Stuck in Iowa!

Just a quick post, FYI ---- All flights from Des Moines to Chicago have been cancelled today, so we will have a longer stay in Iowa and a delayed return to Slovakia.  It's incredibly cold here - the coldest temperatures in about 20 years - with high winds too.  After 2 hours on hold waiting to talk to an airline agent, we're hoping to get our flights re-booked as soon as possible.  But with all the thousands of flight cancellations in the past couple of days, it's complicated!!  

While Paul and Alana were here on Saturday afternoon, we saw our little raccoon friends again!  We were just telling them about the raccoons, and they came out again!!  

A little closer view of one face, and one tail over on the left!    :-)

They definitely love the red berries on our tree!!  

I must have scared them off taking all the pictures!!  There they go!   We called the DNR this morning (Department of Natural Resources), and they said if they're a nuisance, we'd have to pay to have them removed.  We'll see if they stay around and cause a bother!  

Friday noon we had lunch at Burger King with the Ankeny H.S. math teachers, and Friday night was dinner with my parents and my brother's family here in Ankeny.  It's so good to get to hang out with them!  

Saturday afternoon and evening we played board games with Paul and Alana -- so much fun!!  Of course there were still cookies from Beth to enjoy, as well as Wisconsin cheese and sausage from Sue, and some yummy granola from Deb.   :-)   (Deb even sent two Arizona oranges with us, but we had already eaten them!!)

Sunday we picked up Alana and Paul, stopped at Café Milo (the coffee shop where Alana is the manager) for hot beverages in the car, and headed to Waterloo to attend Lute's church there.  Lute was playing guitar and singing in the praise band, and it was a really uplifting service.  After a Texas Roadhouse lunch, we stopped at the hospital to visit the best man from our wedding, after his open-heart surgery on Friday.  Chris was doing remarkably well - we thank God for good medical care!!  Then of course last night we were packing, cleaning the house, and doing last-minute things around here to prepare to leave. And this morning we got the disappointing news that we can't depart today.  Patience!!!  

When I finally got a real live person on the phone with the airline, the first departure available was on Thursday.  THURSDAY!!!!??????   (With a Friday night arrival in Vienna.) Yikes!!  So I tried again, and this new agent is working on some other possibilities using other airlines, so we are hoping for a flight that leaves tomorrow and gets there on Wednesday, which is probably a best-case scenario.  

As far as being stuck in Iowa……I have to admit there are worse places to be stuck, like O'Hare airport for example!!  So we are grateful that we are safe, healthy, and warm, and we are blessed to be going from one place we love to another place we love, whenever we can get on a plane!  
God bless!!