A week of frustration...

Rachel here. Last week could have been better. Monday, it was confirmed my Gma P. has cancer. Because she's 86, she knew that surgery/chemo/radiation wouldn't prolong her life very much, so she's decided to just enjoy life as much as she can with the time she has left. When the words "life" and "months" are thrown around, you tend to move into high gear. This started the ball rolling. The girls and I had to make a decision. Bryan is beyond busy at work and wasn't going to be able to travel to Iowa with us, and I needed to go ASAP... having one baby in Iowa was crazy enough... I'd like this one to be born here in Virginia. My brother was able to get some time off of work, so he was going to be traveling with us. Plans were set in stone, and then it was time to get ready. Moral of the story... Iowa is TOO FAR AWAY.

Tuesday went off without anything too crazy going on. The usual shenanigans.

Wednesday was a different story. Not only did Emma Grace manage to bust open Reese's lip resulting in a mouth FULL OF BLOOD... and that is no exaggeration, but just a mere 5 minutes later, I managed to light the kitchen on fire. Turning on the wrong burner while trying to make lunch. :( People there were FLAMES... BIG ORANGE CRACKLING FLAMES. I immediately poured baking soda on it, and the downstairs promptly filled with stinky smoke. It was less than entertaining. Moral of the story... the only thing that belongs on stove tops... pots and pans.Thursday... both girls develop coughs and runny noses.

Friday... temperatures rear their ugly heads, and Reese stays home from preschool.

Saturday... I drive the 14+ hours it took us to get to Iowa. Girls cough their ways across half of the United States. Random potty break... Emma Grace mentions her ear is hurting her... AWESOME. Doses of Tylenol/Motrin are handed out like Mardi Gras beads. The upside... the snowsuits are packed and hopefully sometime while we're visiting the girls will FINALLY see some snow. We arrive to Iowa... virtually NO SNOW. Moral of the story... SERIOUSLY?!

Sunday... Bryan wakes up to 7+ inches of snow in Virginia. Mother Nature... you my friend are a bitch. The girls can not manage to say 2 words without hacking. Temps are still in full force. No visiting Gma Betty for fear of killing 12 innocent elderly folks on the way up and down the halls. Moral of the story... AGAIN... SERIOUSLY?!Monday... slight temps, coughs, runny noses... MUST VISIT GMA... after all... we drove all this way. We did wake up to a little bit of snow... resulting in the girls "playing" for 1.5 minutes. 3 hours into our visit with Gma, EG spikes a temp of 102. I call the Urgent Care. They get us in and out of there within 30 minutes... no lie. Turns out the doctor that delivered EG nearly 3 years ago works out of this office... I'm already in the system. Score. We leave the office with 2 little girls, 3 ear infections, and 2 bottles of Amoxicillan. I can already breath a sigh of relief and anticipate possibly sleeping that night (I didn't). For the record... we were able to make it 4.5 years WITHOUT a single ear infection! Moral of the story... IT COULD HAVE BEEN WORSE.
Tuesday... thank you Amoxicillan... we are fever free. More visiting.Wednesday... begin packing for trip back home to Virginia Thursday morning. More meds, more visiting. We're under the impression Wednesday morning that we'll wake up to 1-3 inches of fresh snow Thursday. We help send Grandma Nita off to on her Hawaiian vacation... thank you for the hospitality while we were there! By dinner time this number fluctuates to 8+ inches. Not cool... not cool at all. 7 pm... we pack the car and haul ass to Champaign, IL. 4 hours away. By 11:30 pm, we have set up camp for the night. Crying, coughing, leaking, meds... Oh Virginia... I can't wait. Moral of the story... I'm getting way to good at "going with the flow", and I don't like it.
Thursday... we're awake, we're fed, we're on the road. 10 hours later... we're home. We're tired. I'm in bed asleep by 9.

Up side to all of this... I managed to make it to and from Iowa still pregnant. And for the MOST PART... the girls were well behaved especially for being as sick as they were. Now back to life.