No pictures and lots of tears.

This will be a picture-less post.

In fact, until yesterday, every post was in danger of being a picture-less post.

Because I left my camera on an airplane.

It traveled to Philadelphia without me, tucked snugly under seat 26F (that would be the very last row--the one by the horrifically stinky bathroom). I left it there when we landed in Dallas and I was struggling to get Skylar's car seat unhooked, and grab the car seat bag, and my purse, and the diaper bag, and the carry-on. Meanwhile the stewardess nazi was staring me down, not helping of course, just waiting for me to hurry up so she could get off.

The very same stewardess nazi who woke Skylar and I up on the first leg of the flight (before her car seat was in place) to tell me she couldn't sleep on my lap even though we were in the air with the seat belt light turned off and the poor child had been up since 3:30 am.

It was a safety issue.

Then we landed and even though our connecting flight was on the same plane and they announced we didn't have to disembark, she still made us get off with all of our stuff because our seats weren't confirmed yet. We ended up in the exact same seats we had started in. But it was really fun to haul everything off the plane and then back on again.

The same stewardess told me Skylar couldn't watch her dvd player because she didn't have headphones even though the volume was so low I could barely hear it sitting next to her. She said people might be trying to sleep. Ironic since the constant slamming of the bathroom door made that impossible. And any errant noise from a dvd player was nothing compared to Skylar's wailing protests when I had to turn it off.

She was an evil troll dragon, bless her heart.

Anyway, an hour after landing I realized I didn't have my camera.

Panic.

I caught a shuttle back to the terminal and went to the baggage claim office and blubbered to the lady working. And I am not a crier. I cry maybe twice a year. Maybe. Not even when I'm pregnant do I feel the need to cry. I just don't.

But as soon as she called the gate and told me that the plane had already left and no camera had been turned in, the water works started. I shamelessly blamed my exhaustion from being up since 3 am and traveling with a toddler, the raging pregnancy hormones, and my husband's recent deployment for my stupid mistake. I needed all the sympathy and cooperation I could get.

My pathetic emotional break-down worked.

Kathy, the nice desk clerk, more than compensated for the evil troll dragon nazi stewardess with her kindness and willingness to help as she made phone call after phone call and told my sad story to everyone.

Three hours later the plane landed and my camera was recovered, put in lost and found and then FedExed to me that same day. I had it sent to Colorado for the last half of our trip.

Kristy called to tell me it was at her house yesterday.

Praise the Lord.

So Skylar and I have been deep in the heart of Texas for almost a week now visiting all kinds of people and I haven't gotten any pictures with family, old friends and new babies.

Despite our rocky start, we're having a great time.

There just aren't any pictures to show for it.