OK now back to where I left off.
Monday, I still needed to make an apron for trek. My deadline was to have it done by Tuesday evening at 6:00, when my sisters needed to take their stuff to have it checked to make sure they had everything they needed and weren't taking anything they shouldn't. I wanted to get it out of the way so I wouldn't need to worry about it anymore. So I spent the morning sewing, and thankfully was able to get it done that day. Monday is also my mothers laundry day, and laundry is one of those things that is hard for her to do with a broken foot. So I mixed my laundry with hers and took care of it that day too. My sisters were thankfully being a big help playing with Cinderella, and Guy too when he would let them. Guy wanted to be with mom, most of the time that he was awake. Because he is as young as he is, and because we haven't been to Grandma's house much in his lifetime, it isn't a familiar place for him. So he wanted mom.
The kids were very excited to be able to play outside. The only problem was the heat. It was hot enough that no one wanted to be out there with them for very long, and it wasn't good for them to be out in it very long.
On Tuesday, my older sister, who is married and has a 9 month old son, came over and we sorted through baby clothes. My parents neighbor had previously had a garage sale, and had a lot of boy clothing that didn't sale. She didn't want to put it back in her house, so knowing that my mother had at least one grandson (my mom watches my sisters son, while she works teaching school) she offered it to her, and said she would dispose of anything that wasn't wanted. So we pulled the boxes of baby clothes into the living room, and started sorting. It was kind of an overwhelming task. Because Guy is older than his cousin, anything that was larger than 12 months size was handed over to me. I then had to sort through all of the larger stuff to see what was worth keeping, that I thought Guy could wear. When I was done I had 3 boxes for boy clothes. One of which was clear full of 18 month size, so I mailed that one home and am storing the rest in my parents basement.
Tuesday was the last day before Trek, so my father was spending all of his free time getting ready for the trek. This meant the responsibility of preparing dinner was resting on my shoulders. This was a large task, because I'm not used to cooking for that many people. On that day there was my grandmother, my parents, two of my brothers, four sisters and my two kids and me. That's 12 people. I'm used to cooking for my 4. Thankfully my mother helped chop vegetables, because that is something she could do sitting down. And my father grilled the chicken for me. I am very grateful for their help. At my parents house the way they do things, is who ever cooks dinner, cleans up dinner. This works well, because they all take different turns cooking dinner, so no one person is constantly stuck with these tasks. And it encourages you to clean up as you go.
Unfortunately, that meant that I cleaned up after all 12 people for dinner that night. Everyone took care of their own places, but everything else was left to me. I'm sure it wasn't that big of a task comparatively speaking. But I struggled, because at home once again there aren't as many people, and most of the time my husband is right by my side helping clean up, or even takes over the clean up responsibility for me.
However on the up side, Guy finally loosened up at dinner that night and started acting like his normal self. The high chair in the corner, became the noisy chair. He couldn't say enough.
If you can't tell from my recollection I think about this time I started having a really negative attitude. Which really reflected on the way I saw things. And because this was my attitude, things continued to get worse.
When my sister had come over on Tuesday, she had mentioned that the Smiths just down the road had some of those hard plastic wading pools for a pretty good price. I mentioned that I would buy one that could be kept at Grandma's house, because I thought it would be worth it.
Well I didn't go on Tuesday, but I decided Wednesday morning to go and get one. My parents have a Chevy Suburban, and a Chevy Impala. My Grandmother, who lives with my parents also has a Chevy Impala, that is kept at my parents house, and can be used by those who live there. My mother had lost her keys to their Impala, which happened to be parked behind the Suburban. And my sister, the one who was sick, was still not feeling good and taking a nap, and she was the only one it the house with keys to that car. So I took my Grandmother's car instead of the suburban. Well I drove over to Smith's and was told they had sold them all earlier in the season, but I could try the Smith's Market Place (Smith's is a grocery store, and the Market place is kind of like a Super Walmart. Grocery's and other stuff.) Well I was also wanting to get some bananas and I couldn't find them at Smith's, so I decided to try the Market Place. Nope no luck there.
By this time, I was afraid to go home without a pool, but not so sure I was going to be able to find one. However there was a Shopko, Albertsons, and Kmart just up the road, so I decided to try them. After checking Shopko and Albertsons and having no luck, I went to Kmart. I had no sooner pulled into the parking lot, than I saw 2 big piles of plastic swimming pools. Yes! They had two different sizes, so I went inside to customer service, to see about getting one. The lady there was really helpful, and rang me up for the smaller one. Then I had second thoughts and decided I should maybe get the bigger one. So she changed my purpose for me, and told me I could just go get one. If I needed any help I could come back in and she would get someone to help me. I went to get one, and the pile was being weighted down by a big bag of rocks. I pulled the bag out, and went down a few pools to find one that didn't have any holes or anything wrong with it. Pulled it out, and put the others back. Then I carried it to the car. It was at the car I realized I had made a mistake. There was no way that pool was going to fit anywhere in that car. It was wider than the car. So I had to go and put it back on the pile, and go back in the store, and once again exchange it for the other size. Thankfully she was really understanding, and the smaller pool fit just fine in the back seat.
I took the pool home, and we filled it up. Then we had lunch. I made the kids have naps and quiet time before they could go swimming, so that the water would have a chance to warm up.
As soon as quiet time was over, Cinderella was begging to get in the water. So we got them suited up and all headed out to the pool. My sister was over that afternoon as well, so the cousins got some fun play time in the pool.
Cinderella loved it. Guy had his moments. And their cousin had a relaxed approach about the whole thing. Cinderella was definitely excited when we brought out some bath tub toys for them to play with. The baby's got tired of the water quite a while before Cinderella did.
I think I had to call her in for snack time, to finally get her out of the water.
Wednesday was a nice break, and I'm glad we got that break, because Thursday things got crazy again.
Wednesday night/Thursday morning, my grandma got sick with the stomach flu. Grandma is getting old, and had developed Alzheimer’s. And unfortunately she can't make it to the bathroom as quickly as she used to be able to. Thursday morning, my sister who had been sick was scheduled to go to the hospital for some more testing to see if they could figure out what was wrong. So my married sister came over to my parents house to help my youngest sister watch my kids, and take care of Grandma, while my mom and I took my other sister to the hospital for her tests.
We spent quite a few hours at the hospital. It was nice to get a break from the kids, but I really missed them too. I am not away from the kids for that long a period of time very often. And I was seeing some other small children in the waiting room, which made me think of my parents.
After we got back to my mom's house, I learned that Guy had been having the runs and was possibly sick too. I was really hoping that he wasn't getting sick, but I was about to be disappointed.
At night Guy was sleeping in the same room as my college bound sister. I made sure to tell her to come and get me if he got sick. And sure enough, I was awakened by her holding my poor little boy, covered in vomit. That was so hard for me.
My sister was a big help, but it was at this time that I was really missing my husband. I had to step into gear and get him cleaned up, and then clean up the bedding. Right after I got him cleaned up, he got sick again. Thankfully we were close enough to the sink that it didn't make a mess. Guy is one of those kids that has a really hard time sleeping if someone is holding him. I knew he needed to go back to sleep, and get some rest, but at the same time I was afraid if I put him back to bed he would be sick again. After about an hour or so I finally got him back to bed, and spent the rest of the night sleeping on my sisters bed, and she slept in my mom's bed with her because my dad was gone.
On Thursday, the youngest of my brothers had left to go to the Singles Camp Out, and on Friday my eldest brother was going to go right after work. He told me later, that he almost didn't want to go, and leave me with a sick kid, and grandma sick, and mom with her foot broken, and my other sister still sick. But he went anyway. And Friday was a hard day, but thankfully the flu bug they had was one that only lasted about 24 hours. Friday morning, one of my dad's sisters came and picked up Grandma for a visit. So I didn't need to worry about her any more, and late Friday night, my husband flew in. I was so excited to see him. I had really missed him during this time.
Saturday, there was a family reunion, on my mom's side of the family. This is a reunion that has been going on for more than my life time. It is a reunion of all of my grandpa's, grandparents descendants. They always have it on the first Saturday in August. I was excited that we were going to be able to go this year. I haven't been to one of those since I got married, because I haven't lived in the area. My mom wasn't up to going with her broken foot, and she needed to go to the church to welcome those from trek back. So my married sister took her to the church, and we borrowed a car and followed my Aunt to the reunion. It was great to get to see some people I don't get to see very often, and to hear some more about my families history. Unfortunately my grandfather said they are afraid once his generation is gone or too old to make it happen the reunions will die out. They are hopping they can get some of the younger generations interested enough in their family history, to continue to hold the reunions.
Sunday, Cinderella got sick. She finally caught the bug. I started praying that she would get over it quickly, because I didn't want her to remember the time at Grandma's was when she got sick, and couldn't do anything fun. That and a trip to the zoo was planned for Monday, and I really didn't want her to miss out on that.
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