The week from candyland

This is my attempt at catching up on events from the last week. I'm warning, I may give up mid-post as I'm attempting to type with several more keys missing from my lap top and a lovely splint on my pinky. So, here is the update from the last 7 days in the Gradke household.

Thursday:
Nanny terribly ill with 5 kidney stones. Adalae ill as well and diagnosed with bronchialitis and starts breathing treatments 3x per day.

Friday:
While washing dishes, a bowl breaks and I slice my finger. It bleeds, and bleeds and bleeds. Finally Thade catches sight of all the blood and runs to the backyard to find Rustin screaming, "EMERGENCY, EMERGENCY". OK, it really wasn't an emergency but I appreciate the concern.

Here is the "Emergency"

Gross, I know. Rustin was convinced that was a piece of muscle. Anyhow, because I had so much to do (including consuming a glass of wine with my girlfriends), I decided to just wrap it up and see how it was in the morning. Well, Sat morning it looked exactly the same and hurt 10x worse.

Sat:

9am, head to CareNow. Get steri (stitches or some other) and scolded that I should have come in earlier for sutures but now it's too late, yada, yada. Given antibiotic prescription and told I could get deadly bone infection. Try to pick up prescription on way to company Christmas party but find out pharmacy is closed. Attend company 80s prom themed Christmas party in my fabulous dress that was hand made in 1989 for girlfriends prom.

Sunday:

8am Head to CareNow for followup finger check. 9am arrive home and speed-pack to catch flight to Vegas (yes by the way Rustin and I had a "just the 2 of us" getaway planned). Stop at CVS for antibiotic to prevent deadly bone infection. Pharmacy doesn't open until 10am (OMG) so forget about it because obviously making our flight to Vegas is more important than losing a finger.

Several hours later arrive in Vegas. Waiting for our bag. Still waiting for our bag. Bag not there. Wait another hour for the next flight. Bag still not there. Make the terrible decision to save $ and take the shuttle to our hotel (The Venetian) rather than taxi to save money. ONE hour later, we were deposited at our hotel (3.7 miles from the airport, apparently we were the last stop on the strip).

We have dinner reservations at a nice restaurant so we decide to quickly go out and buy some toiletries and myself a shirt and heels (rather than the T-shirt and tennis shoes I was wearing). After realizing the hotel shop offered maxi pads at $2.99 for ONE maxi pad, we decided to find a "normal" store. Was told CVS was "just past that light" which apparently meant just past those 7 lights to the likely already drunk we asked.

We finally arrive back at our hotel to find this:

Hector and Jeff are a couple that Rustin does business with and are super nice. After consuming a bottle of Dom Perignon, I didn't care as much that I seriously needed a shower and deodorant so we headed to dinner. We were in bed by 11pm as Rustin and I both weren't feeling well.

Mon:

Rustin and I are both sick. We spend most of the day in the hotel room napping. We did venture out for dinner at TAO but Rustin was so sick he couldn't even eat. We saw the new Criss Angel show Believe and it was terrible. Do not waste your time on this show! I guess we should have done our research to know that a show that has been out for less than 6 weeks and is already selling 1/2 price tickets is not good.

We also made an attempt to see the fountain show at the Bellagio. It was so cold and windy, we stood there for 10 minutes getting a cold spray in the face instead.

Tues:

SO READY TO BE HOME. I'm feeling better but Rustin is so sick. We are also getting reports that Adalae is getting worse. Head to airport at 9am. Flight delayed. Get on standby for earlier flight that is on time. We don't make it. Build fire, set up tent and move into airport. Arrive at DFW at 8pm (yes that equals 11 hours of travel from NV to TX!).

Check Adalae into Carenow and told 2 hour wait. By 11:15pm we are leaving Carenow with flu diagnoses and Rustin is at home running 101 temp. He heads to Carenow about midnight. Also diagnosed with flu. Did I mention I had to cook a dish for a potluck at work?

1:20am, my dish is cooked, I swig some of Rustin's cough syrup and crash.

Wed:

7am head to work in a fog. Rustin calls 2 hours later and thinks there is blood in Adalae's diaper (thank god it wasn't). I freak a little, take her back to CareNow along with Thade and Reed so I can get them flu shots. (I had one Tues night when I took Adalae in). They are out of shots for Reed but Thade gets one thankfully. Attempt Wal-mart to shop for our Christmas Day lunch.

Do not EVER, I repeat EVER show up at Wal-mart on Christmas Eve. I've never seen anything like it. It was like a swarm of pre-teen girls fighting over the last Hanna Montana CD. Since my surround system gift to Rustin didn't work out, I went ahead and got a couple of stocking stuffers. One of the stuffers I bought for Rustin was the new DVD "The Dark Knight" as I know he's been wanting to see it. I come home and start getting boys ready and Rustin says he wants to go to Blockbuster to rent a movie (which I assume will be The Dark Knight) so I adamently tell him, there is not time for us to watch a movie, yada yada, just wait until tomorrow. So, of course, 30 minutes later as the boys and I are heading to church, I get a text that Rustin DID go to blockbuster and what do you know, he rented The Dark Knight.

So then, Thade, Reed and I attempted to attend Christmas Eve service at Richland Hills Church (left the sicklings at home). After a solid 30 minutes of Reed squirming, screaming and trying to take items out of the poor lady's purse sitting next us, we leave.

At least I got a cute picture of them in something other than sweats!

It's officially Christmas. My family has been in bed for hours and Santa just finished assembling Thade's rock band. Santa brought Reed and Adalae a slide.

When all is said and done, after all the hecticness of life, I am so thankful for my family and friends. But most of all, I am thankful for my Savior, Jesus.

Here's to you Jesus! Happy Birthday!

Santa is my hero

2008

Well Santa is HERO to at least 2 out of 3 and I am not going to complain about those statistics. (we won't count the pre-teen who no longer believes in Santa but plays along for my sake because he knows Santa will still bring him the latest video game craze if he does)

Gone are the days of oblivion for poor Reed.

2007

Merry Christmas Rustin

Finally, this was going to be the year that I bought Rustin the perfect gift. A home theatre system/surround sound. So I've spent every spare moment over the last few weeks researching and learning more than I ever wanted to know about HDMI inputs, multi-zone, optical cables and the such. I've also been stashing cash away to make this purchase without Rustin noticing it gone and hoping I could really surprise him for once. On Friday, I found a great system and at a steal so I made the journey to Plano and bought it.

Today, Rustin gets out of going to a birthday party with the kids and I because he is tired and needs to take a nap. I give him a hard time but get over it since he was up with Adalae last night. So the kids and I head to Shreveport (or was it Garland?) to celebrate Keanne's 5th birthday. Rustin calls me as we are leaving and he obviously is not at home napping as I hear what sounds like highway traffic so I ask where he is. He proceeds to tell me he is on his way home and did some Christmas shopping. My next thought is of guilt and how thoughtful, he didn't really want to nap but just have an opportunity to shop without me around.

I come home 45 minutes later to see Rustin in the family room floor with HIS Christmas present to himself spread about him. Lo and behold, Rustin went out and bought himself a home theatre system.

I mean, who does that? Doesn't everyone know you don't make a purchase like that ELEVEN days before Christmas?

So, I now have a factory sealed Phillips HTS3544 5.1 Home Theatre System. If any of you want it, it's yours for $150.

Last year, he couldn't think of a thing he wanted for Christmas.

Four days after Christmas, he went out and bought an Iphone.

Retirement?

It is now 7:33 PM on a Friday night and my ENTIRE family is asleep. Not just the members under 2, but my 11 year old son (who apprently has nothing better to do after being grounded from all things electronic) and Rustin, who has fallen asleep with Adalae in bed. Seriously, my 70 year old grandmother can outlast this group. (In fact, she has outlasted me many of shopping trips).

Boy have our Friday nights changed from the short 8 years since college.

Updates:
Adalae started crawling on Nov 29th. On all fours. She went from a slow army crawl and generally giving up after 5 or 6 feet of travel to full on ripping bows of Christmas gifts, standing while propping herself on our brick fireplace ledge, and crawling up my leg to a standing position.

Reed repeats EVERYTHING. He has a pair of PJs with a football on the shirt and little footballs all over the pants. He wears them as soon as their clean and gets so excited. He runs around the house pointing at his shirt and pants yelling, "ball, ball, ball, ball, ball."
His most spoken phrase at the moment is "Oh WOW, cool" This is repeated in rapid succession anytime we are driving through a neighborhood with Christmas yard decorations.

Thade has been grounded for a while now. In fact, yesterday would have been his first day of freedom in a week but he was clever enough to start wrestling a friend in the hall on the way to lunch and thus lose that privelage. Although, it is a nice break for me that he has nothing better to do than play with his little brother.

Amazingly, Rustin still has his job with a company that has lost billions of dollars in the last year.

And I am FINISHED Christmas shopping. WHEW.

I'll leave you with some pictures of the kiddos.