Expat Jon takes on the world (well... Sweden)

I'm back!  I know I've been back for a while and haven't updated this, but I'll explain later... That vacation was real!  I had no idea it would be so awesome.  Swedie and I make a great team.  We (by we, I mean she) planned it all out well in advance and we (now I mean we, but still mostly she) executed it well.  We began in Florida at the Holm Home as my previous blog  detailed.  We love them and miss them already.  The rest of the Florida leg of the trip was awesome. Miami Bash and Ava I had my fill of conch salad during my trip home.  Moonk really does know how to hook up a conch salad!  I got to see my younger cousins (can't call them little anymore) and hang out a little bit with them.  I spent so much time in my youth trying to be the loudest and funniest and wittiest that I never realized how funny my cousins are.  Reggie and Julius had me cracking up!  Grandmother is still rocking her raccoon wig in...

Bye Bye Beach I'm winding down now.  It's almost time for Swedie to start pressuring me about packing my bags to go to the airport even though we don't leave for seven hours.  It's that time for reflection on a great trip.  This has been my best trip home since leaving home for the Air Force back in 2000.  There was a different element to this trip since we had Bash with us.  I know he won't remember this trip, but I enjoyed trying to pass on as much to him as possible about my home and family.  I wanted him to want to be held by family members (he didn't, of course).  I wanted him to enjoy Busch Gardens (he slept through the Sesame Street part).  Oh well.  This trip was good on so many levels.  I'm so glad we didn't do an east coast marathon like we did last year.  There was so little stress this time around.  Tampa and Miami and that's it.  Perfect!  We had the perfect hosts here on the South Florida po...

Okay, so I'm a bit late.  Forgive me.  I basically lost a day traveling and it's still Thursday evening where I'm at, so I don't feel so bad. We touched down a little less than 24 hours ago.  I'm so proud of Bash.  He was such a champion.  We had two flights to get here and the first one was only an hour long.  I considered that one the tester flight.  Bash sure aced that test.  Swedie gave him a bottle as we were taking off to combat ear popping.  It must have worked.  He drank in peace and went to sleep for most of the flight.  It was awesome. The second flight started off a little scary.  First off, in typical Expat Jon fashion, I strategically walked away and abandoned Swedie in an awkward conversation with a fellow traveler.  Glad it wasn't me.  I came back and Swedie tried to return the favor, but I was too slick for that.  Won't get me!  We got on the flight at Bash's lunch time.  We tried to...

I can't believe it.  Today marks nine years since that fateful night that Swedie and I met.  It wasn't supposed to happen.  It never is.  That was especially true in our case.  There is this thing called the Atlantic Ocean that sits between our countries.  How could it work?  How could we even meet? I was stationed in Turkey in 2005.  With my job at the control tower, I was unable to take the normal holiday trips that everyone went on when long weekends came up (Memorial Day, Independence Day, etc.).  We would end up taking trips together whenever the runway got it's annual work done on it.  Not as fun as going three buses deep to a party city in Turkey.  I would hear the crazy stories of the parties and European girls.  That's right.  EUROPEAN girls!  I got deployed to Iraq at the beginning of 2005.  I came back just before Memorial Day weekend.  When you come back you get two weeks of R&R.  This...