On Thursday morning I woke up realizing that today was the day we had to get our act together, and get back to normal after dropping my family off at the airport the previous day. We had swimming lessons on the schedule for the day and we needed to restock the fridge. In midst of the chaos, I called my dad shortly after 9 am to let him know we were all alive and doing well. (I know, it's a bit morbid. But for the safety of my kids it is best that I stay in constant contact with someone to make sure I didn't have a heart attack in my sleep and my kids are stuck in the house to fend for themselves for days on end) Okay, I admit, I called past schedule--it was 0945, but I was just getting back into my deployment routine. My dad answered and sounded kind of annoyed that I had called. I asked if he was at work and needed to let me go. He said he hadn't gone to work that day and had just woke up. I thought, "Hmmm, it is 1245 your time and you just woke up. I guess you are not ready to go back to the real world and are still on vacation time.", but whatever. Then he asked me where Mom was and I informed him that I was pretty sure she was at work. Then he asked me what day it was and again where mom was. He said he was disoriented and asked me if they just got back last night. I said, "Yeah, did you drink a lot last night?" He replied that he didn't think he had and asked again "Where is your mom? Is she at work? What day is it?" I was confused, annoyed, and getting worried. Then I asked to talk to my sister. He woke her up out of bed. She informed us both that my mom's car wouldn't start, so Mom had taken my dad's van to work. He had not just woken up, but had been awake for hours, and last time she talked to him he was about to start his morning exercises when she came home from a sleepover and told her to lay down and get a nap in before they were leaving to get jumper cables. As Linda and I started to piece it all together, Dad chattered off in the background with more questions--"We got back last night from California? Today is Thursday? Is your mom at work? I just woke up. Where is our TV (the one they threw away a few weeks ago because it broke)?" We thought for sure he was having a stroke or some sort of chemical
imbalance. So we called Mom, and she sort of scuffed it off as him being annoying. The more Dad talked the more I was convinced that he was not only on vacation time and not ready to get back to the real world, but he wasn't in this world at all. Linda and I panicked and started calling whoever we could get ahold of to come take a look at Dad. Finally Skip arrived and affirmed our assessment that "something is not right", and that he needed to go to the ER fast despite Dad trying to convince us all that he felt fine. While I was playing phone tag with whoever could give me information on what might be wrong with Dad, we got ready for swimming.
Luckily Lincoln had his A game on that morning and served as my perfect little helper. He even helped Corinne get the last few bites of Cherrios out of the bowl. Oh I was so thankful for his kindness during a day filled with stress and anxiety.
We finally got out the door in time for their lessons. They loved being back in the water after a long Christmas break.
Corinne could not have been happier to show off her new swimsuit. (Thanks Nana and Grumps!)
Lincoln was a bit wild during the lesson, but still had a fun time.
I talked to Mom while the kids were busy with their instructors. Once admitted, the ER team first assumed that Dad was having a mini-stroke caused from blood clots and flying. His blood pressure was through the roof. He was sent for a CT scan and later a MRI after the CT scan showed no blockage. As my mom sat with my dad it became more and more apparent just how "out of it" he was. He knew he was in the hospital, but did not know why. It broke my heart to hear that he thought my mom and sister drug him to the ER because he was being annoying by asking too many questions. Dad insisted that he was perfectly healthy and had just eaten "moldy cheese" the night before for dinner--causing him to be disoriented. (By the way, he totally made that up. No moldy cheese was consumed in their house the previous evening.) This New Dad that was stuck in the hospital was highly irritable and slightly unpleasant to be around or talk to. He was more than a little angry with the women in his life for putting him in this situation when he felt fine--just disoriented. The MRI would not be read until the morning when my mom would meet with the neurologist. I went to bed that night worrying about my parents getting older, what the doctors might find, and how much of his memory he had lost and if it would come back. I laid in bed that night thinking about how much I take for granted--wondering if I would ever get the Old Dad back and what the future might hold.
After hours of waiting the following day, Dad was given a completely clean bill of health with clear bloodwork and all systems fuctioning properly. However, he wad diagnosed with
transient global amnesia . This rare condition happens at random, with no known causes. It can not be explained by a cardiovascular or neurological disorder. The doctors had never heard of an episode happening to the same person more than once. We all took a deep sigh of relief and Dad left the hospital tired, ready for some sleep, and slightly smug with the knowledge that he
is healthy as a horse and in better shape than his doctor. I was pretty blown away with this knowledge, but oh-so happy that Old Dad was back and forgetful/disoriented Dad was gone (most likely) for good! We can laugh about it now, but my goodness, it was such a crazy experience. It felt like the whole thing was right out of a movie.
The following day the kids and I spent the day recouping and prepped for our camping trip with Brittnay, Ethan, and Ellie. On Saturday, we arrived on base, loaded everything up, and then started to search for some firewood. No trash wood in the form of pallets were available near the dumpsters, so Brittnay called the campsite and they directed us to a wood lot on base where we could get free timber. So we drove off the beaten path and found the lot, but it was closed and no one was answering the number to call to gain access to the wood. Determined to not pay a fortune to stay warm that night, Brittnay hopped the fence and started chucking logs over in my direction, where I consequently loaded them into the truck for later use. Somewhere in the mix, Brittnay managed to step on a piece of scrap wood with a very rusty nail in it. It went through her shoe, and pierced the skin--barely, but enough to get a tetanus shot just in case.
So we headed to the campsite where we were originally assigned a small, peaceful spot right on the lake--beautiful, but not great for kids. We were allowed to select a new location and found a perfect site next to an open field, the port-o-lets, and a fenced in playground. The kids played while we pitched the tent. Yes, we forgot a hammer, but a 2X4 works just the same.
Once settled, Brittnay headed to the ER while I watched the kids. Baby Ellie took a little snooze in the tent.
Lincoln, Corinne, and Ethan ran themselves silly while we still had sunshine.
Brittnay bundled Ellie up...
And we roasted our weiners on the fire (one that I started by the way---impressive I know!)
We were running out of wood, so I headed out in the truck in search of discarded pallets and scored two huge ones that would provide another few hours of warmth. When I returned, we snacked on yummy s'mores.
The kids were dead tired and getting cold, so we settled them in for the night. All four munchkins went down fairly easy after the initial "Stop talking" "No you stop talking" "I am being quiet" banter.
Finally, Brittnay went into the tent to lay down with Ellie and she "laid down the law" at the same time. Shortly after, the rugrats passed out.
I kept an eye on the fire and got it blazing while Brittnay tucked everyone in for the night.
We stayed up for a few hours chatting and then joined the kids in the tent. It was instantly apparent that despite layering our kids and ourselves in multiple layers we were going to be chilly, even wrapped in a ridiculous amount of blankets. After about an hour, Brittnay headed home (about a mile from our site) on a blanket run in an attempt to fight off the cold. She came back with every blanket from her house, but Ethan kept shivering through the night, so she took her kids home to the heat after a few hours. She asked if I wanted to go, but I didn't dare get out from under the covers, so I hunkered in for the rest of the evening--rotating between spooning with each kid to make sure they were warm enough. Both kids were a bit chilly in the morning, but woke up with smiles at what a great experience camping had been.
Lincoln had to go potty "really bad" and I had been holding it all night, so we ventured out in the morning around 6 am. Brittnay had accidently taken off with the lighter the night before, so I couldn't start a morning fire to curb the biting chill. Consequently, we got back in bed and swaddled ourselves up and waited until 7 to call Brittnay. We hopped in the truck to head to her house, but first we had to wait for the windows to thaw. (The exterior temp on the truck read 33 degrees--no wonder we were freezing our butts off!) We ate breakfast at her place, then drove back to clean up and tear down. We were all tired, but greatful for our experience and to have Brittnay's wilderness expertise to share with us.
The kids and I drove home, and I immediately started unloading and doing laundry while simultaneously getting each of us a much needed bath. (For me, this was one of those "God, this sucks!" moments when I realized just how much I miss Nathan. He is always the unloader while I care for the kids after an outing. It just reminds me what a great team we make and how much I have to be thankful for. In the end, everything that needed to get done, got done--it just took a bit longer.) While I was sprucing up the garage Lincoln noticed "what a fine mess" (his current catch phrase) Nathan's tool box was in, and decided to organize it while I bathed Corinne.
I love that he has a little bit of my OCD orgnanizational skills.
Before...
After...."Ta-da"!
Once we were all clean, I grabbed my two favorite pirates and put them into their jammies (so what if it was only 3 pm, I was exhausted), and snuggled them up for a viewing of "Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides".
Thank you Netflix for providing me with a peaceful afternoon with the kiddos.
Corinne was ecstatic to learn that there was a female pirate in this part of the series. She immediately threw on her "pirate princess" costume and started swinging her sword with a vengeance during the battle scenes.
We headed to bed early to catch up on sleep, and spent most of Monday still defrosting from our camping adventure. On Tuesday, Linc headed back to school for speech, but not before squeezing in a chat with Dad.
Lincoln has become quite the phone hog lately and it is hard to get the phone back from him to get a word in with Nathan once I have surrendered it to his greedy little hands. I tell him it is my turn to talk, but he brushes me off saying, "Not yet, Mom! I still have more to say."
After speech, we headed to the Fingerprints Museum in Hemet with friends Eda, Aiden, and baby Emma. The whole place was set up for hours of pretend play. The boys dug right into the bone exhibit.
Lincoln could go on and on all day about bones and fossils. Part of me thinks he might be an archeologist one day, but he tells me he is going to be superhero when he grows up.
Then they all did a bit of shopping at the "Walmart".
This is Corinne's "how are you going to pay for this?" face.
I started to feel ill, and had to take a ride in an ambulance.
Luckily Aiden got me to a doctor on time.
Corinne also became a patient while we were there.
Dr. Lincoln was there to save the day.
The kids learned the ins and outs of Waste Management...
And how to properly sort trash from greenwaste and recycling.
I never did figure out why they had a pretend phone booth. I am not even sure they exist in real life these days.
Lincoln made a few designs with rubberbands while we were there.
And the three big kids took a few spins on this crazy contraption that reminded me of an old school merry-go-rounds that I grew up with.
I guess this is the safe version.
Lincoln threw his sister in the back of a squad car and carted her off to jail.
And then they both hopped onto the police bikes for a ride.
Five hours of fun and two exhausted kids later, we headed home.
On Wednesday, we ventured to a local park to meet Jessica, Ava, and Jake to feed the ducks and burn off some energy.
They had fun, but some of the geese are a little aggressive, and Corinne ended up feeding them from my arms after one of them snatched the bread right out of her hand and gave her quite a scare. (This happened last time too. Next time we might have to dump our stale bread with her on my shoulders.)
We wrapped up the day with a bunch of errands to prepare a box to send to Nathan for Valentine's Day. I also picked up some gardening boots today that Corinne was so kind to model for me!
QUOTES OF THE WEEK
Quote 1: While talking to Nathan...
Lincoln: "I am protecting Mom and Sis while you are gone, so can I borrow your gun to shoot the bad guys if I need to?" Not sure what was said on the other end, but I can take a guess... "Oh, well bad guys can definitely break my pirate sword. They will just flop it around. I need the gun for sure."
Quote 2: While wrapping up a viewing of "Mars Needs Moms" . The flick ends with a little alien peeing on a mom alien during a diaper change.
Lincoln: "Oh, I think that must be a boy alien because boys just shoot their pee all over the place!"
Yes son, I know this all too well.
Quote 3: Totally random while I was making dinner.
Lincoln: "Boys have tiny boobies and girls have big ones. Sissy has small ones right now, but when she gets to be a mom, she will have big ones too like yours." Thanks for saying that Linc, but I am not sure how accurate your assessment is... "I have tiny boobies because I am a boy, they are even smaller than Dad's boobies."
Me: "Is that so?"
Lincoln: "Yeah, his are kind of big, but not that big because he is a boy."
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