Happy Birthday Little Mommy!

I would like to take this opportunity to shamelessly wish my mother a very happy 60th birthday today! Happy Birthday, Little Mommy! May you have many years of joy and sharing your gifts and talents with the world. We love you!!

The Nitty Gritty Details

Dear Family and Friends,

Many of you have asked us such questions as, "How are you two pulling off six months of being away?" and "Who is watching Willow?" Well, here are the answers to the most recently, most frequently asked questions in Marthaland:

Q. Did you win the lotto?
A. Unfortunately, no. From what I understand people actually have to PLAY the lotto to win it. So, I'm pretty sure that we did not. However, both Dani and I have been saving for something big for some time now, and this adventure has turned into that rainy day when extra monies come in handy. So, no, we're not intending to go bankrupt and lose our home. We've done this crazy thing called "saving" that so few in our generation pay enough attention to in their daily acts. Plus, we have excellent credit and other savings that will get us through this seven months-plus of gainful unemployment.

Q. Seriously, will Willow be okay?
A. Of course, the Wee Doggie is of primary concern to me, but she will be residing at her Vacation Home in lovely Hazlet, where we hope she will not eat so many treats as to cause her to have to be rolled back to her original homestead. Plus, when my parents have their own travel needs, she has been invited to my former work offices, where someone (or several) of my now-former colleagues will wrestle to determine who gets to keep her for the night or weekend. Our friends from church have also offered their home should Willow need somewhere to go. Heck, the truth is that just about everyone we know said, "Well, if Willow needs somewhere to be ..." It is handy to have a little furry friend who is so easy to get along with and such a joy. Leaving her is probably the hardest part of this process. (Uh, I mean ... leaving my family and friends is the hardest. Yeah ... darn fingers typing the wrong thoughts.)

Q. What about Timi the Turtle?
A. Timi will go to live in my former office in Englishtown where he will swim and gurgle and be happy. I have a feeling he will barely notice we are gone. Reptiles have pretty small brains, after all. Swim, Timi, swim. "Gurgle," he responds. He loves me.

Q. How are you handling paying your bills while you're gone?
A. An incredible invention, I believe attributed to our former VP "Weird Al" Gore, called "the Internet" has this amazing system where you can pay bills remotely. It's very cool. You should check it out. I also have the "Daddy System" where I will supply a series of pre-addressed, pre-staged envelopes with checks to pay the monthly COBRA fees, our sewage bill in November, etc, and he will mail them out each month for me. Although, we're looking into Travel Insurance options and may forego the COBRA in favor of event-only coverage since Dani and I are pretty healthy and have few conditions that would qualify as pre-existing conditions. Otherwise, we are looking into suspending our phone and Internet service at home, have called our credit card companies to let them know that we'll have some crazy overseas expenses so that they don't cut off our credit line from us, and are generally praying that we're covering it all appropriately.

Those are just a few of the important queries going on. Feel free to submit more questions to be answered in future blogs!!

Love,

Martha

The Adventure Begins

Dear Family and Friends,

Welcome to Martha's Blog for Martha and Dani's 2007 whirlwind trip around the world. Here, you will be able to read about some of our adventures, where we are headed next, and what kinds of trouble Dani is getting me into this time.

For those of you who don't yet know, we are scheduled to leave for London on May 14, arriving May 15, after a couple of weeks of U.S. travel to see family from Texas to Atlanta and all along the East Coast. We'll spend two nights in London before heading to the mainland to work our way down to Madrid, where we have an apartment waiting for us on May 22!

As of this moment, we are planning to then bounce out of Spain so that we can return to the Schengen Nations in the Fall when friends and family have expressed the most interest in visiting with us there. In the meantime, Dani and I intend to head to Bangkok to explore SE Asia for about three months. I cannot wait to return to that part of the world, share the landscape and culture with Dani (who lived in Japan for a bit but has yet to explore the mainland), and eat Thai food again!! WOO HOO!

So, click that seatbelt, open your minds, and expect the unexpected ... but likely not another Arctic storm for us like in Norway since we'll be in monsoon season instead! Now, where is that darn rainslicker and sunscreen!?

Love,

Martha