Ok, so it's been a while. And when I say "a while," I mean almost 4 months. And a lot has happened in that 4 months. Way too much to blog about in one sitting. So I'll just start by telling a funny story. A funny Grace story....

Our trip home from the States after Christmas was an eventful one. We missed our connecting flight in Detroit, got put on a different flight to Amsterdam (not Frankfurt), and had to catch a third flight home to Frankfurt after flying for nearly 12 hours. The only rays of light in all this madness: we got to fly business class from Detroit to Amsterdam (by the way---caviar is DISGUSTING); and my children.

As we were waiting to board the flight to Amsterdam, I suddenly remembered that we had forgotten to pray. Now, if there's anything that will bring me to my knees, it's having to fly in an airplane. I hate it. Don't ask me how I ended up married to someone in aviation. It terrifies me. So I've made it a tradition to pray before every flight. I pointed this out to the kids, of course, as we were standing at the gate. Our conversation sounded something like this:

Me: Kids, we forgot to pray. We HAVE to pray before we get on this plane.

Troy: Mom, no, we can't. Remember those Jewish guys a few months ago that got in trouble for praying on a plane?

Me: No, Troy, you're thinking of the Muslim clerics that started praying in the terminal and made some other passengers suspicious and nervous, so they reported them to security.

Grace: Mommy, what happened to them?

Me: Well, honey, they threw them off the plane.

Grace: (with look of horror on her face) YOU MEAN, WITHOUT A PARACHUTE?

Yup, traveling with my kids is a blast. They keep me grounded. They keep me laughing. And by the way, we said our prayers without being thrown off the plane. Life is good.