Anyway that's my week so far. I hope yours has been much less stressful. :-)
God Bless,
Dana
Waiting in Faith |
Last Thursday, I was (unreasonably) stressed out about getting the house ready for Emma's friend to spend Friday night, so I didn't sleep well Thursday night. Friday night, Emma's friend (who apparently has insomnia) had trouble sleeping, so while they were fairly quiet, I didn't sleep super great Friday either. Saturday, hubby had to get 4 new tires, and then we met Emma's friend's mom at the Eiteljorg (museum about Native Americans - which her friend is obsessed with), and spent most of the afternoon there. Saturday evening, Emma and I went to Mass so we wouldn't have to worry about it on Sunday. Sunday was the time change, and the day we were supposed to go to St. Louis to spend Purim (the Jewish celebration of the story of Esther in the Bible) with my family. So, when we planned to be on the road at 7 am (which we actually did manage!), it was really 6 am... We got there around 10:30, and had a blast! The way they do Purim there is so different than anything I had experienced before! It was so much fun! Every family makes up small packages of food and treats (called mishloach manos), everyone dresses up in costumes, then it's like a reverse trick-or-treat type thing. The families take their packages to friends houses, and give them as gifts. The friends then give something back in return. You wind up with all sorts of candy, cookies, drinks and other good stuff to munch on as you continue your journeys. One family was dressed as farmers and was giving out boxes with sandwiches, corn on the cob, and a cookie. Other families gave away beer. Some gave fruit. Some gave Starbucks frappucinos. At a few of the houses, the whole family went inside, and my uncle (dressed like a clown with a suit jacket) played the guitar as part of the gift. By the time we got home for dinner, nobody was really that hungry. There was also a parade, where a man dressed as Mordecai rides on a horse, with another man dressed as Haman walks. A few women go in front of the horse, waving flags. Then, every so often someone near the horse stops the parade, and says something that means "this is what happens to the one whom the king favors" or something like that. Everyone in whatever costume (or lack of costume) they have one is welcome to join the parade at whatever point they arrive. There was even one house that had tables set up on the lawn with their mishloach manos available to anyone who walked past and wanted some. They had skewers of fruit, marshmallows for roasting (and a fire pit going), and a table with beer for the adults. I have to say that my favorite costume that I saw was a guy in a Tevye costume from Fiddler on the Roof. The costume was PERFECT (although the guy was much skinnier than the real Tevye), and he even sang one of the songs (and sang it very well)! We spent all day with the family, then left their house around 7:30 (their time), which would have put us getting home around 12:30 am (our time). That all went smoothly until we were in Illinois, ALMOST to the Indiana border, where we got a flat tire. Not even just a little flat. I'm talking, completely busted, can't be fixed, pancake flat. This was around 12:45 am...in the middle of nowhere. Emma started slightly panicking, so of course, I had to keep my cheerful "everything's fine and fun" face on, even though I was slightly panicking too. So, I got the spare out of the trunk, jacked up the car, and went to take the lug nuts off. Could. Not. Do. It. Every time I tried to get the tool on the lug nuts, and then step on it to get leverage, it fell off. I tried several times before deciding it just wasn't gonna happen. So, I got the battery powered inflator thing out of the trunk, thinking maybe I could inflate it enough to get home. No dice. Really starting to get stressed out by now, I tried to call the insurance company, hoping to have roadside assistance coverage. The only numbers I could find to call said to leave a message, and they'd call back on the next business day. Um...not good enough! So, then I decided to call hubby. Only, he was asleep, and his phone was on silent. Okay...now what...? I started going through the contacts on my phone which was down to about 25% battery at this point (and I couldn't find the charger), but I found my neighbor's number, called her, and thankfully, she answered the phone and agreed to go wake up my husband and have him call me. He told me I'd have to call a tow truck. So, I googled, and the first one I found, I called. The very nice man at the tow truck place said that if all I needed was the lug nuts off, that I didn't need him to come out for a fee, I could just call the deputy, and have them help me for free. He gave me the number to call, and I did. An hour and a half later, the very nice deputy finally showed up, showed me the hole in the side of the tire, and changed it for me. Unfortunately, since the spare tire was only rated up to 50mph, and I still had so far to go, I didn't want to strain it, so I drove the last 75 miles at 45mph... We finally got home around 4 am. In case you lost track during all of that, that meant I had been awake for roughly 21 hours. Four and half hours later (this is now Monday), our dog Skye (my 50 lb baby) decided I'd had enough sleep, and JUMPED on me. Hubby hadn't gotten much more sleep than I had after I called, since he was so worried about us, so he had stayed home from work. I decided to get dressed and go get the tire replaced, and left Emma asleep in bed. When I got to the tire place, they told me that not just the one busted tire, but all FOUR tires desperately needed to be replaced. $800 later...I have all new Michelin tires, that apparently come with free roadside assistance, and free towing up to 150 miles. Sure could've used THAT in Illinois... I came back home, and went upstairs to maybe catch a nap when my BFF texted that they were going to the Children's Museum (her kids had a flex day or something). Emma had been wanting to go see their new circus exhibit, and we rarely get to hang out with my BFF and her kids, so I couldn't easily pass up such a sweet opportunity. Yes, on 4.5 hours of sleep, I went to the Children's Museum. Yes, I'm slightly insane. Lol We stayed there until it was time to go pick up Bella. She, of course, had an orchestra concert that night, so we had to rush home, feed her, and then rush back out the door to go to her concert. While we were waiting for the concert to start, Bella told me that some friends of hers from school wanted to know if she could go see the new Beauty and the Beast movie with them Saturday evening. I don't know if you've heard, but they added some things to the new version. Gaston's sidekick LeFou is apparently obviously in love with Gaston, and another man apparently likes to wear women's clothes. Hubby and I had already decided that we weren't going to subject ourselves or our kids to that movie, but Bella does go to public school (8th grade), and is subjected to far worse on a regular basis, so I told her I'd have to think about it. I finally decided (although I haven't had a chance to talk to her yet - I plan on telling her what they did to the movie as well) that if she still wants to go, I will let her go, I'll drive her, find something to do to keep Emma occupied, and even give her money for popcorn, but that she'll have to use some of her birthday money and pay for the ticket herself. Hopefully that will be good enough for her, since I refuse to spend my money on that movie. Anyway, we didn't get home from that concert until about 9:30 pm. The next day was Tuesday, and Emma woke up complaining of a scratchy throat. By early afternoon, it had progressed to a full-on sore throat, and I started thinking she possibly had Strep. In the evening, she threw up, and still had a sore throat. I decided to call the dr in the morning. So, Wednesday morning, we saw the dr. She tested Emma and said she did not have Strep, but that her throat was inflamed looking, and that if she still had a sore throat by Friday, that she'd give her antibiotics anyway just in case. She also said that as long as she didn't have a fever, and didn't share drinks with anyone, that she would be good enough to go to Adoration today (Thursday). Yeah, by lunchtime Wednesday, Emma had a fever. So, we stayed home today except to get the car's oil changed (where I had her fairly well isolated from everyone else). That turned into a 3 hour thing when they dropped the cap to my washer fluid into the engine and couldn't get it back, and they also had to replace my engine's air filter... They had to get a new cap from the opposite side of town, so it took twice as long. At this point, all I could do was laugh at it all. A few minutes after finding out we were going to be stuck there for three hours, the mechanic came back in and said our visit would be free. Well, at least there's that! Lol Hopefully, my week of craziness is coming to an end. Emma feels much better, hasn't had a fever since last night (maybe early this morning when she woke up at 5 with a sweaty shirt), only threw up the one time, and is even saying her throat feels better and is starting to eat real food again. I'm not EXPECTING anything going on tomorrow...except for Bella's orchestra contest performance at 6:40...so hopefully all the excitement is finally dying down. Why is it we almost never have good excitement around here, but when we get bad excitement, it tends to come in spades???
Anyway that's my week so far. I hope yours has been much less stressful. :-) God Bless, Dana
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September 2017
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