we {love} home

I have lots to talk about today! Be prepared, because we took a trip to Charlotte, NC, and I have a big long rant! So if you don't have 10 or 15 minutes to read this post, come back later! LOL

So we went to Charlotte to see Brian's sister in her play, "She Stoops to Conquer." Amanda is graduating in May and she wanted us to come see her last play - and she had the lead role! We were excited to see Amanda and the rest of the family. But when we got to the airport, about 1.5 hours early, we had to stand in line forever at the AirTran counter. This really irked me, because we had already checked in online and had printed our boarding passes - all we had to do was check one suitcase.

Well, by the time we got up to the counter, we were apparently "too late" to check our suitcase! This horribly rude and extremely slow lady was doing her best not to help us. We were SO livid - I can't even describe. I didn't even know there was a time limit for getting your luggage in! I've never heard of that before, and just the night before I had read the entire AirTran website, making sure we met all the requirements.

Anyway, to make a long story short, we were originally supposed to arrive in Charlotte via direct flight at 12:15, but now she said we had to be on the same plane with our luggage. So she booked us on another flight that stopped in Atlanta and arrived in Charlotte at like 4:30!!!! Oh, and she put us on standby - so no guarantee we would even get on that flight! :-(

So when we got to our gate, I went directly to the counter, hoping that someone ELSE would be KIND to us and maybe help us. Then we heard our names being called over the loud speaker - our original flight was about to leave, and we were, after all, checked in. So Brian ran over to that gate and that lady was nice enough to let us on our original flight.

We got to Charlotte, (I won't even go into the story about the drunk, rambunctious mom and dad with their 2-year-old who made the whole plane miserable), rented our car, and tried to figure out where our luggage was. The NICE people (imagine that!) at the AirTran counter said it would be on one of three flights, and gave us the arrival times. We got in the car and went and had lunch, drove around a bit, and came back in 2 hours for the first flight's arrival. Miraculously, our suitcase was on that flight! So we were off for the 2-hour drive to Amanda's college.

The play was great, we had a wonderful time with the family, and we had booked a hotel to stay Friday night in Charlotte, with our flight leaving Saturday morning to come home. We stopped at a mall on our way back into Charlotte and did a little shopping and saw a movie. We got to our hotel at about 8:30 that night, and we were ready for bed - we were exhausted!

Well, they had put us in a smoking room, and I had specifically requested a non-smoking room. They were out of non-smoking rooms. So I thought, maybe it won't be that bad. Well. We walked in the door and my throat immediately closed up and both our eyes began burning. It smelled worse than you could ever imagine. It was like someone had stuffed two lit cigarettes up my nostrils. Brian's skin started tingling.

Luckily, we called hotwire and they were nice enough to refund our room. We used the crappy hotel's internet and booked a room at the lovely Sheraton hotel by the Charlotte airport. It was beautiful and wonderful, the people were friendly, we were so comfortable, and even though it cost a little bit more, we got a good night's sleep. Our flight the next morning went off without a hitch.

Needless to say, we were more than thrilled to finally be home. Sunday afternoon, we worked in the garden. Last week I weeded the whole thing, planted a gardenia, and pruned the Sago palm - now it looks like a pineapple! Anyway, yesterday we continued the rock bed around to the back of the garden, and I planted some salvia, phlox, and petunias. Then we mulched the whole thing. I'm pretty happy with the end result!


I can't remember if I've mentioned this on my blog or not, but I'm about halfway through my Kindermusik training. I started it 2 years ago, but then we moved right in the middle of my training and I never finished. So I've picked it back up and I'm really excited about it! The closest KM teacher is over 20 miles from my area, so I'm hoping to fulfill a need here - and make some money too! I've been kind of on fire about it - so I hope I can keep up this energy! I'm trying to get one lesson ahead so I can enjoy the cruise and not worry about falling behind in class.

We're finally down to single digits on the cruise countdown! :-D We leave on Saturday and I'm so excited! I've got to get my hair cut and colored, my legs waxed, and a pedicure - all this week! I'm busy, but it's an exciting time. I can't wait to relax on the ship.