Just as quickly as the leaves are going to be changing, our lives haven't stopped changing yet.
Back in June, I wrote about the craziness of our move and jobs and life in general. When I wrote that post, I expected that to be the finale. Boy was I wrong.
Remember that husband of mine who is a hustler and go-getter and won't stop at anything? Well, he accepted a position in August back with Wellcare (remember that company that moved us to Iowa? Yah, them) and started working with the same manager that he has the utmost respect for. The catch? The position is located in Omaha, Nebraska.
So, early on Monday mornings Ethan wakes up and helps to get the kids downstairs. Then, he leaves. For 5 whole days. We knew going into this that he would be gone a lot and we accepted that. I knew I could manage and take care of the kids without problems (hell, we did this same thing back when the twins were MORE dependent on me and LESS mobile and we survived!)
But let me tell you about the 2 weeks from hell. Straight hell.
It was a Friday and I had called Ethan on my way to pick up the kids from daycare. He had just finished his first week on the job and I was curious what time he would get on the road home. Then he dropped a BOMB on me. The manager that he adores and respects had decided to take a position with another company. Another company back in Des Moines that just happened to be the same company he had JUST LEFT. He was so calm telling me this, a true sign that his respect for the work, relationship and situation was more important than any hurt feelings at this time. I have to give him a lot of credit for calming me down and helping me understand. Without that, I'm sure he would have rather stayed in Omaha for the weekend...
Fast forward to the following Thursday. It's 3pm and my manager comes over to my team and tells us to follow her to a meeting room. We knew. We all knew. This is not one of those "let's have a team meeting" or "let's talk about process flow" meetings. This, sure enough, was a "your department is being dissolved due to an error in our contracting with the state" meeting. Fortunately, we all were told that they had secured other jobs in other departments for us and that we would be transitioning over soon.
So, I have Ethan's news lingering for a week. Now my work news and less than ideal situation.
Let's throw on top of that a call at 4pm from Daycare that same day saying that Landon is complaining of his belly hurting. I quickly told them that he probably has to go to the bathroom and that I'll be there as soon as I can. I walk into their room at daycare and he's in the bathroom. He threw up 5 min before I got there...
Awesome.
Thinking it was only food poisoning or a bad batch of peaches, we asked Ethan's sister and our niece over to play on Saturday. About 10:30am Harper came over, sat on my lap, mentioned she wasn't feeling good and proceeded to barf on me. I thank God there were people there to help. Otherwise, I might have just joined in on the "fun".
For the next 4 days, Harper ran a fever and didn't eat much. Finally on Thursday, (this is the end of the 2 week hell...I swear) I took her to the doctor with Landon in tow. They wanted to do a urinalysis to make sure she wasn't battling a UTI or Kidney Stones. I kid you not, I tried for 2 hours in the doctor's office to get Harper to go to the bathroom. A 5x5 room with a toilet, automatic hand towels and a low enough sink for Landon to reach the faucet became my war room. Between convincing Harper to JUST GO ALREADY and scolding Landon to get out of this and stop touching that, I about lost it. I think at one point, Harper was starting to fake cry and I almost blurted out "SHUT THE F*%# UP!" I can only imagine what the nurses were thinking as they walked by...at one point we had 6 balloons blown up, PJ Masks playing on my phone and one bag of Belvita Bites split between them.
We left the doctors office unsuccessful and with a goodie bag of potty items to try at home. I got a text 30 minutes after I dropped them off at daycare that she had just gone potty....useless as I forgot to give them the goodie bag...
That night I was determined to get this done. My mom suggested cleaning out her little potty really well with hot water, drying it and just having her go in there. So I did just that.
As she was sitting on the little potty before bed, I heard that sound. That "I think I'm gonna poop" grunt from her. And then, I swear to you, she took the most massive dump in that very clean little potty. For the remarkable ending that I could not come up with on my own even if I tried, she turned to me and said "Mom, aren't you so proud of me for going poo poo on the potty?!"
I am. I was. I swear.
I also wanted to cry and give up and throw something. My emotions were running so high. Work, more work, sick kids, stubborn kids, and now THIS?! Parenting is HARD. Keeping it together so your 2 year olds don't feel your stress and anxiety is HARD. Getting Harper to pee on the potty so the doctor can figure out what is wrong....IMPOSSIBLE.
If you are wondering, it finally happened. We got the results that nothing was wrong with her (something every mom hopes to hear but also wishes that there WAS something to explain the fever and sickness). We haven't had any more episodes of unexpected work situations or sick kids in about 2 weeks.
Maybe THIS is our turning point...but I know better...
