Because the pig in me warrants a 2nd post

January 4, 2010

Photo by thornypup

Here are the deets:

• Way back in October, someone in this family had the brilliant idea to take a road trip to California for Christmas. The suggestion was met with cheers all around except for yours truly who responded this way: NOOOOOOOOO. Followed by the fetal position. (Because I’m not a fan of road trips and secondly, because someone’s gotta make it all happen and it’s pretty much not them.) Turns our my inner child was on to something.
• Well, I must say, preparation wasn’t as bad as I anticipated, probably because I didn’t wait until the day before departure to start getting ready! Lesson learned: Being proactive instead of procrastinating makes a big difference! Who knew?
• The trip (which amounts to 22 hours driving time one way) to California went rather swimmingly due to a very useful invention which has made me ask out loud on several occasions, DVD Player, where have you been all my life?!?
• Our first three days were spent on a cruise with my in-laws. I will say right now that I would do the whole thing again — PIG FLU & ALL — for those three days. Our kids are their only grandchildren and we haven’t seen them in over a year. Creating memories with them is hugely important to me and we had a good time being together. Even if the cruise gave us more than we bargained for. Ahem.
• After we got off the ship on Christmas Eve, I kept having the weird feeling like the floor was moving under my feet. I figured I was just trying to get used to being on solid ground again after rockin’ on the boat.
• I woke up Christmas morning feeling like I was hit by a mack truck. Stayed in bed all day. Missed our traditional holiday breakfast. Missed the presents. Missed the turkey dinner. Missed seeing relatives I haven’t seen in several years. All day. In bed. Oh, not fun.
• I’ll speed this up…Day 2: Not well. Day 3: Very much not well. Trip to Urgent Care. Diagnosis: Swine Flu. With a kidney infection thrown in for good measure.
• By now I’m beginning to realize that I don’t think I’m going to make the six o’clock news for having the Swine Flu. If you must know, I was secretly hoping to make the 6 o’clock news (“There has been another confirmed case of the Swine Flu in Long Beach, CA. A 34 year old female…”). I don’t know why.
• Lest you begin to think I am stingy, I shared this illness of course. Each of the kids did “fever time” with me at some point during the trip. Thankfully it wasn’t all at the same time. They rotated. And we all got hacking coughs. It was fun.
• By this time we had not done most of the things we had hoped to do while in California — been around for the birth of my niece, seen our relatives, seen friends from our old church, went to the beach, ate at a few favorite California restaurants — but we decided to cut our losses and head home. Guess what? WE MADE IT! Yay. That was huge.
• My niece was born less than 24 hours after we left. Stinker.

So there you have it. Not exactly the vacation we had in mind, but think of all the family memories we created! As Brian kept saying, “Someday we’re gonna laugh about this.” We already are. And we’re home. And everyone is well. It ain’t all bad.

Besides, you’d be amazed how many hours of reflection God granted me as I lay there sick in bed. That turned out to be a gift. I’ll be sharing all those deeply profound thoughts next week.

I know, I know. You’re waiting with bated breath, right?

Oink.

P.S. Thank you so much for all your well wishes and prayers both online and off. I appreciate the love!

Related posts:

1. Alright, alright. I’ll post! I’ll post!
2. An Unscratched Itch
3. That’s Funny, I Was Wondering the Very Same Thing
4. As 2009 draws to a close

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