Airline troubles

I'm so used to posting about every other day...I feel "out of the loop"!

We're back home but it took a lot to get here.

- arrived at the Memphis airport at 11:30 a.m. to check in for our 1:30 flight.
- checked our bags, got our boarding pass
- went through the security check, took off our shoes, had our belongings scanned, and exited the area.
- checked the departure schedule and saw that our flight had been cancelled.
- turned around to reschedule only to be booked on another airline with a flight leaving two hours later than we had scheduled.
- retreived our bags from first airline and rechecked them with second airline.
- got our boarding passes
- proceeded to security check AGAIN
- was told that I was randomly selected for a "pat-down" with a female assist (the male TSA officer yells this when he needs a female for the pat-down. Did I mention I was almost 37 weeks pregnant? By the way, no one from the airline asked to see my doctor's excuse that I carried with me in my pocket just in case. Guess I could fly anytime I wanted to, huh?).
- looked to my right to see that Mitch had also been randomly selected for a "pat-down"...what are the odds?
- when all my belongings were scanned, shoes dusted for illegal residue, and the lady finished feeling my very pregnant stomach, I gathered myself and proceeded to the boarding gate with Mitch.
- we sit for an hour when told that our flight had been cancelled.
- we turn around, retrieve two of our three bags from the second airline, and reschedule on our original airline for a flight leaving six hours later than our original plan.
- we get a bite to eat, give up on finding the third bag (the airline can't locate it, either), recheck our bags, and get new boarding passes - all for the third time.
- go back through the security check
- find our boarding gate and wait for several more hours.
- loaded the plane on time and arrived in Atlanta where we finally found our third bag, which had arrived on another airline carrier....weird.

We were at the Memphis airport for eight hours yesterday. We could have rented a car and been home by the time we finally got on a plane. However, it was time that I got to spend walking and talking with Mitch, even if most of our conversation was full of "stupid airline" venting. I am thankful we didn't have the children with us! We pulled into our driveway at 1:30 in the morning and our biggest disappointment was that, after four days, we weren't able to see and hold our children before they went to bed.