Coming Home and the After-Effects

The flight back from Hong Kong was a bit more nerve-racking than the one going over to Tokyo. We left about 10:30 am on Sunday HK time or 10:30 p.m. Saturday night, EST. We arrived in Newark Sunday afternoon about 2 p.m., or 2 a.m. HK time. I tried not to think about it too much. I slept a few hours on the plane which helped. Hubby, road warrior that he is, didn't sleep but a little on the last leg back to Florida. Needless to say, he was a little punchy and went to bed pretty early after we got home. I stayed up until about 10:30 with a few very excited children, then went to bed and slept soundly... until hubby awoke at 5:30 or so and neither of us could get back to sleep.

Next day, hubby left for his next adventure I was up at 5:30 again due to a faulty carbon monoxide detector and hubby left for his next destination (and time zone). I was zombie-girl the rest of the day and went to sleep while the kids ate dinner. I was up at 5 AGAIN the next morning. Took a long soak in the tub with a good book, then took mom-in-law to the airport. By 6 p.m. I was out of it again. The faulty C.M. detector went off again around midnight (beeps like battery is dead, but it is hard wired-no gas). Got up and socialized with my two oldest sons, the creatures of the night who like to sleep all day. Remarkably, I went back to bed and slept until 7!!

Last night, I stayed awake a lot later than the previous nights, but woke up this morning at 5, got up and made some breakfast. I finally went back to sleep around 7:45 or so and slept until nearly 9:30. This jet lag is really annoying. I am NOT a morning person, yet I am becoming somewhat accustomed to it.

Everyone was happy to see us come home, especially mom-in-law, no doubt. Turns out that the virus that I left the baby with worked it's way through a couple of the other kids and though it didn't last long, it was taxing. She is a good grandmother, but this group just overwhelms her. Thank goodness she had my sis to fall back on. Anyway, it's back to the routine and we still have a good bit of summer left, (40 days or so) so I want to make the most of it.