Marla’s Journey

Yippee!! Happy 2009!! Yes, I do realize that the rest of the world celebrated New Year’s about 10 days ago, but TODAY is MY New Year’s Day! I decided yesterday that 2009 was NOT going my way, and I had to take drastic measures to turn things around. Let me give you a bit of an idea as to WHY I am restarting 2009…..

Dec.31, 2008 11:59pm – Spent sleeping while my firstborn was at a party at his girlfriend’s house. The same girlfriend who would break his heart (or at least dent it quite deeply!) a mere 4 days later. I’m still trying not to go all Mama Bear in this one!

Jan. 1, 2009 – 4:00am – Happy New Year – delivering papers to ALL 365 of my customers. It’s a Bonus Day – the dread of the Paper Carrier – papers for even the Non-Tipping, Put It On My Porch Each Sunday and ONLY Sunday, Wrapped and Sealed and Tied -Up Pretty customers. Yay. Happy New Year to me.

Jan. 1, 2009 – 10:30am – the year is looking up – Husband is half -dressed, standing in my kitchen, making pancakes for our brood! THIS is what Holidays are supposed to be. Except he is complaining about his foot and ankle hurting, and tingling, and feeling numb. Being in possession of just enough Discovery Health Channel-acquired medical knowledge to be an alarmist to myself and others, I begin to worry – blood clot, nerve disorder, MRSA. Who knows. I nag and cajole and convince him he needs to have it looked at. We get ready and decide the ER on New Year’s Day would NOT be fun. Decide to head to Patient First doc in a box. Thomas stays home with 3 under 5. We SO appreciate him!

Jan. 1, 2009 – 3:00pm – OK, so my diagnosis skills need some honing. Gout was NOT on my list of possibilities. Yes, gout. Wonderful. The prognosis itself is worrisome, but not nearly as scary as the description of the pain yet to come from the Physician’s Assistant: ” He’ll be in ‘Where’s an ax to chop my leg off’ pain for the next couple days. He may need pain meds, besides the Tylenol. Call if he does and we will fix him up.”  Great.  JUST what we need, and NOT our plan for his 4 days at home. We walk in the door at home to a crying Max who may or may not have broken his toe, but it hurts enough to almost earn Max the Actor of the Year award for his Portrayal of a Child in Horrible Pain. For about 10 minutes, after which he is back to normal high-speed, high energy self.  A huge to-do list, a teenager, and 3 under 5 FULL of energy does NOT need a husband and daddy in pain and out of commission. I begin to get a sneaking feeling this New Year might not be the idyllic vision I thought it would be…..

Jan. 2 – 4, 2009 – Home tending to sick, cranky, in pain husband, 3 littles who can’t really get outside in the cold, and a teenager who can’t WAIT for basketball season to start back up. NOT fun!! ‘Nuff said.

Jan. 5 – I look forward to a more normal week, a “real” start to the New Year. Until the Popcorn Incident. I will explain….

After having various children going to sleep in our bed for the last 5 years, I decided a few weeks ago, I am ready for them all to go to sleep in their own beds. I don’t mind them wandering in in the middle of the night, as they do, but I want to be able to crawl in for my 5 hours a night without contorting around 2 sleeping boys who take up WAY more room than they should be physically able to. I also am NOT above bribery. So, we had started a sticker chart and for each night they fell asleep in their own room, they got a sticker. After 5 stickers, a dollar to spend at the Dollar Tree on ANY toy they wanted! Woo Hoo! Big treat they think is AWESOME!!! Great. They get their first dollar, and spend it – one on a SWAT play set with fake gun, radio, and binoculars, and one on an Army play set, with fake gun, radio, and plastic dagger. Now, over the years, with 3 boys, we have had a number of these plastic toy daggers and had nary an incident. Not so for 2009, apparently….

Monday the 5th, we were having an after lunch snack of popcorn. Everyone had their own dish, we were eating and all was well with the world. Until Benjamin, the 5 year old, decided he wanted more popcorn, and Max, the 3 year old’s dish was right there. So he helped himself, and Max, who had the plastic dagger in hand from their games earlier, whirled around to defend his dish, and hit Benjamin with the dagger, right next to his inner left eyebrow. I look over to see Benjamin bleeding and Max looking at him, very scared. I scoop Benjamin up, stop the bleeding, comfort him, and found a small cut. All was well, til he raised his eyebrows, and it popped WAY open. Yuck. Off to Doc in a Box, for an hour, where they say they could stitch it, but skin glue would be better, from the ER. Off to the ER, where 2 hours later, it takes 10 minutes to glue the wound together, all for the bargin basement co-pay of $125. Happy New Year.

January 6, 2009 – Abby Grace is tripped by Max, falling on the den floor, and acquiring her first bleeding forehead wound. Luckily, it is NOT deep enough to need stitches or glue, but aggravating enough to her to rub and fuss with it constantly, not letting a scab form and causing me to need to apply a Scooby-Doo band-Aid to the head of my sweet Princess. Not the accessory I want her in for the New Year.

January 7, 2009  10:00am- Having been unable to attend to some “female” testing for the 4 and a half years I was breastfeeding, I head off for screening tests that involve squeezing sensitive body parts with a machine exerting pressure almost the equivalent of an elephant’s footstep. GOOD times. ‘Nuff said.

About this time, I came to the epiphany that this was NOT the start to 2009 that I had planned or envisioned. This was NOT the beautiful, peaceful, serene New Year that I had decided to experience.  That I had to take charge of MY life and make change happen. So, for that reason…….

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

Now I have a poopy diaper to change, 2 meals worth of dishes to wash, a cranky 15 month old to console, and 4 kids to get ready to go to the country for the day….

My plan doesn’t yet seem a success…….