Day 1
July 17th 2016
As I arrive at the airport on this very warm morning, it is calm and seemingly empty. My honey and I always travel together, however this is the rare time that I am going alone. As I enter Terminal 4 of the Phoenix airport, the further I walk the more crowded it becomes. No worries, I have splurged and am flying first class (those lines are always shorter). I approach the first class check in area to check my bag. I am greeted by an American Airlines employee, although somewhat pleasant she is pulling th3e rope closed in front of me and ushering me to the left. When she makes eye contact with me I open my mouth to explain I would like to pass to check my bag, she looks right at me and says, “check if for main cabin is down there” as she points to my left. I explain I am not in the main cabin and she looks at me again and asks “Are you in first?”
Okay lady what about me says loud and clear to you that there is no way I could be in first class???
Once she succumbs to the inevitable that I am not going away she moves the rope while stating that there are no open kiosks and I will need to go wait in line. I think she still doesn’t believe me!
As I am standing in line behind a family of 4, suddenly a suitcase falls backwards hitting my suitcase and then landing on my foot. The young man, the son of the family, in his embarrassment topples over the fallen suitcase in his efforts to quickly pick it up and now he lays on my foot. He quickly jumps up, his sister now grabs the suitcase apologizing to me. The young man regains his composure and leans the handle of the suitcase on his hip, so he can have both hands free for his phone. His sister rolls her eyes, takes ahold of one of his hands and places it on the handle of the suitcase. At this point his mom turns around with a horror stricken look on her face, makes eye contact with me while apologizing and asking repeatedly if I am alright. Very nice family but really people it was a carry on and an accident I am fine!
Checking my bag is relatively quick and seamless. The agent does her job, but it seems all the employees are preoccupied and not focused on the travelers in front of them. So when she hands me my claim ticket for my bag, I pause with my hand on the ticket without removing it from her hand, look her in the eye and say “thank you very much, I hope you have a great day” She stops, looks up at me as a smile crosses her lips and says ‘Why thank you”. And off I go.
As I approach security I have my phone out and open with my boarding pass displayed. The TSA agent finishes with the travelers in front of me and takes a step to my right making room for me to step to the left. As I hesitate, because he is now blocking the first class line, he leans forward to view my boarding pass and says ‘yes here in the center line” as he waves me to the regular line. I respond with, “oh hmm even if I am flying first class?” He looks at my boarding pass and then at me and asks “ where?”
Really ? Again what about me screams No way you are in first class!!
I show him on my boarding pass as I read aloud, “priority, gold, seat 3A”. He chuckles a little, apologizes and points me to the first class line, making a comment almost under his breath about it being right in front of his face. I say no worries and have a great day and move into line.
I am the only one in the first class line. And with everything going on in the world today the regular security line is not all that bad. Is everything running smoothly, or is it because it is early Sunday morning and not many people are traveling. Either way I am on my way. I wait until I am called by the TSA agent, she kindly checks my passport and I turn my phone over so the scanner can scan my boarding pass. says thank you and gives me back my passport. I turn and head to the screening area, As U round the corner I see lines , ugh. Well it wouldn’t be so bad except there are only two screening lines opens. Lots of TSA employees but only 2 lines. Needless to say the lines are moving very slowly. I take off my belt and my shoes, remove my clear bag of small liquids and put them in a tote. I zip up my purse and lay it in front of the tote. I remove my laptop and put it in a tote by itself and lay my laptop bag on its side on the conveyor belt. I have listened all 50 times I have heard the instructions while waiting in line. It is finally my turn to step into the capsule, put your feet on the yellow footprints raise your arms above your head and don’t move. As I step out of the capsule, I state to the TSA agent that I have bling on my pockets (you see if always sets of the alert). She guides me to the next yellow footprints and asks me to wait. She then approaches and explains she will be touching me with the backs of her hands and then swabbing my hands once it clears I can move on.
So is there something about people with bling on their jeans that makes you want to swab their hands or is it simply because you are taking advantage of the fact that I have to be searched and am delayed anyways to go ahead and swab my hands? Maybe I need jeans without bling to figure it out!
I am all clear and excused to gather my things. By now my two totes and two bags are holding up the other passengers from gathering their things, so I quickly dump my stuff back together and move out of the way. Of course now my belt is in my hand and not holding up my jeans LOL.
I am early so I take my time walking to my gate taking in the sites around me, I just love to people watch. I no more than get to my gate and find a seat and begin to ponder the most discreet way to put my belt back on, then an announcement is made that there is another gate change for my flight (there was one before I got to the airport). So I and many others get up and walk down to the announced gate about 5 gates from where we currently are sitting. Not too bad, I find a seat and take a load off.
People watching is just so much fun.
Pretty non eventful getting on the plane, very interesting as there is a military K9 sitting behind me! I had seen him walking around the airport near the gate I was at, and I watched as he boarded the plane. The dog was very well behaved and extremely quiet the entire flight. I heard his handler tell the dog to sit or lay down once or twice during the flight but that was it.
Finally everyone is on board, doors are secured and we have heard all the safety announcements. I prepared for takeoff like I always do, I grab ahold of the armrests, close my eyes and begin to pray. It is pretty much the same prayer every time and lasts until we are in the air leveled out and on our way. Only this time I am praying and praying and praying and we are still on the ground driving and driving and driving. Are we driving to San Antonio because I paid for a flight that I thought was leaving the ground. As we are driving every so often there is a quick jerk to one side, I have no idea what it was. It felt like the front tire was falling into or getting stuck in a rut and the plane would jerk when it fell in and again when the pilot pulled it out. I am sure that was not what was happening but since my window shade was closed (as requested by our flight attendant) and my eyes were closed in prayer, I have no ideas. Other than that take off was okay and we were on our way. Once I finish praying I open my eyes and the plane is relatively dark. I do remember now that we passengers were asked to leave our window shades down to help cool the plane as this was its first flight of the day.
I didn’t sleep very well, hardly at all last night so I close my eyes again thinking maybe I will just sleep. Although dark and very relaxed and peaceful sleep still eludes me, so I decided to get out my new Surface Pro that my honey got me and set up for me to be able to take with me on our travels. I am just learning to use it but so far not so bad. At first I think I will read, then I think maybe I will work, then I decide I would rather chat with my honey that is not able to be with me. I login and purchase wifi, now I am able to check emails, check in on everyone on Facebook and chat with T. yeah me. I also decide I will working on some writing. For this I need the regular keyboard so I get it out of my bag and attach it. I realize the tray top is barely wide enough for the keyboard and therefore I have to stand the surface pro up and lean the keyboard on my tummy at an angle. Nothing like drawing attention to a part of me I don’t like attention on! Its dark, most people keep to themselves so I proceed to start typing. All seems to be going well until I reach for my drink the flight attendant has brought me and the Surface Pro leans backwards disconnects from the keyboard and topples to my feet. Ugh. I am buckled in with a tray table across my lap, a drink perched on the extended armrest and my computer laying on my feet. I hesitate long enough to think wow this sucks, and the gentlemen in the window seat across the isle, says over his companion, ” uh oh that is not good, is that a test to see if it is durable?”. At least he was smiling when he said it. I smile as I try to contort myself over, then beside, then under the tray table to reach my computer. I am not a small person so I am sure this was quite the site!! I finally figure out that if I fold the tray table in half and reach sideways while raising my legs gently so as the computer doesn’t dump on to the floor I can reach it with my finger tips (why don’t I do those sit ups every day!) As I grab the computer the gentleman says “is it okay” and he was sincere. I try to sound normal like it didn’t just take every ounce of strength and energy to contort my body into reaching the fallen computer and smile and reply “oh yes it is fine, thank you”
Now I have it all back up with me and oh so much more to write HAHAHA.
Announcement that we are approaching our final destination is heard overhead. Whew all that and it is time to pack it all away. I pack up in anticipation of landing and wait. And wait and wait and wait. Finally I lift the window shade a tad to peak out and we still seem pretty high up, perhaps they made that announcement a little too early. It seems like an eternity before we even feel like we are going down, but eventually we are. I would have to say I think it was the longest landing I can remember. We finally hit the ground with a bump, and the jerking motions resume! Weird plane we are on, maybe the pilot is new.
The announcements are made , we will be taxing…..stay seated….keep seatbelt fastened…..pilot….light….cell phones….yada yada yada…….baggage will be on B2 carousel in the B terminal. Well at least I heard that. Uneventful getting off the plane, finding the nearest bathroom LOL and following the signs to baggage claim. However when I arrive in baggage claim they are all marked with A’s there are no B’s and no signs to direct me to B’s. I look around a bit and find an information desk and inquire as to baggage claim B2. I am instructed to go past all the A baggage claims and go thru the hall and it will take me to the B terminal. Well glad I asked.
Best part of getting to baggage claim was my son Chris leaving his gate in the B terminal (he is leaving Texas headed back to Tampa for work, hence the reason I am here) and coming to see me!!! I got a good hug and some fun conversation, what a great kid I have!!
He heads back to his gate and I outside to be met by the faces you see in the picture above..
Days 2-6
These days will be spent helping get things done with moving to a new state and a new house and all that goes with it. You see my son Chris is working in Tampa right now and my daughter in law works remotely so even though she is home she is busy working hard.
They did fly in a month ago and do some house hunting, found their new home and remotely purchased it from Tampa and Reno.
Rachel Chris and the girls arrived here in Texas on the same day. They were able to spend a few days together learning their way around and taking care of a few necessities.
They have now been informed that their household goods not only left Reno and went to California first, but they are now already delayed several days beyond what they were expecting.
The pets have arrived. Finn and Libby seem much more relaxed and comfortable than they did when they were transported to Reno. But Popcorn the cat didn’t like it one bit! His little nose is all torn up from trying to get out of the kennel we guess and he is very skittish. Considering he lept into Chris’ (the one who dislikes him the most) arms upon arrival says it all!!!
So as you read Chris has gone back to work in Tampa and I have flown in to help. Since we have 2 dogs and a cat and the household goods are not due for about 2 weeks, we are camped out in their new house. We have air mattresses to sleep on and the basic necessities Of course we find something almost daily that we forgot we would need, or that we would “need” aka want.
We have had the Orkin Man here to start service, Chris already had the internet installed and all utilities are on. They had ordered a patio set, what they thought was a set, to have it arrive as just a table. So we have been sitting on the floor on the new area rug they bought. Well I am here to tell you that this old body doesn’t fare well after much time on the floor. Creak creak stabbing pain wince pop dull pain.
Rachel is working so I take the girls out for a walk. We walk down the street (less than two blocks) and Lilah whines “how far are we going?” It is hot and humid but we continue on. We walk around another block or so and see the community pool and playground, so I suggest we go check it out. By the time we get to the playground, we are hot, sweaty and red faced. We have stopped twice for water breaks along the way. The girls want to play on the playground and I explain that it is probably too hot to touch and they don’t want to burn their butts on the slide. Of course that sets off a roar of laughter because Mommom said butts. They assure me it is not too hot, as they make sure to pull their dresses so they are sitting on fabric instead of the scolding hot metal of the slides. It burns slightly as they slide if their arms hit the sides but they insist it is fun. Then they want to climb the beanstalk. It is this tall pole with these leaf looking things sticking out on two sides and when they reach the top they step across a gap to get on a platform at the top of a slide. Oh yeah you guessed it, heart attack moments for this mommom. Lilah climbs in her flip-flops clinging to the pole, panics a little at the top, but I can’t reach her. So as she straddles the gap above me, I pray she makes it and I don’t die of heart failure here below her. As if that wasn’t bad enough Norah proceeds to climb said beanstalk in her cowboy boots, with slippery soles. So by the 3rd climb, my heart can’t take anymore and mean ole Mommom tells them no more. We walk to the pool to check out the hours, and it is closed today. Closed on Mondays for cleaning. We also see you have to have a keyfab of some sort to gain entrance. As we turn to leave, a gentleman has walked up and greets us. Explaining why the pool is closed, chatting with the girls about liking to swim. A very nice man. I explain they have just moved to the neighborhood so we were checking it out. He tells us to come back tomorrow and tell the lifeguard we just moved in and they will let us in, until we get our key. Yay us.
Now we turn to head home, and Norah begins whining ‘it’s too far’ ‘how long is this gonna take’, We make it all the way back to their street and we can see the house. Norah is whining she can’t make it and I need to pick her up. I explain she has to walk, I am too old to carry her, when Lilah pipes up and tells me “That’s not our fault you know” I ask what is not her fault. “that you are fat, that is not our fault” “WHAT??” Lilah says, “you called yourself fat and that is not our fault” “well Lilah, I said I was too old to carry Norah home, I never said anything about being fat” (guess I know what she thinks) Lilah says, “oh well that is not our fault either” I am now trying to control my laughter. “no you are correct it is not your fault. But I had to be born a very long time ago so you could be born”. I think she is confused now as she says oh and continues walking. We make it home where they tell mommy how far away we went and how the pool was closed and they played on the playground.
Day 3 is a few more errands, Rachel working, us playing, their cars arrive from Reno, and we promise to take the girls swimming. We had a great day. We managed to buy some chairs to sit on, which makes this old body happy, we dropped off some laundry to be done, got some lunch, waited hours for someone to show up that was late and now we are heading to the pool.
We failed to think about not having pool towels since their household stuff has not arrived. No problem we will use bath towels, oh wait we dropped some off at the laundry earlier. We manage to find 4 towels, we ask the girls if they want to walk or drive and they choose to walk. (we should have known better) No problems getting there, girls have a blast in the pool, and in the splash pad/kiddie pool. All is well right up to the Mommy warning of just a few more minutes and we need to get home. We have had trouble adjusting to the time change so we haven’t gotten the girls to be before 930 or 10 here in Texas when their normal bedtime is 730 or so. It is now about 830ish and we need to get home showered have a snack and to bed. A little backlash getting them out of the pool but all in all it is good. We wrap in towels, grab our clothes and begin the walk home. Yep you guessed it, major melt down not 50 steps outside the pool gate. Lilah is full blown crying and whining she doesn’t want to go, she can’t walk that far, and eventually her tummy hurts. Rachel is doing her best to console her while still trying to get her to walk, and me well I have been through this with my 3 kids and I am not buying it. Norah is holding my hand and we are about 20 steps from Lilah, and about half way between Lilah and us is Rachel. I turn and tell Lilah enough is enough, she can get up and walk home with us or stay there on the sidewalk. I am just calling her bluff. Her crying hesitates, she looks at me, then at her mom, cries more, looks at me then her mom. Rachel says “okay you stay there” I turn away from her and go to take a step when all of a sudden Norah bursts into tears. What the heck is happening here. Norah is now pulling on my arm and crying almost as hard as Lilah. We now have an audience in the pool area and the playground. Oh how I love being the center of attention, NOT. I look down at Norah and amid her sobs she says “you are leaving Liilah”. I assure her we are not leaving Lilah but that Lilah needs to get up and come with us. Almost as suddenly as she began to cry she quits crying, looks at her sister and says “come on Lilee”
Whew what a day, I need a nap or a drink or something.
We have managed to secure a storage spot for the RV, put a deposit on the new counter tops, pick up the pool key from the HOA, drop off and pick up some laundry, return the rental car, set up an interview with a potential babysitter, coordinate a landscaper, sign one munchkin up for soccer, one up for girl scouts, register one for school, put one on the waiting lists for preschools, make multiple lists for us and the guys when they arrive, get work done for our jobs, keep the girls fed-entertained-clean- and mostly happy. Hey I even got the recycling to the curb before the truck arrived this morning. Doesn’t seem like much but believe me the days are flying by.
Tis the night before I head home, bittersweet. I am ready to be home and see my own baby girl, miss her like crazy. But being with these three amazing ladies for a week has been a blast. We have tried out several of the local eateries, found our way around and home again and just hung out chatting. I asked the girls if they were ready for Mommom to go home and just as sweet as can be they said yes 🙁 hmmmm should I take that personally?? Norah did ask me if I could just stay one more night before I go home, guess she has to be my favorite LOL.
We spent a long exhausting day at Seaworld yesterday. A fun time was had by all, or at least they lied and told me they had fun. We ended the day at Peter Piper Pizza to unwind and fill our bellies before heading home. ( the good restaurants inside Seaworld close hours before the park!) Pizza was very tasty, place was very clean and it wasn’t busy. Win win all around, well until Norah had a melt down and Mommy had to take her to the car. Rachel said she is pretty sure there were some people in the parking lot who thought she was kidnapping Norah, as she carried her kicking and screaming to the car. Once in the car, the tantrum continued tothe point Rachel told Norah if she didn’t stop Rachel would get out of the car. You guessed it. So Rachel said she got out of the car a few times, as a car in the parking lot circled a few times and rolled their window down to listen to Norah screaming and wailing inside the car. By the time Lilah finished with her tokens, traded in her tickets and picked her prize, we cleaned off our table and boxed the left over pizza, Norah had somewhat calmed down in the car.
My last full day we did a lot of laying around doing nothing 🙂 some of us even napped. We ventured out for dinner to find everywhere jam packed. We had wanted to try Cedar Springs right close to home so we stopped there first. Wait was 45-60 minutes and they had a bar and live music outside where you waited at picnic tables. So cool, but the girls were not having any of that. So down the road we went, and ended up at Rudy’s BBQ. Girls had never been and even though the line was long , it seemed to move pretty quickly. We did have to put up with some drunk river rats but a policeman put a quick end to their shenanigans. Our dinner was tasty and quick and the girls have some left overs for tomorrow.
One of my observations during my stay is no one is overly polite or helpful. Kind of a “whatever” attitude. One morning we went to Shipley’s Do-nuts. We passed quite a few driving around, never heard of them before so thought we should check them out. As we are picking our Do-nuts, I asked the lady waiting on us, “so what makes Shipley Do-nuts special”. She just looked at me shrugged her shoulders and said “I don’t know, it is just a donut” The kid (yes kid, he was about 12 if that) helping her said “a donut is a donut”. Hmpf okay just wondered why I should come to Shipley’s, and I am still wondering. Then we went to reserve a storage space for their RV. While Rachel is filling out paperwork for the space and the guy is filling her in on info about said space, I say “Are there any nice RV parks or resorts close to here” to which the guy behind the counter says ” don’t know”. End of conversation. In the office we are standing in is a bulletin board with business cards pinned to it, for sale notices etc. As I am reading through them all, mechanics, handyman, moving companies, etc I say out loud “You don’t happen to know of a window washer or company that cleans windows?” to which the guy behind the counter says “nope” End of conversation.
Just struck me as odd. Most people even when they don’t know the answer to what you have asked, they elaborate or make suggestions. Not these people.
So tonight at Rudy’s I was pleasantly surprised when the man behind the register taking our order said more than two words. He was friendly towards all 4 of us and when he found out it was 3 of our groups first time at Rudy’s he immediately got some samples for them to try. He made suggestions on what we should try and how much to order for our party of 4. Nice guy!
So as we tucked the girls in tonight we made plans to hit up Starbucks in the morning. Mommom has been here a week and we have not gone to Starbucks once!! So good night moon, sweet dreams about cake pops and milkshakes 🙂
We did in fact end my visit with a trip to Starbucks! I have had an amazing week with my granddaughters and daughter in law. I don’t feel I was much help as the plan was to help unpack and it now looks like another 2 weeks before that truck shows up. I look forward to returning soon and often.
My trip home was solemn as I was sad to leave but excited to get home. Only a few wacky observations as I approached my gate at the San Antonio airport. A young family, mom dad and newborn, mom is crying. My guess is she is leaving family after showing off their new baby girl. People in general can’t sit still, I see the same people walking back and forth and back and forth, As it nears the time to board the plane a woman with a push cart (those kind you rent at the airport) loaded down with luggage parks it right in front of me. She has 6 bags with her and a small child in a stroller. Of course my first gut reaction is 2 carryons lady 2. But I sit quietly and observe. Next up walks another lady to join her with 2 more bags and another child. Still too many bags. Then a man finally joins them with a booster seat in hand. Really people, check your bags already!!!!! So if the amount of luggage was not enough, as they begin calling for first class boarding (yay that is me) the man proceeds to start piling all those bags in the line of boarding first class travelers. I walk up and another gentleman says politely that I am going to have to get around that luggage to get on board. I finagle my way around the pile to the gate attendant trying to figure out who the luggage belongs to. She looks a bit flustered and asks another employee to find out, it cannot just sit there. She then scans my boarding pass and I enter the jet way. As I am stepping out of the isle to take my seat, row 2 , I am bumped by yep you guessed it, the man with all the luggage. I take my seat and get out of the way. He has dropped 2 bags in the seats across from me and is pushing his way back to the door to grab another bag and the booster seat. Meanwhile telling his son to sit in the second row. Okay the boy looks to be 3 maybe 4, I am not sure he knows what a row is, or to count to 2. Other passengers are still trying to get past him. His wife has now boarded and is in the second row with the son and the man is trying to shove the booster seat into the overhead compartment. You see we are on an American Eagle flight and the bins are extra small. He then tosses the booster on the ground and is now trying to cram his overly large brief case in the overhead bin. All the while blocking the isle and I keep thinking make the kid sit in the booster already and get out of the way. He has finally succumbed to the fact that his rolling carry on is not going to fit in ANY overheard bin and is now “swimming up stream” against the flow of passengers to gate check the bag. I guess amid all this activity the other woman and the other child have boarded and made their way back to their seats. The man gets up to the door and has to exit the plane to gate check his bag, so passengers begin to move down the isle to find their seats. The flight attendant is less than pleased with what has been going on and knows it is not over. She stops the flow of passengers and says matter of factly ” he is going to be coming right back in here”. Sure enough the man pushes he way back on the plane and through the other passengers to join his wife and son across from me. Oh yeah there are only 2 seats in that row and three of them. So now the man butts back in the line of passengers trying to get to their seats and goes back to what I can only assume is a seat with or near the other woman and child. ( I have yet to figure out if the other woman is a mother, mother in law, or a nanny) Whew glad that is over…………………………….. NOT. Now the woman across from me is standing up trying to get out into the isle saying something about her son wanting to sit with his dad. OMG people a little common courtesy, wait for everyone else to get to their seats and then fix your own problems, Nope she pushes her way back with the little boy in tow and returns alone. I am sure I wasn’t the only one wondering how that was going to work with 4 people in 3 seats in the back now.
At least the next move came as most people were on board and had found their seats. The man now joins his wife in first class, so I guess the other lady got stuck with both kids, He attempts again to figure out how to cram their bags under their seats, you see he really doesn’t want a bag where his feet go!!! I can’t even begin to tell you how many times during the flight he got up and went to the back. And yes upon arrival and the seat belt sign being turned off he backed into the passenger behind him in order to fill the isle with bags. When the door opened I got up with my one purse and ever so politely pushed my way in front of his pile and exited the plane. I do feel sorry for the rest of the passengers on my flight as I am not sure how long it took for them to be able to get off the plane. I do know that I arrive at baggage claim a good 10 to 15 minutes before another passenger from my flight showed up.
Thank you to my sister in law Kerri for picking me up and taking me home!! Thanks to Tim Clare for saving me from being locked out of my house by dropping off a key. And as a wonderful surprise alignment of events I had dinner with my hubby and ALL my kiddos. I am VERY BLESSED!
