Wow, it's been an eventful time in our lives. The weekend before last, Michael, Adam, our friend Bonniejean, and I got to go to IL to visit Frankie. This was the first time that Adam and Frankie have seen each other in over a year. It was so wonderful. The kids truly loved being together - their bond is really obvious. Frankie was completely surprised to see her brother, and Adam was overjoyed to see his sister.
We flew into Missouri (the first state we visited) on Friday. We got a flat tire about 1/2 hour outside of the airport. Since it was rush hour and we had no desire to turn around and exchange our rental car, Michael changed the tire out for the full sized spare. (Yay, Michael our hero changing a tire in nasty HUMID 88 degree stickiness). We stopped in O'Fallon, MO and had dinner at Ethel's BBQ, and then continued on to IL (the second state). We spent the night in Quincy, IL, and then surprised Frankie the next morning.
After a quick therapy/reunion/rule setting session, we headed over to Nauvoo. Nauvoo is so beautiful. It's very green and lush. We watched a puppet show and live action play called Just Plain Anna Amanda. It's about a girl who feels like she's not special because she's just like other members of her family. She learns that her legacy of these combined family traits is actually what makes her special. The kids enjoyed it. So did the adults.
Afterwards, we went up to town and had amazing Blueberry Cheesecake ice cream, and then headed back to Old Nauvoo. We went on a wagon tour of Old Nauvoo, which was supposed to be a very "spiritual" experience. I guess it could have been, but the sweet older missionary who led the tour had this enormous wad of spittle accumulating in the corner of his mouth during his entire 45 minute talk. It was very distracting.
Adam was also a great source of distraction, as he found the tour to be quite boring and was not opposed to loudly voicing his point of view. "This is boring," he said (did I mention loudly?) "why does this guy keep on talking? He's not shutting up." Thankfully, this is not Adam's normal behavior -- but he was tired, off his schedule, and out of his element. The funny thing is, I think some of the grownups would have liked a little bit of silence throughout the 45 minute tour (I'm pretty sure that sweet old missionary had quite good lung capacity because he literally did speak for all but a minute of the tour), but only a child would so innocently voice what several of the adults were probably thinking - a little time to just observe would have been gratefully received. Toward the last third of the tour, Adam fell asleep.
After our wagon tour, we decided to take a cue from our hot and tired kids, and headed back to our hotel. We stayed at the Hotel Nauvoo, and enjoyed our accommodations in a small private home. The house had two bedrooms, plus a kitchen, and a pullout couch. The kids played Nintendo, took a rest, and watched a movie on our portable DVD player. We had an early dinner at the Hotel Nauvoo buffet (a lovely smörgåsbord full of indulgent home cooking). Afterwards, we went back to our cottage. The kids spent a little time catching fireflies. Michael and I have seen them many times in our lives, but this was Adam's first experience (Bonniejean's too). He was awestruck. He said "I didn't believe they were really in this world, but now I believe they are real because I've seen them." I don't have pictures because neither children nor fireflies can adequately be caught on film in the dark of night.
The next day we headed back to Old Nauvoo. We visited the Family Living Center. This was a really interesting and informative experience. We learned how pioneers baked bread using brick fireplaces (and we ate some really yummy wheat bread too). We learned also about how textiles and yarn were made from flax and wool. The kids got samples of homemade rope (which, FYI is no longer made from hemp, gee I wonder why), which they promptly tied themselves up with.
We also learned how barrels were put together. What a lengthy process. Everything took forever in those days. All I can say is boy those pioneers worked. It's no wonder they died young - I bet they were completely worn out by 40! After the Family Living Center, we took a break and headed over to Iowa (the third state) for lunch. We had an interesting (read: gravy coated) lunch at a roadside eatery, and then headed back over a toll drawbridge into Old Nauvoo.Next, we visited the Scovil Bakery, and got to sample some tasty Gingerbread Cookies. The cookie recipe came from the Scovil family, who ran the bakery in the 1840's. Here it is:
Note: They're supposedly better the day after they're baked.
Ingredients
- 1 cup sugar
- 1 cup sorghum or molasses
- 3/4 cup oil or lard
- 1/2 cup hot water
- 2 eggs
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 2 teaspoons cinnamon
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 2 teaspoons ginger
- 6-7 cups white flour
Directions:
1. Combine sugar, sorghum, and oil. Rinse sorghum from cup with hot water, and add to the mixture.2. Add eggs
3. Mix together the following: soda, cinnamon, ginger, salt, and flour.
4. Combine the two mixtures.
5. Refrigerate dough overnight.
6. Roll out and cut with cookie cutters.
7. Bake at 350°F for 10 minutes.
After the Scovil bakery, Michael, Frankie, BJ, and Adam went to the gunsmithing shop. I stayed in the car and relished the cool modern technology known as A/C. From there, we stopped by the Joseph Smith family homestead and burial site. The burial site was my favorite part of Nauvoo. It overlooks the Mississippi River, and has a very peaceful feeling. The site is the final resting place of Joseph and Hyrum Smith. I say final because apparently, the bodies of Joseph and Hyrum had to be moved several times so that they would not fall into the wrong hands. The gravesite also holds the bodies of Emma Hale Smith (Joseph's wife) and several other Smith family members.
The next morning we headed out to St. Louis to go to the zoo. What a great zoo! I know I'm spoiled having grown up going to the Bronx Zoo, but I really am not a big fan of our local little Hogle Zoo. It's better than nothing, but it's not great. Admission to the St. Louis Zoo is free, although everything else comes at Disneyworld prices. A 16 oz. bottle of soda was $3! Still, we enjoyed seeing the penguins (Note: Penguin house reeks of fish). The hippo exhibit was amazing (the hippos were swimming directly in front of us, separated only by the glass of their tank), and the butterfly enclosure was magical (tons of different varieties of butterflies flitting all around us).
Frankie and I headed back to Quincy, stopping for a fairly awful dinner on the way. The waitress accidentally brought someone else's steak to me. After I cut into it and noted that it was quite well done, the waitress actually took it away and brought it to the correct table - after I had touched it. I mean, I know I'm not particularly germy, but gross anyway. Frankie and I had a great talk during the two hour drive back to IL. We got back to the hotel, and went to sleep for the night ... or so I thought.
At 2:30 in the morning, our phone rang. Since I knew that Michael was safe at home, I wasn't particularly panicked. I hadn't been sleeping very deeply anyway since there was a tremendous thunderstorm raging outside. The constant rumble of thunder had kept me sleeping fairly lightly. The front desk was calling to inform me that a tornado had been spotted, and would we kindly evacuate to the basement for shelter? Would we ever! Frankie took a little snooze under a banquet table, and I stayed awake and tried to pretend I wasn't at all scared. I had never been in a tornado situation before, and didn' t know that these are fairly normal for the Plain states this time of year. We were able to go back to our room sometime between 3:00 and 3:30, and did get a little more shuteye.
Tuesday and Wednesday were spent mostly working in intense therapy sessions. My goal was to try to provide a safe shelter for Frankie so that she could hopefully tackle some of her most complex issues, and I'm really honored to report that she showed me a great deal of trust. I'm so proud of the work she did in those sessions. We spent SIX hours in therapy in two days!!! We kept things fairly low-key on Tuesday after therapy. We got Frankie some really cute and grown up new eyeglasses, and then had a nice dinner together at TGI Fridays (really good French Onion soup there). Afterwards, we relaxed back at the hotel. Wednesday after therapy we had an early dinner at an excellent pizza place (kudos to Pop's Pizza in Quincy), and then Frankie got her hair highlighted and cut.
Thursday was going home day for me. Frankie and I had a wrap-up therapy session, and then we had lunch together. I took her back to Chaddock, and then headed to the airport.
I got to the airport with plenty of time before my flight, and eventually boarded my plane. We were running about ten minutes behind, so I called Michael to let him know to double check the flight arrival time. We had an uneventful takeoff. I got the nice roomy front row window seat, and was having a really interesting conversation with the flight attendant.
She (Juliette) was telling my fellow seatmates and me about the myriad of medical emergencies she's had to deal with mid-flight (after jokingly telling me to be sure not to go into labor). She's really had to deal with quite the gamut of situations -- everything from vomit spewing to administering CPR to passengers that she knew were already on "another plain" so to speak. She told us that emergency landings for passenger emergencies are very expensive, and landing in a non-Southwest terminal even more-so. We were quite entertained (and a little bit horrifyingly fascinated) by her stories, when she was interrupted by a call from the captain. Grabbing the PA mike, she then made the following announcement:
"Ladies and gentlemen, the captain has informed us that we are losing cabin pressure. This is not a joke. In a moment, the oxygen masks may fall from the ceiling. Should they fall..."
I can tell you that my stomach fell. I've been on some substantially bumpy plane rides, have even been on a plane that pulled out of the landing, but never have I been told that I am on a plane that is in danger of going down. I was honestly terrified. I thought about my family, and how much I treasure them. I started to panic, but listened to my instinct and waited for further information. I will be forever grateful to Adam the truck driver, and his brother-in-law (my two heroic seatmates) for being there to reassure me.
The plane started to descend, and as soon as Juliette (the flight attendant) was available, I asked her what was happening. She told us that we would very likely be making an emergency landing, and that she didn't know where, but assured me that we had plenty of time to make a safe landing. She understandably didn't want to interrupt the captain (who was busy making emergency landing plans), and told me she'd let me know when she found out more. She guessed that we might land in Denver. Had we landed in Denver, I honestly would have Greyhounded it home from there.
We didn't land in Denver.
About 30 oxygen mask-free minutes later (30 very very long minutes), we landed in a small commuter airport in Rapid City, SD (See, I went to FOUR states).Since this was, in fact, a non-Southwest airport, we had to wait about an hour and a half for TSA and Southwest to figure out what to do with us. They didn't have a secure area for us to wait in, and they couldn't offload us to a non-secure area. They weren't even sure that they had airsteps that were sufficient to meet the height of our plane. Lucky for them they found some (too bad, it would almost been worthwhile had we gotten to slide down the inflatable slide).
<--- South Dakota, as seen from my airplane window, at night.
Eventually, they decided we could wait in a small area of the terminal. We finally got off the plane and hung out in the Rapid City airport until around 1:00 am. It might have been later - I don't really remember. Southwest had flown in another plane, complete with a brand new pilot. I think we landed in Salt Lake around 2:30. I got my luggage and Michael picked me up around 3:00 am.
Poor Michael, what a trooper he was. Not that he would have made me sleep in the airport or anything, but he loaded Adam up in the middle of the night to go and get his wife and he still went to work on time the next morning! I can honestly say that outside of welcoming Michael home from six months at sea, I have never been happier to see him! I am so grateful for this sweet, kind, gentle non-complaining man. Michael, if you're reading this, I love you more than I can say. You are my strength, and my greatest support. There aren't words for how much you mean to me.
Friday was Michael's birthday. To be honest, I don't remember much of Friday or Saturday. I think I finally woke up fully on Sunday afternoon. I gave Michael his gift on Saturday (Guitar Hero). He loves it. I'm so glad such a simple thing is such a happy gift for him. Adam and Frankie gave Michael a gift certificate to Thinkgeek.com It's the perfect website for my geeky wonderful sweetheart.
Sunday we skipped church and went out for Michael's belated birthday dinner. We had sushi at our favorite sushi restaurant, and then came home.
Other than getting ready for Adam's bday on Friday, it's been life as usual since. And you know what -- I like it that way. I'm so thankful for normal boring everyday life. My friend Georgia summarized our shared feelings on the subject very well:
"There is something about getting older (and happier) that makes one shy away from angst and drama. I have been trying to live drama free for quite a few years - and while my life is not as interesting a story - I am much happier."
Amen, and until next time...
