Where Have I Been?

Okay, I am back. And praying for a really boring week. Uneventful, dull and plodding. Here's just part of the reason why! Stay tuned later (maybe today?) for the rest of the eventful weekend wrap-up. I swear, I need some industrial strength bubble wrap for my gang . . . Let's just say that the self-imposed hibernation came to a screeching, screaming halt on October 31. There's no hope in sight of extending it or letting it gently recede into my memory. The calendar is mysteriously full again. Life is back to its roaring, raging pace. And I'm not keeping up very well at all.

After the dust settled from LadyBug's broken arm, we went right into two days off of school and a sick little Baby BlueEyes. While I'm grateful that he didn't have to miss school because his virus conveniently adhered to the district planning, I was sad that his time off was mostly spent sleeping and wandering around in his jammies moaning about his aching head.

We were able to put off real life by one more day, as The Boss's team of colleagues hosted a shower for us at his office on Thursday. Getting into the city with a baby and back was an almost all-day affair! Bottles, food (which she refused anyway!) and extra clothes. Oy! But the shower was lovely, complete with a great cake and pictures from our trip posted all along the wall. It was very thoughtful and so sweet of everyone to rejoice with us in our little treasure.

Once The Gang and The Boss all headed off to regularly scheduled life on Friday, I kicked into high gear. I had lost time to make up for. I had stuff to do. I had plans.

I also had something brewing. Something scratchy and raw in the back of my throat.

By Friday afternoon, I made an appointment with my nurse practitioner to be checked. Her words were not comforting. "Wow, that's some serious yuck you got going on in there" as she peered down my aching throat. And, "I can't believe you have been up and about all day today. Usually a throat that bad would have someone flat on their back." Finally, my personal favorite was, "You probably waited too long to get this checked. This must have been bothering you for quite a few days now." Um, yeah. But I lost two days home with a sick kid, two days the week before with another kid's broken arm. And I haven't grocery shopped in weeks! I really had to keep moving.

I filled my prescription (Did the doc tell the pharmacist that I needed this for a raw and inflamed throat?! That pill is humongo!) and headed home to straighten up. My good friend, Kateri from Blessed Beyond Measure, was on her way for a visit, and to join us for a "Welcome Home" party that my family planned for Saturday for Li'l Empress's official debut to our friends and family. Bless her heart, Kateri was so understanding of the ahem, shall we say, "laid-back style" of entertaining that I mustered on Friday night. I'm just hoping that she didn't see the bathroom before Dr. D got to cleaning it after dinner for me! We had a great time chatting and catching up. I just wish I'd felt better and our time hadn't been so limited by getting dinner on the table and kids into bed! Maybe next time. . .

Saturday we headed to THE Partay! It was obvious that my sister and my mom put a ton of work into the preparations. It was decorated very festively by my nieces and nephew and the smells coming from the kitchen were amazing! Pizza from my home-town pizzeria, baked ziti, meatballs and sausage, pasta alfredo, cookies and sweets galore. Mmmmm. Shaggy was in heaven!

The guest list included several friends from church, some surprises from my home church in NE PA, my cousin, and other friends from our former church in Central PA. We were so humbled and blessed by the generous, loving support, the encouragement and the effort everyone made to join us in celebrating our Li'l Empress. I found myself in tears quite a few times over the course of the day. The only sad tears were from missing my other sister and her Viking Clan. It was hard to celebrate without them, but I knew they were with us in spirit.

Here are a couple pics from the "winding down" part of the party. We were too busy visiting and enjoying our friends and family to even remember to use the camera most of the rest of the day! At this point of the day, there was only a fraction of the crowd still around. The house was PACKED all day long!

Saturday night, we got everyone home and showered and into bed at decent hour. The Boss and I really rushed them all through the routine, as he could tell I was hanging on by a thread. Finally, at 8:50 p.m., my body cried "Uncle!" Long and Loud. I was chilled and feverish and in bed by 9 p.m. I was done.

Stay tuned for the run down on our eventful Sunday. Here's a tease: our local hospital is getting quite familiar with our health insurance ID number. :(