A Texas Life: Lots of baby meeting and mingling

My parents and I visited my grandmother V at the end of last month. It was a long overdue and very happy visit. I felt blessed to to able to go, especially because my grandma, who is ill, had not met Mr E, and I had not seen her since she visited us in Juarez. As many of you know, we just happened to travel during the last winter storm, so the way back from Laredo did not go as planned... aaaand we got stranded in Dallas. No big deal for me- Mr E and I got to hang out with my friends there, whom I haven't seen in a while either; and I got to meet baby J. And thus, the trip that might have otherwise been an unlucky adventure became a trip of serious baby-meeting and happy mingling with friends. I do have a way of getting in trouble while at the same time sneaking in some awesomeness, if I do say so myself.

But I digress.
I do want to post a picture of my grandmother and Mr E, meeting for the first time. Wish I hadn't forgotten my camera.. sigh..

And then of course there was lots of great food, prepared by my Dad, chef extraordinaire:

And we took her out to visit my grandfather's tombstone and then out to eat. There was also some failed shopping which I shall not explain because it's just too embarrassing. LoL.
We did have a great time, and got to see everyone there for a little bit, and then it was time to come home.

And then the storm happened half way through, and my second plane (from Dallas to Amarillo) got cancelled...till further notice. After spending quite a while going from gate to gate, I found out that I was supposed to have gone directly to a desk where all the rebooking happens (when did they start doing that?) but there was a line of hundreds of people there by then, and Mr E had become extremely tired and had started to cry. I gave up hope of ever going anywhere and I called Quijote to let him know my phone was low on power and I didn't have a charger with me (the visit itself was supposed to take only a day, plus the scheduled airport time, so I didn't pack it! big mistake...) and I needed him to see if he could get a hold of my friend J (which he had already done!) and maybe see if AA would rebook my flight over the phone (since the line was so insanely long at the airport). I sat down with Mr E while talking with Q, and he started fussing and I was just feeling so hopeless. A young girl came over to me (one of many kind strangers this trip) and offered to let me use her charger while she waited for her airplane, but then asked me to keep it. Of course, I offered to pay her, but she wouldn't let me.
I could go on an on about the strangers at the airport who, far from looking at me with dismay, decided to be friendly to me and my toddler instead, and showered us with kindness. People helped me with our luggage, played with him, and even held him! I was very grateful for it all, and only wish it'd be okay to ask strangers for their address so I could at least send a thank you note. Instead I'll put this out there, in case one of them for some crazy reason sees this... Thank you all who made the trip so much better.

Not to mention my awesome girlfriend J and her family (all of them Js, I'm afraid! haha!). Thank you for taking care of us... and making the time, ~~on short~~ with no notice, to spend with us.
It was wonderful to meet her baby girl J, and to get to see my friends. We had lots of fun, ate some seriously awesome food (thanks J!) and really truly were grateful to be "stranded" there for a day or two. Like J said on one of her facebook comments, it was really more like American had sponsored a trip to Dallas for us ;)

I kicked myself the entire trip (Laredo to Dallas) for not having my camera on me. Have I mentioned that yet?

While we were there my friend F and his wife came over to see us :)! Wish the weather hadn't been crazy and then we would have visited them too...maybe met the doggies...