liner, and gathered up leaves from outside to use as litter. and was mango pleased? absolutely not. such an ungrateful cat. i should have known that she only uses the finest of all litters and was not pleased with our offering of crushed leaves.

that night i didnt sleep at all as i was so worried about mango getting a bladder infection and getting sick on the plane while stuck in her kennel.

friday the 27th:

we again, haul all our crap back to the airport via the shuttle and wait again to get on a flight. it is cancelled as soon as we get to the gate. at this point, im so mad im laughing. there is nothing we can do, so we call the same hotel we were at the night before and get another reservation. this time around, we had the option of leaving our luggage at the airport, so we did that. it was just too much of a hassle to get it again and we had enough items in our carry on's to get us through the night. when i travel, i always make sure i have an extra change of clothing in my carry on just in case so we were ok. so we grabbed mango, and took a shuttle back to the airport. by this time, poor mango hadn't been able to use the bathroom, err litter box, for 36+ hours so i called the front desk and asked if their shuttles made special trips to grocery stores for their customers. luckily they did, and i was able to get away to walgreens to get some food, litter, some toiletries, and benadryl for brynn.

after i got mango situated, i decided to venture off to the mall of america as it was 4 minutes away from our hotel. and man, it was beautiful! it was really overwhelming to walk into such a huge mall after not being in a stateside mall for 18 months! but i survived and only made it through the bottom level for the 4 1/2 hours i was there. i couldn't help myself and ended up getting some stuff at heritage, gap, old navy, h&m, new york & company, nordstroms rack (kristen, it was HUGE! you would have loved it), aeropostle, and dsw. it was awesome and well worth the indents on my wrists from carrying around all those bags. i was seriously giddy by the time i got back to the hotel room but steve was not pleased...sorry!

saturday the 28th:

again, we had tickets to leave once again in the early morning. 3rd times a charm right? hmmm...i told steve to not worry as it would be delayed anyways (and i was right, 3 hour delay which we found out as we got there. friggin stupid northwest 1-800 numbers are so incorrect). by this time, mango knew that we were spiking her treats so she refused to take them as she was not cool with getting high. so rather then fighting with her, i decided to give her a day off as this would have been the 4th day in a row she was under the influence. and, i didn't have much faith that we were going to be able to get out as the volcano was once again blowing up repeatedly. so we waited with a bunch of angry, flannel wearing, bushy beared mountain men and women just to be told it was cancelled. luckily, i had asked the hotel to hold mango's litter and cat food for me in case we didn't get out. so once again, we had the airport hold our luggage and we left again via the shuttle back to our hotel. by this time, we knew all the shuttle drivers by name and it was a joke to them that none of us would ever leave minnesota. the hotel that we were staying in was full due to all the stranded people trying to get to alaska so at least they were making money i guess.

so after we got our room back, we all went to the mall to get swim suits for brynn and steve, comfy shoes for me (my boots were KILLING me) another carry on, and get some lunch. we hadn't ate at arby's yet, so we got lunch there and were so dissapointed! i guess when you miss out on something for so long, you build it up in your head to be amazing only to get your hopes crushed. so so sad.

the mall of america has a huge indoor nickelodean themed amusement park so we checked that out. and dude, brynn was in heaven. all the rides inside were based off of shows so we got to see a lot of sponge bob, dora, diego, the backyardigans, the wonder pets, and a few other that i can't seem to remember. we had already spent a ton of money that we weren't planning on spending, so we opted to just let brynn watch people ride rather then letting her go on any. she was cool with this as she heard the screams and cries from the kids at the rollercoasters and bumper cars and decided that it wouldn't be too much fun anyways. we also waited in line to see ming ming and tuck from the wonder pets (and we totally thought of you b-man!)

but brynn wussed out when it was our turn and ran away when steve put her down. brynn is terrified of anything huge and in costume. we spent a few hours at the mall, then returned back to let steve and brynn swim and watch some awesome dog the bounty hunter.

sunday the 29th:

we didn't have tickets to leave until monday, so we hung out, swam, and watched random shows on tvonce again. i got bored and convinced steve to let me wander the mall again so him and brynn could have some daddy daughter time. i hadn't seen too much of the mall, so i was curious to see what else was on the 2 other floors. sooo many sweet stores with sales that it wasn't even fair! i wasn't able to get anything as our bags were already filled to bursting and steve would kill me if i spent any more. but i still had fun wandering around and checking out stores i had never heard of before. and dang, can i say how AWESOME it is to see prices in dollars and not euro's?! no more trying to calculate how much things will cost with that days exchange rate. so so nice.

monday the 30th:

4th time trying to get out of minneapolis. we had tickets to leave in the early afternoon so we weren't too rushed in the morning and it was nice. it looked promising as the volcano hadn't erupted for a good 30 hours and there were no ash clouds moving towards the anchorage area. because there were so many people stranded, there was a plane going to anchorage every hour that day until 5pm at night to get everyone out. and luggage, well that was another story. of course northwest couldn't guarantee that your luggage would be on the same plane as you, so they let people know that as you checked in. they had a 747 reserved to only carry bags to anchorage (and they were going to use the passenger seats as well to cram things in) and that was going to arrive later in the evening. we were cool with this as we understood, but so many stupid yuppie punks didn't get this and kept arguing with the gate agents. i hate rude people. you only make yourself look ridiculous when you throw a fit so stop please! i would so hate to work in an airport...

so we were able to get on and were under the impression that lunch, or some meal would be served, as we were leaving at 11:15 and it was a 5 hour flight. ugh, nope. and of corse i wasn't prepared for this and brynn depleted my snack options during the 1st hour. but one of the flight attendants, really the only nice one on this flight, hooked us up a few times with random snacks to help us out. they did sell sandwiches for $8, chips for $3, and candy for $3 but all we had was 2 bucks on us and they only took cash. i was a little bugged as normally when you're flying for that long AND during a meal, you will get something at least. now i know to never expect that when you're traveling with young kids!

our sponser met up with us and waited around another 2 hours to help us look for all our bags. and dude, the baggage claim was a mess. bags EVERYWHERE from so many different flights so it was very hard for people to get their stuff. luckily, 2 of our 8 checked bags were on the flight with us and the rest were coming on the 747 later on in the evening. so, we decided to leave the airport, get something to eat, and get a rental car so our poor sponser didn't have to deal with us anymore. oh, and the tlf's here at elmendorf do NOT allow pets so christina (sponser) offered to take mango for a while, as she already had 2 cats, while we find a place. mango has been a punk to her and her poor husband and growls and hisses when either of them walk past the futon where she hides all day. i feel awful!

so yes, we are here and are trying to get settled. more to come! sorry for the novel...like i said, i wanted to make sure i remembered this experience so in the future i can remind myself that i CAN do it when things don't go right!