Get Out of Here!

When we planned a vacation over a year ago there was no thought of Justin being in school any time soon.

So, unfortunately, Justin had his finals week for all his ONLINE classes the week we were in the middle of nowhere with no internet or cell phone reception.

It also happened to be the same week he was officially no longer on church staff making it very difficult to hand off all of his responsibilities to the new guy (if you are reading this - sorry Steven we hope the hand off wasn't as horrible as it felt).

All of that to say Justin spent most of our vacation in front of his laptop writing papers (SUPER grateful my dad brought a generator to keep it charged) and reading books - a lot of books.  My grandparents had a hotel room about 15 minutes away and they let  him use the WiFi a few times to turn in those papers.

The "big day" was Wednesday - take all the online finals and submit his final papers.  My grandparents talked to us about that day long before our trip to ensure that we would be allowed to use the room for most of that day to get it all done. Here is what actually happened:

Tuesday:

• My grandma lets us know that they haven't been adjusting well (higher altitude) and decided to head home a day early (Leaving Wednesday instead of Thursday).  
• However, she had talked to the hotel manager and they knew Justin would be there on Wednesday to do his finals.  
• She left us a key to the room.

Wednesday:

• We arrive at the hotel and the room is being cleaned so we sit outside and chat for awhile.
• The cleaning lady leaves and we go in.
• Justin takes his tests while the kids and I head out for lunch.
• We get back and Justin is still taking his tests.  The kids watch TV and I take a nap.
• I wake up and Justin is finishing a test.  I decide I should go to the front office to check what the latest is we can be there.
• The hotel manager looks shocked when I ask her the question.  "We already gave that room to somebody else? They were supposed to be here about an hour ago...you've been in there the whole time?"
• Uh...yeah...
• I tell her what my grandparents told me and she said she thought they checked out since she left the room key (the 2nd copy).  
• I tell her I'll get everyone out and she says we can use the WiFi still from the car if we need it.
• I race to the room (somebody else's room) and tell everyone to hurry and get out.  We scramble around making sure everything looks nice and un-used.
• We make it to our car about 10 minutes before the couple arrives.  We are parked right outside the room so we can see them walk in... the whole time I'm just hoping we didn't leave a stray shoe or something
• Justin finishes his test in the car an we head back to camp
• Taylor asks, "why were we stealing somebody's room???"

Good times.

On a side note.  I LOVE my man!  He is working his butt off to finish this degree and making a lot of sacrifices along the way.  The kids and I "miss" him as he spends 40-50 hours a week reading, writing, and studying.  AND he's about to add extra classes on top of that starting tomorrow so in the end he can do what he loves: Teach Music and work in Youth/Music ministry.

ALSO - He got straight A's for his 2nd semester in a row :)