Oh, how I wish I could capture everything that she is in words. They say a picture is worth a thousand words, but not even a picture can capture the personality, the love, the intelligence, the joy, that exudes from my girl. I can’t believe how fast she is growing up.
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.
1 CommentDespite the downpour that canceled out the 4th of July fireworks and the red crayon that I found melted in my dryer, this was one of the best weekends I’ve had in a long time. At the top of the list is the fact that I got to sleep in past 10:00 a.m. three days in a row. I honestly can’t remember the last time that has happened. I’m sure I’ll still be just as tired when I have to wake up early tomorrow morning, but it was a pretty amazing feeling while it lasted.
Saturday morning hubby and I got up and started in on the kids’ room. We have been wanting to pull up the carpet in there for while and figured the 3-day weekend was a good time to do it. We started in knowing that there were wood floors underneath, but not having any idea what kind of shape they were in. As it turned out, they weren’t great but weren’t completely horrible either. We did have to scrub the entire floor on our hands and knees to remove some black gunk, but once we got it up, the floor looked pretty good.
We rearranged the furniture a bit, re-bunked the bunk beds, and put down a small area rug to cover a couple bad spots in the floor. I still need to work on the arrangement of the wall decorations, but their room looks much better than it did. The kids are loving it so far. They’ve been playing in there instead of their playroom which is very unusual.
After we finished the floor, we cleaned ourselves up, dropped the kids off at Grandma’s, and headed out on the town for a well-deserved date night. Since we never really got to celebrate our anniversary last month, we went out for a nice dinner at Jess & Jim’s Steakhouse, then I made hubby take me to see Eclipse. We don’t get out by ourselves often enough and it was really nice to have quiet (kid-free) evening together.
Sunday we headed over to my mom’s to have dinner with the family and then planned on going to see fireworks at Corporate Woods. We got there and set up our chairs just in time for it to start sprinkling. It seemed like the rain wouldn’t be too bad, so we decided to wait it out in hopes that the firework show would still go on. My kids were so excited for fireworks that I really hated to disappoint them. We stuck it out much longer than most folks, but when it started pouring and I discovered that the water was soaking through my camera bag, we decided it was time to go.
By the time we got back to the cars, we were all absolutely soaked. Fortunately, we had a basket of clean, dry clothes at my mom’s house due the the crayon in the dryer incident I mentioned earlier so we scrounged and managed to find something for all of us to wear. Once everyone was dry, we got the kids all settled down and my sister, my mom, and I headed to the theater to watch Eclipse again (Yes, it was that good!).
Since the kids were sleeping by the time we got back from the movie, we left them to sleep at Grandma’s again and hubby and enjoyed sleeping in again on Monday morning.
We picked the kids up Monday afternoon, took my mom to pick her car up from the shop, stopped for some ice cream, then came home and started mourning the end of a really excellent weekend. It’s going to be really hard to jump back into our normal routine in the morning.
Comments closedWe have reached a new phase in my daughter’s life – the one where she chooses not to wear clothing of any kind. I’ve spent years laughing at other parents as they tell tales of their children stripping off clothes, all the while thinking that it is simply a phase and most kids go through it at some time or another. Now that it’s my child? I’m not laughing so much.
For one thing, I wasted a whole lot of money buying pajamas and summer clothes for Miss Evie. She wants nothing to do with them. If it were up to her, she would wear nothing but her panties, and even those are a bother at times. I do let her get away with it at night. I mean, if she really wants to sleep naked or just in panties, it isn’t hurting anyone or anything. Her brother (who shares a room with her) seems to be oblivious to the whole thing (and prefers to sleep in his undies too) so what’s the harm?
The problem comes when it is time to get dressed for day care in the mornings. She just does not want to put on clothes. At first, she just didn’t want to wear pants/shorts. So I offered her dresses/skirts. Then she didn’t want to wear a shirt of any kind. I’m still not really sure how to fix that, but eventually I can convince her to put something on before we leave the house.
This morning, after refusing about 6 different outfits I offered and the two of us being at a stalemate for about 10 minutes, I finally yelled, “Just put something on! I don’t care what it is!” And she did.
I really don’t care if she matches, as long as she’s wearing clothes of some kind out in public.
3 Comments
Back in high school I had a friend who always had the best music. He was the kid who always had a cd player and headphones in his backpack ready to pull out when there was a lull in the day. He introduced me to a lot of music during the two years of high school that we shared, but the most lasting impression was the time he had me listen to Sarah McLachlan‘s Fumbling Towards Ecstacy.
I don’t remember what song he first played for me, but I know that I soon owned the album and listening to “Elsewhere” on repeat quickly became my outlet for teen angst. I doubt there is any album in my collection that has been played more.
Since that initial purchase, I have bought every album that Sarah (we’re on a first name basis here) has put out. Her voice has carried me through half of my lifetime now, so you can imagine how excited I was when I found out Laws of Illusion was set to release. I was even more thrilled when I found out that One2One Network was covering her release and I jumped on the opportunity to get my hands on a review copy.
Laws of Illusion is everything you would expect from a Sarah McLachlan album. Her soothing, melodic vocals stand out over the instruments in the background as she pours her soul into each song. In this album she brings a sense of maturity as she explores love, heartbreak, renewal, and the weight of the world around us. Some songs, like “Out of Tune” hold a heaviness that you can feel as you listen to the lyrics:
It isn’t my heart that’s grown cold
The same mistakes are getting old
I’m lost for words, I don’t know what to doBut when I’m lying here with you
And the whole world’s out of tune
You’re the one and only voice that makes things right
So stay with me tonight
It is apparent that McLachlan has done a lot of soul searching in the years since her last album release. Overall, the album was not as upbeat as I would have expected it to be, but that certainly hasn’t kept it from being on a nearly constant rotation since the day I received it.
Comments closedDear Zachary,
Five years ago today, I became a mother. Some might argue that I became a mother upon your conception, but something inside me changed in those first few moments when I heard your (very loud) cry and got my first glimpse of your beautiful face. That is the moment when I truly understood what it means to be a mother. At 4:40 p.m., on June 26th, 2005, I finally knew the meaning of true, unconditional love.
We’ve been through a lot in five years. I’ve watched you grow from a tiny (ok, maybe not so tiny) baby into a little boy who is a force to be reckoned with. While I’ve tried to shape you the best that I can, you are very much your own person. You are so strong-willed and yet also so sensitive at times. You take after your daddy quite a lot in this way.
You have changed so much over the last year. You’ve lost every bit of your baby face and now you are just all boy. You are growing so fast I can barely keep you in clothes and shoes. I’m just thankful that it is summer now so that you can wear shorts and I don’t have to worry about your pants being too short anymore. I’m guessing there is another growth spurt coming soon though, because several nights recently you have eaten more at dinner than I have!
This last year you finally got to go to preschool. You were so excited for school to start. I think you really enjoyed it for the most part. There were a few rough times, fights with other kids, and days when you just didn’t want to go, but overall I think it was a good experience. We also learned that you sometimes have a hard time focusing on tasks. I’m hoping this is something that will come with maturity and not become a life-long problem. You do pretty well in a one-on-one environment, but are easily distracted otherwise. You are so incredibly smart though. There are still days when you absolutely amaze me with the conversations we have. My favorite part of preschool was watching you on stage during your school music programs. You are a true music lover and you practiced so hard to learn your songs. You were so proud up there performing for your family and friends. Don’t tell anybody, but I might have cried just a little bit watching you.
After preschool graduation we changed gears a bit. You are spending the summer going back and forth between your cousins’ house and Miss Paula’s. I’m glad you are getting a little time to play and relax because in August, a whole new venture begins. You’ll be starting Kindergarten. I have very mixed feelings about it at this point. You seem to be very excited about going to a “big school” but I am a bundle of nerves. I’m excited for you, but also scared to send my baby off into the unknown. I’d feel so much better if you could go to Aunt Tanya’s school where I at least know some of the staff. If I had my way I’d wrap you in my arms and carry you through until you were an adult. I have this fierce need to protect you from all of this, yet I know that I have to let you go and it’s really tugging at my heart. I just am not ready for all this growing up and I know that this will be a life-changing year for you.
Five years ago, lying on that hospital bed, I never could have imagined the incredible journey that we’ve been on. I am so proud of you, of all of your accomplishments, of the things you’ve overcome, of the sweet little boy that you are. My eyes seem to be watering a bit as I’m writing this because I just can’t find the words to express what I want to say. The love I have for you is sometimes just so overwhelming. Of all the boys I have loved and cared for in my life, you are the one who completely stole my heart.
Happy 5th Birthday, Zachary! I love you so much!
Love always,
Mama
Comments closed