My expensive luggage tag

Oh, how wonderful to wake up in my own bed this morning with sun pouring across my face. My initial reaction was "ugh......." but then I remembered---this means morning!!!! "Rouse and shine", as Timmy used to say. When I came home from my trip just prior to midnight, I discovered clean laundry spread on my bed which means that Joanne must have been here doing some wash. Yup, that is what it means! She had spent some time cleaning in her former bathroom and washed the towels and cleaning rags, which meant my laundry had to move along.

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Monday morning we had a light breakfast with Tommy and Linda before saying our good-byes and thanking them for putting up with us---I mean, putting us up. We stopped at Lowe's to make our return of unused packing boxes and then headed to Copp's to pick up the poppyseed-filled doughnuts, hot dogs, and cheese curds to fill the empty spots purposely left in my suitcase. We arrived at Mom's to find Lynn and the little boys waiting for us as well as Kerry. After spending a few minutes with us, Kerry had to head back to Oshkosh to take care of things in her own apartment.

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Jill came up after she opened the ice cream parlor so we could say "good-bye" to her and Alayna popped in from her friend's sleep-over party, still wearing her pj's, to hug and kiss on us before we headed for the airport. Lori and David had left the day before so we had said "'bye" to them Sunday. Lisa and Noah had gone to Kewaunee on Sunday to stay in a "haunted hotel", historic in nature, so Lynn had the boys overnight. They are just darling, Gabe and Manny. While they love to eat and ask so sweetly for a "'nack", Manny is so thin that his ribs poke out! Gabe is more sturdy but not what I would call heavy, solid is the word. Manny is just the opposite, skinny and fine.

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Justin and I said our farewells to Mom, with promises to keep in touch and to have a safe trip home. She was grateful for all the help and the getting things organized for her. Now her job will be to locate where we put her treasures and stuff as we rather hurriedly unpacked the boxes. As Mom claims, she has all winter to unpack her stuff, and says she will do a little each day....I know how that goes, though---out of sight, out of mind! The family all likes the new apartment, feeling much more confident about this living situation than we did the last one, which the County was using as a "half-way house" or supervised living residence for people with social or mental problems. Not a good or safe place for Mom, especially since it was in such disrepair.

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Speaking of her lovely new home, I met an old friend at Copp's yesterday as he ran through the store. Nick was the man who actually built the apartment building where Mom now lives. We hugged on each other a couple times, plenty of history between us after years of friendly competition in Manitowoc building houses in the same neighborhoods and even living only a block or two apart at times. As Justin and I left the store, I told how Nick came to the hospital to see us when Justin was born, and reported that he donated blood to replace that which was used for me during and after the birth. That is Nick! Although he was in hurry, he called to me on the way out to tell me that he is no longer building homes, out of it for two years now, but is now working in the mission arm of his Free Church congregation in Manty. Still building, just that with a much longer warranty!

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Our rental car had XM radio which allowed for us to listen to Fox News all the way to the airport. I listened while Justin snoozed, which was no problem. He did not have to be a deer spotter for me during the summer months. After we returned the car, we made our way to the terminal to get our luggage checked through and get our tickets. My nice luggage tag had been torn from my suitcase once more so Justin told me to get the paper tag made out while he checked us in through the kiosk. He had to type in the confirmation code and such to get our tickets and I worked on getting my tag made out, expecting it would be torn off as well during the handling process.

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Justin turned and asked me if we should upgrade to Business Class because seats were available. He said, "It's only $49 each......" and I thought for two seconds, then said, "Sure, why not?", thinking that was quite the bargain!! Only once before, I think, I sat in First Class, now referred to as Business, which makes it more politically correct. We got our receipts as the man put the luggage gizmos on the handles to forward them between the planes and we dragged the bags to the security man for his handling. I cautioned the security agent not to let anything happen to my new luggage tag, which had just ended up costing me nearly $200!!!! What Justin told me and what I understood was two different things----while it WAS $49 each, it actually was $49 each ticket, each leg of the trip! Ooops! Talk about communicating! It was too late to undo so I chalked it up to the perfect end of the very busy weekend and a hard working boy. The good news was that we did not pay $15 each per bag checked through nor did we pay for the beverages enjoyed in Business Class. I have two tiny, partial bottles of rum on the kitchen counter, valued at $49 each!!!

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And, here is the good news----all four airplane rides allowed me to close the seat belt without having to use the extension! On the last ride, Justin helped me, but it went "click" without any discomfort or squishing and squeezing!!! Low and tight across the hips, just as the flight attendent informed us!