Getting Back to Normal and Losing My Mind

My Christmas Tree is still up. Yes, it was live once. Now its a big pile of ornaments (which are literally hanging down to the floor because the branches are dead) and needles. The fact that this tree is still in our family room where we spend almost every waking hour is driving me mad. Crazy. Insane. Nuts.

Let me take you back to the weekend (when the tree was supposed to come down). Let's start with Friday. As you know, Friday's are our pizza and movie nights. Kyle picked up the pizza (so far so good) and I went to start The Sound of Music, our movie selection (and one of my all time favorites!) for the night. My dvr didn't tape the whole thing! I have no idea what happened but when I pushed play it started after the Von Trapp kids and Maria put on the goat herder marionette show! Well, that is not the way to watch TSOM, so I went through our On Demand listings and found Harry and the Hendersons (also one of my favorites ~Kyle's too~ and if you read the last blog then you know my fascination with bigfoot!). Now, it has been quite a while since either Kyle or I had seen the movie, but I was remembering a heartwarming comedy about a family who ran down a bigfoot with their car and their antics to protect him. Apparently to my children it was more like Nightmare on Elm Street. They screamed, cried and just nearly broke down. Totally not the best viewing choice for my kids (who, by the way, have seen E.T., Star Wars and Return of the Jedi ~ all without one freak out!). We are lucky they went to bed at all.

Then, somewhere in the middle of the night, we hear it. The barking seal cough. More on this to come...

So Saturday arrives and Kyle and I planned to really do nothing for the whole weekend. We wanted to take it easy, let the girls play all weekend and pretty much only put the Christmas stuff away. So after a late breakfast, lots of lazing around, sending the girls outside to play and finally getting showered, we decided to head out to Cabela's to do some gift card shopping. I needed some "safe" snow shoes since I clearly can't walk in the snow or on the ice without killing myself and Kyle had some things he wanted, too. Obviously, the entire state of CT decided Saturday would also be a good day for them to head out to Cabela's as well. It was completely crowded and they had almost nothing we wanted in stock. Not to mention that the girls were horrible. I'm not exaggerating either. Jenna literally went after Kellen because I, like a complete idiot, walked away from the cart to get a pair of shoes, saying "Watch Riley for a minute, okay?". Kellen thought I was talking to her and Jenna thought I was talking to her and they got in a fight about which girl I was talking about. When Kellen made the "face" (you know the one ~ the "I'm right and your wrong ~ Nah, nah, na boo boo" face) at Jenna, J attacked K! In the middle of the shoe aisle with about 20 people crowded around! It was mortifying. So, we left with nothing and the vow to never take them back.

Our next stop was to the grocery store to pick up the essentials (thank goodness for peapod) and to return bottles. Luckily, the girls were good there. Then we headed back home. Once again, we heard the infamous barking seal cough (still more on this later). After we got home Kyle and I were completely exhausted and drained from the Cabela's trip, so we put taking the tree down until Sunday. And after yelling at the girls and making them clean the playroom as punishment we decided that our plan of taking them to see Enchanted was still on.

In the middle of the night again, Riley woke up coughing and crying. Now, if any of you out there has had the pleasure of experiencing Croup, then you know what I mean by the barking seal cough. It sounds really terrible and there is nothing medically you can do for it. Its a scary cough and the little ones just wheeze and sound awful. Pretty much the only thing to do for croup is to sit in a steamy room (like the bathroom with the shower running) or in the cold air (I once slept in the van outside with the windows down in February with Kellen). So, we brought Riley into our room and opened the windows. She did okay, then.

That brings us to Sunday. I was scheduled to keep the nursery at church. I left croupy Riley home with Kyle while I took Kellen and Jenna (who were being perfect angels now after finding out about Enchanted). As soon as church was over, I find out that there is a Music Committee meeting (that no one told me about) that I had to stay for - why do I say yes to everything!?!

Luckily, we made it to the movie on time. I have to say that Enchanted my be one of my new favorite movies! It was sooooooooo good. I put it right up there with The Princess Bride. Amy Adams was born to play this part. I will be buying this movie. So good.

So anyway, we come home and Riley is completely and totally sick. Fever. Won't let me do anything but hold her. That meant my next hour was spent calling my Brownies to cancel my meeting for after school the next day. Girl Scout cookies go on sale this Friday, so it was the worst meeting to have to cancel.

Then it was dinner time and bath time and bed time. And the tree was still up.

Riley got about 2 hours of sleep on Sunday night and I got about an hour. She and I were up and down all night and back and forth between the steamy bathroom and pacing in front of the open windows. I. Do. Not. Function. On. One. Hour. Of. Sleep.

After one crazy and very hectic morning trying to get the girls on the bus and trying to shower and wait for the peapod order all while holding a clinging little monkey (Riley) to my side I finally was able to get it done and get her to the doctor. Luckily, she could take a cough medicine that made her sleepy and she was able to take a nap. And I was able to do some laundry and wash the dishes. But the tree is still up.

I swear that it will come down tonight. Kellen will be home from school any minute and #1 and #2 can help me take down the ornaments. I have already boxed up the Christmas dishes and Kyle put away the train. I will box everything else so Kyle can take them to the basement. And then, just to blow off steam, I think I'll throw the darn tree off the deck before Kyle drags it to the woods.

Then, hopefully, things can get back to normal around here!