Sunday February 14, 2010
On Thursday (I think)Audrey posted to ask everyone what they wish for that costs less then $20.00. Didn’t take me very long to figure that one out. The next day I was half embarrassed by my rather whiny, demanding little comment. Seriously, there are kids dying of starvation and all I can think to whine about is flowers? I was too busy taking care of sick kids to go back and comment again and too depressed about the whole situation to care terribly much. That night when David came home he asked why there is a box on the front porch. I had no clue.
He brought it in and I opened it to find a huge bunch of tulips. No name. Just a card that says: Remember, life is full of little surprises!
No doubt in my mind where those came from but I was speechless. Someone who has never even met me in real life overnight mailed me flowers because I thought it would make me happy???????? Audrey, I’ve been sending you hugs from my heart every time I look at them! The words thank you are so inadequate.
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Life just is not much fun right now. On Wednesday after taking the boys to the doctor, David started with a splitting ear ache. He hardly slept all night and the next morning informed me that he thinks his ear drum burst several times throughout the night because it kept building up pressure then popping and bleeding. He was acutely miserable and threatening to take more advil then allowed. He went to pull his brother out of the snow with the truck and by the time he got back it was only twenty minutes or so til he could get in to see the doctor.
Diagnosis: Raging ear infection. Not a burst ear drum but the pressure kept making little blood blisters that popped which explained the bleeding (and why the pain didn’t go away). He looked (and felt) awful but insisted he had to go to work because the snow has run them out of work for their guys. Let’s not even go into how stressful this is for all of us. Or how ridiculous it seems that one of the jobs would have been workable but the owners refused to have their lane plowed and so they couldn’t get in. I was not excited about the idea of him driving on vicodin with little sleep; but there wasn’t much I could do except pray that he’d be safe.
Mid afternoon he called home to admit he was heading home. He lay there, grey and miserable. At suppertime he vomited. I was plugging my ears and hoping it would still be a long time til I am pregnant after all. Liam was listening to the sounds from his high chair and went into one of the longest spasms of giggles I’ve heard in weeks.
The next morning David had definitely turned the corner although he is still draining horrible stuff out of his ear.
Adam has not gotten better.
His antibiotics are nearly finished. The ear that wasn’t infected on Wednesday gives him no end of grief. He seems to go more deaf every day. His cough is awful and Saturday morning he woke up with fever / chills / and so much sputum he threw up. I had to pick him up off the floor and carry him to the bed. Tonight he is nauseous. What would you do?
Liam’s cough gets worse every day. It feels as though life is one endless cycle of wiping noses and trying to keep the grumpies at bay and I’m just so tired of it. I’m tired of being crawled over. Of worrying. Of hearing horrible hacking coughs that make me think pneumonia. Of taking temperatures and giving more motrin. Of repeating everything I say five times because no one but Liam can hear me. Of having snot wiped on me. Of cold. Of snow. Of finally being able to get out the drive only to see a prediction for more snow.
Tomorrow I’ll be embarrassed for whining. And even tonight, my head knows that I am terribly grateful to have my family intact when I heard news of two women who lost their husbands and are tucking their children into bed alone. But tonight my spirit is just exhausted and all I want to do is cry and cry and cry.
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On Friday we tried to stave away a few grumpy hours by making valentine cards. It worked for Adam; but not so well for Liam. And while I don’t exactly get excited about doing crafty stuff, I’m getting better at it. Or maybe the truth is that since Adam is older and getting better at it, it’s not quite so horrible.
Liam was nonplussed. Crafty things for him are more like getting the raisens out of the drawer and dumping them over the floor.
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The boys have their head in the sand, I mean, snow. Thursday morning they woke up and insisted they could go shirtless and wear their water shoes. It made them laugh. What could I say? It can’t be any worse then me wearing a pink dress and pretending it’s Spring. The last time it hit 40 Adam thought it was warm enough to set up the swimming pool.
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I wish humans would hibernate. Or at least migrate.
oh, girl. i am sorry! we had our first major bug of the year…xander and jase were horribly sick for one week, the next week caroline and i were sick, that weekend xander got it again, plus carolines drug on and on…so it ended up being three weeks of sickness. i told my mom, ” i guess if you average three weeks over three kids, that means only one week per kid, and that isn’t too bad.” she laughed and told me i look on the bright side too much. you have too keep going, somehow, right?!
that audrey, she has a heart of gold! so glad you received that unexpected splash of happy!
did you notice on the corner of your counter, there is a kleenex, purel,and a bottle of medicine? pretty much sums up your life, huh?
I’m with you- bring on the migration! My Valentine’s gift request was a simple hyacinth. Those flowers have an incredible capability to fill an entire house with fragrance. So, even though it still looks rather wintery around here, it smells like spring!
I hope you have better days ahead! The tulips were very special, I’m sure!
How very sweet of Audrey!! Sickness, snow, colds, tissues, pale skin and snow pictures are almost making me cry. The flower pictures are a ray of sunshine today!! Hang in there, spring is just around the corner. (who am I kidding!?) Come join me in FL next week!
I’m sorry…wish I could send you some cheer in a bottle. 🙂 And I hope your family gets well soon; that is no fun to deal with!
first of all, LOVE the flowers and so happy for you that you got to be the recipient of her surprise!
second, you are Not whining! if I thought you were whining, I would have to include myself in that camp too, and I just can’t see it as that. Michelle, this stage of life, this time of the year, is h.a.r.d.! I know we have had more than our share of sickness this winter too (so much so that I felt like a VISITOR! in my own church yesterday, and had people welcoming me back after oh, I don’t know, about 6 weeks of being home with sick kids) and I’m so, so, so ready for warm weather!
Hang in there, and don’t beat yourself up…
big hug to you~
R
I’m trying to remember if Adam get’s ear infection frequently? We finally took Tyler to an Ear/Nose/Throat specialist because of his frequent infections. They checked his hearing first thing and we were able to find out that it wasn’t affecting his hearing at all. The doctor also somewhat discouraged us from putting tubes in because he’s not coming in 8-10 times a year with it. He’s on antibiotics now because of double ear infection. I took him in last Monday because of extreme pain in his right ear and we found out that the left ear had inner ear infection and the right ear, outer ear infection. sigh… poor guy, he puts up with a lot of pain.
One thing about winter blues is that there IS hope that they will end. It is February 15. That means in 6 weeks and 3 days it will be April 1. That isn’t so terribly long. Hang in there. You will get through! Sorry about all the sickness. I thought we had it bad at our house, but doesn’t sound half as bad as your house.
Oh Michelle, I do wish for better days for you. I wish that spring would be here tomorrow and you could go outside and soak up some sunshine and not have to worry about more snow coming today or more next week. I was so hoping you guys would have a sick-free-rest-of-the-winter-time. Hang in there, God hears you and cares about you. Hugs, Oh and those flowers are gorgeous!!
I’m just laughing at Adam’s chav look… (do you even use the word ‘chav’ in the states?)
Hibernating sounds good, colds, coughs, winter blahs… Spring, Oh Spring, Where art thou?
All I can say is, “Me too!!”
I’m so with you. We have major cabin fever. I just want to go outside and play and have fun with the kiddos, but NOT in the snow. I want some sun. I want some warmth. But another little snowstorm is headed our way tonight. I try not to complain because, after all, I live in Ohio. But this year winter is hitting me so hard.
You are not whining. I would be the same way. At least we know we are in this together and that makes it a teeny tiny bit easier!!!
Hope today goes much better for you!!!
Monica
I declare, it seems this winter is BAD for sickness, and I thought that COLD and snow are supposed to freeze out the germs!!! Not so here in the south. Although we escaped it, the H1N1 virus was around about a month ago. One mother, whose whose whole family was ill with a stomach virus this past week, declared the ‘fever flu’ ran their immune systems down.
I stayed from church yest. for the second Sun. in a row. One of my girls and myself were coughing too much to go, plus Zachary was still crouping.
We’re trying out vit. D3 now, but too early to tell if it makes a difference. I’m about getting desparate! And hope your family is getting much better by now!
I’m so sorry… I thought of calling you the other day and than didn’t get a good chance. Sick husband and sick boys make anyone go crazy. so glad you got flowers! Are you as tired of snow as me??
Oh, the boys not wearing shirts is so funny!! The boys have actually started talking about Adam’s pool lately. Not sure why exactly…. makes me want summer…
I have been hibernating…something I tend to do this time of year. 🙁 So I didn’t even read this post until now, which means that I haven’t even had a clue how bad things have been for you. I’m so sorry!!! And so very thankful for your pink-tulip “hug” from God! Praying right now that the sickies will depart hastily from your household! (((hugs)))
@mlt10202002 –
And on the other corner (you couldn’t see) were more bottles of medicine, a thermometer, and more tissues. Yeah, you got that right. My life in a nutshell.
@seekinHISwisdom –
I WISH
@foreveranoatneygirl –
Wowsers, that’s a long time to be sick. Reminds me of last winter for us. I keep telling myself this year, “it’s not as bad as it was last year.” Somehow it still never helps. Wishing you guys wellness.
@lazonya75 –
Girl, you better make a paper chain. I think I better not move to the big city after all. April 1 is like a year away. I’m breathing in. Breathing out. Breathing in. And saying March 1rst. Come on. B/c it won’t stay warm from then on but we’ll start having significantly warm days thrown in. And sometimes we will actually be able to feel the sun.
@psalm150girl –
You have GOT to tell me what chav means!!!!! 🙂 I’ve been trying to figure it out ever since I read it.
You’re very welcome! thanks for posting pictures. But I really am kind of embarrassed by what you wrote, although it was very nice! If you would have said that to me in person, I probably would have looked at the floor. Anyway, I am so sorry that your sicknesses are still continueing to drag on! And it seems like you have so much more than “your share” of sickness in your family! Of course there are always things we can be thankful for, and we know that in our heads, but sometimes in our hearts we are just tired out and feel like we can’t take any more. Spring is not that far away and the winter blues will be over. That’s funny that you mentioned hibernating, because Jeremy and I had a somewhat lengthy discussion about that the other day. Even down to how it could maybe work for humans! So funny!
@appalolly –
I had no idea you could be shy! You shouldn’t have told me that b/c now I will feel like saying all kinds of nice things to you when / if we finally get to meet to see if it makes you look at the floor. ; ) J/k. I know. We do get our share, plus on the sickness. I keep wondering what in the world I’m doing wrong or if we’re just more susceptible somehow. At least this winter is not as bad as last winter. And I didn’t get seriously depressed / dysfunctional til February. It usually happens in January already. BTW, the tulips are still opening up and more gorgeous every day!
That’s a great thing for Audrey to do for you. Sometimes you need a little pick me up and don’t ever feel guilty for needing it. God bless your day today.
You are not alone in the whole “can’t wait for spring, no more snow, no more sickness, no more housebound children” wishing kind of thing. About hibernating: I cant wait until I’m a senior citizen so I can hibernate in Pine Craft every winter!
I am counting the weeks till my baby and spring with diligence:), neither can come soon enough for me:)! … funny how David throwing up reminds you of being pg, do you get really sick? I just told Luke yesterday that it has been 7 months since I have woke up in the morning and felt good- without at least a little wave of nausea… I am so ready to feel good again. blessing to you as you care for your little ones, I know all about ear infections ALL my kids have them until they are done teething, and they are not fun at all!!
@writersblock02 –
migrate? 😉 Sorry. Could not help myself b/c you are so stinkin’ good with words. BTW, I wish you’d post again. I need some more laughter.
@hukeynshan –
Do I get really sick when I’m pg? Well, that’s kind of an understatement. The last two months or so I’ve been getting in the mood for a baby and both David and my sister Christy shush me up so fast every time I mention it to them. In Christy’s words, “I’m just not ready to have you pg yet” … and she doesn’t even have to live with me. I hope your baby comes early. Believe me, I know that feeling. When are you due?
@smilesbymiles – I am due APril 10th I have 7 weeks to go and believe me I count EVERY single day!! This pregnancy has actually been the best as far as throwing up, but still is miserable. My first I had to have an IV because I couldn’t keep anything down- so I feel your pain. I think if I mention another baby my husband will Shush me too:) it is just such a long long jouney for me. I am so happy and blessed to have 4 and I think for me that is enough- tho I will miss so many things about babies and little people- I so love my kiddos- ear infections, sleepless nights, — no matter! Maybe if you would have a girl you would feel totally different through your pregnancy— wishful thinking at least:)! I always say that no matter how tuff and long and unbearable it is — it is worth it, and 9 months out of my life for a life time of delight w/ them is worth it.