The Middle of The Middle

I haven't even mentioned Sue! Sue is a roommate at Carol's house. She has whippets too. I didn't catch her last name, or if I did I don't remember it, but what a funny gal, and very nice too. She showed me her whippet Wade... oh my goodness was he HUGE. He is over the height limit for the breed, standing at 22 3/4"... He looked like a yearling greyhound. It was just amazing.

Monday was a mess. My mom missed her flight, but managed to get on the next one... so we got a really late start back. She was totally tickled by how cute Athena is. The drive back went well until the very end. I took a wrong turn and didn't notice until I was probably 100 miles down the road. I called Caayn and asked him where I was in proportion to our town, and I had overshot. So I turned around. And then took another wrong turn... this time I caught on really quickly. All that extra driving around added about 2 more hours on to the drive. Might be 3. We left the airport at 6pmish, and got home around 5am. I was so dead tired by the time we got home. Yuck!

Her visit was MUCH better than it has been normally. This time she actually talked to Caayn when he was in the room, and spent time with Sully... (She was the only family down for Sully's 1st birthday, and she went out to smoke while we did his birthday cupcake. :P) Sully LOVES his Granny. Lochlan was okay with her, but he still prefers me to everyone else in the world.

I took her to the mall... found a jean jacket in JCPenney's for $14 while walking through the store to get to the rest of the mall. I had to buy it. My old one had literally fallen apart several years ago. This one needs to fade a bit before it will be perfect-o... I'm so happy I found it though.

We left Tuesday morning at 5am, with Lochlan in tow. When I got back the week before, despite pumping all the time, my milk supply had gotten all wonky and I didn't want to risk another long separation from him. Plus, he pretty much cries nonstop if Caayn is holding him... I think Caayn would have gone insane, lol. (Have I mentioned that Lochlan is my boy? We always joked about how Sully was a Daddy's boy and how this next one was going to be "mine". Well, it happened. I don't mind at all--snuggling all day and night with the sweetest little baby is hardly a chore.) Again the drive went fine. I think I have the trip memorized for the most part, and can actually find my way a bit in St. Paul.

Lochlan cried the whole trip out though. I allowed my mom to break the law and take Lochlan out of his carseat. She sat in the second row and held him, which was exactly what he wanted. (I kind of suspect that the straps in the carseat need to be put on a higher setting and that they were sort of squishing him into an uncomfortable position.) Shame on me, I know.

We stopped in at Carol's after I dropped my mom off at the airport. I got to see sweet Cozy again--man she is just so adorable! Carol signed the registration papers. Athena's unofficial-official registered name is Straylight's Affinity In A Row. (Her sire is "Johnny", Affinity Walks The Line... I thought it was funny. I really wanted Straylight Affinity's Bobeena, but Caayn hated that. Bobeena because I call her Athena Nina Bobeena.) I just need to send in the papers before the name becomes official.

I hope I get to go back to Minnesota often. I really like being in Carol's company. She is a talker and I'm a listener, so we fit just perfectly. I could listen to her stories and experiences all day!

Now, the original plan was that I was going to stay Tuesday night at Carol's and leave in the morning. The weather was calling for snow on Wednesday and I wasn't tired or sleepy in any way, so I decided I would just go home. It'd be a great surprise for Caayn!