Toe Truck

Final smiles at the lake as we
said good-bye to summer.
And the cabin.

This blog is a place of honesty - yes? Good. If I'm being  honest, life went off the rails this week. We had a nice long holiday weekend up north where we inhaled the final breaths of summer and we launched all the children into a new school year - including an official final kindergartner. There's big stuff happening! It sounds under control. But what life actually looks like right now is Mike and me watching the Twins game with margaritas, me elevating my toe, and the girls wearing headphones in their bed to block out the rather intense snores of their brother. How'd we get here, you ask? I'll tell you.

Tuesday morning dawned with us scurrying about to get loaded up and on the road by 10 - because we had to make it back to the cities for a 2pm doctor appointment for the bookends. Dec did not sleep well the night before and we could tell he wasn't himself that morning. Just as we were about to buckle into the car, I didn't like his face and we high-tailed it toward the bathroom. We didn't make it - and he threw up in Gma's laundry room (luckily a tile floor). Gpa handed Dec an empty minnow bucket for the car ride and I said a prayer (or twelve). [Is that not the most up north move ever?!?!]

Actual first day of school
Sadly, missing the newest
school kid

The good news: Dec did not throw up in the car AND ate most of a cheeseburger for lunch. We also made it to the eye doctor with 10 minutes to spare (and everyone got a good report). The bad news: Yogi pooped in the car on the way (which ate into our lovely 35 minute arrival margin) and this was the beginning of a three-day fever battle for Declan.

Wednesday morning, Dec woke up, made good use of his minnow bucket, and continued to sport a fever. We managed to get it down enough that we could go to their Meet the Teacher meetings. When we got home, Gpa V was there to hang with the troops for the afternoon. Dec's fever spiked again mid-afternoon, so I took him in once I got home from work. She was sure it was strep - but the test came back negative. However, he did have an ear infection, so we came home with a prescription for pink medicine nonetheless.

In-between teacher meetings and doctor appointments, while I was getting lunch for the kids, I was not watching where I was walking and rammed my foot into the garbage can. Hard. Mike's pretty sure I broke my pinky toe on my right foot. I'm not positive it is broken. I am positive that it is very bruised and hurts. A lot.

I was texting with my sister about our woes and she responded with "Jesus take the wheel." I told her that we were too far gone. Jesus needed to send a tow truck. Declan woke up Thursday morning with sobs and a fever. While a sad decision, it was a fairly obvious one that he was going to have to miss his first day of kindergarten.

But you know what - Jesus sent a tow truck. Its name was Grandpa, who decided to stay the night on Wednesday even though he had planned to just come for the day - in case we needed someone to watch D on Thursday. And Jesus also sent forklift, in the form of a teenage boy who loves Declan, discovered he missed his first day of kinder, and stopped over that afternoon with a bag full of goodies to cheer a sad boy up.

We may be off the rails - but our support crew is top shelf!