The Last Week

 I returned to Mountain Home in time to hang out with all my mom's siblings.  They had a Siblings Reunion and all 4 of her siblings and their spouses were out to spend time with each other. I felt rather superfluous since there were so many people in the house, but I'm glad I stayed.  It was neat to see everyone. And it was even better to get to spend that time with my mom.

Mom and all of her siblings.  They are all incredible.

I also had time to go through a lot of photos.  I found gems like this one. 

 And this one may be my most favorite.  This is me with my mom!

And I loved seeing pictures of Mom before she was a mom. 

The Sibs Reunion was from Thursday to Sunday.  Mom was pretty interactive up till Saturday.  Sunday was rough and Monday was even more difficult. I was so glad I was able to stay and be there for my parents at this time.  It was awful to see her go through it, but it was also amazing.

This photo makes me cry every time.  Mom did not was to lean back because it put more pressure on her chest and she felt like it was hard to breathe.  But she also did not have the strength to lean forward.  My dad sat there and held her head and talked to her with the sweetest words.  I snuck this picture in.  It seems a little intrusive, but I want to remember the love and devotion.

And I snuck in this picture as he held her so she could be more upright.  He always told her how beautiful she was and how much he loved her.  It was so tender and beautiful in such a rotten time for her. She was on oxygen the last few days, and she refused to leave her chair.  She did not want to die in her bed, so she stayed in her chair. 

 Mom died early Tuesday morning.  It was such a heart wrenching relief.  Hospice is the best thing ever and they took care of everything.  It was incredibly hard when they took her body away.  Somehow that made it so final. I got some photos printed at Walmart and picked them up so we could tape a picture of Mom to her chair. It made me feel better to look over and see her there.  Everything was so surreal.

We spent Tuesday feeling rather lost and empty.  Lost is about the best word to describe it. I was so glad my sister was able to drive out that evening to be with us. Especially since I had plane tickets to fly home on Wednesday. I considered changing them to stay for the funeral, but just couldn't make my family wait any longer.

So on Wednesday, Oct 2, I drove up to Springfield and started the 36 hour trek home.  It went smoothly except every time someone greeted me with a "How are you?!" I didn't know what to say.  But I arrived home Friday afternoon and the girls were delighted to see me.

Homeward mission aborted

 After taking Josh to the airport on Monday, I headed up to Jonathan's house since he lives 40 minutes from the airport, and I like him and his family.  I spent Monday night with them and then went to the Springfield airport.

My luggage, all ready to go!  I initially arrived with just the green suitcase, but acquired enough loot to need to buy the $3 duffle at the thrift store.  Worth every penny!

I checked into my flight and waited.  I only had a 40 minute layover in Denver, so I was a little stressed about leaving on time.  When they announced the flight would be delayed at least an hour due to a maintenance issue, I had to change my flights again.  So I did not fly out at 11:30am as planned.  I had to cancel that flight and I was rebooked on a 6:30pm flight thru Chicago.

I was relaying this info back to my folks and my dad suggested that maybe I should return to their house instead.  Mom had taken a turn and he felt maybe I needed to come back.  I called Dan and he said that he and the girls supported me staying and that they would be fine.  He rebooked me on a flight leaving a week later, and I planned to go back to Mountain Home.

However..... when I went to ask for my luggage back, they discovered that they had already put it on the original flight heading to Denver.  Aaarrrgh. So my luggage went on a trip without me. 

So, I went and got a rental car, that I paid too much for, and my trip was now extended another week.

Hanging in Mountain Home

 Somehow I didn't take very many photos at all.  I don't know why.  Nothing seems necessarily shot-worthy? It seemed intrusive? I don't know.  But I slacked badly in that department.

Dad and I ran a 5k local race to support the Food Bank.  He drove us over to the race in the Model A, which was fun.  No race pictures, but I got a shot of the car!

I had time to do a little sewing, so I experimented with a few different ways to make stockings.  The double sided pelon was unexpectedly different than what I have previously used!  But they all came out cute. 

Zane the cat was looking very pathetic and needy.  But he would not come down for any love.

Josh also had tickets to come out in October, but we were able to bring him out earlier as well.  He spent all sat Saturday Sept 21 traveling from school out to Arkansas. Katie picked him up and drove him to Mountain Home that evening.  She is the best!  See the cousin love?! 

Josh is a goober.  He was having a little too much fun with his grandmother's wheelchair before church. I do not know why these were the only pictures I got of my boy! 

 Monday morning I drove Josh to Little Rock to catch his flight.  6 hours round trip.  On the plus side, the drive IS really pretty, and Dad had left some Louis L'amor short story CDs in the car.  So it wasn't a bad drive.  

While I was in Mountain Home

 So, I arrived in Mountain Home on Friday evening.  The family had an exciting weekend without me, but Dan sent me photos and I was glad to have them.

Marian had a home Meet for Cross Country.

Everyone hates our course because it has this awful hill.  But Marian crushed it and improved her time again. 

And Callie played her trumpet at the Football Game!  These kids played the Star Spangled Banner before the game. I was so proud of her! 

That Saturday was a Beach Activity for the Youth. 

It was a Beach Olympics with the Okinawa youth as well.

The girls went and had a great time.  

 Delaney has a good group of friends and she has a little too much fun with them.

Meanwhile, in Mountain Home.... I got to be there for Mom and Dad's 49th Anniversary party on Saturday.  It was a great party and I felt very unnecessary since I hadn't expected to be there and had no hand in the planning or execution. (Okay, I helped make a boodle of dinner rolls.) 

I also got to hang out with family and only took a few photos of anything.  Rachel made the cut because-well- ALL the cutes! 

And I had to get chicken pictures for Callie.

Travel Woes

 On Tuesday, September 10, my mom asked me to fly back to see her.  This was an incredibly ironic twist because we had JUST purchased tickets on Saturday for me to go out in October, and I had told her during the summer that Dan would be out of town for a week in September... which was that following week.

But... I love my mom.  And I am not without resources and a shocking number of really amazing friends.  Thus, within 6 hours, I had secured a babysitter for the week Dan and I would both be gone, and I had tickets to go back. I was on a plane Thursday morning.

It was not smooth sailing.

This is what the Chicago airport looked like when I arrived at 3pm Thursday afternoon and they had already cancelled my 7:30pm flight for bad weather.  Apparently there WAS bad weather somewhere that was delaying flights and my incoming flight was something something something, so it was canceled nice and early.

I went to see Customer Service and told them I just needed to get close to Mountain Home and any of several airports would work.  They put me on a 7:30pm flight to Little Rock and assured me my luggage would be switched and go with me.

I hung out and watched the flight boards.  My departure gate changed several times.  My flight time was pushed back several times. I was so stinking tired that I wanted to sleep, but was too afraid I would miss another change to my flight.  Finally, at 10pm, they just cancelled my flight due to the delayed causing the crew to max out their hours and they were unable to fly any more hours.  Sigh.  Back to Customer Service.  I waited for nearly 2 hours with a host of unhappy passengers.

They finally rebooked me for a flight to Little Rock in the morning and said they would reimburse for a hotel, but most were booked because everyone was stuck. They were putting up cots and I was welcome's to take one.  I did not want one.  I went ahead and wandered down to the shuttle stop area.  Chicago has all it's shuttle busses routed to the same area, so I just called the phone numbers on the sides of the shuttle vans.  All booked.  Sigh.  I finally just started asking the shuttle drivers and found one who had rooms available.  So I took a midnight shuttle to a hotel I had no reservations for.  But I was NOT sleeping in the airport!  I'd come off a 12 hour flight from Narita, and spent another 9 hours in the airport and by golly, I WAS going to lie down on a bed!

United did give me this delightful "I'm sorry you are stuck for the night" water bottle. 

But it was rather underwhelming.  I guess if I was sleeping on a cot in the airport it would be a much more appreciated gift.  Thank goodness I am an experienced traveller.  I always pack a complete pair of clothing, so I had clean clothes (and my own deodorant) on hand for my unexpected overnight.  I did sleep fairly well and was back at the airport at 10 in the morning, to see that my flight was already delayed.  Sigh.

But I did make it to Little Rock.  I did not arrive till 5pm, and despite the multiple assurances, my luggage was NOT there when I arrived. Fortunately, my awesome niece Katie was!  She drove me the 3 hours up to my folks house and all was well..... my suitcase did arrive less than 24 hours later.