The girls and I flew to Maggi's house, in NC, in slightly under the amount of time it would have taken us to drive to Memphis, TN. UGH! We drove last time and while it was fun it took up valuable vacation time so being mostly new to flying I figured it was my hero on a white horse. Maybe a white mule, or a white shetland pony, or a white el camino. I digress. We flew out of OKC to save a little dough. . .Mom and dad drove us and paid a hotel for the night before because we had to be at the airport at 5:30 a.m. So. . .we board the plane at 6:30, sit on it until 7:45 while it is too heavy and then needs more fuel. You all know the ages of my children but just for emphAsis, they are 4 and 6 and rater full of energy even when they awake four hours earlier than usual. Anyway we fly to Memphis where it is too foggy to land. Our pilot calmly comes over the intercom and says we have about 15 minutes of hang time fuel so we'll be in a holding pattern attempting to land in Memphis. In my slightly on edge mood I take this to mean that if we can't land in 15 minutes we will crash, less than gracefully to the earth. (remember, I really don't have much flying experience) I try to control my terror and remember to connect my mask before moving on to the girls masks so we can breathe before we die. I also try to remember how to use my seat cushion as a flotation device and pray we'll land in the river. Anyway, we fly in circles for 15 minutes using all available wait-around-to-land fuel and fly to Fayetteville, AK to refuel. Call me crazy but is AK on the way to NC from OK? I didn't think so either but it gets oh so much better. Apparently the airport at Fayetteville AK is not much larger than Amarillo's airport. So, I'm thinking it's not too usual for planes to have to reroute to them which might be why we sat in the plane for 45 minutes waiting for them to contact the pilot and tell him where to go for more fuel. Only, then the pilot comes back on the intercom and says we ought to get our belongings off the plane when we exit as this flight has been cancelled. O-kay. We all file off and if I'd have known the interminable line awaiting me please don't doubt that I would have hurtled plane seats, knocking people out of my way with my handy dandy flotation device and carrying two girls under one adrenaline powered arm. Sadly, I did not know so I filed off like a good little sheep. Baaaaa. Then I get to wait in line for 1.75 hours while the three people in front of me get their trips re planned for them and my children lay on the carpet on either side of a trash can blowing loud raspberries. I did not try to stop them because I was using all my strength trying not to join them. Finally, it's my turn, and I get re-routed to . . . drum roll please. . .D F W. Which at that point in my mind stood for D Freakin' W. Really, from Texas to OKC to Arkansas, to Texas to NC? I arrived in Raleigh Durham airport promptly 7 hours late and missing my entire personality. I had a teeny tiny psychotic break with hysterical giggles as we walked out to the parking lot with Mags and her kids. We have had a blast though and tomorrow we get to see the ocean, we get to see the ocean. :) M

The girls often have "slumber parties" where they get to sleep in Clara's room together.  This really translates to extend bed time by about 4 hours but spend that time in a bedroom playing (loudly, just ask our Sunday night bible study).  The new thing that has been happening of late is an animal, baby doll or even the pictures of princesses on a backpack comes to life.  Forgetting the many warnings and threats about not coming out of the room one of them will inevitably come running to me in a frenzy saying, "Mommy! Mommy, while we were watching this baby's hand moved like this (demonstrating).  I made the mistake of  telling them the other day that their aunt Maggi and I used to pretend our toys came to life after dark too.  Clara gave me a very condescending glance and said, "Mommy, we are NOT pretending, this is for real."  :)  M