Where did I go you may ask?

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Well, it turns out I am not Super Mom though I try to be. Every Mom has her limit whether she wants to admit it or not. What I found out is if you do not realize your limit your body will be quick to tell you.

I woke up one morning and thought my nose was broken. How in the world can you break your nose while sleeping? It wasn't a broken nose, just the beginning of it all. I have been ill ever since. I made myself believe as long as I could get out of bed in the morning, get Snow White off to school and me off to work I was not really sick. This went on for about two weeks.

Then it was time for our weekend trip. Since I was feeling a bit under the weather I thought we should ride with friends rather than fly. I have heard horror stories about people with a cold who flew and ended up busting an eardrum. Turned out our friends were not going due to their children catching the flu bug. It was all at the last minute and Snow White so wanted to go on the trip. I did what any mother would do...I booked last minute airline tickets.

In the past we have always traveled on non-stop round trip flights. Due to last minute travel arrangements we had one stop each way. I thought nothing of it. Most people must travel this way so how difficult could it be?

At one airport we saw a group of gorgeous women with their hair and make up done to perfection all wearing the same pants and matching jackets. I noticed a familiar NFL logo on their jackets and thought how great it would be to have a photo of Snow White and the Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders! The women were walking in two straight lines so Snow White and I decided to march right behind them. I politely said "Excuse me." with a huge smile on my face. The two girls at the end of the line turned around with matching beautiful wide smiles. While still grinning from ear to ear I asked "Are you the Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders?!" The blonde's smile immediately changed to a grime pucker and did an about face with a perfect hair toss. The African American girl kept smiling, patted me on the shoulder and without a word marched on with the rest of the group.

I was perplexed, maybe they were the wives of the team members? I thought nothing of it as we went through another security screening. I thought nothing of it while we sat in one of the airport restaurants laughing about how much fun we were having. While waiting at the gate for our flight Snow White and I were chatting with a few other flyers when ...it hit me! The LOGO was not a STAR! It was a HORSE SHOE! I had to laugh at myself! Ok, the colors were right but I had related the sign of a Horse Shoe with a Cowboy. They were the Indiana Colts Cheerleaders not the Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders. Oh well, next time I will make sure to ask someone else before approaching cheerleaders or athletes of any kind.


For the next few days I felt fine. A little bit of ear trouble but nothing like a busted eardrum. We had fun on our mini vacation and headed back home Sunday night. I check in the rental car only to hear we have less miles now than when we started. The man tells us to check in at the desk and tell them the car is not yet checked in. The lady tells me she is going to charge me for +50 miles. I laugh and tell her our trip to and from our friends was only 25 miles and showed her my map quest directions. She notices the mileage is less than when we started so she agrees to "wave" the +50 miles she was going to charge me. How very gracious of her huh? We arrived at the airport a few hours before departure in order to allow airport security enough time to sample my perfume, check out my wicked undies, and anything else they fancied in our luggage. Ok, I do understand the importance of airport security and I appreciate all their efforts. I haven't lost a pair of undies yet so I am still a happy camper.


We sat down to a nice dinner and looked over some of the photos taken over the weekend. We browsed the souvenir shops and found some fun things to do during our wait. I bought a few "keep 'em entertained toys" and a large pack of gum for the flight home. As boarding time arrived we sat at our gate only to find out the flight was delayed. Two other people came rushing down the corridor stating their flights had been canceled and this was the last flight out to our destination. Thoughts of finding a hotel and having to explain to my boss why I would not be there for my presentation Monday morning flashed through my head. This was not good, not good at all.

There was no one at the counter to ask questions. The person who takes our boarding passes had not arrived yet and it was time for boarding. An hour later the boarding pass person did show up to announce our flight will be delayed by another hour. It was bed time for us and we were both getting a bit sleepy. I kept telling myself I would take a quick nap on the flight home.

The plane came and we boarded quickly. Snow White had a window seat, I had the middle seat and a seemingly nice older lady sat at my other side. I instructed Snow White to wake me if she needed me or when the lady came by for sodas. I am pretty good about giving up arm rests to the person next to me and Snow White wanted the other arm rest so I folded my arms and almost dozed off. The seemingly nice lady started elbowing me! I looked up thinking what in the world is wrong?! She was flipping through a binder placing index tabs here and there at a rapid pace. Apparently unknowingly jabbing me each time her arm flew back as she flipped to the next section. I moved closer to Snow White but still the woman's elbow came at me again and again. Finally I sat straight up in the center of my seat waiting for that elbow to came at me just once more! I was going to grab her elbow and tell her through clenched teeth to put that darn book away until we land! She must have sensed the heated glare from my eyes since she immediately stopped working on that darn book. I was just about to close my eyes when to my surprise, Snow White jabbed me with her elbow! As I looked at her with my jaw dropped and about to say something not so sweet she sweetly says "The soda lady is coming." I smile and thank her very sweetly then order a coffee since I was not intended to sleep at all on this leg of the flight.

As we approach the next airport the stewardess announces that all connecting flights are on time and aware of our late departure from the last airport. She also states that we will have plenty of time to catch our connections. Snow White and I race down past two corridors to the end of the last corridor and catch our breath. Yeah! We made it! They were just boarding our section right now! Woohoo! We rock! Then I notice, this is the right gate but they switched gates on us!! That is when Snow White says "I need to visit the ladies." I ask her to hold it until we get on the plane since they do have bathrooms on board. She agrees and we make another mad dash down a few corridors to the correct gate. Everyone was on board but us apparently. We arrive gasping for breath and the boarding pass person looks at us like "what took you so long?" I hand over the tickets, find our seats and put her carryon under the seats in front of ours. Then we head to the bathrooms and wait in line. When we return to our seats there is a man sitting in Snow White's window seat. Apparently he doesn't understand English and appears to have never been on a plane before. Snow White said it was ok since she didn't really want a window seat. She was planning on falling asleep. So there we were, The Man at the window, Snow White in the Middle (she doesn't like isle seats) and me on the isle. No way was I going to fall asleep with some man sitting right next to my little Snow White! The man took out a coin and started doing magic tricks which thrilled Snow White. After all his magic tricks he gave her one of the coins and she gave him a stick of her gum. We later looked at the coin and found it was from Guatemala.

We must have looked dead tired when we arrived. Everyone wanted to help us with our luggage. We managed to get everything loaded in the car and drove for home. There is something about going to this one particular city, in all of the US, that catches up with Snow White no matter how we travel to and from. She always gets sick once. I guess it just wouldn't be a trip to that city if she didn't use the sick bag. I thought we finally made it without her being sick but just as she sat in her car seat out came the bag. We have made this trip during the morning, afternoon, evening, late evening, by car and by flights both non-stop and this one with one stop. We have taken long trips all over the US but this one particular city does it to her every time. This might be the last time we travel to that particular city although we love our visits while we are there.