Day 100 - So what does the Iceland Volcano, dormant for about the last 200 years, have to do with me, you ask!?

No, I'm not relating myself to an exploding volcano, although sometimes, I like to think my planks are pretty explosive.............NOT! :)

So last time we "talked", I was taking a quick 4 hour nap (2am-6am) before heading off to see my children ACROSS EUROPE to the Middle East (that should give you a good hint of where this is heading, or in this case, DIDN'T HEAD :(....

Yesterday morning, up and moving early, last minute things thrown into the suitcase, bags all accounted for (and spreadsheets done to help me remember all the contents, since 3 of the 5 bags are full of "surprises" for Hannah and Eva :)....and a few for Em and Luis too of course!
Kelly is up to take us to the airport...tearful goodbyes at Lambert as she wishes she were going to, she misses these babies too, especially not having gotten to even touched sweet little Eva yet in person, and Em and Luis too of course ..

SIDE NOTE:
Grandparents have a bad habit of FOCUSING on the babies; it's NOT that we forget about our wonderful children, in this case, Em and Luis...but come on...these little perfect babies, just can't get enough of them....you know the picture....at the airport...there they are, 4 of them waiting and off the plane we come and we RUN...................and go right for Hannah and Eva, as Em and Luis stand smiling from ear to ear.....so proud of their amazingly perfect little creations...
But that doesn't mean they don't give us a little trouble, since we went right for the kids and as the tears of joy flow, say, hellllllllllllllllllllloooooooooooooooooo, we are glad to see you guys too - lol! It is "just the way it is in grandparenthood"....you young folks will find that out soon enough :).....we learned that when our kids were young from our parents - ha!

Anyway, back to yesterday's "adventure"....................

So we head into the airport, with our wonderful skycap assistance, bags piled high, me with my purse, the size of Texas, and my laptop, Doug with his carryon (you remember the one, with enough food to serve the whole plane?), and his bag of "reading material"...do you have the "Griswald image" yet, you should! Check in goes well, 4 bags checked and off we head to the gate....long long lines, everyone wants to travel today it seems... we make our first "airport friends", a cute couple from Edwardsville, a bit older than us (believe it or not!) who are heading to Barcelona on a Mediterranean cruise (birthday compliments of their 4 sons - NO PRESSURE kids :)!).....they are on our flight from stl to JFK also...

Security always poses a fun adventure for my "fake knee" husband....so after the normal pat down and bag search, we are heading to the gate, where we make a few last minute phone calls to the credit card company and bank just to confirm, YES we ARE going to be spending money in the MIddle EAst, so don't hold us back please!

The flight from STLJFK is a miniature plane, at least that is what the seats felt like. a 70 seater that most men bumped their head on as they entered the plane....but who cares, i'm going to see Hannah and Eva and Em and Luis, it's well worth it!!! We take off and I close my eyes for a little nap, man that 4 hour nap last night is catching up with me....

Once at JFK, I'm getting excited, 1 flight down, 2 to go....we bumble off the plane, all our carryon gear in tow, and come face to face with the airline screen and notice large RED letters on the 350p flight JFK to AMSTERDAM.................CANCELLED......
Although we are scheduled to leave JFK to AMSTERDAM at 630p, that set off an alarm...between Doug and I, we have over 54 years of airline experience...international flights just don't CANCEL, like a domestic flight would....too hard for airlines to "reposition" their planes.. So we head over to a nice DL gentlemen who proceeds to tell us about the........
VOLCANIC ASH issue, but doesn't seem too alarmed, it's just the 350p flight cancelled, not YOURS! RIGHT!!!!!!!!!!!!

Long story a bit shorter....here's a play by play of the next 6 hours at JFK...
-By the time, we get to the next terminal, our flight is CANCELLED
-We head to DL ticket counter, which of course if BULGING with other happy passengers and the DL agent tells us to CALL the 800 number listed on the screens "we don't rebook people here" WHAT!!?!?!? ARE YOU SERIOUS???!~
-We are starving by now, so we head to grab something while I dial up the 800 number .....
within 2 minutes, the automated answer has DISCONNECTED me, no, not because there was ASH on the line, it was because "they are experiencing a high volume of calls, can you please call back later"! SERIOUSLY, HAVE I ENTERED THE ASHY TWILIGHT ZONE?!!!
-We call our dear friend Brenda, who works for Delta and seriously was probably happier than ANYONE when our flight actually left today, as she was free of our questions for the next 10 days...OR SO SHE THOUGHT! We just wanted her ideas on what to do next.....she gave us another number to dial but in the meantime, I had already redialed the 800 number and immediately asked, via the voice response unit, for REPRESENTATIVE...btw, that is KEY when you are calling anyway, don't go through all the prompts, just ask right upfront for REPRESENTATIVE and it bypasses a bit...
-After no less than an hour plus on the phone with Yolanda and lots of going back and forth (they seriously just told us to stay at JFK until Sunday and they could get us out!!! Of course the $300/night hotels were on us!), we had a plan: They would fly us back to ST. Louis that evening and rebooked us on Sunday (which was the first available flight) but instead of Abu Dhabi, we would fly St. Louis to Atlanta nonstop to Dubai...Dubai is 60 miles away from Abu Dhabi, but it apparently somehow bypasses the "ash", still not clear about that part...maybe the "southern route", don't know....but the catch was (and there is always a catch)...we would have to go back to the ticket counter as they couldn't make the changes in the reservation but would document it well...
-Back to the ticket counter and literally after 2 hours with Latoya (our new best friend at Delta!), she had booked us back to St. Louis last night, and booked us to leave on Sunday afternoon now from St. Louis to Dubai via Atlanta.....by this time, I was not feeling well for some reason, hot and a little nauseous (must be from all the ash)....so they had a chair for me....Doug thanked Latoya with a big tip! and off we went to catch our bus back to terminal 2 for our flight back to St. Louis
-We nearly missed our flight as the guy driving the bus to terminal 2 decided to take an "extended break" from driving, but thankfully we made it! And had an awesome flight attendant, who after listening to our story, insisted she give us some "drinks", which Doug graciously took her up on....I stuck with my water...

We were back in St. Louis by 930p last night after a LONG TRIP to JFK airport, although our 4 checked bags are stuck in the ash somewhere, supposedly (at least that is what DL baggage center said) should be back in St. Louis by 1pm today.......

We called Emily with the sad news....
1. We are NOT on the way as planned, although we did a "practice flight" today
2. We are still coming but now our trip is cut down to 7 days :(, plus we need a ride from Dubai!

But there is always good news, which we can't forget....
1. We are SAFE, a little older from the experience but safe - ha!
2. We had another opportunity today to build the virtue of "patience" (not sure how good the build went ha!)
3. We are rebooked on Sunday....although we really were pushing for flights today, apparently they are still not going, so hopefully by Sunday we will be heading out....AGAIN!

Life never gets boring, does it!? Ok, off for some exercise...much needed after all that sitting yesterday!!!

Just for today, find your reasons to be thankful....you can find them...somewhere buried under ash....
And prayers for all those affected by that and the China earthquake..no shortage of things to pray for, that's for sure!