Easter

Today is hopefully the first day of a new normal, a new normal that we are going to have to figure out. Today is the first day that my baby went to daycare. I've been back at work most of these two years, but she was with my mom. The other 'baby' was in school four mornings a week and with my mom the rest of the time I was at work. My mom was really flexible with strange schedules and evening church events. But for now, that's not an option so we have to figure out this 'new normal' in which I haul my kids to daycare/school each morning, pick up from school and run to daycare, pick up from daycare and try even harder to not have meetings or events at times when my hubby is not home in the evenings. It's been a hodge podge of grandparents, days home/working with kids there, days at work/working with kids there, and friends watching the girls for the last few weeks.

But it is what it is because we have bigger fish to fry. And those fish involve my mom beating cancer. She had major surgery on the 12th of March which turned out even more major than planned and is very weak. She is doing rehab at a nursing home now and we'll meet an oncologist on April 12th to see what comes next. It doesn't seem like she'll be watching the girls again anytime soon. But maybe someday...it's too soon to tell for sure.

There are like 14 directions this could go, but for now I'll just say...

It was a long Lent in so many ways. But it's Easter now. And God has the last word; death does not. So whatever happens, it's Easter!

I'm glad it's September!

August was...I'm not sure what August was, but here are the memorable moments. (including the last days of July and the first of September)

• Conference which was great 
• except for the long drive with toddler and preschooler, housing that really wasn't conducive to our family including no air conditioning on some of the hottest days of the year, losing the much-loved bear of the toddler
• Leaving conference for another long drive to visit family which was good 
• except for not being able to open the tailgate of the van--having to unload stuff by taking out one carseat, folding the seat and throwing stuff over
• denting the van in trying to shut tailgate (because it opened just enough that the sensor said it was open so I didn't want to drive that way but since I couldn't open it the whole way, I tried everything--the only thing that worked was kicking--hence the dent!)
• Realized I was not getting email on my phone--in trying to fix it my phone ate all my contacts
• My flash drive died completely--with lots of stuff on it--hopefully all other places, though I know some wasn't
• My office computer decided to move slower than usual so I'm using my own laptop at work
• It won't connect to the printer
• Tried to install software to fix that and also to update some others, did not know password for days (tried every possible combination of what my husband might have set it for--it never occurred to me to just press enter when it requested a password)
• The calendar I was trying to make in word wouldn't make bigger squares, though there was plenty of space on the page so it didn't work out how I wanted, but there was no time to change so I went with plan b
• Hubby did indeed forget my birthday--after a day in which they celebrated birthdays at his school, we went out for supper and the table over had a birthday cake with candles and balloons--after the girls were asleep and I was folding laundry about 9:20 p.m., I asked, "What is today?"  After a long pause, he hid his face, "I'm not even a day early..."  Nope.  Oh well--he felt bad and we've been laughing about it.
• Saturday we went on a mini-vacation to my brother-in-law's to spend a few days with him and his family, apparently he told his parents so they came too--I really wanted to have this time without them though I love them
• Shortly after arriving, Baby Girl wet her pants (she was just too excited to see grandma and didn't get to the bathroom in time)
• This was when we realized that in the haste of packing, the bag with the kids' clothes was left at home (I'm mostly blaming hubby--he started packing without asking me if I had everything together or even telling me was going to start packing--AND he started way early for the time we said we were going to leave.  In his defense, the bag was not by the other stuff.)
• And the one spare set of clothes we usually have in the car had been used last week when Baby Girl played in the puddles after a big rain

Of course, none of these things are the end of the world.  They are even mostly laughable now, but it's been a long month...

Edit--add not being able to figure out how to make the bullets/spacing do what I want. UGH!

So What's Next?

A toddler with a double ear infection.

And raspy chest so on medicine for that too so that it doesn't turn to pneumonia.

Seriously?

So my iphone wouldn't cooperate with attempt #1--which would not have been complete because that was Sunday morning.

Blogger/my computer ate attempt #2.

Here's #3...

Seriously, how much more can we take?

I spent from 3 a.m. to 10:30 a.m. Sunday morning with my hubby in the ER
(Add this to the list of why I'm glad I'm an associate for now--my role for Sunday morning services was to lead worship/preside--senior could manage on his own quite nicely)

He is 'a freak of nature'--the doctor's term, really. Apparently people don't have 2 kidney stones (1 in each kidney) at the same time--at least very often.

Saw the urologist Monday a.m., which ended up involving a 'procedure'--code for knocking hubby out and putting stents in each tube from each kidney to bladder. Stones broke up with the scope so they should just pass, stents will be removed next week. But now there is pain from the procedure--mostly just when he pees, but also some pain from the stents being put in.

The good news, seriously, in all of this is that my mom was in town, so Baby Girl did not have to go with to either. She was able to stay asleep in her bed and then have someone who loved her and know her routine to wake up to. She's confused, we can tell. But she is loved. And it made 7 hours in the ER and hours in the waiting room at the surgery center much more bearable knowing whose hands she was in.

Add to this a waiting game for me about something potentially significant and I'm fried. Trying very hard to finish Sunday's sermon today so I can start on Ash Wednesday tomorrow. Yucky weather here, so at least when I go home this early afternoon I do not have to come back out for a meeting I was supposed to have. That's something at least.