Train Trip

As many of you know, we took the train from Marshall, TX to Rochester, NY with a layover in Chicago for our holiday trip.

Overall, the trip was good. There are definite pros and cons when it comes to train travel vs plane travel. Plane travel is quicker for sure but also more restrictive. You have to go through security, pack a certain way (ie. no liquids in your carry-on) and then you are stuck in a tiny space, completely at the mercy of the flight crew. You have to wait for the flight attendants to bring you something to drink, you are lucky if you get anything at all to eat and can only use the bathroom at certain times during the flight. Plus, everyone starts to get suspicious if you just want to get up and stretch your legs a bit.

The train is better from this perspective because you can move around and you have more space, you can get something to eat pretty much anytime during your waking hours and you can get water any time you want it (at least in the sleeper car). Plus you can bring onto the train your own food and drinks (including alcohol) to consume at your convenience. You can use the bathroom whenever you want to even when the train is stopped at a station. All this and no security at all.

It took approx 43 hours from the time we left our house until the time we arrived in Rochester. Yep, it was a long trip and I had troubles getting a decent sleep but we got to have some much needed family time just to hang out together.

I posted pics on facebook as we went along so some of these photos may look familiar. There are more pics on my facebook page of the interior of the train and our sleeping accommodations.

Here is a quick synopsis of our trip:

The name of our train. This cool poster was hung in the dining car.

The kids in the lounge car. There were 6 tables at one end then the remainder of the car had seats that were turned towards the windows. Every spot was first come, first served. Roughly mid-car was a set of stairs that took you down to the cafe. It was open for the majority of the waking hours and sold various snacks, drinks, sandwiches, salads, etc. The dining car had limited seating hours and a limited menu but it was fine for us. Meals were included in the price of the sleeper car.
M listening to her iPod and watching the world go by. I love this pic of her.

We woke up the second day in St Louis. It was 15 degrees outside as O is demonstrating here. Our sleeping car windows are behind him.

C also taking the above pic of O.

The kids and I standing in the doorway of the train.
Pulling out of St Louis we saw almost 360 degrees of the Arch! It was pretty at night (on our return trip) but we couldn't take good pics of it then.
While on a 7 hour layover in Chicago, we walked the 1.5 blocks to Sear's Tower (now named Willis Tower). Those are my feet as I look through the glass floor down to the ground that is 103 stories below! Then the whole family standing in the glass box that extends off the side of the building. That excursion and having some Chicago deep dish pizza at a nice little restaurant another block further took up nearly all of our time in Chicago.
The second half of our trip was spent in coach class (not a sleeper car). Most of the trip was overnight and, while the sleeper was much more comfortable and private, this part of the trip wasn't horrible at all. We were in the same car with people getting off the train either in Buffalo or Rochester so there was not a lot of activity overnight while we were sleeping. The lights were kept low and we had planned ahead with blankets to remain a comfortable temperature.

The return trip for the same leg in coach class was not horrible but less pleasant. When we left Chicago, the train was clean and fresh and we got off roughly 1/3 of the way on its trip to NYCity/Boston. The return trip had us waiting for 90 minutes (train was late due to weather) at midnight and getting on a much less "fresh" train since it was already 2/3 of the way into its trip from NYCity to Chicago. Again, not horrible but not near as pleasant. The thing about coach is you can't control the lighting or the temperature and there are always people walking by going to the cafe/dining car, the bathroom and getting on and off the train looking for seats. I think I slept for about 2 hours total. UGH.

Our Chicago layover was shorter this time plus we arrived an hour late so we just ate at the food court for lunch and were back on the train in the sleeping car for our final leg of the trip. If you look at the pic of O above, you'll see that the sleeping car has an upper level. We had sleeping accommodations in the upper level on our return trip. The upper level sways more and seems like a rougher ride compared to the lower level. Something to note for future trips. Amtrack trains are not the smooth, sleek trains we've experienced in Europe with fast rails and on time arrivals/departures. These are passenger trains sharing the rails with freight trains which have priority. Numerous times we had to stop and allow a freight train to pass from the other direction. Not the end of the world but so much different than passenger trains in Europe.

The kids LOVED traveling by train and it allowed us some great family time. While I was a bit grouchy (ok, maybe a lot grouchy!) from lack of sleep, it was a fun way to travel. We now have another travel option!

Tracking Santa

http://www.noradsanta.org/en/index.html

Giving

I heard about this charity years ago and thought it was the greatest idea: people request financial help for things they need (eyeglasses, rent money, doctor bills etc.) and other people contribute what they can to help pay for those things. When tracking those who had received from the charity, it was discovered that at least 68% of those who had received donation grants turned around and donated back to the charity.

Anyway, check out the story about them on cnn.com.

We are still alive and well on this last day of 2008

Whew! The past 2 weeks have been a blur. Between finals and holiday parties/gatherings, shopping for gifts, preparing to travel...well, it has just been overwhelming. To say the least. Let me see if I can summarize it all without writing a novel!

Finals: I can only blame myself if I fail to pass those. I studied. I studied hard. But, not LONG enough. I took a class years and years ago when I was a freshman in college on study skills. I KNOW what I need to do for long-term retention and understanding of any class content. I have been able to squeak by without doing that though through all of my adult education. As a result, I have decent grades but no real retention of the subject matter I've covered. If I've used the information then I remember it. If I haven't used it, then it is pretty much gone from my brain.

Anyway, with that said, I feel pretty confident that I did well on my Acu 2 final. Herb 2 and Physiology.......I'm hoping for a miracle. I need at least a C to pass and not have to take the classes over again. Of course I'm hoping for that but at the same time, I'm wondering if having to spend the money again to repeat a class will encourage me to make better use of my study time. I will need that skill as I get to the more advanced classes. Something to work on for next semester I guess.

Christmas: We shopped and planned everything down to the minute to fit it all in to the time we had. We traveled on Christmas Day so we opted to open our gifts from my family and from us on Christmas Eve. That worked out well. Christmas morning the kids slept in and barely had time to see what Santa had brought them before we were running out the door to the airport. It was chaotic, frustrating and exhausting but we made it through all of our flights without incident and landed safely in Rochester around 9:20 in the evening. It wasn't snowing at the time but there was lots of snow on the ground and the kids could hardly wait to play in it.

We were big slugs for the first 2 days. C's dad, TM, had been very sick with upper respiratory issues. His mom, KM, had been fighting her own bug but took such good care of us those first few days as we were so wiped out. We slept and ate, and ate, and ate some more then took naps. It was much needed rest and relaxation for all of us. However, now we have all strongly returned to our night owl ways. We are rarely in bed before midnight and it is often an argument to get the kids to go to bed even then. Then we sleep most of the morning away often getting up no earlier than 10am. It doesn't bother me as much as it bothers C. We had a big discussion about it the other night. He kept saying that it isn't normal for kids to stay up as late as our kids do. I say they are just doing what their bodies naturally want to do. They are getting enough sleep just at a different time of the day. If we were to homeschool the kids (which would definitely push me over the edge!) I would keep the same schedule because it just suits us. Yes, when we get up earlier we get more done, I agree. But when we sleep when we are tired and wake when we are not, we are all much happier people. It is difficult finding a happy medium between the two.

Anyway, just know that we are for sure getting our R&R covered while we are at T&KM's. I've seemingly fought off a cold virus and C seems to be doing the same. TM is doing much better but still has the cough that keeps him from sleeping well. KM seems to be losing her fight with the bug as I found her this morning sitting in the recliner to sleep. You know how it is when you are coughing and congested and it is so much easier to sleep sitting up. The kids have been totally unscathed by the cold virus. Amazing. We have all also avoided some rampant strain of pink eye that has been going around the area. Knock on wood we will continue to avoid that for the rest of our trip. Hopefully we can get back to Houston without bringing any bugs with us. Now THAT would be amazing.

So, we have taken full advantage of C's sister's in-laws when it comes to food. Her mother-in-law got together with some friends and relatives and had a baking day before Christmas. They made a ton of cookies and a huge variety of them to boot. It seems that no one wanted to take them all home so she brought a huge box of them to us. Well, we certainly took care of them! And they were good! I had forgotten how much I love 7 Layer Magic Bars with the graham cracker crust, sweetened condensed milk, chocolate chips, butterscotch chips and coconut. I leave off the nuts and so did KF which made them all the more irresistible. I think we sustained ourselves in those first few days here on 90% cookies and 10% "real" food.

The remainder of our trip involves visiting several family members and friends. We are having a great time here. This morning it is snowing and that is a welcome sign for us. Over the weekend it warmed up and rained and literally washed the previous snow accumulation away. Now we have a few inches on the ground and it looks beautiful. Ask me later how beautiful I think it is when I have to go out in it!

Happy New Year to all of you. Here's to health, happiness and all the best in 2009. Kisses all around.

Thanksgiving Pictures

I always forget that the last picture chosen to upload is the first one on the post.  How do you move them around??

Anyway, here are pics of the gang putting up the tree and making then eating Thanksgiving dinner.  The turkey breast took longer to cook than it said it would so we ended up eating about 2 hours later than I had planned.  Other than that it was a pretty low key day.

After we chose to set the tree up here on the landing (so we can enjoy it from the family room couch, downstairs and see it through the front window) C decided that we needed a bigger tree.  I'll post pictures of that later.  This 6 foot tree was moved downstairs to the back window and a new 7.5 foot tree is now on the landing.

Hope you all had a great Turkey day.  We are so very thankful for our family and friends!

Will the media ruin Christmas?

I just saw this article on CNN.   At first I found it quite entertaining.  Then I started thinking that this kind of media attention 6 weeks before Christmas could develop into a huge thing that will just ruin Christmas all around for everyone.

Christmas means different things to different people.  I find that most people celebrate what they deem the important points for them and their family and leave the rest.  I mean, everyone is really too busy with their own lives to get into this supposed Christmas war.  Why does the media have to turn it into a huge thing?  

So, this year I encourage you to ignore the stories about certain groups boycotting retail stores for having too generic holiday greetings.  Disregard any sort of media blitz about what is expected of you during the holidays.  Enjoy the holiday time for what is important to you and your family.  Make your own memories and celebrate in your own way.  Don't let the media provoke you and distract you to become a part of their so called Christmas war.

Celebrate!

Halloween

I keep forgetting that I have to upload the photos backwards to how I want them displayed since blogger takes the last one and puts it first!  I could delete them all and begin again but I'll leave it this way.

So, the first photo is the day after Halloween.  The kids are relaxin' with Brody.

Halloween night:  Little Princess Belle couldn't stop posing for the camera!
O lookin' mean as a vampire.  This is the only time he wore the teeth.  They were annoying to him so we ended up tying them to his cape!  Also, he didn't want any make up (white face, dark eyebrows, fake blood etc) so he was basically a 6 year old dressed in black with a cape.  He has always enjoyed passing out candy more than getting dressed up!  I don't think he will trick-or-treat for long.

What a pair!

We went trick-or-treating with LB, AB, and AB from next door.  We also picked up O's friend CM along the way.  The boys made a huge race out of getting to every door.  LB who is 16 weeks pregnant now fears she will have a boy (AB is a 4 year old girl).  The energy of these 2 boys amazed her!  The girls kept up well and we had to keep tabs on who's turn it was to ring the bell.  We covered 2 streets in around an hour and decided that that was enough.  

Then we went to TR and PC's house for some food and fun.  PC has great decorations that are always fun to see.  The kids had a great time sorting through their candy and playing with AR's toys.  They loved staying up late too!

Now the house is full of candy.  C and I went through it all yesterday and tossed at least half of it.  We kept the higher end stuff and the lollipops.  They actually got some Valentine's and Easter candy in their bags.  I don't think those little sugar hearts go bad but just the idea of having candy that old when we had so much new stuff in the house that I bought to hand out....we kept the chocolate stuff over everything else!

The first thing M said the next day, "Is it still Halloween?"  Out loud I said no.  Inside I added, "thank God."  But, with all of the candy in the house, Halloween with be with us for many months to come.