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The first portion of this post was written on our way home from Germany and the latter part is more up-to-date.  :)

Hey folks-

Well, how about this for a story: I’m writing this post from aboard Air Force 2.  Well, actually it’s the plane that becomes Air Force 2 when Vice President Joe Biden is on board. Apparently, Hillary Clinton uses this plane a lot too.... and other heads of state from around the world.  One leader from the Middle East (can’t remember who) just used it to return to his country from the UN Summit after the Afghan ex-president was killed by a suicide bomber a few days ago.  That’s why the plane was across the pond.

So, I’m sitting in a big reclined seat, we got to go into the private room where the leaders hold meetings, and I got to sit up in the cockpit for about 20 minutes and see everything from the pilots’ perspective.  This is awesome!

So, you’re probably wondering how the hell we got this gig.  We arrived at Ramstein AFB yesterday afternoon to stay the night and catch a C17 back to McGuire AFB (where we are stationed) this morning.  We got to the terminal at 4:15 this morning only to find out that flight was canceled and the only other flight going to the states today was at 1:40 this afternoon.  So, we were definitely disappointed.  I told Christian that we should just go check back to the hotel and get some more sleep but he told me he didn’t want to leave the terminal “just in case something becomes available”.  Well, thank God we stuck around because about thirty minutes later, over the loud speaker, we heard an announcement for a flight leaving within the next two hours for Andrews AFB (about 2 hours from our house and right outside DC).  We were picked for the flight, checked in and got ready to board.  We then found out we would be flying on a C-32, and since none of us knew what kind of airplane that was, I Googled it and figured out we had just gotten a first class ticket on Air Force 2.  The area we’re sitting in is full of about 30 business/first class seats with leg extenders.  Then there’s  the private room that I mentioned and a conference room with two separate tables with big, cushy chairs around them. We get to walk all around the plane and the entire crew is dressed in suits, yet they are all active duty military.  It’s really a neat experience!  So, now, I’ll never want to fly a stupid commercial flight again!  haha  Oh, and Christian and I got to pick the in-flight movie.  haha  It’s just so neat b/c we will always remember this.  

Another thing that makes this flight really great is that Christian got to feel Max kick for the first time!  He was moving like crazy when we first took off so I told Christian to put his hand on my belly and he felt it.  So great!  :)

Oh yeah, we’ve also finalized his name.  It is Maximus Cullen Jenkins.  :)  Looks good, huh?  We’ve heard so much shit from people about the name Maximus but we both really love it.  Plus, it means “the greatest”.  Only the best for this kid.  

So, anyway, our trip to Germany was great!  We really didn’t do a whole lot of sight-seeing but we spent a lot of time with the family and ate some delicious food!  Christian’s grandmother cooks soooooo well!  Lunch is always the big meal over there so from about 10 a.m. until 1 p.m., she’s cooking.  And, seriously, it’s all so good.  Some of the stuff is super random for me as an American.  For instance, hamburger patties with onions and all kinds of stuff mixed in served with creamed spinach and scrambled eggs and then you mix it all together.  Random, right?  But, so yummy!  

The little bit of sight seeing we did was fun.  One day, we drove down the Rhine River to see the castles and we had lunch at the same restaurant where we got engaged two years ago!  It was great.  :)  Then, another day, we went to the International Auto Show in Frankfurt.  That was really neat.  We got to see all the new cars from around the world including Ferrari, Bugatti, Lamborghini, concept cars from Audi, BMW and Mercedes and all kinds of other really neat cars.  It took us about five hours to see the entire layout of the show.  We also went into Frankfurt a couple days just to look around at everything we’ve seen before and we did a little shopping.  But, everything is really expensive in Europe for us because the American dollar still isn’t very strong.  It’s getting a little better but it’s still pricey to buy anything over there.  I think it’s about 35-40% more expensive.  For instance, if I buy something for 100 euros, I’m really spending about $135.  So, that stinks.  

All in all, we had a great time and we love Europe so much but I’m so ready to be back to the good ol’ US of A.  Since we’re flying into Andrews AFB, we’ll have to rent a car to get back home this afternoon.  We’re supposed to be going out to Western Maryland to see Christian’s dad this weekend so I’m not sure if we’ll leave later this afternoon or if we’ll wait until the morning.  I swear, the traveling never stops with us.  

So, anyway, I hope all of you have had a great past couple weeks.  The weather is starting to cool off everywhere and we’re getting into Fall up in Jersey!  

I’ll talk to you guys soon!

xoxo, 

Chrissi  

I'll finish up that previously written portion with a little more info about the flight we were on!  Towards the end of the flight, the flight crew allowed two people to sit up in the cock-pit for landing and Christian and another guy were chosen.  So, since Christian does that for a living, he told me to go so I got to sit in the cockpit for the landing of our flight.  It was a really neat experience!

Anyway, we did end up going to Maryland this weekend and now we're finally home.  I am SO DANG happy to be home for a while.  We're home for about two weeks then we head to New Hampshire for the weekend!  I can't wait for that.  We're going to the same party (clambake) we've been going to for the past three years and we're staying in a different B&B this time.  I'm really pumped!  A lot of our friends will be there and it's always a BLAST of a party!

So, that pretty much sums up everything going on on this end.  I hope all of you had a great weekend!

xoxo, 

Chrissi

Frogs and Snails & Puppy Dog Tails!

We're having a baby BOY!!!!!!!!!!  Man, oh, man- I did NOT expect that!  I would have bet someone $100 that we were having a girl.  I guess a woman's intuition isn't right all the time, after all.  Oh, but we are SO excited!  I can't wait to experience the relationship between mom and little boy.  All my friends say it's so special!  And, I'm so excited for Christian.  He wants a boy first so bad!

It wasn't super easy to get a glimpse of little man at first.  He was balled up (napping, I suppose), when we first tried to get a shot of him.  So, I had to drink some juice, jump around a little and tap on my tummy to get him to wake up and move to a better position.  So, we finally got a good view and when the ultrasound tech asked us if we could tell what we were looking at, Christian said "I know it's gotta be ovaries"  haha.  But, the ultrasound tech then started pointing out a leg and then I yelled "and there's a penis!!!!"  hahahaha.  And, yes, there it was, for the world to see!  haha  Christian and I grabbed hands and held tight b/c we were both so excited!

We went to a great facility called Fetal Vision Imaging over in Langhorne, PA and the owner did our ultrasound.  It was actually a guy who decided to open this business after years as a financial advisor in corporate America.  He was super nice.  He gave us a couple of 3D images too so we could see what our baby boy's body looks like.  He had his hands in front of this face so we didn't see his face this time.  We also got a DVD of the whole ultrasound!  I've already watched it and we got home less than an hour ago.  haha

Well, I'm going to keep this post short but I just wanted to explain a little about what we got to experience today!  So, soon, we'll be welcoming Maximus (middle name still to be determined) into the world!

xoxo,

Chrissi

Happy Tuesday!!!

Christian comes home today!!!!  I'm sooooo excited!  He's been gone six weeks and that has been long enough!  I'm hoping this rain doesn't delay his flight any.  He should be in the states in about an hour and a half and then flies into Philly this afternoon.  :)

So, the house is clean, yard is cut and groceries are bought.  I'm so ready to have him around again.  These six weeks haven't been too bad, though.  We've had worse trips, for sure.  This trip was better because we had great communication the whole time.  He was able to call every day and had decent internet connection.  The last long trip he went on was rough b/c the internet signal was awful and we weren't able to talk all the time.  But, I know I still have it easier than a lot of wives who only get to talk to their husbands (maybe) once a week while they're on deployment.  So, I'm certainly blessed and thankful right now.

I hope all of you faired well with TS Lee.  I read a lot of statuses on Facebook that said some of the winds were pretty strong and I also saw several pictures of the beaches down there.  It looks like we're going to be getting the rains from Lee later this week.  We certainly don't need any more rain after all flooding caused by Hurricane Irene.  Luckily there was no rain immediately around us but further north in the state, it's pretty bad!

Well, I went ahead and bit the bullet and scheduled an ultrasound for this Thursday to find out the sex of our little baby!  It's at 3 p.m. Thursday so I'll let all of you know when we find out!

Then, we leave Monday or Tuesday to head to Germany!  I'm excited to get over there!  We're not sure which day we're flying out yet since we're taking a military flight and you never can tell how that's going to work out.  But, we'll fly into Ramstein AFB and rent a car to head up to Frankfurt where Christian's grandparents, aunts and uncles live.  I went ahead and got a baby passport from my doctor with all of my vital info on it just in case something were to go wrong.  Plus, I talked to Christian's aunt who is calling a hospital over there to make sure they would take me just in case something goes wrong.  COVERING ALL BASES! She said the US military has contracts with most hospitals over there so everything should be pretty easy.  Plus, most docs speak fluent english, thank goodness!!  So, good deal.

We'll be gone for about 10 days and Christian and I are hoping to do some other traveling while we're there.  Little day trips and stuff.  We talked about going back to the restaurant where we got engaged.  It was along the Rhine River after we took the castle cruise.  But, this time, we're going to drive along the river and maybe stop to actually walk through some of the castles.  Should be fun!  We also tossed around the idea of going to Paris for a day since it's only about three hours away by fast train.  Who knows if that will happen, though.  I'm not holding my breath on that.  haha  But, I'm very happy that we will have a rental car this time.  Usually when we're in Frankfurt, we just walk everywhere.  But, the walking everywhere usually consists of walking about seven miles a day!  So, this pregnant girl can't guarantee that I'll be able to do that everyday this time.

But anyway, that's about all I have for right now.  I hope you all enjoy your week!

xoxo-

Chrissi