baby growth

Friday, March 28, 2008

Getting back to Normal

Well, the last 3 weeks have been quite trying and ironic! Jett, Sara, and I attended our great friend Erica's funeral in Canada. I was nervous for quite a few reasons, so where do I start. OK, we will start at the time I found cheap tickets. Somewhat cheap!! Erica passed away on Sunday March 9th at 7pmish Canadian time. Real time 9pm. So, that night I thought it was quite ironic on how Jett had his eyes closed but yet, he was totally speaking and going through all the words he knows and just babbling new words. Donnie and I were just laughing and Donnie says, "What is he doing." I said, "he is talking to his angels." Sure enough, I believe Erica was there playing with him, keeping Jett up and us laughing! Because soon that night, I got the call at midnight that she had passed. Jett Eric is named after Erica and she never got to see him in person. We were planning on going to visit in June for about a month.
All day on Monday, I was trying to find a flight, but all flights were so expensive, I was getting down in the dumps, until I talked to a friend of mines dad that had frequent flyer miles. So, I had a little hope. He was on the phone with me late on Monday night to see if he could help me out, but could not. So, Tuesday, I got to school and I was adamant that I would find something. I told Erica, please find me something and low and behold a bereavement fair showed up on my screen. Ironic, so I called AA and due to spring break the only flight that had 2 seats was at 7:45am the next morning! I call Sara, she says in a deep exhausting voice, it is do able!! So, I go and ask for my bereavement and personal days and cut out of school early so that I could pack for two and get a notarized letter stating I can take Jett across, and an Id for Jett. Busy, I was. I had a softball mom meet me at our main office so that she can notarize the letter from Donnie and I. After that we were off to Nina Sara's house. We got there around 9:30pmish, i had to repack, give Jett a bath, and get food and clothes ready for the next day. Sara still had to work, and pack and it was midnight at this point. I put Jett to sleep and fell a sleep for a bit. Woke up at 1:30am and realized that I did not have Jett's birth certificate??? I paniced. So, I called Mick and Joe. Sure enough, it was on the table 2hrs away. So, I was looking all over the government website to figure out if a copy of the certificate would work. I could not get a straight answer. So, I am going to try it anyways! So, I phone Walmart in Chanute, because that is the only place I know of that is open in Ctown at that time and that has a fax machine. I tell the lady my situation and she gladely helps. So, there goes Mick and Joe!!
So, we are on our way with Sara having about a 30min. knap and me about 3hrs of sleep. So, off we go. Jett was amazing!! He flew really well. We flew from KC to Dallas and we had to change planes so off we go. I took a hand me down umbrella stroller from my sister, placed Jett in there and off Jett goes all CROOKED!! Sara and I were laughing because the wheels were all wabblie and Jett was heading all sorts of directions!! So, thanks Christina for that hand me down. We get to Seattle no prob. When we got there, I totally forgot to rent us a car, so here we go to Dollar! On the net they were cheap, like $183 for 5days, we get there three hundred something??? what the heck. At this time, Sara is getting the car, she is not used to renting cars and as she was talking with this Dollar African American low talker agent, I was on the phone with my principal about some kid in my class supposedly seperating his collar bone while in my class the day before, come to find out, the kid was in weightlifting, so not my kid??? Anyhoot, Sara got the car, as we are walking, I ask her how much and I about flipped. Sara says, that she upgraded us. The agent puts us in a PT Cruiser instead of the Dodge Caliber that we had. Caliber is good on gas, so, I instantly got pissed!! I called the office and cancelled, we called my bro and he booked us a car with Budget for around 200. Come to find out, Dollar had attached another expense that we were not aware of till Sara checked her account. So we spent 2 and a half hours at SeaTac booking a car. We finally take off in our Ford Focus.
Jett is still doing awesome, Sara and I both agree that if Jett was not with us, I would have lost everything with everyone at this point, but Jett made us sane!!
We make it to the ferrie in plenty of time. It took us a total of 2 hrs to get to our destination. So, when we got there, we got in line and went to the ferrie mall. Jett was wearing a baby blue outfit and yes, his hair is a tad bit curly but I don't think he looks like a girl. Well, he got called a girl! So, we are just chillin in the ferrie mall and I hear a message about our ferrie, we are not sure what it says. So we are taking our own sweet time and all of a sudden we see the cars starting in the lane and we run to our car, with Jett in the front, no seat belt, our car not on and the cars behind us, waiting to get on. We thought we would get road rage for not being on time.
We made it to Nina Erica's and Nino Dan's house about 10:30pm. Jett totally was passed out and would not wake for anything when we got there.
We stayed with Dan for a couple of days, just cleaning and doing things around the house for him. Ironically, it did feel that Erica was present at all times. A couple of times she had saved Jett from a few episodes. Apparently, Erica's cats have not been out much from their bedroom since her passing. Milo is a cat that will scratch and hiss if touched wrong. Mia, is a playfull cat. Well, one morning, I was in the kitchen and Jett was just running around chasing Mia and then it was quiet. So, I looked for Jett and there is Jett sitting with Milo and Mia. Jett was petting Milo, aggresivley. Milo, did not hiss or scratch him. So, of course I removed Jett. I think Erica was there calming to all. The second time, was when I had put Jett to bed and we were having a few beverages that night. I was periodically checking on Jett, because he was in a regular bed that was up against the wall. Well, I may have not have checked on him for about 45 min. I went to check on him and he was half way off the bed, like someone was holding his ankel not to fall! Thanks E!
The third time, there were tons of pics on Erica's refridge. I was holding Jett and we were walking pass the fridge and Jett points to Erica and says, "eica". I was amazed, I had pics of her here at home and always showed him her and she would call to talk to him and I would tell him, but for him to just come out and say her name was awesome!!
Jett was totally great throughtout the whole trip. All of my friends from Erica and Erica's family were so happy to finally meet him. Erica's nieces had a ball with Jett and of course, my son is a little casanova, he really like them too.
Now we get to the return home trip. The Monday after was supposed to be easy. We planned to catch the ferry at 3:30pm and drive to Seattle and stay with Grandpa Jack. Well, for some reason, I always come close to missing the ferry. Usually, Erica had to stop me somewhere for the last great taste of Sushi. This time, we were shopping at Zellars, we made it with minutes to spare!!
So, we got to Seattle in good enough time. Our flight left on Tuesday at 11am. We actually took our time, new umbrella stroller and all. We got to the airport at 9am. Low and behold, ALL FLIGHTS INTO DALLAS ARE CANCELLED!! We had to wait in line for 4hrs, to get rebooked!!! It was 1:30pm when we finally got a reroute. But this flight left at 3pm. OK, this sucks ass, we were going through customs and we got picked to get searched. They totally took out all of our stuff, searched all of us with that damn stick. Luckily, I had packed enough food for Jett, but Sara and I were starving. So by the time, we had to pack our clothes and everything back into our luggage, it was already boarding time!! We made it, Jett was awesome once again.
So, we make it finally to KC at 12:30am. By the time we got our luggage and got something to eat and drove home, we got to our final destination at 3am!!
I am on my third phone, when we changed planes in Denver coming back, i turned it on and it said service required. So, I took it to get it fixed, they gave me a new one and then the next day, the new one quite ringing, so I am on my third phone with 10 numbers, so I need your numbers!!
Now, we are back in Ctown and getting back into the groove. We started softball games after spring break and well the Varsity is 4-0 and the JV is 2-0. We have had a lot of rain outs, but we are first in our district. http://www.iolaregister.com has all the information and many pictures of our team. That is a plus about being in a small town!!

2 comments:

Ryann said...

wow, sounds like a crazy trip. I know you were glad to be able to go though. Jett was a trooper for sure!!

Unknown said...

I'm exhausted from that story. Whew! Traveling is always an adventure, then with a baby, it is a true experience.