Last Thursday, I HAD to drive to Yakima just to pick up my new contacts. It was urgent as I had no backup contacts left and the contacts I was currently wearing were starting to tear. Like I said, it was urgent especially since their office would be closed Friday for 4th of July.
As it is summer and it is boiling hot, I figured some time spent in the air conditioned car would be a pleasant reprieve. So I loaded up the girls and drove 45 minutes to Tri-Cities to the gym. My plan being that post work out we would drive the 45 minutes back home plus another hour to Yakima, get my contacts, maybe grab lunch and then drive home. For those of you slow at math, that is 1.5 hours in the car post workout and then another hour post-contact-pickup for a grand total of 2.5 hours…just to pick up a box of contacts mind you!
Feeling grand after my workout, I went to pick up the girls from the Little Gym (what we call the gym's play center) and the "babysitter" told me Grace had been complaining of a stomach ache and that they were just about to come get me because she was asking to go home.
Hmmm….
Now it isn't that I didn't believe Grace that her stomach hurt, but I often find myself over-sympathizing with their ailments - keeping them home to rest, etc. only to find that they have miraculously been cured 30 minutes later. I figured a snack and a little "rest" in the car would be just what the doctor ordered!
So into the car we pile and start heading "upstream." Grace complains and refuses all of her favorite snacks. At about an hour and 20 minutes into the drive - well past the turnoff for home - she starts requesting that we go home RIGHT NOW and is squealing from time to time in pain.
Pushing the speed limit, I told Grace to hang on, that we were almost there and that we would be out of the car in no time. Just as I pulled into the parking lot of the eye clinic, she told me to hurry and I ran around to her side, opened her car door to her PUKING all over. Luckily, she is beyond awesome and managed to get all the puke outside the car!!
We sat outside a bit, drank some water and collected ourselves before going in grabbing the contacts and heading home. In hind sight, riding in the car with a child with a stomach issue was probably not my best decision.
This is where Grace posted up for the remainder of the day. I figured it would be a 24 hour thing like usual and we'd be up and at em the next day for the fourth of July.
No such luck.
All day. All night.
Then Charlotte came down with it too.
Mid-afternoon they seemed miraculously better. They were up and chatty so I figured the worst was over! We went swimming at Manna and Boppas house before a Family Fourth of July Feast!
These poses say it all! Cracks. Me. Up!!
Should have gotten pics of them BEFORE they swam in their blueberry dresses but once again
hindsight got the best of me.
Upon our return from our 4th of July evening, this guy showed up at our house!
He seemed starving, scared but so sweet. Of course no collar. People can really suck when it comes to caring for animals. Being a holiday weekend, there wasn't much we could do to help him other than give him a bit of food and water. Stranger and Hiccup took to him and kept his busy and 'Brown Dog' was my entertainment for the weekend as I watched him come and go through the windows…
but as of 2 in the morning on July 5…we were back in Flu-ville.
Both girls sick with "the throw-ups."
Saturday and Sunday. All day. This is where they were - the couch.
They slept on and off which was good but it meant they were really sick because they never sleep when the sun is up. Never!
They colored a bit. I once looked over and saw Charlotte doodling her name - all nine letters of it! She'd never done the whole thing without help before so that was the highlight of my 48 hours spent indoors cycling through laundry, dishes, blankets and sheets - you get the drift.
They watched E.T. for the first time which was a kick for me seeing Drew Barrymore at Charlotte's current age! Grace kept calling E.T. 'the robot' instead of an alien or an extra-terrestrial.
Finally, FINALLY, Monday rolled around and so did some stronger stomachs and some smiles. Our big outing of the day was grocery shopping.
They LOVED having their own carts. I was a bit worried that each of them in control of their own cart was going to be a recipe for disaster but it was actually awesome! All I kept thinking to myself was grocery shopping in just a few short years is going to be SO boring! I will most certainly miss these golden nugget moments throughout the day.
As it is pushing towards triple digits every afternoon, I took the girls swimming on Monday. I don't know what came over Charlotte but she just decided she was going to swim and that was that. She threw some rings in the pool and dove down and got them. Boom! Swam from one side of the pool to the other. Boom! She even jumped into the deep in and swam to edge without help! Check and mate! Fingers crossed I am laying pool side by the end of the summer - book in hand - and that my having-to-go-in-freezing-cold-public-pools-in-the-dead-of-winter days are over! Swim lessons start next week so things are looking pretty good in the recreational swimming department!
Ugh but back to reality. Woke up to this guy still here this morning. It was time to take some action. By days end, he was taken to a safe place that will try to reconnect him with his family or find him a new family. It was super said but I am so grateful that there are people and organizations dedicated to caring for animals in tough situations.
With that downer of a post ending, I will sign off wishing and hoping that this next week brings more laughter and smiles and less 'throw-ups!'
