Weekly Wrap Up - Belated Christmas, Stomach Bugs, and Thugs

So I'm going to try and start doing a Weekly Wrap-Up. This last week was full of love, exhaustion, sickness, and one of the scariest moments of my life.

If you remember, we didn't get to go home for Christmas like we had originally planned. We decided that last week was a good week to go. I would stay a week so that I could get plenty of Lolli/Mila time and A.J. would come for the weekend so that we could have family Christmas. It was also a great time to go because my sister and her kids were in from Pennsylvania. The kids and I ventured out on Thursday and it was a great drive.  We got to have dinner and visit with my family that night which was a great ending to the day.  My husband drove in the next day and we ended up at my in-laws house for the night.  We had a terrible storm come through and were without power for 3 hours. After we lit some candles we had a great time visiting and catching up.

That Sunday morning we started our belated family Christmas with a huge breakfast. My husband had to get on the road so we had to get things going pretty quickly. Mila had a great first Christmas even though it was a little late.

While I'm in town, I normally keep Milabug instead of her going to daycare. We play, and watch Sophia the First, and I just soak up every minute I can of her.

What I've learned from my trip this time is that I am out of practice.  When did I get old??  I had 4 kids, and chased every one of them, but chasing this 11 month old baby wears me out! I hardly had time to brush my hair or even eat while I had her lol. I just couldn't seem to juggle it all. I was appalled at myself for not being able to get it all together. One day, I showed up to my mom's house and my sister laughed at me with my tangled hair matted with baby food in the bottom. She said, "You look like a new mom!" That hit the nail on the head too, because I FELT like a new mom. The thing about it is that no matter how exhausted I felt, I would do it all over again. You put all of that exhaustion aside and just do it. New mom, new Lolli, it doesn't matter. They are always worth it.

Our week started going downhill Monday morning. That's not very far into our visit in case you didn't notice. My mother in law was leaving to go to a hair appointment with her mother. My 10 yr old son, Gavin was headed outside with my 11 year old nephew who is also homeschooled. As my mother in law was backing out of the driveway they rounded the corner to the front of the house. Next thing I know, they are running into the house, Gavin is crying, and they are screaming, "HE HAS A GUN!!! MOM LOCK THE DOOR!! HE HAS A GUN!!"  I am taken back and it took me a minute to click to what was happening. Gavin runs up to me crying and hugs me saying, "I could have never seen you again!!" I lost it and called 911 of course. I called my Mother in law and her and my Father in law were there in minutes. Gavin explained that as soon as they got to the front of the house a red "van", as my son described it, passed the house a bit and stopped. He said next they started backing up and they were laughing. He said it was a man with a black hoodie with facial hair. All of a sudden he says the thug starts rolling the window down with a silver gun in his hands. As he's explaining all of this to the police officer my mother in law walks in the door and says she knows the car, that she had passed it! She had paid attention to that car for whatever reason. She knew it was a red van because I had told her that but she hadn't heard Gavin describe the men in the vehicle. She said that she had just noticed them passing. She said it was 2 Hispanic males. The one driving had a mustache. This confirmed what Gavin had described. As of yet they still haven't caught these little miserable jerks. I want to thank them for giving my 10 year old anxiety. I really want to punch their face in. What has the world come to? It saddens me beyond belief that our kids can't even play safely outside. I am very thankful that the boy's angels were surrounding them Monday morning. Thank you Lord for your hedge of protection!! If you thank about it, pray for these boys that there are no lasting effects of this. Gav is doing better but he was jumping at every sound, and not wanting to be outside. It's not something anyone should have to go through, especially 2 innocent children.

So after all of that excitement on Monday, Gavin ended up with a stomach bug on Tuesday. I told you the week started going downhill from there. It wasn't pretty so I will spare you the details. I get him back to my in laws house, and guess who ended up with the virus that night. Yep. Yours truly!
I had planned on leaving Wednesday morning, but that wasn't happening as sick as I was. I HATE being sick at home...being sick at another person's house is a nightmare. I was well taken care of but I have never wanted to be home so bad in my life. So, on top of being sick, we couldn't even spend anymore time with Mila. I finally started feeling better and we headed out on Friday morning. Traffic was terrible and I was not in the mood.

This pic pretty much sums up our entire trip.

Here's hoping this week is full of laughter, health, and happiness!