Clear Epic

We are back from Arkansas! It was a lot of fun, but soooo good to be home! It was much better flying this time. I promise I will not make that drive again as long as I get a say so. Although it wasn’t without it’s drama (it wouldn’t be ME traveling if all things went smoothly!).

Remember how the FAA grounded all of those American Airlines flights? Yeah, ours was one of them. We received a message early Thursday am that our flight had been canceled. Needless to say Raymonn was not happy. At all. He doesn’t get to see his family very often and was already upset that I had messed up and scheduled our return flight a day earlier than I had planned (or so I thought… more on this later). I called AA and they had us rebooked on the first flight out Friday a.m. but re-rebooked us on a United flight later that afternoon. The only drawback is instead of going straight from Omaha to Dallas we had to go from Omaha to Denver, wait two hours, and fly from Denver to Dallas. So a trip that should have put us into Texarkana at around 3:00 pm put us there at 1:30 a.m. Fun.

Prayse though? She was her usual rock star self. For real. She was fun on the plane and then fell asleep, slept in the airport and then had fun playing on the floor (in a semi-clean area… hey, it was as good as it was gonna get). By the time we boarded our flight we had another family with a 6 month old playing with us, another lady who thought Miss P was the sweetest thing ever, and a guy flying back to Germany just hanging out chatting with each other.

I have pictures of her first flight and the journey but my camera is charging so I’ll upload them once I have a minute.

It was fun to surprise Big Mama. She originally gave us a look like she was “mad” but honestly I think she was trying not to cry. She loved seeing her Praysie and Prayse loves her Big Mama!! She also got to see a lot of her Nana, Aunt Pam and cousins…. a lot of cousins, and great aunts and uncles. When you have 13 kids like Big Mama does there’s lots of family. There are still people I couldn’t tell you their name or who they belong to. Slowly but surely though I get it figured out. One thing is for sure, Prayse was surrounded by lots of love.

There is quite a difference however in Raymonn’s family get togethers and mine (which P is used to). I can sum it up in one word: VOLUME. His family is loud. And that, my friends, is an understatement. There is so many people, but even with just a few it doesn’t matter. Prayse did not get a nap the whole time we were there, she was way too into visiting with everyone. And visit she did! Miss P caught on right away and realized that “Hey! If I’m gonna fit in and get noticed then I have to get loud too!!” So she did. Right there at the table during dominoes she started screaming. Not screaming mad, not screaming frustrated, no tears. Just opened her mouth up wide and screamed as loud as those little lungs could. When everyone finally stopped talking and paid attention to her they were rewarded with the biggest grin ever. And so it went the whole time we were there, when she had something to say she said it and she got their attention. That’s my girl.

The best though was in church. Our church here is pretty contemporary for this area. I love it, during Praise and Worship if you want to dance, you dance. If you want to clap, you clap. If you want to jump, you jump. If you want to sit down, you sit down. It is nothing like a good old Southern Baptist (or equivalent) church service though. There is nothing like it, it is so refreshing to see people open and truly praising God for being their strength. It’s just a feeling that although I have been through some rough times, I know that I have been blessed and my experiences are not the same or  as extreme as a lot of these individuals. To see their faith is awesome.

During this Sunday it was a Woman’s Service so Raymonn’s Mama was in charge and on stage talking to the congregation and helping lead songs at the end of the service. She was excited and started shouting, waving, and dancing. Miss P saw her Nana up there and immediately started shouting, waving her arms, and dancing. She caught the Holy Spirit as well apparently. It was so cute, she saw her Nana and got so excited she just followed suit.

On the way home, I had previously asked AA to push our flight back a day thinking I had originally scheduled our flights for Sunday instead of Monday. Well, I should trust myself a bit more. That or look at a calendar. I had actually scheduled them for Monday but AA had graciously pushed them to Tuesday!! We didn’t realize this until we were on our way to Dallas. Instead of paying the extra $400 it would have taken we got a hotel room. It turned out okay in the end. I was hoping to meet up with my friend Mandy and her family but it didn’t end up working out. What DID work out however was meeting up with one of my best best friends from college and his wife.

There are just those friends that no matter how much time goes by you fall into the same groove. There are those individuals who you think about and instantly know “Brian is good people.” That is Shelmo for me. Through countless hours studying, training, and traveling for summer track camps we just created a bond. I remember before he proposed to his now wife he showed me the ring and I started crying for him. They are an amazing couple and we had a blast seeing them!

So now we are home sweet home. We all have colds and/or sinus issues going on so it’s been an interesting week but a fun one! Prayse is in her second week at her new daycare. They give me little notes from “her” every day on the sheet which tells me about her naps, diapers, and eating schedule. I look forward to the notes, today she told me how much fun she had walking around the exer-saucer while her friend Tyler was in there. She was showing him the ropes of how to play with all the toys.

She is awesome.