You have heard the saying, "when it rains it pours." Well, that is the most accurate description of my life right now. Let me explain...
It all started in late August when we were surprised with the news of baby #3. In many ways it was an answer to our prayers because we were truly undecided if we should have a third. Well, God answered that for us and in His perfect timing. Literally at day one of this pregnancy I felt nauseous...immediately I knew I was pregnant.
The month quickly transitioned from summer to fall which is a season of new beginnings and lots of planning. After having almost 3 months off of teaching, I was thrusted into the full swing of teaching 4 university level courses in addition to being a full-time stay at home mom...pregnant again with non-stop nausea. Fun. With the husband working mostly afternoon into evening shifts that left me feeding, bathing and putting our VERY two-years-old and 10-month old to sleep most nights. Talk about exhausting. I will confess that I made way too much mac & cheese or fish sticks for dinner. Mom of the year award for frozen & processed foods! When I had just my daughter I would have NEVER DREAMED of giving her these types of foods. Sorry son. To top the craziest of our September begins, both my husband & I are bible study leaders. Yea, way to add one more thing! Oh and did I mention that our 10-month old son still gets up 2-4 times a night. Boy, let me tell you how refreshed I am in the morning.
October started off fine. We were finding our balance as a family and I was learning how to manage my nausea along with my million other responsibilities. We began the "big bedroom move" which consisted of combining offices (down to one shared desk between my husband and I...so far so good), purging my clothing to combine two closest into one tiny shared closet with my hubby and cleaning out our back room in preparation to move our son downstairs so that the current nursery could be re-done for baby 3. As we slowly made progress, my nausea began to subside and life felt like it was getting back to normal....until we woke up mid-October to many text messages and phone calls sent during the night. Tyler's mother had passed away.
It shouldn't have been as much as a shock as it was. In early September, the family made the decision to put her on hospice care. She had a saddle pulmonary embolism over three years prior which left her bed bound and unable to retain most of her short-term memory. Regardless of her condition, it is never easy when a family member passes (expected or not). So, just as we felt our life normalizing, we were in the throughs of dealing with cremation and memorial planning. Her death brought up a lot of memories from my husband's childhood, some good, some bad. It took roughly two weeks for things to settle...at least for most of the logistics to be taken care of (we are still dealing with some minor items from her estate). Before we knew it November had arrived. The month that we had been planning for since June.
Back in June we has decided to plan a family trip to Maui to support my husband's required continuing medical education. He found a great conference in Maui which would allow him to get the knowledge and CME credits he needed as well as a great opportunity to spend some family time together. This trip occurred just two weeks after his mom died. In addition to preparing for her memorial, we were packing our bags to fly to Hawaii. Talk about mixed emotions and WAY too much planning for such a short timeframe. We made it though, our bags packed and kids prepared. We arrived at the airport that first week in November with plenty of time to check our bags and find our gate. When we finally boarded at 10am, we learned there was an engine problem. Grounded, on the plane with two kids, for an hour! They fixed the problem. We all found our seats again and we eagerly awaited takeoff. Forty-five minutes into our flight... over the Pacific Ocean... the engine problem reoccurred. We had no choice but to fly back to the airport so that they could fix the plane. Long story short, our plane ended up not taking off until 1:45AM...talk about a "slight" delay. It felt relentless especially after all of the stress leading up to this trip. I wish I could say that our trip got better but it didn't. Both kids got sick (as well as my husband) and our boy decided that it was the perfect time to cut teeth. In addition, our two-year decided to become two on this trip...you know the "NO! I do it! No help please! MY TURN" kinda two. She had NEVER acted like this until Hawaii. Needless to say, everyday was a battle. The husband left at 7am to return at 1pm Monday-Friday for his conference. I was literally done dealing with the kids and my nausea by the time he made it back to the condo. My son not sleeping through the night (waking 3-5 times was slightly obnoxious too)...so here we were in tropical paradise struggling to embrace this so-called "vacation." To be honest, we almost left 4-days early but decided to stick it out. Overall, we were glad that we went for those few and far between fun memories we made but it certainly was not relaxing and we did not come back tan!
The day after we got back, I jumped right back into my role as Relay Center Coordinator for Operation Christmas Child. I coordinate a team of volunteers every year to help collect shoebox gifts that are sent around the world. It is a great project but a lot of work to organize. I was exhausted with little rest but really, what are you going to do? The day after was my families Thanksgiving which involved shopping and preparing a few side dishes for the festivities...seriously...one thing after another after another. We enjoyed the gathering and the food but were thankful to come home and rest once the evening was done. The following week was real Thanksgiving. We were glad to purchase our side dish and bring it instead of making it from scratch.
Thanksgiving has always been a great time of year for my family and a stepping stone to Christmas. Which this year seemed to approach quicker than any other year due to the craziness of life.....OH YEA! And our son's first birthday! December has started off trying to catch up....decorating, buying gifts, planning my son's first birthday party, planning a gender reveal party for the end of the month for baby 3, finishing our "big bedroom move"...did I mention I started this month off being sick? Knock down, don't touch me or talk to me sick? Just one more thing. I am praying that the craziness of this life's season will pass quickly while trying to embrace the great memories in between but it sure has been hard to remain upbeat, positive and mentally together dealing with all of these challenges.
I guess the saying is right, when it rains it pours!
PS- when my husband got into his car today to drive to his 12-hour shift...he sat on a bee and got stung... IN DECEMBER!! Seriously, Lord, please have mercy on us.
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