January's craziness

The new year came in with tons of excitement for me, but not the kind I wanted. Just days after the celebrating, my dad was hospitalized for the first time with heart issues. This was new to all of us and I am sure my dad was ready to turn his cell phone off. Needless to say all 7 kids were nervous about the seriousness of the situation. Luckily he just came home with medication to take and a dr.'s order to get a healthier lifestyle.

While all of that was happening my husband was VERY sick. He works in the ICU and so we thought this would pass just like all the other times he caught some bug from a patient. Days turned to a week and then two. I began to be worried but after a Monday late night visit to ER, a stomach flu diagnosis and 3 AM hunt for a 24 hour pharmacy, I decided to give him the rest that he needed. By Wednesday I knew things were definitely wrong. This was more than the flu! We went in again and they decided to keep him because he hadn't had food since Saturday and the symptoms (nausea, abdominal pain, vomiting...) weren't letting up. He got fluids in the IV and tests to confirm that he will likely have more occurences of this throughout his lifetime. The news about a chronic illness was something that neither of us were really ready for. After all we had just spent 6 out of 7 days in the hospital and Lee had lost 15 lbs in a week. For me it was hard to watch him hurt and hard to know how to help. What I did share with him in that moment was that we've always been a good team and that we could make whatever was given to us work.

That wasn't the end of the craziness. During the hospital stay we shuffled kids back and forth. Braxton got his cast off which meant an appointment for him. I delivered food and flowers for a good neighbor's funeral which we sadly were unable to attend. On Sunday the 11th though the discharged Lee and our kids fell back into the routine. I know Braxton had fun with the sleepovers (thank goodness for family) but missed his home, his bed, his toys and his parents.

We began to settle in. My mother in law asked for the boys the night of the 13th because Lee had another Dr. appt on the 14th. It doesn't take much for me to fall asleep so I was in bed early with all this going on. Lee too. At about 2:30 AM he woke me up though. At first I thought my cell alarm woke him up. Then my body figured out it was WAY too early for that. I asked if he heard something. After I had a second to process it all I realized I had heard heavy crunching of the leaves we never rake and then a "ting" that came from metal on metal. FYI-- just behind our bedroom window is an old shed that doesn't have too much of anything in it. Not since our weedeater was stolen out of there (a few months back). My mind started to race. It could be that guy or the one who got away with everything good a few years back... I hated these thoughts. Luckily I didn't have time to get carried away.

Poor Lee had absolutely no energy for this but ran to get his bats (surprised he didn't grab the guns). He handed me one and we went checking around each corner of our house, flipped on the porch light and called the authorities. As I was dialing a police car FLEW down our street with lights and sirens. The 911 operator said that someone was running from the cops just up the road. Not a good thing for us to hear. I went back into our room and started to clean to keep myself distracted. Lee woke Leah up and told her to get in our room. She's the deepest sleeper and was ready to take this guy on herself because he woke her up. At least Leah's ramblings lightened the mood until there was another noise.

This time I heard male voices. Lee as quickly as he could told me to call again. The operator asked me if it sounded like the police. I couldn't make out words or commands so I didn't really know. I heard the barking of a dog assumed it was our neighbor's until I thought about the size of the bark and the proximity. I peeked out my bedroom window again and was completely shocked at what I saw.

An officer standing halfway in our shed had his gun drawn at a guy face down in the leaves. He was shouting for him to crawl forward and the K9 was all over the guy. The cuffs came out and relief fell over me. I was suprised at all the feelings that rushed through me. One that hit the hardest for me was anger. I remembered too much of the violation that happened in '06. I ran out of my room and straight to the kitchen window just to see the guy taken out of my yard. I followed the officer and the thief with my eyes at the garage door window. My next sprint was to the front door. I opened it and stepped just to the front porch. I thanked the policeman and felt more and more emotions as the criminal was ducking into the car. Another officer let us know that this guy and three other buddies (who were still on the loose) had bailed a stolen car. We made sure this guy got trespassing added to his charges.

This whole experience was so bizarre, so Hollywood. I mean just an hour before I was asleep and just before that I was thinking our lives were slowing down. I am grateful that we weren't on the news. It would have taken a slower response from the police and certainly more commotion to do that. One good thing about this is the fire it lit under the both of us. We are back to working on the house or at least we will be once Lee regains more of his strength. He has the month of January off work due to illness and wants to do what he can with the last two weeks. Maybe this kind of excitment won't happen again!

** Note that all of this happened between January 4th and 14th. I am not even done with the month yet! So if you see me and I am crazier than usual, completely stressed out, or holding a handful of chocolate wrappers (which isn't good for my plan to lose the baby weight), now you know why.

January 20, 2009

Mr. Invisible

So I noticed this a while back but it gets funnier and funnier the more I see it. The other day I walked away from Bryson as he was busy scooting back and forth from toy to toy on the floor. I had to run into the kitchen for just a minute. When I came back I saw two little legs bicycling excitedly but the baby that went to those legs was underneath the curtains. He was waiting with the biggest grin when I pulled them back.

He hides everywhere! When the Christmas tree was out he would disappear and only be visible when the branches were shaking. Several times he's parked himself almost entirely under Lee's footrest on the reclining sofa. Dangerous but a funny sight. One of his favorite things to do is pull whatever blanket he has over his head, squeal and kick around until someone "finds" him. It really is a game and nowhere close to accidental on his part.

This is laughable for now but I can almost guarantee that when he's a toddler we'll lose him to a game of hide-n-seek in the clothing racks at the mall. Still there is hope. If he keeps his same laugh we'll be able to find him everytime! Funny baby! So much fun even at six months.January 5, 2009

My little worry wort

So the other day Braxton and I came out of Target and he asked about the smoke that he was seeing. I told him that Burger King cooked their hamburgers over a fire and then he got the funniest look on his face. He started saying "Oh but mom the hot smoke and this cold winter air will make a tornado." Those are his words, honest. He wasn't in a panic but almost ready to see one spin into destruction not far from where we parked the truck. Turns out that about two weeks ago after watching some TV program, dad explained what happens when cold and warm fronts come together...TORNADOES.