Air Shipment Arrives

On Monday, August 19 our air shipment arrived.  A good  chunk of our stuff arrived but we still have a lot coming in the sea shipment.  Luckily my clothes were in this shipment.  I had clothes I could wear to work.  Phew, it could have been embarrassing going in the nude.

It's here.

Empty spot in the garage for the boxes.

Cameron was the photographer.

One of the movers.

It was like Christmas.  We forgot what was in the boxes.

Cool boxes.

Lots of paper too.

Opening and emptying.

A lot of boxes.

Todd checking them in with the guy.

Random

Our first attempt of Ileana's salsa at home.  Couldn't get the correct
peppers so we improvised.  Not as good.

Celebrating Scott and Kelly's anniversary at the Captain's Table.
We went out to The Edge and then to Port Byron for the Tug Fest.

Casey and Bonnie's reception.  The boys...Casey, Jeff, Bill, Matt, and Todd.
Todd and I went to my 25th class reunion afterwards.

The boys holding the bride.

So excited to have Brenna and Gavin over.

Still goofy kids.

LOVE these kids and what their friendship means to each of them.

We hit Toys R Us to check out the new games for the Xbox.  Came
out with all of them.  Too good of a deal to pass up.

All our Disney Infinity characters.  So cute.

Jammin to music.

The hat our nephew made for Cameron.  Cool.

Cameron posing at Unpack Your Backpack at Seton.

My dad had to come over at 8:30 to check out the bee hive in
our screen door.  A bee stung me, my brother sprayed, and Dad
pulled out the hive. 

Treadmill

We had been looking for a treadmill even before we arrived back in the States.  My Dad is the treadmill mechanic (he went to school for that title) and jack of all trades at Fitness Express.  He works with a guy that decided to sell his treadmill.  My Dad hooked us up.  On Saturday my Dad, Todd, Bill Love, and I took the trailer over to David's house to load up the treadmill.  First my Dad had to take the electrical part off and the arms.  We then could carry it out of the house.  It was heavy.  We got it in the trailer and reattached the arms good enough so it wouldn't fall over on the drive home.  My Dad made sure it was secure in the trailer. 

We got home and unloaded it to the garage.  There was no way we were getting it to the basement.  We needed more man power.  Getting it home was the first step.

On Monday Tim and Aron came over to help get the treadmill to the basement.  They got it into the kitchen. That was the easy part.  Next they had to get it down the steps.  Todd put a board down the steps and attached it with screws.  They then connected a rope to the treadmill.  Todd and Aron had the heavy end while Tim, my Dad, and I held the rope.  Cameron had it wrapped around his waist before we started but we made him take that off.  The treadmill went down pretty easy.  It weighs 400 pounds so it is a beast.

Once downstairs they got it into position.  Dad put it all back together.  Cameron tried it out.  It was going to be awesome to have.

Cameron thinks he was going to be the anchor man.

Todd and Aron trying to keep it from sliding.

Dad and Tim had it up top.



Tim was a good straddle man.

Dad and Cameron putting the brains back together.

Treadmill mechanic making sure all is well.

Cameron was the first to try it out.

Jet Lag

3:00 a.m.  Yep, that's what I said...3:00 a.m. and everyone was up.  Stupid jet lag.  I laid in bed trying to go back to sleep but it didn't work.  Todd put some stuff away and then ran to the store with Cameron.

When they got home we had a surprise for Cameron.  I wont go in to detail about it but it was safe to say he was pretty excited.  It had to do with a Hello Kitty phone case.  Off for more running around all day.  We stopped at my moms again to dry my hair.  Don't worry, one of the stops was to buy a hair dryer later.  We tried to go to the post office but they didn't open until 9.  We needed to go to the bank but they didn't  open until 9 too and it was only 8:15.  We ended up at Walmart.  Cameron and I ran in to get a hair dryer.  We found one but also an Xbox game and some other stuff.  Todd grabbed corn on the cob and fresh green beans from a guy selling them in a parking lot.

We dropped Cameron off at Ian's.  He spent the day with them while we ran around.  He had a great time.  They also fell right back in where they left off.  They played video games, football, catch, shot bow and arrows, and played some board games.  He had a great time. He was so happy to be back with Ian.

We hit the bank, furniture store, lunch at Chipotle, another furniture store, picked Cameron up, and went home.  We pulled in the driveway and my stomach got instantly sick.  There was a police car sitting in our driveway.  Todd told us to stay in the car.  He got out and we saw an officer walking up from the ravine.  He told Todd a guy stole a ladies purse at Burger King (which is a couple blocks away).  The police chased him and he ran into the woods which are all around our house. I was a little freaked out.  Once in the house I kept looking out the window thinking I would see the guy appear.  I never did.

Found this in our driveway.

We had my parents come over to stay with Cameron while we went to the car dealership.  He was exhausted and we knew it was going to take a long time.  They shucked corn and cleaned beans while we were gone.  Awesome!

Cameron hanging out in the living room.

My dad wouldn't take his shoes off (new carpet) so
he sat outside the living room.  We only had
bean bag chairs.

Got the new car...Ford Focus, and it did take forever.  We stopped by our insurance guys office and then dropped the rental car off at the airport.  Finally went home.

Cameron was asleep on the floor.  He had been there for about 10 minutes.  We showed my parents the car and chatted for awhile.  I went back inside and Cameron was gone.  I found him in his bed sound to sleep.  It was 5:40.  We decided to let him sleep until 6.

Tired boy.

I tried to wake Cameron up.  His eyes opened bit he was delirious.  I finally got him in the shower hoping that would wake him up.  Nope, he was still all out of whack.  Poor kid.  Being over exhausted is terrible.  He sat in the chair and kept falling asleep.  I kept waking him up.  He finally caught a second wind.  I played some Xbox with him so he stayed awake.  Unfortunately I kept falling asleep playing.

Todd used his can cooker to make dinner.  2 dozen ears of corn on the cob boiled to perfection.  None of us had anything else.  Straight corn on the cob.  Man, it was good.  That was one thing we really missed in china.

Cleaned up, a little tv, mad off to bed at 9:30.  It was tough staying up that late but we made it.

HOME

Everyone was up by 5:00.  Really?  Only 5 hours of sleep?  I ran and then got ready.  We had to run to my moms so we could drop Cameron off and so I could dry my hair before going to the beauty shop.  Sounds odd but my hair had to be dry so it could get colored.

Matching shirts.

 Todd dropped me off at the beauty shop and he went to Walmart (the real kind of Walmart) to get some groceries.  He picked me back up.  Lynette worked her magic again on my hair. Then we started our crazy, busy day.

Karen picked Cameron up at my parents house at 10:30 and returned him at 4:00.  Cameron couldn't wait to spend time with Brenna and Gavin.  They immediately fell right back into their ways...Playing, laughing, chatting.  These 3 kids have always been very close and I'm so glad they were just as happy to see Cameron as he was to see them.  They also went swimming at one of their friends house.  As soon as we got home and I asked how the day was Cameron asked me when he could see McGuire's again.  Love that family.

While Cameron was off having fun Todd and I were looking at cars, furniture, tv's and other stuff we needed.  The entire day was filled with some kind of shopping.  Anyone that knows us knows how painful that was.  Neither of us like to shop but it was all necessary.  Luckily it was a successful day too.

At 4:15 we were back at my parents for dinner with my whole family.  We had Franks pizza and for some reason it seemed like it was extra delicious.  Grace surprised us and brought us Whiteys shakes. She was working so she made them for us before going to my parents.  It was a great surprise and an even better yummy treat.  Griffin had two basketball games so everyone had to leave early.  That worked well for us because we were all fading fast and needed pillows.

Grace knows how to suck up. 

Back home.  We showed Cameron his new tv.  He was super excited and got right in bed to watch. The funny thing was he only lasted 10 minutes before falling asleep.  Off to bed.

YUM!!

111 Weeks--Going Home

111weeks and zero weeks left.  WE ARE GOING HOME!!!!

Down to breakfast at 6:15.  Back to the room.  I laid back down while Todd and Cameron watched a movie.  After I woke up I watched a movie called Three Inches.  Luckily the bathroom had a TV so I could get ready and still watch it.

We walked to Home Plate for our last BBQ fix in Beijing.  They weren't opened yet so we sat outside waiting.  Todd had a long conversation with the owner while waiting.  Inside to order.  We had another good lunch.  We walked back to the hotel, grabbed our stuff, and went down to the van.

Off to the airport.  Of course the road was wall to wall cars.  We still arrived early.  Mr. Xue parked the van.  Him and Todd both went to get carts.  We unloaded all 6 bags and put them on the carts. We made sure we had everything and then Cameron handed Mr. Xue a red envelope and told him thank you.  I then did the same.  Mr. Xue looked surprised we each gave him an envelope. As we were walking away I got a little teary eyed...again.  It really was go time.

Inside we found the delta desk and had to wait for almost an hour to check in.  Todd got the bags all checked in and got our tickets.  Off to security.  When Todd handed me my ticket I immediately looked to see where our seats were.  Business class baby!  I looked at Todd and told him he wasn't so sly.  He had his proud little smirk on.  I was pretty sure we would be there but Todd had been setting us up like we weren't.  Cameron didn't think to look at the ticket.

Cameron reading in the airport.

That's a lot of luggage.

Security was a little bit of a nightmare.  We had a carry on suitcase, 3 back packs, the camera bag, and my purse.  It took 15-20 minutes for us to be checked. They had to take everything out and recheck everything.  We had the Wii, Xbox, all controllers, cords, etc. All of our expensive items that we needed to make sure got home.  The guy helping us was very nice and helpful.  Luckily Todd knew exactly how to put everything back in and which bag things came out of.  My job was to make sure nothing was left behind.  Check.

Off to the lounge. We got comfy to hang out for a little over an hour.  We then went down to the gate. Cameron was asking Todd if he thought we would get upgraded.  Todd said he doubted it.  We talked about who was getting the window seat and Cameron wanted to play rock, paper, scissors to see if he could sit on the isle.  Of course Todd told him no.

Todd handed Cameron his ticket and we started to board.  We had to go through a security check point again which meant they had to check my bags again.  They didn't take everything out but still a pain.

We were walking down the jet bridge and Todd turned down the business class isle.  Cameron said "whoa, why did dad go that way?  Oh, we have the bulk head."  He then looked at his ticket.  He realized he had seat 1.  He was pretty excited.

Got all our stuff up and got comfy.  They brought us drinks and we chatted with a guy from Detroit for a bit.  Then it was go time.  Up in the air.  Watched some movies, slept, ate, bathroom, repeat. Cameron basically slept the whole time.  He has never slept like that before.  That's what our 12 1/2 hours consisted of.

Asleep before he could even lay down.

Now he was comfortable.

As we were waiting to get off the plane an announcement came on.  They said there were 45 bags left in Beijing and this affected 35 passengers.  There were a lot of groans.  One of our stewards told me it was no one in business class.  Thank goodness.  We would have had nothing to wear.

Off in Detroit.  Ahhh...America.  Oh how we missed you.  We went right to Global Entry.  This was Cameron's first time getting to use it.  He acted like he was a pro.  When we went through the desk area we had to show our slip.  There were 5-6 security guys standing there.  The guy behind the desk asked me if he was my son.  I said yes.  He said he seemed too young for global entry.  We told them Cameron just got it a month ago.  They were all impressed and thought it was cool he had it. They called him a world traveler.  If they only knew all the places this kid has been.

Grabbed our 6 bags and then deposited them again.  We went to Chili's for a bite to eat.  I had to get a Michelob  Ultra also.  Yum.  I turned my new phone on.  Holy cow...I could get my email, get on Facebook, and send texts.  How exciting.  No more need for a VPN.  I love America.

America = Big smiles.

Yum!

We went to our gate to wait for our plane.  Boarded and in 55 minutes we were in the Moline airport and very excited.  We hit the bathroom and then walked out to the waiting area.  Mom, Dad, Scott, Kelly, Grace, Aunt Sharon, Bill, Joanette, and Ian (Cameron's friend) were waiting for us with a sign and balloons.  Oh was it good to see them.

Someone is happy to be home.

Happy to see family and friends.

The shirts Scott and Kelly gave us.  To cool.

Cameron with his buddy Ian and Grace.

Scott and Kelly had special shirts made for our return.  They were super cute.  We couldn't wait to wear them.  Our 6 bags were the first ones on the carousel.  Dad put 3 in his car and Todd put the rest in our rental car.  Cameron had to ride with my parents because the car was full.  We said goodbye to Ian, Joanette, Aunt Sharon, and Bill.  The rest of us went to our house.

We walked in and Kelly had made a big sign and it was hanging in the dining room with more balloons.  My parents had beer, pop, water, Gatorade, and all kinds of food in our refrigerator for us. How awesome was that?  My mom also had an angel food cake sitting on the counter.  Yum!  We certainly appreciate everything they have done for us.  It made this adventure so much easier knowing they were taking care of everything.  I'm not sure how we are ever going to be able to thank them enough.

Cameron couldn't wait to climb on the tractor.

A welcome home  sign.

All of our luggage.

Cameron loved the new carpet.

What a goofball.

We hung out chatting for a bit.  Everyone left, we showered, and were in bed by 11:45.  We were all pretty wiped out.