Hasta luego USA...

Time to get caught up.

Zoe with some of our stuff.

Well we've arrived and mobilizing the whole family was no small feat. The past few months were some of the most frustrating and stressful yet oddly exciting times that our little family has experienced. The fact that we all survived relatively unscathed is testament to the fact that we have an amazing support system of friends and family. I think everyone in our life played at least a small part in either keeping us sane or helping us with the heavy lifting (sometimes literally).

One of the bigger frustrations over the past few months was the condo. Despite our best efforts, as of our departure on September 8th, the place still hadn't sold and we hadn't found a tenant. The fate of 1300 Taylor Street #4 is now in the hands of the property manager. Hopefully they'll rent that puppy soon.

The other major downer was that we couldn't get Tootsie on our flights. It was a last minute scramble and we almost pulled it off. If we had TWO more days to play with we could have gotten her international health certificate endorsed by the USDA and her rabies vaccine would have been within the right timeframe and it would have been a go. We're now looking into flying her over solo and if that doesn't work she'll come back with Mike in December when he goes to DC for a training. We will get her here so we can continue to call this blog Travel Dog without too much guilt.

Our empty condo after pack-out.

One of the more exciting things was living through our first USG pack-out. It was like a SWAT team of master wrappers descended on us. Four guys showed up, spread out and started packing anything and everything they saw so fast that at this point I wouldn't be surprised if we find a used kitchen sponge packed in one of the boxes. The most stressful part of that day was when Mike's wallet went missing about 2 hours into the pack-out. At one point we were all just staring at each other contemplating the prospect of having to unpack each box to find his wallet. Thankfully upon one last check in the car, we found it under the front seat, PHEW!

Rosie, Chris, Brett, Jamie, Anna and Erin visiting us on the roof.

After the condo was emptied, we moved into a sweet pad at the Newseum Residences downtown. It was a great place for us to spend the last week or so of our time in DC. I highly recommend it to anybody else in temporary housing with the USG in DC because they will give you the government hotel rate for a 2 bedroom apt with a full kitchen. The building also had a decent gym (completely unused by us) and a great roof deck (definitely underutilized by us).

Grillmaster Grimland.

During our last week or so in town we tried to pack in as much time with friends as possible. I had a happy hour with Chemonics and USFS/IP colleagues at the 18th Street Lounge, we did a kiddie happy hour at The Reef with friends, and then Brian and Sara (Mike's Peace Corps friends) hosted an amazing farewell BBQ for us. They went completely overboard as is customary when Sara hosts anything. I think it was the first BBQ I had ever been to with Kobe beef on the grill. It was a total blast and a great send-off.

Grammy Jo and Pop at Dulles.

After the BBQ we pretty much packed up and headed to the airport. We were in for a bit of a surprise when the car to take us to the airport arrived. Despite telling the company that we needed the biggest vehicle they had, they sent a Town Car.  Um, 2 adults, 2 kids, 5 giant suitcases, 2 carseats and a pack and play ain't gonna fit in a Town Car. Luckily, the Manellas had planned to come to the airport to help with the kids and had plenty of room in their car for our bags. We were so glad they were there to help with the kids at the airport while Mike was at the ticket counter for at least 30 minutes getting Zoe and Zack's tickets re-issued. Always fun when you get to the ticket counter and your kids don't have tickets! There's really nothing to say about the flights because the kids were AWESOME!!! They both went to sleep after dinner and slept almost the whole way.

Settling in for the 9.5 hour flight from Dulles to Vienna.

Next post will be about us getting settled in. Hopefully I can stay on top of things better to keep these short and sweet.


Special shout outs:
The Delfs Family - For storing a whole bunch of our stuff in their basement for months as we pretended for prospective condo buyers that even though we were a family of four with a 72 lb dog in a 2 bedroom condo that we had no clutter.
Grammy Jo and Pop Manella - For all of their back and forth to DC to help babysit, transporting stuff from their basement back to us before we left, and also fostering Tootsie for a few weeks while we were showing the condo.
Grammy and Pop Stelling - For all of their back and forth to DC to help babysit and for providing Tootsie with a temporary home until we can finally get her over here!
Sara and Brian - For hosting an incredible going away BBQ, although this party also resulted in one ridiculously hungover husband... Thankfully none of those late night photos have surfaced.
Carlos and Heather - For being our sounding board about everything related to foreign service life with kids.

Zack reading the safety instructions for the Vienna - Pristina leg.

Travel Dog Lives!!!

For those of you hoping to follow our move and new life in Kosovo in excruciating detail...you're in luck, we've brought the blog back to life. Well, for the next little bit let's just consider it on life support as things are a bit crazy around here. There will be some inevitable overlap between this and our facebook posts, but we'll try to breathe a bit more life into things on the blog. Plus, we've got some dear friends and family that aren't facebook'ers so this will satisfy their curiosity.

Just as a quick update on the major goings-on since our last post...
*Babies: We had 2 of them. Mandy and Brian had another baby (Logan). Janel and Matthew had James. Chris and Rosie had Nate. Jennie and Gene had Julie. Brandon and Elizabeth had Blaise. There were a lot of babies, so apologies if I left yours out!!! That was just right off the top of my head and I'm sure yours is the cutest.
*Weddings: Geoff and Stacy; Andy and Brittany
*Jobs: Mike took a job as a Foreign Service Officer with USAID, hence the upcoming 2 years in K'vo. (Yep, that's how I have decided to shorten Kosovo to make it seem more interesting for potential visitors. Is it working?)
I changed jobs and then pseudo-retired to get ready for K'vo (is it growing on you yet?)

A bunch of other great stuff happened, but after the two kids, who can remember any of it...

We'll be focusing in on last minute shopping and pack out until we move into our temporary housing on 8/30. After that I'll just be chilling downtown at the Newseum Residences trying to stay busy with the kids until we take off on September 8th.

Meanwhile in DC...

Between all of the holiday celebrations we did manage to enjoy some fun around our neck of the woods as well (no pun intended, read on).

At the beginning of December we hit another one of the PATC cabins with Chris and Rosie for a much needed weekend in the woods. We got a nice dusting of snow when we were up there and had a great relaxing time. Only real noise was the not so far off ring of shotguns in the distance...ahh country life. I made out okay for a pregnant lady in the woods, but I must say the constant pee-ing when an outhouse is involved is less than ideal. Mike and Chris may have come close to perfecting the Hot Toddy. Well even if they didn't after sampling so many, they wouldn't have known the difference.

We also made it over to Brian's place for some holiday revelry that included fireman's carries and barefoot races in the parking lot. The video can only truly be appreciated by those in attendance. In the end I can't even remember who won and the video doesn't actually show the finish...I'm sure Brandon and Owen remember.

A few days before Christmas we finally decided it was time to make our own home a bit more festive for the holidays. We pulled out all 10 or so ornaments we had, bought some extra lights and candy canes and decorated what is actually our first Manella Christmas tree. As we've always been traveling for the holidays, we never really saw the point. Thankfully this year, Aunt Barbara gave us a few cool ornaments for Christmas so I think we're up to 15 for next year. Also for those of you with a keen eye for detail, yes that is one of Clay's prints next to the tree and yes those are the starfish caketoppers from our wedding. So as they would remain a family heirloom, Aud turned them into ornaments, clever devil that woman.

Our other holiday project was our little gingerbread house kit. We're not ready to take on my mom's level of gingerbread house/lighthouse/birdhouse production, so we'll stick to these types of things for now....

Yes we are in our pajamas and yes we are quite proud of ourselves.

We picked up a few more decorations after the holidays so that next year for Baby Girl Manella's first Christmas our place will look more like a legitimate place to celebrate a family Christmas.

The Holiday Chronicles starring I-95

As is standard for plenty of married couples with families all over the eastern seaboard, Mike and I spent a good amount of time over the holidays with Tootsie on I-95. All told, Thanksgiving travel was a bit more painful than the Jersey jaunt for Christmas, but despite the traffic and tolls, we had a great time with the family!!

Our first trip was down to Surfside Beach, South Carolina for a wonderful Manella/Black/Mackenzie/Magidson Thanksgiving celebration. Unfortunately, we didn't snap many photos... We did get a few good ones of brotherly love/flexing, the chow line, Tami and Ian sharing some QT, and the famous family game of Risk (Ian took home the trophy).

As if the great Thanksgiving celebration wasn't enough, the ladies threw me what would be the first of many baby showers.

For Christmas it was up to NJ to celebrate with the Stelling/Lettieri clan.

Day after Christmas we hit the city with a bazillion other people to take in the sites. As is common with a pregnant woman, we ended up spending most of our time eating. First we hit Lombardi's in Little Italy for some awesome pizza. Tip - Don't order the breadsticks they're so-so and will totally fill you up. SAVE ROOM FOR THE PIZZA! Then we met up with Laura and Jess in Gramercy Park at Novita. I can't believe we didn't take any pictures there.

Before heading home, we had time for a Buddy Breakfast at the Donovan's. Of course breakfast sandwiches from the Sea Breeze Deli were on the menu. Unfortunately, only Maeve was allowed in the stim tank...

After all this traveling and family time with Gravy, Amber, and Indy - Tootsie was exhausted and so were we.

Paintball, Newborns, and Dog Walks

Last weekend Meri headed home to Jersey and Mike headed out to PA for some paintball action.

The annual paintball trip seems to be gaining popularity every year and is finally getting closer to achieving some gender balance.

This year there was also more of a family touch as Matthew made the trip out with Janel's brothers. Nothing like familial bonding over paintball welts.

While Mike and friends were paintballing each other, Meri was up in Jersey making sure her gimp of a sister was taking it easy after knee surgery and visiting w/ Hud and her new baby Maeve. Meri's attempt to keep Mandy on the couch was an abysmal failure, that woman doesn't know how to sit still.

So instead of vegging on the couch Many hobbled along to go visit the newest addition to the buddy clan, Maeve Colleen Donovan. Maeve was born on Election Day so we caught her in all of her cheeky glory on Day #4. Mom, Dad, Maeve, Moe and Lili are all doing great.

In a shocking departure from her type-A addiction to work, Meri decided to take a day off and spent Monday relaxing at Mom and Dad's house with Bodhi, Indy, and Tootsie. The Stelling/Lettieri/Manella crew made quite a stir in the WB by taking a 3 person, 1 toddler, 2 dog walk around the neighborhood. Good times.

The Past 4 Months or So...

Yeah, yeah, we know we haven't updated the blog since July. Now in a bold attempt we'll try and get everyone caught up on everything that has happened since our last post.

Teddy Olsen was born.

Meri turned 31.

Bodhi turned two.

We finally started telling people that we're pregnant.

Mike turned 33.

We went to San Diego for vacay.

Hud and Maeve had a shower.

Stelltoid went to see NKOTB in AC w/ Hud, Abbey, and F'n Newbs.

Norm turned 40.

We celebrated Janel's 30th.

We got all dressed up for the Lone Sailor Awards with Brandon and Elizabeth. (Note baby bump making a black tie appearance.)

We found out it's a girl!!!

Meri headed to the OBX for a mini-vacay with the Stelling/Lettieri clan.

Chris and Rosie got married.

We celebrated our first anniversary.

We ate Nepali food to send Annie, Ben, and Maxine off to Ethiopia.

See, really not that much has happened since we last reported. We'll try to do better.

Reunited and it feels so good!

In early July we were lucky enough to have some great friends come into town.

Over 4th of July weekend, Paul and Sergio stopped in for some rainy BBQ and Rock Band action before they headed off to New York. Unfortunately, our camera hadn't arrived yet so there are no pictures from that weekend, boo.

The week after, Amanda and Tyler were back on the East Coast just for a few days from Seattle for a friend's wedding. We caught up with them for happy hour at The Big Hunt.

As luck would have it our old neighbors from Oaxaca (Ben, Nohemi, and their daughter Emilia, who are now back in Michigan) were also in town. Ben also met us out for a few drinks. Mom and baby stayed home, not sure why...the Big Hunt is a family place, isn't it?

By the end of the night our table was a great mix of grad school, Peace Corps, old roomies, and Oaxaca friends. Good times.

Before the Smith's headed back to Michigan, we were able to steal the whole family for a few more hours for a lovely brunch at Nathan's in G'town. BTW, great brunch for a reasonable price there. Gotta love the little basket of mixed muffins.

We were amazed at how much Emilia had grown since we had last seen her in April. Newest trick in her repertoire is the old stick the tongue out and blow to make farting noises trick. I'm pretty sure Ben taught her that and not Nohemi!

Even though we didn't get to spend nearly as much time with everybody as we would have liked it was still great.

Here's to more visitors!!!!