…..rather, stranded at the AIRPORT!!!! Here I am taken as I type……

So today I was scheduled to leave Dallas at 5:40pm, arrive in Las Vegas for a rather long lay over, and continue to John Wayne Airport in California. I was a bit concerned at first as my connecting flight was for US Airways and I was leaving Dallas on American…..but was assured there would be no problem and my luggage would even be transfered for me! I got to the gate in record time, with about 2 hours to wait, so nonchalantly went to get a good lunch under my belt, read my book, and chill.

My guardian angel was looking out for me because for no reason other than boredom, I decided to check out the departing flight screens to make sure that my gate had not changed. Sure enough, not only did it change to the other side of the airport, but it had been delayed for an hour! So I hopped on the SkyWay, got to the gate, and checked with AA personnel to make sure I wouldn’t miss the connecting flight. I was given the green light so I relaxed at the new gate, started writing notes to myself and updating my calendar, and relaxed.

At this point, Deana called and we were chatting and suddenly, I heard something about my plane being delayed again! I didn’t hear the details, but someone next to me said the flight was delayed another hour and a half! I trekked on over to the gate again, because I figured this was cutting it pretty darn close to my connecting flight. Yep, as it was, I would have 27 minutes to get to my connecting flight before it TOOK OFF, and they had no idea how close the gate would be when I landed. As I was in LV airport in October and it was a MESS with construction, plus the fact that the AA flight had already been delayed 2 1/2 hours in a mere 30 minutes, I did not want to take a chance of any further delays. So I pushed a little – not too much, the staff at the gate were very understanding and helpful – I was put onto a non-stop AA flight from Dallas to Orange County. The only problem is that this flight doesn’t leave until 9:15 tonight – sigh. The good part is that I arrive at the same time my original itinerary called for……the bad part is I still need to go to US Airways to get my luggage! I hope it is not far from the AA gate when I arrive at John Wayne!

So, I lucked out and found a plug at the airport for my laptop. I also splurged and got internet access so I could do stuff like post on this blog!

I am very tired, to say the least. Sitting in a boring place seems to do that to me. I have a couple Starbucks cards with me so I might get my Cafe Mocha Quad here shortly! Another good thing about the change is that I am in Terminal D which is HIGH CLASS! It seems a lot of international flights leave from here so it has the mall with fancy stores, high end restaurants, and the seats are more comfortable. Also, since no flight is scheduled for the gate I am at, there is not a crazy amount of people around! It was WAY CRAZY at the last gate! “Too much crazy!”

Another blessing – do you know how many people are flying into Las Vegas for the New Year???? I saw with my own eyes – A TON! There were three flights back-to-back, including the one that I was scheduled to be on, and there were over 30 stand byes for each flight! THINK ABOUT IT! People were getting CRANKY over there! I was sure they knew I gave up a seat for one of them!

So here I sit!

Okay, so maybe not EVERYTHING stays in Vegas!

We had a pretty good time visiting each other – the reunion of Deana, Rona, Stepha, and I was a success. It was like we were just together days ago! It was a long flight – it seemed – maybe because Rona and I hung out at the airport for about an hour and a half waiting for Deana and Stepha. But when they arrived you should have seen Rona run! I didn’t know she could run! LOL Anyway, we got to the hotel after midnight on Friday – Planet Hollywood, which used to be The Alladin – and our room was very nice. We went out for a bit, then ordered room service and slept (can you say PARTY PEOPLE????).

Saturday we ate, hung out, did some minor gambling, went to the AWESOME exhibit showing the Human Bodies…..we’re talking real bodies with their muscles out, seeing organs, learning about their functions, etc. IT WAS AMAZING! I don’t think I really appreciated how wonderfully God made us up until that point! Seeing a real uterus and realizing how freaking SMALL it is and how big my children were when they were born blew me away! Miraculous thoughts popped up throughout our walk through the exhibit!

We then went to a comedy show with Joe Rogan, who is the host for Fear Factor. He is very short! But he and two other comedians were very funny and my side was hurting pretty badly.

Sunday, there was more eating and then we went to get TATTOOS! We were going to go to Heavenly Tattoos, but our taxi driver suggested Diversity Tattoos which he said was bigger and more people ask to go there. It WAS a very nice place and they had computers all over to select tats. You could even access the internet to find pictures. There was only one tattoo artist when we arrived so we had to wait a while – another came in and that helped.

And, I know you all are wondering, why would I want a tattoo??? Well, I already had two, which I got on my 39th birthday. One is the logo for Not of This World, the Christian clothing line. Don’t have a pic of that, but included the logo here – although my tat is black.

The other tattoo I already have is the signature of my Dad’s initials, which he wrote himself and he also has had that tattoo for my entire life (well, probably even before I was born!). These two are on my left and right back shoulders respectively.

Anyway, I found a Christian tattoo from a Christian tattoo site (http://www.religioustattoos.net/index.php) that I really liked. I took the pic in, they gave me a quote, and then I waited my turn. Here is the finished result – it is not a good quality pic but it gets it across. It is a Jesus Fish with ΙΧΘΥΣ in it surrounded by decorative design.

I think it came about pretty nice, but let me tell you…..IT FREAKING HURT LIKE HELL!!!!! I knew I was in trouble because Stepha went first and her tat was in the middle of her upper back, too, although smaller than mine. The look on her face when he started told me THIS WAS GOING TO HURT! I was called just as Stepha’s was finishing…..here is her tat:

So, I am getting psyched up so that I can bear the pain. I didn’t cry or anything, but the pain shot through me like the feeling when you hit your funny bone! It shot down my whole body to the tips of my toes! Lamaze didn’t help me much with childbirth, but it worked wonders for this tattoo! LOL IT was worth it though because I love it.

The rest of Vegas, well it isn’t that exciting…..although I need to leave SOME of it there just for tradition sake! We had a tough time leaving though – not only emotionally, but physically! The flight that Rona and I took was delayed over 1 1/2 hours because a valve had to be replaced in our engine….supposedly a minor fix, but we had to wait for the engine to cool so that the mechanic could get to it. Deana and Stepha suffered much worse; their flight was scheduled for 6:30 was delayed until 11pm (!!!!) and they didn’t get home until 2:30 in the morning SORRY THIS WOULD BE 4:30 TEXAS TIME!!!!. I feel very badly for them, especially since no one ever said anything but just kept changing the take off time. I think they eventually even changed gates/planes! Poor girl and Stepha was worried about having to go to work today!

So, that is my update. Oh, and I won this week in Fantasy Football, bringing my record above Mark Monsees! (2-2-1 versus 2-3). In fact, looking at the Power Rankings, I am rating 3rd while Mark is in LAST PLACE! If you know Mark, or even if you don’t know him but work at ECCU, feel free to mention this via words or email! I would appreciate it!

Okay my peeps – on a side note – Finished strong at Biola. Last two bible classes ended with A’s!!! I have finished all question assignments for Romans and just have the final essay due, which I plan on finishing today or tomorrow. YES! Thanks for your prayers and support during this crazy time!

Love ya!

Not in order:

1. Having first an hour, then 2.5 hour delay in Phoenix
2. Deana’s tricking me at the airport, texting me she was almost there as I ran into her, texting her back, after having just went thru the security spinning thing before baggage claim.

3. Closing out CPK with Deana, Stepha, and Mike.
4. Mike scaring our pants off when we got home.
5. Seeing Zack’s face when he realized I was home – priceless!
6. Shopping for Sophia’s Cappy Birthday toy.
7. Seeing my boys and hearing their shocked comments about my hair.
8. Waking up early Sunday and going on a pontoon and wave runner for the morning – so fun!

9. Seeing Mike and Kenny catch air on the wave runner.
10. Seeing Stepha having her life saved.
11. Riding the wave runner with Josh and Kenny.
12. Watching Deana kick butt on the wave runner.
13. The girls getting ready in Deana’s bathroom.
14. Watching Mike get ready for his date with Hannah.
15. Seeing Petey, one of the guys who likes Stepha, and thinking his hair was very greasy.

16. Laughing so hard in the car as Mike and Stepha pretended to have a lover’s quarrel that I almost peed my pants.
17. Moons in Texas – ‘nuf said.

Okay, better get ready for my flight back to California!

Here I am at the water park in Texas, where fun was had by all! Not the best pic of me, but I am happy. And notice my tattoo on my shoulder – it matches a tattoo my Dad has…..in fact, it’s his signed initials! He wrote it down for me on my birthday last year! Not sure he believed me when I said I was going to get a tattoo. Go figure!

My visit to Texas was amazing! We had so much fun and it was COOL! Well, it was a little hot, but NOTHING like California I am told. So on that front I am very thankful.

That’s all I have right now – too busy arguing online to post more.

Even today, which started out to be quite depressing on the surface!

We all were going to church together this morning; I went out first with the kids and climbed into the Yukon. Kenny says, “We are all not going to fit.” I said, “Come on Kenny, we all fit last night when we went to Steak and Shake.” “But the back seats are out.”

That was weird, because we had gotten home close to midnight the night before and it seemed weird that Mike would take the seats out. Deana came out and I said the back seats were not in the Yukon. She looked in the garage and asked Mike if he moved them – NOPE! Seemed the seats had been stolen!

Deana realized moments later that she had probably left her cell in the car too. GONE!

It was at this moment that Stephanie realized that her purse was gone. She swore that she never brought the purse, but since we looked high and low, it was determined she probably mistakenly left it in there too and now it was gone.

We called the police and learned that another Yukon in the neighborhood had his seats stolen, too. He works night shift and had gotten home at 5:30am and found it out at about 10:30am. Weird.

So we called the insurance and will need to wait until Tuesday to hear back. In the mean time we went to Best Buy, bought a cheap go phone ($19.99 baby) and got a new sim card for Deana so that she will have a way to contact family and friends on her cell. I will find her a better phone on eBay soon.

We also got Stepha a new purse although all the sentimental items in her purse cannot be replaced. That is the hardest part. For that I am very sad.

You should have seen Mike – he was ready to whoop butt!

I don’t have a bad taste about Texas, however. These things do happen. I guess I have things to be thankful for – like insurance and the fact that no one was hurt.

We also had a great day today. We went to Gatti Town, which is similar to Dave & Busters. All you can eat food and lots of games. We had so much fun and didn’t let things get us down. We did lose some time trying to resolve the cell phone thing, but the kids got to slip and slide and go to the park at that time. We ended the day with yummy homemade pizza and yummy dessert.

Yep, Deana is spoiling me pretty well!

The kids are AWESOME! Kenny and Josh are so sweet – we had tons of fun yesterday at the water park. Sophia and Zack certainly make me feel loved as they hang all over me and want my undivided attention. It’s cool.

Okay, please pray that everything works out with the car piece, which will occur after I am back in California. Deana relies on me for this sort of thing but she will have to step out of her comfort zone a bit. I am sure she will be fine, but appreciate your prayer support.

To Satan, who I guess thought he could mess up our visit – UP YOURS!

Yeah, I have internet access again! How I missed it and sorry for those of you who were experiencing withdrawals. We found another internet point – OUR LIVING ROOM! That’s right, WE ARE HOME!!!!

You see, when we went to the US Embassy on Tuesday to get the kids’ visas and paperwork to become US Citizens, Olga #3 told us we could probably go home on Wednesday and register with the Russian Government from home. We were like, really? But I didn’t get my hopes up – I warned Deana that we shouldn’t get too excited until we were sure there were seats available, etc. So after the Embassy (which was very nice and where we met several adopting families) we went to the Aeroflot office to exchange our tickets.

Long story short – we got seats and we arrived yesterday at about 5pm! Sorry to Wanda – my cell was dead and also we really didn’t arrive home until around 10pm as we went to eat and stopped by Babushka’s house. Then we had to go in the big pool right away, see the house, etc!

But I am getting ahead of myself. D and I are all caddywambus with the time difference. I about fell over around midnight because I really wasn’t able to sleep on the plane (freaking loud, obnoxious Russian women who do not know how to observe the freaking entire plane was trying to sleep – but I’m not bitter). I pretty much passed out but then woke up at 5am California time with horrible heartburn (okay, so I had a Zinger and Hostess’ Cupcake late last night…..). So I am sure I will hit a wall shortly (as will D, who also woke up not long ago) but as of right now I am wide awake.

The kids did GREAT on the plane! Of course, it was very exciting – especially for Zack who was beside himself – and they slept well for most of the flight. There were plenty of empty seats so the kids were able to spread out and get comfortable. They also did very well when meeting the Rivera clan at the airport (sans Manuel and Julia – we missed you!) as well as Kenny and Josh and got along splendidly with everyone despite the language barrier. They also loved the following:

• The DVD player in my Yukon
• Chips at the Mexican restaurant we ate at (not so much the rest of the food though!)
• The dogs at Grandma’s house (Sophia more than Zack)
• Their new home (more specifics to follow)
• Their bicycles (which Zack kept asking about on the flight as he saw the pics on D’s blog)
• Their rooms and toys
• Their new swimming pool
• Thier beds

There is so much to chronicle that its difficult for me to write it all down here and now (remember, I have only slept about 5 hours in the last 48 hours…..). But I will try to catch up in the coming days.

Also, I want to assure you that Tex and Lucky were very glad to see their mama! Tex went crazy (more than usual). Lucky was in hiding for some time after we arrived home but when I sat down on the sofa with my laptop she came running and has been basically attached to me since that point! She has been constantly purring and its very sweet.

Okay, hope y’all are doing well. God Bless America – it’s so so good to be home!