in comparison

Our family has done lots of travelling this summer. Johnny travels every week for his job and the kids and I just travel for fun. Looking at things comparatively though, I'm not sure who's job looks more "fun" to me!

Johnny's "baggage" ready to go:

My "baggage" ready to go:

Johnny's seatmates:

My seatmates:

Johnny's legroom:

My legroom:

What Johnny finds in his seat:

(noise cancelling headphones. Once he got a full set of pajamas and slippers. 

I would have liked to see a picture of all the first class passengers in their matching jammies!)

What I find in my seat:

(translation: "Dear Mommy, I hope you have a great fight. 

Thanks for taking us on vacation. Love, Lila")

Where Johnny sleeps when he travels:

Where we sleep when we travel:

The bathroom accomodations for Johnny:

(yes, that was really his bathroom!!)

The bathroom accomodations for us:

Where things could get sweaty for Johnny:

(uhm. yes. That is a sauna. In his ROOM. Too bad he was too busy to ever take advantage of it!)

Where things could get sweaty for me:

(Each kid had to navigate their own *cute* suitcase on the escalator. Several times. 

I caught a stranger taking a picture of us once because we were such a sight! 

I thought about giving her a dirty look but just smiled sweetly at her instead.)

Overall, I think I just might have the better end of the deal! maybe.

 

Hurry home (again) daddy. We miss you!

*these are actually pictures of when Johnny gets upgraded to fancy stuff, 
it's not quite how he usually travels, but still...

Sick of sick.

Yesterday Alex had an earache, 

Zack had a headache, and fever, 

Lila had a sore throat, 

 

and Abby was puking. 

So lovely.

In describing his earache, Alex said "mommy, a bug flew in my ear and is stinging me." And he later told Lila that "my cough scratched my ear and hurted it. uh huh. it did." I had a little flash back to when Zack's ear drum popped...

Turns out that in addition to Alex's ear infection and Zack's sinus infection, all four of them have strep throat.

We ended up at the doctor's office twice and the pharmacy multiple times. But most of the last few days have been spent like this...

 

In looking back through the pictures from my phone I realized we've been sick a lot lately.  My favorite was the "vampire flu" which lasted for almost 3 weeks and had everyone puking for days (but mostly only at night!)

 

Abby was sick for 17 days.

So I guess it could be worse (again) right! 

I think it is safe to say that we are sick of being sick!!

That STINKS!

You know how when you get home from traveling it is nice to be in your own home and your own bed... this week when we got back from Florida I wanted to turn around and go right back...

The day I left for Florida there was a huge thunderstorm and (unbeknownst to us) our little old fridge (and FREEZER) did not survive the storm. TWO WEEKS. That is how long our fridge and freezer sat rotting in our house.

It was awesome.

 

After about 30 seconds in the house I knew we were spending the night at a hotel and I considered that it might be easier to burn the house down (ok, not really) rather than get the smell out of everything (pillows, couches, rugs, clothes, mattresses, my hair...)

So we extended our vacation one more night and the kids and I spent most of the day hanging out in the hotel.

We ordered room service and I busted out a random stash of clearance Legos from my suitcase to keep us busy. I even got a little nap while they all watched TV.

When Johnny got back we headed to Walmart to stock up in order to face the STINK at home.

In case you were wondering it was the most horrible thing I can ever imagine smelling in my entire life. Ever. 

We managed to move the fridge outside to the porch before opening the doors. I'll spare you the gruesome details of the task (think lots of maggots on my kitchen floor), but with our rubber gloves, my improvised "ninja" mask, and lots and lots of cleaners we managed to clear out the nastiness without puking. Just barely, though. We're tough like that!

To be honest it could have been LOTS, LOTS worse. It still smells a little strange downstairs, but every single inch of my kitchen and dining room has been scrubbed spotless. Guess now we know that it takes a disaster for something like that to happen! :)

 

Now I'll never, ever go on vacation again without worrying about what I'll find waiting for me at home.

And next time you see us, pretend like you don't notice if we smell just a little bit funny!