In the span of seven days....
- Henry fell down and smacked his cheek. His cheek became abscessed. After a very sketchy four days, thanks be to God and modern medicine, his cheek began to heal on its own and it was determined he did not require surgery. Thanks to everyone who sent me a note regarding our little guy, your thoughts are so appreciated! (The red on his cheek is raspberry jelly). (Oh, the costume is the same one he wore when he was four months old. Still fits!!)
- Charlie was tackling the 80-foot fallen (felled?) tree in our backyard with a chainsaw and inadvertently cut through a yellow-jackets nest. The yellow-jackets were not amused. Fortunately for Charlie, when he sensed something was amiss with Mother Nature and he threw his powered chainsaw OVER his head, it didn't cut him in half once gravity took over. I think he was lucky to escape the incident with *only* 20 stings on his back and arms.
- Elizabeth lost Bunny. As in completely totally gone, no idea where. Prayers to Saint Anthony went unanswered. I keep telling her he's off on a fun adventure somewhere. *Sob!*
- On Day 2 of Bunny's absence, Elizabeth came down with a vicious summer virus. The lack of Bunny during this time made her feel even worse. Over the course of the next four days, her three siblings would fall victim to the same virus and consume their body weight in Jell-O.
- The kids picked up and promptly dropped and broke my brand new Nikon D90X camera that I'd received for Christmas. Fortunately, Santa bought the extended warranty so my camera will be replaced. Unfortunately, it will take two months.
- I lost my iPhone which I'd been using to take pictures. At the time of its unintended departure from my pocket, it was fully loaded with some wonderful snapshots of life over the past few days. Including our fun bike ride on the W&OD trail mere hours before all hell broke loose.
- Our toilet broke. Rather, the children's toilet broke. We finally had to tape it shut because even though we told the children THE TOILET IS BROKEN, there was confusion because it's a toilet? How does a toilet break? Let me sit here and go potty and think about it...
- Our dishwasher broke. While this is a disappointment, I'm impressed that this "simple" dishwasher has lasted has long as it has ... considering our last dishwasher broke every month.
- Charlie desperate to fix up the house and replacing an entire bathroom and kitchen would take too long, decided to focus his attention on the landscaping at the front of the house. The next day, he woke up covered from head-to-waist in poison ivy. The worse part was the poison ivy that was all around his eyes and behind his ears. He is now on Prednisone and is feeling a little punchy and incredibly hyper. It wouldn't surprise me if I wake up tomorrow morning and find that he has ripped out the kitchen and the bathroom and has finished chopping up the 80-foot tree in our backyard and has stacked neat little piles of firewood in our garage.
- At times like this, I'd like nothing more than to be at home and help try to restore order. Or at least do a load of laundry. But work has been incredibly busy as I'm entering the final stretches of the project that I was brought back here to lead. The note that I posted yesterday, was an e-mail that Charlie had sent to me after I'd put in more than 100 hours over the past week. My poor man is at the end of his rope and the biological hazards he's been subjected to the past week haven't helped.
So that's where I've been the past few days. Very busy but also feeling incredibly optimistic that this is just a phase. The crazy moments will pass and in their wake, we'll have the memory that we survived this time and remarkably, we'll feel a little more empowered for when it happens again.
Because of course it will.
Tomorrow with our calamine lotion, prednisone and remaining amoxicillin, we're rolling out of town and in to the mountains of North Carolina where we'll be staying in a quaint little cottage and horseback riding every day. There will be kayaking and fishing and hiking and a drive to South Carolina where we'll visit my mom and Jim. In 10-days, we'll drive back to Virginia a day before the triplets are scheduled to begin second grade.
SECOND GRADE.
My babies! I'm not sure how that's even possible?
