Yesterday, I got momma up early in case she wanted to go with me to take my daughter Kate to the airport. Kate's roommate for the last year has moved to Hawaii with her family and has invited Kate to come for a visit. They would provide her "room and board", so it would only cost her a plane ticket. What a deal!! She has been saving for quite a while, but finally had enough for a plane ticket, so she put in for time off work, and began looking for a ticket. She finally found one and booked it, leaving March 31st. She had not mentioned needing me at all to take her to the airport so I didn't really plan for that. The night before her flight, I was reading on Facebook, the conversation between her and her sister about how anxious Kate was about the airport security, getting to the right gate, etc. She put on Facebook that her boyfriend was willing to take her, as well as her sister, but she really really wanted her mom to take her! She just needed a mom for that. I laughed out loud and told Keith she had not said a word! Almost instantly, my phone got a text from Kate asking me what my plans for tomorrow (3/31) were. I responded with "I am taking my daughter to the airport!" Knowing how momma is, and how much time it takes to get her out the door for anything, I got her up. I asked her if she wanted me to drop her off at her house, or if she wanted to go along for the ride with me to the airport. I admit I was secretly hoping for the "drop me off at my house" answer. I know how mom is with walking any distance at all, much less from the parking garage, through an airport, etc. I also had plans for getting a security pass so that I could escort Kate all the way to the gate, and felt like that would not be possible if I had momma with me. And truthfully I did not need the stress of both momma and Kate! The last time Kate had an airport experience was when she was flying back from Daytona Beach, and her two sisters got through security fine, and they pulled Kate out of line and took her behind curtains and searched her separately! It was a random search, finding nothing out of the ordinary, but it separated Kate from her sisters, made everyone worry and by the time Kate got on the plane she was in tears and a mess. Needless to say, she still gets anxiety attacks really really bad when approaching security at airports. Anyway, mom told me that she thought she would just let me make that trip with Kate. I said are you sure mom? She assured me she would just like to stay home today. "Why would I want to go to the house? Nobody is there!" OooKkk. I went and started filling my coffee cup, getting my things together and out of the room came mom, with her purse on her arm, asking me if I was ready. We walked to the car, right on time, as I had told Kate I would pick her up at 8:30 a.m. We were in the car, and headed towards Farmington by 8 o'clock! Of course, momma began to ask me why we were going this way, are we going to pick up Q-baby? It is a 15 minute drive to town, at least, and all the way to town, mom asked me if we were going to pick up Q-baby. We get to Kate's apartment, get her loaded, and head to Bauhaus to meet Jen for breakfast. My phone rings and it is my son Nick telling me that Jess, his ex-wife, needs a babysitter for Ruger today, and could I meet her somewhere in Farmington. Hmm, I looked at Kate's flight schedule, did the mental math, and thought, yea, I could do that. It will be close, considering I am planning on dropping mom off at her house, which will take at least 10 minutes, but hey, I can do this. The other options are, dropping off Ruger with Grandma at her house.....nada. Maybe mom will get out at the house with Ruger! We wrap up our muffins, grab our drinks and out the door we go. I zip over to Wal-Mart, where Jess was waiting. We grab his car seat, do the switch, and off I go, heading towards the farm. We pull up in my drive, get Ruger out, get his car seat out, take him and his backpack inside, and run back out the door. Mom has decided to stay in the car and go with me. We head north. I pull up to momma's house, leave the car running, and take her inside. Kelly is still there, since it is her day off. She has tickets to the Opening Day of Cardinal Season! Kelly and momma begin to talk, and I kiss momma goodbye and tell her I will be back soon and run out the door. I jump back in the car, breath, and get back on the interstate and head towards the airport. By this time it is 10:20 and her plane boards at 1:15 and we are still an hour from the airport. When I got back in the car, Kate laughs and says, "Geez mom, if I had known you were so BUSY, I would not have asked you to take me to the airport!" "Pssssshh, this is a normal day in my life Kate!" We made it to the airport in plenty of time, got parked and went inside the airport. We found the American ticket counter to check her bag. We had already checked her in on-line, and printed out her boarding passes. I asked for a security pass so that I could escort her to the gate, and they printed me out one! I admit, I was pretty surprised. She is 20 years old, and perfectly healthy. But I have always said, if you ask with authority, use the right language, you can usually pull it off. I told them she had anxiety attacks when flying, and the last time she flew she was in tears by the time she boarded the plane. That was the truth, and the lady printed me out a security pass. We went through security without any problems, and got to the gate with a good hour and a half to spare. We walked around, and found a place to eat lunch and sit and relax. Once Kate was boarded on the plane, I made my way back to my car and headed back to pick up momma at her house. Kelly had already called me to let me know how momma was doing. Kelly was there when I dropped mom off, but it was her day off, so I knew she was going to the Cardinal Game later (it was opening day). Kelly said she talked to Grandma a bit, then got up to go to the bathroom downstairs and finish getting ready, and when she came back upstairs, Grandma was asleep, and Kelly woke her up to tell her goodbye and that she was leaving, and when Grandma first woke up she was "Kelly Girl! What are you doing here? Are you off today?" Even though Mom was with me when we picked up Kate, and we talked of Kate going to Hawaii, and how excited she was all the way up to Herky (45 minutes), mom did not remember that. She told Kelly I was gone to a doctor's appointment. When I dropped mom off, she had on her black sweater that has appliqued fruit all over it, with jeans. It is the one she bought in Colorado when we were there. When I picked her up, the jeans were gone, and wait for it.....she had on a pair of beige and black print shorts. I asked her where her jeans were and she said, "well, I wasn't planning on going anywhere, and these are comfortable so I just put these on." She still had on her black knee socks and her dress shoes. I went to the bathroom and looked for mom's jeans so I could bring them home and wash them, but could NOT find them! They were not in her laundry hamper or the washer. I checked her "usual" hiding spots (the shower or tub) and I could not find them. I don't know what she did with them! I have texted Kelly and told her to look for them when she gets home tonight. I should have taken a picture of her with her appliqued sweater, her printed shorts and her black knee socks with her black patton shoes. I did not make any stops between her house and mine, teehee. When we got home, Quincy and Jenna was here. I found some jeans for mom and came around and came back in and handed them to mom and said, "mom, here's your jeans" and she took them to her room and came back out with them on. I was back at mom's by 2:30, and I truly think she slept the whole time. Tuesday, we went up and had lunch with Mary Maharrey in House Springs. It was a good visit with a very dear friend. When we were in the car coming home, mom said to me..."Did you have a good report today?" I looked at her and said, momma, I didn't go anywhere today, I was with you all day, what are you talking about? She sad, "Oh, I thought you dropped me off and went to a doctor appointment." I did do that back when I was doing treatments. One time, we met Mary for lunch, and mom went home with Mary and I went on to my treatment, and swung back by and picked up mom from Mary's that day. I guess she has never forgotten me leaving her with Mary while I went to a doctor appointment. Since she went to her house, she asked if she "brought anything down here to sleep in tonight". She doesn't do well on road trips. I do try and document all of the details with momma, but with tax season in full swing, in addition to my already full schedule, life is busy. I too have a husband, kids, school activities, adult kids, grand-kids that I watch regularly, church activities and mom. Life is full and busy and I have a hard time finding time or energy to write down the details of this journey. I do like to do it though, just so some day, I can take the time to read about this journey. As you all know, when you are in the middle of the "storm", it is sometimes hard to see the blessings of the moments, the God moments. When I write it all down, and come back and read through it for myself, it helps me sometimes to regain a better perspective. This is not an easy path to walk, but it is a necessary path. Sometimes, we all have to do hard things, we have to go through hard things, in order for God to mold us into the person He needs us to be in order for Him to accomplish His plan. I pray that God can use me. I pray that God WILL use me. I want to be a willing vessel.