Day 1 |(or -1)

I'm sitting here in Houston Intercontinental Airport (or George Bush) waiting to board our flight to Rome, Italy, that has a stop over in Frankfurt, Germany. We left Lufkin at 11:30 a.m. and won't depart Houston until 5:30 p.m. I actually found a wireless link that I didn't have to pay $7.95 for. Freaking miracle. Why are we going to Rome?

Two years ago (2007) when Cole was in 8th grade, we went to a meeting about the GT English program at LHS and they announced that there would be a trip to Rome and Venice during Spring Break of 2009. They also said that Venice would be closing to tourists in 2010 or 2011 because of the flooding problem and their attempts to fix it. Knowing we probably would never have another opportunity like this in our lifetime, we decided right then that we would start cutting back on birthdays and Christmas for the next few years so we could save enough money for the whole family to go on this trip. And if we couldn't save enough, we would borrow whatever it took for us to go. There are few opportunities for us as a family to take a trip like this when our kids would be of an age that they would appreciate it. And when our schedules would allow it.

Can we afford to take this trip? It is a HUGE stretch. But we only live once and we don't do near enough with our kids outside of the gozillion "scheduled" things that they already do.

If the Italians have wireless links, I'll try to update this site with some pictures and videos throughout the week.