Can This Stinkin’ Month Please Just End?

Those crazy, hazy days of summer were in full bloom for our family, except not so much in the way that you want to capture and relive. More in the way of “Please Make It Stop.”

What started as a giant inconvenience (moving to a new home) turned into sadness (news that my Mother-in-law had taken a turn for the worst) followed by an emergency trip out to Washington for Hubs and Katie to say their goodbyes to their Mom.

 Buddy, Kiddo and I had to finish the move with the help of our wonderful church family.We could not have done it without them. I’m truly appreciative for their help. One brother from church kept telling me that Hubs owed me big for leaving town in the middle of the move, but I will never regret having him fly out to say his goodbyes to his Mom.

Since we were anticipating a funeral at any given point, we were trying to hurry and get our stuff in the new house. As these things sometimes go, Mom rallied for a bit and we had the following week to get cleaned out of the old house and get stuff put away to the point of semi-functioning.

If you’ve never been on death watch before, the highs and lows of an emotional rollercoaster are just not fun. While we certainly didn’t want Mom to go, sometimes, you just want the ride to be over with.

While dealing with all the challenges around us, life took a turn for the tragic when a good friend, and our son’s and Hub’s assistant Scoutmaster was killed in a rollover accident. Aaron had been out in his jeep setting up for a scout campout when his jeep hit a rut and overturned. Aaron was pinned underneath.

Aaron’s son turned one the day after his accident and his wife is expecting their daughter in December. Aaron was a true scout who exemplified all the best qualities of that organization. He was also a soldier and had served two tours in Iraq and was preparing to deploy to Afghanistan in January. If you believe in the power of prayer, this family is in need of some.

Two hours after Aaron’s memorial service, we got the call that Mom had passed away. We spent the next day furiously planning for a trip out west and getting the boys registered and scheduled for school and classes because I somehow overlooked that chore in all that we had going on. The boys started a new school on one day and then we flew out to Utah the next.

As if attending a funeral weren’t bad enough, when I went to wake Katie up, I discovered that she had been violently ill in the night with a stomach flu. Hubs tried to suggest that Katie miss the funeral, but the whole point of the service we had in Utah was for Katie’s benefit.

We tried to tell her that Mom had died, but she couldn’t accept it. She needed to see Mom to understand.

What followed was more like a scene from a horror movie. If you’re the squeamish type, stop reading now! I’m about to cross the line from Polite Blogging Generalities into Over Sharing Territory.

Are you still with me? Okay…but don’t say I didn’t warn you.

Katie was sick throughout the 2.5 hour drive up to Logan, Utah. She was sick during the service, at the graveside and throughout the rest of the day. Because Katie has the intellect of about 3-4 year-old in some respects, taking care of her when she is sick is like helping an adult-sized baby. You have to help her get things where they need to go. By the time we were at the open house held at a cousin’s home, I wasn’t feeling too good myself, but I couldn’t tell if I was actually sick or if I was just second-hand sick from helping her.

Let me just say that this was the most violent stomach flu I ever remember having. There was this Halloween store in Dayton called Foy’s that we used to go to every year. It has a puking statue outside one of their stores. I always thought that was such an exaggeration. Turns out, not so much.

When we got on the plane to come home, Katie had recovered and things had settled down for me, although I was still achy and tired. I napped throughout the flights and even slept on the floor of the Denver Airport. We found a quiet place in an upstairs area above our gate where the boys could plug in their electronics and I could rest.

By the time we were on our second flight, though, Buddy said he wasn’t feeling too good. He managed to make it through the flight, but the airport’s curbside trashcan wasn’t so lucky. It was pretty much a pukefest from that point out. Both Kiddo and Buddy were sick multiple times on the way home, including once on Man Child’s front lawn when we dropped him off.

I refuse to feel badly about the lawn incident, since Man Child lives on Ohio State’s campus area and I can guarantee you it’s not the first time that lawn has been fertilized by the contents of someone’s stomach.

We came home to a house full of boxes and a mountain of laundry to do. Kiddo was sick throughout the night and Buddy isn’t awake yet, but I suspect he didn’t fare much better.

I won’t even go into the knee issues I’ve been having all month, but I will tell you that I go for an MRI tomorrow to see what’s causing it. Throughout this whole month of challenges, I’ve been in severe physical pain with my knees and I’m ready to be out of pain.

I’m really hoping that it’s not one of these situations:

I apologize for the Over Share. I had to get it out of me. I PROMISE next month will be back to projects. I have a new house to show you and lots of figuring out to get this house working for us.

I’ve told you before that being creative helps me cope. As you now know, I have a LOT of coping to do!

Suesan