At last...a trip posting!

So before I go into all the details (well, most of the details) of our trip I want to give you a bit of a back ground of what I've had to go through to get out of here. Tim and I have an awsome group of friends that we met while living at Ft. Huachuca a few years ago. They truly have been my highlight of living in AZ. Anyways, last year they went on a cruise. Since I was mobed at the time in TX and didn't know if I was going to be extended or not...and if not, what my job situation was going to be, Tim and I opted out of the trip. Let me tell you that after reading Rod's postings I was kicking myself for not just diving in head first on the idea and taking that risk! Anyways, not long after they returned and had us all fired up the email came out about this years trip. Tim and I both said that there wasn't a chance we were going to miss out this time! So for almost a year we have been looking forward to this trip. About the time that Tim moved up to CO I started to have nightmears about getting to the boat and not having our passports and Tim talking our way on board. So after a bit of digging and the help of Tim's mom we got all the documentation together to summit for them. I turned mine in back in the very begining of Feburary, and then Tim turned his in a few weeks later, paying the extra money to make sure he got it in time as processing times had jumped way up. Well Tim got his with in about 2 weeks after applying. Me on the other hand had to keep checking the web site to see where the hell mine was. Unfortunatly though you can't actually call them until within two weeks of your trip. So you can believe that I was on the phone 3 weeks before my trip lying about the date I was leaving to figure this out. After about 10 calls over 2 weeks I found out that the place I'm calling isn't even associated with the passport agency! It's just some customer service that has been hired to screan their calls. On top of that they aren't aloud to even call the passport agency, only emails, and only 1 email every 72 hours on a given claim. So all my calls really were for nothing. Thank goodness that somewhere along the line I aquired about a half dozen copies of my birth certificate. As I found out later into this real nightmear, I would be able to travel by birth certificate if I did not have a passport, however I feel bad for those that don't have extras around, as you have to send in an original to get the damn passport. Well to wrap up the story, mine was sent out on Wednesday by Fed Ex so that I would have it on Thursday, however Fed Ex didn't feel the same urgency that I did to get it because they opted not to deliver it on Thursday...It arrived Friday afternoon, after I had landed in Denver! Oh well....at least I have it for next year right?
So now that you know my passport issues, let me tell you what else happened before departure. My mother in law (bless her heart) was flying out on Wednesday to take care of Scott for us while I was gone. I kept checking the online status of her flight and saw that she was right on time. At the end of the day I turned my phone on to find a message from Tim saying that she had missed her flight. I'm thinking.....yeah right...funny joke Tim..ha ha ha. So I called him back to let him have his laugh, only to find out that he wasn't joking. She really had missed her flight and instead of being in around 7pm, she was going to get in around 11pm instead. I didn't mind the time so much, just something else to add to my list. I did feel bad for her though as that made for a very long day of travel.
Next I went to school on Thursday (for those that don't know, I'm teaching kindergarten this year). I had a fun day planned for all my kids to get them ready for the sub that had been approved back in October, and filled since January. Around 2:30 as I'm getting them ready to pack up, I get a call letting me know that my sub had just been in the office and let them know that she had changed her mind and wouldn't be coming in the next day after all! AAAAGGGG, I couldn't deal with that kind of unprofessionalisim, so I just left after making sure that everything was all set for who ever came in, and sent an email to my team saying how sorry I was if any specials were cancelled because of this. I went home to enjoy an evening with Dot and Leighanna (who bless her was taking me to the airport the next morning!)
So after making sure I had all that I needed and all that was on my giant list (I had a free sample off board room sized post its...what better way to use them then a packing list???) , saying my good byes to Dot, and smoothering Scott with a few last hugs and kisses, Leighanna and I were off. We stopped for a quick coffee and I really enjoyed the ride out there. I was checked into the airport in no time at all and found the USO lounge right outside the security area for my gate. With time to spare I stopped in there to rest a bit and make a few calls. I headed over to my gate about 40 minutes prior to take off only to find that....you guessed it...my flight was delayed. I guess I shouldn't have been suprised by this as so many other things had glitched, this just seem to fit in there. So after letting Tim know, I called Rod up and asked if him and Tara could please do that pinky vudoo thing that they do to help my day, trip, improve. Well it must have worked because Tim was able to rescheadule his flight out of Denver so that we could still be together, and after having a quick lunch in the Denver USO lounge we took off right on time. After the plane got up in the air I was flipping through their channels of XM stations only to find Sponge Bob singing "Best Day Ever"....I knew then that things were looking up for me!!!