Sunday Stories week 8 - LATE and LONG

UPDATE: It is now Saturday - I started this long post while waiting at the airport.. it is long so beware! 

Today's post is coming on a Monday and is being composed mostly from the cold airport in Minneapolis, Minnesota. I'll get to the details of why in a bit. 

Last week seems to be a blur at the moment. I had Monday off from work because of the MLK holiday, well, the students had the day off and I had to go in for a teacher work day, but I don't consider that work because it's a lot different feeling when there are no students. It was a stressful day for many reasons, I work with some very, well interesting people that think a little differently than I do. There isn't anything wrong with it, but it makes getting things done a little harder. We had to do some evaluating of our students and although I got what needed to get done and worked with my co-teacher very well, others had a hard time getting things done that day. Our principal sent out an email with something along the lines of, "sorry, I thought it would be more beneficial to you but instead it was more stressful, here's some make up time" 

Our usual early release day on Wednesday ended up being more of a work day and it just gave us 3rd grade teachers time to get our 3rd quarter QME done! (Quarterly math exam) It's a relief off our shoulders and now we can really focus on WHAT we are teaching and not wait to make our QME without knowing WHAT to teach to! 

Most of my week was spent relaxing and hanging out with Brinnley. She was such a stinker when I was working out and she is now able to reach my very nice teacher Flair Pens from my desk. I put away my permanent marker collection but she still loves to draw everywhere, including her body, with my pens. She was even helping me with my lesson planning! 

A few weeks ago, I got a phone call from my dad. He stated that my Granny, who lived in Clearwater, Florida, had fallen and broken her hip. He didn't seem too alarmed and was going to let me know how it went after she had surgery. 

A few days later, the news came that she did great but that other issues had risen. My Granny wasn't doing well. She lived alone and for years had consumed sweets and hardly anything else which then began a spiral of other complications that arose against her favor. She was having a hard time remembering people and conversations, and because of her frail state and the fact that she had lost a ton of weight, she was being transferred into a nursing home for continued care. Afraid that something else could happen, I immediately texted Aaron saying that I needed to see my granny.  It had been 8 years since I had seen her and I didn't want to wait any longer and loose a chance. He, of course, said, "go dear." And I began looking at flights. 

I thought Spring Break would be great, but the flights were outrageous. I started to look at going sooner, as in a few weeks, and the flights were very reasonable. After lots of searching and waiting, I booked my flight, Aaron got the time off to be home with Brinnley, and I arranged everything with my family in Florida.  I have a ton of family that lives down there so thankfully I didn't have to pay for hotel, just my rental car since it was cheaper to fly into Orlando and drive the 2 hours to Palm Harbor. 

The night before I left for Clearwater, Aaron had to work late so in between my packing we went to visit him at work. It was a slow day so Brinnley got to enjoy spending some time with him in their office. She loved playing with the phone and pretending to talk on it. 

Fast forward to Friday, January 23rd.

I had to wake up at the butt crack of dawn, literally, it was 3:45 when I left my house that morning. I drove myself to the airport instead of having to wait for Aaron and Brinnley to get up and accumulated to getting up at that hour and dressed and in the car. Aaron picked my car up with his dad the next day, it worked out just fine.

My first flight was to Minneapolis with a short layover and then I flew into Orlando and was there by 3:30pm Eastern Time. 

The drive to Orlando was very stressful for many reasons that don't matter. It was rush hour and my GPS on my phone was shotty because of my reception there. I arrived to Donnie and Jessica's house right around 6:30 pm just in time for some pizza and catch up time. I didn't have much time to rest and decided to skip a nap since I napped quite a bit on both of my flights, around 8:00 pm a few of their friends came over and we were out the door to go see Joe Nichols in concert at a local country bar called, Round Up. It was recently moved to a bigger place to accommodate more people and I am glad it was. I didn't know we were meeting my aunt, uncle, and cousin there and was pleasantly surprised to see them! The concert didn't start until about 10:30 pm and we spent those minutes waiting catching up as best we could with the noise blasting in the background. We stayed until about 2 pm when I finally put my hand up in defeat and was ready to crawl into bed after a very long day! 

My cousin, Donnie, and my other cousin, Mikey. Yes, they are that tall!

Saturday...

The whole reason I ventured down to Florida was to see my frail Granny. Saturday morning, after sleeping in and waking up to my own alarm, we got ready and met my Aunt Candi and cousin, Mikey, over at the nursing home. It was a beautiful day, except a little wind, so we were able to sit outside while we caught up on life. Let me remind you, I haven't seen this part of my family in about 8 years. I forgot how much fun they are and how much we are alike in so many ways. It was a blast sitting around outside talking about old times, or just listening to them talk about things that have happened and their memories. It was a great morning/afternoon. 

It pained me to see my Granny, who I remember as a quiet woman who was always in the background, and who was quite bigger, so frail and tiny and unable to do very much.

After our visit we went to Chili's for lunch. It's a favorite of the Solarek family and I remember in the past how obsessed they were of that place. They were always ordering their chips and salsa for family gatherings and I remember going there quite a bit. I brought up the idea to go because of my memories, and of course they didn't argue. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to enjoy much because I wasn't feeling very well. It may had been fro the night before, but I almost gagged trying to eat my lunch. It was a great time though as I got to catch up with my Uncle Mike. I remember him from 8 years ago and he hasn't changed one bit. 

After lunch, we all went home to take a nap before dinner. We were meeting again, but my Aunt Cindi (Donnie's mom) was joining us. We sat outside this time, and of course, I was underneath the heater because it was just about 55 degrees outside. The rest of the family loved it and were making fun of me the whole time!

Again, it was a blast. Afterwards, we all met back at Donnie and Jessica's house for a bonfire and some games. We found some cool card games, The Logo Game and a different one that I can't remember the name of, and had a blast. Donnie and Mikey, but mostly Donnie, were very competitive, especially because they were playing against the girls who in the end, won! 

His face after losing...

Sunday...

This was probably my favorite day. I was finally starting to feel better in the am and went with my Aunt Candi to Dunkin Donuts and to see my granny again. They have a ton of Dunkin Donuts and hardly any Starbucks. I wasn't a fan of the simple Hazelnut Latte I got, it was much too sweet for me. I can only hope to have a Dunkin Donuts one day - I would rather just have the donuts while they keep working on the coffee part! I got to see my Aunt Colleen, my cousin Haley, and my little cousin Jaxson, who is about 19 months old who were visiting there as well. We went outside again with Granny to talk under the beautiful blue sky! There wasn't a cloud to be seen and the sun felt amazing. It was definitely so much needed Vitamin C.. D? Whatever it is!

After about 2 hours, we said our goodbyes and Aunt Candi and I went to her house to pick up Uncle Mike and head to lunch on Clearwater Beach. Yes, ON the beach. Here was our view from lunch outside...

We had quite the wait, but it was fine being able to look out onto the beach for awhile. We met up with Donnie and Jessica and then my other cousin, Donnie's younger brother, Danny. We waited for Mikey to join us so we definitely soaked up the appetizers and drinks. I was finally able to eat more at lunch and my stomach was getting back to normal. I enjoyed their very well known grouper sandwich. It was delicious!

Right before we were getting ready to leave - Donnie received a startling text message from his neighbor. 

Apparently, on Thursday night before I arrived, there was a fatal stabbing at the Publix right across the street of Donnie and Jessica's neighborhood. The man responsible took off and was on the loose. It was big news and we definitely kept it safe. On Sunday afternoon, the suspect and his mother were stopped by a few undercover cops for questioning and they tried to take off. WELL, this happened right in the front yard of their house! The mother was taken down in their front yard as their car was parked right behind my rental car in their driveway. The man suspect took off on foot and was on the loose again but was being hunted. Naturally, they were a little freaked out and Jessica was very worried about her 2 dogs at home. They left lunch and I stayed with my Aunt and Uncle as we shopped along the streets for a bit so I could pick up some souvenirs. 

I was able to walk along the beach also - the water was SO nice and I got to enjoy the peaceful moments out there. 

Uncle Mike and I.

Once we got the OKAY to come home, they dropped me off. There were cops everywhere and cars were being searched as they entered the neighborhood. Helicopters were flying all night and our plans were put on hold. We enjoyed corn dogs and watching the Miss Universe pageant most of the night. Later that night we finally saw that the guy was caught - only a few streets down from their house! It was pretty intense all night, but we had a fun night staying in and relaxing before the week began. 

Monday...

My drive back to Orlando and flights home were pretty uneventful. I was anxious to get home and my 3 and a half hour layover in Minneapolis just pushed my patience. Instead of crying about it, I used it to get some exercise. I hadn't done anything all weekend and the airport was huge. I strapped on my duffle bag (yup, packed 4 days worth into a tiny duffle) and walked around the whole airport. It took about 45 minutes and was enjoyable to just let my mind wonder around. Once I got home into Boise around 8 pm, I hugged both Brinnley and Aaron and enjoyed being home until I went to bed ready for the work week!