Foolish Fridge Frustrations

Have you ever tried to completely "eat out" the fridge? Y'know, when you're getting ready to leave for a long holiday and you want to do something silly like defrost the freezer part of your ridiculously small fridge? Well said task is upon us, and being that we're leaving tomorrow (yay!) the challenge is seeming impossible at times. I mean, think about the things you'd have left over in your fridge after eating all the normal "going together" stuff. That's right, we have a bottle of ketchup, ranch dressing, 3 varieties of pickles, 3 kinds of jams, hot peppers, lemon juice, chocolate sauce, and organic maple syrup. Ok ok there's still a bit of milk and also a tomato and cucumber for a salad today, but the rest is all this random stuff! How are we ever supposed to finish everything up without sending our stomachs into ruin?! I'm just not sure and fearing that we'll end up throwing some stuff out (not cool!). Or I could ask to put a couple things in the neighbor's fridge for a few weeks...hmm...

But the good side of all this is that we have this problem because we're going home!! Yay! I mean, to visit--some people have asked in a serious tone if we'll stay, which is weird to be asked when you're sharing news of a wonderful Christmas VISIT home with someone. Anyway-! We PLAN to come back, who knows what could happen (I'm only referring to monumental things like every airline company going bankrupt or the baby being born 5 months early (HA!) or something, please know I'm not serious) but yes, this is a VISIT home. So we're on our way tomorrow and are so thrilled to get to see our family and friends! A bonus is that we'll both see our parents tomorrow night when we land because my parents and sister will also fly into Rochester to spend time with Grady's parents (and us) for the weekend. It's going to be so overwhelming to see everyone and I can't wait!

A fun thing about being pregnant (at least here with a German doctor calling the shots) and preparing to travel is a little thing called (literally translated) compression tights. I got fitted for these lovely ladies yesterday and let me tell you, this culture is NOT KIDDING about certain things! Last week at the doctor's appointment I asked about flying and maybe some tips the doctor had for my pregnant body during the 10 hour flight, and she wrote up a prescription for these compression tights to prevent swelling. Great! I thought. Until getting fitted for them yesterday. I'm sure they'll stop the swelling, no doubt about that, but man, how do they not stop the bloodflow?! They are these thigh-high tight-looking things that at first glance seem like they would barely go up past the knee. Oh no. Frau whoever-it-was who measured and fitted me put on DISHWASHING GLOVES to get the right grip on the hose to gradually yet forcefully pull it up what ended up to be my whole leg-! It is the weirdest sensation to have such an overall tightness (literally and otherwise) around one's leg-! And I'm supposed to wear these for the whole travel day?! There's even a special technique to take them off and I couldn't help but think how much more time I was going to need to get dressed and undressed. I'll keep everyone posted about how tomorrow goes walking briskly through airports on my restricted legs, and if it actually does help the swelling. Here's to new adventures-!