By this time tomorrow, I'll be on my way to Frankfurt. With a name like Schultz, you'd think I'd have been to Germany but no such luck. This will be my first time there. Not that I'll get to go out and do anything. We'll be at the airport for 6 hours. Can you say, "Zzzzzz"? :) Hopefully, Dad and I will get some sleep on the plane.

I can't think of anything except what this trip will be like. How will my little girl react the first time she sees me? I'm guessing she'll be pretty scared and confused. Thank goodness for Goldfish (I bought the colored ones), Cheerios and Fruit Snacks! I'm sure by the time I get there the Goldfish and the Cheerios will be nothing but crushed powder and the fruit snacks will be little lumps of whatever they're made out of but she probably has no idea what Goldfish are supposed to look like or even who Elmo is.

I've got lots of toys for our two weeks together, too. Books, puzzles, flash cards, and a pillow that's supposed to be a cat (pronounced "koshka" in Russian) but to me it looks like a rat. Pointy nose, whiskers and all white. It's soft, though, and I hope it makes her think of Mommy when she takes it to bed at night.

I also got some travel "See 'N Says" they should be good for language skills. While looking for the Web site I found this on "How Stuff Works", just in case you were wondering.

And, the cutest toys at, of course, MacFrugal's. Of course, she's going to have to be a Disney fan like me, so I got a "Musical TV" and a kind of talking alphabet book that I can't find anywhere on the Internet. Go figure that. It's cool, though.

So, I think we'll be ready for the two week "bonding" period, then a week with Mommy and Grandpa, then home. I'm going to miss my cats. I hope Bert fares okay. I've got a call in to the vet, just in case.

Unless I get up really early tomorrow (because I can't sleep), you won't hear from me again here until I'm in Kazakhstan. We arrive around 11:00 pm their time on Wednesday night. I can't believe I'm almost there!


- posted by Jaime's Mommy @ 4:21 PM

 
Flight Confirmation. Checked in with the wonderful folks at United today and we're all confirmed. I just hope I don't get lost in O'Hare. That's such a big, winding airport with 5 terminals and more than one concourse per terminal. Whoever laid this thing out wasn't in their right minds.

Interestingly enough, it seems I fly Air Wisconsin from Austin, TX to Chicago. Who wants to bet me they serve cheese for the snack on the flight? And what, pray tell, is a Canadair jet? Puddle jumper or "real" jet? Mesaba (Northwest Airlink) has cute, little RJ85 jets. I booked a flight on them once, just to say I'd done it. Very nice and quite posh for a 69 passenger jet - they even have a first class section.

So, time to check out Canadair. A bit smaller than the RJ85 with only a 50 seat capacity but none of those 3 seat rows (which I hate because I always get stuck in the middle seat!) Low wing, engines on the tail, at least it should be fairly quiet. First time I hear the pilot say, "Uffda", though, I might get a little nervous :)

Oh, I have to make one more call to United, just to make sure we all get to sit together. Oops.

- posted by Jaime's Mommy @ 8:24 AM