Day 0

Or D-Day I have been calling it for the last 3 months. Septemeber 27th, we boarded the plane to Amsterdam, Netherlands. Susie (my Mother in Law), came with us to help us out. Lord knows we couldnt have done it without her! 10:45 am, the driver arrives to pick us up from the hotel we had been staying in for about a week. We sold our house and all of our furniture in the matter of a few weeks. The 4 of us (Alexa, Dylan, Chris, and I), all had First Class tickets, so we were allowed 3 bags apiece, plus a carry on, a personal item, 2 carseats, and a double stroller. Can you picture this yet? The entire living room of the hotel was full of luggage, so they hauled it out to the car (I had surgery 3 weeks ago, so I supervised), and off to the airport we go. It was about a 30 minute ride with the Bulgarian driver. He looked like a stereotypical Russian mafia man, but I digress.....to the airport. The kids ride with their grandparents, and Chris and I were in the van. We pull up to the airport, get a skycap, and onto the booking agent. He looks at us and says "Oh My." Yep, 13 checked bags later, we were on to security. SO glad it wasnt too busy. I had to take the DVD players out of Princess' Dora rolling luggage (she's in love with it...thanks Nana), her Nintendo DS, the laptops and all of the electronics, the kids had to come out of the stroller and go through the metal detectors, take my jewelry and shoes off, and get myself through the metal detector, then comes Chris with his 15 laptops, belt and stuff....he's no help...lol. He and the TSA agent couldnt get the stroller down. I had to go back through and collapse it, then come back through and pull it back out, put all of the kids and their things back together, get myself together, and flag down a motorized cart. There was no way we could lug 4 carryons, Alexa's things, and a carseat through the gateways. We get on the cart and the lady is laughing at us, Alexa starts screaming, and everyone starts looking like we're beating her. She wanted to ride on the cart too (couldnt take the stroller on the cart), so Chris is pushing Dylan behind us while Alexa is sitting in my lap. Thank GOD for the President's Lounge (thanks Continental for the President's Lounge and the family room in it, but that's all I'll be thanking you for....) So....a screwdriver, 2 Bloody Marys, 3 White Russians, crackers, cheese, and chips later, we are ready to get on the plane. We get a cart to the gate, and THEY'RE ALREADY BOARDING!!! We are on the first row, in Business Class, and they have us split across the plane! Alexa and I were on one side, then 2 people in the middle, then Susie (or Chris...they kept switching) and Dylan on the other side. The people in the middle didnt even offer to switch seats with us, so we just yelled across them. Ehhhh, I'll blame that on the 3 extra Apple Juice and Vodkas and the glass on champagne. So the lady in between us decides she is going to try to sleep at 7pm (CST). Ummm...my kids dont sleep that early...sorry. So at 8:30pm when Dylan started getting fussy, she started getting all huffy puffy with her sleep mask on. We got him some milk, and he drifted off to sleep. Alexa, on the other hand....NIGHTMARE (surprise?, Nope.) She didnt want dinner, but she wanted the chocolate that came with dinner (sleepyhead lady in the middle had dinner before everyone else also), so after the chocolate meltdown, out comes the cart of ice cream, so I said screw it and she had ice cream, a piece of chocolate, 2 bites of polenta, and a carrot for dinner. She spit the fontina and spinach stuffed chicken. Then she had to go potty every 5 minutes (word of warning.....toddlers find airplane bathrooms VERY amusing). Then she didnt wanna sleep, she didnt want anyone talking to her, she screamed when her programs were over, kept sliding down in the seat (which made her CARES choke her and start screaming), and had night terrors. I ended up falling asleep about 1 hour before the plane landed. So about 9 hours later we arrive in Amsterdam. I have a headache from getting less than an hour of sleep, and Chris was still drunk. We then had to get the kids and the carseat with all of our carryons off, and wait for the stroller (it was gate checked). As soon as we got off of the plane, we asked for the stroller. 15 minutes later, after everyone walked through us with the toddler wanting to scream and run around and we're trying to hold on to Dylan, we get the stroller, load them up, and somehow made it to baggage claim. This was a nightmare because Chris and Susie were both rolling carryons tied to another carryon, so they were steering 2 at a time. THEN came the luggage. We had NO IDEA where we would even begin! It was 8am here and we didnt see any carts, just the luggage carts, so Chris grabs 4 of them and we stack them TO THE TOP. The carseat kept falling off, they were impossible to steer, it was a mess. Then we got a Dutch customs agent to helps us to the taxi. We had a driver for a bags and had rented the car, so we start asking everyone in the airport where "the knot" tied on the pillar is. No one knows. So Susie stands with 2 carts and Chris and I start our trek to find "the knot." Either these people are freaking blind, or they were just being rude, because you cant miss this damn knot. Chris finds the driver and leaves me and the carts and kids with the driver. Then he comes back with Susie and the other 2 carts and the driver is floored. He couldnt believe all of the luggage. This isnt a vacation. We're freaking moving here. So we get to the taxi, get the luggage in, then get in the car. It's been awhile since Susie has driven a standard, so she kept killing the car. Well, not only is it standard, it's a diesel, so the ride for awhile was freaking HILARIOUS!!!! Finally we pulled into the turn lane and switched drivers to let Chris drive, and we made it to our new house. It's a cute little place. 3 bedrooms, living room, dining room, bathroom (with no toilet) and toilet room. We are on the second floor, and the house has hardwood floors, so Alexa walks round stomping and yelling and singing SO LOUD! I feel sory for whomever lives underneath us. If we tell her to stop, she does it more. If we ignore her, she does it louder. We gave up. Chris and I headed off, by foot, then train, to the grocery store. We bought a few things, and came back to everyone sleeping. Good deal. We'll put our things away and get settlled in. Well, we have no dressers. Nowhere to put bras, panties, or even shorts for that matter. oh wait. I havent even TALKED about the weather yet. We'll get there in a minute. So, no drawers and only a wardrobe for clothes. Umm....hmmm....how is this gonna work? Chris and I have about 10 hangers of clothes apiece and everything else is either folded on a shelf or in the luggage still. Got back with the groceries, everyone woke up, and we decided to go to dinner. We walked to Den Haag Centraal and took the train to Delft to have dinner. The trek to Den Haag Centraal is about 20 minutes, but we did make it to the train, then we had a trek to the restaurant. On the way back, Chris and I are EXHAUSTED, it's about 10pm, the kids are passed out in the stroller, and we start walking back to the train station, get on the Stoptrein to Den Haag Centraal (the train that stops at every city....lol). Then we start walking home and GPS queen Lindsay tells Chris we arent going the right way, but he'll hear none of that. 2 hours later (yes, I said 2 hours.....it took us 20 minutes to GET to the station), we make it home. Should've listened to me huh Chris? We get home and CRASH. Then who wakes up screaming at 4am? You guessed it.....