The Marvelous Journey Home - Tuesday Dec. 19

Alright. It’s 3.12 am on Saturday, December 23. I’m at home in one of our old recliners with the cat cuddled up in my lap. She’s actually on top of my forearms which makes typing a bit weird. I don’t think she minds the movements, though. She’s “making biscuits” (that kneading thing cats do when they’re happy) and purring. When we got home Friday afternoon we couldn’t find her. She was nowhere in the house. So we figured that she escaped when Terry & Gwen came over to deliver some groceries earlier in the day. Sure enough, that’s what happened. I checked the back door before I went to bed (at 9 pm) and there she was waiting to come in. Good kitty. She didn’t want anything to do with Steve at first, but once he started petting her, she warmed up very quickly. She slept on our bed until I got up at 2.20 am. I had been awake for a while and tried going back to sleep. Usually I can start counting sheep backwards from 100 and I’m out before I hit the 70s. When I got to 10 I heard Julie making noises in her room.

So Julie, Gray Cat, and I have been hanging out. Julie got cranky a little bit ago, so I handed her off to Steve while I tried getting a bottle ready. By the time I got back to them, he had her asleep. Hopefully he’ll go back to sleep, too.

Now for the huge long story of getting home.
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Tuesday, December 19
Today we finished clearing out the house and packing. Steve took a couple of hours in the morning to:
a) return some outside toys we borrowed to his boss’s family
b) take our Freeview box (to get more TV channels from their regular TV aerial) to his co-worker’s wife, Val, who is also Audrey’s teacher
c) take Jarrett his birthday present
d) take a load of trash to the dump

Then he and I loaded up what we estimate was about £500 worth of stuff to go to a local Christian charity shop that a lady from our church works at. It was towels, sheets, electrical stuff, baby stuff, kitchen stuff, etc. They will give some of it to needy families and will sell some of it in their shop.

Back home, he loaded all 12 suitcases into the van and we waited for the landlord & lady to come by for our checkout. We get the feeling from them that they are very house proud and very new at this and are still expecting this house, once their residence, to remain in the same pristine condition I’m sure it once was (yeah right - they have 5 kids...how pristine can a house be with 5 kids?). They are deluding themselves if they think rental property will be taken care of well. I mean, we took care of it just fine, but that’s my point: “just fine” and “house proud” are two different states of caring for a house. Anyway, all our cleaning efforts were rewarded when the landlady walked into the kitchen and the first word out of her mouth was “Wow!” when she saw the stove. They have one of those ceramic-topped stoves. It’s completely smooth and you have to use special stuff to clean it. Just like ours here at the house. It was a no-brainer for me to clean it, but apparently she believed me incapable. Ha.

Then came the part that I didn't particularly like. After we gave them back their keys and got coats on, we got in the van. With the 12 pieces of luggage, 2 strollers, and 6 carry on bags. Steve had the idea for him and Caleb to ride on the floor between the 1st and 2nd rows. I didn't like the idea, but couldn't really dissuade him from it. So this means that I got to drive the ninety-minute drive to our hotel through the fog, knowing that I needed to avoid both cops and accidents. Not a relaxing drive.

As we're getting closer to our hotel, we decide that we'll stop at the good old services nearby. So we get off the motorway, get parked, get out of the van and FREEZE on the way into the facilities. It is below freezing! This is the first time since we've been in England that it's freezing. We get everyone situated with dinner (kid meals for the kids, Burger King for Steve, and Indian for Mom and me), eat up, then head on to the hotel.

It's easier to locate than we anticipated. Yay! We wait in the parked van in the "Fire Zone: No Parking" zone while Steve checks us in. We end up in adjoining rooms and have to call the front desk to come unlock the door between the rooms. But it works well. Two bathrooms, 2 double beds, and 2 twin beds. While everyone is getting settled, I volunteer to go park the van. I end up parking in THE LAST PARKING SPOT ON THE PLANET. Seriously. Belatedly I realize that this is a hotel that offers a parking deal with their room packages. You can stay at the hotel the night before your flight leaves but leave your car at the hotel. Nice if you're going somewhere, stinky if you are trying to find a parking spot.

I'm not joking when I say I got the last spot. It was in a dirt parking lot adjacent to the hotel's parking lot. It took me about 25 minutes to find this little gem of a spot, too. When I got back to the room, Steve had his jacket on and was about to come looking for me.

After this little parking adventure, Steve decides to take a bath because he has a headache. While he's in the tub, I call for a "pack & play" crib for Julie. It takes about 30 minutes to get one, then when the porter opens it up, he discovers it's broken. So he hauls it back to the mysterious place cribs come from and returns 5 minutes later and sets it up. Julie goes down very nicely. Meanwhile, the other kids get into their beds in Nana's room. By the time Steve gets out of the bath, everyone except me is in bed. I want a bath.

So begins another weird event.

There is no cold water. Yes, I typed that right. There is no COLD water. It's scalding coming out of the "hot" tap and merely painfully hot coming out of the "cold" tap. But it's frigid coming out of the sink. So I grab the tea kettle and dump cold water into the tub no less than 24 times. I quit counting after that because I was also trying to work a sudoku.

After the bath, I slipped into my bed thinking about our adventure for the next day: the National Gallery in London. That will be my next post.
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Right now it's 7:41 p.m. on New Year's Eve. Mom, Dad, Aaron, and Laura are still here. They've been snowed in by the "worst storm in the state's history" according to our illustrious governor. The Nolens are enjoying having the Cummins for longer, but I think the Cummins are all a bit on edge because they can't go home. Hopefully the roads tomorrow will be cleared of both ice and accidents and they can get most, if not all of the way home.

I have a headache now. I took my brother to the ER a little while ago. He was nauseous and had a headache and had been sick a couple of times. We think it was altitude sickness. They gave him some medicine and an IV of fluids and he's feeling much better now. But I have a headache. Did I mention that? I don't do well with headaches at night. If it threatens my potential sleeping time, I view it differently than if it were in the daytime. Plus I'm paranoid about not drinking enough water and getting altitude sickness myself.

Signing off now to read a book and wait for my Tylenol to kick in.