Sorry for my absense...

I apologize, but I could not tell you all what was going on. You see, I surprised Bear by flying in for an unannounced visit. Obviously I couldn't let you all in on the secret as Bear reads my blog.It was a good time.

Bear nearly fell over when he saw me. Then he took a three hour lunch. We flew back together last night. We had four days together without kids. He still had to work, but the break was much needed for me and we had fun together.

My flight there was uneventful. There was this one woman though that stood out. She was older, quite plump and wore a sweatshirt with five cats on the front. The back of the shirt showed the cats' asses, anuses and all. She also carried a rather large wannabe leather but really plastic purse that was covered in cats. She was way too cheerful. Plus she couldn't just lean back in her seat, but had to bounce back in her seat and bounce every time she moved. This felt just terrific on my knee caps. When she bounced to the "lounge" in the back of the plane she had to grab ahold of the back of everyone's seat with full bounce and weight. I believe several of us suffered whiplash. She traveled with another older and plump lady that had santa on her sweater.

Please shoot me when I'm older if I wear cat sweats or holiday sweaters or carry a plastic handbag with ugly cats on it. If I'm overly bouncy while doing the above, smack me a few times first.

The flight back was overbooked. The first man sitting next to me resented being married and had two teenage kids whom he didn't trust (that's why he and his wife can never go away...or so he said). We waited nearly half an hour for the luggage from our flight to be put on the conveyer belt. Some guy in his early twenties was trying to start a riot by saying that the people in charge had no idea where our stuff was. Bear and I just stood and watched. Right after he made the announcement and started trying to get people into an angry mob, the bell went off and the mob disbanded as the bags began to appear.

One couple had eight large duggle type bags in hot pink and aqua blue. They were here for a week long visit.

While on the shuttle to long term parking to pick up my vehicle, there was a man on the phone having a rather loud business call at 9:25 pm. I tried to get the lady next to me to sing Jingle Bells really loud with me, but all she could do was laugh at the idea of pissing the man off. I'm a trouble maker at heart. If Fred had been with me, he would have sang.

My mother was suppose to watch the children. She had promised for a month and a half to do it and had known the dates for three weeks. We had even changed the dates for fit her schedule. She told me on a Saturday to go ahead and book the flights, all was well. The next day I booked the non-refundable flights and called her all excited about the trip. Her replied, "Oh no..."

I reply, "What's an 'Oh no'?"

She then says, "I don't think I can watch the kids afterall."

So I spent 2 1/2 hours on the phone farming out my children. A few days later she calls up all excited about being elected to something and going on and on about how wonderful it is to have people respect her and look up to her and to see her maturity and blah, blah, blah... For two weeks she says NOTHING to me about the trip. She shows no concern whatsoever until early evening the day before I'm to leave. She tells me that I should give her number to the people watching the kids in case of an emergency because she's so much closer and could get to the children quicker. I told her it was all done and I needed to get.

I never gave her number to anyone because HEY! she might tell them, "Oh no...I don't think I'm available for emergencies after all..."

Seriously though, I had an amazing time and it was well worth the hassles on my part and all the people who helped me told me the kids were great and that they were thrilled to have been able to help. They all knew how important it was for my husband and I to spend some time together alone. I'm truly blessed to have people like that in my life!!!