Um...No

So, a new normal? Nope!

Yesterday was Friday. Usually our sacred, sacred, sacred date morning. All FOUR children are in school and we slip away for coffee and sit and talk for an hour or two. It's heavenly. We don't know how long we can afford for me to be home as much as I am, so we enjoy every minute of it.

But this week, Randall woke up with pain in his eye.

Remember the incident last week with the broken down car at the grocery store and running home in the dark running into a tree branch? Well, his eye hurt so badly and was sensitive to light so we called the dr and got an appointment for mid-morning. We headed out for a cup of coffee only to be called by the preschool as soon as we had gotten our cups. M felt a bit queasy, again.

Sigh.

Picked her up...R went to his dr. appointment. A bad laceration that the opthamalogist wanted seen by a corneal specialist. THAT afternoon. YIKES.

So, I went on full time kid detail while R drove to the specialist. The only glitch was his car breaking down - AGAIN - He HAD to see the doctor and he was the last appointment of the day. Off I flew to pick up the boys early from school to rescue R. I entertained (read went out of my mind) in the car with all four sweethearts for over an hour while we waited for him.

The good news? His eye will be ok with lots of antibiotics.

The bad news? The car goes back to the shop.

I assume we have yet to learn a remarkable lesson this week. Sure wish we could figure it out soon so we can move on....if we can't be normal, could things just slow DOWN a bit?!

Life is back to normal (?)

3 out of 4 kids back to school today. Will they stay there? Hmmmmmmmm...Will life go back to normal someday?!

Yesterday

So yesterday was a big day here in our home. We ended up with all three boys home sick. Stretched out in the living room, they were quiet and content with PBS. Unfortunately, Noah had an unexpected seizure. It has been more than five years since his last one and caught us quite by surprise. He went by ambulance to our children's hospital to make sure his vitals were alright.

Thankfully, he returned home last night and now we wait for contact with his neurologist to know what we need to do going forward.

While at the hospital, one of the paramedics mentioned that he thought he got a carbon monoxide reading in our home. The nurse overheard and sent out a warning message to our local fire department. Luckily, Randall heard and called to say that a fire truck might be coming to check on us.

Now, we HAVE A carbon monoxide detector and it was in and functioning, but...

Shortly after the call, a policeman showed up. Then a full length fire truck followed by an ambulance. These were followed by yet ANOTHER full length fire truck and ambulance. Full crews. Into the house came 6 (?) fully dressed firemen with air tanks and all. The kids eyes were WIDE, but they were silent.

They checked all over - no leak. They're just good-old-fashioned sick. A good friend asked if I took pictures of the fire crews. I thought about it, but thought I might not look like a caring mom. I just couldn't BELIEVE that cm could be the cause and figured it was but one more chapter in the crazy story of our life...which is definitely More Than We Can Imagine.


Thankfully, God answered our prayers and we were able to sleep through the night (all 6 of us) and everyone is a little better today. We hope YOU all are doing better than we have been!

My Other Blog

A brief interlude from the gross-fest that has become our home:

Insert shameless plug here:

I invite you to check out my other blog, my "pastor blog" at http://www.oursaviorct.org/blog/. I touch on a variety of things over there. Recently, I gave a glimpse into a parenting book I started reading and also gave a brief review of the movie "Up." I hope you'll stop over and check it out. :-)

We now resume normal programming.

You've Got to Admit

This is a weird virus. They seem ok - placid, but okay and then whamo! Rapid running for help. J and M's lasted only 24 hours and was so mild. It reminded me of when we were kids. None of these ridiculously long viruses and flu things like h1n1.

But our second two to go down...Poor G has an ear infection and has now set a family record - 13 separate vomitting episodes. Yeah. It's been fun. Thankfully, he's been drinking fluids so we're not dealing with dehydration.

G is a bit of worrier about being ill. Takes a bit after one of his parents. Hence, the need to make him a champion yesterday. Otherwise, we would have also been dealing with tears of fear. Poor thing!

Then there's N, he's physically ill and cracking jokes in the middle of it. What a difference!

I don't know how I would work full time with this crew. ALL of my vacation days would be spent caring for sick kids at home!

And Then There Were Two

It's just after 3am, and our eldest just appeared at our door. He said he didn't feel right and was shaking violently. We suggested he put something on that was warmer than his skin. I went to help him do that. I tossed him a shirt from his closet and ZAP! Faster than the Road Runner (beep beep) He burst from the room. Just in time too. He paid his admission price to SickFest 2010.

Going to try to sleep now. Will we make it? And if not....who will go down first? J. or me? Stay Tuned.

Update: Three Down, Three to Go

J. just reported that our third child now has the stomach bug. (Somehow I managed to miss all three "main events." :-)....poor J.) G. woke up complaining of an ear that was tender to the touch. These four-time parents know what THAT means, and it was confirmed at his 10:30 Doc visit that he did indeed have a raging ear infection. Antibiotics were prescribed, and since the day was already half over, he was kept home from school. And a good thing too! None of us new what was lurking in the deep recesses of his being waiting to come out. (I am confident my wife will not be please with that last sentence. But it sure was fun to type, so it's staying.)

The youngest three have all been afflicted with said bug. One child and two parents remain unscathed. But tomorrow is another day. Who will go down next?

Stay tuned for all the gory details.

Aren't you glad you checked the blog today? :-)

More Adventures in our Family

Last night, we needed a quick run to the store. For any of you with many small children, sometimes those opportunities come LATE. At nearly 10 PM, Randall decided to head out. Our close store was closed at that hour, so he drove a bit further to our local Stop and Shop. He walked to the door, only to discover they closed at 10. The time? 10:02. The man inside waved, smiled a bit too nicely, and walked away.

R went back to the car and found it dead. Nothing. No turning over. Nothing. He tried jumping the battery with the help of another dad in the parking lot. Nothing.

He quickly realized that he didn't have many options. OUR OTHER CAR IS IN THE SHOP BEING REPAIRED! He also didn't have anyone on his cell that was really close by.

He tried to call home to let me know what was up. Unfortunately, I was on the phone long distance with my brother and heard nothing.

So, he did what most men would do...something extreme. He decided to WALK HOME. In the dark. In the cold.

You never realize how long a 7 minute car ride is until you WALK it. In the dark. In the cold.

Have I mentioned it's dark and cold? Yeah. You also don't realize whether there are street lamps on a street unless you're in a weird situation.

Along the way, he ran into a tree branch and knocked out his contact.

Now he's in the dark. In the cold. And blind.

He did eventually get the contact back in and made it home. His legs were RED. Good thing we had a fire going that night! We enjoyed a really big laugh over the whole thing.

This morning, however, it's not as fun to be stranded with NO cars and many children to get here, there, and everywhere.

But we count our blessings. At least we OWN cars. We could own bicycles. But wait, those would still be working....