God is good on a travel day from Hell!

Still taking a short break from How I met your Father...

I was reminded yesterday that God is good despite horrible circumstances, ie: travel day from hell. But God is still Good!

Yesterday Eli and I traveled from Lubbock Texas to St Louis, Missouri, flying, in about the same time it would have taken us to drive. That’s about 14 hours, *sigh*.Here is that story and its a long one.

All was well on the morning of April 25th.We woke up. Eli had oatmeal cereal for the first time and LOVED it.He was in a good mood and I thought to myself, “this is gonna be a good traveling day.”We get ready, leave home and arrive to the airport around 10 am.Eli is in his carseat, in the stroller and is still just as pleasant as can be.The airport allowed Cory to help me through security, which is great considering I couldn’t have held Eli while folding up the stroller to put on the conveyer belt, along with the carseat and diaper bag. I was just about to walk through when I was stopped and told Eli had to take his shoes off. Really? Interesting. No big deal.I get through but now they have to put my diaper bag through like 4 more times. So I wait.I finally get my diaper bag and we are off to the gate with daddy. Cory stayed at the gate until it was time to get on the plane and I was so grateful for that . Once on the plane, I was blessed to sit next to another mom, with a 14 month old, who happened to be a nurse, and we chatted the entire way to Dallas. It was really great to be sitting next to an understanding mom for Eli’s first flight. Eli did surprisingly well. I gave him a bottle of pumped breastmilk on the way up and it did the job on his ears, thankfully. He also loved sitting next to another baby girl, which he smiled at and flirted with half the time! He took a short nap and we arrived in Dallas. I thought, Wow that was easy! Little did I know how the rest of the afternoon was going to play out.

Once in Dallas, I take off to find out which gate I need for my connecting flight and it is now 1230.Gate 7.ok. Get to gate 7.Delay. Well, crap. Suppose to leave at 130, delayed til at least 310 due to “equipment.” I have time to grab lunch. I grab a chicken wrap and 2 bottles of water. One for me and one to make Eli a formula bottle for the next flight, which happened to be around the time he is due to eat. Despite the delay, I thought, “good timing.”310 comes around, and on the wall is a tv with CNN on it, reporting tornado warnings and showing video of a “black sky” in St Louis. The entire gate starts freaking out and lo and behold they announce “Obviously we cannot leave yet due to storms and tornado warnings, hang tight and we will let you know something when we can.”I feed Eli, An hour goes by and no news. Eli is hanging out in the stroller now, playing with toys, being a blessing to his mommy. Praise God for a good baby. Its now 5 pm and the customer service rep says “We have a flight to albequerque leaving this gate, so those of you going to STL, go to gate 7.” Another gate change, alright, I can handle this. I take off for Gate 7 and I go sit on the ground in line.530 and we board the plane!! YES! Finally getting to go home! Eli is getting a little cranky at this time, but thankfully, due to Eli’s“aggie binkie,” the customer service guys says to us “I always let aggies board first!” So we are the first on the plane, and I get Eli to sleep around 545.The plane is full and the captain announces “we have at least another 30 minute delay. The storms in Stl have caused hail damage to the planes there and they are performing maintenance on the planes at this time at the gates. As soon as the gates clear, we can go. I promise I’ll get you to St louis.” The plane cheers! Its now 615. Suddenly, the same service rep that got me on the plane first, comes to me and says “maam, I need you to get off the plane.” My heart sinks, my stomach drops and I am freaking out on the inside. With no explanation, Eli and I are pulled off the plane. I am completely convinced that someone has reported that I am a terrorist and about to blow up the plane with the carseat. I am about to cry! I get off and the rep tells me “the airport in STL is closed now. I wanted you off before I pulled the rest of the people off so you can have a headstart.” OHHH! PHEW! WOW!I was grateful, but holy crap, did that scare me! I am instructed to now go to Gate 2. Oh geez, another gate change.

I get to Gate 2, only to find that, I am at the end of the line to the desk, of a full flight of a different cancelled St Louis flight.And here comes the people that I was on the previous plane with. There is more than 100 people ahead of me in this line to rebook. I am convinced I am stuck in Dallas now, and my eyes start to tear up. I call my dad and Cory, only to see that my phone has about 20% battery life, after all the texts and phonecalls to update them during the day. My heart sinks yet again. I do not have a charger. I am standing in line, about to burst into tears, when a couple behind me says, “You have a baby. Go to the front of the line” I felt bad and was afraid to do it, but the couple said they would hold my place if the people ahead of me didn’t want to let me go ahead of them. So I nervously go to the front of the line and say “would you mind terribly if I jump ahead of you? Only because I have a baby and I need to figure something out soon.” Blessed by a girl about my age, she lets me in front of her. The line doesn’t move for about 30 mins, even though I am next in line. There is 2 planes worth of cancelled, pissed off, people behind me.I finally get help and I ask what my options are. Most of the tickets for other STL flights have been booked online or by phone, by the people in line. Ok, well what about getting back to Lubbock? Delayed til at least 9pm. UGH!I decide to go on Standby for any STL flight. So I go thru the large group of people and find a place to sit, I am on the standby list. I call dad and Cory to update them and my phone is now about 18%. AHHH! At this point, I am starving, low blood sugar I am sure, need to pee, need to find a charger and Eli is starting to fuss. I barge my way thru the 80 million people still in line and quickly hurry to see if I can find a charger. I can’t be away from the gate to long, as there is a flight I may be able to get on, that is leaving in about 20 mins. I find a “tech on the go” store and purchase a charger for $40 bucks! GEEZ! Cha,ching! Lesson learned, pack phone charger in diaper bag. Eli is due to eat and is starting to get really mad. Its at that point, I realize that I left my bottle on the plane I was taken off of. Seriously? I had packed about 6 bottles worth of formula, in case I was put in a situation like this and was unable to breastfeed. I head off to the bathroom to cry. And that’s just what I did. After a good 5 minute cry, I head back to the gate. It is JAM packed full of people, I fight my way thru the 80 million people, and there are 0 seats available. Ok there is NO where for me to breastfeed at the gate, and I really need to be close to the gate. I have no choice but to see if there is somewhere that sells a bottle. I barge thru the people once again and some guy comments to me “you sure are brave to keep coming thru all these people.” Oh, cry!I go to the store to find a bottle. Praise God they have one!A woman comes up to me and says “I have seen you all over this airport, where are you going and how long have you been here?” I tell her that I have been trying to get to STL for about 7 hours now. She can tell I am upset and she asks me if there is anything she can do to help me. She says to me “I really want to help you. What can I do for you?” I told her if I can just find somewhere to feed my baby and get one a plane, that’s all I need.” She replies “I am going to pray for you.” THANK YOU! Another blessing. Back to the gate, through the people one more time. Despite Eli’s screaming, I am trying to find an outlet to set up camp by so I can charge my phone. I find one but I have to ask a girl that was sitting on the floor beside it, if I can put my phone there. She kindly moves and lets me have that spot. I plug in my phone. Ok, one thing is accomplished here, now I need to feed Eli. I then realize that I was out of water. I needed to purchase a few water bottles, which meant, I was going to have to leave the gate, and lose my outlet. Here comes the waterworks again. I decide I am going to just sit down on the ground and breastfeed him. I do not mind breastfeeding in public with my cover, but an extremely overcrowded gate is not exactly my ideal place to breastfeed. The guy sitting beside the outlet on a chair asks me if I would like to sit there. I thank him immensely. He stands up and I ask the guy beside me “will it bother you if I breastfeed next to you?” He states he has 2 young daughters with babies and that it is great that I am doing that for my baby. So now I am breastfeeding, RIGHT next to the desk at the gate where the 80 million people are trying to rebook. I felt like everyone in the airport was watching me breastfeed. Of course, I was covered, but still, it was slightly awkward to have that many people know what I was doing. The young guy that gave me his seat asked if there was anything he could do for me. I told him about my travel day from Hell and about the nice people that had let me in front of them and I said to him “thank you for offering your seat to me so I can feed him. I brought formula as well but I just realized I hadn’t purchased any waters the last time I strayed away from the gate and I didn’t want to fight thru the crowd for the millionth time. Its so sweet of you to offer me your seat. I can now feed him and charge my phone. Thank you thank you thank you.” He then disappears. A few minutes later, he comes back and hands me 2 bottles of water. “these are for you and the baby. I have a wife with kids and I know how hard this must be for you.” Oh my gosh, another person has just blessed me. I start to cry because I am so thankful and he is giggling at me and says “I would want someone to do the same for my wife. Good luck” and he gets on the plane. The plane is now boarded and they are starting to call the standby folks. Its now 8 pm. Eli is content in the stroller again, playing with toys. I am praying I am one of those standby folks that is lucky enough to get on the plane. “That’s it folks, this plane is full. If you are on standby, go to gate 7. That is the next flight for STL and it leaves at 850.” I ask the rep if he thinks there is anyway I can get on that flight or should I just go find a hotel. And he does the nicest thing for me. He books me on that flight. The entire huge line had just moved to gate 7 to see if they will be lucky to get on the plane. There were 70 people on that plane and it holds 140.A lot of standby folks were getting on this plane. But he wanted to be sure I was on it, so after waiting 40 mins, he gives me a plane ticket and says “you are on this plane.” BLESSED! Thank you!!! He informs me that I must go to the gate 7 counter to get my stickers for my stroller and carseat though. I have 10 mins before this plane leaves! I make like a mad man to Gate 7. HUGE line. I have no choice but to ask a soldier if he minds if I cut in front of him because I am getting on this flight. Praise God for soldiers! He allows me to be next in line and I get my stickers. I am getting on this plane! YES!I am waiting in line at family boarding. I guess I stuck out or something, but about 8 people came up to me while waiting and said to me “you got a flight! So happy for you! Its been a hard day for you I know!” Several people complimented me on how good my baby was. I agreed, I was very blessed that Eli was good all day. He had one major crying freakout and that was it. As I am standing in line, an older guy that I recognized from a different gate earlier, comes up and tosses a 5 dollar bill into the carseat on to Eli and says “here kid, buy your mom a drink. She’s had a rough day!” WHAT!? He tosses another $5, “here, buy her 2 drinks! She deserves it!” I try to give his money back but he smiles and takes off into the crowd. That was totally random but made me laugh! What a blessing people were to me today!I board the plane. We are of course delayed at least another 20 mins, but we are finally cleared to take off and I am just thankful to be on a plane that is actually leaving. Eli slept, played and had a bottle on this flight and was good the entire time. When we landed, he woke up and got fussy as we had to sit in the plane for another 30 mins before we could get off due to hail damaged planes. Before getting off the plane, Eli wanted to end this trip with a giant burp/spew of milk all over me. I love being a mom. Really, even despite getting spit up on after my long day. I am thankful to have a good happy baby! I get off the plane, run and change a diaper, and take off to find my poor dad who has been waiting for an hour at the airport for me. I have never been so thankful to see my dad!!! I made it!!! I find my luggage, which made it here from a different flight and we head home. And to add humor to the night, once home, Eli explodes in his diaper and he has the biggest poopy diaper blowout ever. My mom are laughing hysterically while we bathe Eli at 130 am. Man, I love being a mom!

Long story huh? It was a rough day, full of tears, overwhelming stress, anxiety, low blood sugar, crying babies, and angry people. But it was also a day of gratefulness, kindness, and blessings. God pulled through, even despite the not so good circumstance. I am happy to walk away from yesterday feeling blessed and I thank God for the experience, no matter how tough and stressful it may have been. He got Eli and I to St louis safely and for this, I am thankful!!

Commercial Break Update!

Time for a commercial break update :)

We returned from St Louis a week ago and had a great time visiting family. Eli changes so quickly! We have made it a goal to get up there every 4-6 weeks. I just got back and I already bought plane tickets for the next trip! Eli and I will be going up May 25th-June 8th...and we are flying. I am so nervous to fly with a baby but I am sure we will survive.

It was such a blessing to celebrate Easter with my family. Eli was quite spoiled with toys and stuffed animals. We went to the Easter Village at Purina Farms and that was a blast as well. Cory and I went out with a few friends to the Adult Easter Egg hunt at Queeny Park and that was sooooo fun! Please check out our pictures by clicking HERE. There are some pretty adorable Eli pics, just like this one ;)

and this one...

and this...

So dont miss it!

In other news, Eli joined us and his Grandpa for a 501st troop in Lubbock and he debuted as Darth Vader! Check it out HERE!

Stay tuned for the next episode of How I met your Father. It will "air" next week!

How I met your Father: MMORPG: Say what?!?!

MMORPG- some of you are probably wondering what the heck that means. Let me tell you. It means Massive multi-online role playing games. And for those that have played MMORPGs, this picture will speak to you…

When I was 18 and going off to Mizzou, I thought it would be a great idea to join my little brother in the world of gaming. He loves it and its one of his passions. I figured I would get a game that would keep us close despite the distance, something we could do together that he enjoys. That is where Star Wars Galaxies (SWG) comes into the story, an online world devoted to Star Wars.

Anyone who has played an online game knows that it can quickly become addicting. And boy was it. I seriously spent my first year of college on the computer. My friends thought I was the biggest nerd; I shudder to think of what my roommate thought of me. I would go to class, come home, play SWG til 4 am, take a 2 hour nap, go to class, come home and sleep a little bit and then hop right back on the computer. It was seriously all I wanted to do. I spent my first year of college majoring in MMORPG and I am amazed that I was still able to pull off good grades. My character, a twilek, named Lelu, became quite famous as she danced in the cantinas in her hotpants, buffing other players for battle. It wasn’t just her job, it was her destiny !

This so called destiny led me to my rebound in-game boyfriend Snooze, aka in real life boyfriend Nick. He was living near Houston at the time and we decided after playing the game with each other for a year, and after a 6 month post previous boyfriend breakup, that we would do a long distance relationship. I don’t cuss normally but looking back on that, I can honestly say that when I dated this guy, what the (h e double hockey sticks?) was I thinking? I have honestly no idea where he is and what he is doing these days as we only lasted about 6 months. He was super sweet, but he was OVERLY sweet. I was a princess, a queen, the ruler of all and he would do absolutely anything for me and never tell me no. Sounds perfect right? Wrong. A girl needs someone to balance her out and he couldn’t do that. We saw each other every other month or so taking turns to see each other. He was an introvert and very wrong for me. He was one person with me and a complete clam when we were around anyone else. He did not know the Lord before we dated and I wouldn’t date a non-christian. He seemed to honestly be interested and gave his life to the Lord before we started dating. After we broke up, he seemed to become disinterested. I will never know if the Lord really changed his heart or if it was just to get me. i would be embarrassed if he ever read this, and hopefully he doesn't. But he also plays an integral part of this story. We will get to that later.

950 miles away at College Station, an aggie that I would become particularly fond of, had just built a new computer from scratch, because his friends had persuaded him to buy this game and his computer had to be able to run it perfectly ;) 6 months into playing this game, Reeno and Lelu would meet, but it took yet another person to make that happen.

Next Episode: Dahmli, a friend for life.