warning, this is long...major venting session here...please feel my pain!!!

                                    

so i know it's been quite a while since i have last blogged. but i had a legit excuse. i went on a fantastic vacation. i went to new york for 4 days and then i headed to san diego for two weeks where i completly indulged myself in perfect weather, pedicures, and mexican food. it was just the break i needed. going home for me is always wonderful, and leaving is so bittersweet. it's like a part of you never leaves the place you grew up. i always feel like im back in high school, with no real important cares in the world and completly 100% relying on my parents for support and strength. then when you move out, those ties are cut, and you are on your own to fend for yourself and you just hope that you can do it on your own and you don't want to find yourself missing your parents. you want to be that independent, free from your past, ready for the future with an open heart kinda person. i remember trying to be that person. but for some reason, my heart strings still always had a special pull torwards my home that built me (thank you miranda lambert for that corny saying) and honestly, i don't think that will ever change.

new york, by the way, pretty much was getting cooked the 4 days i was there. over 100 degrees everyday. sweat was my new accessory. let me tell you, getting on a subway, packed with tons of smelly, sweaty (and some just plane looney) people was probably the least favorite part of being there. but besides that, new york was awesome and there is something about that place that makes you feel like you can say, do, think, feel, dress, be anything or anyone  that you want because quite frankly-anything goes there. super awesome to experience, but i would never live there. visit yes, but live-no. i use to be a city girl, but now i appreciate the small suburban life. boy, have i changed.

traveling to san diego, i wish i could say was a smooth ride. no i am not talking about the turbulance, i am talking about the entire journey of getting to san diego. it all pretty much wrapped up in one word....HELL.

so i was traveling with two kids and my mother and before we got on the first flight, they mentioned some weather problems in atlanta (our connecting flight). but they said it won't be a problem and we all boarded the plane. now for those who have never traveled with kids let me tell you this...as soon as you get on the plane, you want to get off of it. you just hope and pray that everything goes smoothly and you get to your destination as fast as that plane can take you. so my kids are ya know, good for most of the ride, then they start to get fussy because of the air pressure and the fact that they don't like sitting in one place for so long so i am ready to finally get to atlanta. the pilot gets on the intercom and mentions that there is bad weather in atlanta and the airport is momentarily shut down so he informs us that we are just going to fly above the airport until the bad weather passes. 45 minutes goes by...the pilot gets on the intercom again and tells us that we are running out of gas and we are going to land in savannah georgia to fill up our tank. what the?! everyone is really peeved by now and people are realizing that they are going to miss their connecting flight. my kids are getting antsy and i am getting annoyed with the situation. we land in savannah and i am expecting us to just fill up and head back to atlanta. i am not kidding you....2 freakin hours later of sitting on the airplane after landing in savannah, we finally lift off to go to atlanta. my kids by now are screaming, and i am realizing that i am running out of formula for my baby who is only 8 months old. my mom had asked if the savannah airport had any we could buy and infant formula is nowhere to be found in airports... that is a big mistake. why didn't i give my daughter regular milk you ask? well you can't just give your infant regular milk, it can really upset their stomach and you never know how they are going to react to it...and it is recommended to wait till they are about 1 years old.  so back to the horrific experience. so everyone on the airplane is really upset, tired and angry about what is going on and we find out that our connecting flight had also been delayed till 12:40 am. so we were happy that we did not miss it even though it was super late and  my kids were hungary and tired. so we are waiting to get on the connecting flight and there seemed to be some problems with the flight crew...one them was missing. not the pilots, they were ready to go...but one of the stewardess was missing....so what??? i don't care if there are not enough people to hand out peanuts, i just want to get to san diego please!!!! well nobody was saying anything until 2:00 am. my kids were so upset, i didn't have anymore formula and i was about to flip on someone. then over the intercome the worst that could possibly be said was spoken

"this flight to san diego has been cancelled"

can you imagine the uproar? i thought people were going to start throwing punches, wait that was just me. i seriously wanted to cry. my mom immediatly called the airline to book new tickets. the person on the other line said that they could get us on the next flight in 3 hours at 5:45 am. we took it. however, it was with another airline. so we made our way all the way down to united, and sat there. my baby was so hungary and i needed formula so bad. my mother acutally walked around, asking other people with kids for formula. it was really really pathetic but we were that desperate. so my mom saved the day and decided to to venture out on her own in the middle of the night in atlanta and try to find a CVS store or anywhere for fomula. i was so nervous at the thought of her going out there in a cab on her own in atlanta at 3:45 am. i don't think i have ever been so on edge in my life. my mom left me there with my two crying kids and i just held my breath. paceing back and forth.

finally, my mom arrived back at the airport with formula and said that the cab driver had no idea where he was going and magically a cop showed up and showed them the way. we had formula and my baby was happy and i was partially relieved. we get in line as soon as united airlines opened and asked to get our tickets... basically, in a nutshell, they tell us that we cannot get our tickets until we get permission from our original airline (delta) to transfer over to united. this makes no sense to us and we beg the people of united to help us and while they are trying to transfer over the tickets and call delta, we miss the 5:45 flight. so by then i just wanted to ask for the nearest cliff for me to jump off of. meanwhile my 2 year old daughter decided to have a huge tantrum which there was nothing i could do about so everyone there was just starring at us as my daughter was screaming bloody murder, and i looked like i was going to collapse and kill someone all at the same time, and my mother was so mad and my baby was super fussy as well. can you picture it? yes that was me.

so we walked to the other side of the airport, back to delta and got in the super long line for someone to help us book another flight. about and hour of standing in line, holding my heavy 8 month old who is past out in my arms i get to the front of the line and beg for help. i seriously thought i was going to die in the atlanta airport. however, the lady was very helpful, but she told me that the only flight available was in 3 hours and there was only 2 seats. we needed 3. so the lady told me that my mom and i would have to split up and go on seperate flights and i would have to choose which child was going to go with me. omg it was my own personal sophie's choice! i started to cry like a total moron and the biggest miracle happened, the lady (i think her name was haley) said "oh wait, another seat just opened up, you can all go together" i was so overwhelmed with happiness i think i told haley that i will name my future daughter after her...yes i did say that. crazy people say crazy things. so my mom and my kids walked to our gate for our flight that would take off in about 3 hours. now my kids had not slept all night so walking to our gate was awful! my 2 year old screamed the whole way to the point where she was foaming of the mouth. everyone was starring at me. but i could care less. i had been through it all and this was nothing.

we finally got on the airplane and we landed in arizona where we had another 3 hour layover. my baby was down to her diaper because she had spit up on everything to the max, and my daughter looked like she could be one of the orphans off of the movie "annie". we went to our gate and the lady at the desk made the announcement that the plane we were supposed to travel on was having problems so they are going to downsize, which means everyone after row 26 was going to have to find a different flight. my mom and i almost died at the announcement and my mother (bless her heart) went up to the woman and demanded that we are put on that flight. i think the lady was a little taken back at my mom's full force attitude, but happily informed us that we are in seats 21 A, B, and C... so we made it.

getting on the airplane and landing in san diego was the most relieving experience i could ever imagine. we were all so exhausted and just wanted to go home. and we finally did. hallelujah. i wouldn't wish that experience on anyone...not even my worst enemy...wait...i totally would, because that was torture!!!!!!!!