What happened...

I've tried and tried to write up a clear and concise paragraph or two consisting of the highlights of our recent house-hunting trip.

It hasn't worked.

Instead, I'll list the highlights because I know y'all have been waiting with baited breath for this recap.

• We had a fairly uneventful flight from RDU to DFW last Thursday. I even arranged it so that I sat with Addi while Bryan sat a row up and aisle over with Libby. With a laptop and a few movies, traveling with Addi is almost as easy as traveling alone. Of course, when Libby was about to begin screaming because she was so tired, Bryan forced me to switch places with him.
• We had a delicious lunch prepared by Nana and a surprise visit from Bryan's Meme and Aunt Ginny when we arrived.
• The rest of Thursday was spent looking at houses for Bryan and me and playing with Ethan, Rachel, Aunt Lisa, and Nana for Addi and Libby.
• Thursday night was our first taste of yummy Mexican food at La Hacienda Ranch. We can't wait to move closer to that restaurant.
• Friday we woke up to spend the day looking at house after house after house with a break for a great lunch at a cool shopping center that I will surely spend lots of time window shopping. And Friday evening brought more Mexican food.
• After filling our bellies, we drove to Bryan's parents' house to visit a little and transfer the girls to my parents' house. We were reasssured to find that we were neither needed or missed during their stay at Nana and Poppa's....well, except for Thursday night when Addi couldn't find the pajamas I'd packed her and Bryan received a phone call with a plea to "come quickly" and bring more pajamas. We knew the same would be true while the girls spent the rest of their trip doted on by Grammy, Grandpa, Uncle Brett, Meme, and PaPa. And, fortunately for me, I found Addi 2 pairs of pajamas in her suitcase.
• Saturday was more relaxed. We only had a few houses to look at, so Bryan and I decided to search out someplace good for breakfast. While on the hunt, we were honked at by a friend from A&M. We didn't even know Jenny lived in the city we're planning to move to. It was wonderful to see her and such a blessing. She will surely be a wealth of information and a friendly face a little closer to our new house than our family will be.
• After breakfast and checking out some houses, we drove out to a neighboring city in search of dill popcorn. We found an adorable downtown and I'm already planning on meeting Shana for some shopping and more popcorn.
• Of course, we had to take an afternoon break for the Aggie game. That's really all I can get out about that since I'm fearful if I think back too long, I'll end up throwing this laptop through the window. And, the blame for that unfortunate incident would also be poor coaching!
• We spent the evening learning the area and ate at Razzoo's. I'm wondering now why we didn't eat Mexican again that night.
• Since we didn't need to be at the airport until 4, we slept in on Sunday morning and then ate an early lunch at The Cheesecake Factory. It was there over my fish tacos and Bryan's (whatever it was that he ate?!) that the house we were pretty sure we liked the best became our all-out favorite.
• We made it to my parents' house with a couple hours to spare before we had to load up our rented van and head to the airport. At about 15 till 4, we waved goodbye and noticed it was raining. This is almost where the fun really began.
• As we walked into the rental car building we looked on the monitors to find which terminal our flight would leave from. But, our flight wasn't listed. We noticed the flight to RDU before ours was delayed and started to feel the dread of spending countless hours entertaining 2 children (past their bedtimes) in an airport.
• By the time we walked all of Terminal A to find someplace the entire family could agree upon eating at, our flight was delayed by 2 hours. Leaving then would put us back home at midnight. It wasn't looking good.
• When the flight was delayed another 30 minutes, we decided to ask about moving our flight to the next morning. We got on a 9 am flight, but our luggage would go on to Raleigh without us.
• My parents picked us up and ran us to Wal-Mart for some essentials we didn't have in our carry-on luggage. If you've every traveled with children, you know that your carry-on bags are filled with markers, snacks, coloring books, snacks, books, snacks, a laptop, snacks, movies, snacks, diapers, snacks, wipes, snacks, no more than 3.4 ounces of hand sanitizer held in a quart-size plastic zip-top baggie, snacks, blankies, and more snacks.
• The next morning, we were more prepared. Bryan checked our flight information before we headed out for the airport, which really wasn't that early considering we didn't have any bags to check and didn't have to check-in and my parents live about 15 minutes from DFW.
• But, after only spending 10 minutes in line to go through security, we found that our flight had been canceled. We practically ran to the closest counter and were told we could be put on a flight at 8 pm. Or, we could possibly fly stand-by on the 11 o'clock flight. We decided to take our chances with the stand-by flight and found a playground the girls enjoyed. Although, I don't believe the people still sleeping there enjoyed the squeals coming from Libby. But, it was almost 9 o'clock and I was in whatever-will-make-you-happy-and-thus-make-my-life-easier mode. Plus, they were sleeping in a playground!
• It seemed each time Bryan obsessively checked the monitors for flight information, he returned with news of another delay. So, after about an hour, and a confirmation for all of us on a 6 pm flight, we decided to grab a taxi and head to Bryan's parents' house for the day.
• I'm sure you can imagine how often Bryan checked the flights throughout the day. But, everything went well. We did notice tons of other flights being delayed. Ours, however, remained at 6 and we even got both girls to take a good nap. Everything was going great.
• Until about an hour before we were planning to leave for the airport. The 6 pm flight was canceled.
• We consoled ourselves with more delicious Mexican food.
• Our trip was finally completed on Tuesday, September 11. It was a very uneventful flight...Libby even slept, so I was able to spend almost the entire time reading.
• I'm sure I would've thought about the significance of the day, but flying on that day really made me think about it. I can still remember (I'm sure I always will) what I was doing when I heard about a plane hitting the first Twin Tower. I was buttering some toast to take with me on my way to a staff meeting at school. I sat there and watched the plane hit the second building. I can still remember driving to school, listening to news on the radio, wondering if Bryan would hear about this out in the field, and thinking "this will directly affect our life". And, it did. That was a hard day for everyone. I remember wanting so badly to hug my family. This September 11 found me flying in an American Airlines plane with a family that hadn't completely exsisted on that September 11 and praying for all the families directly affected by that September 11.

So, in a recap of my recap, we had a great trip with lots of great food and found a great house that we hope will still be available when our house finally gets a contract. We know this is all in God's hands and so we are trying to remember to pray when we begin to feel anxious. I keep telling myself that in a year everything will have worked out...I'll be holding a 6-month old and walking my 5-year old to kindergarten while my 3-year old begs to go stay with her sister. And, we'll walk home to a house that is perfect for us.