I am sitting in my parents’ RV riding down the road as I type this. I just love technology. We’re on our way to Gaffney, SC where we’ll stay the night and then head towards Myrtle Beach tomorrow. (We’ll actually stay somewhere maybe around Florence, SC tomorrow night so we won’t actually be in Myrtle Beach until Saturday.) I can’t wait to get to the beach and relax for a week.

The trip getting here, however, was no fun. No fun at all.

It’s just Anna and me on this trip. Dan had to stay home and work. We left Houston Tuesday around noon to fly to Lexington, KY. We had a 4 hour layover in Atlanta, which I knew about and was ok with. We were scheduled to get into Lexington around 8:30ish (I don’t remember exact time).

We got to Atlanta around 3:20pm had a pretty nice layover. We had a nice lunch at Houlihan’s and then Anna met a little 4 year old girl who kept her entertained the whole time we were there. I talked to her parents (well, actually her grandparents, but they’re raising her and they seemed really young…I was surprised that they weren’t her parents) quite a bit while we were waiting.

About an hour before the flight a big storm hit Atlanta with thunder, lightning…the whole nine yards. Planes that were already loaded and on the runway were allowed to take off but nothing could land and no new planes could load. So it backed everything up. Our plane ended up having to divert to Charlotte to refuel after circling the airport. We heard later that ours was one of the last to divert and therefore one of the last to leave Charlotte to come back to Atlanta.

So we wait and wait and wait and keep getting update after update with the departure time getting pushed back and back. At around 11:30pm, after Anna had FINALLY fallen asleep (in my arms) and had been asleep for maybe 45 minutes, they told us we had to change gates…and go to the complete other end of the terminal. Luckily, the family we’d made friends with was there to help me and carried my carseat while I pushed Anna (now awake) in her stroller. Things seem to finally be looking up.

At around 12:30am they tell us that our plane is here and we have our pilots. We’re just waiting for our flight attendants to land. Finally, we get word that the flight attendants have landed and will head to our gate after unloading their plane. Not two minutes later the gate guy comes back on the speaker and says “Well ladies and gentleman, I’m only the messenger. Our pilots are out of time and this flight has been canceled.”

THE PILOTS ARE OUT OF TIME?!?!?!?! What does that mean??? They couldn’t wait 5 minutes for our flight attendants to get to our gate??

Ugh.

So we were told to go wait in line (with the rest of the airport since most flights at this time had been canceled) and find out what flight we’d be put on the next day (Wednesday). I called Delta while in line and was told that I’d already been put on another flight. It would leave at 4:45pm and take me from Atlanta to Huntsville, AL, then from Huntsville to Cincinnati, finally from Cincinnati to Lexington. Keep in mind that a typical direct flight from Atlanta to Lexington is only an hour (maybe even a bit less) in duration.

I pretty much told the Delta rep that she was out of her mind. I tried to get on another flight with no luck. I tried to tell them to put me on another airplane but since this was a weather issue all other airlines were pretty much in the same boat and had to help their own customers. I tried to get them to put me on a direct flight to Cincinnati or Louisville but there was nothing.

I was tired, frustrated and just couldn’t do three more flights the next day with all of our carry on stuff, a big carseat and a two year old after we’d just sat in the airport for more than 10 hours. So I had Dan book me a reservation for a rental car. I decided to drive from Atlanta to Lexington. It’d be much less stressful and I’d get there well before my THREE flights would get me there.

So. The couple that we were hanging out with have a son that works for Marriott and were able to book two rooms in a hotel downtown Atlanta (because all of the airport hotels were full). We were going to take a cab but I figured since I was getting a rental car that we could all just take the shuttle there and then all pile in the rental car and save cab money.

We get to the rental car place and they will only take a credit card, no debit card, for a one way rental. I didn’t have enough room on my credit card. I called Dan and had him make a payment online to clear up enough room and it told him AFTER the payment that it wouldn’t clear until the next day. Well, not ideal but I would just come back in the morning. The couple decide to get a rental just to go to the hotel and back so we get that and head to the hotel.

It was 3am before we were in bed and we had to leave at 10:30 because they had to get back to the airport for their flights (which were better than mine….go figure the woman with the toddler gets the crappiest flights available.)

So we head back to the car rental place in the morning and they drop their car off and leave. They were such great people and really I was so lucky to have met them. They helped me tremendously while we were stuck there.

I get in the rental place and call my credit card company and the payment has STILL not posted even though it said it should. They said it would post on Thursday. So I go up to the guy at the counter and see if there’s any way I can get a car and he pretty much says nope, I need a credit card. I broke down crying at that point. I’d just had enough and couldn’t keep it in. I didn’t know what to do. I didn’t want to get back anymore flights. I was just done. Luckily, the guy took pity on me (he later told me it was because I looked like a nice person and was going to Lexington…guess he has family there) and went to talk to his manager and was able to make it work. I GOT A CAR! He even gave me a free upgrade from a compact to a not-so-compact.. ;)

We got on our way around noon and got to Lexington around 6:30pm. Luckily we had no further incidents.

It was such a frustrating and tiring experience and by far the worst travel experience I’ve EVER had….and I’m a pretty seasoned traveler. I wouldn’t wish the experience on anyone and I really really hope that the rest of my trip goes smoothly.

I took a bunch of photos today at Kentucky Horse Park before we left Lexington but I think this post is long enough. I’ll post some pics on here in the next day or so.

I finally got my haircut today.  It’s long overdue.  I only got about 2″ cut off, but I had a few layers cut in too.  It looked really good with whatever product the stylist put in so I snapped a pic.

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We went to see Hancock at the movie theater tonight. It’s the new Will Smith movie for those of you not in the know. It was REALLY good, as are most of his movies. Very entertaining. I give it 2 thumbs up.

..but hey, it’s a start right? Here are some people Anna drew today:

Not bad for a 2 1/2 year old, right? Interesting enough, she drew the right arm and right leg with her RIGHT hand and drew the left arm and left leg with her LEFT arm. Do I have an ambidextrous child? I don’t think so. I’m pretty sure she’s right handed, but we’ll see.

And then we worked on letters a little bit. She’s gotten quite good at writing A’s and O’s. Here’s our attempt at A through G. I did help a little with the “E” but the rest she did on her own.

Her “B” looks more like an “R”. She’s got the C down now after her first two attempts here. You can kinda see her “D”. She started to do an “E” and then got a little distracted and proclaimed it to be an “H” so we tried again. “F” is pretty good! She was losing interest when she attempted the G, but that’s kind of a hard one.

Not bad though! She’s FINALLY starting to control her drawing and not just scribble scrabble.

Yesterday, Anna was the only one who showed up for her ballet class. All the other classes have had at least 4 other little girls, so I don’t know where they all were. Before the class started she was playing with a toy and her teacher came over to say hi. Anna started babbling about the different things they do in class and then stood up and bent her knees and said clear as day “this is a plie’”. They don’t teach the word “plie’” in class, they just call it bending their knees or something, so the teacher loved that. I was like yeah…I taught her that. She took Anna to show another teacher because she was just so impressed. That’s my little ballerina for you.

Yesterday was the last class in her mini-session and I meant to take my camera and completely forgot because I was rushing out the door so we wouldn’t be late. We’ll be gone on vacation for most of the next session but she will get to make it to the last day of the session in 3 weeks. Then the fall sessions start at the end of August.

I think she loves the class, but thank goodness it’s only 30 minutes. That’s about the max amount of time that they can keep her attention. She’s still not doing quite a bit of what the teacher asks…she’ll just stand there and watch the other kids, but the parents tell me that she’ll start getting into it soon. Hopefully she will. She sure does dance all over the house so I know she enjoys dancing.

I’ll be sure to take my camera to the next class she goes to.

We went to the beach at Galveston on Friday since Dan was off work and had a great time. The water is SO warm here. I love it! Here’s my little beach babe. She had a ton of fun.

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And here’s one from today…a RARE photo with me in it.

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I finally got around to editing and uploading the videos from my Flip camera. Here they all are.. Enjoy!

Ramblings:

Counting:

Saying “Hey Diddle Diddle” and “Humpty Dumpty”:

Doing ballet in the living room:

Jumping on the big trampoline at Johnson Space Center (this one is kinda boring but I’ll post anyway..):

I have taken ZERO pictures since the 4th, which is why the PhotoBlog hasn’t been updated since then…just so all of my 3 readers know that. ;) We’re heading to Galveston to the beach tomorrow though so I’ll definitely have some new pictures then.

Anna started a ballet/tap/tumbling class this week.  It’s a 2-3 year old “Pre-Dance” class and she just loves it.  She’s always “doing ballet” at home so I finally found her a class.  So far she’s not really participating too much…I think there’s too much going on and she likes to watch the other little girls in the class.  The parents said that she’ll get into it soon though.  It’s still pretty cute to watch.  Here’s a video from her 2nd class this past Wednesday.  Enjoy!