Leaving on a Jet Plane!

Punkin and I are leaving to go to Chicago on Friday!

A few years ago when I got pregnant with Punkin, I joined this online community called B.abyZon.e, which is like a virtual neighborhood for women who all have similar interests - getting pregnant, being pregnant, or parenting.  I joined the September 2008 Due Date Club, which is exactly what it sounds like - an online club for women who were all pregnant and due in/near September 2008.  We started out the board with an awful lot of moms, but unfortunately we lost a lot of them early on due to miscarriages.  The moms that made it through the first trimester generally stayed up with the board all the way through their pregnancies, but then after the babies were born, moms started getting busy with their kiddos and we lost a lot more of our ladies, especially when everyone started moving over to Facebook.  I was really sad to see the board slow down, but it was still nice to be able to communicate with everyone on FB.

Some of the moms that I found myself identifying with more than others were LaNeisha and her son Nico (born the same day as Punkin!), Suzette and her daughter Skye, Jasmine and her son Silas, Julie and her daughter Autumn, Genia and her son Bryson, Monica and her daughter Elodie, Amanda and her daughter Jordyn, Kelly and her daughter Riley, Mary and her son Sammy, and Julie and her daughter Tenley.  These are the women who initially stayed on the board and moved to FB, so it was easy to keep up with them.  I met Genia and Bryson several months ago when they were in town on vacation.  Punkin and I went to Olive Garden with them and we had a great time!  It was really nice to be able to put a physical person with all the typing we did every day.

Over the past several months, I've gotten a lot closer to Jasmine.  She used to be the host of the board, but stepped down after her son was born because she just didn't have the time anymore.  Julie and I both stepped up to be hosts, but after a big fight (that I admittedly was a big part of) Julie got frustrated with the lack of respect and the lack of participation on the board (I don't blame her one bit!) and stepped down, leaving me as the host.  (We won't get into what happened with Janelle, who was supposed to be the other host on the board).  It was hard for me to keep up by myself, so Jasmine stepped back up to help me out.  Once she became the co-host again we started talking more off the board and got to know each other well.  We talked about all the stuff we would do if we ever got together but it was always more of a joke than anything, especially after looking at airfare for Cedar Rapids, which is the closest airport to her, and finding out that tickets were over $400 roundtrip.  Per person. EFF THAT.

  Well, early in the summer I got frustrated that I wasn't going to be doing anything except house and dog sitting for my parents, so I decided to make it a point to figure out how to get to Iowa to see Jasmine and spend some time there.  Plane tickets to CR were still a million bucks each, so I talked to Jasmine and she said she would be willing to drive to Chicago to pick me up if I could fly into O'Hare or Midway.  So I did some research and found plane tickets for less than $200 flying into Midway, so I went ahead and booked one.  Unfortunately the cheapest flight I could get flying out there takes off at 7 in the morning and the cheapest one coming back gets in at 11:00 at night, so Punkin's schedule is going to be a mess.  That's okay, though.  I'm willing to mess with her sleep for two days to be able to take a real vacation!

So we fly out Friday morning.  Thursday night we're staying at Nana and Pap-Pap's house because they're taking us to the airport.  Punkin is sitting on my lap since I didn't want to have to buy her a ticket so I'm worried about that, but hopefully since it's such an early flight and it's on a Friday morning, there will be at least one empty seat on the plane (hopefully next to me!) that I can set her down in.  I just checked the Southwest website and there are still tickets available for both flights, so keep your fingers crossed!  If not, she'll have to make due on my lap.  I borrowed one of Michelle's portable DVD players so hopefully that will keep her entertained on the flight.

After we get in to Chicago, Jasmine is going to pick us up at the airport and then we're going directly to the hotel.  Punkin will have been on a 3 hour flight and Silas will have been on a 4 hour car ride, so both kiddos will need to stretch their legs.  Monica and Elodie, who live in Minnesota, will be meeting us at the hotel and then we're going to the Lincoln Park Zoo!  After that we're going to have REAL Chicago pizza for dinner (and some other moms might join us for that!) and then Saturday morning we're going to do Navy Pier and FAO Schwartz.  I am SOOOO excited just thinking about it!

I'm going to try to keep the blog updated while I'm gone so those of you who want to keep up with our adventures can!