Yup.
Today was one of those days.
Funny thing is, I didn't really realize it until my mom called tonight and forced me to cancel Joyschool in the morning. I guess I am lucky to have extremely positive and uplifting parents, and even luckier it rubbed off on me to the extent that I didn't notice I was at my wit's end until bedtime.
It started early in the morning. I go to a mom's group called MOPS and this morning was our first day back since Christmas. Wes was working the night shift tonight, so he decided to keep the bog boys home with him and bring them to me when he left for work.
Well, I left a little late. (I swear, babies have impeccable timing. They always have to nurse and can't wait another minute the minute you need to be leaving.) But I was doing okay because I had hit every green light along the way. Wes had me take his car because he needed the carseats in mine for the boys. I was waiting to turn at a red light and started to drive, but the car coming the other direction sped up, so I stopped and decided to wait. A few seconds later, I felt a THUMP and jolted forward.
I didn't take long to figure out what had happened. But of course I was about to turn onto a highway with nowhere to pull over, so I had to drive five minutes away just to stop and check on Jonah and survey the damage. Luckily, there was none. Thirty five minutes late to MOPS and most of brunch (we always have brunch) was gone. Bummer, but oh well. I was planning on taking my mother-in-law to lunch after MOPS (hence the reason for Wes keeping the boys with him) and now I would be a little hungrier.
Well, I did go to lunch with my cute mother-in-law and added bonus: Wes's cute little Dutch grandma, Anna. We had so much fun! When I went to grab the check at the end (for a birthday gift, Anna beat me to it.) It was sweet, and not that big of a deal, but that was the present I was planning to give, so now I had and still have nothing else. No biggie, I will think of something spectacular soon.....
After lunch, I had to take the boys with me to my loooooong overdue opthamalogist appointment. My contacts/glasses prescriptions had expired, and I have been having some trouble and pain in my left eye, so I thought I'd get everything checked out and squared away. We arrived early, which was great, because it gave me time to feed and change Jonah before all the madness began.
Things started off okay. The boys behaved very well. I had brought my trusty iPod touch and cell phone with me, and handed one to each boy to let them play games while I had my appointment. The doctor came in and dilated my eyes (I don't know if you've had that done before, but it it MISERABLE). He left for quite awhile (you have to wait 15 minutes for them to be completely dilated) and I think we were forgotten for a little while, because we waited in the exam room for about forty five minutes.
Do you know how hard it is for three little boys to be quiet and still for forty five minutes? It's not possible. Ever. And today was no exception. Especially Jonah. He had had just about enough of his stroller and carseat by then, and he was DONE.
Then the doctor came in and no matter what he did, my left eye was still painful and blurry. He pulled out a "foreign object" from the back of my eye that he thought might be the problem. But in the process of doing so, I unintentionally jerked my head away and said goodbye to half the eyelashes on that eye. (I am one of those gals that has to have mascara on, so this is not good.) I googled it and yup, it takes two months for eyelashes to grow back. Great.
So I left the opthamologist with no answers, another appointment and more tests in two weeks unless my eye dramatically improves, and I had to drive home alone with dilated eyes.
If you've never had your eyes dilated, let me tell you how awful it is. It feels like you are staring at the sun and looking a little cross-eyed and blurry and everything is smaller than normal all at the same time. And really, it's even less comfortable than you are probably imagining. To top it off, to perform one of the other tests they did, they also numbed my eyes. Now that is a weird feeling.
I managed to get everyone in the car safely with the help of those hideous black glasses they give you when you leave. But I still couldn't see great (it throws your depth perception off) and when I backed my car out I took out my sideview mirror on the passenger side of my car. Dang. There goes three hundred bucks.
I had to make a couple stops on the way home and finally made it home. I hauled everything inside (every mom knows it takes at least three trips out to the car to get all the kids and diaper bags, coats, snacks, purses, etc.and at least that many when you get back home), turned off all the lights, put the kids in front of a movie, and put my jammies on. I was planning on sleeping it all off and had just slipped into bed when the doorbell rang. I assumed it was one of the neighborhood kids (they all love our kitties and frequently come over to play with them) and answered. It wasn't a kid, it was the Lowe's delivery guys coming to bring our new chest freezer. Great. I just answered my door at five o'clock with no bra and my jammies on. I had eight loads of laundry in the living room floor, and Micah's Geotrax trains were ALL OVER the basement. I ran around with my hand shading my eyes, squinting while frantically trying to clean it all up. I grabbed a jacket to throw on too. Then, I just worked on keeping the boys out of the delivery guys' way.
Jonah started having some serious teething pain after that. Poor guy. He cut his first TWO teeth tonight. By now, the boys were bouncing off the walls - well - more like my couch. Once I got Jonah calmed down, fed, and ready for bed, I heard a scream from the other room. Micah had jumped off the couch one two many times.
I deliberated whether or not to take him in to the E.R. for the next hour or so. His big toe was all swollen and gray and he was white and crying harder than I've seen him cry in a long time. But luckily, suddenly after over an hour, he felt much better. I let them snuggle in my bed for a few minutes and sent them to bed. That's when my mom called and forced me to cancel Joyschool. I'm already thanking her for that one.
Then Wes called, saying he would be home late. Poor guy had a hard day, too.
I am sitting here in my bed....I cannot wait to wait up and start over fresh in the morning!
But also, I can't help but think how much worse it could have been. I'm grateful it was only as bad as it was.
I am grateful that Wes's car was unscathed this morning, and more importantly, no one was hurt.
I am grateful that I still made it to MOPS, and so very grateful for my mom and my MOPS ladies.
I am grateful that I had the opportunity to enjoy quality, intimate time with my mother-in-law and Anna.....it is a first. A first of hopefully many more to come. :)
I am grateful that I have such an amazing opthamologist. He truly is passionate of what he does, a good listener (rare in my experiences with doctors), and extremely patient and understanding of my three little bouncing-of-the-walls boys. I've noticed that a lot of older people forget what it's like to have little ones and can get extremely annoyed with them. He was so great with them. And I'm grateful that so far, although my vision is having some problems, there's no diagnosis of anything degenerative. (and I might be able to push up getting Lasik.)
I am grateful that when I told Wes about my mirror, he told me he was glad I was okay, held me close, and told me it was just a mirror.
I am SO grateful that we no longer have to stuff our upstairs fridge until it's practically spilling, and that we are so blessed to be able to buy all the food we need (and of the best and freshest quality). And I'm glad the boys have so many fun things to play with (most of the time).
I am so, so, so grateful that I can kind of bank on a decent night's sleep since Jonah's teeth finally broke through. And hopefully less biting me when I nurse him. And I'm glad that Micah's toe is okay and that I didn't have to drag three little ones to the E.R. by myself tonight. And also grateful for sweet neighbors who were there when I needed help. And grateful for my mom who recognized before I did that my plate was way too full and I needed a break. And that she gave me back the advice I gave her the other day: take care of yourself or you won't be able to take care of anything or anyone else.
And most of all, I am grateful for my snuggly, warm bed and the fact that my sweet, sensitive, understanding husband will be snuggling me in it in just a few minutes, hopefully tickling my back and playing with my hair. He always knows exactly what I need to feel better, and it's usually just having him close by.
So for now, I will survive, and hope that tomorrow will be better. I'm going to crawl into my bed and hopefully unwind a little more.
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