I survived! I took the loooong trip from Oregon to El Paso, TX and survived. I drove Chad's truck to him in New Mexico, (had it loaded to the top of the canopy) by myself. After work on Tuesday the 28th, the kids and I drove the 3 hour drive to Bend where I dropped them off at their grandparents. I stayed the night there and then left on my own the next morning at 6:00 AM sharp. I stayed that night in Provo, UT. It was so difficult finding a place to stay, as all the University and college students were arriving with their parents that week. I drove around for over an hour before I finally found something available. It happened to be a ritzy expensive pad, but at that point it was after 8:00 and I really didn't care I was so exhausted. There was a lot of road construction and stalled traffic for over an hour in SLC and I was just ready to be done.

I left there at 6:00 AM Thursday. I met my parents for lunch in Farmington NM which is only 45 min. from where they live in CO. That took a couple hours out of my time, but there's no way I could miss not seeing my parents when I was so close. Thankfully I'd already arranged a hotel room in Roswell, so I didn't have to worry about finding a place to stay when I arrived. I got there right after 9:00. I couldn't meet with Chad until 4:30 Friday, so I had the day to kind of relax and play. I still got up early, but went in the hot tub for a while and then just relaxed and watched tv in my room. I checked out at noon and then headed for the mall. It's not a mall by my standards, but they don't have a many choices in Roswell. They have only a few department stores. I went to Penney's and Beall's and found a few clothes on sale. I hate having to pay sales tax, I'm not used to that, but it wasn't bad with the clearance sales. I went next door to Hobby Lobby, never been in one but I managed to purchase a couple of things. It's not a lot different than Michael's, has some better sb choices though. After that I went to self car wash place and washed the truck, tried to de-bug it.

I decided it was time to be on my way to see Chad, so I drove the 45 min. to the center and then had to wait in the visitor's parking lot. He finally arrived at about 4:45. It was so good to see him, it had been 3 months. He has lost a lot of weight. He lost the majority before he left but now he is all toned and muscular and still managed to lose 2 pants sizes. He was so shocked to see me. I have lost a lot of weight too and am now almost to the size I was before kids. I didn't tell him, so it was really a surprise. It's great being told I'm "hot" by my husband. Of course, after not having been together for 3 months I would have been hot anyway. Hee hee. I wasn't allowed a visitor's pass until 5:00, so we waited until then. I toured the campus a bit, went with him to his room, met one of his roommates and waited while he packed for the weekend. I met his buddies and then I drove his buddy to El Paso so he could catch an early morning flight. We stayed the night there and just toured El Paso and goofed off there the next day. We stayed the night again and then on Sunday drove to Carlsbad Caverns in NM. We toured that and then got a room in Carlsbad. We ate out and then just chilled at the motel. Monday rolled around way too quickly. Back to El Paso we went. We ate lunch and then it was time to drive me to the airport and say our goodbyes.

A few hours later I was home again. I went the next day to Bend and picked the kids up and we drove back home. Exhausting. The kids started school the next day and now have been in school for just over a week.