this weekend was a whirlwind, it took me until today to recover i think! friday morning started off cleaning puke up off of every surface within a 5 mile radius of my eldest. luckily the day, and the weekend improved from there. it was one of those random incidents where apparently f. felt much better afterwards and was fine the rest of the weekend. it was not really a treat dragging all three of them all over god's creation to find a triple frame that i wanted to give as a gift this weekend. i know i have more than the recommended 2.5 kids, but come on people, doesnt anyone have three pictures they would like to display at once?!?! i finally bought the last existing triple frame in the free world at a local craft store. done.
saturday we loaded the car and headed to connecticut. we packed lunch and didnt stop once the whole way there! the boys were absolutely fantastic! i still cant believe how great they were. no one got car sick, which was a big bonus for a car trip in our family. when we arrived we realized that the "all suites" hotel we had booked clearly has a very liberal interpretation of the word "suite". basically they deemed it to mean one big room, where you can not possibly place two pack n plays out of sight of the rest of the people in the room. so we settled in anyway and let the boys run a muck. we were supposed to meet SIL for dinner, but as is typical she never showed. after dinner and a little shopping we returned to the hotel to call it a night.
it was an interesting night. but once they did fall asleep, they stayed asleep, so for that i was thankful. i am sure the people in the rooms on either side, above and below us were thankful for that too!
saturday we got up and learned that the road in front of the hotel would be closed from 9am til noon for a cancer/walk/run/bike for hope event. luckily there was a fantastic park in walking distance. so we let the boys run and play for about an hour and a half; then headed back to attempt naps in our "suite". k. who was exhausted and feel asleep almost immediately, m. was another story. after naps we packed up and headed to j.'s grandfathers third wife's 90th birthday (did you follow that?).
she is a sprightly lady and i guess when you get to be her age you throw your own parties. it was fancy and not really kid friendly, even though she sent us a personal note on her formal invitation requesting that we come and bring the boys. again, the kids were a treat. they even tried caviar - there were not many options for the shorter set. considering the two little ones were basically attached to our hips the entire time, it felt like we were there for EVER. we had already mentioned that we would have to leave early to make the long trek back, and the birthday girl was totally fine with that. she was clearly pleased that we had even made the trip and brought the boys. nonetheless, as we try to gracefully make our exit, SIL feels the need to tell us (and anyone in a 5 mile radius) "you know, there is going to be cake!" really, who knew cake at a birthday party?!?! you gotta love the competition at this age to be better, more accommodating, all-knowing, just generally omnipotent at the ripe old age of 40. come on sister - grow the F up! yes, we know there is going to be cake, and we are still leaving. upon hearing this the honoree then feels the need to offer us a piece to take with us, even though it hadn't been cut yet. which was really sweet and totally unnecessary. of course we declined.
we got everyone back in the car and headed home - this time we stopped about eight hundred and fifty times. i think f. is going to have a career as a sanitation inspector when he grows up. he certainly checked out enough bathrooms on the way home. but we didnt even mind, because while in the car, everyone was so content. it was a great weekend and i am glad we made the effort.
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on a totally different note. we found out today that j.'s mom has stage 3 ovarian cancer. she had pretty major surgery today where they removed multiple tumors and performed a complete hysterectomy. her body was so riddled with tumors, that they told her they removed her appendix because it had tumors on it. turns out, she has long been without her appendix and what they removed was actually another sizable tumor. unfortunately the news might get worse on thursday when they remove some fluid that is building up in her lungs. if indeed that is cancerous as well, she will be downgraded to stage 4.
its no secret that i have struggled to find the redeeming values in my relationship with MIL. but obviously i dont wish this on anyone. at the end of the day, i have my best friend in the world, because of her. i am trying to be a good daughter in-law, wife, etc. its going to be a difficult summer i predict. chemo will start as soon as they feel she has had time to recover from todays surgery. if you have any experience with this, please take this opportunity to delurk and share what you can in the comments today.
2 comments:
Well I have been through lung cancer with both my grandparents in the not so distant past. It's a hard road. Call me to chat. I'm sending you hugs!
I meant to em you yesterday to hear about the weekend and the pending surgery...time got away. Glad to see that the weekend was a success; you all are troopers for making the trip.
Sad to hear that MIL is a bit worse than you originally anticipated. It will be a tough recovery for her. I too have had some experience with lung cancer; but not to the extent that it sounds like she has it since it's riddled her body already. I just hope for everyone's sake that if it is stage 4, that it doesn't drag out too long. That's the hardest on her of course and nobody deserves that.
Please give J our best and let him know that we're thinking and praying for all of them. Will call you soon. If there is anything I can do to help with the kids in the coming weeks if you guys need to travel to PA, don't hesitate to call. The boys would have a ball together!
xo,
K.
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