Leavin' ... on a ... jet plane.

Our July 2010 trip to San Antonio in ghetto truck.

If you are one of my Twitter friends you might have heard me mention something about my baby brother graduating from basic training?  Yes!?  No?!  Well, my baby brother is graduating from basic training!!  This week!!!!  He'll be a full-fledged member of our United States Air Force by the weekend!!

I've been upset with the idea that it's not at all affordable for me to head out that way.  This is a huge deal.  And I'm closer here then I would be living in Wisconsin which makes it twice as hard to swallow the fiscal impossibility pill.

BUT...

I have this super fabulous cousin.  And I think she loves me for some reason because she has been asking me about this for ages now.  And?  She's putting money in my checking account to get the kids and I to her zip code.  That's right!!  My uncle, her dad, is retired USAF out of Lackland AFB and they stuck to the area because they felt like Texas was their home after so many years.  Plus my cousin went and married a Texas boy.  So...I get to see my Texas family for the third time since we got here!

I can't even tell you how excited I am!  Even after my husband tried to dash my excitement with reminders about how many days of school Lorelei has missed and how Caleb's grades aren't so stellar.  And trust me, I understand and realize those things.  But this is a ONCE IN A LIFETIME thing.  I am so damn proud of my baby brother!  He'd been doing nothing.  In the literal sense.  He thought getting money to drive his friends to concerts so they wouldn't drive home drunk was a full time job.  So, I mean, if you thought he was a loser, I wouldn't even try to correct you.  But he finally found something and from what I've heard this has been pretty damn life changing for him.  And he's rocked it!

To add to the whole chaos of this situation... My mom is flying down to Texas from Wisconsin for the graduation.  Guess who has no clue that her oldest and two grandchildren are going to be in attendance?!?!?  It's going to be one hell of a week for my mom!  The last three people she'll expect to walk in my aunt and uncle's door?  Us.  I hope the jet lag doesn't make her too tired for kids who are ready to smother their Grammy in hugs and kisses.

Anyway, we leave on Wednesday morning.  I'm a bit freaked out.  I woke up with a damn cold sore {thank you dear mother for contracting the herpes virus} right dead center which will not be gone soon enough for all the pictures I expect to be in.  I'm not sure I have anything to wear.  I'm going to have to fake it somehow.  Caleb doesn't own dress clothes and I'm just not in a situation to be able to get him something.  But he's ten.  So whatever.  I have to get an oil change which means an unexpected trip for an oil change tomorrow morning.  I have things to charge and gather and pack.  Have I ever mentioned that I'm not really one to take random seven hundred mile expeditions on short notice?  I will be leaving for San Antonio in just over twenty-four hours and it hasn't even sunk in that I'm going yet.

But...  OMG!!!  I'm going to fucking Texas!