I Need a Vacation!

The whole living in Eastern Europe thing is starting to wear on me and I need a vacation. I am ready to get away for a while and Germany can't come soon enough. I am still enjoying being here, but over 3 months without leaving is too long. After a few months there are some things that I am really starting to miss, and as much as I knew we were going to be here for at least a few years, I think my mind really just now realized that we aren't leaving anytime soon and this is home for a while.

Here is my I miss list:
-Family and Friends of course...and...
-Driving
-Taylor's soccer games in Frisco (Soccer games here are a joke. They throw over 30 kids on the field and try to teach them how to play. Taylor just sits off to the side of the crowd uninterested. This will be our last season of soccer.)
-Quick and easy trips to the grocery store
-Going to grocery stores where there are nice people working who ask you how you are doing
-People smiling
-Warm weather
-Prices of food, clothes, and EVERYTHING else in America. Everything is waaaay too expensive here. Imagine paying Bob's Steakhouse prices everytime you go out to eat. A meal for two around $100 is cheap!
-PLAY GROUP!!!!!!!
-Our backyard, laundry room, garage, cars, front yard, etc.
-Our old neighborhood, and Taylor being able to run outside and play after school.
-People not pushing in lines

However, there are still plenty of good things about being here. These bad ones are just really driving me crazy lately. I will try to do a "pro" list of living here...

-I have met some great people and made some good friends
-I love Taylor's school, and she loves it even more
-We have a great nanny and I wouldn't be able to do anything I am doing here without her
-THANK GOD WE HAVE A DRIVER! This is making life so much easier!
-We can get almost anywhere in Europe within 3 hours
-The kids love trying to/speaking Russian
-We can go to the Bolshoi Theater and see a ballet anytime we want, we went last weekend and it was great. Taylor loved it!
-There are so many things to get involved in that you can forget you are in Russia...until you have to go outside :)
-Burke walks to work so he no longer has a commute. He usually doesn't leave until 9 or after and is home by 6 or 7, so we see each other more than ever now.

Life really is going well, so no one take this posting as meaning anything otherwise. This place is just soooooooo different than home.

Pictures of Taylor's birthday weekend to come soon!