Top 5 Holiday Memories
Welcome Back! So, it's been quite a while since I've blogged, but y'all know that. However, given the new year and my trip to Europe, I figured I was doing my friends a disservice by not telling y'all all the funny things that have happened. So, what HAS happened you ask? Here are my top 5 stories...and you know they're all #katiemoment worthy.
1. No Cash, No Problem
I am terrible at carrying cash! It's something I'm trying to work on to have at least $10 in my wallet, but I always use my card for things, so I never think about it. Until I get stuck in cash only toll booths. Womp. I had gone through two toll booths that I used my credit card at and then when I got to the third, I pulled up to the "Full Service" line thinking I would be fine. Until the lady told me I could only pay cash. The worst part is that it was only $1.75. I had $0.75, but for the life of me could not find another dollar. I start scrounging around my car looking for spare change. None. Forty-one pennies is all I could find....really Katie! I ask the lady if she had a dollar I could borrow...cue "You think I'm crazy stare". She tells me that I could call this number the next day and pay with a credit card. I was flying out for Italy the next day though, so I knew that would end in me forgetting to pay it and owing 30 dollars or something down the road. So what do I do? Throw my car in park and run to the car behind me. At this point I had probably held up the line for at least 6-7 minutes. So, the driver of the car behind me looks at me like a crazy person as I run up and say, "Um hi, do you by any chance have an extra dollar?" I threw a little extra southern sass in there just for dramatic effect. He hands over the dollar, while laughing at our predicament, and then the lady in the toll booth could not believe her eyes.
What can I say? I'm a problem solver. ;-)
2. Airport Drama
I'll admit that sometimes I do overreact or have a tendency to exaggerate things. However, being picked up 50ish minutes late after arriving in Italia is not an exaggeration. When I got off the plane in Italy I had no money, ca$h money (whoops), no working phone, and no way of getting a hold of my momma because I didn't even know her phone number. Luckily, I'm highly comfortable in uncomfortable situations. ;-) So, I got into Italy and was expecting to come out and see my Mom and brother jokingly holding a sign with my name or something like that. Nope. They weren't there! I wait around for a while and then walk up and down the airport thinking they might be at a different gate or something. Nope again. I'm calm for a while until this Italian man starts circling me and staring at me. So then I start to freak out and assume he is going to kidnap me (overreacting Katie here). Almost immediately my momma walks up and bear hugs me. I am SO excited to see her, but then burst into tears and say, "I almost just got kidnapped!"...Her response? "Katie, you're in the middle of an International airport, that Italian man probably just thought you were pretty."
Gotta love my momma.
3. Pickpocketers in Roma
This was my shining moment in Italy! We went on a walking tour with our family friends that were visiting. We went to the Colloseo and a bunch of other sites around Rome. As we were walking our tour guide told us to watch out because he had just seen pickpocketer's a few minutes earlier. Johnny and I decided to stop and see if we could see them. I was looking for little kids because that's what I've normally seen or thought of, but I saw these two teenage girls with maps pretending to be lost tourists. They started putting the map over this woman's backpack who was walking along the street. They tried to pretend like they were lost and confused and cover the backpack with one map, while the second girl started to open the bag to steal. I don't know what came over me, but I screamed "STOP!" and started running at them. (Who knows where that came from!) As I ran up to the women they were trying to pickpocket the girls ran off...phew! The woman didn't speak english, but we had a little game of charades and I told her to put her backpack in front of her. Luckily nothing was taken.
That was enough excitement for one day...talk about crazy!
4. Switzerland Trip Fail
Many of your may know that the family made a trip to Switzerland to go skiing with our Swiss friends, Nikki & Daniel, and the Vischers (Katherine, Matthew, and Nicolas). It was about a ten hour drive to get to the Aletsch mountain where we were going. Well of course in typical Nowell fashion, it took us 18 hours to get there. We had to go over the Simplon pass to go from Italy to Switzerland...it had snowed 6 feet the night before, so when we got to the pass we found out it was closed. When it's closed all of the cars have to take the tunnel train. You put your car on this train that drives all of the cars through the tunnel. The only issue? There were about 200+ cars waiting for the train and it could only carry 40 cars per trip. So, we ended up waiting in line for close to 6 hours for the train. We also hadn't eaten dinner, so after scrummaging around in the trunk we managed to find some summer sausage and cheese that we had planned to have for appetizers. You can only imagine us sitting in our car (turned off to save gas) in 0 degree weather eating sausage and cheese for dinner without utensils...Haha! We made it on one of the last trains and then got to the Ski mountain gondala at 10:58pm. The last ride up was at 11pm. Talk about lucky! We were SO happy to finally make it. God works all things together for good!
Once we made it up to the mountain we had a wonderful few days with our friends. Skiing, reading, drinking hot chocolate, and eating fondue...We love Switzerland!
This was my shining moment in Italy! We went on a walking tour with our family friends that were visiting. We went to the Colloseo and a bunch of other sites around Rome. As we were walking our tour guide told us to watch out because he had just seen pickpocketer's a few minutes earlier. Johnny and I decided to stop and see if we could see them. I was looking for little kids because that's what I've normally seen or thought of, but I saw these two teenage girls with maps pretending to be lost tourists. They started putting the map over this woman's backpack who was walking along the street. They tried to pretend like they were lost and confused and cover the backpack with one map, while the second girl started to open the bag to steal. I don't know what came over me, but I screamed "STOP!" and started running at them. (Who knows where that came from!) As I ran up to the women they were trying to pickpocket the girls ran off...phew! The woman didn't speak english, but we had a little game of charades and I told her to put her backpack in front of her. Luckily nothing was taken.
That was enough excitement for one day...talk about crazy!
4. Switzerland Trip Fail
Many of your may know that the family made a trip to Switzerland to go skiing with our Swiss friends, Nikki & Daniel, and the Vischers (Katherine, Matthew, and Nicolas). It was about a ten hour drive to get to the Aletsch mountain where we were going. Well of course in typical Nowell fashion, it took us 18 hours to get there. We had to go over the Simplon pass to go from Italy to Switzerland...it had snowed 6 feet the night before, so when we got to the pass we found out it was closed. When it's closed all of the cars have to take the tunnel train. You put your car on this train that drives all of the cars through the tunnel. The only issue? There were about 200+ cars waiting for the train and it could only carry 40 cars per trip. So, we ended up waiting in line for close to 6 hours for the train. We also hadn't eaten dinner, so after scrummaging around in the trunk we managed to find some summer sausage and cheese that we had planned to have for appetizers. You can only imagine us sitting in our car (turned off to save gas) in 0 degree weather eating sausage and cheese for dinner without utensils...Haha! We made it on one of the last trains and then got to the Ski mountain gondala at 10:58pm. The last ride up was at 11pm. Talk about lucky! We were SO happy to finally make it. God works all things together for good!
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| The row of cars while we waited! |
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| Thumbs down for the wait! |
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| Yay we made it!! :) |
5. My crazy family
We don't even need to get into how much I love my family. They are ridiculous and hilarious! All.the.time. It's great. We just act silly together and can make fun out of any situation. Here are some of the best funnies: We dressed up in silly outfits and made Instagram dancing videos (so funny!), My Dad wore my infinity scarf while we were out for coffee (even funnier!), Johnny and I took Bluigi out for a spin (Dad's car) and encountered some interesting drivers, I was apparently "flirting" with our tour guide in Naples and made him run into a lamp post (oops!) ;-) and we had a REALLY good laugh watching my parents play with "Just Dance" on the Wii...tons of good memories!
We don't even need to get into how much I love my family. They are ridiculous and hilarious! All.the.time. It's great. We just act silly together and can make fun out of any situation. Here are some of the best funnies: We dressed up in silly outfits and made Instagram dancing videos (so funny!), My Dad wore my infinity scarf while we were out for coffee (even funnier!), Johnny and I took Bluigi out for a spin (Dad's car) and encountered some interesting drivers, I was apparently "flirting" with our tour guide in Naples and made him run into a lamp post (oops!) ;-) and we had a REALLY good laugh watching my parents play with "Just Dance" on the Wii...tons of good memories!
I could write about a million more stories, but I'll leave y'all with that for now. Ask me more if you want to know more! ;-) Of course we also had a beautiful Christmas Eve church service and praised God for His wonderful works in our lives. More SSG updates coming your way soon...
XoXo,
Southern Saving Grace
XoXo,
Southern Saving Grace
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