Coming home

Saturday, June 6th we spent the day driving back to Clay's mom/Leesa's house. The kids were glad to be back with cousins again and I got started on the laundry from the trip and start packing for home.

The next day we spent in church. Clay's aunt and her grandchildren came over for a bit too. I think we had 5 adults and 12 children for dinner (about half were mine :) ). Justin made some yummy ribs and mashed potatoes for dinner. I even snuck in a little nap while I tried to get the two youngest asleep. I think everyone but Christina ended up taking a nap.

Monday was the day to come home. Our flight didn't leave until 6:30 pm so I spent the morning doing laundry (again) and finished packing. We were ready to go by 11 am. We drove down to Clay's aunt Barbara's house again and she road with us to the airport to show Clay's mom the back roads. We were to the airport by 4:30 pm. Made it through security (that takes a LOT longer with 5 kids by myself) and then found our gate and waited. We lucked out again and got Samantha a seat for the flight. The kids were all so tired by this point and making a little noise so the nice lady at the gate came and got us first to load the plane. The flight to Houston was pretty uneventful after that. Once everyone got buckled in, they were content. That morning both Amanda and Jonathan said they were ready to go home. Good timing. I think that just getting on the plane helped the kids to know that we were actually going home.

Just before we landed, Amanda woke up and said her neck hurt. She'd been sleeping a little funny but also seemed really tired. As soon as they said that we could turn on our cell phones, I did, hoping that Clay would be calling. There was a message from Leesa saying Sarah had strep throat. Oh, no.

After we got to the next gate, I was able to get a call from Clay. We didn't have a long wait so we only got to talk about 20 minutes until it was time to board the plane. This flight was packed! The lady that was supposed to sit in the row with us changed seats so a very nice guy ended up sitting with us. Luckily we had the very last row on the plane, nearest the bathrooms.

I had Daniel sitting next to the window, Jonathan in the middle, and me with Samantha on my lap on the aisle. Amanda was sitting by the other window with Christina in the middle. It was crazy to try to get everything in. As soon as we were situated, Amanda said she felt like she was going to throw up. Oh, no.

We got a bag for her and Christina left to use the bathroom just as Amanda followed through with her promise. I quickly passed Samantha to Daniel and went across the aisle to help Amanda. Somehow Samantha hit Daniel on the mouth and he started bleeding. Samantha wasn't very happy I left her either so she was screaming. I think Jonathan was crying by this point to. I was happy that I kept it together and didn't join them. The flight attendant got Daniel a cup of ice and us some bags and napkins. Oh the things we do for love.

Now that we had everyone's attention, I quickly tried to clean up Amanda and traded seats with the guy so I could help Amanda. Then the plane finally took off.

The flight was interesting to say the least. Amanda continued to throw up off and on during the whole 3 hour flight. I felt so bad for her. I did have a change of clothes, some pajamas, but didn't dare change her in case she kept going, which she did. Luckily she was pretty good at making it in the large plastic bag they gave us after the first time. I felt so blessed to have so many people around us (including the flight attendants) who were very helpful and patient with us. Of course this would be the flight that was completely full.

We made it finally with a few other little issues like Jonathan hitting the guy next to him with his ear buds. Luckily the guy had a 20 month old and was extremely patient with Jonathan. I finally changed him into pajamas and then he gave it up and went to sleep. As the flight neared our destination, I began to think about how to get us all off. My plan of using the car seats like I had (attached to the carry-ons like strollers) was now out since Amanda had thrown up all over Jonathan's seat and I had 4 out of 5 children asleep. Thank goodness Christina was still awake. As we got close, I had several people around us asking me how I was going to do this. Luckily many of them helped to get us off the plane without too big of a problem.

One of my wonderful friends met us at the airport. We have one built in car seat in the car so I put Jonathan in that, his seat on the floor, got Samantha in, and went back to the baggage claim while my friend got the rest of the kids in the car. It felt so good to have it cooler here. We got home and we all were in bed by 12:30 am Tuesday morning. Samantha was so happy to be in her own crib again.

The next day we spent sleeping in a bit. I also forgot that after we are gone for a while, my kids like to stay home and play with their own toys so much! I took Amanda to the doctor to check for strep, which came back negative. She never did throw up again after we got off the plane. Weird. I'm just glad it wasn't anything serious.

We're home now and I'm so glad I get to talk to Clay a little more often. Only 15 weeks to go! At least while he's at Fort Sam Houston, we can go visit him. He can't spend the night but he can spend time with us during the day on the weekends if we go down. Now just to work out the summer schedules.