Our Thursday

My day started off normal enough: I woke up. That’s when everything went crazy.

I had a follow up appointment for my broken finger this morning at 10, so I was feeling a little rushed to get breakfast on the table, the kids clean enough for public appearances, and everyone loaded in the van early enough to make it on time. During the rush of getting breakfast on the table, Tyler screamed up the stairs from the playroom, “Mom! I have something to tell you and it’s an EMERGENCY!” Danielle’s hamster escaped some time during the night. The playroom was SO messy she could have been anywhere, if she was even still in that room. We moved toys around in vain. Eventually she came scurrying out from behind a bin of toys. Danielle was so relieved we found her…whole and alive. Later today I found a little pink Barbie shoe back where Danielle’s hamster had been. It had a perfect little hamster bite taken out of the toe. I thought it was really funny, but Danielle did not. (Turns out Danielle didn’t latch the door all the way when she stuck a cracker from her Lunchable into her hamster’s cage on Tuesday. It took the hamster 2 days to figure it out.)

We finally made it out the door and to my doctor’s office. We walked in right on time, which is quite an accomplishment for us. We ended up waiting 30 minutes in the waiting room. Fortunately I had even planned ahead and had the kids each pack a backpack with toys. However, I didn’t have time to screen the packed toys. Turns out everything Tyler brought made noise – Buzz Lightyear, a jet, and a very noisy dump truck. The doctor said my finger was healing well but ordered a follow-up xray. He said the pain would probably continue for another 4-6 weeks, though, and that the urgent care doctor should have told me I could remove my splint after 2 weeks. Ugg. Now that would have been convenient. Anyway, we moved on to the imaging department where we had to wait…again…for my xray.

When we finally made it home, I had to canvas the neighborhood in search of our missing trash can. I drove right by the emptied cans on my way out of the drive this morning and thought about dragging them into the garage, but the search for the missing hamster ate up my extra time. Sure enough, the wind blew one of our cans down the street and into a neighbor’s yard. At least, I think that was our trash can. Honestly, I haven’t spent that much time staring at ours and am not positive I could ID them in a trash can line-up.

Late this afternoon we had to take Casey to the vet. Again we waited in a waiting room. A very small waiting room. Let me back up. Before going to the vet I had to get a urine sample from Casey. Have you ever tried to collect pee from a 90lb female dog? She didn’t understand why I was following her around the yard and kept running from me, like it was a game. Finally when she did stop and go, I quickly jammed a Tupperware container underneath her. When she was done she whirled around, her ears straight up & head turned slightly, and watched me walk back across the yard. When I got back in the house and turned to let her in, she was still rooted in the same spot out in the yard, still staring at me. I’m sure she was wondering what had just happened. It was very funny. Anyway, it doesn’t appear as though Casey is diabetic but the vet is pretty sure she has low estrogen levels. He also suspects she may have kidney failure. They drew some blood to test her kidneys and started her on some inexpensive hormones. We should know the results in a couple days.

While we were at the vet Tyler announced to me that, “When I’m a daddy [meaning when I grow up] I want to be a doctor. An animal doctor. But I still won’t know how to write.” I reassured him that he would know how to write by then. “Oh that’s right. I will have gone to kindergarten by then.” Then he thought maybe he would be a teacher and teach at his school. It was very entertaining.

I guess Ron had a long day, too. He’s been in Canada all this week. When I talked to him before going to the vet, his flight had just been rerouted through Dulles due to all the delays in Chicago. When I talked to him again after the vet, I overheard an announcement in the terminal. He said they were announcing final boarding for his original flight. He wasn’t happy.

Finally bed time rolled around. I tucked Tyler in and was sitting in Danielle’s room with her when I heard a crash. The dogs were upstairs with us, so it wasn’t them. I cautiously walked over to the railing and looked into the family room. Our giant Christmas tree had fallen over into the middle of the room! I could hear the water from the tree stand dripping onto the plastic that had been under the tree. Yes, I was upset about the tree, but I was so much more upset about my carpet! I attempted to stuff some towels under the fallen tree until I could figure out what to do. By the time I got back to Danielle’s room, she was sound asleep. I checked in on Tyler and had to laugh. He had the covers pulled up to his nose and his eyes were huge. “I heard a noise. I was laying here trying to think what that noise might be.” I told him what happened and he went to bed.

My brother came to my rescue. The tree was too heavy and awkward for me to fix by myself. Plus it was dangerously close to Ron’s new tv. We got the tree up but couldn’t get it to stand. We ended up tying a rope around the top third of the tree and tying it to the spindles on the stairs behind it. The floor around the tree was covered in pine needles, sap, and water. What a mess. We’ve had the tree for almost 2 weeks and don’t have any idea what might have made it fall over now.

It was a long day.

Ron finally stumbled in the door around midnight…minus his luggage. Guess he had a long day, too.