Catch Up

Ok...it's been a while. Sorry!!!!!!!!!

Things have been rolling along. We've had a great mixture of work and play while Sean's been home. We went to Burlington for dinner a few times and totally enjoyed that. We discovered that the Essex ferry is a beautiful way to go. Our ferry stops running pretty early for us to enjoy dinner and get back. Essex is a little ways down the lake from us. It's a longer drive to get there, but the ferry is a shorter ride. It goes from a really cute little down to another really cute little town slightly south of Burlington. We go past the VT Teddy Bear Factory and Shelburne Museum to get into town. You should check out the website for the museum...it's pretty neat. http://shelburnemuseum.org/ I'm anxious to go there. Check out the map on the website for what all is there. There's even a old ship that was brought there for guests to go through.

We spent one weekend at Shannon's camp on another lake up here. It was a lot of fun and the kids got to actually go swimming in the lake. It's a smaller/deeper lake, but with life jackets the kids could jump off the dock and practice swimming. A few days later, Sierrah (Shannon's daugher) came down and stayed with us for a couple days. She helped occupy Melody so Sean and I could get some work done. It was a huge help. I've already got her booked again for a few days when I need a break!

We've done lots of work too. We've painted the front rooms and I bought rugs. I've ordered the furniture for those rooms which will be delivered next week. I still need to sand and paint the trim but I'm very excited about the way those rooms came out. They were the easiest because they had been converted to sheetrock and didn't need anymore repair. I'll post pictures when I get a minute. We have also organized the back area so I can actually find the tools I will need, we found a old buried sidewalk under the grass. It's beautiful stone. I need to finishe unburying it. Our tons and tons of blackberries are starting to ripen, so Melody and I are planning a trek to the back lot to pick them. (not sure what I'm going to do with TONS of blackberries, but I'll find something) .

Sean has been trying to leave for almost a week now. There have been some issues....he was supposed to leave on the 17, but had a slight issue with the last leg of his flight due to the company flying into Baghdad changing. So, he rebooked that ticket to leave on the 19. Gave us a few extra days which were great!! We took him to the airport and said our goodbyes. I drove away and 10 min later got a text saying his flight wasn't coming. We had had rain earlier in the day which had apparently moved down to NYC where his next connection was. The flight was delayed for hours. This threw off all his connections and made the flying nearly impossible. The flight from Kuwait to Baghdad only runs a few times a week, so if he misses that, it's days before it goes again. So...I turned around and we all came back home. Rebooked his flight again for the 21 (yesterday). There was a lot of rain again and I saw his flight was slightly delayed. It wasn't too bad and we couldn't really afford this indefinite vacations, so we dropped him off anyway. The thinking was, if he could get to JFK, he'd have options. Even if he missed his flight, there had to be SOMETHING going out of JFK he could get on. It definitely had better choices than Burlington. Well, the outcome of that was a whole lot of walking the airport terminals back and forth and tons of frustration. Finally at 1:30am, he started trying to find a rental car and to drive back home. He is now booked out of JFK Friday night at 10pm. The airline offered him hotel vouchers, but not a return flight to Burlington. Because of the final destination, he doesn't check any luggage and only has a single change of clothes. It seemed a little silly for him to stay in a hotel with no clothes for two days when it was only a 4 hour drive to come back home. So...he got in about 8:30 this morning and I am now letting him sleep for awhile. I think we're going to go to lake Placid this afternoon. I'm going to try to post some pictures with this and post it. I'll be better about updating...I promise!!!