Well, it was not really a vacation but here is a recap of the past several days:
Thursday December 22: Up at dawn, wake the kids, prepare for work, whisk the kids to their respective schools and off to work I go. Arrive at 8:30 to find limited power in the building. Basically we had back up lights and phones. By 9 a.m. we hear that there is a fire at the substation and the tech guys all agree that it will be an all day fix (based on the last substation incident). Between 9 and 9:30 a.m. we lose phones and I decide to call it a day - I have plenty to do at home. 10:13 a.m. I arrive home, pop a heavy duty pain killer to relieve the pain in my face and throw a load of laundry in while I wait for it to work. Mark W. calls from the church to let me know the power is on and tells me that it is my decision as to whether or not to return to work, (after realizing that the beginnings of the loopiness that is an effect of the pain killer, I decide to NOT make the 40 minute drive) I decline. I don't recall most of the next few hours - I probably fell asleep. 2:15 p.m. I head out to begin the picking up of the kids, back home by 3:30 and throw in another load of laundry, receive a phone call letting me know that a cousin, Judy Charles, who had been battling an illness for quite some time had passed away. Evening comes and with that brings an enjoyable Christmas Eve (eve, eve) service at Granger Community Church. Following that we head over to Dave's sister Sherry house where we visit with her and his sister Kelly and their children and we do a bit of gift exchanging. By the way Kelly, thanks so much for buying Dave one of the EXACT same things that I had already wrapped and placed under the tree...he loves it. We leave and arrive home somewhere between 10:30 and 11 p.m. Everyone heads off to bed...hey, did we have dinner?
Dave enjoying the gift that KELLY bought him.
(I will take some credit, I bought the new DVD player)
Friday December 23: Rise and shine - well Dave did - at 6 a.m. and wakes Breanna to send her off to school. He returns to wake up Paige and as we expected she acts like a hibernating bear. Really, what do they do the last day before break? She gets to stay home. We all sleep in some more. When we finally appear from our cave, we head South to shop for last minute gifts. (Thanks again Kelly, Dave loved the gift). Paige and I head one way, Dave another. When Paige and I are done she spots Dave to let him know that we are walking over to TGI Fridays and to meet us there for lunch. We enjoy lunch (sort of - I wanted a burger but I'm "not allowed" according to the medical professionals taking care of my jaw) and then head back to pick Breanna up from school who professes cruelty upon realizing that Paige was allowed to stay home. We gear up to head out to my sister Amy's for more visiting - she calls to tell us to wait because she is not home. 4:30 she is home, we pack up the truck and head toward LaPorte. We enter and Breanna presents Scott (sister's boyfriend) with the Ghetto Lightsabers that we made him from wrapping paper tubes - 2 minutes later they were destroyed in battle with his 6 year old daughter Kateri. We all take turns holding "the cuteness" (Breanna's nickname for the new baby Kira), chaos follows as Scott riles up all of the kids that can walk - that would be 6 of the 7 that were there. Amy makes a comment about how the baby and I have the same number of chins - she thinks its funny to jab at me about my weight. Good times. Gifts exchange, all appear happy, we load up the truck and travel toward home during which we poke fun at the tacky inflatable Christmas lawn decorations and poorly planned light displays. I think we had dinner. Off to bed we go.
Saturday December 24: Rise and shine at 7:15 a.m. wake the kids and load them up in the truck, we all remain in our jammies except Dave (party pooper), and head to my Mom and Dad's for breakfast. We arrive 5 minutes ahead of schedule and are jokingly told we have to leave and come back. Mom is in the kitchen starting breakfast, Breanna joins in, I leave ...too many chefs ya know. Paige sets the table, I chat with Pops and then pour beverages. Breanna decides to make scrambled eggs on an electric griddle...you have to make your own mistakes...and the eggs run off the edge of it into the grooves. Mom finishes at the stove and Breanna tries her luck at making the eggs in a regular skillet...SUCCESS! A yummy breakfast of french toast with strawberries or blueberries, sausage, and eggs is served. Fabulous conversation, we all stuff ourselves. Mom and I clean up the mess and do the dishes - I wash, she dries since she knows where things go. We exchange gifts, and everyone is happy - Thanks Mom, Dad and Santa. Dave finally talks to his Dad and nails down a time for us to visit. We leave my parents house around noon and head home to reload. I decide it is a good time to visit Osco's to pick up some cream for the rash on my face...only to learn that ANY shopping on Christmas eve is a bad idea. Arrive back home at 1:30 (ish) and away we head toward Dave's parent's house. Great visit, gifts are exchanged all are happy, especially Paige who received 2 out of the 3 items in the Princess Alexa collection that she has been longing for. We head downstairs to pretend that we are the ping-pong champions of the world...in reality we SUCK. Breanna's Dad picks her up at 3:00 or so and is to return to our house around 9 p.m.. We visit some more, ping and pong some more. Leave around 6:00 and head toward the Landry household to see if our secret Santa recipients are home - no they are not. We change course and go to Dave's sister Bobbi's home. We visit, Paige receives the 3rd piece of the Princess Alexa collection and believes that life can not get any better. Paige continues to entertain her Aunt and is therefore invited to spend the night on Monday. Around 8:00 we contact the Landry's (who are Bobbi's daughter Jenny and her husband Dennis) so we head out to play Santa. We arrive, the baby is sleeping - darn it, and they wont wake him. So we give them their gifts. Paige receive a little girl type make up kit and proceeds to make Jenny look all glittery while Dave and Dennis talk sports. I realize that it is 9:30+ and tell Dave that we need to get home for Breanna. As we get in the truck Breanna calls from my parents house so we head back there to pick her up. She hops in the truck pretty upset because her Buscia keeps referring to her as a lost sheep because she does not attend a Catholic church and her relatives from Texas called her a Satan worshipper because of the way she dresses. Way to go J***ski family, way to make her want to visit more. For those of you who don't know - Breanna loves to dress goth and likes heavy metal, anime and read about vampires and witches and such. There are no pentagrams drawn under her bed, no animal sacrifices in the basement, the symbols she writes with are CHINESE. She is WAY too happy to be a depressed, gothic Satan worshipper. Not to mention that she attends church with us every weekend and goes to the High School Ministry there whenever possible. So, obviously a bad end to an otherwise delightful day for us. She was very relieved to arrive home as were we all sometime after 10 p.m.. I know that we did dinner - Wendy's right before they closed between Dave's Parents house and his sister Bobbi's. So, home we are. I go online and pull up the Santa Tracker and he was in Florida - Cape Canaveral area. Paige is not worried. I tell her she needs to get ready for bed, so milk and cookies are put out but no teeth have been brushed. I check NORAD for Santa again and he is in the Big Apple. Paige sees the proximity of New York and Indiana and decides she better start hauling her but to bed. Teeth are brushed, jammies on, parents kissed goodnight. I do my last minute thing and go to bed while Dave and Breanna stay up to "wait for Santa".
Sunday December 25 THE BIG DAY: 5:00 a.m. I awake for NO APPARENT FREAKING REASON. So, I get a great surprise - StarGate is on at 5 a.m. on Sundays! YAY! So, I watch StarGate, then The Twilight Zone comes on and about 15 minutes later I spot a little blonde head poking out of the hallway. She comes in my room to let me know that Santa has indeed been there and crawls into bed with me. We watch Twilight Zone and something wakes up Dave and while he is out of the room for a minute we kill the TV and head out so as not to keep him up. I head for the kitchen to begin making the giant baked french toast and apple bake, and the egg casserole /baked omelet that I had planned only to find that during my trip to the store I FORGOT THE EGGS! Paige spots her stocking and lovingly cuddles the stuffed "dingo" that he left in it. I stress some more and Dave decides to stay awake and try to comfort me with assurances that instant pancakes will be fine for breakfast. I am still heartbroken but Hungry Jack pancakes and bacon it is. Breanna wakes up and we decide to dive into gifts before breakfast - growing up with my parents that would have been sacreligious if there had been a religion - but hey, I was starting my own traditions this year! So, gifts are opened and adored. I move on to the breakfast thing - the pancakes sucked. Everyone reamains in their jammies all day and we eat whatever we feel like - mainly pie. The day continues with Breanna retreating to her room to enjoy her individual gifts, Paige slowly and gradually opens each package and enjoys each gift in it's own time. Dave naps, I nap. Later in the evening I ask Paige if she wants me to read a story to her - of course she does. So, I decide to read to her one of my Christmas gifts (I receive the first three of the Narnia chronicles in hardback! YAY!) so we begin reading The Magician's Nephew. We read almost half the book before we called it a night.
Monday December 26th: We wake up and veg out some more. Paige and I read several more chapters of The Magician's Nephew before we take her to her Aunt Bobbi's house to stay the night. (Princess Alexa and a gaggle of stuffed animals and such joined her) Went to the visitation of my cousin who passed away. Need a pick me up so we headed to Blockbuster. Watched the movie The Wedding Date and fell in love with Dermot Mulroney all over again, and The 40 Year Old Virgin is FREAKING HILARIOUS! Went to bed at 1 a.m. because I was enjoying the deleted scenes and the gag reel.
Tuesday December 27th: Dave gets to stay home but I return to work. After work I grab Dave and Breanna and head over to pick up my father so that we can attend my cousin's "wake". Because I have missed so much work with my Dad's surgery and my bronchitis and Mom's hospital stay I decided it best to skip the funeral. Dave dropped Dad and I off but we arrive later than expected and it was almost over. So Dave drops off Breanna at a friend's house, returns for us and we go back to my Pop's house and visit with him for a couple hours. I learn that I really dont like Lofthouse Sugar cookies covered with frosting and sprinkles and am reminded why the medical professionals have advised against me eating that type of food. Hard foods make my face and jaw hurt. So, around 4 ish we travel to fetch Paige from her Aunt's house and then we go pick Breanna up from her friends house. We come home eat dinner, except Paige who says she is not hungry. Go to bed after reading some more of The Magician's Nephew...or did we. We do go to bed. 11 p.m. Paige comes in our room and is shaking Dave awake to tell him something. Moments later I hear him in the living room with her, and she is vomiting. So, I get up, they are in the bathroom and she is over the toilet getting sick. He is watching over her so I go and fetch the Pepto. She cleans up, rinses her mouth, takes Pepto, brushes her teeth and heads out to the couch. I hang with her a second to see if her belly hurts or if she needs anything. Dave sits up with her for awhile. Sometime later Dave returns to bed and then I hear a horrible noise and Dave pops up like a jack in the box. I dont do well with vomit so I let him be. By 5:30 he is beat, has only had 2 hours sleep - vomiting and bowel issues from Paige all night and so he has called in to work to let them know he will be late. He makes more money than me and tells me that I get to stay home and take her to the doctor, plus she is still awake so I go hang with her on the couch. She is hungry of course so I recall the diet they prescribed the last time she could not keep food down. The B.R.A.T. diet is bananas, rice, apples or toast. So, Paige would like an apple and some Sprite. I cut one up for her. Three pieces in she is done. Comes back to the couch and says that she thinks she is gonna puke. When she is positive she gives the signal and I spring up and throw open the bathroom door and lift the lid just in time for her to hurl in the proper place. She is cleaned up again. She lays down on the couch with cartoons and I lay back down to get more sleep and wait for the doctor's office to open. She wakes me at 9:00, my face is killing me. I call the doctor. Her pediatrician is booked but another can see her at 11:40 - works for us. She is SO hungry and weak she starts counting the minutes until we leave. I talk her into showering/bathing and by 11:00 we are ready to go. So, while we wait for the good doctor we continue with The Magician's Nephew. The doctor confirms that she has a virus. I will not share the treatment he prescribed here. It was pretty traumatic for Paige, but it was administered at 2:07 p.m. and the doctor said she had to wait an hour before she tried any food. By 2:40 she was sleeping and is still sleeping. It is currently 4:13. The doctor said that it is pretty contagious. So, here is to praying that the virus has been contained and that she can hold down some food and that I don't catch the darn thing and miss even more work.
Isn't she pathetic looking?
