Houston to Dallas and Dallas to Abilene

Caught a ride to Hobby Airport with my new friend Sean, had a quick one hour flight to Dallas Love Field on Southwest Airlines, and spent last night with Sarah, Miles and Elle. It was great to see them again, despite the difficult circumstances we find ourselves in. On top of our worries about Emery, Sarah and Miles' dog Charley had died the day before I arrived and they were very sad about losing him. He'd been with them since their first wedding anniversary and was very much a part of the family. I feel really terrible for them and his absence from the house put a little bit of a damper on the atmosphere. On the other hand, Elle is about the funniest child around and definitely kept us laughing and cheered up. She has such a personality and reminds me of Sarah when she was a toddler. Right now she is going through a phase where she doesn't want anyone to put on a jacket. We can't figure out why but she gets very upset and tells Sarah, "no jacket, Mommy, no jacket," while stomping her feet and waving her arms about. Today we were riding in the car and I noticed her looking at my zip up pullover jacket kind of thing. I thought she was interested in the zipper but before I could say anything, she looked at me sorta quizzically and asked, "JACKET, Gigi?" Oh no! I quickly said, "no, Elle, it's a sweatshirt! Can you say 'sweatshirt'?" :)

This morning we hit the road for Weatherford and my friend Karen met us there to bring me the rest of the way to Abilene. We had a good drive and caught up on news from all sides. Then got together with Susan, Aidan and Ally and spent the day having fun with them. Aidan is even taller and is doing great with spelling and reading some words. Not to mention that he is still the cutest and sweetest boy around! Ally is so lively and a darling girl with shining eyes and a cute little laugh. We played and played and then went to meet Corey, Karen, Kaci and Jason for dinner. Ally started complaining that her tummy was hurting so I held her for a little while and then she went to her mom, sitting on Susan's lap facing her. She acted like she was feeling better but then began to complain again. I had no sooner said, "I hope she is not going to throw up," when she started vomiting in three huge waves all over Susan and the restaurant floor. Oh. my. gosh! We could not believe it. Bless both their hearts, they were covered in it. Not exactly what you want at the dinner table. We rushed her to the bathroom and cleaned her up; luckily, Susan had another set of clothes in the car for Ally but nothing for herself. Needless to say, they took their food to go and headed home. We are not sure what came over Ally as she had been playing happily all day. Hopefully it is not anything major and she will be fine tomorrow.

Aidan came to Karen's house with me and is spending the night with us. We love having him and getting to spend time with him. Karen helped us with him when he was a baby and has always been like another grandma or *at least* an auntie to him.

As far as Emery news goes, I talked with Bonnie this afternoon while we were in the car and she reported that they had a nice, relaxing night with Lauren and Dan, rested pretty well, and they had Emery on her tummy, playing, when we were talking. It sounded like everything was going great at that time and I have not heard any more so I am counting on the fact that all is well! I don't want to call them constantly and drive them crazy! I know some of you are just checking the blog to find out about Emery but there may not be a lot of new info for the next few days. And that's a good thing!