Yep, the above picture kind of sums up my feelings of the last few weeks and of the summer in some regards, but of course in a humorous way!
I would be lying if I said that this summer has been a fabulous summer. When in fact, this summer has given me my first ever case of the summertime blues! Yep, the sun has shown brightly a lot this summer and I have felt blue and at times melancholy.
First as some of you probably have come to realize, my summer has been plagued with some bumps in my relationships with others. Secondly, I have been jealous--real jealous--of those who were taking nice long vacations and whose husbands were able to take off more than three days straight from work.
You see, our last vacation was 2 years ago; and after Skye's hospitalization and Ian's kidneys and all his tests as well as a host of other things, we have not had the time to regroup as a family and I was hoping to do that this summer with a nice vacation. However, Scot's work demands did not at all make this dream easy to obtain by any stretch of the imagination. Scot was working constantly, leaving me practically a single mom of three so to speak. We took a long weekend trip to D.C. where I was happy that Scot was able to take 2 days off from work; however, while the trip was nice and we were all together as a family, it was dreadfully hot and we were busy walking all over the place. I wanted more. I didn't want to tour around so much in the dreaded heat but to sit and relax and totally veg out.
Paisley loves the beach. I call her "our Little Beach Bunny." She loves the sand and waves and could play out there all day long if I let her. So with her constantly asking for the beach, I really wanted a repeat of our last trip to the OBX of 2 years ago.
Whelp, after I pushed and pushed and nearly cried on a few occasions, Scot took some time off from work--FINALLY. However, he couldn't take a straight 5 days off. He was only able to take four days off with one of those days being saved for our state inspection for the van and Ian's first visit with the gastrointerologist, which only left us Wednesday through Sunday for beach time fun making it difficult to book a house or a condo, because they wanted reservations from Sunday through Saturday or the like. So instead of wasting time traveling, Scot booked hotel suite reservations at VA Beach to get the most of the time we had. I was disappointed because I simply wanted more and a large hotel suite wasn't exactly what I had in mind for a family of five at the beach, but I was determined to make it work.
That Tuesday we got the van in the shop for the state inspection and to fix a weather stripping for which I had called 2 weeks prior, and to this very day, it is not fixed because they failed to have the part and we had to head out of town. Anyways, as we were sitting in the G.I. doc's office after just meeting the doctor and discussing Ian's symptoms, the ground began to shake beneath us. Now I have experienced 3 earthquakes since I have moved here, but this one by far was the strongest and the longest. With the other two, as soon as I realized what was happening or had happened it stopped. This one was different. It kept shaking. You felt the progression of it too. The epicenter was just about 40 miles from us. Anyways, we quickly hustled our booties out of the building when the doctor showed us the way to the emergency exit. I was all kinds of nerves during and after the quake. The girls were at home with a young babysitter who had just started her babysitting career and it was her first time babysitting the girls by herself. I was nervous for her and the girls as I knew the girls were probably a nervous wreck.
Immediately the circuits were busy and I could not get through to my house nor my baby sitter's mom. So the doctor continued our visit as soon as we all deemed it was safe to go back in. It was hard to stay focus on Ian's much needed appointment while wondering about your other children and the babysitter, but I really did try my best. I was caught off guard by the doctor too. I half expected the gastrointerologist to say it was all a simple problem and to suggest that we were over reacting or go to an allergist or something, but as my hands were still shaking from feeling the ground move hard beneath one's feet where you can't make it stop, I heard the doctor announce that he believed that Ian was experiencing a classic case of esophagitis and they needed to find the cause and more tests needed to be run to rule things out. Then a barium test was promptly scheduled and the need to do an endoscopy and put Ian under general anesthesia was announced. "Say what?" I thought. I was not at all expecting that as an option. And after Skye's bronchial scope went south and she experienced huge complications (Although I do realize her lungs were compromised at the time, the fact that she did not respond well to general for which they decided to use paralytics on her made me super nervous for Ian). My hands started to shake again as I relived those moments from the past. Doctor continued on and ordered blood work done (which has soon come back and were good) and also performed another test in the office and found that Ian was not experiencing any bleeding in his colin and such--which is a good thing. Ian will most likely go to an allergist as well to further explore is milk allergy and other possibilities. To prevent further damage to his stomach and digestive track, Ian has been put back on Prevacid until we know further details and results. He is to continue eating exactly how we have been feeding him which includes stage 2 baby food.
During the rest of the doctor's visit, I finally got word from my sitter's mom and the girls were fine. L was with them all. Paisley was reported to be rather shaken up by everything, but all was well. Our sitter, who again is young and has never before felt an earthquake, impressed me. For her to figure out it was an earthquake and to make the decision to get out of the house truly impressed me and I was blessed to know that my girls were in good hands.
So when I got home, I had to calm down from the doctor's visit and the earthquake, and then packing for our beach trip while knowing that a Hurricane Irene was looming out in the ocean. I found dishes toppled over in the dishwasher. Frames were crooked on the wall and things had shifted a little through out the house. Something even fell off my upstairs vanity. Can't imagine what the girls were hearing as the everything in the house shook. Paisley kept asking me as I was packing if we were moving because she wanted to move because of the earthquake. I kept trying to explain to her that it wasn't the house but that it was the earth, the ground that had moved. She didn't quite get the concept.
Even as we were heading to VA Beach the next day, the doctor's office called us with blood work results (for which with all of the excitement and such I now don't remember what they were testing for!) and later called with Ian's barium test schedule, which is tomorrow morning at 8:30 AM by the way. We just couldn't escape from life so to speak. Also, as another side note, Ian has his next round of renal scans and his first CT scan on Sept. 9th and then his endoscopy will be scheduled and performed some time during the following week, making those weeks which were already quite hectic and stressful even more so now.
So while we were at the beach, we started to cram our schedule a bit as we wanted to do what we had planned in less days because of the approaching storm making my relaxful vacation not so very relaxful. Time on the beach were my favorite parts of the trip. Seeing everyone playing in the sand and water brought a smile to my face amidst the chaos of our summer and our trip. Scot and I kept debating and well arguing at various points during our trip as to when our hurricane escape plans. I was being overly cautious and he was being the complete opposite in my mind. First, I think he didn't want to face the fact that our long anticipated trip was going to come to a quick end. Secondly, I think Scot missed his calling. He probably would have made a good weather reporter. While everyone else is leaving or hiding from the weather, Scot would have no problem running into the excitement. Mind you since I have known Scot, he has driven me and/or the kids in two separate blizzards and one hurricane. Nope driving straight through weather is not Scot's problem. Keeping him grounded with having kids and this need for excitement can be difficult. As the earthquake was occurring and as he was holding our son, the first words out of Scot's mouth was "This is cool." Yep, that is my hubby.
So after I was getting a little tired of our debates over Irene and the lack of relaxation that was occurring, I did get grumpy heading off the beach one time. My word to describe my parenting Ian is wrangling. I am always wrangling Little Man who is totally ALL BOY. Sometimes esp. after this summer, I felt like I had my full share of wrangling him and I guess I had hoped Scot would pick up his share on the trip. Well that didn't exactly happen. At times I felt Scot could sit down more than me or play with the kids more as I was off trying to stop Ian from chasing seagulls for example--for which he did quite often. Scot told me to take Ian ahead so I did as he brought up the rear. Ian as usual didn't want to go where I wanted him to go, so I was forced to pick up my son who was arching his back in protest and crying. Well, he and I made it to the boardwalk and I started to clean him off at the water spout. Well, to my horrified realization I realized that my swimsuit had shifted and well I was flashing my goods towards our hotel. I was completely humiliated and embarrassed and did I mention horrified. I quickly adjusted my swimsuit as I wanted desperately to burring myself under the sand and hide.
Scot soon came up with the girls and I told him what had happened and that I was done and wanted to go inside immediately. We head inside where we decided that throwing everyone into the pool would be a great way to get the sand under control as we noticed many other parents had learned of this trick as well. As we were heading through the pool doors Scot declares that he was going to take all of our beach gear up and that I should stay with the kiddos. I was not happy with this idea, but Scot proceeded to the elevator anyways. I now had to wrangle Ian while watching my girls and trying to make sure my swimsuit stayed in its proper place. As I was heading to a chair with Ian who was demanding the pool water right then and there I checked my top and discovered that all was well with my goods when I realized that my bottoms had become untied on the left side and I was about to moon everyone at the pool, which made me extremely unhappy.
So that was a few highlights of our trip if you get my gist, it was absolutely not living up to our Cape Hatteras vacation standards. By Friday late evening we headed out of VA Beach. Irene was coming whether we liked it or not.
The next day we woke up to Irene's wrath. She was going to let us know that Category 1 didn't mean a darn thing. So our power eventually went out and stayed out for three days. At first it was kind of fun and then it just became down right annoying at times for me as well. Due to the wind and possible power outages during the storm, I failed to do our vaca laundry because I was afraid that the power would go off leaving me with a pile of wet soapy clothes in the washer. That was a mistake because as the days wore on, I ended up having to large piles of clothes needing washing. We lost nearly all our food in the fridge. We cooked our food using our charcoal grill and our breakfasts consisted of dried cereal, bread (not toasted), and nutrigrain bars. We longed for cold drinks and more. On the second day of our power outage I had to take another cold bath. Scot came in as I was standing in the shower with nothing but my panties on and a hooded sweater trying to shave my goose bumps off! I got annoyed with Scot that even in the middle of all this he would find the time to have another little "look-see" of me in the shower--MEN! Sometimes a woman just needs to be alone! Anyways, as told me he wasn't there to have a look, I became more irritated as I am pretty sure he was lying. No reason he couldn't wait to chat or brush his teeth or whatever until my cold adventure was over. Well, I soon realized it was just going to be easier and quicker to turn the shower on and as I was doing so, the events of this summer and our interrupted vacation all came flooding into my mind and I was about done with it all! As I stripped down to my bare little self I declared it nice and loud to Scot, my kids who were downstairs and to my neighbors who could hear me shouting since the bathroom window was open, that this summer had indeed sucked and I was done! I declared nice and loud, "I am (blankety) done and I am throwing in the towel!" Which by the way wasn't a towel but my hooded sweater as I threw it onto the bathroom floor. I turned on the shower and shouted about how cold it was and that I wanted some hot cocoa, but then I quickly realized that the two nearest Starbucks were with out power. Scot heard it all as I continued on about how I couldn't even get hot cocoa.
Later on in the morning, after I was dried off and sitting on my bed for a few minutes, I heard Scot who had left for work come back in through the door. He had found a Starbucks open and although he had to sit in line forever as everyone else in the area had also realized that there was indeed one Starbucks open, Scot had come home with some hot cocoa which yes gals made me want to cry. How sweet of him.
I still had some grumbling moments off and on through out the next 24 to 28 hours. Watching how my kids did not utter one complaint when I was forced to bathe them with cold water after days had gone by with them needing baths, made me realize my petty behavior. I also decided it was time to make the best of things. I washed all our swimsuits by hand. And I decided that if the fridge is all cleaned out of its contents, then why not take the time to scrub it down from head to toe, and make it squeaky clean. I probably would not have done so otherwise and so I did; and as I was hanging my rags outside to dry I started to hear clicking noises around me. Like electric meters were springing into life. I peeked inside the house and saw the little red light on the phone jack on and I jumped for major joy and shouted "The power is back on! Thank you power men!"
I think God had few lessons to teach me through it all and I think I got most of them. I also was amazed about how few people are willing to stick it out through times like these. As soon as power was out, so many of my neighbors headed out of the neighborhood to stay somewhere else. A little discomfort and a little inconvenience was just too much for them to handle and it saddened me. I think for many Americans it is far easier to rely on someone else besides yourself and God. In some regards I think the Amish have the right idea in some cases. They are not locked into such reliance on public utilities and such and I think I like some of their reasons as to why. Things would have almost been norm for them during weather like this is some regards. Don't take me wrong. Accepting help is fine, and believe me I was just a few short hours from taking up on my friend T's offer to use her house for laundry and have her make us a warm meal. I just believe a little stretch of your comfort zone is a good thing too. Need to have a balance.
