Back...

Well, the weary have returned. Our flight out of Chicago was delayed by a couple of hours, so we arrived into Munich a couple hours late. We made it to the S-bahn, and then our train home without too much waiting and got into Stuttgart around 2pm on Monday. The struggle was staying awake until 8... we almost made it. I think my head hit the pillow at 7:45 and I don't remember much after that!

This morning I got up at 9 and I'm still feeling groggy and ready for more sleep. I think my poor body was more tired out by vacation than refreshed, but my soul feels much better for being home.

We had a most wonderful time with our families. Both times when we left I felt like we had just arrived. I'll try to recap the visits a bit, but really we didn't do anything extraordinary. It was really a lot of relaxing and quality time.

Ramquists
We arrived into Wisconsin and got the grand tour of the new Ramquist Ranch. It is a superb house in a great location, despite the fact that the drive to the nearest (good) grocery store is about 40 minutes away! We did a lot of reading, unpacking, shopping, and good eating during the week. It rained a lot, so we only got to spend a few hours out on the boat but they were good hours. The only scary part of the visit was our trip near the sucking dam. You really can never be to careful around a dam that sucks.

Chicago
We left on Friday to travel to Chicago. First we made a stop at Nate's Grandpa Bieber's place. We had a nice chat with him before heading into downtown Chi-town. That evening we ate Korean food with my dear friend Aimee and her husband Jacob. Saturday was the wedding of Mark and Nicole, and Sunday was a short but fun pizza date with Nate's brother Jeff and girlfriend Ebony.

Beutels
Nate worked most of this week in southern Illinois while I ran around Tre-town with my Mom and Katy. We did some shopping, tea-rooming, coffee-housing (Sheila's favorite haunt), swimming, visiting old friends and relatives, meeting my new fabulous nephew, churassco!, and I even got a chance to check out the new and improved AC church. One of the highlights of the trip was our Triathlon experience. I was so proud of my Mom, Dad, brothers, and Uncle who did the team-Triathlons. But especially proud of my awesome husband who did the entire mini-Tri himself.

So here I am now, back at my computer typing away and trying to get up the energy to start another chapter in life. I don't know when my next trip to the U.S. will be, so it's time to dive back into Stuttgart. This morning I awoke to a thunderstorm, but now the sun has come up and sky is blue. A beautiful sunny Stuttgart is just what I need.

[ In completely other news, my friend Jess has started her own online greeting card business. She makes all of these cards by hand and they are so cute. Check her out at: Stinking Cute ]