December Distress

Not all of the holiday season was joy and excitement. This time around we got hit with a long series of misfortunes. 

*For starters, our annual uninvited guests, the Christmas Pukes, arrived right on schedule. This year they brought along their cousins Fever, Headache, and Exhaustion. Bryce was the first to succumb. He ended up with the highest fever and the worst headache.

Thane followed right on Bryce's heels, but with completely different symptoms; he was up all night vomiting.  You know you're in for a fun night when your kid rolls into your room at 11 pm saying, "I don't know what happened, but I puked all over my bed." In retrospect, Thane might have had a different bug because he ended up with the fever/headache routine 10 days later.

We cancelled all our plans and activities and self-quarantined. Nellie came next, but thankfully her version was more mild. She had a fever, but insisted, "Nothing hurts! I'm just TIRED!"

Graham was confident he would avoid getting sick. He told me, "I'm really good at dodging illness," but alas, he crashed shortly after Nellie with similar symptoms.

*Just when we were starting to recover, Thane chipped his tooth while playing with Piper. They were sword fighting with a vacuum attachment, and we think Piper must have somehow knocked his tooth. There was no trauma involved. In fact, Thane didn't even notice anything was wrong. Bryce was the one to point out that the tooth was chipped.

Of course this all happened on a Sunday. First thing the next morning we were at our dentist's office. I didn't know what to expect in dealing with such a large chip. Thane was horribly embarrassed by the defect.

Our dentist is fantastic! Forty-five minutes and $40 later, Thane's tooth looked as good as new. Thane commented, "I can't even tell which tooth was chipped!" I am overwhelmingly grateful for the resources, privileges, and blessings we enjoy. I recognize that if we lived in another time period, another part of the world, or even if our finances were more limited, this tiny accident could have altered the course of Thane's life. Though it may seem shallow, the truth is living with a chipped front tooth probably would have affected his self-confidence, changed his interactions with others, and limited his future job and relationship prospects.

*Mark had the opportunity to go with the youth in our ward to volunteer at a nearby Bishop's Storehouse. It was a couple Saturdays before Christmas and the facility was slammed with patrons. The volunteers worked twice as hard as usual. They skipped their lunch and stayed an extra hour to help the people who needed food and assistance. Mark loved getting the chance to serve, but came home crippled with back pain that kept him mostly confined to bed for a few days.

*Just when his back started to feel a little better, he was rear-ended on his way home from work. Mark was stopped in heavy freeway traffic on I-5, and a woman in a large truck fell asleep and crashed into him. Mercifully, besides minor neck stiffness, Mark was uninjured. The car was not so lucky; the insurance company designated it a total loss.

Mark bought this car on Mother's Day of this year. We were not expecting to have to go through the car buying experience again so soon. It was not a welcome additional stress over the holiday break, but we were finally able to find a good replacement option. We got a fairly significant discount on a new car because it has some cosmetic damage.

*At this point, I figured, "Surely, we have met our quota of misfortunes for the month, right?!"

I guess not. Coming home from the grocery store one day, Bryce opened the van's trunk to help get out the groceries. Nellie was in a foul mood, and just as Bryce lifted up the trunk, she hit the garage door button. Of course, in the chaos that ensued, the trunk and the garage door got jarringly entangled. Bryce yelled, "There's sawdust raining down!"

 

I cannot claim to have handled the situation well. I yelled at Nellie, spanked her bottom, and told her she was never, EVER allowed to touch the garage door opener without permission (Aubree wrapped up the sobbing Nell, comforted her, and loved on her until I returned with a more appropriate response). I tried to figure out a way to disentangle the doors without success. Finally, Mark came down and calmly suggested, "Just pull the van forward." So obvious, yet so genius!

Thankfully, once I pulled the van forward and separated the doors, we were able to get the garage door back on it's tracks. We were relieved to realize both the garage door and the van escaped still functional. What a relief!