Mandy and I are the airport

        

So we're just waiting in the phoenix airport to take off, went through security without having to pay fees for my bags (insert happy dance here) and managed to take a medium/small backpack and a tote stuffed to the brim.  

And i brought my blanket..i'll be honest.

I'm excited I just talked to Mimi and she said she said she's been using skype to call mobiles and put $20 on it and still has $13 left after an entire month .  That's really good news after I got ripped off on my calling card. "if it seems too good to be true, it probably is" the alleged 6 cents/minute ended up being 97 cents/minute. That may not seem like much but it'll add up painfully fast.  

I also got to video chat with Austin, I felt like I was there seeing Bella, Max, and Dave (who mooned me. Next time i'm saving the picture for blackmail

.) 

It's definitely alot easier not being by myself, so i'm really lucky that Mandy and I are going together.  This could've been tragic if I would have had to delay my trip because of the medical shenanigans, but i'll explain that later..too tiring at the moment.  I haven't slept at all in the past week and it shows, beauty sleep exists and I believe in it now.  I still feel connected so the feeling of being overwhelmed hasn 't fully me hit me..austin was so supportive/encouraging this morning when I called him crying as I finished up my carry on bags.

 My mom and brother were really calm and didn't get emotional..that helped me alot too.  Troy is hopefully coming to visit in October when he has a week off and sporadically throughout my trip and my mom is coming for thanksgiving.  I want her to bring potato salad for me.  I'm going to miss my mom's cooking.

But anyways, our flight to philadelphia is delayed and it's about 4hrs 41 minutes and then our flight to portugal is 7hrs...soooo long.  We'll see how we survive.