There’s No Place Like Home

It’s Sunday morning and we are not at church. I will be tuning in to listen to the sermon online in a little while but I will miss being there.

Apparently the stomach issue I mentioned in my last blog has found it’s latest victim in Ivan. I’m not completely convinced that’s what it is but the possibility has left me without a recourse but to stay here and avoid passing it along to anyone else.

On Friday afternoon I drove the boys and myself to Hickory Hollow (Hollow is very appropriate lately…that place is not the same) to deliver our stroller to a woman who purchased it from Craigslist. I was so excited to meet Dawn and I had hoped to have a few moments to visit with her. She and her husband are adopting and their little miracle is scheduled to arrive on Aron’s birthday. She drove two hours to meet me at Hickory Hollow because she really wanted a Peg Perego travel system and $200.00 is a good deal. Anyway…we did exchange the goods as well as a few bonus items I threw in because I’m excited for her and then I had to rush away because Owen was sitting in the back of the van completely drenched in his own vomit.

He had been fine up until our drive to the mall…about halfway there he said he felt bad…I threw a grocery bag back to him and he held it up to spill his graham crackers and somehow…he missed. Nightmare! He was soaked through with it and I was not sure what to do. I drove the rest of the way to the mall and took care of business with the stroller and then attended Owen.

After cleaning as much as I could with wipes and various things I had in the van…I stripped him down to his underwear and put him in the stroller, covered him with a flannel blanket and with Aron on one arm and tough little Ivan close beside me, we went hunting for some clean clothes in Dillard’s. Normally…Dillard’s would be an easy place to find everything. However, Dillard’s is closing at Hickory Hollow (everything is 75% off if you’re interested) and they had only about 10 items in his size. 10 is enough but they didn’t have underwear. So I had him put the shirt on and we went to Sears for underwear. I’m leaving out a lot of details…more stops to throw up again, more stops to rest because Aron is heavy when I’m pushing a four year old in a stroller, more stops to buy underwear in stores that don’t have underwear for four year old BOYS (only girls need underwear at that particular store…weird) and then stops to be nice to people and answer questions as if there is nothing going on in my life and I have plenty of time to help you find an outfit for your granddaughter. CRACKS ME UP!

We finally made it to the restroom where Owen could change and I could put Aron in the stroller. We had one other thing on our list of things to do and that was to buy a birthday present. We were going to pass the bookstore on our way back to Dillards…they have Webkinz…surely we can get this done before we breakdown completely, right? No…I let Owen sit down in the little children’s section while I looked for the specific toy and he began to whimper and cry and when I looked at him he was white as a sheet. I gave him the bag and we left. Ivan was upset that we didn’t get to play on the train, but seemed to understand that Owen needed us to go. Owen regained color as we got back to the van…I guess he was just weak from so much walking. He had a couple other mishaps with his stomach that night at home but slept like a log that night and was fine all day yesterday. We didn’t go to the birthday party the intended toy was for and I thought surely we were done with the stomach bug.

This morning Ivan made a funny face and I knew what was coming. He made it to the toilet and had almost nothing in his tummy to hurl, but hurl he did. I gave him only crackers and a little juice to see how he does and so far he has kept it down. I’m praying that he is done with it, but just to be safe he and Aron are home with me this morning so as not to pass along any more of this nonsense.

We got more packing done yesterday…Kris took beds apart and I helped a little. I did get that closet done and started on all the pictures and art on the walls downstairs. I got most of it boxed up between towels and cardboard and we are off to a good start for our last week here. I know we’ll get this done…though I have moments where it feels impossible. I don’t let myself linger in those moments.