One short day-

Savanna was wishing that she was going to Dallas to see Wicked. She even tweeted so. We had two sets of friends that were leaving that morning for Dallas to go see it. Jay and I had talked about going for our anniversary, and Savanna could not believe that we would consider going without her. We decided no one would go.

I had a dentist appointment to get a filling. Jay stayed home with the kids and left right after I got home around 10:30. Savanna was standing at the door to walk out with a friend when we got a call from our friend Stephanie (one of the friends that was going to be heading to Dallas.)

In a rush she asked if we could get things together to drive to Dallas that night. She said she had three extra tickets. Good news! I stammered and stuttered and sputtered and said, "YES I can get it together to drive to Dallas." I didn't take time to consider if Jay could get off work, or who would watch the kids, or if the car was ready to go. I WAS GOING TO SEE WICKED IN DALLAS!

Then it hit me- Why do you have three extra tickets? What happened for you to have three extra tickets? I had that sort of sick feeling that something wasn't right.

It wasn't.

Kristie was planning on driving down with her daughter, sister and Mother. But that morning her mother had a heart attack. Thank goodness they had not left yet. Everything went as well as it could have, considering she had a heart attack. Let us be grateful that she had the heart attack in Oklahoma City, and not on the road somewhere between here and Dallas.

Once I sorted through the shock of why Kristie would be unable to go- I went into quick plan mode. I had two hours to get it together. I called Jay at work, and said that I knew he had only been to work for about 45 minutes but could he come home? Called my mom to see if she can watch the boys. Called my friend Donna in Dallas to see if we could stay the night. Made many back and forth calls with Stephanie to plan out details. Decided to take Jack with us to stay with our friends while we went to the show. Stephanie stopped by with the tickets and her daughter. I quickly packed a bag for Jay and I, helped Savanna pack, then got the boys stuff together. Jay made it home and took the van for an oil change then we left to drop off the two youngest. We made it through dropping them off (barely) then went to pick up Kristies daughter. Then we were off. We made it on the road by two.

The drive down was great.

Everyone was so excited.

When we got to Donna's in Texas she had pizza waiting for us. We ate, changed and left. It was that quick.

We got to the theater, found our seats, and waited for Katie's family to arrive.

The girls were giddy.

Who am I kidding? I was giddy!

I loved seeing it with Jay. LOVED.

It was so fun to sit next to all the girls and hear them singing under their breath.

I was thankful that we got to go. I kept thinking to myself-Did this really just happen? It was funny to me that we were there so quick and unexpectedly, and that we pulled off something so last minute.

After the show we saw the girls off to their hotel for a few days of shopping.

It all felt like an early anniversary celebration. The surprise, the drive down, the show, staying with our friends, staying up late, swimming. Waking up the next morning and not wondering what Luke and Tucker were getting into. I woke with a start and bolted up wondering what time it was and then remembered where I was. We swam that morning and relaxed then left around two. About the same time we had left the previous day. One short day-

I struggled with benefiting from someone's misfortune. It took me a while to want to write about how much fun we had knowing that Kristie and her Mom and sister missed the show. And why they missed the show. I don't know if I did a very good job of expressing our gratitude for being able to go, along with our sadness for the whole situation. But I'll make good. I will keep trying.