Coming Home

The day I left Colorado, thunder storms moving into the Dallas area were apparently causing all sorts of disruptions at DFW. Naturally, I didn't know any of this when I arrived at the airport 2 hours ahead of my 10AM flight. I was just excited to see my little Pumpkin again!!

First thing I noticed upon entering the airport was that the earlier flight to Dallas had been delayed from 8:00 to 9:00AM. The 10AM flight was still on time; I had only a small carry-on, and I'd already checked in from home so I decided to kill some time by checking out the fancy airport shops. (I found the funniest little onesie that said "Nobody puts Baby in the Corner." Hilarious! Unfortunately, the damn thing was not only pink, it also cost $30 so I just gently set it back down and appeased myself by purchasing an "I Love Sushi" baby bib, haha.)

By the time I ambled over to my gate well ahead of schedule (or so I thought), info on the monitors had changed and was now indicating that the earlier Dallas flight had been moved back to 10AM while my flight was delayed until 11:30AM! My connection in Dallas was scheduled to depart at 2:30PM (1:30PM MST). I knew I wouldn't make it if I stayed on my own flight so I ran over to the gate for the earlier flight to see about getting on stand-by with them. The gate was deserted when I arrived, and I had to wait nearly 30 minutes for a gate attendant. By the time she showed up, I'd already contacted Frontier on the phone and confirmed that there were plenty of empty seats available for stand-by. When I asked the gate attendant; however, she rudely proceeded to explain that they'd gotten the flight out on time, the monitors must be wrong, and that I should really be elsewhere if I intended to go to Dallas (as if I was supposed to have divined that information from the sky).

By this time, it was nearly 10AM. I was worried that perhaps the monitors were wrong about my flight as well, and that they'd have started boarding so I rushed back to my original gate only to find...a scene of mass confusion. It seemed the plane was in, but departure was still going to be delayed until 11:30. What's more, they were asking for volunteers to reschedule for another day in exchange for $400 of flight credit. Though I would've loved to have taken the $400, I knew I'd end up losing money if I had to reschedule both this flight and my connection on American Airlines so I decided to work on alternatives. QT was supposed to be on his way to Wyoming that same day, and I further worried I'd be stuck at either DIA or DFW if I didn't come up with a plan before he left.

In desperation, I called my dad and asked him to talk to his friends over at their local American Airlines counter to see if they could possibly rebook me on a later flight (for free, of course ;). While I was on the phone, I looked over to the other side of the concourse and noticed that the earlier flight to Dallas, the one I'd tried to get on, was still posted on a gate across the way from us! Not only that, they were boarding passengers as I watched!! I ran over there only to discover that they had actually taken off on time but had to return to the airport due to some technical difficulties. They were just getting ready to leave again but were actually oversold and had no space for stand-by. Total bummer. At least, this explained why they were looking for people to rebook from my flight.

I sat down and got to thinking. All around me, I could hear snippets of conversation from other people on my flight who were also trying to rearrange their plans. I overheard one man talking on the phone about not being on time to visit his grandmother in the hospital. Yeek! I quickly borrowed a fellow passenger's pen and called info for American Airlines' 1-800 number. The AA service rep was really nice and explained that my 2:30 flight out of DFW had also been delayed due to bad weather so there was a chance I'd still make it. If not, the next flight out was only about half-full so I could take that one if necessary. He said if I handled it over the phone, there'd be a fee for changing flights, but it'd be free if I simply waited until I arrived at DFW and got on as stand-by. Kind of a risky proposition to fly into any old city on the off-chance that one will find a flight out, but I thought the odds sounded good so I accepted.

A few minutes later, I called AA again to find out when their last flight to my final destination was that day, y'know, j.i.c. I discovered that there were 2 more flights out that day, and both still had plenty of space; however, the 2:30 flight had just been canceled so now I'd be jockeying with the rest of those displaced passengers for the available space on those 2 later flights. Bummer. In my earlier wanderings, I'd noticed a Frontier service counter right beside our gate. I decided to go and try my luck with them. I wanted to see if Frontier would be willing to pony up the fee for rescheduling my missed connection. Since this was a weather-related delay, I figured they wouldn't, but hey, I wasn't doing anything else, right?

The Frontier rep was pleasant enough, and she even called AA to see what they could work out for rebooking my missed flight. In her words, AA unfortunately "wasn't playing well with the other kids in the sandbox" meaning, unlike most other airlines, AA didn't have any agreements to honor other airlines' tickets, so basically, I was out of luck. My best bet was to simply eat the rebooking fee myself, but I was hungry and tired and feeling kind of reckless by then so I opted to take my chances on stand-by...at DFW. After leaving the service desk, I had just enough time left to go buy myself a sandwich before boarding was set to begin. Finally.

Our flight left at 11:30 as promised, but we were forced to circle around the storm a few times before we could land so we didn't actually make it to DFW until about 3PM CST. Upon landing, I rushed over to the counter for the next flight and made my way into the line of people waiting to see the gate attendant. It turned out that there had been quite a few cancellations at DFW that morning, and all the AA gate attendants in our concourse were busily trying to reschedule passengers from the canceled flights. Having eaten, I felt alright again...calm even, but it was easy to see that tempers were beginning to flare all around me. I saw lots of scowling angry faces, heard lots of yelling and lots of heavy sighing, etc etc. One mom was yelling at her kid for daring to walk around in a circle while waiting in line (fortunately, the kids' dad was also there trying to calm the lady down, and she actually seemed to make a visible effort to chill out when she noticed I was watching her....I dunno...perhaps it's obvious I'm a social worker??...hehe).

The gate attendant was surprised that I hadn't already been rebooked on the phone since my flight was one of those canceled, but she wasted no more time in wondering about it. She quickly rebooked me for the later flight, handed me my boarding pass, and told me the new gate assignment. I was so relieved. I hadn't even realized how worried I was about getting stranded until I finally held that golden ticket in my hand. I celebrated my good fortune by buying myself a frozen yogurt cone. Mmm good!

I called my mom to tell her my new arrival time, then of course, I started to feel ill. Damn sugary yogurt cone. I'd been hoping to make it all the way home without having to eat again so that I could dine at my parents' restaurant that evening, but it was no go for me. I rushed over to the nearest restaurant and bought a turkey sandwich to go. It was dry and yucky, but at least it was edible (or mostly anyway). I conceded by eating only half so that I could still have something yummy at my parents' restaurant. :)

When I'd talked to my mom, I kept reminding her that I hadn't checked any luggage and would be ready to go right off the plane (i.e. please be on time!). My parents actually arrived at the airport on time, so naturally, my plane landed nearly an hour behind schedule! As I walked down the jetway from the plane, fuming, I realized that after 10 hours of delays and countless frustrations, I'd finally hit my limit. I didn't want anything to mar my reunion with Pumpkin so I called QT to vent. He was very understanding, of course, and I felt better just having said it out loud. As I rode the escalator down, I could see Pumpkin hopping around downstairs happily crying "My mommy's here! My mommy's here!" The look on his face was simply priceless, as I'm sure the one on mine was as well. He rushed over to me and gave me the biggest hug ever...still wearing that ecstatic look on his face. 10 hours? Frustration? Bah! I needn't have worried. All my troubles were forgotten and the universe righted the minute I held my little boy in my arms again. :)

Easy as Sunday Morning

You can all relax now. QT and I resolved our differences yesterday with our patented "pinky truce." That's where we link pinkies and agree to let bygones be bygones. We made that up when we were newlyweds, and it apparently still serves us to this day. :)

Sunday has thankfully gone a lot better for us so far. We worked well together this morning while cleaning our bathroom then we went outside and chatted with our neighbor for a while before heading to Jason's for a quick lunch. On the way home, we even stopped at PetsMart and bought the girls a brand spanking new kitty condo to replace the one we had to leave behind in Texas. We set it up in our bedroom, sprinkled some catnip on it, and voila! The cats LOVE it.

See, we're kinda sorta preparing for our trip to Disneyworld this summer so besides the new kitty condo, we also invested in a fancy-schmancy motorized self-cleaning litter box aptly named The Litter Robot. It's working well so far, and the cats haven't seemed to mind it (much). We're running a trial this weekend on the litter box so we'll see how the cats do with it. Hopefully, they won't decide to stop using it because it's great not having to worry about dirty litter boxes.

Stand Down, Men

I talked to my mom this morning. She said Pumpkin's been reunited with his favorite cousin Lis and is fine now, and she urged me to stay home and wait for my flight. I also talked to Pumpkin, and I have to agree with her assertion. When I talked to him yesterday, he stayed on the phone with me for a while telling me all about his day. His regular modus operandi is to talk to me for about 30 seconds before passing me off to whomever's closest. I assume he does this whenever he's too busy having fun to talk to me, and up until yesterday, that is how all our phone conversations have gone during his visit so far, haha. I pretend hurt, but in truth, I don't mind it one bit because at least I know he's having fun.

Well, when I talked to him this morning, he took an extra minute on the phone with me to tell me about his new train, but when he was ready to go, he passed the phone to Beautiful Grandma and ran off. Seconds later, I heard wild and happy shrieking in the background (which my mom said was him & Lis playing with the dogs). Funny anecdote time: When he first got on the phone, I could hear my mom in the background also trying to talk to him. I couldn't quite make out what he was saying so I asked him to tell her, "Grandma, be quiet. I'm talking to my mommy." Instead, what I heard him yell was "GRANDMA! SHUT IT!" LOL!! Don't worry, I could hear my mom also laughing in the background; she's a good sport.

So I guess QT & I are in for the weekend. Our day started out alright, but then QT being QT, an unfortunate gloom settled over us within a couple of hours of waking. When I first thought of spending the entire weekend together sans Pumpkin, I don't know...I guess I envisioned strolling hand-in-hand, having an ice cream cone, or going out to a nice dinner at a restaurant where they don't necessarily have to serve mac-and-cheese, haha. I couldn't quite remember what sort of things we used to do together before Pumpkin came along, but I assumed we'd be able to figure it out given the chance. I think now that perhaps we've gotten so used to always having Pumpkin as a buffer that we haven't really noticed that, maybe, we don't particularly enjoy spending time alone together anymore. I mean, we're still friends, of course, but we're not as friendly to each other as we once were. There's definitely a lot more sniping, growling, and complaining between us than I recall there ever being in our lives before. I'm sure it doesn't help that I'm overly emotional these days and also not remotely as patient as I may be when not pregnant so perhaps it's all just me. Still. I guess we'll see how this weekend goes.

Eastbound and Down

QT just found out that his office is shutting down at 1 today so we're considering just driving down to Texas to reunite with Pumpkin.

My mom called me this morning because Pumpkin was (finally) asking for me. She passed the phone to him, and he didn't sound as happy as he had been these past few days. "Beautiful Grandma" told me they were on their way to the mall then to Target to buy some new Thomas trains, which ought to cheer him up a bit. Plus, his cousins get out of school early today so he'll have company soon enough, and he'll probably forget all about me again. I hope.

Unfortunately for me, mommy guilt has returned in full force, and now I have to seriously consider trucking down to Texas earlier than planned (my flight is scheduled for Tuesday). Problem is that we haven't even had time to unpack from our trip to Houston. We haven't done laundry, haven't cleaned litter boxes, haven't done squat. The milk in our fridge is expired, and I'm completely out of clean underwear that fits. Today, I had to resort to wearing clean-underwear-that-doesn't-fit (at least it's clean, haha). I'm not sure I can be ready in time. In fact, given the list of things that still need to get done around here, I'm actually just trying to talk myself back down from this ledge. I'll keep you posted. ;)

24

It's been just over 24 hours since we dropped Pumpkin (and Sunshine) off with his Beautiful Grandma at Buc-ee's in Luling (more on that later). I've not done too badly on my first Pumpkin-less day, managing to get through with minimal amounts of crying and moping about. Naturally, the thing I missed most after we got back to Houston was having Pumpkin running his hands through my hair. Figures. ;)

I'm told that Pumpkin has been having a blast with the family, and that he's only kinda sorta cried for me once so far, which I consider a great success! (Not that he cried for me, but that he only did it once.) He spent most of today with his Grandma Toni, and as a special treat, they drove past the rail yard by the college to see some real live trains. Knowing Pumpkin, he was absolutely thrilled to see real trains up close and personal.

QT and I just got home a couple of hours ago, and I haven't had a chance to download any more of our trip pictures yet, but I will post some pictures of our Buc-ee's outing soon. Unfortunately, right now, I'm extremely exhausted and getting hungrier by the minute so I'd better sign off before I either start eating my computer monitor or say something really stupid, haha. You have my thanks and my apologies for slogging through this completely witless post. I promise to do better next time. ;)

I suppose I'd best start unpacking and start getting psyched for tomorrow when I will be volunteering at the Colorado Coalition for the Homeless all day. Then on Wednesday, it's The Cure LIVE AT RED ROCKS!! :)

The Kemah Boardwalk

Yesterday, we met up with my old Hogg Clinic buddies at the Kemah Boardwalk. Along with the Galveston Bay Foundation, the Boardwalk was holding a "Bay Day" to teach us all about marine life and how to take care of our bay. There were fun booths, activities, shows, etc. Despite his altogether newfound pre-teen-ness, my nephew Ron was good enough to help me on the scavenger hunt for a chance to win some cool prizes. (we lost.) There was even live music and a puppet show, which we missed because we'd gone off by then to ride the Kemah Express (or as Ron termed it, "another dumb train"). I guess he doesn't remember when he was a cute little pain in the ass like Pumpkin is now, haha. Now, of course, Ron's just a big slouching, scowling PITA, but at least he's still a good sport (we even got him to smile for a picture).



There's "Beautiful Grandma" enjoying one of the activities, Pumpkin having fun with his new friend Tyler, and me with my buddies Terri and Angie. I'm looking for a picture to use as a "before/after" shot, but those aren't digital so I'll have to scan it before I can post it (first, I'll have to find it, haha).

Houston, we have landed.

It's difficult to understand the feelings that swept over me as we drove into Houston. I was so happy to be back...unbelievingly happy considering that I completely disliked Houston when we first moved here back in 1995. The area around the airport is so lush and green and beautiful. I didn't even mind the humidity. Who knew I'd ever miss that?

In the evening, we even found time to visit the Wall of Water at the park formerly known as Transco (now Williams). Rather, we made time to visit the park. Sunshine behaved exceptionally during our entire trip not crying or whining once during our flight, and we felt he'd deserved a good old romp in the park. There were a few other families at the park, and both he and Pumpkin had a blast! Along with their new friends, they literally ran circles around me so that I had to stop watching them or get completely dizzy, haha. After his friends left, Pumpkin called his "Beautiful Grandma" to ask her when she was arriving. He's so excited to see her that he called her again this morning to ask her if we were going to Chuck E. Cheese when she got here, haha.

Today, QT is in Louisiana on business, and Pumpkin, Sunshine, and I are going to hang out at the hotel and rest a bit. We've had a rough past couple of days getting ready for our trip and doing all that last minute stuff that tends to pile up right before our trips so naptime is looking good to me right now. I'd planned to take the "kids" back to the park, but it seems to have rained overnight and I just heard thunder so we may be out of luck there. Perhaps Pumpkin and I will take a walk in the Galleria instead while we wait for our cousins from Louisiana to arrive.

It's now nearly 11am here so I guess we'll start by changing out of our pj's, hehe.

I miss my mommy.

That's it. That's all I really have to say, haha.

For whatever reason and despite the severe illness I went through with my last pregnancy, this pregnancy seems to be taking a greater emotional toll on me. Nothing much has changed from then to now. I mean, a lot has changed, of course, but I'm still kinda sorta doing the same things now as I was then. I was employed FT then, and I'm "working" FT now as part of my internship. I was in grad school then just like I am now (with less homework now in fact, but probably 3x the amount of stress). Granted, I live in a different state and I've got Pumpkin to think of now (and Sunshine), but that's it. I can't figure out what's wrong with me this time around.

Whatever the reason, the good news is that I'll get to see my mommy soon. She's decided to join us in Houston for the weekend, and she's going to take Pumpkin home with her for an extended visit with his grandparents (and myriad cousins, aunts, uncles, & assorted others). Goodie!

Intelligence?

Pumpkin received his very 1st school acceptance letter in the mail today. Woo-hoo for Pumpkin! It's from a fancy-schmancy (read: expensive) private school for gifted children. As pleased as I am about this, I'm torn about how to proceed.

Besides the price tag for this new school, which I'm still reeling over, I kind of feel like sending him to a school like this will be throwing too much at him too early in his life, and I'm worried that we won't be able to keep up the pace through his teen years when holding his interest matters most.

If Pumpkin is really gifted, is it better then to start him early and make sure he receives enough mental stimulation from the get-go but possibly risk burning him out or is it better to let him go at another pace and pray that the public school system doesn't end up failing him and cause him to want to drop out? Surprisingly, statistics show that gifted children (i.e. those in the highest percentile of intelligence) drop out of school at the same rate as those in the lowest percentile. I read this sometime ago so I can't quote any specifics, but it's a sobering thought nonetheless.

Well, by the time of this posting, we had finally decided to bite the bullet and enroll him. Actually, I finally decided. QT was for it all along. I suppose what finally nudged me into this decision was the memory of how my days went once Pumpkin was born. I'm talking about AFTER QT went back to work and the outside help had gone, and I was left at home...alone...with a tiny new baby. Eek!

Since he was a preemie, Pumpkin only "ate" about a 1/2 oz of milk every hour or so then he'd take another half hour to "burp" before finally falling asleep again. Basically, by the time he fell asleep, it'd almost be time to feed him again. I remember having precious few minutes in between naps and feedings to tear around the house scarfing a sandwich, washing bottles, etc in preparation for the next feeding and naptime. Some days, I'd actually get to take a shower! (Those days were especially blissful, haha.) I even remember snapping at poor QT when he'd inadvertently call during my "alone time" because every minute I spent on the phone was one minute less in which I could be doing something more essential...like pooping or brushing my teeth, haha.

Naturally, I won't be as ill this post-pregnancy as I was then, but keeping my previous experience in mind, I thought it might not be such a bad idea to give myself a few hours every morning to devote to little baby girl Beckham without having to worry about Pumpkin as well. Besides, his new classroom has a train table (YES, you read that right, folks!!). Needless to say, Pumpkin's already jazzed about going there. :)