Born in the USA

 

A throwback from Nick and Jen's wedding almost exactly a year ago.  Uncle Frank and I make the best dance partners.  

I believe word has spread that we're back in our homeland now.  If you are surprised by that statement, then it must be because you don't keep up your correspondence with me, and, frankly, you should be ashamed of yourself.

After three weeks total in Finland, and only about 5 actual working days, Matt "finnished" (I know it's dumb.  I can't stop.) the job on Friday and we packed up that night and flew out on Saturday morning.  Nothing is ever as easy as that, of course, but mostly it went smoothly (I had a minor snag with my tickets because apparently people in Europe don't work on anything until around 8 am... not a problem unless your flight leaves then, in which case your tickets probably didn't get updated and you will have to work with the Air Finland lady who will kindly call Germany FOUR times to get you on the right flight.  Thanks, Air Finland.  I am forever in your debt.).  After a pretty dramatic upgrade and seat switching hassle, Matt and I both ended up together in business class, sitting next to two people from (wait for it).... Benton, Arkansas!  I know, right?  Thank the sweet red Razorbacks for making so many ridiculously loud Arkansas shirts or we never would have known.  I'm going to start wearing my Arkansas shirts every time we fly.  I get so excited to meet Arkansans even in Chicago, much less in the airport in Frankfurt, Germany.  Go Hogs!

 

MO family... and Grammie.  Don't mind my armpit sweat.  It's pretty much a constant with me. 

Anyway, we got to the usa (did I mention I'm calling it that now?) Saturday night and headed out to surprise Matt's family (I guess they're my family too, now... from here on they will be known as the Missouri family... even though they're not all from MO.  I'll stick with that until I can come up with something better) in Missouri, without anyone knowing of our intentions. Yes, we are THAT clever.  So clever, in fact, that because no one knew we were coming, no one was home when we showed up at noon to surprise them.  We had to break in to the house and wait around for about an hour until they showed up.  They were sufficiently surprised which made us feel pretty good about our devious plotting.  I'm glad it paid off... maybe now they'll get over that little April Fool's incident?  Even though we missed the graduation... and the party... and the champagne brunch for Laura's 21st birthday, we still had a great three days hanging out.  We got to see Geoff's last baseball game of his high school career, and even though they lost, he was easily the star of the game with two home runs AND two RBIs.  Also, I got a nice little farmer's tan, which is always impressive.  Also, I got to take lots of pictures, which as you are all aware is my main source of entertainment in any situation.  I even got to play professional photographer and took some pictures of Little Geoff with all his cool high school gear.  I'm going to doctor them up on photoshop and "make them look real sharp" as Matt keeps saying.  Not knowing exactly when we're headed to India (or how long we'll be there.... forever), we are so happy we got such a fun visit in before we head back... not like those un-fun visits we usually have!  Only kidding, only kidding.

 

Laura, Geoff and Winston (the dog).  Aunt Bit is also under there, not that you can tell. Laura didn't want to participate in the picture taking, and this is the only one I got.  As her punishment, I'm posting it for the world to see... because you know my blog is world famous.  

Matt went into the office today for the first time in a couple months, and I'm hoping he'll get some tangible info from his managers about this upcoming job... ie it has been pushed back indefinitely and we are going somewhere else instead!  While that is an unbelievable stretch, a girl can dream, right?  I'll keep everyone posted as we get any news.  Probably I'll be heading alone to Arkansas around the end of May beginning of June as was the original plan.