Fab Hair Day Cut Short by Monsoon

(**Disclaimer: Please excuse any spelling mistakes in the following post...the spell checker button is broken on this thing! ~and sorry this is so long. It's only one day's worth of occurrences...if that gives you ANY idea of how long my day was yesterday. I'm sure you'll find it to be a quick and amusing read. You have my permission to add me to your prayer chain, prayer list, or whatever. )

(Tuesday, February 12th, 2008)
It is a messy day here today! It started out fairly nice, cloudy but nice. Emma and I went to Bible study this morning. Afterward, we stopped by Wal-Mart to return a duplicate toy that she'd received for her birthday and pick out something else. As I was walking in I figured it might be raining by the time we got finished but I didn't think much of it and I didn't have a single umbrella in the car anyway, so we went on in not worrying about what we might come back out to. An hour later after FINALLY finding a toy that was good enough to replace the other one, we headed for the doors. It was not just raining. It was monsooning!!! A feeling of pure dread and disgust flew all over me as I stood there looking out the doors hesitating and wondering "What can I do? What can I do?" I hadn't put Emma in a cart since we were just going in after one thing. (However, it IS Wal-mart so we came out with three bags full!) Upon coming to the conclusion that the rain was not going to slack up any time soon, I decided I could get to the car faster with Emma and the bags in a shopping cart. So we found a cart near the doors and I slid Emma in and laid all of our bags inside, rolling the tops down, attempting to protect the contents from the downpour that awaited. Remember I told you about me going to the gym and running on the treadmill? Well, we were about to see if it had been paying off! Of course, my car was parked half way across the parking lot, so I was going to have to book it if I was going to get there quickly enough that we wouldn't be completely soaked to the core. ~Apparently I'm going to need more training on the treadmill.~ I slowly approached the automatic doors that headed out into the torrential cascade of showers. I told Emma to hold on tight, we were running for it. And I was off. Have you got the mental picture in your head?? Emma is hanging on for dear life. I'm running as fast as I can, arms stretched out and legs striding as wide as they'll go. I know you see it now...and it's okay that you're laughing at me; if it hadn't actually been ME, I would be laughing too... The buckets of water were falling much heavier than they appeared to be from the shelter of the store. Emma kept squinting her eyes, trying to keep the rain out and yelling "Aahhhh! Aahhhh!" as I was yelling back "Holy Cow! Hang ON! It's Okay, It's Just Rain, Emma! This Is Fun, Emma!" (-trying to convince myself more than her!) She was just looking at me like I had finally fallen off the deep end! Dumbfounded! The entire time I was running, completely taken aback by the amount of water falling from the sky, all I could think about was the children's church song "The rains came down as the floods came up, the rains came down as the floods came up..." Despite how fast it felt like I was running, by the time we reached the car, you couldn't have gotten either of us any wetter than if you'd sprayed us down with a fire hose! Hair, clothes, purse, bags, ALL, soaked! Then of course once we reached the car, I had to get Emma into her car seat and buckle it before I could close her door. When I finally got the bags and myself into the car all I could do was sit there and pant. I glanced up into my mirror and Lord bless, it was a frightful sight! My hair was in ringlet curls all over my head, still dripping, and the rain had pelted my face so that my eye makeup was running down my cheeks. I managed to find ONE old Sonic napkin in my console to blot the makeup from my face. I turned around to look at Emma and she's sitting back there in a trance looking like a drowned rat...eyes as wide as they can get. I said "Whew, we got a little wet didn't we, Emma!" Understatement of the year! I was trying to comfort her a little. She just said "Yeah, I want Buddy!" (Buddy is her little stuffed pink elephant that she sleeps with every night and occasionally takes with us when we go somewhere. Her comfort. -especially at times when she thinks that her Mama has gone completely psycho!) I found Buddy in the floor board and handed him to her. She held him up close to her face and kept staring at me.

The ironic thing about all of this is that for the first time in a long time, I was having a GREAT hair day!! (~ I know it's shallow, but stay with me!) When you live in armpit, Florida, having a good hair day despite the humidity is a major deal! I had straightened it a little this morning but it still had a lot of body. It was smooth and shiny. I mean, I could have seriously done a shampoo commercial today. I nearly broke my neck swingin' it back and forth and admiring it in the mirror. I was lookin' good this morning! ~well, my hair was at least. When I got home and went into the bathroom to survey the damage, I realized that Emma not only gets her curls from my dad but also from me. When I purposely try to let my hair curl and stay wavy after I wash it, it's not even as curly as it was after the deluge I had been in 15 minutes earlier. It looked like I had just finished having a spiral perm put in my hair. Which would've been fine if I hadn't already spent so much time this morning getting it smooth and straight. Oh, WELL!! So much for that. Now it's pulled back into a pony tail and flippin' out all over the place. ...the usual.

I had several more things I'd intended to say this afternoon but I have run out of time talking about my stupid hair. If I get a chance later, I'll add to this post. Nate is out of town for the rest of the week so I will most likely be bloggin' my fingers off, attempting to keep my sanity! ;-)
And on that same note, say a prayer for me that I'll keep it together while he's gone. I rarely sleep well at all when he's not here. Also since you're prayin', pray for him too that things will go well this week at the Miami International Boat Show that he's working at.

~~~~~Continuation of previous post~~~~~
Somehow yesterday afternoon (it is now Wednesday morning; the morining after yesterday's post) I knew that my day would be filled with more post worthy material. Good thing I didn't know exactly what it would be or I would've gone straight to bed and pulled the covers over my head!
Okay, so after leaving you yesterday it was time to pick up Taylor from school. So I went and sat in the car line and waited...and waited...and waited (as usual). The great thing I've found about waiting in the car line is that I can read while I wait. I don't have to worry about what Emma is doing while I engross myself into the pages of my book because she is strapped into her car seat in the back seat. I usually let her bring along a book or some kind of toy to keep her occupied as well. ANYWAY, after leaving the car line with Taylor now in tow, we headed to the post office. I had several different things to mail that required more than just standing in line to buy stamps. I'm not sure what it is about the post office that makes my girls lose all recollection of how they are supposed to act in public but it never fails, they do the second we walk in the door. I'm beginning to think the postal supplies are laced with some sort of airborne hyperactivity stimulant. Before going inside, I warned them that they'd be very sorry if they acted up in there and that they'd better be on their best behavior. Apparently that speech to them sounded like "Blahhhhhh, Blah, Blah, Blahhhhh, Blah, Blah! And I mean it!" For the second we walked in, they began running circles around me and every other display in the place. No amount squeezing their arms as I pulled them in closer to me or giving them the evilest of evil eyes seemed to deter them. ...until we reached the counter to pay for our stuff, and THEN when spoken sweetly to by the postal lady, they put on their angel faces and smiled ever so humbly at her. I asked what the postage would cost me to overnight them to Arkansas, assuring her that I'd put them in packing peanuts and give them snacks to sustain them for the trip. She wouldn't hear of it though. ~apparently doesn't have children of her own!! Needless to say, by the time we got home I was fit to be tied and they were still apologizing, knowing that punishment was surely coming. They were both sent straight to their beds for a nap. I've found that that punishment works very well for me. ;-)
After a couple of hours of peace it was time to wake the blessed angels so that we could get ready to go to Family Night at Wendy's. We were meeting some friends there to eat and let our kids play for a while with the clown.
Before we got ready to leave, I went to the bathroom right quick and was hit with my next obstacle for the day. To spare you the details, however that's not really in my nature, I pretty much like to share it all and kick modesty to the curb (nothing is sacred around here)...it hurt like crazy when I peed and there was blood in my urine. GREAT! I've never had a U.T.I. before, but both my girls have, and I now have a new respect for their tolerance for pain. I called a friend who has had this condition many times before and she recommended that I get in to see a doctor asap. She seemed to think that if it had already gotten that bad, I didn't need to wait till morning to start antibiotics. Okay, so I've not been sick or needed a doctor since we've moved her 2 1/2 years ago. Do I even HAVE a physician to make an appt. with? Of course not. So on my way to Wendy's I called a couple of phone numbers that she had provided me with of the urgent care centers here in town. Luckily one of them accepted patients until 7 pm and also accepted my insurance. So after our Wendy's dinner date, the girls and I headed to the clinic. Let me just interject here that it is STILL monsooning outside-wonderful backdrop to the drama I'm going through today.
Here in the last few years I have become somewhat of a germ-a-phobe. I carry two different types of hand sanitizer in my purse and also have another big bottle in the console of my car. I use it on myself and my kids only a couple hundred times a day. I knew as we approached the clinic that my OCD tendencies in this area were going to be out of control. I had to take my healthy kids and myself into this clinic full of sick, sneezing, coughing people. I could've puked right there in the lobby. Finally, after 45 minutes of waiting, trying to entertain the children myself ~because they'd been forbidden to touch any magazines or books sitting on the tables~, and only 4 separate applications of hand sanitizer, it was my turn to go back to see the doc. I had to give a urine sample. Both of my girls have had to do this and knew exactly what I was going to have to do. Taylor's only concern was who was going to hold the cup for me while I peed in it. I had to horrify her just for a minute by telling her "Well, you're going to have to hold it for me." To which she replied "Unh, uh! Emma's going to have to hold it for you 'cause I ain't touchin' it!" My sweet Emma said "Yeah, I'kin hode it fow you Mama!" ~with a smile of anticipation on her face. I assured both of them that I was capable of holding it myself. Much to Taylor's relief, as she had already begun to get a little freaked out by the fact that Emma was willing to hold it.
The doc. confirmed what I already knew and gave me a Rx. Of course, when we pull in to the Walgreen's drive through, despite the fact that there isn't another soul in the store OR in the drive through, it's going to be 20 minutes before they can have the Rx ready. I'm willing to wait but Taylor has started squirming because she "has to pee SOOOO bad!" and Emma is whining that she's tired and ready to go home. So I told the lady I'd just have to pick it up first thing in the morning and we headed for home. When we got home it was 8:30 so I got the girls right to bed. The weather forcasters were predicting bad weather for us through the night and we were under a tornado watch till the wee hours of the morning. That's just great, I thought! Give me just one more reason not to sleep well tonight! So I was up, unable to sleep as I watched a "storm system capable of producing tornadoes" that was to cross us at 12:45. I had already put both of the girls in my bed with me so that in case of bad weather I wouldn't have to do so much running around to gather them up and head downstairs to the closet. -'cause we both know from my experience earlier in the day that running fast isn't my strong suit. Some time around 1-ish I dozed off, comfortable that the weather had died down enough that it was safe for me to sleep. Emma woke up at 3:00 and would not get still and go back to sleep. So it was back to her bed for her...which she didn't like one bit. She cried for me and called out for water, a hug and all sorts of stuff until 4:00, when I went in to give her my last threat before I was going to lose it. It was then that I noticed that she seemed warm and her cheeks were flushed. I took her temp. She had a fever and needed medicine. After all that, I got back in bed and listened to her call for me again for another hour. Some time after 5 this morning she went to sleep.
At six stinkin' thirty that blasted, God forsaken, junk box of an alarm clock went off signaling that it was time for me to rise up and walk. I just laid there whimpering "No, no, no, no, no! Lord, Jesus, give me the strenght to get out of this bed." And he did. I was suddenly hit with sharp pain in my lower pelvic region reminding me of the infection looming within and forcing me to get up and run to the potty. I made it, just barely.
Only by the grace of God, Taylor made it to school on time and I managed to get myself to the drive through (thank you, Lord, for drive throughs) pharmacy to pick up my medications. Needless to say, Emma and I are having a lazy rest of the day today...despite the fact that my house looks like that tornado actually DID hit us. Emma hasn't run any more fever yet and hopefully she won't. I am beginning to feel better too and am peeing the most interesting shade of neon orange I've ever seen!
Well, that was probably t.m.i. (too much info.) but like I mentioned earlier, nothing is sacred around here.
Be back soon! ;-)