not the funniest trip log ever...maybe that's a good thing?

this trip was relatively uneventful compared to the last. we started off at the airport...all 19 of us. yes, 19. 2 of dd1's friends showed up & they were being teenage girls & some of the other passengers were staring at them like "dear God, please don't let those children be on our flight. please!" there were no SNAFU's at checkin (unlike last time) probably b/c 1-we didn't have a dog & 2-baby had a paper ticket this time! no SNAFU's at security either although there were a lot of tears. and they didn't have to call our name over the loudspeaker to make us get on the plane. we were on time, hassle-free & paying attention!

trip to atlanta took less than an hour. i think we all fell asleep. i was stuck in the hell between not enough sleep & too much to not affect me sleep. ugh. i usually only get about 2 hours before a trip like this. this time i got about 4 1/2. i learned my lesson. i'll just take a short nap next time.

atlanta was easy. our gate was where it was supposed to be. although we were dismayed to learn that since all our miles went to delta for the 1st trip, we couldn't upgrade on korean air. thanks for telling us! and there were quite a few babies so we couldn't get bassinet seating which meant no bulkhead seating. which meant all 5 of us were confined to a regular row of seats. no sleeping on the floor this flight!

the 1st issue arose 30 minutes into the flight. dh's tv broke. not sure what happened to it-just quit working. dh & dd1 were playing a game & they shut the thing off to takeoff & it wouldn't go back on. they tried to fix it but no such luck. so we traded seats a couple times so he could watch my tv.

2nd issue arose at dinner (lunch? breakfast? no clue what meal that was). apparently someone got confused about our special meal needs & assigned gluten free for all 4 of us. not that big a deal. except when the special meal is FISH. i don't/can't eat fish either. it's not an allergy. it's an issue with getting it down. i'm the queen of food phobias & the smell & taste of fish do me in. i was having issues smelling it while my family was eating it. bluch. so for brunner, i had 3 pieces of honeydew melon, 2 pieces of pineapple & a stale plastic tasting rice cake. yum, yummy, yum. i was quite discouraged. so i ate most of a bag of trail mix i brought along. what a piggy.

along came issue # 3 with the next meal. i pulled off the foil to find...you guessed it...FISH AGAIN! agh! between the 2 meals i ate the ham off a sandwich that was our snack, a package of peanuts & some more trail mix. sheesh. it seemed to be the exact same meal as earlier but maybe the fish was cooked differently? dh very nicely asked the flight attendant if maybe i could trade for a regular meal. we had to wait for them to finish serving all the normal, non-problematic people to see if there were extras. and there was! so i had some rubbery chicken (probably cause it had been heated like 2 hours before since i had to wait until last), corn, rice & peas. oh and potato salad. it was the best food ever. unless you count the hospital food i ate after delivering dd1. yeah, it would be a close competition between the 2.

there was a guy across the aisle from us who drank the whole first half of the flight. he was pounding budweisers left & right. guessing that was his first international flight. it's ok to have a drink or two. but you get so dang dehydrated up there just flying that you don't want to do anything to make it worse. he passed out before the 1st meal-much to the dismay of the korean lady trapped in the window seat. she was already apparently ill from the smell of all the budweiser (i can't stand the smell of beer either) & now she's trapped in the corner of her seat b/c he is passed out halfway into hers. she looked relieved when they woke sleeping beauty up to eat & she got her seat back. and you know when you drink, you have to pee alot. seems like everytime i turned around he was bugging the guy in the aisle seat to get up so he could go. i think i would have just told him to take the aisle seat in hopes that when he passed back out again, he would fall in the floor & quit invading my space! after he ate, he did pass back out again & the poor korean lady was pressed up against the wall again. at least she was a little korean lady so she could scoot away from drunk drooly guy.

the guy behind us was snoring so loud. snoring makes me crazy-ask poor dh. he makes the littlest snore & gets an elbow in the side. example: i went on a disney trip with my family years ago & we stayed in one room. i slept in the bathroom b/c my dad wouldn't stop snoring. it's just occurred to me that i sleep in some strange places. anyway, it was so loud that my headphones weren't helping drown it out. i was contemplating going to the bathroom & "tripping" over his foot so he'd stop. or maybe accidentally pushing me seat back really fast to squish his legs. i controlled myself though. barely. and on second thought, some of the snoring may have been coming from drunk drooly guy. wherever it was coming from-it was making me nuts.

i spent a good portion of the flight walking around with auri. she likes to scream on airplanes, apparently. loudly. and continuously. so up & down & up & down the aisles we went. i talked dh into taking her on a walk one time hoping i could read some of the jenny mccarthy autism book i had bought for the trip. he made one round & was back-i didn't even get to read 2 pages! and i'm a pretty fast reader! sigh. we had a coloring book, a mini magna doodle, a pooh bear, a tv with giraffes on it, a baby doll, assorted vehicles & boobs. they all held her attention for a .2 seconds & it was off to screaming again. she finally fell asleep for the last 3 hours or so. and slept in my lap this time so we didn't have to hunt down a handy patch of floor. i'm glad she wasn't the only screamer on there so i didn't feel too bad. apparently she is used to round eyes now b/c she wouldn't talk to any of the asian flight attendants that kept trying to play with/talk to her. wasn't having it. great. she'll have to get over that pretty soon i'm thinking.

airport was almost a breeze. apparently our visas weirded them out b/c they are set to expire in september & i put that our visit was for 365 days. yippee for language barriers. they finally let us all through after dh explained that auri doesn't have any other form of id b/c she is too little. we found all our luggage in record time & breezed through customs (mainly b/c we weren't bringing in any cows or fire arms). we located the money exchange & bus ticket kiosk. managed to get all 7 bags & 1 car seat & 1 stroller under the bus when it finally arrived. auri & i slept most of the 2 hour trip. our friends came to pick us up at the bus station & home we came. it was nice to walk into a clean house. it was weird b/c it smelled the way i remember it smelling when i got here last year. dh went & picked up the dog. i went to bed somewhere around 11 i think. auri got up & moving at 4:15 this morning & i have been up ever since. she went back down for a nap b/c she had a really bad case of the screamies.

dh has gone off for work. the big kids just got up so i'm going to make a grocery list since i have to buy the whole store since i was gone for a month. great.... today will be a busy one. please send non screamy baby vibes. i don't think i can handle any more of that today.