A Dimond in the Rough: Rhode Island

Oi. I'm almost a month behind in blogging. I completely missed Noah's 4 month post--He turned 5 months old yesterday! We have been so crazy busy. Let's see what I can do during Noah's 20 minutes naps...

It was a Friday morning. I was having a bad day. Scratch that--It was a horrendous day. Any normal person might call a friend, go shopping, eat some ice cream. What do I do? I call my two best friends, rant and rave about my life, then book myself tickets to fly Rhode Island to visit my twin sister with all three kids. For Saturday. Yes, the next day. Tickets were $100 round trip from Chicago to Boston. Trust me when I say that it was too good to be true.

Noah, unlike my other kids, is not a road-tripper. This kid cries when I put him in his car seat, then cries until we get where we're going and I take him out. 3 hour drive to Chicago plus 1 hour drive to Providence (from Boston)? Sure, why not. Alan drove us to Chicago. Noah cried. We boarded the plane and suddenly I understood why the tickets were $100. Drinks were $3. The seats were so crammed that once the lady in front of me put her seat down, Noah couldn't stand or sit facing me in my lap. He had to be laying down or sitting with his back against me the entire flight. Did I mention that I hate flying? Like hate it so much that I cry as soon as we drive onto the property of an airport, even if I'm just picking somebody up. But we made it. My sister picked us up in Boston. Noah cried. Almost the entire trip to Providence. A good 45 minutes.

The flight home was even worse than the trip there. 10 minutes before we were supposed to board our plane in Boston, we were told that there was weather in Chicago and that we'd be delayed. It turned into a 3 hour delay. Nothing like keeping three kids happy for an extra three hours in an airport, then getting on a plane for another 3. The weather made the flight home terrible. Turbulence almost non-stop. I cried and prayed. A lot. Abbie vomited twice. Luckily there were a couple of nice guys (one in the airport and one in front of us on the plane) who helped me out. The guy in the airport said he could get me anything I needed, a drink, etc. (I really wanted that drink!) The guy in front of us was traveling with his 2 year old son and was incredibly helpful during the puking. He passed back an extra bag and wipes. He saved us from all being covered. FYI--It's hard to help your daughter vomit into a bag while holding a baby.

I could spend an hour writing about all of the things that happened. My sister's baby got Croup. My kids had Strep (although we didn't figure it out until later in the week that we got home). Noah cried EVERY SINGLE TIME WE TRIED TO GO ANYWHERE. But it was still really good to see my sister. It was so fun to watch our kids play together. Her oldest, Ben, is a spitting image of Abbie. I got to see the ocean. We went to Newport, got some fantastic candy, saw the mansions, had a picnic. We went to Battleship Cove. We went to Build-a-Bear. Being there was great. It was just really hard to be a single parent to three kids away from home. And I learned a very important lesson:

No matter how bad things seem at home, it's going to be worse when you're away. Thank you, Lord, for teaching me that lesson in such clear ways. I won't ever doubt it again.