The Woe Is Me Post

Yesterday was a bad day.  I wanted to just give up on everything.  For nearly a week things had been piling up and I was to the breaking point.  But, things took a turn for the better and today I can look back on it and laugh at myself.  My life is NOT that tough.  There are others who have it much, much worse.  However, I’m still going to tell you all about my horrible, no good, very bad week.

It all started last Wednesday.  I dropped the kids off at day care, gave them kisses on the way out, and noticed that Evie’s head felt just a tad bit warm.  I brushed it off thinking maybe it was just a bit too warm in the back seat of the car on the way over.  I went on to work thinking nothing of it.  When I picked the kids up that evening, I found out Zach had had a really rough day behaviorally, and was complaining of a headache and his stomach hurting.  When he wasn’t even interested in eating, I knew something was wrong.   I felt his head and he was very warm and ended up having a low-grade fever.

Soon after that, I went to check on Evie, who was in my bed watching Mickey Mouse.  She was burning up too.  Two sick kids.

We had planned on going out to get my new treadmill that night (since my old one died), so I left Hubby at home with the kids while I went out on my own to pick the treadmill up.  He got them settled in bed and then helped me put my treadmill together.

Somewhere in there I tried to do a load of laundry and discovered that the drain in our laundry room was backing up again.  It was clear water (straight from the washer) so I didn’t worry too much about it and tossed it aside in my mind to deal with the next day.

Thursday morning I got up and ran on my new treadmill for 28 glorious minutes (Week 8 of the C25K program).  That run felt so good it may have actually been the highlight of my entire week.  After nearly a week of not running, I had to push myself a bit but it wasn’t the struggle I was expecting.  I felt so good afterward.

After I showered and got dressed I went to check on the kids, who were both still feverish and feeling cruddy.  Zach had an already scheduled doctor’s appointment later that morning for his 5-year well visit so I figured we’d have him checked out first and see if Evie needed to see the Doc.  He was showing 4 out of 5 of the signs for Strep, so he got swabbed.  Fortunately it was negative, but a urine sample showed that he was very dehydrated and had traces of blood in his urine (which earned us another return trip to the Doc with a new sample Friday morning).  Everything else checked out fine but we couldn’t do his immunizations because of the fever so we had to set another appointment in a couple of weeks.

The kids were hungry and begging for chicken nuggets when we left the doctor’s office.  They both seemed to be okay stomach-wise, so we went through the drive-through and then headed home.  After they picked at their nuggets, I sent them both to bed for naps so that I could get some work done.  A few minutes later I heard “Mommy, I puke!” coming from the kids’ room.  And of course that was just what I wanted to hear.  After a bedding change and a quick wipe-down of the girl child, she was settled back down in her bed, where she pretty much stayed the rest of the day.  She did get up for a bit to snuggle with me in my chair, where she promptly puked in my lap, then went back to bed.

By this point the drainage problem in the basement was getting worse and we had sewage backing up.  We got some heavy duty drain cleaner from the maintenance guy at my work and attempted to clear out whatever was clogging it up.  After putting two bottles down it, there wasn’t a lot of improvement.

Friday morning, knowing I couldn’t shower, we had a plumber called in.  Since he wouldn’t be there until after noon, I loaded the kids and dirty (puked on) laundry in the car.  Fortunately, the kids’ fevers were down and they both seemed to be perking up a bit.  We made a quick stop at the doctor’s office to drop off Zach’s sample (which I still haven’t heard anything back on) then headed to my mom’s house to take quick baths and throw some laundry in her washer.

We got back home just in time to grab a quick lunch before the plumber showed up.  After several hours he had cleaned out years worth of roots and sludge from our main drain.  As a bonus, he even cleaned up the mess that had been left in the floor of our laundry room.  I was finally a little less stressed and things were looking up.

When Hubby got home, we decided to get out of the house for a bit and run errands.  The kids were feeling much better.  We got about halfway to our destination when we realized that the air conditioner in my car wasn’t working…again.  I felt pretty defeated at that point.  We’ve poured so much money into fixing my car and it just seems like it does not want to be fixed.  We finished our errands, enjoyed a nice dinner out, and then stopped by my mom’s to pick laundry up.

Saturday morning we headed to Springfield for the annual Gugel Fall (a big BBQ/fireworks show that my Aunt/Uncle/cousins put on), where we had a really great time.  We took the kids swimming at the hotel, and really enjoyed spending time with family that we only get to see a couple times a year.

After breakfast Sunday morning we headed home.  We drove through a pretty bad thunderstorm on the way home, but had no idea what would be waiting for us.  As we turned onto our street, we saw trees down everywhere.  Apparently a few hours before a really bad storm had gone through our neighborhood.  Several neighbors had trees that had fallen on their houses.  Just past our driveway, the entire street was blocked by trees that had fallen.  There were fallen branches everywhere.  Our patio furniture and the kids’ outdoor toys were blown all over the yard.  It looked as if a tornado had passed through, although none were reported.  And, of course, we had no electricity.

We stuck it out at home for a few hours until the kids were driving me nuts asking to watch TV, then decided to go over to my mom’s for dinner, baths, and True Blood.  We hopped in the car and only made it a few blocks before I realized my car was acting really funny (where the word “funny” does not actually mean funny, but “holy crap what is wrong with my car now?!?!?!?”).  I was afraid to drive it all the way to my mom’s, so I turned around and parked it at home.  We loaded up in hubby’s car instead and drove on over to my mom’s.  By the time we got back home we were hoping the power would be back on, but had no such luck.

We made it through the hot, sweaty night listening to tires squeal every time a car came up to the trees across the road (one actually crashed into the tree).  After taking a shower and getting dressed in a dark room, I got the kids up and we started in on our Monday routine.

At noon, I took my lunch break so I could go back to the house to see if the electricity was back on and to check the fridge.  The power was still out, but I did go ahead and check the fridge to see if anything was still cold at all, which it was (somewhat).  Unfortunately, it was also all covered in sticky goo due to a pressurized can of Cool Whip exploding all over the place.

Since the trees were finally cleared from the road, I drove down the road a ways to check things out and discovered the power and cable lines were completely down just past our house.  It was just shortly after that that I realized the air conditioner in hubby’s car was blowing hot air at me.

I got back to work practically in tears knowing that I just could not take one more thing.  I vented a bit and started feeling  a little better.  Yet, I still drove home completely frustrated and beaten down.

Hubby got home just before I did and called to let me know we had power.  That lifted my spirits a little bit, even though I knew that meant we had a lot of work to do.

As soon as I got home, I started cleaning out the fridge and freezer.  We were able to keep quite a bit, but also threw out a lot.  When that was finished, I scarfed down some food, bathed the kids, and headed to the grocery store.  When I finally finished everything, I looked at the clock and it was 10:40.  I decided to head to bed and lose myself in a book for a while.

This morning I got up and had a good (although a bit sluggish) run.  I started the day out with a better outlook even though I still have no idea what we’re going to do about my car.  We’ll make it through this, just like we do with everything else.  Although, I wouldn’t complain if several thousand dollars fell out of the sky and into my lap.