This weekend I had the opportunity to go home to visit my home town, my home state -- in the NORTH.

You see, about 2 years I officially moved "south." I guess technically I did that several years ago when I moved to Baltimore, which is south of the Mason Dixon line. But Baltimore just didn't feel "south" to me. Nor did Cincinnati. Arkansas, on the other hand, feels "south." And to be honest, I've had a bit of a hard time adjusting to southern living.

Don't get me wrong -- the people are wonderful. It's never about the people. It's customs and traditions that I just can't quite wrap my head around - nor do they really fit my personality.

Here are a couple of examples:

- Many southern women will choose to dress up for sporting events. I'm more likely to paint my face! I wouldn't be caught dead in a dress at a game -- and definitely no pearls!

- While we're on the subject of dresses, many southern women love to dress up, and always look perfect when they leave their house - not a hair out of place. I'm envious of those women because they do make it look effortless, and they do always look good. But while being slightly envious of their seemingly effortless perfection - I have no desire to attain that! I'd MUCH rather go out in a pair of sweats and flip flops than heels and a skirt. If I hadn't chopped off my hair, I'd be most happy in an unshowered ponytail. :)

- China patterns and monogrammed everything is big down here. Admittedly, a wee bit of monogramming has wooed me in. But China, ugh, no way. We didn't register for China simply because I knew I'd break it!

- My latest -- the kids didn't go outside to play yesterday for long because it was too hot. It was 90. And in the winter, they don't go outside because it's too cold. It was 30. When I was a kid (aside from walking up hill both to and from school), 30 degrees was a balmy winter day that didn't require a face mask and snow pants! Seriously though - let the kids go outside. Fresh air and running around is GOOD for them!

While I was home last weekend, here are a few things I realized I miss about the north. Or at least my little corner of the north.



The daylight hours last forever! I always thought that summer seemed to last an eternity. Summer holds some of my fondest memories, and I think I entered a brief depression each year as it ended. I was excited for school to start, but summer was magical. I do think the number of daylight hours have a lot to do with it. It's still light at 10pm!



Look any direction and you have an unobstructed view of the world. The rib on SD is that there are no trees. And I do love trees. But the glory of being able to see forever is amazing there. You see the lush fields (OK, this picture shows cattails in a slough), the green prairie, God's beautiful blue sky. You realize just how big the world is. There is no feeling of claustrophobia when you have this much wide open space.



Rhubarb! Seriously, I didn't realize how much I loved this fruit until I left it. I tried unsuccessfully to grow it in both Baltimore and Cincinnati. Not going to waste my time in Arkansas. Each time my parents visit I request that they bring a bunch. My mom made this incredible dessert (not hers pictured above - but similar). She made a cheesecake and topped it with rhubarb sauce. More than one of us helped ourselves to 3rds of dessert that night. It was DIVINE. It's tart goodness cannot be matched. My Dad's cousin who joined us that evening for dinner (and who also now lives in the south) suggested that northerners really should bottle and sell rhubarb sauce, jam, desserts -- all sorts of delicacies -- and open stores in the south. It would catch on like wildfire.

I had a most wonderful visit "home" and am now back in my southern home. I will say that from an annual perspective I definitely prefer the southern temperature. And I'm not real eager to permanently return north to move out of it. However, despite where I live, I will always be a northern girl at heart.

I'm an official half-marathon survivor.

How did that happen, you might be wondering? Good question... since I admittedly avoided cross country and distance track in high school because i didn't want to work that hard! Prior to Christmas 2009, the farthest I've ever run is 3 miles.

So here's "the rest of the story."

Back in August (was it really August?), I joined an online Christian bookclub called Bloom. I really wanted it to just be a Bible Study, but it became so much more. I developed friendships with a select group of these wonderful women. One such friend is Reese.

(This is us PRE-RACE on March 21, Downtown Atlanta)

Reese came up to visit us in November, which happened to be our local Girls on the Run race. I was on our office's committee to work at the race, so she came along as well. She mentioned that she'd always wanted to run a half-marathon. I believe I responded that I'd NEVER wanted to run a half-marathon. Jon of course jumped in and gave me a hard time about my comments. Then he added that he'd give me a back rub for every day I trained.

For whatever reason, the two combined challenges made me take the bait.

Just before Christmas 2009, I put on my running shoes and actually used them for their intended purpose again. I had taken basically 5 years off. I had essentially quit working out the day Amara was born. I hated that fact, but hadn't taken the opportunity to get back into the habit.

Admittedly, I didn't train well. There were many opportunities for excuses, not the least of which was the crummy weather we had, the cold temps, and the unexpected amounts of snow. I effectively used those excuses and trained poorly. Infact, I trained so poorly that the farthest I ran pre-race was 6 miles. Most of my training was indoors on our elliptical.

That said... I finished!


(Me crossing the finish line.)

It wasn't pretty, but I did it.

Remember that I said I'd only run 6 miles in training. Well, as you might know, a half-marathon is 13.1 miles. I had hit nearly 8 miles on the elliptical, but it doesn't mimic well the pounding that your joints take in an actual run.

And my joints felt it!

I started off well -- the first 2-3 miles felt pretty good (other than being oh-dark-thirty). The next couple miles I didn't like real well. Then after a bathroom break at mile five (oh the joys of having children), I felt great through about mile 9. Somewhere between miles 9 and 10, I began to wear out. I was still able to talk (ok, so I was singing), but my legs and joints were screaming at me. I was very happy about my lung strength though -- because that had gotten ridiculously bad in my time off.

So anyway, miles 10 to 13 were painful. I knew that the pain was temporary and not an injury, so I pushed through. But I won't lie and tell you I enjoyed it! When Greg said, "Only a 5k left" I thought I might have to punch him! Never had a 5K sounded so long!

But then I saw the finish line. The gray drizzle that had been present through the last half of the race was still there. The orange finish line, balloons, crowds, music -- all the stuff that had been absent through much of the course due to the rain was there again. I dug in and kept going.

As we got within a block of the finish line, Greg said, "Go for it!" I just laughed and said, "Not a chance." I didn't have any more in me to sprint across the line. But I did run across it! I saw my family on the side lines cheering me on and gave them as much of a grin as I could muster.

When all was said and done, I ran about 11 of the 13.1 miles. Not too bad considering my lack of preparation! It would have been more like 12, but the last 2 miles really did me in. I registered with a 2:30 goal time, and finished in 2:35. Again, not bad.

I do owe it all to this guy though...

(My brother, Greg)

You see, Greg's a GOOD distance runner. He thrives on this kind of running and these distance races. He slowed his pace down to a crawl to run literally every step of the way with me. He took my verbal abuse when I didn't like his encouragement ("halfway there" doesn't sound so good when all you want is to see the finish line). He told me my pace was good and my form was solid. And maddeningly, he talked on the phone to my family, who was enroute, AS HE WAS RUNNING and WITHOUT GASPING FOR AIR. Crazy runners. Seriously though, I couldn't have run as much as I did without him by my side, because I certainly wanted to walk more of it!

And of course my kiddos. You can't see their "Run Mommy Run" shirts, because it was too cold to go jacketless, but they wore them with pride.


(Post race hug from Amara & Dominic)

You see all those shirts that say "Running is my life." During the race, I saw a shirt that said, "Running is my hobby. My children are my life." Still not quite accurate as far as my priorities go (God, Jon, Kids), but it echoed my sentiments much more closely. They are a big reason I chose to run this race. They need to see me modeling healthy lifestyles -- and my couch potato lifestyle just wasn't cutting it.

They're also the reason I signed up to run it again next year.

And next year... I plan to run all 13.1 of the hilly Atlanta miles.

By sharing just a portion of our weekend with you each day, I've effectively been able to stretch our fun weekend for an entire week. Yay for me!

I took a bunch of photos -- far too many to share on here. But I've saved them to a slide show that you're welcome to watch at the end of this post. Instead, I'll just share with you my favorites.

We were spoiled when we lived in Cincinnati, because we were able to go to an amazing zoo pretty much whenever we wanted. However, the kids were too young to remember ever having gone. We were excited to share with them the zoo again and see the animals through their eyes. The kids were excited because... well... they love animals!

The kids loved the bronze animals as much as the real ones. They bee-lined for the elephants, which are both of their favorites. They walked on the foot prints of several animals whose pawprints were in the once-wet cement. They penguined walked to the emporer penguins and were able to see just how they compared in size to various penguin species (which are surprisingly small). They asked the tortoise keepers what kind of sounds tortoises make. They touched the pelts of three-toed sloth, tiger, bobcat. They taunted the cheetah, who was racing a zoo keeper.

Add to it that it was 70+ degrees, and we couldn't have asked for a more perfect day. A good time was had by all!


By the time we rounded the last corner, Dominic finally complaied that he was tired and hunger. He was given the best seat in the house as we headed to the car. Good bye, Tulsa, thanks for a wonderful weekend!



Below are the rest of the photos from the zoo. Enjoy!

The pool was a hit!

In fact, I think they'd have opted to swim instead of any of the other things we did this weekend. Their candy was quickly forgotten with the promise of a pool.

Dominic learned to "swim" with his life jacket late this summer. We worried a bit that he'd "forget" and lose his confidence. He hasn't! He swam several lengths of the pool and tuckered himself completely out by the time we were done swimming. He was jumping solo off the edge (though he wasn't fond of going under). In short, we ended the swimming fun too early for him (in favor of bedtime).

Amara was the same story. Late this summer she finally was brave enough to put her head under water -- as long as she had her mask on. We worried her fear would return if we didn't get her back in the water, but again, thankfully she went right back to being under water! This time she even got brave enough to do it with the mask off! We also practiced her flutter kicking, and she got up the guts to go under water AND flutter kick. The technique still needs work, so she didn't get anywhere. But the fact remains: she tried it!

I knew I'd have two little swimmers eventually! They can't be my kids without being water bugs!

Swimming is in their genes.

I confess: one of the reasons we chose to go to Tulsa for Halloween is to completely avoid any Halloween parties. We can never decide on costumes to wear, and frankly, I don't really care for Halloween parties anyway (or hunting for a sitter).

However, the weekend was really fabulous, and we're all very glad that we went! The Tulsa Promenade mall held trick-or-treating beginning at 4pm. We thought that was a perfect time, because it allowed us to get it over and head back to the hotel in time to swim for a bit before bedtime!

The kids traipsed store to store asking for loot. Amara didn't even really complain about her box, which by this point had been run through the ringer! It was hardy holding together anymore. She asked, "Why are people always looking and laughing at me." I assured her it was because her costume was so cute and everyone loved it -- she got SO many comments from passersby. As did my handsome little cowboy, who was deemed "the cutest cowboy they ever saw," by a couple of people.

For younger kids especially, mall trick-or-treating was wonderful. It wasn't overly busy here, because it was GORGEOUS outside. We were done with the mall in about 45 minutes or so and ready to head to the hotel.

Or we would have been... had Jon not been sucked in by Foot Locker. :)

I figure I can make a short story long and draw out the details of our trip to Tulsa. It'll give you a few posts worth of pictures and stories anyway!

Our first stop was lunch at Dave & Busters. It was actually quite dead in there for lunch on a Saturday. We had the full attention of our waitress, who was dressed in pirates attire to celebrate Halloween.

Following our meal, we headed straight for the games. It was all we could do to keep the kids focused on their food! Jon and Dominic had fun playing all the shoot-em-up games. Dominic needs to work a bit on his gun-holding technique!

Amara was more focued on winning tickets. They won right around 600 tickets, and each were able to select a stuffed animal. Amara chose a purple kitty, Dominic a blue dolphin. Think they're satisfied with their choices?

The highlight of this trip was getting to meet my friend Reese! I actually "met" her a couple months ago through the Bloom book club. She was also in Tulsa for the weekend, so we met for lunch. She's a wonderful person on line, and even better in real life!

When we were ready to leave, Jon put the kids on the roof of the van. No idea why -- but they that that was fun!


This is just the start of our weekend. Notice the blue sky. It was that gorgeous the entire time. Love southern living!

Jon had to travel for work this week -- something that NEVER happens. His trip was to Chicago, where his college roomie (and best man in our wedding) happens to live -- along with many of his former college basketball teammates. So he made a guys weekend of it and took advantage of the time away. Not having close friends (i.e. those he's known for a long time) here is rough on him sometimes, I think.

For whatever reason, our trip timing always seems to go slightly awry. This time, I got an infection in my eye! I'd take a photo of it, but you'd be scared! All day Thursday (Jon left Wednesday), I felt like things were hazy -- like our living room looked when we tore down the sheet rock. I assumed it was allergies, so bought some allergy eye drops. I put a couple drops in and knew instantly it was the wrong decision. My eyes immediately burned and watered -- and wouldn't stop. I seriously worried that I couldn't safely make it home. I had a 20 minute drive! Mercifully, we made it.

I went to bed at 8:30pm Thursday night, hoping against hope that my eye would be better by morning. All night long, my eye throbbed and watered. I woke up at 1am because I had tears running down my face -- not literal tears, because I wasn't crying -- but that's how bad my eyes were watering. I knew I had to get to the eye doctor, but wasn't sure how I could do it. I had to wear sunglasses in the house in the middle of the night, because I couldn't stand to see any small amount of light. I was trying to read my computer or blackberry to find out what was going on -- but literally couldn't see the words on the screen. That's how blurry it was. It was actually quite terrifying -- especially in the middle of the night with Jon out of town.

By Friday morning, I looked as if I'd spent the entire night crying. However, the pain had subsided. Again, I knew I needed to get to an eye doctor, but also knew I couldn't do it with the kids in tow. Stupidly, I braved the roads again -- with sunglasses OVER my eyeglasses. There was no way I was going to get a pair of contacts in my eyes! I made it safely to the kids' school and told the director good morning. She took one look at me and questioned, "Is it?" I assured her that I was OK and that no one had died. I looked SO awful! HA!

Then I made it to work and kind of shielded my face with my hair. I had an 8:30 meeting and the people coming into my office, I said, "Before I look up -- I want to assure you I'm OK." Then I looked up and the shock on their face was actually quite hysterical! I made it through my first meeting and was able to get an appointment at 10:15 with an opthamologist. My friend was nice enough to chauffer me -- the real reason I came into work that day. I needed help, but didn't want to have someone come all the way out to our house to give it! So she brought me to the eye doc, then to the pharmacist. The verdict: a viral infection in my eye. He called it something, but I'm not sure what. He thought it may be bacterial, so gave me antibiotic eye drops. I got my script, picked up the kids, went home, put the eye drops in, and took a 2 hour nap.

When I woke up after using the eye drops, they were MUCH better. Not completely, but not painful anymore either. Whew! That was AWFUL!!!

Since I was feeling better (i.e. not in pain), I took the kids to see the 3D movie, "Up" in the theater. It was a really cute/good story. Thankfully, it was also a cartoon without an "adult" underlying theme. I hate it when cartoons do that! There was a little bit that the kids just couldn't quite understand ("Why is he sad?") and parts that got a bit scary -- those were mean dogs! But for the most part, it was a great movie!

Saturday we tagged along with a couple friends to a local rescue/reserve for exotic cats. I had never heard of the place, but Adam and Chandra suggested it -- and suggested that feeding time would be the best time to go because the animals would be most active and you could hear them rather than just see them. This reserve had probably 100 cats -- lions, tigers, and bears (oh my!) -- puma, lynx, bobcat, jaguar, servals, even a macaw! Many of them had such horrible stories -- private owners who thought it would be "cool" to own an exotic cat, but once it got big, couldn't handle it. Well duh -- what did you think it would grow up to be!? Sheesh! There were declawed tigers, jaguars with their canines broken off by pliers -- the lengths that some of these former owners went to in order to keep themselves safe. Just stupid. But the animals themselves were absolutely breathtaking. So big. So powerful... So CLOSE!!! We were only about 5 feet from them. They were in their cage, then there was a walkway for the staff to feed and interact with them (the staff never goes IN the cage -- but they do pet them), and then the outer cage for the people was there. That's it! You can't get that close in a zoo, that's for sure!

The kids thought it was really cool. They wanted to pet the cats, but had to be satisfied by the couple goats and lamb. The photos include the giant lion -- which the staff was petting through the fence! Look how tall that king of the jungle is! Then the kids had to take their turns acting like lions. And finally, we found a huge bear's chair that the kids enjoyed posing on. It looked like a scene from Goldilocks with the kids sitting in Papa Bear's chair! :)

All in all, a good weekend so far... but we're ready for Daddy to hop on the airplane and come home!

OK, so I know that technically Saturday WASN'T Memorial Day, but the way we spent our day felt like what Memorial Day celebrations should feel like.

We spent the day out at the lake with friends. Their kids are the same age as our kids and are in the same Day Care class as our kids, too. The kids love each other, which makes for a much more enjoyable day for the parents!

As you can see from the kids' pictures, they thoroughly enjoyed the day -- Dominic's assessment is "thumbs up!"

The water temp was around 75 degrees. That was too cold for my blood. Eric and Thea both got in and skiied/tubed. Jon and I preferred the sunshine to the cold water. However, the kids enjoyed jumping off the boat and climbing up the ladder. Dominic got up the gumption to jump in to Thea who was waiting to catch the kids. Amara never got up the courage. She did, however, get brave enough to climb down the ladder. I even was able to convince her to let her feet float out and eventually let go with one hand and both feet. She wouldn't let go with both hands though. On her terms, she'll get there -- but the more I force her to "be brave" in the water, the more scared I know she'll be. As a water lover myself, it's hard to give her that independence when I want to just say, "SWIM!" but I know that in the long run, giving her the space she needs to discover it for herself is really the right way to go.

The kids also got to play in the tube when it was blown up. We placed them in it from the boat and Eric spun it around and around in circles. Giggles abound! That was as good as actually tubing for the kids. They also enjoyed watching Eric and Thea tube -- the waves bounced them all over the place (as is the nature of tubes), and the kids thought it was a ton of fun.

We had a blast. It was a perfect "start to summer" day. Rain threatened in the forecast, but only occasional sprinkles broke through to cool us off. I got a nicely reddened set of shoulders out of the day, but the rest of the family was more diligent about their sunscreen. The storms did come later in the day, so we were glad to have finished our day of fun! The kids were worn out -- fell asleep before we even got home. And they slept well last night, too! Can't beat that!

Let me first say I really do prefer to fly than drive if it's over 4-5 hours away. Especially when it's for work and I don't have to foot the bill. But there are times when flying is SO frustrating. Last night was one of those nights. Hilarious, too, but very frustrating! I'm glad I was with 12 of my coworkers -- made it much more fun and bareable...and entertaining!

So we had 2 flights -- a short one to Chicago, and then the flight home. Our first was at 4:00EST, our second at 5:35CST. As we entered the first airport, all of us had a phone call on our cell phone -- so 12 people answer their phone simultaneously to hear the message, "Your flight from Chicago to home has been cancelled." Great. Well, at least our first flight was on time, so we can straighten it all out in Chicago.

Then we found out that we've already been rebooked on the next flight in Chicago -- we'll only get home about an hour later. No biggie -- actually, probably better, because now we have time to grab a bite to eat. Cool.

We board our first plane. The entire flight is seated and ready for take off. They shut the door. *clunk* They shut the door. *clunk* They shut the door. *clunk*

Yeah... the door isn't shutting. There's a "collar" (!?) stuck in it. OK. They call a mechanic. All the mechanics are off site about 1 hour away. Nice.

So we all get OFF the plane. As we do, we learn that we need a NEW plane, and we're now delayed to the point where we will miss our connecting flight in Chicago.

Again they rebook all of us. A handful get on the 7:00 flight home. The rest of us (myself included) are on the 9:40 flight home. That means getting into the airport at 11:15. Guess I shouldn't have told Amara I'd be home to tuck her in. Oops! They put all of us on the 9:40 flight on standby for the 7:00 flight, since many of the 7:00 fliers are on standby for the earlier Chicago flight. Cool -- we're feeling reasonably good about our chances of getting in at 6:15 and hoofing it to our 7:00 gate connection.

We're feeling even better about our chances in the air, when we learn that our gates are only 6 apart from each other and in the same terminal. Sweet!

But then we land... 10 minutes early... and there's another plane at our gate. Nice. So we sit on the tarmack for 10 minutes. We start moving, because a gate's available. But then we stop -- there's a mechanical problem with that gate and it won't open. Again... Nice. So now we've been sitting on the tarmack for about 30 minutes.

We finally get to our gate, get off the plan, run to the 7:00 flight gate -- only to realize it's taken off and we're minutes late. Ugh! So much for standby.

But wait!

Our *original* 5:35 flight has been delayed til 7:30! It's still here and leaves in 20 minutes! Let's get it! So we get to the gate, everyone waving their boarding passes.

But you remember the beginning of the story? The part where they rebooked us all on later flights because we wouldn't make our original? Yeah.... we no longer had seats on our original flight. Nice.

So we went to the Macaroni Grill and chilled. And got home at 11:15.

But.... the next part of the story (as if that weren't enough). Remember the earlier post about my car being in the shop? Well... it's still in the shop. I got a call Tuesday saying it's done and that they'll drop it off on Wednesday at the office.

But I never got the call from the office saying they had my keys.... hmmm...

So one of my coworkers who lives up by me gave me a ride to the office. I didn't know if the keys would be at the front desk, in my mailbox, on my desk... or locked somewhere that I couldn't access them. We got to the office.... drove around... no van. Great! They didn't drop it off!!! Ugh!!!

So my coworker had to bring me all the way home -- again, glad I asked him, because he's the only one who lives even close to my vicinity! The glitch to this plan -- every possible way I have to get in my house is, you guessed it, in the van!!!

Jon's fast asleep. We've disconnected our phones. We keep our cell phones in the kitchen overnight. There's no way to wake him up, despite numerous calls. So I'm dropped off -- try the truck (locked), try the front door (locked) -- try every single door in the house. All locked. Of course, this included traipsing to the back of the house in the PITCH BLACK using my cell phone as a guide light praying there were no skunks, possums, armadillos, snakes, coons, etc, to greet me. Thankfully, there were none.

I make my way to the sliding door by our bedroom (running into the grill and the patio table on the way). I debate how best to knock on the door without completely spooking Jon (and knowing that I would anyway). I'm grateful we have no weapons in our room! I opt for a jovial, bouncy, and continuous knock with my cell phone light pointed up at my face so he can see it's me.

What a nice wake up call, eh? :)

And what a fun trip! :)

Oy!

We had a fabulous time in Mexico. It was so nice to get away, enjoy the company of our old neighbors, relax, sleep all night without interruption... :)

Our first official vacation made us realize we need to definitely take more!

The kids had a great time with their cousins, too. They got to go to school, Awana, the Zoo, Sea World, parks. They were very sad to have to leave them. We're SO thankful to Matt and Jessica for their willingness to add two more for a week so that we could have a nice vacation.

We also agreed that an all-inclusive such as this would be a PERFECT way to spend a family Christmas. Skip all the gifts, preparation, etc., and just go away for a week to somewhere warm, beautiful, and where you're waited on hand and foot. We'll have to start planning.

Unfortunately, upon our arrival home, D was coughing in his sleep. My first reaction: great, he's sick. He wasn't too bad, and was basically himself on Saturday. However, he woke up with a fever on Sunday. I was worried we'd have a smelly van by the time we got home, but thankfully, we made it home with no incident -- and thanks to Benadryl, he took two 2 hour naps! Monday, he still had a fever. What better way to end 8 days off work with having to take another one off due to a sick child! Jon stayed home with D on Monday. Tuesday, he still had a 100* fever. Great. My turn to stay home. I took him to the doc. Verdict: Strep Throat. Great! So antibiotics were ordered and meds began again. Unfortunately, he needed 24 hours worth of meds to be able to return to day care -- so Jon and I took turns on Wednesday staying home with him and working.

Thankfully during our vacation, we were able to relax and catch up on sleep. Often, you come home from vacation more tired and needing to relax. We're glad for the sleep we got, because we definitely were hit with stress and sleeplessness when we returned! But I think we're all on the mend again. Hopefully the rest of us are able to avoid the strep!

I'm absolutely kicking myself for allowing the dilemma I'm currently in to come to pass. Two years ago when my passport came and looked odd to me, I should have contacted the State Dept right away. The fact that I travelled to and from Canada made me believe that my passport was correct. It didn't even dawn on me that it could have been due to the fact that the passport rules were not yet in full effect.

So... my day today...

7:30am...
On the phone (in queue) with State Department. Queue time 15 minutes. Conversation time about 15 minutes. Explained the situation -- all appeared fine on their end. She did tell me that I can't fly into Mexico w/ just a drivers license and birth certificate. If I were driving, that would work, but flying requires a passport. She gave me a number to call to get further advisement. She led me to believe that I'd be OK with my current (expired) passport.

10:00am...
Trip to the local Post Office. This freaked me out a bit. The woman there unfortunately couldn't help me (which didn't surprise me, but I wanted to see a live person rather than talk to a voice through a phone). She did say that my passport is in fact the old one, and is technically a "tampered with" document, therefore not legal. She also said that since I never received my new passport, it's technically lost or stolen, and must therefore be reported as such.

PANIC! Yes, this is when I really started to panic. I knew I didn't have time to do the report, get a new one, etc -- all before my flight on Friday morning. Especially since our intentions were to drive Wednesday afternoon to drop off the kids. Oy. Stress, stress, stress.

10:15am...
Phone to State Department... again. Over and over and over. They're experiencing a higher than normal call volume and can't take my call right now. What's up with that -- it's an emergency! And the number given to me earlier this morning won't allow me to talk with a live person. Not helpful! Voice prompts and automated info will not get me my answers, or my correct passport.

11:15am...
Finally get through to the State Department again. New lady. This one said that it appears my new passport was never mailed. WHAT!?! She went on to correct herself and give me a Fed Ex tracking number, but added that it doesn't show that it was received by me or returned to them. (Duh -- I knew I hadn't received it). She suggested that since it had been 2 years, it was unlikely to still be sitting in the "lost mail" section, so I should schedule an appointment at my nearest Passport Agency (i.e. one of the few regional offices), as that was the only way I could get my expedited passport. Nearest office: Houston. Yes, that's 9.5 hours away. Thankfully, it's only 2 hours out of the way from where we're going Wed/Thurs. Ugh.

11:30...
Call Fed Ex. Give them the tracking number. They don't have record of it. I asked if it's because it's too old. They said, "No, we'd still have record of it in billing. It's because the sheet was printed, but it was never handed over to a Fed Ex representative." They never mailed it!!!! ARGH!!!

12:00...
Call another State Dept person -- a direct line given to me by my wonderful brother who has a few inside connections. Unfortunately, this person only handles government workers, not citizens, so really couldn't help me. She did, however, press my breaking point button. She asked the simple question, "Can I ask why it took you 2 years to report that you hadn't received your new passport?" And I just broke down -- the stress, frustration, and stupidity of it all got to me. My answer: because I've never received a passport renewal, didn't know what it SHOULD look like, and assumed that what I received was correct! *sigh*

12:15...
On the phone again with the State Department to let them know that Fed Ex never received the package. This person also said, "It looks like it was never sent," but then went on to kind of cover for herself and checked the tracking number. She then was able to send an urgent request to the processing department (who of course have no direct lines to follow up). I told them the urgency is huge, because if I have to go to Houston, I have to also leave earlier than originally planned. So she basically needed to have them return the call today (they didn't). I also told her that I'd prefer NOT to pay again, since it wasn't my fault that I didn't have the documents. I asked for a copy of all the stuff we'd talked about for my meeting in Houston.... but she refused, saying that they'd be able to see it all when I get there. Yes... but *I* would like to have a copy of all the mistakes that were made!

So we've now booked a hotel for Houston on Wednesday night. I have an appointment on Thursday morning at 8am at the Passport Agency. I can only pray that they can turn it around immediately (I was told they should be able to). Should is NOT a good word today. Then we head on to Jon's brother's house, because they're watching the kids for us. And then we fly out on Friday.

Please, oh please, oh please let us fly out on Friday.

Besides being ugly, what else do you see that's wrong with this picture?




















I got my first passport in college in 1996. I was 20. In 2004, I updated it with my married name. I had gotten married much earlier, but had no need to travel abroad until 2004. The back page of my passport says that on May 14, 2004, my name had been updated.

All that's cool and good.

In 2007, I needed to travel to Canada. It was about the time when they were going to require that US citizens also needed a passport. I thought mine was still valid, but then checked and realized it had expired a year prior! Oops! So I filled out the appropriate paperwork, took the photo, went to the Passport Agency at the local Post Office, and expedited my passport to the US State Dept to get it renewed.

The above photo is what they sent back. My OLD passport with my NEW photo simply stapled to it. There is no addendum in the back.

Today I went to register our upcoming trip with the US Embassy online. It asked for my expiration date on my passport. So I dug it out. There IS NO EXPIRATION DATE!!! What!?! The only expiration date listed is April 2006! Now I know that I sent it in and updated it in 2006 -- but why would there be no updated expiration date, no addendum on the back page, and why would they staple my photo. *I* could have stapled my photo.

Since it's a Sunday afternoon, I can't really do anything about it but flip out! So tomorrow I've got to call the US Passport people and run to the Post Office and pray that my trip will still be a green light!

Uggabugga.

One week. Not even.

Right now NEXT week we'll be enroute to San Antonio. Actually, last night NEXT week we'll be enroute to San Antonio with a pitstop in Dallas for some outlet shopping.

I'm SO excited!

I'm oddly nervous about leaving the kids for a week, too. But I'll get over it! They're in good hands, and they'll have a blast with their cousins. It's just that it's the longest I've left them alone before. And I'll miss them. But again... I'll get over it!

Once we drop the kids off, we're boarding a plane for Mexico! The beauty of this trip... well... there's lots of beautiful things about this trip...
1) We're going with our old neighbors from Baltimore, who we miss like crazy! There will be 8 adults heading south for some much-needed warming up and relaxation time.
2) Three of the other adults on the trip are "planners" -- which means they love all the details and finding all the fun excursions and mapping things out for us to do each day. Jon and I don't like the details, but we love to take part in them. So we're not having to get bogged down with the things we hate -- but will still get to do the things we love!
3) It's warm in Mexico!

The bad thing right now is I've got perpetual lists going through my head. Lists of what I need to pack. Lists of things I need to do before we leave (like pay the bills!). Lists of emergency info for the kids should something happen. Lists of what the kids need to have packed. I really need to just pack, so I can turn off the lists! They're literally keeping me up at night.

The funny thing: our "planner" neighbors have already given us a very thorough packing list. So I'm not sure why I'm still generating them in my head!?

Excitement, I guess.

Oh... and the last beautiful thing...

This is the FIRST true vacation Jon and I have ever taken together! We've gone lots of places, but usually it was hooked to a business trip, a family reunion, a holiday, etc. This trip is just for us. Yippee!

You know... there are just some periods in life when things are at such a frantic pace that you feel you've been left in the dust and are spinning on your tail.

Don't get me wrong, things are fine. But wow -- this past couple weeks held a pace that I'd like NOT to keep up moving forward. I think that tends to be the nature of life in my new position. And I'm grateful for the position and the opportunities it's providing. But I'm pretty sure I've aged 10 years in the last year.

I have to share my weekend. I was sent away for work to set up a conference. I travelled with 3 colleagues. Only I didn't exactly travel WITH them. Being the stubborn person that I am, I chose to fly out at 5:50pm AFTER our basketball game. They flew out at around noon, with the ETA of about 5:00pm. My first flight was delayed 45 minutes -- which annoyed me until I arrived at my final destination on time. Then I learned that my colleagues had only arrived 2 hours before me -- instead of the 7 hours they were SUPPOSED to have arrived before me. They had a nightmare day of delayed flights, missed flights, etc. I only had the inconvenice (and my seat mate the misfortune) of not having time to shower after my basketball game. HA HA! I'm still laughing at that! :) As Jon would say, "I smell like roses."

THEN.... on the return flight on Sunday....
We arrived at the show Sunday morning to continue our set up. They got a phone call from the airline saying BOTH their flights were cancelled, and they were rebooked on the 6:30PM flight on Monday. Yes -- over 24 hours later. My flights... all on time. I had chosen to fly through Dallas, while their flights took them through Atlanta. In short, their flights took them straight through all the crazy thunderstorms, tornadoes, and other weather that hit the southeast last weekend. My route took me south of it all. Even when my last flight was delayed an hour, my new perspective allowed me to not get annoyed, and instead just be thankful that I could still kiss my kids when I got home that night. Yes, it was midnight. But I was home.

Sometimes it's nice to get a different perspective. I think it's important to hold that perspective and keep a positive outlook. It's very easy for me to get drug down by the chaos and frantic pace. When I allow myself to do that, I get a singular focus on "just getting through" and my perspective on the rest of life is completely lost. Another way of putting it: I look OUT, but forget to look UP.

Because at the end of the day, the right perspective is going to come from UP.

"If then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God. Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth. For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God." Colossians 3:1-3