It is the Little Things...

Finally, I think I am back among the living. That trip is a killer assed trip; 12 hours on just ONE flight, 8+ on another and 1+ on the last one. It is also a pain in the last to try to swing that 13 hours from night to day - my body keeps telling me I should be sleeping when it is daylight out.

The plane rides over were the roughest I have ever had. Out of Japan, I dare say at least a third of the plane had to use the little blue bags. Thankfully, I was in the two thirds that didn't. The pilot was very apologetic as he kept climbing into the bright blue skies with no better luck. He tried to make light of it as he shared that the pilots coming from the area we were headed to were not reassuring as to the smoothness of the ride - we had our seat belt signs on all but 15 minutes of the trip - he let everyone make a mad dash to the restrooms. We had just enough time before the ding sent us back to our seats. The poor stewardesses were trying to hold the drinks on the carts; glad I was not one of them. Someone actually got a lap full of drink :-( Thankfully, he had a blanket over his lap and he made the light of the situation.

As I got off the plane and headed down the terminal I saw a blond towhead sitting in some airport seating. I had arrived about 15 minutes early and surprised Steph. She saw me coming, hopped up and told the girls to come on. I walked all the way up to Raelee before she saw me - Oh man! The look on her face was priceless! When she finally regained her composure, and hugged me to death with her nose planted in my hair, she asked if I came home for her birthday - and was so happy she was almost crying. Next, she said "Where is my papa?" I don't think I will be able to pull off going to the airport with her to get him, but I will try next Friday. I hope I took all the bumps for his flights. Then I knelt down and introduced myself to little M - and told her I was granny, now she knows what a granny looks like! She yelped and hugged me yelling "GRANNY!" How sweet :-)

The first day was a bummer; my car didn't start (I shouldn't be surprised after 5+ months, right?), my dryer didn't work, my cat hissed at me, and Steve wasn't here to help. Todd tried to start the car with no luck so he scheduled with me to take the battery in on day 2 when the stores opened. The dryer had a gas leak and the stores were closed to get the parts. That really didn't matter, I didn't have clothes to wash anyway; nothing fits. I tried to touch my cat and she arched her back, hissed and ran up into the fig tree. Not even soft food could entice her back home. I finally gave up and went to bed.

Day 2 started out nice. I woke with a silly cat racing on the bed, batting my face and racing off into the wild blue yonder. At least she was acknowledging my existence. I closed my eyes just in time for it to happen again. When I got up, I tried to find her and she was gone. I went out into the back yard and she was sitting on a limb in the oak tree way up high - a cat bird. Silly cat.

I had e-mailed Steve about the battery on the car remembering we had to do something special last trip in. I don't like depending on anyone, so when he reminded me that we had to charge it for a couple of hours last time, I went out and found that Todd had removed it from the car so he could take it in. I hooked it up to the charger, washed the car, and gave it enough time to charge. 2 hours later, I had found it to only read 10 volts. I decided to hook it up and try it anyway. Disarmed the alarm and my 2000 Toyota Camry with 180,000 miles didn't let me down - she fired right up :-) YAY! WHEW! Today was off to a good start.

I showered, dresssed and got ready to head to Lafayette with Steph for visitation. While we were there, we bought the girls birthday party supplies; Dora for M and Miley for R. Granny spends way too much on grandkids... lol... Papa need to be here to help spread the wealth... lol...

At home later, I went to ten tacos with Peg, shopping then back to the house. Finally time to relax I clicked the remote; the darned TV doesn't work. DON'T BUY A SONY! Ours is 3 years old, $600+ and it won't even come on. 9 blinks of the stupid red light and a google search tell me it is fried along with a brazzillion other folks with the same model - and Sony is ignoring the problem. The darned tv is too heavy for me to do anything with it - I want to toss it in the street.

Bummer, here a week with no tv. Can I shoot it?

Anyway, I do have one thing to look forward to other than visiting my kiddos:



Silly how my favorite cereal, a gallon of milk, a favorite cereal bowl and special spoon make it all better isn't it? Awww, it is nice to be home. Lovin' that good ol' American milk. Mmmm, mmmm good!

Starting day 3 - looking at the HUGE pile of mail and deciding my daughter could use help getting ready for company. Off to Ann's a bit to surprise her then to Steph's to do my best ignoring the mail. No TV anyway... darned Sony. We wait 30 years to get a decent tv for it to work 3 years - most of which we have not lived here to enjoy it. *sigh*

It is the little things; grand children, children and a bowl of cereal that makes it all better. Now to convince the cat I am her owner... lol...