August Happenings

Today is McGyver's birthday. I love that man more today than I did the day we got married. He is so cool. We will be celebrating with "choc-it" cake cuz daddy loves "choc-it"and ice cream sundaes. Dreamsicle is set on the sundaes-must have the sour cream (whipped cream but she always calls it sour cream-He!) and the bananas to put on the ice cream.

Chester is home and I have already put him to work in the office. It feels so good to see his mug every day.

Dreamsicle had her four year check up yesterday. She ended up needing four immunizations. Thankfully she did not run a fever. She did however swear that she would never be able to walk again (my yegs mama-they made my yegs not work no more!). She did manage to make it out of her bedroom this morning, draggin one leg behind to give me a kiss goodbye so we will see if I need to buy her a wheelchair this afternoon LOL-such drama from the little sweetie. I didn't have the heart to tell her that she would be having to re-visit the ped's office in a few months for a flu shot-we will just let that one rest for now...

Take The Long Way Home

I received a call this morning letting me know that Chester was headed to the airport for the very last time. On his way to begin winging his way home. I was positively giddy when I got off the phone with him. He called a little later to tell me that instead of arriving at 10:30 his flight would be arriving at 11:00. No biggie-I can keep my peepers open for 30 minutes longer than expected in order to see my son arrive home. Weeeeelll, that was not to be. Turns out his flight that was delayed in Palm Springs was going to arrive in Dallas with only a 5 minute window for Chester to make his connecting flight. So they kindly rebooked him in Palm Springs before his flight took off. Rebooked his connecting flight. The one from Dallas to the Mitten State. The one that would have had him arriving tonight. The one that will now force him to spend the entire night in the airport in Dallas and not arrive in the Mitten State until tomorrow afternoon. *Sob* I know it is only a 12 hour difference but after waiting four years for this very day, 12 hours seems like an eternity.

Back To The Land Of The Living

I finally broke down yesterday and hauled my snotty self to the doctor. My doctor opened the door to the exam room and said OMG-you have a brutal sinus infection. I thought she could read my mind but turns out the fact that my face is swollen to twice the size it normally is clued her in. So I'm on antibiotics twice a day. This evening I actually feel like I just might live. Strange-being as sick as I was. I don't do sick. I usually power through whatever ails me but this seriously kicked my behind. Dreamsicle and I ventured out this afternoon to the local farmers market. We loaded up on fresh fruit and have spent the evening cleaning and consuming it.

In exactly 4 sleeps Chester will board a plane from California bound for the Mitten State. For. The. Last. Time. Evah. Dreamsicle is so excited she can hardly contain herself. She keeps practicing her "rock star hands" and singing twinkle twinkle little s*tar in her best rock star low voice in preparation for his arrival. He taught her that when he was home for Grumpy Old Man's funeral and she has not forgotten it.

Since we were gone for Dreamsicle's birthday, we are going to celebrate it on our Metcha day instead. I am so excited that Chester gets to be a part of it. It will truly make the day even that much more special.

I'm So Dizzy-My Head Is Spinning

Betcha thought this post was going to find me breaking out in song, didn't you? Nope. But the title describes how I feel right now perfectly. Add feverish and firey lungs to the mix and that is me. Yuck. Big headache on top of everything else too. I know I need to rest and sleep but people, I have been out of the office so much lately that it is not in the cards for me to stay at home and nappy-nap all day. I will admit, it was hard for me not to jump back under my covers this morning, I swear I heard my bed actually calling my name "come back Mrs McGyver, it is all warm and comfy and your pillow still has the dent in it from your head". Did you hear that? No? Must be the dizzy, head spinny thing I've got going on then.

Being sick in my house is never easy. Dreamsicle is hyper sensitive anyway and when her mama doesn't feel good-she comes unglued. Saying goodbye to her this morning was awful. She was begging me to just hold her and "schnuggle" so that she could make me feel better. My little sweetie-if hugs could cure me, I'd be dancing right now.

Planes, Trains and Automobiles

When I made our travel arrangements to come down here, I had booked our stay to return home last Tuesday. As you all know by now, Pixie's surgery got pushed back which forced me to need to change our return flight. Dreamsicle and I had traveled down here on United. I purchased the travel insurance (something that I never do) because when I read the types of situations the travel insurance covered it specifically stated that it would protect you from having to pay an extra fee should your plans change due to an unexpected serious illness of a family member. Feeling like I was armed with a serious illness of a family member (malignant melanoma certainly wouldn't fall into the category of an appendectomy for goodness sakes) I called United to change our return flight. They first told me that I would be hit with a $150.00 per person change fee. I was actually okay with that-then the agent proceeded to tell me that I would be responsible for the difference in the price of the flight. Guess how much the difference in the flight was...just guess..$1300.00! Yep they tried to tell me that it would cost an additional $1500.00 to get Dreamsicle and I home if we wanted to change our flight. I spoke with the most unhelpful supervisor I have ever dealt with in my life after the agent told me that. Both stuck to their written script-you have to pay that money up front then request a refund from United. Travel insurance, pavel insurance-it did not matter. At this point I was seriously hyperventilating. Keep in mind that I paid out the nose to get here since I purchased our tickets on the same day that we traveled. I could not get myself to give the go ahead for them to charge me an additional $1500.00 Since I had rented a car I called McGyver to see if he would be down with me taking a leisurely drive back to the Mitten State with Dreamsicle because it would be considerably cheaper. He wasn't having any of that and told me to pay what I had to pay to make sure we were here for Pixie's surgery. I got on line and just for kicks and giggles got on the United website, typed in the date I wanted to travel home and low and behold-I could purchase two one way tickets for $422.00 each. Ummmmm, yeah. Considerably less than the $1500.00 they wanted to charge me for the change fee, no? I decided right then and there that I would not be giving United Airlines any more of my money and purchased two one way tickets home from Northwest for a slightly lower price than the $422.00. I can tell you this, I will never fly United again if I have any other alternative.

Pixie Update

We returned home from the hospital a few hours ago. Pixie came through the surgery well. They feel that they were able to remove all of the cancerous cells, they went deeper and wider than they originally planned just to make certain that they didn't leave anything dangerous behind. We now wait for the pathology report to come back on Friday but we are confident that it is going to come back clear.

Thank you for all of your prayers, we know she was covered with them today.

Pay It Forward

I have been thinking alot lately about the generosity of friends and strangers. We have seen some pretty dark days in our family over the course of the last two months and yet there have been bright spots that appear out of nowhere. Friends who stop by unannounced to pick up Dreamsicle and let her play with other kids, friends who answer their phone, drop their plans and make sure that Dreamsicle has days filled with fun. Strangers who make the commitment to keep our family in their prayers, send cards and well wishes.

All of this has me wanting to issue a challenge to all of you. You all know about paying it forward, but how many of you ever really do it? My challenge is that tomorrow anyone reading this blog do something nice for someone else. Whether it is holding a door for someone, buying the next person in line's coffee, dropping a meal off to someone facing unemployment or poor health or stopping and seeing someone you know could use the company-let's all be good neighbors tomorrow and do something to brighten someone else's day.

Today

I am sitting in the living room of Pixie and U*Haul's house, just chillin' with Pixie and the kids today. I am so blessed to have such an "easy" relationship with my daughter in love. She really is so much more than that title allows. She is my daughter. I love her as much as I love my four children. Truly, deeply, and forever. I have kept the fam running since we have been down here but really feel like she needed to have some "down" time yesterday and today to help her body to rest for tomorrow's surgery. We will go somewhere for dinner tonight so that she can have some of her beloved steak, then call it an early night in preparation for tomorrow. I changed our flight home so that we can be here until Saturday. I am so glad I did. Not knowing what the next few days has in store for her, I want to be here to help care for the Lil Pea if necessary. Please keep her in your prayers tomorrow. That is exactly where she needs to be.

Dreamsicle's Big Birthday Trip-Now Complete with More Shampu!

Yesterday I blinked and our baby turned toddler turned into a big girl. I swear, it happened that fast. Dreamsicle turned four yesterday! U*Haul and Pixie live about three hours away from Orlando so we decided that we would get up earlier than anyone really ever should have to and make the trek to Sea World. Am I ever glad we did! The day started out with us sitting in the stands for the first Sham*u performance of the day. Dreamsicle was amazed. After that we went to the kiddie section of Sea World where U*Haul proceeded to win Dreamsicle a HUGE Sham*u. Dreamsicle was super excited and yelled thanks U*Haul-I love my Shampu! Yep, the name has now stuck. My daugher will be the one in the airport carrying a 3 foot Shampu home with her. Every show that we watched seemed to build on the one before so by the time we watched the whale and dolphin show my big girl was standing on her feet, hands on her mouth (when she wasn't busy clapping) completely immersed by joy. I do not have the words to describe how happy my heart was yesterday. Being able to spend her birthday with U*Haul, Pixie and Lil Pea was so special. The only thing missing was McGyver. My plan right now is to wait until Chester comes home later this month then have another birthday celebration with McGyver, Chester and X*Boy in attendance. After all, what little girl wouldn't love to be able to eat cake twice?