A Little Bit of This...

It's been awhile since I did an actual update on life itself, so I guess it's about time....

A little over two weeks ago we received a depressing phone call from Chad's mom - his Grandma was being transferred to hospice care.  Although my OB had given me strict 'no travel' orders I started calling and begging his nurse to let me go.  After all, it's not like I was going to Disney World.  I managed to sweet talk them into letting me go back to Illinois, promising that I had care lined up in the event of emergency.  They faxed my recent office notes to my mom and I started packing.  (Side note - a friend of mine from WAY back when is an OB in Illinois and had agreed to see me if anything happened.  Thank you, Alison!). 

That same afternoon, our buddy Joe came to put the lockbox on the door and place the For Sale sign in the yard.  It was bittersweet, and I bawled hysterically.  Our house went live on the mls around 7pm, and it was so strange seeing our home online.  We kept wondering what people were thinking when they looked at it, and could only hope that somebody would love this house as much as we have.

The next morning was cleaning day, and around 10am, while Karen was cleaning, we received a request for our first showing two hours later.  Yikes!  Karen hurried along, and Chad hurried home to help me wrangle the brood and get out of here in time.  The showing lasted the entire hour (yes, we drove by because we are nosy) and we had great feedback.  Unfortunately, the wife was dead set on a formal dining room.  Sigh...

Saturday morning we hit the road, after dropping by to look at our lot, which had the forms for the foundation.  We actually had a really good drive, and amazingly enough I avoided getting car sick.  (This was a big concern, as my morning sickness was still pretty awful). We were upgraded to a one-bedroom suite at our hotel in Little Rock (downside: we had a queen bed), and enjoyed a delicious dinner of cheese fries and rattlesnake bites from Texas Roadhouse before heading to bed.  We made decent time the next day, despite some rain and depressing phone calls.

We had just crossed into Illinois when my phone rang and there was a strange Texas number on my caller id.  It was my Nana Jan (great great aunt, I think), who was calling to get Mom's phone number.  She told me she was being moved to hospice care in a day or two.  When it rains, it pours.  We continued on and just as we got to Knight's Action Park, Chad got a text message from his dad saying he didn't think Teapot would make it through the night.  Once we got to my parents, Chad changed clothes and headed to the facility to visit Teapot.

Teapot made it through the night, and Chad spent a lot of time with her, as horribly depressing as it was.  Monday brought Willie's vet appointment (for his allergies), and Tuesday brought a pedicure and dinner with friends.  On Wednesday, Chad's parents went to Chicago for the impending birth of Bennett, so Chad spent a lot of time with his grandma.  After dinner that night, I went with him to visit her.  It broke my heart.  We were just waiting for her time to come, but it dragged on which made it even more difficult.  Thursday things were looking even more bleak, and Chad spent a great deal of time there, waiting...

His cell phone rang around 3am on Friday morning (Teapot's birthday) with news that she had passed away.  As sad as it was, it was also a blessing. She was no longer suffering.  Chad went with his mom to the funeral home to help finalize arrangements, and we made arrangements to stay until Tuesday morning. (This meant calling Chad's boss & rescheduling my OB appointment). 

Thankfully, I was able to get my hair done Friday afternoon, where I took a huge leap - I went natural.  I've been discussing this for quite some time, but my hairdresser always says I won't be happy.  I guess he decided it was time.  This could have been a deadly mistake - changing the color of a pregnant woman's hair!  It was a shock at first, but it definitely grew on me. He took an inch off and then trimmed Charleigh's bangs so that she didn't look like a ragamuffin.  Meanwhile, Cappy was in Rochester getting his haircut, too.  We spent the evening with the Sturdy's which is always enjoyable - you never know what you're going to do.  They had purchased a very sweet gift for Charleigh - an Illinois sock monkey and an Illini book.  She is slightly obsessed with both gifts. :)

We didn't have anything special planned for the fourth, as we were planning on heading back home.  Since Chad's family was in town for the funeral, we went to his parents for a cook-out.  Charleigh was pretty cranky, so we headed home early.  Unfortunately, that's where the fun ended.  We will leave it at that...

Sunday I was desperately trying to find a decent dress for the funeral, and I hit the jackpot at Target.  I also got some black sandals (a whole size too big) since Birkenstocks would be frowned upon.  The visitation was from 430-7, and we brought Charleigh with us.  She had a lot of fun playing with Russell & Zack (cousin Kelly's boys), and was quite the hit with guests.  My parents arrived and traded vehicles so they could get her fed and put in bed.  

A dear friend of mine from my UIS days actually works at the funeral home and made us a lovely commemorative bookmark and laminated Teapot's obituary.  It was a very thoughtful, cherished gift.  Teapot looked beautiful (though her lipstick was all wrong), and I think we all were waiting for her to sit up and start talking to us. After the visitation was over, we stopped by Papa Franks for a bit before going back home.  (Had to take advantage of the free babysitting)

Monday morning were the funeral services and burial.  It was a lovely ceremony, but I wasn't mentally there - we found out via the newspaper that morning that my Nana Jan had passed.  Everything was scheduled for Thursday, and we couldn't really take more time off so I would have to miss it.  I felt so guilty that all I could think about during the services was my Nana.  After the burial, we headed to my parents to change clothes and pick up Charleigh June before heading to Chad's parents for the luncheon.  Our time in Illinois was (thankfully) coming to an end.

Tuesday morning we packed up the King Ranch and hit the road.  For the first time, I didn't cry about leaving family.  Between traffic, construction,detours and torrential downpours we didn't make very good timing.  About an hour north of Memphis, I made chad pull over because my back was hurting horribly.  I got up and stretched, but had difficulty getting comfortable the remainder of the day.  (This is when I advise pregnant women to avoid long, unnecessary road trips in the 2nd trimester.  Granted, twin pregnancies are a bit different than singletons). After we checked in chad made the standard Texas Roadhouse run for dinner.  Charleigh was fighting sleep, and she'd had a rough day in her car seat. (That's what happens when your kid gets insane amounts of attention!  Cappy had also had a rough day, complete with gagging, but everything seemed to be alright.

Wednesday things were going swimmingly until we hit Texarkana.  Chad swore he smelled poop.  I, however, did not.  He stopped at a gas station to check Charleigh who was clean. That meant the next check would be the cats in the back.  Yep, the culprit was a cat.  Our favorite cat, at that.  William had not only shit in his crate - it was diarrhea.  Ugh.  I pinned Willie down in the gas station parking lot, trying not to barf on him, while chad cleaned the crate and attempted to clean Willie.  Yuck!  Cappy managed to sneak out the back hatch, and I was freaking out had escape.  The sweet guy just stood right next to me.  After all was cleaned up, we hit the road again, thankful for the vented windows in the back of the King Ranch. We made it home in good time and promptly bathed Willie. 

 We'd had 8 showings while we were gone, including a repeat showing.  Realtors had left lights on and our kitchen lights burned out.  They'd also neglected to lock the back door and allowed their clients kids to go through Charleigh's toy box and play with her toys.  This did not make me happy.  Little germ factories getting their germs all over Charleigh's toys.  Whatever happened to common courtesy?  If it's not your property you leave it alone!

It felt so good to be back home after a long ten days.  We've named it "7 days in hell" and "2deaths and a divorce"

Edited to add:  although it was great being with family, all the stress of death really wore us down.  It's so hard sitting there, waiting for somebody you care about to pass.  Between that and my hormones, it was a recipe for disaster.

Next blog will be about my OB appointment and my embarrassing admission.