the joke's on me....one day early!

April Fool's came a day early this year to the tune of completely exhausting myself trying to get ready for a last minute trip to Texas only to show up at the ticket counter and be told we had no tickets on the sold out flight. 4 kids, all our stuff, and the driver already gone. The fault was mine. In my furry of trying to schedule a whole bunch of different flights quickly, I somehow made a mistake. Well, I'll say the computer did, but it's no stretch to think that in the rush I was in, I screwed up. I didn't even open the confirmation email (which would saved me a lot of grief), because once I made the reservation I went into pure crazy lady mode, trying to get my house prepped for a wedding (occurring while we were gone), the kids packed with both their plane ride stuff, food, and of course their clothing for the trip. Not to mention my stuff for two locations (one 30s and one in the upper 80s). But I got it done and picked the kids up from school early, the driver was on time, and we were headed to the airport with 1.75 hours to spare. This, as my family knows, NEVER happens. An hour is usually stretching it. But Zig wasn't with us and he made sure the car came for us nice and early.

I won't relive all the details of  the next four hours, but they were spent at the Continental ticket counter with a nice, albeit powerless, airline representative, trying get us to Texas some way, ANY way! Darn Final Four tournament made that impossible with most Continental flights routing through Houston and oversold.  Although we checked every other airline as well. I would have bought anything, from any carrier, with several stops just to know we were headed in the right direction.

Zig was working on it by phone in Salt Lake as he was driving to give a speech at BYU. When he works on something, it usually turns out. He finds a way. But between both of us, we came up empty. Bottom line is there were just no seats. I couldn't even get to Salt Lake, which is one of the many alternative airports I tried. I just wanted to go somewhere besides back home. Plus I had no ride and had given my house keys to the girl who is having her wedding at my home while we're away. I even thought of getting a rental car and driving to Salt Lake to get a connection to Texas from there. Zig's reply was "Honey, I do not like the direction your thinking is going." Ha. We aren't big road trippers. Turns out this is a big weekend in SL with General Conference.

 I don't think the kids have ever seen me cry as much as they did Thursday at the airport. I did not want to cry, but I was so disappointed in myself and the fact that we wouldn't be showing up when we had told everyone. They planned and prepared for us. We were all so excited to be getting together. Erin kept texting me but I couldn't call because I knew I wouldn't be able to say a word.

The kids  were complete angels the entire time. They kept saying, "Mom, are you crying? Are you sad?" "It's okay, is everything going to work out?" "Can we have water?" "We're hungry" "We're dehydrated" Can we go to the bathroom?" "We love you, Mommy."

Not going on the trip at this point wasn't an option for many reasons, so I had to leave the airport with something. That something ended up being first class tickets on Saturday morning, the very soonest we could get out. I could have bought a small car, but instead, I bought six hours on a plane in pointless first class (I mean there is nothing first class about flying with a toddler!) But gosh darn it, WE'RE GOING TO TEXAS!! Hmmm. I just got a little uneasy when writing that with so much enthusiasm. I have the printed tickets in my hand, but then again I saw a man with printed tickets get denied yesterday ( I saw much in my four hours, and plenty of seriously ticked off people). But I have a feeling all will be well.

I was able to get a driver to come get us even though I thought with no advance notice we were going to be SOL on that front as well. But luckily the guy was ten minutes away and we were headed back home in no time. He stopped by my friend's work, I picked up my keys, and we made it back to where we started 6 hours earlier.

My sweet friend, Lisa, invited us over after I called her for a phone number. When she answered the phone, she excitedly asked "How's Texas?"  and the sniffles began again.  We went over there in the evening which totally lifted my spirits. We had pizza and the kids disappeared playing and watching Tangled. Lisa's Mom was visiting and it was so nice to be with her. They had been moving/packing Lisa's house all week so we were all ready to relax a bit. We were all toast and boy was it nice to end the long day with them. If I couldn't be with my mom and sister, this was the closest thing.

I woke up this morning to a note from Sela.

Dear Mom,

I am really sorry for such a hard day.

I really hope you feel better.

I love having you as a mom.

My life would never be the same without you.

You make a dark room light, you are the moon that lights up before dark, you never fall when things get tough.

You are my hero, and you always will be.

Every time I look at you my mouth turns into an upside-down hill (insert illustration), and my eyebrows pop up!

You are what makes my heart pink.

And I hope I stay with you forever.

You make my bad days into a hilarious joke.

You are my great, awesome, cool, mom.

Love,

Sela