Oh, the irony of sharing my thoughts about balance and the awesome things that bring me peace, just a week ago.. and then to learn just days later all of that would get tossed out the window. Funny how life works, don't you think? If I re-capped the last week of my life, it would almost be comical. When crazy things all start to happen at once, my mind goes to two places: 1) Something big must be on the horizon because the enemy is working in overtime to distract us with all sorts of negativity. Or 2) God is stretching us out of our comfort zone because by doing so, we discover our true strength. I can't help it, my mind always says it's one of two things.
I decided a long time ago to not allow obstacles or crazy things to get the best of me, I just refuse to give these things power. I have two life motto's that I go by.. "It is, what it is!" and.. "You can only do, what you can do!" . I adapted these years ago and they have helped to keep my mind from going to a negative state. I believe that there is always good in a bad situation... you might not see it right now, but not all good things are for us to see. So, take that as a little yummy golden nugget.
Benny, a 25 year long friend of Darryl & his family, has been in the hospital for over 3 months. A crazy abscessed tooth that caused him to go into Septicemia, which is blood poisoning. He was in ICU for 2 months, almost lost his life. He is SO lucky to be alive because there were many close calls. Well, he got out of the hospital on Tuesday and was suppose to be staying with Susan, Darryl's sister. She and baby James both caught a horrible virus that knocked them both off their feet. Baby James came down with RSV, and because of his heart problems, was unable to do breathing treatments. Ben had no where else to go, so... we agreed that he would stay with us.
This is when the fun begins: 2 Days before he was scheduled to be released, Susan needed me to go to Target to find a humidifier for baby James- he was running fever and just really congested. While I was there, I get a call from Darryl saying that Savannah may have broke her leg. Apparently Darryl took Sammy off his leash to bring him inside, he got away, and when Savannah came running around the corner- BAM! Sammy ran into her (yelped because it hurt him so bad), Savannah flipped all the way over Sammy, bumped her head on the concrete & landed on her knee cap. Ah, good times.. good times! I get home, she's a mess.. can't walk, in pain, the whole nine yards. Her knee didn't look out of place, so I figured the thing was just bruised. Courtney & I carry the kid up 2 flights of stairs...oh, the pain.... Me, breathing like a flipping gorilla & moaning like a cat in heat... the kid is heavy.. we got her upstairs and I knew she wouldn't be able to go to school the next day & I was holding out to see if I needed to take her to the Dr. Well..... around 2am. that morning, Aspen comes in my bedroom saying that she feels like she is going to throw up. Me, being the stellar "take-care-of-sick-kids" mama that I am, ran downstairs (half asleep, mind you), grabbed a suitable "good enough for puke" bowl, a wet washcloth, a towel "just in case", and ran back upstairs... all under 2 minutes, mind you. I told you I don't mess around, sister has this down pat! So, I have her crawl on my side of the bed, me sandwiched in the middle of her & D. About 20min. later, my reflexes were awesome, and I found myself catching puke for the first of 7 more times to come. She was sick, really sick. The puke fest went on all night... up and down, up and down.. that's all I did all night. I swear I should have won a medal. So, not only did I have a hobbly little girl home with me the next day, now I had a sick gal home with me as well. All a day before Benny was suppose to come stay with us. We had so much to do to get ready for him to stay here. We had to convert Darryl's office into a bedroom, set up the medical equipment, shop.... but now I had to disinfect a 10,000sq. ft. home... all by myself, while taking care of a gal who can't walk & a sick one that, thankfully, didn't throw up anymore since 9am. Good times, good times. I was stressed out because we had all this going on and the last thing that we needed was to expose Benny of any funky virus that Aspen had. We tried to talk the hospital into letting him stay another day, no can do. I guess when you're there for over 3mo., they are excited to send you packin'. :) I coriteen Aspen to her bedroom, disinfect my entire house... did my shopping at Target to get ready for Benny's stay.. and finally managed to get to sleep at 2:45am. Needless to say, 2 nights of no sleep was not looking good on me. Blah! The next day, Aspen was off to school (almost 24hr. of puke/fever free)-- she felt much better, Savannah hobbled off to school-- and then I picked her up for a 11:30am denist appointment. Ben got out of the hospital at 12pm. Savannah had a great appointment, so she was back at school by 12:30pm. Darryl had taken Ben to the house & needed to get back to the office, so he basically left him there.. waiting on me to get there. If I even touched everything that was going on at the office during this time, you would understand... but, I will spare you because there is not enough hours in a day. Anyways, D didn't get the wheelchair out of the car because the PT said he wanted Ben to use the walker as much as possible. Ben was on the deck when I walked in the door... 5min. later, the school calls to tell me that Aspen was sick & I needed to come pick her up. great.... Ben comes in through the deck doors (he's not suppose to walk without supervision, he is very weak and has lost so much muscle)... I asked him what he's doing, he said he needs something from the bedroom. I follow. I explain to him that he needs to understand that whatever he needs, he needs to tell me & I'll get it for him. He has to let go of any pride issues what-so-ever... I have 5 kids, I'm use to doing for other people. He reaches over for a bag, I said "Ben, let me get that!"... 2 seconds later he FALLS, his body like jello... his head hits the corner of the TV stand, hits the wall, and fell to the ground. Blood gushing out of his neck. Keep in mind he's on blood thinners as well. Ah, good times, good times. I screamed "Ben!" but it happened so fast, I couldn't catch him. I pull him up (getting my CNA in high school sure came in handy, haha) I got him in bed, cleaned him up, and laid down the law! Then, I went out on the deck.. told D he needed to bring home that darn wheelchair ASAP and to NEVER leave this man without it again and how he needed to hurry bc Aspen is sick and I'm now late in picking her up. I mean, what else.. ya know?
Got to Aspen, she said her tummy was cramping... not sick feeling, so at least that was a good thing. Savannah had extended Drama club practice after school so I took all the girls home to be with Ben, Aspen in her room... and then picked up Sis. Soccer practice started that night at 6pm, so that meant a whopping 45min. to get home, get the girls all changed in their soccer gear, finish dinner (thank GOD I started it earlier that day is all I have to say!!!! Roast was in the oven and potato's had been boiling... my saving grace!). Ben is on a strict schedule.. so dinner, breakfast, and lunch have to be at a certain time because of his medicine. Remember what I said about needing a flexible schedule? Out the window.
On top of all of this, I get a phone call from one of Courtney's friends Aunt.. who was not happy, at all. BIG misunderstanding about a text that was sent.. but it was drama nonetheless. So, I had to contend with this as well. Darryl was getting slammed at work, left & right... it was just comical at this point. Really, all you could do was shake your head and laugh.
Think that was enough? Yeah, I would have, too. However, someone else had different plans. The next day, I noticed that our water pressure wasn't the best.. and I kept hearing our Sep Pump was working on over-drive. We had a lot of rain, but it was sunny for 2 days, yet our backyard still had quite a bit of flooding. I went to wash dishes and the pressure was ridiculous. D figures out that water is just gushing from a drainage pipe into our backyard.. we had a water leak. A MAJOR water leak. Called the water co., it's on our property meaning it's our fault, not theirs which means... we'll be looking at least a $1000 water bill AFTER they deduct half of it off. Nice. So, call a plumber who finds the problem... the drainage system that the builder put in was genius... a large drainage pipe runs all the way under our foundation and spits out the back, which prevents the basement or the home to have flooding. However, the plumber who worked on the house when it was being built didn't cap off the pipe or something, which caused it to break. Long story short, and $900 plumber bill later, the problem was fixed. Here's a picture of a couple of little duckies bathing in the flooded area in our backyard. Nice, eeh? :)
This was all the 2nd day Benny was with us, here we had the plumber here all day, in and out, the insight cable guy here, in & out, for over 1.5hr. (getting Ben set up w/ cable in his room), the PT and the home health care nurse both at different times.... my house was a freaking ZOO. Remember what I said about a simple, non-crazy life? Yeah, out the window. On top of that, I had to cancel Addison's denist appointment which was Weds., due to all the craziness (and).. Savannah had her Drama Club Play at 12pm. So, I had to rush to that in the midst of the insanity and ah, just what I needed too, might I add. Lots of laughs and seeing her as "Gretel" cracked me up! Check her out!
That afternoon was the start of Savannah's Bowl Club. Yes, drama club play in the afternoon... bowling club after school. It never stops around here. I love that Savannah's school does so many special clubs and activities. She just finished up jump rope club right before Drama Club :) The kid loves this kind of stuff. Courtney snapped a picture of Addi & I going in to pick her up... can you tell the week I've had? I hated this outfit this day, but it was the only thing I could pull together in the midst of all the craziness. I still don't have a closet in my master bedroom... D wants wood cabinets in there, I simply want wire. Don't get me started, but I have won (haha) and I'm hoping my closet will be in VERY, VERY soon. However, some of my clothes were being used in the closet in Darryl's office, of which, is now Benny's. SO, I had to take all my clothes out of there and stack them in my closet. That place is a hot mess right now... you can't find anything. Remember what I said about needing order and clutter free? Yep, out the window.... Putting together an outfit is painful. This was the best I could do in a 15min. span... hair got thrown up and sister called it a day! I was just happy to make it to the play on time, of which Darryl was already inside waiting on me. Hey, relax people.. I wasn't even late. They started approx. 5 seconds after I got there. Am I good, or am I good?
Our home is not only being shared by Benny, but.... by Carpenter Bee's, as well. These pesky.. very large, might I add, looking bees won't sting you.. but they sure are tearing up our wood frame around our deck doors. There are about 10 of them and anytime you are sitting out on the deck, expect for one of these suckers to buzz right in your face like you are the one in the their way. D's brother said you can spray WD-40 in their nest, and then kill them by hitting them with a tennis racket. Well, don't go giving my husband any crazy ideas.. because if it sounds weird enough to work, he's all about it. So, D & Addi both grabbed tennis rackets and tried to take down a few of these suckers. Apparently D managed to kill 2 of them, Addi? not so much. However, no sight of the bees today, so.. something worked. At least for now..... then yesterday, I walk downstairs and see not one, not two, but THREE crazy conoly ants.. you know, the mac-daddy black ones, crawling on my kitchen floor-- coming in from the deck. I have since killed around 15 of these things. Thankfully, I haven't seen any today, but man oh MAN.. yesterday was another story. We called an exterminator out yesterday who basically just sat in his truck to give us an est., based on the size of our home...great.... and he's suppose to officially "spray" next week. Apparently we have him on a monthly schedule now, which is a good thing, because I have a feeling living next to the crazy creek is going to give us our fair share of crazies.
Speaking of creeks.. I looked out there the other night and found mr. duck giving himself a bath. It's kind of far off, but if you look close enough, you can see him. :)
That afternoon, trash day, might I add.... we finally put out a couple of broken pictures of ours that had gotten broke in the move. D put them inside one of the trashcans, sitting landscape. Well, apparently when the trash truck picked it up, the glass broke all over the street. We didn't realize this until later that evening when I had just pulled up from picking up the girls from school when a truck was flying down our street and BAM!!! You could just HEAR his tires run over the glass. OUCH. He kept driving, but D grabbed a broom, shook his head.. gave a couple of chuckles, and cleaned it up. I mean, seriously?
Today is Friday, and we've been drama-free for 2 days now. No one's been sick, no one has been ran over by the dog, no one has fallen, no water leaks, no bees or ants in sight, no more broken glass. We DID however have to call the cops on 2 "ADT" door to door salesmen today... 3 cop cars showed up to question these guys, and sure enough, some shadiness going on. BUT, I'll save THAT story for tomorrow. Sister has church tomorrow and after the week she's had, she NEEDS to go!
I'll leave you with a few pictures and I'll be back tomorrow, lots to share. Pfft, and you thought this was a lot. Hey, a lot can happen in a week around here, clearly. :) Until then.....
Chelcey...
Courtney before her afternoon walk...
I was cooking dinner, Addi was studying for her bible verse. I look over and this is how I found her as she was reciting her verse.. haha
This was her verse... yes, that long.. why wonder the kid needed to somewhat lay down. hahah
My Mr. Squirrel friend comes to visit me every morning because I leave him walnuts and some funky dried fruit granola that I thought would be good that I snatched up at Whole Foods. Come to find out, the Squirrel guy likes it much better than I do.
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