My friend

I want to blog a series about my trip to Cancun. But not tonight. Tonight I want to say good bye to a dear, dear friend. Nancy has been a close friend, family for all intents and purposes, for the last 29 years.
Nancy, we shared laughs and tears. We've gone dancing, had Thanksgiving and Christmas together, played cards and drank endless cups of coffee at the table together. We didn't get to go on the cruise we were planning last year, but you are now on your final journey. Take care, my friend. You have loved ones here that will miss you dearly. But, I know that you are now pain free and joining those who went before you. Give George and Henry big hugs for me. I miss and love you.

Cancun

OK, so I'm excited. I leave tomorrow morning for Cancun. This is the first real vacation I've had in years. I am going with my best friend and her husband and daughter. Sounds kind of weird, but we travel together all the time. We've been to Monterrey, Austin, Corpus Christi, San Antonio, Orlando...just something we do. No phone, no computer...just beach, Mayan ruins, parasailing, snorkeling, massages, shopping...fun. I will take lots of pictures and plan to have an absolute wonderful time. See ya'll next week.

Have to stay connected

So, I leave home with a co-worker at 7:30 yesterday morning, drive to Amarillo and pick up four children. We board a plane at 11:50 and finally make it to El Paso almost 5 hours later. Not a bad trip...only a little bit of sprite was spilled on my digital camera, but it was okay. After letting the boys play games on my laptop, my battery had run down. No biggie...I can plug it in once I get to my brother and sister in law's house.
Well, my laptop doesn't work. Now we have a problem. I take it to Best Buy and find out that the warranty expired May 13th. Well, isn't that always what happens. They can send it in, but it'll take two weeks to get it back. Helloooo...I don't live in El Paso. I'm leaving Sunday. But...all is not lost. Apparently the problem is that I live in a dusty area. Lubbock and El Paso aren't that different. After blowing dust out of the fan area and around the sides, my laptop works. Let's just hope it continues to work. Two weeks without my laptop is almost impossible to imagine!

Flying

I love flying with kids. Especially when it's their first flight. Sometimes they are excited, sometimes they are scared, but I guarantee that there is never a dull moment. I flew with three young men from Lubbock to Dallas to El Paso Friday and will be making the return trip tomorrow. These guys range in age from 8 to a month shy of 15 and had never flown before. When we landed in Dallas the oldest had a headache. Lunch took care of that. The flight from Dallas to El Paso wasn't quite so easy. A storm had moved through the El Paso area earlier and apparently the skies had not quite settled down. There was some up and down movements as the plane hit air pockets. The 8 year old was sitting with me. His stomach started hurting and I just put my arm around him and held him close until we landed. Unbeknownst to us, while this was going on, the 10 year old, sitting with his older brother right behind us, was in the process of...well, to us his words, "I barfed." Now, I know how useful those little white bags in the seat pocket are. But, they recovered well and I left them at their pre-placement visit running and playing. I hope tomorrow's flights are smooth.

Birthday surprise

Man, it's hard to believe that I've hit the big 5-0. I don't feel like it. After having a pretty good day, my son asked me if I would watch the girls because his wife wanted him to go to her NA meeting with her. I had already gotten them to bed when I received a text message saying to not put them to bed because my son was going to call me and have me bring the girls to meet them for a birthday surprise. He said it would be worth keeping them up. So...I got to wake them up. But, it was worth it. We met at Daybreak coffee and my son and DIL walk up with a young man that I didn't recognize. The young man was my nephew!!! I haven't seen him in at least 8 - 10 years. My nephew had gotten caught up in some things he shouldn't have and spent some time in prison. He was at the NA meeting and my son just happened to see him walk by. I saw my niece a couple of days before (she and her husband and baby stopped by on the way from their home in Tennesee to Phoenix.) She told me then that she didn't know where my nephew was or if he was even alive. My nephew has been in Lubbock for 5 years. He's at a half way house and is working. He saw me on TV for one of our adoption clips and said he thought it was cool. After I gently got on to him for not getting in touch with me, we had a great visit. He's in town and I plan on seeing quite a bit of him. He needs family support. He's had a hard few years, but he's a better guy than he was. This was the best birthday surprise I could have gotten.

El Paso

I had such a fun time in El Paso. Getting to see my son was great. I spent one night playing Wii with my niece. She pretty much whipped me at Wii sports, but I'm getting better. Maybe I need to buy one and practice. The highlight of my trip though, was that Dharma flew down to El Paso on Sunday with her daddy and she got to spend Sunday night and Monday morning with her uncle and me. My son is totally captivated by his little niece. She can do no wrong as far as he is concerned. We took her to the El Paso Zoo. It is so enlightening to see the animals with a little one. Of course I took a ton of pictures. Now I just need to get them downloaded.

Old friends

It's nice to see a friend you haven't seen in a while. I got to see an old friend today and we had a great conversation. I like that even though we hadn't talked in a long time, we picked up and visited just like we had seen each other last week. She'll be in town through Monday and we might go to lunch Monday. Our visit was a highlight on an otherwise pretty blah week.