Day 1

Friday, December 2


Filled with anticipation, excitement, a bit o vomit and some diarrhea. 


Got our bags packed, checked and rechecked.  Everything ready.  Still, no firm confirmation for our appt with Embassy.


I had a list of things for Big Daddy to do.  He didn't do most of what was on my list, but he did manage to go to Walmart, so for that, I was thankful.


About 12, my friend came to pick up my 3 Littles.  I had asked her to stay, for a while, because my sanity was at risk, therefore the children were at risk, as was Big Daddy's person.  I think I had hit an all time psychotic moment when she got here.  My saving grace, at the moment.  Luckily, she didn't mind staying and when Big Daddy called for the 413th time, he was pleased to hear that she was able to stick around and wait for him.


He finally gets home and my only request was for the downstairs toilet to be fixed.  I didn't want to have to worry about it and I didn't want our house guests to not be able to flush.  He said that he had it covered and that a friend would fix it.  Uhm, that doesn't fly with me. I don't want to depend on others to fix something I had asked him to fix.  My stress level must've been really evident because he said that it shouldn't take long and he'll get it done.  Praise God.


While he was trying to hurry with that, our ride pulled up.  So, friend here to get Littles, big girls still here because other friend wasn't home for them to go to her house, ride was here, toilet was screwed up, phone was ringing...head was pounding.


"Ride" friend was gracious enough to help with the toilet.  Littles left with girl friend.  Big girls helped haul stuff downstairs and had talked to other friend about when she would be home.  We were ready.  Car was loaded up....goodbyes were said.  Tears were shed.


Off we go.  We stopped at Clarksville, at the Hobby Lobby to pick up the one request that my Betty had asked for us to bring to ET.  We had time, Steve was willing to stop, we completed that task.  We were headed off, again, to the N-ville.  It was a completely uneventful trip.  We got to the airport and got in and out of security with no problems (other than the fingernail polish remover that got confiscated).


So, we sit, we make phone calls, send texts and wait.  The plane ride was straight through, no stopping in Rome.  We sat in the center of the plane, next to a strange woman, who wasn't the friendliest person, ever.  She did, however, get more friendly when I offered her an Ambien to help her sleep :)  I slept some, not a lot.  It is hard to sleep when there is nothing to rest your head on. Big Daddy stayed awake the whole time. Bless his heart.


A really good thing was the fact that we had a large selection of movies (adults and kids) and games on a front screen.   That helped tremendously.  It was quite warm, on the plane, but the food was decent.