Babies Make Four: Hold on to Your Hat... A Busy Week

Man, oh, man... Is there some sort of law of physics that when you're at your busiest that your children will get sick and everything that can go wrong usually does?

This week has been a rough one, with some low lows, some high highs and exhaustion at the end of each day. We'll start back about a week and a half ago when Dillon received the news that his aunt Glenda had passed away. We had just been up the Sunday before and visited with her. She was unwell and on hospice, but she was still cognitive, still having conversations and still trying to feed Charlie Cheetos. :) We had a good visit, not a long one, but Dillon promised we'd come up for longer the next time. Except there wouldn't be a next time, which is hard to swallow. She passed away the following Thursday, much to our surprise. Even though she was on hospice, I hoped that she would stay with us several more months. Working in oncology, I have seen that, people who go months and sometimes over a year on their services, so this was a sad shock.

We ran into several issues, what would we tell Luke? When would we travel again to Virginia? It was also the only time we had worked it out for my parents to take a mini-vacation to visit my aunt and uncle in Georgia, so it was out of the question to have them watch the kids or take the dogs (they offered to cancel and I made them promise they would go on their trip. They help us so much already and deserve a kid free vacation). Little Lola is so old so I really didn't want to cart her to Virginia to sit in a crate while we were out with family, so it was decided that we would travel in one day and have our friend, Seth, come and let the dogs out a few times on Sunday.

We were so busy making plans and trying to figure out what we would do, I don't think we've processed Glenda's death yet. I wanted to write a proper post for her. Pull pictures, write about her wind chimes on her porch, and the willow tree in her front yard, but it just hasn't happened. I find myself getting teary at weird times about it (like eating lunch out somewhere). It seems when I have time to sit down and catch my breath, that's when I find myself sad.

We did make it to Virginia on Sunday to encounter poor weather with snow, wind and ice. Glenda had a lovely service and we were glad to see our family and spend time with them. We returned home late Sunday evening and Dillon prepared to go into work the next day and teach his class on Monday evening.

Monday, Luke stayed home with me and I decided I would order groceries from the WalMart pick up. We ordered them, met Dillon for lunch and then went to pick up our groceries. They didn't have them ready and I waited for 30 minutes past the pick up time and the woman (who wasn't the friendliest) told me it would be another 30 minutes. The stress from the weekend had backed up and I did not put my best foot forward with her. I called her manager, I was ugly and I'm not proud of my actions. I left after a 45 minute wait without my groceries and took two cranky kids grocery shopping because we had nothing in the house. Ugh. A low, low for sure.

Tuesday was Halloween and I updated with cute pictures of the kids. We had such fun trick or treating and being together. The only bad thing that came with Tuesday was Charlie started having tummy troubles. Troubles that have lasted through today. :( She's still eating and still hydrated, but I'm doing all kinds of laundry to clean sheets and clothes and her car seat received the worst of it today. Ugh. Poor girl.

Wednesday was back to work for me for 4 straight days. We won't go into many details here other than to say that it was a full moon. 'Nuff said. Our ZERO 5K was today though and so lots of my time was put into getting that together. While the race day is fun, there is so much work that goes into it! Our committee does an awesome job of teamwork so I'm super glad it never falls on just my shoulders, but the last few days are hectic ones. Today was a good day (a high, high!) with a good turnout to support prostate cancer awareness (174 racers and almost $50,000 raised!) Luke was so excited for the kid's dash and it was a sad day for him because he tripped and fell out of the gate so he came in last and had a scuffed up arm. Poor buddy. It's been a rough one for all of us. Ha. Otherwise it was a good day. Luke liked the music, had a gatorade, watched the racers and took a walk with Dillon at the park. Charlie's digestive issues continued on, so we're all keeping our fingers crossed that tomorrow this begins clearing up. I feel so bad for her, and I worry about it a lot. I've probably done enough worrying in this past week for the entire year. Ugh.

I feel like this is a super complaining post, which I don't like, but this is our life at the moment. Kind of random, a little hectic, and up and down. Even through the downs, I'm super thankful for all that we have. A good house, a sweet family, and good jobs. Without the lows we wouldn't know highs so I'm thankful for it all.

So, I just want to brag on Dillon's daddy for a little bit. A little over a year ago he had a heart attack and has made a complete life change. He's lost over 220 pounds and is exercising and eating healthy and has weaned off using oxygen. I can't tell you just how proud we are of him and love him so much!