A Lesson Learned On the Rollercoaster

For the last two weeks, my family has been on a roller coaster of events. My oldest son's best friend from Oregon came to stay with us in Texas for a week. They had a great time staying up late, swimming, and playing video games. The boys were about 11 yrs. old the last time they saw each other. They are now 15. I was curious about how they would get along, since it had been so long. They both have changed so much. At first, they seemed a little awkward towards each other, but it didn't take long for them to connect the way they did when they were younger. I'm so glad they had the chance to hang together again. When the day came for my son's friend to leave......well........let's just say, it was hard to say good-bye! I'm so embarrassed to admit this, but, we missed his flight. We live in a small town, and the airport is very small, so I figured as long as we were at the airport in enough time (15-20 min. before the flight) we would have no problems. WRONG! Boy, did my husband and I learn a lesson that day. We stayed at the airport for several hours trying to get him on another flight, but no luck. I had to call his mom and explain, and told her we would have her son back to her the next day. We ended up having to pay a large fee for another flight. So, the next day came, and this time we were at the airport an hour early. We were saying our good-bye's when we got to the ticket counter, the man working there told us all flights were cancelled due to bad weather in Dallas! I just looked at the guy and said "you're kidding!!" He wasn't. We went back home, I called the friend's mom and explained, and told her she would have her son back the NEXT day. (I started to wonder if she believed me,lol!) So, the NEXT day, the flight was at 6am. I checked for any cancellations before we left the house, there were none, so we left for the airport and arrived an hour early. We said good-bye.....again, but this time for real. Happy to say, he made the flight and I got to call friend's mom and let her know her son was on his way home. His mom was so great through the whole mess. I really appreciated that! So....through it all, we learned a big lesson....always....no matter how small the airport....always arrive at least an hour early to the airport before your flights departure! Duh! :) This is part one of the roller coaster ride. I'll write more about the other events later. So much happened after this, it was really crazy!