dorothy ain't got nothin' on me.

alright, i know, it's been way too long. things have been busy, chaotic and a little overwhelming lately.

i took thia on a trip back to Lincoln to visit my family. thia did great on the trip, our flights to OMA were pretty uneventful.

the trip itself was fun. minimal family drama, we didn't get in nearly as much as i'd planned, but she got to meet the family and that was, after all, the main goal.

there were some tornadoes with wonderful timing on our way back. on wednesday the 11th we arrived to the omaha airport a little early, 5pm for our 7:39 pm flight. my dad stayed with us until 6:50ish when i was going to need to take thia through security. he left and within minutes we could see things weren't quite right outside. for anyone who's been to OMA you know that there are windows pretty much on all sides of terminal B. on one side, it just looked like dusk, on the other it looked like mid-night. total blackness and you could actually see the point where the darkness took over the light on the horizon.

it wasn't long before they let us know that we would not be departing on time, and it was unlikely that anyone would make connections. shortly after that, due to a tornado warning, we were required to head to the tornado shelter. so i'm sitting in the shelter with thia, of course she can't get down and play on the floor because it's in an employee only section of the airport and not frequently cleaned.

at 9:15 pm they lift the warning and we're allowed to go back upstairs. they let us know that flights will still be leaving, just very late, and no one can expect to make connections.

at midnight thia and i take the flight to denver. at this point it was sleep in OMA or sleep in DEN, we choose DEN. i'm by no means a fearful flier and after years of flying frequently not much bothers me. i must say that this was by far the most turbulent flight i have ever been on.

so we get to denver, have to stay up till 2 to use the kiosk that will let me print a boarding pass for our next flight. by this time thia's wide awake again so we're roaming the terminal looking for snack machines, she's laughing at strangers, i'm trying to wipe mascara residue off of my puffy eyelids. around 3 we find a dark spot between a gate sign and the wall. i unload her blankets from our carry on and we lay on the floor, almost sleeping until 5am when they bustle starts for the first departing flights.

we use the restroom, i make her a bottle, we board our 6 am flight and we leave finally for LAX. she sleeps again pretty much the whole way there.

finally at 7:30 am PDT we make it to LAX where i was thrilled to find my husband, claudia and joe waiting already. we loaded up and made it home. home to a bed that was ready and waiting for me to climb into and take a nap. God Bless my husband.