Hiiiiiii.

We’re home and spent the night in our own bed for the first time in 11 days. It felt wonderful!

So here’s the scoop. Friday night (Iowa time) we hopped a plane in Naples that was supposed to connect in Paris to Atlanta, which would then take us to Iowa. Well the Naples flight got delayed so we missed the connecting flight by mere seconds. I had kicked off my flip flops and SPRINTED through the Paris airport, only to see the gate close with my very own eyes. Nothing they could do, they told us, except…put us up in a roach motel for the night and connect us the next day. Oooo boy – it was a doozy of a hotel. We left at precisely 6:09am the following morning, not wanting to spend another second longer there than we had to!

Everything seemed to go as planned the following day, except we connected through Minneapolis instead of Atlanta and, when we got home, our bags were still in Minni! Like they say – bad things always happen in threes. Missed flight. Bad hotel. Missing luggage.

Luckily our bags hopped the next flight from Minneapolis and were delivered to our doorstep at 8pm last night. Hallelujah!!

I unpacked (so proud!) and CONKED. Woke up nine hours later feeling like a million bucks. Seriously! Yesterday I was in Paris and today I am at home feeling completely normal. I woke up at 5:30 to walk with my Mom and Ben was up when I got home…and CHIPPER. Not normal. I’ve never seen that boy awake before 7am unless his life depended on it. He even went out and got me half and half for my coffee at 6am! Crossing my fingers there’s no crash later.

After my walk (and coffee!), I made my first homemade breakfast in what seems like weeks. Now, Ben and I earned every meal we ate in Italy. We walked and hiked ’til we could walk and hike no more, every single day. That said, I was soooooooo excited to have a warm, lean bowl of Fall Apple Crisp Oatmeal this morning!!!!

In the mix:

• 1/3 cup old fashioned oats
• 2/3 cup water
• cinnamon, vanilla
• Stewed Apples (1 chopped apple, cinnamon, vanilla, splash of water, drizzle of agave nectar, nuked for 1.5 minutes)
• sliced almonds

I have been eating ham & cheese sandwiches (I’ll explain later) every single morning for the last 10 days – which was as fun and amazing as it sounds – but mama missed her oats!!

Perfect for this chilly, September (!) morning.

Well I will be beginning my Italian vacay recaps tonight – starting with food, drinks and GELATO! I’m fairly certain my left arm was starting to turn into a fresh pasta noodle by the time I left. Not the worst problem in the world to have.

Right now, it’s off to the ol’ office. I am happy to report that not only do I not have any jet lag to speak of (right now anyways…) but I am also feeling no vacation remorse. I am completely ready and willing to go into work right now! I think it’s because I’m feeling so rejuvenated. That’s what 4 days of utter relaxation on the Amalfi Coast will do for a gal, I guess.

‘Til tonight!

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I’m feeling so out of the loop from not hearing from you guys for a week and a half. Tell me, what’s the best thing that’s happened to you in the past 12 days?? I wanna hear about it!