Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad, Week

This week has been rough. It all started when the hubby left for the Philippines. Yep you read that right, the Philippines. I hate it when he goes out of town on business for an extended period of time but just knowing how extremely far away he is from us make it worse. Oh, and lucky me, I get to look forward to him being gone one week out of EVERY month this next year. Can you tell I am not excited. I am a big baby when my husband isn't around. I can't sleep at night so I am tired all the time which doesn't help me in the mothering department. My poor kids suffer with a sleep deprived, patience level of a tantrum throwing 3 yr old, wish her husband was home right now of a mom who has no motivation and makes peanut butter and honey sandwiches for dinner two nights in a row.  And the next night goes with fish sticks from the freezer. Sigh. I really need to cook something wholesome tonight.

Saturday night my neighbor from across the street came over to make me aware that his car had been broken into the previous night, and he was going to be putting up a camera to look out into the cul de sac. Later that afternoon, out of curiosity I went to check our vehicles. When I opened the van I found the glove box open and all the little compartments on the dash board had also been opened. The little punk had hit us too! I'll also let you know that just a few day before this, 3 of our neighbors had had their Christmas lights cut. I was feeling pretty violated at this point and this did not help with my sleeping problem at night.

So picture me on my own with three kids ages 6, 4, and 1 1/2. Its Sunday morning and I'm getting everyone ready for church. I am really looking forward to going this week to get my spiritual cup filled again after a draining couple of days and the tragic news happening everywhere. This is my day I get to sing with the primary children.

We all get dressed, eat and head out the door. We even arrive early! The kids choose to sit in the third row from the front instead of our usual 6th or 7th, which I have no problem with. We mingle a little with the members of our ward as them come in and say hello etc etc. Its now time for the opening prayer. A couple sentences into it I hear whimpering and crying noises coming from my 6 yr old daughter. I peek over to see a horribly disgusted look on her face and puke all over her black shoes and tights. Then I look over at little Emma who happens to be standing at her sisters lap with the evidence dripping down her chin. "Oh no!," I think to myself. I put my had on Kiera's lap and think to myself, "just make it through the prayer, just make it through the opening prayer." As the prayer ends I turn to the primary president who has watched this whole thing unveil and say,"I think I'm going home now." We exchange understanding glances and I rush to the restroom for some paper towels.

After all that is said and done we get back into our van and head home. Emma seems just fine and is not showing any signs of feeling sick. But then just as we make the turn into our subdivision we hear that horrible noise. You all know the noise I'm talking about....the car seat is a mess, Emma is a mess and the two other kids are now screaming in disgust making it even worse since Emma has no idea why this is happening to her.

We pull up to house and I tell the other two to head inside while I get Emma out. Emma is crying now but the mess doesn't look as bad as it sounded. In fact I don't see a whole lot of it. It must just be in the seat of her chair. So I pick her up and set her on the grass so I can get everything else out of the car. I turn to grab my purse and freeze! I now know where the mess had gone. Why oh why didn't I zip up my purse!? I don't need this right now!

Emma threw up one more time when we got in the house but I'll spare you the rest of the nasty details. I got her all cleaned up and changed and she went down for a nap while I spent the next half hour washing coins, emptying pockets, and changing out purses. YUCK! That night the car seat was taken apart and the cover was thrown in the wash. That was not a fun day.

Monday morning came, we all slept in a little bit too long due missing daddy and being up with lil Emma who woke herself up with a cough now. No big deal that she'd miss the bus, I'd just drive her to school and then take Ethan to preschool a little late. Well, as I turned into the school parking lot I hit the curb and all of a sudden the van felt funny. !!!!!! I had blown out my front passenger tire! I didn't even hit the curb that hard. So I was stuck in the school parking lot with a flat. Great! ...
This is where we enter the scene with me at the wheel in tears. I did not need this today. I can't take much more! I tried calling everyone I could think of and no one answered. I finally got a hold of a friend (Elise Mullins) who said she'd be on her way in a little bit. I'm so grateful that she was able to drop what she was doing and come help her blubbering friend out of a jam. She helped me keep my cool and helped ease my situation.

We got the spare tire on and I headed to Costco for a new tire. I was able to get a hold of another friend (Kara May) and she was so sweet. She came and met me there and walked around the store with the kids and I (Ethan ended up having to miss preschool) while I got the tire taken care of.

All I can think of is that this whole thing has been a blessing in disguise. When I took the car to get a new tire I asked if they could check for any slow leaks in another one of the tires since my tire pressure light had been coming on. Turns out we had a nail in one of the other tires. How would it have been on our upcoming trip to Portland to have a tire blow out at 70+ mph in the middle of nowhere? This situation got me to go in and have everything taken care of whereas I probably would have ignored my dash light and gone on the trip since I had just had the tires pumped up and the light had gone off and come back on just a couple days later. I thought nothing of it. Its just a light right? 

Heavenly Father looks over us. Sometimes things we go through aren't much fun and they sure test my patience and emotional stability in this case) But we are never given anything that we can't handle. I am so grateful for the friends who have helped me while Dan has been away and continue to be there for me. Things are getting better and I am looking forward to our trip to Portland soon. I am so glad Dan's dad decided to ride the train up here so he could drive back with me. I didn't want to have to make the drive by myself. Dan will be meeting us there a few days later once he gets back from the Philippines. So glad he gets to be home for Christmas. Don't think I would have handled that very well.