The Past Two Weeks: A Recap

**Forgive me in advance, this post is going to be long.. It's going to be random, sporadic, and have lots of little tid bits of information.  It's the only way for me to catch up so I can ATTEMPT to keep up with what we're doing during our visit.***

Almost a week ago, Gavin, Miles, and I (along with our best friends, the Sperling's) boarded a plane and made our way to the USA. 

Before we left, I spent a few days cooking meals to freeze for Brooks to have some kind of home cooked meals while I'm gone.  Brooks had to work a straight week the week before so he took a day off before we left and we LOVED getting to spend the day with him.  We cooked our normal Sunday breakfast, just a few days late, went to the paint store and got paint to have our house painted while the boys and I are gone.  Brooks went and got a haircut, we went and ate lunch at our favorite Indian Restaurant, we all took long naps, then went for a family walk around the compound.  It was a nice and relaxing day. 

July 4th, I had a doctors appointment to check on Baby Perry 3.0 (that's this baby's nickname thanks to my sweet, spontaneous, and pretty hilarious friend Sarah Southard). Oh yea, have I even mentioned on the blog that I'm pregnant with #3?!?!? 
This was a total shock and not planned but we're pretty excited!  This baby is due February 5th, 2012.  The baby looked great.  My doctor had been watching two cysts that he found at my initial appointment a few weeks before this one, and we were surprised to learn that one of them had almost quadrupled in size.  I had a 7.3cm cyst (a little over 3 inches).  He gave us lots of information and ultimately told me to get it checked out as soon as I came to the states to check the size and then go from there.  After my appointment, we went and tried out a "Mexican Restaurant" that one of our drivers told us about.  We figured we could be the guinea pigs on it and be able to tell all our friends whether it was good or not.  I took a bunch of pictures, but they are on my Saudi phone and I can't access the pics right now for some reason.  Anyways, it was interesting to taste their version of queso and tortilla chips, not to mention that the outside of the restaurant had a sign that said Real Texan Food!  Haha.  Brooks ordered fajitas and I must say they were pretty good.  I enjoyed my burrito and enchilada and we finished our meal off with some sopapillas!  Yummy!!

Okay, so back to our trip to the USA.  The boys and I left late Wednesday night and got on a plane around 5am Thursday morning.  Brooks came with us to the airport and it was extremely sad having to tell him bye as well as watching him tell our little boys bye.  We did our best for days and weeks leading up to this trip to prepare Gavin that daddy was NOT getting on the plane with us and that he was staying home to work, but all that went out the window as soon as we walked away from Brooks to go through customs and Gavin realized we went one direction and Daddy stayed back.  Oh, talk about break your heart.  I lost it in the airport watching and listening to Gavin wave and tell Brooks by through a window.  As we were getting our passports and visas stamped exiting the country, Gavin kept telling me, "I want Daddy. I want to go home.  I don't want to ride airplane" (which Gavin had been looking forward to for weeks).  It was heart breaking and I just couldn't hold myself together.  Not to mention, I wasn't really ready to leave Brooks either for almost 6 weeks.  Ugh-- tough one.  I'm learning this is  the life of being an expat. 

Our first flight was pretty short (like 45 minutes) so I considered it to be a piece of cake.  Stephanie sat next to me on both the flights and was a HUGE help!!  There's no way I could travel with my kids alone.  In between the flights, at the Doha International Airport in Qatar, we stopped at the Gold Business Lounge and ate a snack and just relaxed.  I took Gavin to play on the indoor playground to help him burn off some energy.  At this point, he had been awake from 1am to 9am.  We boarded our big flight and said a prayer that things would go smoothly. 

I think Gavin took an hour nap when we first took off, but after that, he stayed awake until the 11th hour--- shoot me!  He was VERY ancey, and kinda all over the place.  Miles did good for the most part, except when it came to falling asleep.  Usually, at home, when I realize he's tired, I give him his pacifier and lovey, lay him down and he's out... with out a peep.  On the plane, he cried and cried until he cried himself to sleep.  It was very uncharacteristic of him and I really felt bad for him.  It was almost like he just wanted to be left alone, but I couldn't put him in the bassinet until he was asleep because he didn't have much room to move around in it.  Steph helped with Miles quite a bit.  If one of us was changing him, the other was fixing the bottle.  If one of us fed him, the other burped him.  At one point, we laid him on the floor by our feet so he could have some tummy time.  He enjoyed that.  At about the 6th hour on the flight I started getting sick.  I've been extremely sick this pregnancy so being on a plane didn't make any difference.  It took me about 2 hours to get through it, but thankfully, I didn't need the little bags they put in front of your seats!  By the 11th hour and Gavin's attempt to watch 2 different movies, but never finishing them, playing with every toy we had, eaten probably 2 bags of cheetos and 4 packs of fruit snacks, and asked every stewardess for a cookie (which he didn't get after the 1st time) I couldn't take it anymore.  I forced him to lay on the ground, we made a pallet for him, and for an hour he fought me from taking a nap.  I persisted and helped encourage him as much as I could. He cried and cried for Brooks, which caused me to cry and cry (hey, I was emotional on top of pregnancy hormones).  Thankfully, Gavin finally fell asleep, Miles finally fell asleep (Steph had been working on him for a while, too, at this point), and I just sat in my chair and balled my eyes out.  I allowed myself a small meltdown, pulled myself together and then finished a movie I had started 4 hours earlier before falling asleep and taking a 2 hour nap myself.  It was much needed.  The last 2-3 hours of the flight were a breeze.  Every one woke up rested, happy, and ready to go!

My parents picked us up at the airport and it was just refreshing to get to hug them! Gavin was pretty excited to see them.  My parents couldn't believe how much Miles had grown in such a short time.  We went to Carabba's and ate before heading back to Lake Charles.  My brothers, sister in laws, and nieces and nephews came over for lunch the next day, which I got to enjoy a Darrell's sandwich... yummy!.  It was so good to see them.  I miss all of them so much. 

Jet lag has kicked our butts the past few days.  The first two nights we were home, I slept a total of 3 hours... it was pretty rough.  Gavin has been sleeping with me because Miles was waking up so much it was keeping Gavin up in addition to when Gavin was awake. They finally started sleeping through the night from 9pm to 6am, which I'm so thankful for.  We've been taking naps during the day, but to get our bodies on this schedule, we can't sleep for too long.

So far, I've gone shopping at Target, Walmart, and our local mall.  I've eaten at Chick Fil A and gotten a cherry limeade from Sonic.  I had pork ribs for dinner the other night, bacon for breakfast, and driven a car three days in a row!!  It's amazing the things we take for granted.  It rained the other day and Gavin asked me what that was on the windows.  He also got very concerned when he heard thunder and lightning.  He kept looking for the thunder and was very confused. 

We're very excited to be home in the states and are looking forward to visiting with family and friends.  We have a few small trips planned here and there so I'll do my best to keep everyone posted.  We miss Brooks a lot, and wish he was here.  Although, he has been busy with work to help keep his mind off us being gone. 

Until next time... take care.  Sorry for this being FOREVER long!!