Home again, home again ....

jiggity jig.

We made it home very uneventfully.  Well, mostly uneventfully.

I learned 3 basic things on the flight home:

1.  I don't feel guilt when flying in coach (Daughter #1 and I felt guilty sitting in first while all of the people filed on past us.  We both had the urge to tell each one who looked at us, "We didn't pay extra for these seats, really!" What IS with that?).

2.  The dad on that 'Chopper' show .... or whatever it is where the guys build motorcycles (because yes, that was what they showed on the flight) has a Mastiff so I may have to find out more about that show.

and ...

3.  It's very, very painful to fly with an ear infection.

     Yes, you read that right.  I don't think I've ever had one before, but of course, I developed one this week.  The night before we left I thought I might have one, but knew it when we started descending into Houston.  Without a doubt.

Thankfully I have a wonderful friend who happens to be a doctor so he let me stop by his home on the way to my home.  He looked into my ears and ordered antibiotics.  I'm very thankful because my ears (yes, plural) were hurting big time last night.

     I also learned that way too many people in the international terminal at the Houston airport ride in those "carts".  And there are too many carts with only one or two people in them.  Isn't that a waste of energy?  They should at least load up a cart before they move on.  And they should only load up a cart with UN-able bodied people!  We were almost way-sided by a cart every few seconds or so ... add that to painful ears and fatigue and you come up with someone dangerously close to going off on a cart driver!

     Here are some pics from the trip.  Unfortunately, I took fewer than I thought.

Here is Son #2 with S.  He's showing her pictures on his computer.  

Here is the highlight of the trip for Son #3 --- meeting T. Boone.  I think this should be enough to get him into the school of his choice, don't you?

These are from La Jolla.  We took Daughter #1 there to see the seals.  

OK, I went there because I wanted to go to Fresh Produce -- the rest of them went to see the seals.

And though it's difficult to see from this far away, there are several seals hanging out over there by the wall.

This is D1, S1 and S3, looking at said seals:

This is S, showing me her special fishing hook and fish that S1 (sitting on the other side of her) made for her (note:  my kids are ALL going to be great parents one day):
This is S, doing what S does best -- going and going and going!  She's so great.  She reminded me of how much I LOVE the age of 3.

This was the last morning -- on the way to the airport.  Notice the lovely fog (ummm, the blue at the top of the picture is the windshield, not the sky).  Fortunately this was the only day it looked like this.  We had fabulous weather while there.  Which made it very difficult to get off of the plane in the warm, humid, humid, humid Houston weather.  Did I mention it was humid?

This is Son #3 enjoying a nutritious meal of french fries and Dr. Pepper at the airport.  Son #2 was savoring a cheese pizza and a Dr. Pepper.

                Son #1 ate the last piece of pizza.

This is the clearest picture I could take of my watch --- which shows that it's not yet 11:00.  A.M.     Which means that the meal was breakfast.

C'mon, hand it over ..... you know you want to ..... Best Mom of the Year!!

    

     So now I am back to reality.  Which means that today I need to unpack, do laundry, clean the house and pay bills.  Don't be jealous.

     And which also means that I need to try to not keep thinking about calling the doctor on Monday.

     Here's the low-down:  the CT scan which showed that I have terrific appendix also showed that deep in one of my muscles I have something that is called a intramuscular lipoma.  Not such a bad thing.  Not uncommon, just mildly irritating to the person who finds out they have one .... or maybe that's just me.  The thing is, however, that the radiologist didn't like the look of this particular lipoma.  So now I need to have my doctor compare this scan with one she ordered several months ago.  Something that the radiologist saw makes him think that it could be something called a liposarcoma.  Not such a good thing.  At all.

So until Monday .... and beyond .... we wait.

Yes, we .... because I know that there are so very many of you out there, reading, praying, laughing, praying, crying, praying.  But mostly praying.

Thank you.

And to show you my thanks ..... here is a lovely video of my even lovelier niece, S, which is guaranteed to make you smile.

:)