super bum-bummed

It's been one heck of a week.

My mom and dad kept the Chapmeister last weekend while we were in Nashville for Reed's cousin's graduation. Nashville was a lot of fun - we ate and ate and ate some more, then drank some cool and rando (to me at least) beers at Flying Saucer. They have more than 200 beers on tap and it's in the old baggage claim of Nashville's Union Station. Perty neat.

We got back late Sunday afternoon and I decided to pick up the baby (err - toddler) on Monday. I just couldn't get back in the car and drive another three hours.

Sooooo... the next morning, I drove to Brewton to pick up my child.

{We've decided, by the way, that Brewton will be our new official meeting spot when transferring Chaps from Montgomery to Pensacola. It's only an hour and a half from here and about an hour from Pensacola. It might seem like a random spot... but it's not for us.

My mom's family comes from B-town, so it's kind of fun to drive around town, check things out and grab lunch...

even though it's kind of depressing that we can't just pop in my grandmother's house anymore.

Time keeps on a-tickin', I guess.

A few years later, and now someone else lives in that house (painted it yellow?) and I'm married with a toddler. Weird.

Sorry for getting off track... it's what I do...

Anyways, (Back to Monday morning, btw)

My mom told me over the phone that Chappell had been acting kind of tired, and not quite like herself... but when I picked her up, I became a little concerned. She was lethargic, fussier than normal-- and wouldn't eat. This all happened pretty quickly.

{By the way, did I mention that I left all of Chappell's things at our house in Montgomery?? Oh yes. I did. My mom had to buy Chappell all new clothes and a brand new monitor. I'm losin' it.}

So, I made a 4 o'clock appointment with the ped. Our new ped. And I really, really liked him! I went to college with his son, and he was so kind to get us into his practice.

Dr. Morrison told us that Chappell's throat was red and it was most likely a virus. We found out on Tuesday that she tested negative for Strep.

When she was still feeling bad on Wednesday, we decided to take her back to the doctor (as he instructed us to do) to make sure there wasn't some underlying problem before we headed out of town on Friday. Like a UTI.

They "bagged" her. And pricked her finger.

The bagging thing wasn't so bad, but she certainly didn't enjoy it. I wouldn't like a bag stuck to my private parts, either. And of course it took her forever to pee-- even though I gave her a full sippy cup of juice on the ride over.

The pricking broke my heart. It wasn't so much the actual prick, but the squeezing afterwards. UGH.

She was so upset.

Her blood work and urine came out fine. No UTI.

And then, just like magic, she seemed to be better Wednesday afternoon.

By Thursday she was good as new. Isn't it amazing how that happens?

Wednesday night, Bloom invited me to her bunko group. I had lots O fun and drank too much wine. I swore that I only had two glasses, but I suppose when you drink from a Solo cup... things can get dicey.

The next morning, I had an appointment with my new OBGyn. I had no sitter, so I was forced to bring toddler-child with me. Talk about bad planning.

Some man in the waiting room kept himself occupied by teaching his 3-year-old son how to say "pimp" and "ho." He even had pictures on his cell phone of each. No lie.

The appointment took over two hours.

I swear I will never, ever, drink wine the night before I am violated by a medical professional EVER again.

That's hell on earth, sistas.

That brings me to today. Friday.

This weekend we had plans to fly to Washington DC for my youngest sister's graduation.

You've probably seem ML in some of the By Smith promotional pictures. Weeeell, she's not only a model, but quite the smarty pants.

She is graduating tomorrow from Georgetown University, summa cum laude and an initiate of Phi Beta Kappa. My parents have been running all over town to various ceremonies honoring my little sis for the past two days.

We were supposed to be joining them this afternoon... however, mother nature had another plan.

We left Montgomery at 8:45 am and headed towards Birmingham. I could see the black clouds lurking ahead and knew it wasn't good.

Then the nerves set in... I wasn't necessarily nervous about missing our flight. I started to sweat and couldn't stop picturing us bouncing all over the sky in a little prop plane.

Lord, I hate flying.

Our flight was delayed and then (finally), we boarded.

All three of us (plus all 4 of our carry on bags + the diaper bag = 5 bags and a stroller) crowded onto the little plane and sat.

AND SAT.

It got hot.

Chappell poo-ed her pants.

Then we were ordered to "deplane."

We waited some more at the gate.

Then TSA indefinitely closed the Atlanta Airport... and we had to make a decision.

We drove home. See how sad C was to leave??

After talking to Delta, they figured the earliest we would get out of Atlanta was around 9:30 pm, Eastern. That would put us in DC around 11:30. We would still have to get our rental car and drive out to Chevy Chase, MD. It just seemed like too much for our little Chappy.

So here I am, on my couch, at home in Montgomery.

And I'm sad that I won't get to celebrate with my baby sister-- she's worked so hard for this.

I love you, ML, and I'm so proud of you.

Go Hoyas!

I should say, if nothing else, today proved to be a a great practice run for the whole flying-with-baby-thing. Chappell was incredible. She loooved the Birmingham Airport. It's not very crowded, so we just let her walk around (under close supervision of course) and she loved it! She made a lot of new friends. This kid loves people.