I can't say I slept great on the couch for my first night back, but it was good enough...for the day I ended up having, but not for the one I should have had.
Did I mention that my work had thrown a monkey wrench in my work plans for Thursday? Originally I was going to come back, work a casual Thursday from home (as usual) to catch up, and then take Friday off for Carter's last day of school and our departure for Pittsburgh. But the week before, they postponed our annual all-staff retreat one week because the previous date ended up being the day they announced the largest gift in University history, $50 million from Tom Golisano. It was annoying but it turned out I needed that day to finish up some data before vacation, so I guess it worked out. But it meant that on my one day back I had to be up early and be functional enough to sit through speakers for six hours and possibly brainstorm with my table mates, which honestly didn't seem likely. Working from home would have been at my own pace, but this definitely would not have been. I warned my bosses I didn't have high confidence in that day going well because of my late arrival (which they understood--it's not like I planned it this way), and sure enough, when I woke up I felt pretty cruddy. I was tired, of course, but I also felt mildly hungover and my stomach was off. I think it was a dehydration thing. You know how they say you can cut jet lag by staying hydrated? I think I had that problem without the time change. Just too sweaty of a prior day to make that happen, I guess. I was very slow getting going, and the last thing I wanted to do was be at the mercy of long speakers and sharing a bathroom with 200 other people in the event my stomach didn't regulate itself politely. So I took a sick day, checked my email, and called it a work day.
My parents helped me get Carter off to school and then left themselves, probably thrilled to get back home. I got started on laundry, namely changing the sheets again and washing all of my clothes and Jacob's clothes, in hopes anything we needed for Pittsburgh might be ready by the next day. The only thing we really did during the day was go to Jacob's afternoon workout, during which I ran to Aldi (mostly to buy a cheap clear bag for Red Wings games) and to Wegmans to replenish some of our food. We came home to Carter after his last full day of school, grabbed Outback to go for Jacob's birthday dinner, and swam in the very comfortable pool. He did get one gift in the mail that day, but otherwise it wasn't much of a birthday for him. But we were going to Pittsburgh and could celebrate and gift-give there. My goal is still to do a joint party for both boys (since Carter never really got one) this summer. At least a baseball cake will work for both.
Craig ran into some weather on his way back. His flight was delayed slightly and then it seemed to take extra long to come in to work around the storm. I think he was actually lucky because other flights were completely diverted or delayed more fully. Most important was that he was thankfully able to get in safely despite the storms. It took him longer than planned to get back on the road, but he made it home late that night. Not exactly how he wanted it since I think the birthday boy was in bed before he got home, but he tried. He started laundry as soon as he got home that night so he was up a bit late. His last day at the resort included a (lame) foam party at the pool and the big gala, which I guess was nice.
Friday morning we had to get Carter up and off to school, and from there I took Jacob to his follow-up at the pediatrician. Of course we had to get the last day picture.
I forgot that I hadn't shared Jacob's yet in the rush of us leaving. I forgot to take it on his actual last day so I took it the next day on his last exam day, except that I didn't get to do it in the morning so this was after. I'm slipping, folks.
Off we went to Jacob's doctor's appointment. While we were gone he had been taking his reflux meds and had mostly felt better, but he was still having a little chest discomfort. He'd played a couple baseball games and even got a triple, so all things considered he was doing well. But apparently he's stuck in his own head now, because when we got to the doctor his blood pressure was even higher than it had been previously, despite getting a reasonable reading at his ER visit (for testing) before we left. The doctor wasn't too concerned but suggested maybe he should just check in with a cardiologist. Of course, that appointment isn't for two months, which isn't helpful. I'm honestly just hoping he was still funky from whatever virus he had before we left and that everything will go away in time. We'll see.
Meanwhile, we came back home with him reeling a bit again, but Craig and I immediately left for Carter's moving up ceremony. Due to the heat it was being held inside the gym. He was happy to see us when he walked in.
We eagerly waited through some singing and award presentations to see what award he'd be receiving. We'd gotten a letter letting us know he was getting something, which was better than Jacob who got nothing (still seems odd because his grades were pretty good), but we didn't know if it was something pretty standard or something better. I was surprised when he didn't get announced with the President's Education Award winners since I knew his academics were at least as good as the kids that were announced, at least based on the things he tells us. But then they announced the School Board award, which was the one he really wanted. And he WON! He was one of only seven kids and the only boy! I was so proud of him. If you zoom in you can see the giant smile on his face here.
I was a little bummed he didn't win a citizenship award too, but his buddy Ben did, which was nice. They all got announced to walk across and shake hands with the teachers, and then they sang a rousing rendition of "Hall of Fame", which I think Jacob's class sang too. And with that, we were done. We took a picture of his very cool award...
then we signed him out with his teacher, thanked her for everything, and grabbed his stuff from his classroom. We got a quick picture with Ben on the way out, too, which I texted to his mom later. She admitted they're already nervous for middle school, but we agreed we're happy they're able to do it together.
And with that, we walked out of school for the last time.
Back at home we looked through all of his certificates that were in with his super amazing report card, and sure enough, he DID get a President's Award, at the "outstanding" level no less. Not sure why he didn't get announced, but I'll take it!
As you can see in the pic above, his face was still pretty swelled up on the one side. He'd been using creams on his mouth wound all week, and started taking antibiotics on Wednesday night because the swab came back with a couple bacteria. They didn't taste bad but the texture was apparently awful. He had to take two full medicine spoons full twice a day and had to fight off gagging every time. Poor kid. Because it was still swelled, I looked in his mouth again and I swore it looked even more torn up than it had when we did the emergency dentist run before the trip. I was concerned again since we were leaving for Pittsburgh for the weekend, that with creams (which did seem to help the wound heal) and now antibiotics, why did the inside look worse? We called the dentist and they said to bring him right over, so Craig took him while I finished packing up for Pittsburgh. They confirmed it might be a little worse, but felt that the antibiotics would be enough for now and they'd be willing to swab the inside themselves when we got back since the doctor didn't do that originally. It was a little peace of mind, at least, but another pre-trip fire drill felt like déjà vu to the prior week.
- Overall I think my parents and the kids weathered their time together pretty well. I think my parents were definitely relieved to be done as they take a lot of energy. I think they gained a new appreciation for what we go through on a regular basis. But the boys seemed to behave well and seemed to appreciate the time with their grandparents. I think the food thing was a bit hectic, especially since Jacob was refusing red sauce, which thwarted my mom's plan for lasagna, because they ate out a lot and my dad complained about the cost. I was a little annoyed because it seemed like my mom was making it her mission to "fix" my kids--primarily Jacob--by teaching him to do laundry (never mind I didn't learn until college) and pushing him to put his dishes in the sink and clean up his mess. I understand and appreciate the efforts (but I knew it wouldn't stick when they left no matter how much I insisted), and I generally preferred they just enjoy the time together and make a few memories, rather than make it into a nag fest. He didn't seem too annoyed so I guess it comes across differently from someone else. But I think their schedules were plenty to keep them busy. Oh, and as a Father's Day gift to Craig, they took back ALL of the bags of bottles and cans in our garage, which were long overdue. It felt a little like a shot to our housekeeping, but whatever...it's done. I guess I should feel lucky they didn't complain about much else and kept my plants alive. Everything was a little crazy when we left, so the house definitely wasn't where I wanted it to be. If there was some judgment, they kept it to themselves.
- Speaking of activities, all of Carter's games ended up getting canceled due to the heat, which meant they got rescheduled for a doubleheader Saturday when we'd be gone. Boo. However, they did schedule a Monday playoff game at the 11th hour (literally 9:30pm the night before). Unfortunately they did it stupidly--they put us against the other first place team, the one with the ace pitcher, rather than a lower-seeded team like most playoffs. The other four teams would play Monday as well, and the winners of those two would play each other Wednesday to play the winner of our game Saturday. Sadly, their pitcher got us (as expected) and we lost. The whole setup was pretty crappy--last minute and badly set up. The championship was definitely rained out, so who knows what happened in the end...although the Brewers will probably win no matter what.
- They made it through the Red Wings game and Carter did manage to walk with the Little League and do the anthem with school, which was good to hear. I never did get pictures or video....hmmm. I think it was chaotic, but it sounded like they had a great time, and even stayed for the fireworks. Kudos to my parents for hanging in there. Add in that Jacob had a game at noon that day, and that was a VERY long day. For Jacob's second game a couple days later, they got rained on pretty good. Ugh.
- I really do appreciate the time away we had as a couple. I can't say it was miraculous or changed anything or fixed any nagging problems, but it was really nice and I found it encouraging that we managed to keep the conversation going. We had some good intimate time (TMI, but I think it's important to note), which I know was important to him, and we managed spending a lot of time together without much of a break without driving one another nuts. I still think we vacation very differently as a whole--I would have preferred getting moving earlier each day whereas he needs sleep. He did get a little annoyed when we did our hot walk exploring the resorts (I think he thought it was going to end up longer than it was), and he did give me a bit of hesitation when I was asking him to go to the beach at sunset since it felt like we were walking back and forth, but overall I think things went well. It was a nice reminder of what we could be like when we weren't stressed out or completely focused on the kids. It's been way too long since we had an extended period of that. It was nice to have other people around too...that probably helped us not get too sick of one another, as well. I'd like to do it again sometime, but I think my parents probably need a lot more time to recover.
- I still can hardly believe it happened (even more so for reasons I'll get into later in another post) but I'm glad we were able to make it work. Before we left I sort of wanted to fast-forward through the trip and Pittsburgh and just know we made it through okay. It did feel like we were pretty much on fast-forward the whole time and I can't entirely say we made it through unscathed (again, another post, plus the kids' stuff still isn't entirely resolved), but I'm relieved we made it through and had a wonderful time while we were there. It was really a dream come true in so many ways, surreal and amazing. I've barely had a chance to miss it because we've been so busy, but I do. It was dreamy.
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