Changes

Life is so very un-plan-able sometimes. Amanda's weekend (the first one where Brandon was taking off two days of work instead of one) was supposed to have consisted of going to Niagara Falls on Saturday and then the local theme park with him and his sister and brother on Sunday. Then they found out that one of Brandon's cousins was graduating high school that Sunday back home in Kansas. Brandon looked up flights and found that tickets were as reasonable as they would ever be.

"Is it okay with you if I go?" he asked Amanda, standing behind her with his arms around her waist.

"I'll let you go." she replied.

"But is it okay with you?"

"I'll support you if you decide to go."

In all reality, she was not okay with the idea. Her flight home to go to her own brother's graduation had been booked for two weeks and Amanda was already partially dreading being away from her husband for the first time. Now, if he left, he would be gone Saturday night through Monday night. Amanda was leaving Thursday morning and not coming back until Tuesday.

She growled inwardly as he bought the plane tickets. It's not fair. We finally have a real weekend and this happens! She blinked back tears. Stop it, Amanda. You're being a brat. You should be thankful that he has today off and isn't leaving directly from work.

Amanda knew God's hand was in this. Brandon had a peace about going and if she would stop and admit it to herself, she did too. It was hard not to hang onto her grumpiness though, as they finally got on the road and realized they didn't have time to  go to the Falls and make it worthwhile. But she didn't want Brandon to leave on a sour note, so she sent a quick prayer asking for help with an attitude adjustment. They changed course and went to a mall just a few minutes away from the airport. They were going to try to answer the question : Cuisinart, KitchenAid or Rachael Ray? JCPenny carried all three cookware sets they were looking at online and Amanda wanted to look at them in person.

As she let go of her irritation, they were able to enjoy the couple hours they had left before making sure Brandon caught his flight. Brandon even bought Amanda a piece of cheesecake from The Cheesecake Factory (peanut butter fudge ripple!), saying he was "bribing" her with it to be happy.

She managed to send Brandon off with a smile and hug. It was a deja vu moment, remembering how often she had to say goodbye the same way while they were courting. She reminded herself that it was just a couple days this time, not a couple months. On her way home (thanking God for GPS and a F150 to drive instead of a huge dually) she changed her mind about staying at home by herself the next day. She called her sister-in-law when she got home.

"Hey! Do you want to come over and spend the night? You can bring Austin and we'll watch a movie or something. Oh, did you measure him to see if he's tall enough for the rides at the theme park?"

"Yeah, he is except for three of them. Sure, we'll come over. It'll be 7 or 8 though, I'm helping Mindy with her business cards tonight."

"That's fine. We'll do breakfast in the morning and head over to the theme park when we're ready."

"Sounds good. See ya in a bit."

"Alright, talk to you later! Bye."

Pizza Hut pizza, The Princess Bride and Bride and Prejudice made for a fun and late evening. (Bride and Prejudice can't be started and not finished when someone hasn't seen it before! Even if it does mean staying up until 3am. "Marriage has come to town! Laughter, color, light and sound!")

The next day the three of them headed over to the theme park. Amanda was excited about going to her first real theme park, since she didn't think Joyland in Wichita probably counted. She was also cautious, knowing her tendency towards motion sickness. Carefully choosing which rides to go on would save her from crawling back to the truck and feeling like she was going to die.

"The Viper" rollercoaster was their first stop. Austin's mouth was running non-stop, he was so excited. "I don't get to do this very often! Sorry!" was often repeated as he bounced along. Amanda looked at the multiple loops and twists, wondering about the wisdom of this. Well, it doesn't have too many circles. Surely I can handle going upside-down...six times? Her guess of enjoying the ride but being done with it afterward proved accurate. The blast-off at the beginning caused a half-laugh, half-scream to come from her. And the six loops and black tunnel at the end caused her to say, "Um...let's go try something else" as she and Amanda Beth walked slowly, dizzy and Austin ran ahead, ready to go again.

The afternoon consisted of a ride, a break, watching the other two on a ride, a ride, a break, watching the other two on a ride, et cetera. One of the best times was Amanda's fake freak-out as they rode the coaster "The Predator" for the second time, while Amanda Beth laughed hysterically in the next seat.

"Oh-my-gosh. Oh-my-gosh. I can't do this! Let me off, take me back, we're gonna die, I know it! Please stop, stop, I can't handle it....AAAUUGGGHHHHH!!!"

Soft-serve custard was a highlight and people-watching provided some entertainment. All-in-all, a very good day. But she shouldn't have gone on her last ride. The "Ride of Steel" had two circles that went 'round and 'round...and 'round. Amanda was ready to go straight to bed when she got off of it. And as soon as they were back to her home, she did.

Okay, that was really awesome. Her eyes closed as she tried to hold very still. But I don't think I want to do it again for awhile.