Two Weekends Apart

As mentioned before, Robert was gone last weekend helping with Faith's DNow.  Well, I was the one to be away from Robert this weekend.  Actually, it was four whole days this time.  Have two weekends in a row apart from each other was definitely less than ideal.

I left bright (actually, it was dark) and early on Thursday morning.  We woke up at 3:30, hit the road at 4:00, said goodbye at the airport at 5:00, and I flew to Detroit at 6:00.  I arrived around 8:00 and had about a 2.5 hour layover.  Then I had about a 1.5 hour flight to Scranton where my parents came and picked me up.  They had a delicious "picnic" packed for me to eat in the car.  It was great to see them even though it was under unpleasant circumstances.

We drove straight to the funeral home.  Seeing everybody was good but hard.  Obviously we all wish we were getting together for a different reason, but it was still nice to see everybody.  The two visitations were well attended.  I'd say in total there were about 450 people in attendance.  I didn't know many of the people, but it was good to see the people from Grandma and Grandpa's church that I knew, and it was also nice to meet some of Doug's friends.  The funeral was on Friday.  I had the honor of seeing You Wouldn't Cry by Mandisa.  I had many people tell me that the song meant a lot to me and they felt like they could hear Doug saying those words.  Thank you, God, for giving me the gift of song.

Jim early Saturday morning since he at a 6:00am flight.  That afternoon Mom, Dad, and I were able to watch my cousin Ryan play floor hockey.  I had never been to a floor hockey game, but it was really fun!  It was fast moving, and the kids really got into it.

Mom and Dad left early yesterday morning since they had a 6:00am flight.  I left a bit later since my flight wasn't til 12:30.  There was a one hour delay once I got to Michigan.  Ordinarily this wouldn't have seemed too bad, but since my layover was already scheduled to last 3.25 hours that extra hour made it super long.  I made it through with my phone, a magazine, and a smoothie.  What are the odds of this: On the way to Scranton from Detroit I was seated next to a lady who was hiding a dachshund under her coat.  It was weird, but the dog was calm and she stayed to herself so it was find.  When I boarded the plane to head to Detroit from Scranton I found my seat and realized I was sitting next to the exact same lady with the exact same dog again.  How does that even happen?  This time her dog was super hyper and had the world's most disgusting gas.  I seriously wondered if it had pooped on her lap.  So I ask you, are people allowed to sneak on dogs in their carry-on suitcases?  What if I had been allergic?  What would you have done?  Sucked it up?  Told the flight attendant?

My flight got in an hour late since it had been delayed.  Robert came and picked me up and we were home by 9pm.  Needless to say, it was a rather long day.  Robert had tidied up before my arrival. :)  He had some excitement of his own while I was gone: A trip to urgent care and a trip to the ER.  It was so frustrating to be separated by 8 hours and a few hundred miles during that time.  Thankfully we have great neighbors who took care of him.  Jered took him to and from the ER.  Ben and Allie had him over to eat and checked on him a couple of times as well.  He went to the ER and urgent care because he was having a ton of pain in his left hip and back.  He went to the ER when his leg went numb.  They gave him some pain medicine, muscle relaxer, and steroid.  They didn't say exactly what is wrong, but he has a doctor's appointment in an hour.  Prayers that the doctor will have great insight and will be able to diagnose the issue and come up with a practical solution.